HUMS Staff week of October 29, 2018

ITEMS:

 1.  Staff Meetings 

October 30 - Department Meetings - Budget Discussions

November

In November, we have 2 nights of Student Led Conferences in lieu of the November 21st Parent Conferences. November 21st is a non-work day.

November 6 - TA Meeting

November 8 - Conferences (3:30

November 13 - Shared Staff

November 14- Conferences (4:30

November 15 - LT/DH Meeting

November 20 - Full Faculty (MTSS)/Middle School MTSS (Kendra's room)

November 27 - Learning Communities

2. Student Led Conferencing

I placed the script for the 8th grade student conference on the blog - jut for reference. Here is the link 8th grade script - it is also located in the blog link cloud. I can place the script for 7th grade here as well.

3. Discipline notices -

I have been asked to explain the rationale for sending out certain discipline notices and not others. Answer: I attempt to send out discipline notices(Via the discipline form) for situations where staff need to be aware of issues that require further vigilance or awareness of. All discipline issue are recorded on powerschool for record keeping, but not all rise to the level of another notice being sent out. If I were to do this, then this is all I would be doing. Hope this helps.

4.  Observations/Evaluations 

 I am currently working on  my first round of observations for those staff on the comprehensive cycle.  For each there is one 60 - 90 minute observations and a total of 12 unscheduled walkthroughs that need to be completed by the spring.  Many of the longer observations have been scheduled over the next week and half.  Contact Liz if you need to see me during the day as I may be in the high school completing these.  

5.  Two articles to read when you have a minute or two...  

Re-engineering Learning with Curiosity in Mind

            In his new book Out of Curiosity, Bryan Goodwin (McREL) says that children’s inborn curiosity will be nurtured or extinguished, depending on the learning experiences they have. “We cannot make students become curious,” says Goodwin; “rather, we must lead them to it by creating environments and opportunities for curiosity to flourish.” He lists the classroom conditions than encourage and support this critically important life skill:

-  Manageable knowledge gaps – Incomplete sequences, unfinished sentences, cliffhangers, riddles, and puzzles naturally spark curiosity.

-  Guessing and receiving feedback – Being corrected on an inaccurate guess is especially helpful (assuming a low-stakes environment in which mistakes are okay).

-  Incongruities – Encountering something that runs counter to our expectations (for example, that winds blowing from mountaintops into valleys can sometimes be warm) naturally sparks curiosity.

-  Controversy – Researchers have found that getting students involved in a pro-and-con debate on an intriguing topic produces engagement, motivation, and curiosity.

-  Someone knows something we don’t – This might be called the “I have a secret” dynamic, which often leads to questions and exploration.

-  Different-lens questions – Students are asked to look at a subject from a different perspective – for example, considering a science question from an ethical standpoint.

-  Mash-up questions – Students consider two seemingly unrelated ideas or apply what they’ve just learned in a completely novel context.

Goodwin goes on to present seven “curiosity principles” for schools to consider:

            • Embrace not knowing. “Curiosity involves an element of risk taking,” he says. “We must delve into an area we know little about or where we feel incompetent. And we’re more likely to do that when we feel safe to admit we don’tknow something. Thus, we need to help our kids see that it’s OK to profess ignorance, yet a shame to profess indifference.” 

            • Ask fewer, deeper questions. Peppering students with questions is quite common in classrooms, but many of them are at a low level of cognition and ask students to do little more than recall what’s been covered. A smaller number of questions focused on higher-level thinking will spark more thought and curiosity. Goodwin suggests applying this principle to the time-honored question when a child gets home from school:What did you learn in school today? Some alternatives:What surprised you today? When did you feel joyful today? What are you wondering about now?

            • Replace undirected with directed questions. Posing questions to the whole class often results in a few eager beavers raising their hands and 80 percent of students sitting passively while the familiar back-and-forth plays out. Better to cold-call specific students or use “numbered heads together:” the teacher poses a question, groups of four students consider a response, the teacher then calls on individuals by their number in a group. 

            • Use questions to provoke thought versus seeking correct answers. Many students avoid answering teachers’ questions for fear of making a mistake and being embarrassed; quizzing students on what they’re supposed to have learned can trigger these emotions. Better to pose open-ended questions and create a climate in which students feel safe making mistakes and develop courage, confidence, and curiosity.

            • Use wait time. When teachers pause for three or four seconds after posing a question, the length and quality of responses increases and students are more likely to ask questions of their own. 

            • Let students follow their curiosity. What one person finds interesting, another may not, so students need latitude to explore and find the areas that pique their curiosity and passion. “[C]uriosity is more likely to flourish,” says Goodwin, “when kids are free to pursue their own interests alongside supportive adults who offer well-timed nudges to guide their explorations and keep their curiosity alive.” 

            • Go play outdoors. Recent research suggests that the best “medicine” for bored, incurious, video-game-obsessed kids is a dose of sunshine, fresh air, and unstructured play. 

Out of Curiosity by Bryan Goodwin (McREL International, 2018), available on Amazon; Goodwin can be reached at bgoodwin@mcrel.org. 

 Can Boys Learn to Be Better Men?

            In this article in Education Week Teacher, Arkansas elementary teacher Justin Minkel says that when he was in high school, a close friend barely escaped being raped. “Months after the minor physical injuries she sustained had healed,” says Minkel, “she continued to experience lingering emotional and psychological effects of the assault… When walking around our high school or the streets of our town, she tried to make herself look ugly by wearing lumpy clothes and slumping her shoulders, in hopes that boys would not pay unwanted attention to her. She often felt unsafe.” Minkel was shocked when one of his teachers reacted to being told about the assault by saying, “At some point we should consider the possibility that she might be making this up.” 

All this motivated Minkel to become an elementary school teacher – with the explicit mission of helping boys grow up to be good men. He believes the key is developing empathy, which he believes can be enhanced by some specific classroom strategies:

• Give boys the experience of taking care of younger children. Minkel’s first and second graders work with reading buddies in a pre-K classroom down the hall. The simple experience of being in a caregiving relationship helps a child tune in on another’s loneliness, hurt, laughter, and joy. Girls tend to be much more involved than boys in babysitting, feeding, and diapering younger siblings at home. “Teachers may not be in a position to change that dynamic in our students’ homes,” says Minkel, “but we can create opportunities for our students to nurture and mentor younger children in school beginning at an early age.” 

• Read books featuring strong female protagonists and gentle boys. Books like this are relatively uncommon, reflecting publishers’ market-driven decisions. But teachers might be able to bend that calculus by regularly reading counter-stereotypical books aloud in class and giving them prominence in classroom libraries. Some examples: Pippi Longstocking, Get Ready for Gabi, andWilliam’s Doll. 

• Be direct. “Boys need to know that boys can be gentle,” says Minkel. “That it’s OK for boys to cry. That girls are as strong, smart, and capable as boys. That it’s never OK to put your hands on someone who doesn’t want you to.” When boys in his class balk at working with girls on a project, he points out that he works on a team with male and female colleagues and he’d be fired if he refused to work with the women. 

Reflecting on the fraught Supreme Court nomination hearings the previous week, Minkel says they bear directly on the work of K-12 educators. “We don’t just teach the children in our care how to become strong readers, writers, scientists, artists, thinkers, and mathematicians,” he says. “We teach them how to become strong, kind men and women. Boys have to learn from an early age that girls’ rights, emotions, and bodies matter just as much as their own… There is nothing inevitable about violence and disrespect toward women. It is learned behavior. We can teach boys a better way.”

“How to Teach Boys to Be Better Men” by Justin Minkel in Education Week Teacher, October 1, 2018, https://bit.ly/2RiKQWG 

6.  Schedule

Lunch Dismissal 

Math Rooms First  

Mon
Tues	Department meetings
Wed
Thurs	Duane out at 1:30 for Administrative Meeting
Fri