Amber — Page 57

Initiate change? Of course you can! #R10tech

May 6, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

I had the opportunity today to present at the Region 10 technology conference. As always, I come away amazed at the work of the Region X team. This conference has evolved over the years into a must attend the event for the Region X area. From session flow to strategic sessions, to participant size to the addition this year of FOOD TRUCKS…they are doing it right!

The conversations today with educators from around the area was so refilling. I appreciate so much the passion behind what they are all doing. Some are in district level positions, some are campus administrators, and some are classroom teachers. What I’ve found is that those who are willing to miss a day and all that entails are the ones willing to have the conversations that are going to initiate change.

I said in my presentation today that if you think you need a title to be a leader, then you may not yet be ready for that responsibility. Anyone can make a difference…after all, even the biggest wave started out as just a breeze!

Classroom teachers can make change happen by adopting genius hour, by becoming connected to other learners, to challenging the status quo. Differentiate…get creative, turn the power to choose how they learn over to your students. Not completely, oh naysayers of mine, but even just a lesson a week can start a wave….its ok not to do what you’ve always done.

Building leaders can make changes by modeling what it means to be a lifelong learner, by allowing teachers to TRY new things, and to feel comfortable in FAILing if that’s what happens. Encourage conferences, encourage learning, be the LEAD learner not just by title, but in action.

District support staff can initiate change by offering support, encouraging new ideas, by asking different questions. Offer to be in classrooms, or do more research on an idea…help a teacher make connections with innovators in the area at hand. There’s no need to recreate the wheel if some other awesome educator has tried it before.

Edupeeps in district level positions can initiate change by being willing to be transparent in their own learning, to open up and be flexible in what good ol’traditional teaching has to look like. Get to an edcamp, attend a national conference…let yourself break free from the educational silo you may find yourself in.

We all have the power to make change…we just have to be willing to “be more dog”.

Educator proud,

Amber

Take it up a notch…just a notch! Easy lesson upgrades…

April 27, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

How can you easily take an assignment you’ve already got in your lesson plans and kick it up notch? Here are some easy ideas for those who need a spark to kick it up a notch!

Pick three – five students to ask to create a lesson on what you’re learning about, instead of completing your assessment. Let them choose the grading scale, manner of delivery. Allow them then to pick three – five students to share it with, while you’re going over what you had planned to assess with the rest of the class.
Vocabulary Expert: Let students choose vocabulary words from the lesson you’re about to teach that they feel they know so well they could teach them. Match partners and allow them ten minutes to teach what they know. (What better way to start a lesson then with students feeling successful?)
Let Ss create their own assessment. One of our amazing teachers let her students do this as a cumulative activity and she was blown away with how well they did. She then let them exchange their assesments to keep the lesson going. Check out their question formats!
Take the five different activities you were going to do for the week and turn them into centers. Upper grades should be scaffolded this way as well! This is a GREAT way to make sure that differentiation occurs in your classroom. If students are broken up into “centers”, it will be more difficult for each student to know what others are doing. You can work remediation lessons into the students who need it, and allow your higher performing students to work on extension skills/concepts.
Turn whatever activity you’re working on into a classroom jigsaw activity. Give groups of students the different questions to answer separately and then come back together as a group to debrief.
Think flexible learning spaces and environments. How can you mix it up, even just for a class period? Let Ss move around, go into the hall, computer lab, library…an opportunity for your “rock stars” to get a change of (s)pace!
Recognize that lower level types of questions only have one answer, but higher level questions can have several “right” answers. Watch this video and evaluate the power of the “correct” answer.

Lesson upgradeN,

Amber

What Principals can (and should!) learn from Kliff Kingsbury

April 13, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury is a fan favorite, partly because he’s a former-player-turned-coach, but also partly because he bears a striking resemblance to Ryan Gosling. He also holds the distinction of being the first coach in Big 12 history to start his career at 7-0. With an impressive track record of grooming athletes in his previous positions, notably Houston Cougars quarterback Case Keenum, and then there was, what was his name? Oh yes, the Texas A&M Heisman winner, Johnny Manziel, Kingsbury’s first season at Texas Tech led to a palpable air of “swag” in West Texas.

A head coach is in charge of developing his players, ensuring that as a team, you get overall success from individual strengths. Isn’t that just like the role of principal? How impactful is the catalyst of a dynamic leader on a team? Well, according to Red Raider players, very instrumental.

“Really, a team gets its personality from its head coach. Coach Kingsbury is a very strong person. I think the way he conducted himself…made us a stronger team.”

— Texas Tech senior RB/OLB Kenny Williams

12 games in, it looked as if the wave of momentum of the Raider Nation was about to crash. You’d have never known that from Kingsbury’s demeanor. It didn’t change the whole season. Not when they started 7-0, or lost the next five. He got to the field house at 4 am, every day. He worked out twice day. He refused to dwell on the past. He refused to let his players do that, either. Many educational theory books point to the principal as being the tone setter for the campus. Todd Whitaker says that when the principal sneezes, the whole campus catches a cold. A leader doesn’t dwell on the present, he looks to the future.

Kingsbury brings an air of excitement to his team. He relates to them. A dance off amongst players that he participates in? Genius. Not only is he showing his team that he can still relate to them, but Kingsbury is showing them that you can work hard and still have fun. We are losing the FUN in our edu world! It is up to the administrators to remind both our staff and students that you can have fun and learn. We can model that in a variety of ways…no dancing required!

In Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools, my favorite chapter details the importance of timely, effective feedback through regular observations. It also details how the single most important attribute of a principals’ role is coaching. At Texas Tech, Kingsbury coaches each player to get to a level of success as a team. He recognizes that you’re only as strong as your weakest link and that you always want your best players on the field. Effective observation and feedback isn’t about judgmental evaluation, it’s about coaching. The primary focus of observations shouldn’t be used to judge your teachers, but to find the most effective ways to COACH them to help improve student learning.

Kingsbury also brings resiliency to the Red Raiders.

” That’s how you build for the future. Because it’s not always going to be going well. It’s not always going to be fall in your favor. But you gotta keep fighting.”

—Kliff Kingsbury

With ever-changing paradigms in education, administrators have never faced more changes and challenges day-to-day. Resilience and unwavering optimism is necessary as a leader. You become resilient by CHOOSING to be resilient. Believing that you are making a difference in the lives of children is motivation enough to keep moving forward. Leaders must bounce back, choosing self efficacy over feeling powerlessness. It doesn’t matter if you lose a game, Kingsbury says “learn from the loss”. We all know that things don’t always go our way. Teachers can harness this power in their classrooms as well, recognizing that while every student may not be the “best”, there is something they are the best at.

Kingsbury has been called the “quarterback whisperer”. He doesn’t want his players to be so afraid of failure that they can’t be loose, can’t reach their potential, can’t have fun. While I’m no Robert Redford, I do think there is much to learn as an administrator from a coach who chooses to lead fearlessly, in his on way. #ourcoachiscoolerthanyourcoach, indeed.

Guns up,

Amber

Vocab Rehab, an ASCD arias…& a give away!

April 5, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

Last week we met with grade level teams to discuss our most recent benchmark data. Resoundingly, there was an understanding that while students may know the concept or skill, what was most lacking, in grades 3-5, science, reading, and math…was vocabulary. More specifically, lack of vocabulary mastery. Each grade level mentioned it, and some discussed specific vocabulary words that were embedded within the test that weren’t at all related to the content being taught. How as a teacher can you find time to teach “one more thing”?

Imagine my delight when I remembered I’d grabbed a recent ASCD arias, titled “Vocab Rehab”, by Marilee Sprenger. Knowing it would be a quick read (all arais’s are designed to be short & sweet!) I intentionally got to a restaurant 30 minutes before a dinner date to meet a friend. That was all it took to blow my mind!

Ms. Sprenger began the book with research to illustrate the importance of a vocabulary enriched classroom. She specifically mentions needing to “teach up”, not watering down academic vocabulary within instruction. Vocabulary acquisition is cumulative,meaning students with high vocabularies learn new words faster than students with more limited vocabularies (Referenced from a study by Hart & Risley, 2003).

She gives multiple 10 minute lessons that can help increase vocabulary instruction that can apply to any subject at any grade level. The list of ways “not” to teach vocabulary rang a bell…assignments like “use the word in a sentences, find and define, write and draw a picture”, all assignments given BEFORE a student truly understands a word. By using the integrated strategies Ms. Sprenger shares will ensure students KNOW the words, vs just being able to recognize a definition. The ability to read & understand a word within context require more than just a “look it up”!

My two favorite activities? Let’s say you have 10-15 words you want to teach. Give each student a lanyard with either a vocabulary word or a synonym for one of the new words. Have students line up by “like” terms, or antonyms throughout the week. Call by like meanings, or opposites.

I also like the idea of giving student a lanyard with a new vocabulary word, it’s definition, synonyms, and antonyms to wear each day. They can partner quiz at restroom breaks, in the lunch line, etc. Once a word is mastered or used successfully in class, they can switch lanyards. Easy!

There are so many gems of greatness is this book, I highly recommend it to anyone who recognizes how valuable vocabulary instruction should be. It focuses on easy ways to form strong connections in the brain over a short period of time…every teachers goal!

I happen to have an extra copy of the ASCD arias “Vocab Rehab”, if you’re interested! Enter to win by with your information below!

[gravityform id=”4″ name=”Win your own of Marilee Sprenger’s “Vocab Rehab”!”]

(This giveaway will end in one week, on April 12th!)

Vocab rehabbed,

Amber

Who has time for engagement?

March 30, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

photo ala the amazing @venspired

I am reading Eric Jensen’s latest book from ASCD, “Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind“, and am blown away by the research and strategies I’m finding. In even just the first few pages, he discusses how engagement always shows up as a vital achievement factor in most studies. It isn’t, however, always called “engagement”, that’s just the buzz word of the moment. He references a study by John Hattie where engagement was also found to be called “feedback”, “cooperative learning”, “project learning”, or any kind of “interactive teaching”.

Research shows that for every 2% disengagement rises, pass rates on high stakes tests drop by 1%(Valentine & Collins, 2011) via Mr. Jensen. We can’t afford to not care about engaging our students. We can’t continue to only worry about the material we need to teach, and not those lil’people we are teaching it too. School should be the BEST part of their day. If we can make that happen, attendance rates would soar.

Some of the pushback on providing lessons for students that are “engaging” is that we have a lot of content to impart, and not a lot of time in which to do it. “School is not about always being fun, Amber.” But when you think of those synonyms above…those are the kinds of activities that we SHOULD be seeing in our classrooms. That’s not rocket science! With such a national focus on having students graduate, and attending some form of higher education, we first must KEEP our students in schools. To keep them in school, we need to make it more engaging. Students do not just magically become more interested, we have to do our part to make that happen!

What can you do to make your class more engaging these week? Not more entertaining, but more engaging. Whatever it is, know that it will be worth it.

Engagingly,

Amber