March 2019 TDP Registration!

Hello Everyone,

Please see March 2019 TDP courses offered and the link below for registration:

March 2019 TDP Registration - CLICK HERE

All courses are held on March 5, 12, 19 and April 2 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. unless noted otherwise.

• Personalized Learning Elements
• Comprehension Strategies
• Guided Reading
• AVMR Course 2 Revisited

Registration will close at 12pm on Friday, March 1st.

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There are also Self-paced TDP courses available on BB9. You can register for those classes at any time through this link:  http://goo.gl/VkW76t

• BB101
• BB102
• BB103
• Google 101
• Google 102
• Google 103
• SAMR 101
• Literacy Foundations
• Math Foundations
• Standards Based Grading
• Understanding Educator Effectiveness

Thank you!

Reading Recovery/Descubriendo la Lectura - Welcome New Team Members!

                                             Reading Recovery/Descubriendo la Lectura
                                                   Welcome New Team Members!

SDW's newest Reading Recovery/Descubriendo la Lectura Teachers are entering the final phase of their year-long training!  Reading Recovery is a scientific research-based intervention with a long and extensive track record for bringing the most struggling Grade 1 readers to grade-level benchmark.
Descubriendo la Lectura is the Spanish-language adaptation of Reading Recovery.  Reading Recovery began in SDW in 2013 with the training of three Title I Reading Intervention Teachers, and has since expanded to full implementation in all of SDW's Title I Schools.  At present the Reading Recovery Team is 21 strong:  8 Reading Recovery Interventionists, 5 Descubriendo la Lectura, 5 Special Education and 3 Classroom Teachers.  Thanks to the efforts of these talented teachers, SDW's end-of-year results have SURPASSED the national average for reading levels gained and percentage of students reaching grade-level benchmark!  KUDOS SDW READING RECOVERY/DLL TEAM!

App Development Mobile Makers Winter Contest Winners!

Students in the school district of Waukesha have a unique opportunity to enroll in courses to study app development.  In these courses, students learn how to create apps for Apple devices using the Swift programming languages.  Throughout the courses, students learn how to create apps such as a tip calculator, "rock, paper, scissors", an assignment notebook, a game called "Ninja Hi-ya!".  Additionally, students have the opportunity to dive into their own interests with a research-based project as well as a build-your-own app challenge.

This past January, students in the App Development 1 course were presented with a challenge by our curriculum partners, Mobile Makers, to investigate a new topic in developing apps with Swift for Apple devices.  Several students at Waukesha North fully embraced this challenge.  For this project, students had to research how to use their new tool.  After the research was complete, students created a new project and created a step-by-step video explaining how to implement the new tool, explaining each step along the way.  

Many students from Waukesha North chose to enter this contest and ended with some very impressive results.  Aaron Still and Ben Amiel took first place in the contest with their screencast video on "Sprite Kit". This first place finish will entitle Aaron and Ben to a t-shirt, an iTunes gift card, as well as an hour of mentorship with a programming professional in the field.  Additionally, the teams of Matthew Kotras and David Larsen, Abby Hollis and Stormy Cook, and Eric Burns and Jordan Rosado were named "Top Honors".  The teams of Kieira Brown and Carter Camacho, Julio Leal and Allejandro Gallegos and Jacob Catura and Ezequiel Rodela were named "Honorable Mention".  Please join me in congratulating our app developers on a job well done!

You can read more about the contest and see the final project submission here:

http://mobilemakersedu.org/blog/2019/2/15/winter-2018-19-screencast-contest-winners-announced/

submitted by Kristin Kamenar

Careworkers

At the Wisconsin State Reading Association conference last week, Dr. David Kirkland addressed the audience from the perspective of a student who experienced traumas and inequities, but also successes and connections. He framed a view of the current experiences of students in our educational “ecosystem” as incredibly complex, not influenced by any one singular factor alone.  He stated, “It is not about the fish, but instead, it’s about the water.”

One fish dead on the beach means that we can infer something is wrong with the fish.

Many fish dead on the beach means that we can infer something is wrong with the water.

As educators, he asked us to consider the work we do not just as an educator,

but as a careworker, caring for the whole student, not just treating a singular symptom within the larger ecosystem.

Carework says:

• We don’t only check our biases; we fight to disrupt all bias.
• We don’t only raise and maintain high expectations; we do what’s necessary to help students reach them.
• We don’t just teach what our students find meaningful; we learn from what they find meaningful.
• We don’t just connect literacy to our students’ lives; we connect literacy to their hopes. (Kirkland, 2019)

I would like to highlight Dr. Kirkland’s second statement and connect it to opportunities we have right now, with students that are in front of us everyday.

One way to raise expectations, and help students to reach them is to intentionally plan for supports and scaffolds for our students. Planning for appropriate supports can create a buoy to help students navigate the choppy or toxic waters around them. What I mean to say is that we can protect and nurture all of our fish by scaffolding and planning for their success across content areas!

During a visit to a middle school science classroom the year, I was reminded of the benefits of tactile sensory scaffolds for all students as incremental pieces of the larger pie of an entire concept. Students created a visual representation that predicted the amount of consumable water on earth, contrasting saltwater and freshwater. The tactile support matched the purpose of the activity: contextualizing an abstract idea using a model. Later, students calculated the actual percentages and updated their visual models using the new data that the class synthesized in a shared data table, and discussed the scarcity of consumable water on earth. Following this discussion, students wrote about their findings.

Work sample key- Agua dulce-freshwater, Resto del agua/agua salada- salt water. Tierra- earth

This classroom activity is one example of a teacher planning for students to access the grade level curriculum by using sensory scaffolds at the middle school level. Students are never too old for visual scaffolds, in fact they need them to access curriculum in meaningful and equitable ways.

What scaffolds might you include in upcoming lessons to ensure access for all students? How will you change the water that students swim in each day?

Credit for scaffold visual: Tan Huynh, @ EmpoweringELLS.com/blog Link to a blog post about scaffolds

Our Mindset Matters

Educators endure problem behaviors at higher and higher levels each year. It is important that we acknowledge the struggle that we are enduring. "Every child deserves a champion; an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be". This quote from Rita Pierson helps us remember that every child needs us!

Every single teacher is responsible for the behavior that is in their classroom. Let me say that again, every single teacher is responsible for the behavior that is in their classroom.

We need to feel ok asking for help in dealing with challenging behaviors. We also need to turn a mirror on ourselves at times and ask, is there any piece of me that can say...yep, my students are being disruptive because of me or our classroom environment?
The opportunity is for us to build a community of learners who are motivated to learn. When we are motivated, we move. Move to learning, move to action, move to inspiration, move to engage. Do you know at least one thing that motivates each human face in your classroom? Do you really? Do you have this written down? If not...how important would it be for you to find this out?

We all behave better for people that we trust. We would walk through the fire for those we feel to be authentic. The way that we interact with our students, including the timing of those interactions can go a long way in cultivating trust. Educators who can master each student's motivation will have communities of learners that understand that through strong connections, and our own mindset, we can all become our best selves.

Scaffolding for Transfer within the Comprehensive Literacy Model

Have you wondered how to scaffold for transfer within the Comprehensive Literacy Model? According to Linda Dorn, “When a teacher teaches for transfer, she/he must be aware of what the child knows.  Therefore, the teacher designs instructional interactions that provide the learner with opportunities to transfer existing skills, strategies, and knowledge to new problem-solving activity across changing and varied situations".  From our CLM learning, you may have heard the phrase “from the wall (anchor chart) to the log to the brain”. This is a way to scaffold instruction to develop student independence on literacy strategies and skills. At Heyer Elementary, our Third Grade Team has been exploring about how the Focused Note Taking Process complements and connects to the intended phases of a Thoughtful Log. 

The Focused Note Process

1. Taking Notes
2. Processing Notes
3. Connecting Thinking
4. Synthesizing and Reflecting on Learning
5. Applying Learning

Here are some examples of student learning throughout this process:

Taking Notes During Language Workshop, students lead the discussion to co-construct ideas to elevate their thinking.  While the students are discussing, the teacher writes student ideas on the anchor chart.
Processing Notes *Students glue a picture of Language Workshop co-constructed anchor chart into the Strategy Section of Thoughtful Log. *Students first revisit the anchor chart in their TL and highlight 1 or 2 key ideas.   *Students answer the Thoughtful Log Prompt by using the anchor chart as a resource.
Connecting Thinking *Students analyze their notes (anchor chart) to connect and apply their learning to their independent reading text within the Strategy Section of the Thoughtful Log.
Synthesizing and Reflecting on Learning Students respond to a “My Thinking Prompt” by applying the strategy without using the graphic organizer. This may be a Language Workshop text or an Independent Reading Text.	What can we learn from Sonia Sotomayor’s life?
Applying Learning Students refer back to the Thoughtful Log Sections as a resource or learning tool to help students apply their  learning across genres, future texts, units of study, in writing or other content areas.	Thoughtful Log as a Resource

Our Heyer Third Grade Teachers have already noticed how the Focused Note Process has provided explicit opportunities and evidence of student transfer.  Ms. Duran, Heyer’s Third Grade Dual Language Teacher said, “I think the best part about the note taking is that kids feel more confident when participating in discussions because they have had a chance to go back into their notes and see what we had discussed. It also helps their ideas to be clearer and have specific examples.”

Here is what Heyer Third Grade Students are saying about this process:

• “Note taking helped me know facts about the events and relationships.” 
• “It helped me respond to the question because we got to talk in a group and then we highlighted what we thought was the most important. It was helpful to share ideas with a group too when we were reflecting because we could see things differently and learn something maybe that you didn't think before.”
• “It helped me because we had the chart in our strategy section and we could go back and look at the ideas.”

     

ESAIL's Role in SDW

Why ESAIL?

• ESAIL stands for Environmental Scale for Assessing Implementation Levels. It is a system tool to monitor implementation.
• ESAIL is a feedback tool to see how implementation of practice and student engagement is growing over time, successes and where more learning or support is needed to move the work forward across our system.
• ESAIL supports fidelity to the workshop model and curriculum resources that the district uses to inform next steps in district curriculum and professional development based on these observations.
• ESAIL is only one of many measures that we use to track our progress.  We know there is a lot that teachers are doing for kids that cannot be measured by an ESAIL.  However, ESAIL gives a teacher practice data point, so our system can have multiple types of data to tell the storyline of impact vs only having achievement data (FORWARD, MAP, etc).

What happens during ESAIL?

• A small team observes instruction and students in action and artifacts of learning (thoughtful logs, anchor charts, artifacts on the classroom walls, plans, etc.) to see how the instructional model is being implemented using the ESAIL rubric.  
• The team may be made up of directors, coordinators, coaches, teachers and principal. The only way we can better inform our system is for all stakeholders, which includes our district office team, to come into our classrooms and see where the learning occurs. There is no “us” and “them.” WE are all in it for the learners! 

         

           Literacy Big Rocks:

• 1.3: Diverse reading materials are enjoyed, discussed, and analyzed.
• 4.9: Mentor texts, anchor charts and student logs are used as non-verbal scaffolds to promote independence.
• 4.3: Daily small group reading and writing lessons are designed to meet the instructional needs of diverse learners.
• 4.4: Daily one-to-one reading and writing conferences are tailored for the highest degree of differentiation

Numeracy Big Rocks:

• 4.6: Problem solving is collaborative and promotes a balance of procedural fluency, conceptual  understanding, and mathematical applications.
• 1.9: Elaborated discussions (verbal and written) around specific learning goals are promoted and all students’ thinking is valued and discussed.
• 4.3: Daily small guided group lessons and/or conferring are designed to meet the instructional needs of diverse learners.
• 4.8: Technology is used to help students learn and make sense of mathematical ideas, reason mathematically, and communicate their mathematical thinking.

What impact does ESAIL have  in our system?

• Provides opportunities for calibration, consistency in expectations around literacy and numeracy big rocks and feedback to individual buildings of strengths and next steps
• ESAIL data drives professional development opportunities (within a building, Summer Institute, TDP, etc)  designed around the findings to help grow adult practices
• The district has maintained focus on the same big rocks for multiple years
• The district and buildings are able to celebrate growth over time. We know that not everyone will be at the same place because of the wide variety of variables (new teachers, new classes, new needs, etc.), we celebrate progress and the learning process, not perfection.

Did you know, because of ESAIL observation and teacher feedback...

• Language Workshop mentor texts and planners were created
• Writing Workshop units and Grammar units were  written to align with Language Workshop texts, in a more teacher friendly format and inquiry based approach
• Increased opportunities for AVMR levels, trainings and opportunities have been created
• Math tasks and grade level math models were aligned and created
• Better connections have been made between universal instruction and intervention
• The number of district led ESAIL’s in a year have been decreased as we build capacity across our school teams
• Observations in classrooms occur multiple times to see the big rocks based on the teacher’s given schedule