Last few weeks...

As I was reading educational articles this weekend, I ran across two very fitting ones. We are down to the wire, weeks...days... until summer break. This time of year brings stress and angst-I know if we work together, as a team, we can get through it. The best part about our job is the family that it forms. We lean and support one another when we get "tired." We get to the point we feel like we are hitting a wall. We are trying so hard to hold our eyes open with multiple cups of coffee. We are rolling out of bed hoping it is Friday. We can't sleep because all we dream about is testing. Yes, we have all been there, where the days seems endless. The minutes seem like they aren't moving fast enough. Remember though, you could be the ONLY smile some of our students see. So, when the days get tough, smile, laugh, and have fun with your students in these upcoming few weeks. They need that as much as we do now. They want to make you happy, they want to show you what they know, they want your love, kindness, and support. They need YOU...their role model and inspiration! As always, thank you for all that you do! I look forward to a great upcoming few weeks.

https://www.weareteachers.com/keeping-students-engaged-end-of-year/

https://www.weareteachers.com/25-tricks-to-get-your-students-through-the-last-weeks-of-school/

The End as a Beginning

The end of the school year can be challenging.  We know that the last few weeks of school will be crazy with all of our end of the year events and assessments.  We are confident that you have given our students what they need to be successful.  Please take time to breathe during what can be a very stressful time of year.

As you all know, FSA testing has already begun.  We appreciate your efforts with keeping the campus quiet while transitioning around the building.  Like all of you, we wish we did not have to spend the majority of our time over the next few weeks testing, but it is necessary.  Our students may be feeling very anxious during this time, and we can all help alleviate some of their pressure by remaining calm and encouraging them.

We have seen how much effort has gone into this year's focus on increasing student engagement to increase student achievement.  Our students and staff will shine bright this year and for many years to come.  We are so very proud of all our Mighty Manatees! 

When we welcomed our students and families at the start of this school year, we were excited and enthusiastic!  Even though we may be exhausted, we trust that we will make the end of the school year just as exciting and special as the beginning.

Thank you for all that you do!

Welcome back!

Good morning,

We hope everyone had a wonderful break. We are down to the wire...only a few weeks left. These upcoming weeks bring alot of angst and stress due to testing. Below are some useful tips for teaching emotional regulation and improving classroom behavior at the same time. It is important we teach children the connection on how they feel and how they act. Students often act out because of the way they feel. If we reach them internally, and help them express how they feel, then the way they act could be significantly improved. If we spend some time teaching emotional regulation children will realize they are in control of their feelings and actions in a positive manner instead of a negative one. Below are some ideas on how to incorporate this in your classroom.

As always, thank you for all you do!

https://www.weareteachers.com/emotional-regulation/

Who Moved My Standards? Joyful Teaching in an Age of Change: A SOAR-ing Tale (Michael D. Toth)

Thank you for listening to the story “A Soaring Tale” from the book Who Moved my Standards.  I forgot how much I enjoyed doing read-alouds with a class.  I felt this story was a great way to depict the challenges we as educators are faced with today.  We have to get our students a lot farther along in order to be successful.  We felt this struggle when the standards began to change.  The nut tree in the distance represents more than new standards.  It is a symbol of the changing world we are preparing our students to enter.  We are preparing our students for jobs that may not even exist right now. 

Teachers and educators quickly realized that the traditional model of lesson planning and instruction is no longer adequate for the challenges of meeting new standards or for the success in the new economy.  Education in the past prepared students for manufacturing jobs.  The traditional learning environment was good at producing the skills needed for assembly line jobs and mass production.  Skills and domains of knowledge were taught in isolation.  Science class did not have any connection to English, math, or art.  Order and efficiency were very important.  Students were directed on what to do and when to do it.  When students tried to work with other students, teachers quickly responded to that action by asking students to do their own work.  Problem solving skills were not necessary in an assembly line or production workplace.  Most of us learned in classrooms like this.  This model is still seen in many classrooms of today. 

With today’s technology and globalization, the skills necessary for today’s new economy are quite different.  Many of today’s jobs require dynamic teaming.  We may be asked to serve on one or more teams that were specifically formed to resolve issues or create a solution.  With this teaming, team leadership may shift.  Employees take ownership of their work and their teams’ results.  Employees need interpersonal skills for success.  Many times they are confronted with challenging projects that require fluid and complex problem solving, persistence in the face of difficult tasks, and less direction from superiors.  They are required to have the ability to do research, analyze, and synthesize information into persuasive arguments or compelling presentations. 

The new standards were developed to reflect the demands of today’s world and to foster the skills for success in the new economy.  Do our classrooms today reflect this? It makes little sense to teach academic standards developed for a new economy in a classroom learning environment that reflects the old economy.  We must transform the way students experience their learning.  Teachers who make this transformation in their classes are skilled at forming and facilitating student academic teams, where kids wrestle with the content as applied to real-world scenarios, where their thinking and problem-solving skills are fully engaged, and where the teacher expertly moves to the background to facilitate and guide when learning goes off track.  When classrooms make this transition, both teachers and students are able to master the full intent and rigor of new standards.

Old Economy Classroom Environment	New Economy Classroom Environment
Teacher is doing most of the work	Students are doing most of the work
Teacher is doing most of the talking and directing	Students are doing most of the talking and are directing their own work
Teacher feels like she/he is pushing the students to learn	Students take ownership of their academic progress and pull toward their learning goals
Students have a hard time visualizing how the learning will help them in the real world	Students are seeing the connections to the real world through their work
Teacher feels the pressure to engage and hold students’ attention	Students are highly engaged in complex tasks and real world problems
Teachers feel fatigue and the pressure to cover content	Students are feeling mentally stretched but excited about the task and what they are discovering

Here are some tips from Michael Toth to help transform our classroom learning environment.

• ·       Students can’t be direct-instructed into becoming critical thinkers.  Students develop critical-thinking skills by working with a level of autonomy from the teacher while applying the learned content to complex tasks in real-world scenarios.
• ·       Teacher over-support can rob students of the autonomy necessary to develop critical-thinking and teamwork skills.  Focus on scaffolding the release of responsibility to the students for their own learning.  If students are on task but struggling with content, allow them to practice persistence and stretch themselves mentally.  If they have misconceptions, errors in reasoning, or gaps in understanding that are preventing progress in the complex performance task, they may not yet be ready for the complexity of the task.  Clear up misunderstandings and content gaps and try again.
• ·       All learning in classrooms should be based on the academic standards, with thoughtful planning to align performance tasks, success criteria, and levels of deeper thinking with the standards.  The standards-aligned learning goal should always be clear to students, so they can track their own progress to mastery.
• ·       Not all standards are equal.  Work with your curriculum office to identify the power standards and the supporting standards.
• ·       Student academic teams need well developed roles and expectations, including team leaders, common performance tasks but accountable individual work, and visible peer coaching.  The team is only successful if all team members are successful.  If it feels like you are pushing the team to learn, then you do not yet have a student learning team.
• ·       As students perform real-world complex tasks, make sure they use correct academic vocabulary and engage in discussions and thinking like student scientists, engineers, mathematicians, essayists, or historians.  They should be questioning each other’s claims, probing reasoning, and examining text evidence as they investigate and solve problems or create new solutions.
• ·       Most important of all, have fun with it!  If you as a teacher are not feeling creative and excited about the performance task, it’s not likely your students will be either.  If you’re having fun teaching it, they most likely will have fun learning it. 

So many of these suggestions directly relate to the Charlotte County Expectations. 

Speed of Trust

I hope to continue with The Speed of Trust presentation this Wednesday.  Attached you will find a summary from the book and training.  I am also attaching another video for you to watch.  Happy Monday! 

https://www.cu.edu/sites/default/files/ExecSummaries-The_Speed_of_Trust.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuEEckocePs

14 more days until Spring Break...

It is this time of year...we are so close to break, but it does not feel close enough. We need to help and support each other....we are in it together! We started the year as a team and we need to finish as one! Please take a second to click the below link. It has some great information and funny Giphys! I hope this brings some light to the last few weeks and makes you realize that life is precious...stress is inevitable but there are ways to help it.

9 Stress Management Strategies Every Teacher Needs to Know...
By: Chris Mumford



As a teacher, you know that stress is inevitable. Papers will stack up, students will act out, and lessons will need to be planned.

But while stress is inevitable, how you respond to it can spell the difference between a long, rewarding career, and one cut short by burn-out.

New research into stress has given rise to some surprising (and even counter-intuitive) strategies to better deal with it.



https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/9-stress-management-strategies-every-teacher-needs-know

Technique #4

Using Student-Generated Scales

One way to increase student’s engagement and have them involved in the content is having them develop individual learning targets and scales. They become more invested in their learning by doing so. Their personal connections encourages participation within the learning content. This also empowers the students to become independent thinkers and learners. With this technique the students are in control. When they are in control it fosters personal efficiency and students self-direction, which all in all motivates them to work harder to meet their goals.

There are a few steps for students to be able to effectively create and implement targets and scales.

1-      Teacher Introduces and Explain Learning Target and Performance Scales-They need to understand the learning target of the content/unit. Teacher should help students make a connection from the content to real world. Encourage students to look for additional connections between their own personal interest and the content. This will help students determine what they would like to learn more about.

2-      Student Identifies Personal Learning Goal Target- Students need time to think (you can give them time to research or to have conversation) of a learning goal that is personally important to them that relates to the content. The individual goal/target should be aligned with the learning targets of the teacher created scale. You could use a KWHL to help the students generate a learning goal. Teacher could also pose guiding questions pertaining to the goal. Examples: What are some things I am interested in right now related to this topic? What do I want to be understanding in this lesson? Once they know their goal it should be written just as when teachers write them…I will be able to…or I will…

3-      Student Generates a Personalized Scale- Once students have their goal, they now move on to writing their scale. They need to consider what they will need to learn or do to be able to reach that goal/target. They may need to build their background knowledge to achieve their own goal. Once the foundation targets have been aligned with the student’s personal goal they are ready to enhance and deepen their targets. The scale should become a personalized plan of action that will lead them to a successful learning.

4-      Teacher Reviews, Supports, and Guides- Teacher must review the scales to make sure they are aligned to both the content and the target on the teachers scale. You can also provide support and guidance to foster and promote student independence. Students should feel challenged and supported during these processes. Some will need more direction than others. Some may need time to reflect, focus and self-monitor where others may need more hand by hand support. The use of students created target and scales requires teachers to act as a facilitator as the students strengthen their learning.

Implementing all of this is not enough, you must constantly monitor. To be most effective, view implementation as a three step process-

1.       Implement the strategy using energy and creatively to adopt and adapt the 4 different techniques.

2.       Monitor for the desired effect.

3.       If you realize as you are monitoring that it is not adequate for students achievement, then change and adapt.