October 2 - Math training - 4th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
October 3 - Health Screening in the Annex
October 4 - Imo's night (fundraiser for MS)
October 4 - No School - Collaboration Day
October 7 - PBS Meeting
October 8 - Flu Shots @ CO
October 9 - Math training - 5th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
October 10 - Leadership Meeting
October 10 - Google Learning Lab
October 15 - 6th grade faculty meeting 3:00
October 15 - Grade window opens
October 15 - Flu Shots - Gym Lobby
October 16 - 5th grade faculty meeting 3:00
October 17 - Earthquake drill 10:17
October 17 - 4th grade faculty meeting 3:00
October 21-29 - Book Fair
October 21-25 - Red Ribbon Week details to come
October 22 - Math training - 6th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
October 24 - Math training - 5th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
October 24 - Grade window closes
October 25 - PBIS Day Assemblies: 4th 8:00-8:40, 5th 8:50-9:30, 6th 9:40-10:20 Parties: 4th 11:20-12:20, 5th 12:20-1:20, 6th 1:20-2:20
October 26 - PBMS Fun Run
October 28 - Math training - 4th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
October 29 - Fire drill 9:00
October 29 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 3:00-9:00 (reports handed out at conferences)
October 31 - No School - Collaboration Day
November 1 - No School
November 3 - Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 4 - PBS Meeting
November 7 - Leadership Meeting
November 11 - Veteran's Day
November 13 - Grade window opens
November 13, 14, 15 - 6th SINGS to Mobile, AL
November 14 - Math training - 6th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
November 17 - Grade window closes
November 19 - 2nd Quarter Mid terms go home
November 19 - 6th grade faculty meeting 3:00
November 20 - Math training - 4th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
November 20 - 5th grade faculty meeting 3:00
November 21 - 4th grade faculty meeting 3:00
November 25-29 No School - Thanksgiving Break
December 4 - Math training - 5th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
December 6 - Spring Fling
December 10 - Honor Choir Concert
December 12 - Leadership Meeting
December 17 - 6th grade faculty meeting 3:00
December 18 - 5th grade faculty meeting 3:00
December 19 - 4th grade faculty meeting 3:00
December 20 - Grade window opens
December 23-January 3 No School - Christmas Break
January 5 - Grade window closes
January 7 - Math training - 6th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
January 8 - Math training - 4th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
January 10 - PBIS Day Assemblies: 4th 8:00-8:40, 5th 8:50-9:30, 6th 9:40-10:20 Parties: 4th 11:20-12:20, 5th 12:20-1:20, 6th 1:20-2:20
January 13 - Math training - 5th grade Room 618 3:00-4:00
January 20 - No School
January 21 - PBConnects
January 22 - Intruder Training 8:00 at Kay Porter
Last week, I started a series about Mike Rutherford's 23 themes of the "Artisan Teacher". You have probably heard the term "artisan" used before, but in case you haven't, an artisan is a person skilled in an applied art, a craftsperson... a unique combination of artist, scientist, and skilled laborer. The 23 themes listed in his book are strategies that good teachers use when teaching. As I'm sure you know, 23 of anything can seem a little overwhelming, so Rutherford has arranged these themes into three groups. The first group are techniques that describe the technical work of teaching. It's what you are (or should be) taught when you are being trained to be a teacher. These are things you learn early on and perfect as you become an accomplished teacher. It's the skilled laborer part of the definition. Last week I mentioned Clear Learning Goals. Having clear learning goals and knowing what students will be able to do at the end of your lesson is a technical skill.
Congruency is another technical skill. Congruency is the ability of the teacher to design classroom activities that are accurately matched to clear learning goals. Rutherford suggests that congruency is connected to and dependent upon, clear learning goals. The word congruent means to match or align with something. When it comes to teaching, your learning activities need to be aligned with your learning goals for congruency to happen.
Goal Orientation. Most teachers take one of two approaches to planning a lesson. They are either activity oriented or goal oriented. Activity oriented lessons are a series of activities chosen because they work well, the teacher likes them, for their energy level of the kids, for the behavior level of the kids, or because we just learned this great new trick from Teachers Pay Teachers. Their isn't anything wrong with the activities. After all, a teacher can survive the day without any learning goals, but they won't survive the day without learning activities.
A goal oriented lesson centers on the learning targets. The teacher chooses clear learning goals first, then chooses activities that align with those goals. First establish goals, then determine your activities.
Stick-to-it-ive-ness. There are so many opportunities for a teacher to get sidetracked that it can be hard to stay focused on learning goals. We have behavior issues, interruptions, drills, kid issues, personal issues, administrative issues, the list goes on and on. With all of this going on, it's vital that teachers stay focused on their goals.
Discernment. The key here is to be able to discern (distinguish between) classroom activities that are congruent (an exact match) from those that are merely correlated (has some relationship to the goal). Are the activities you are using providing you with a big enough return on your investment? Is it time well spent?
Take a good look at how you are planning your lessons. Are you providing a series of activities for your students or do you have a clear goal that you want them to learn.
The last one for this week is Task Analysis. This is the ability of the teacher to identify and sequence all the essential steps necessary for mastery of a learning goal. Let that sink it for a minute. Any complex and important act merits a thorough thinking through before one commences to action. This is where backward design comes in. This takes some critical thinking on your part as well as a hard look at your teaching. Break down every aspect of your lesson and decide what purpose it serves.
Here is the process:
Step 1 - Establish a clear learning goal. You can't do a task analysis without a task.
Step 2 - List all pre-requisites for the goal. What is necessary to achieve the learning goal. Include only essential pre-requisites. This list includes the things that are absolutely necessary to achieve the goal.
Step 3 - Sequence the pre-requisites. Look at the pre-requisites and decide what should come first, second, etc. Remember to only include pre-requisite skills, not activities.
This whole process should be done collaboratively as a team. More heads are always better than one.
All of this leads us into our lesson study activity that is coming up. We will, as a team, establish clear learning goals, choose congruent activities, and think through the steps that our students are going to go through in order to be successful. Here is a quick article about lesson studies.
So, many of you know that I am a huge fan of Joe Sanfelippo. Joe is a speaker that I have seen on a couple of occasions and he does a video series called the One Minute Walk to Work. A recent video had to do with setting clear expectations and assuming that people have the best of intentions.
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