Preparing for Conversations on Race and Culture

SDW Team,

With yet another incident approximately 3 months to the day of the brutal murder of George Floyd, we now have another incident involving another black male, Jacob Blake, who was shot 7 times in the back. We as a district must take a stance and make a commitment to seek justice to better support all students, families and staff of color.  The racial and social injustices we have seen taking place across the country is something that the School District of Waukesha will not allow nor tolerate.  We will continue to work to eliminate and dismantle the racial injustices and inequalities that plague people of color. 

 

The School District of Waukesha is committed and dedicated to eliminating racial injustice, implicit bias and stereotypes with equity being the foundation of our district.  As a school district and as a nation, we are struggling with fundamental truths about our world marked by heinous acts of violence and inequitable policies inflicted upon and directed at black, brown, and other marginalized people.  With many of us coming from different backgrounds and experiences, this makes the conversations around race very sensitive and complex.

 

We as a district will continue to apply the learning, we recently received from Dr. Sharroky Hollie, the Executive Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning on culturally responsive teaching.  We will continue to become better equipped to create more inclusive teaching and learning environments where all students feel safe, welcomed and valued.  We as a district will continue to prepare for discussions on the incidents that have taken place over the summer months in order to help build community, collaboration and togetherness in our classrooms and schools.

 

The conversations around race, culture and bias cannot be avoided with students because they will help set the tone for the year.  Discussing classroom expectations, creating vision boards for your classrooms with the students and allowing students to have a voice is going to be very important to create the type of learning environment you desire.  

If you would like additional resources around anti-racism, bias, stereotypes and race conversations with students for the start of the school year, please visit the Equity course on Blackboard.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  Here is a resource that may be helpful as you plan for the start of the year.  

 

Remember team, WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER! Juntos más fuertes!  

 

Demetri Beekman

Have a VABB-ulous start!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your open minded and solution seeking spirit this week!
WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!
Thank you also for engaging in learning with Dr. Sharroky Hollie as we begin our journey with him. Our district is committed to understanding our own privilege and bias as educators and truly valuing and supporting diversity through our collective growth and positive relationships!
We will continue our partnership with the Closing The Achievement Gap Consortium as we work together to communicate our openness and quite frankly our responsibility, to having deep conversations around the racial justice reckoning.


Think about how you can immediately and intentionally bring a mindset and a skill set around our SDW vision to your own classroom and schools:
To be a 21st century learning organization dedicated to equity, innovation, excellence and collaboration.

See you soon!
Connect with me via our Professional Learning Network on Twitter @jlandish13

Elementary Math updates

Please see the math updates from Rose in this recording.
Follow her @RBrunnerPalmer

Hybrid Learning

Hybrid learning is more than just tossing half of your syllabus into a virtual classroom. Instead, it's a comprehensive approach to combining the best parts of face-to-face and online learning to create the ideal learning experience for all students. 

In hybrid learning, students should be able to answer these questions each day: What am I learning? Why am I learning it? and How will I know if I am successful in my learning? 

A student’s ability to answer these questions is a matter of teacher clarity. Teachers must be able to clearly communicate learning goals with students and develop concrete lessons that support student mastery of these goals. These actions ensure that students understand what they are learning so they can take an active role in their education and monitor their own success. 

Step 1: Start with the Standards.

Build deep knowledge of required concepts and skills. Most teachers develop their learning goals or “intentions” from grade-level content standards. Therefore, to improve clarity, teachers should be crystal clear about what the standards mean. One good way to analyze the standards is to examine the nouns, which provide clarity about the concepts and the verbs, which provide clarity about the skills students must master. For example, look at the nouns and verbs in the following standard: Explain how the ideology of the French Revolution led France to develop a democratic despotism. Here the concepts would include ideology, the French Revolution, and democratic despotism while the skill is to be able to explain. Teachers must define mastery of each concept and skill in order to build clear learning goals and lessons. 

Step 2: Develop Concrete Learning Units. 

Once teachers are satisfied with their knowledge of the standards, they can plan learning units around these concepts and skills. At this stage, teachers map out the “flow” (i.e. learning progressions) of their instruction. This is where a teacher’s grasp of the standards becomes essential. An informed teacher understands which standards-based concepts and skills logically build on others – and can use that knowledge to design units that support student development. Learning units should also include details regarding any new terms or concepts students must know to be successful, and teachers should be prepared to teach new vocabulary directly so students can easily navigate required readings and tasks. 

Step 3: Design and Share Learning Intentions.

After teachers complete their learning units, they can focus on their daily learning intentions. In every lesson, learning targets should be clearly stated. For example, in Mr. Gavin’s physics class, his first unit focuses on electrical current, potential difference, and energy flow. His initial learning targets include: “I am learning that an electric charge can be positive or negative” and “I am learning about the law of conservation of electric charge.” Writing the intentions first – before designing daily tasks – ensures a clear connection between the expectations expressed in the standards and the actions taken in the classroom. Teachers can share their learning intentions with students in a variety of ways. They can post them on the opening page in Blackboard, in a chat box during a live session, or at the beginning of a pre-recorded video. Teachers can also use a weekly “distance learning log” with students. One sample log includes the week’s learning intention and the success criteria with space for the student and teacher to rate learning before and after each lesson.

Step 4: Communicate Success Criteria.

To improve clarity, teachers should also provide students with success criteria to ensure they understand what mastery looks like. Specifically, success criteria clarify mastery of a required concept or skill. There are many ways to communicate these criteria with students. In the learning log example above, “I can” statements are especially helpful in hybrid learning because they allow students to monitor their progress toward mastery on a weekly basis. Teachers can also use checklists, rubrics, exemplars, and modeling. Teachers should use a combination of strategies to help students recognize success. For example, a student might not immediately understand a writing checklist that describes the need for a “strong concluding statement,” but a checklist combined with a discussion of exemplars can provide clarity. 

Step 5: Make Learning Relevant.

When learning feels relevant, student engagement increases. Personal association (i.e. a connection to an object or memory) has the least relevance, while activities that enhance students’ personal identity have the greatest potential to engage students.

Effective Feedback for Students.

The most important element of the feedback loop is, of course, the feedback itself: Assessments (and grades) are not particularly useful if students cannot use the information they provide to improve learning. The best feedback we can provide is descriptive, supportive, and reciprocal.

Descriptive: The goal with descriptive feedback is twofold: 1) help students recognize how their actions or decisions impact their performance, and then 2) help them define goals for improvement. For example, “You provided a description of the samurai caste’s rise in the introduction which provides context for your reader. You left out the key events that led to that rise. Can you find sources for this information and make a plan to include it in your next draft?” Descriptive feedback like this helps students learn by setting forth a clear picture of what success looks like. 

Supportive: Students are more likely to utilize feedback when it is provided in a supportive environment. In a study of middle and high school students, 20% of students said they disregarded a teacher’s feedback because they had a poor relationship with him or her. We can increase feedback effectiveness by fostering relationships and embracing errors as part of learning. One way to do this is to use more verbal feedback in hybrid learning since it comes closer to matching the warmth and familiarity of in-class feedback. 

Reciprocal: Teachers should also solicit feedback from their students to find out how they are experiencing their hybrid learning. This includes asking students to comment on the quality and usefulness of online materials and discuss their own participation (e.g. Have they asked questions this week? Are they keeping up with assignments?). Feedback from students can be coupled with Blackboard user analytics regarding student usage to ensure materials support learning. 

Effective Formative Assessment.

Formative assessment requires teachers to “check for understanding” throughout a lesson or unit, not just at the end. As we’ve already mentioned, the power of formative assessment is in the feedback it can provide. Successful feedback allows teachers and students to take positive actions to improve teaching and learning. 

Effective Summative Assessment.

Summative assessments are used to determine students’ learning at the end of a unit or course. To be effective, the assessment content must reflect the unit’s standards, but the design can vary. Below are some considerations for assessment design in hybrid learning. • Expand testing formats: Teachers may have concerns about how to proctor traditional exams online, but there are many forms of assessment. For example, while oral tests are almost impossible in class due to time constraints, students in online classes can record their responses for the teacher to view individually. If teachers need to use traditional exams, they can keep the test short and use timed live sessions to proctor them – students just need to have their cameras on so they can be observed. • Emphasize academic honesty: Be proactive by discussing honesty and ethical decision-making frequently in class. Teachers should also provide a statement of academic honesty in the first weeks of school (and post it on Blackboard). Some schools also include a statement of academic honesty in summative assessments for students to sign. 

The Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12, Corwin

 © The Main Idea 2020 hjjyffg.ne..net2009 

The Distance Learning Playbook, Grades K-12 by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie

Elementary Literacy Updates

Here are a few GREAT video resources as updates around our unit overviews, mini lessons, and common assessments!

Unit Framework Overview                     

Reading Minilessons

Common Assessments

The Time is Now

Do You Know Who I Am?

“You can’t love us, if you don’t know us.” –  Bettina Love

How do you get to know someone?  How will you gain a better understanding of a culture or race you have little or no interactions with?  You spend quality time, you ask clarifying questions, you listen actively, visit neighborhoods, read books, watch movies and documentaries.  During this cultural pandemic we are currently facing, gaining a deeper understanding of the students and families you instruct is vital.  Making connections early and often is a proactive approach to establish collaborative relationships and create momentum for the upcoming year.  Knowledge and truth will spread through our district to help cure this epidemic to show we value and appreciate diversity.

Next Step in Blackboard... Moving Forward Together as a System

If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you understand that almost anything you need to purchase is available in one place. Likewise, it’s the same reason that sites like Google and YouTube have become the default web and video search engines on the Internet. When users have to struggle to find what they need, they spend too much time searching, and far too little time actively engaging.

How is this relevant for the School District of Waukesha? In surveying students and families over the past few months, a clear request has been highlighted: “Place everything related to course work in one spot, making it easier to find.” In other words, give us an experience similar to the one we have grown accustomed to everywhere else on the Internet.

In listening to and honoring the feedback of our stakeholders to simplify and streamline access to our online teaching and learning resources, beginning in fall 2020, SDW will standardize the use of Blackboard across our system, 4K-12. 

Simply put, by standardizing on the use of Blackboard, SDW is ensuring that every student, family, and staff member can reliably go to ONE place to access key resources needed to support teaching and learning.

Clarifying Terminology: Course Shells
Successfully addressing this request equates to continual work and development from those of us who need to build resources in Blackboard. While Blackboard has been in our system for quite some time, it’s never been a universally adopted and standardized platform.  That being said, it is important for all of us to speak a universal language around Blackboard terminology.

Let’s start with a key term and its role within the larger vision of SDW: “Shell” or “Course Shell”. Here’s an analogy that may help provide meaning:

If I want to build a home, I have to first outline a vision for what my home looks like in the blueprints. That vision is something that only a small number of people initially involved can imagine.  And then the builders and contractors show up on the worksite. They begin, as a team, to outline the perimeter of the home’s footprint, each contributing their specific, important part a little at a time. While the homeowner and the builders can clearly see the stages of development because they have the larger vision in mind, it is often hard for the neighbors to imagine the final product. They look on with curiosity, as each wall rises from ground level to just a few boards nailed together, then a new room emerges, then a second floor.  Even some of the builders and contractors can become so focused in on their portion of the build that they struggle to see the larger goal, until they step back and see the completion of one wall, of one room, of one floor. And then one day, it is a home. A proud homeowner moves in. The neighbors look on and now understand the vision.

What is a shell?

An online environment where the key resources needed to support teaching and learning are made available digitally for all students, grades 4K-12 -- is the vision we are building; it is the home in our analogy. 

Each of us plays a role in building this environment. Up until this point, SDW has invited staff members to build in Blackboard, but has insufficiently provided the blueprints and vision necessary to create a cohesive and functioning digital platform. This equates to frustrated, discouraged and lost builders and end users. Going forward, SDW is providing a more specific blueprint for our course builders.

We call these Blackboard blueprints “shells” or “course shells”. Shells provide a clear outline of the structure and content to be included in a Blackboard course. They give each course builder some guidance in which to make informed decisions when building.

Just as a home is not built overnight, it will take time to mold Blackboard into the resource we envision. We ask that our staff members accept that this will be an iterative process that takes place over time. This process entails two key phases: 

1) outlining the course structure (the navigational frame of the course), and then 

2) adding content and content-specific resources to it (the content in the course) (This will be built over years -- not weeks or months)

Where are we now?

Generic Course Shells

Beginning with the start of the 2020 school year, all staff 4K-12 are being asked to create and utilize a Blackboard course with their students. To ensure consistency across the system, and to provide a universal navigation experience for every user, we are asking that all course navigation look the same. To provide a blueprint for you to begin with, three “generic” course shells -- one for 4K, 5K-5, and another for 6-12, have been created (DL version is available 4K-5 (see notes below****)).

To clarify, the “generic” course shell does NOT contain course specific content. It DOES contain the navigation labels and structure needed to make sure that your Blackboard course looks like other Blackboard courses in our system.

Both the 4K, 5K-5, and 6-12 generic course shells are available today.  It is the expectation that each staff member utilize the generic course shells to structure their course moving forward. The tutorial for achieving this is available below.

Course-Specific Shells

Over the course of the year and beyond, work will be done within the Teaching and Learning team to develop shells that are more course-specific. This means that the shells will have common syllabi, common learning targets, common assessments, and common curriculum where it applies. 

To be completely transparent, the course-specific shells are not available immediately. They will be built continuously over an extended period of time. However, the development of these shells will not require a complete rebuild of your Blackboard course when they become available. A great feature of Blackboard is that multiple course shells can be “layered” on top of each other in the same Blackboard course. 

Just as a builder cannot put paint and carpets in on day one of construction, they need to plan for it on day one. That is why we are sharing the generic course shell/blueprint with you now.  While we cannot put all of the content in courses today, we are building in a way that will allow you to easily add content to courses once course-specific shells are available (provided you start with and maintain the generic course shell structure). 

Get started today! The following information will take you through the steps to  create your Blackboard class that will be linked to Infinite Campus which will manage your enrollment and sync your sections.  

Some of you may have already completed this process last year during Summer Institute, during PD, or in March during the Virtual Learning Rollout. If you have already completed this first step for classes you teach, there is no need to do it again,(unless the classes/grade level you are teaching have changed), the class can be reused year after year!

Not sure if you have created Blackboard classes via the Intranet Bb Scheduler? Here’s how to check: log into the Intranet, on the left hand navigation select Bb Scheduler, click “show” next to Modify a Blackboard Class. If the class you need is shown here, you can use it to develop your sessions for this school year. If you do not have any classes listed under Modify a Bb Class you will want to create one.

Step 1:

To create a Bb class on the Intranet, go to “Add a Blackboard Class” and click “show”. You will then select your school calendar, your name, and the class you wish to create. 

Elementary staff: Create class using AM Attendance

Secondary staff: Create a class for each content area course you teach. For example, one Physics class and one Chemistry Class. Be sure to check all sections of that class so that all students are enrolled in the same Bb class. The video linked below shows how to create your Bb Class using the scheduler. This process takes place overnight so look for your new class in Bb

• Adding a class using the Intranet Bb Scheduler 

Step 2:

Both the elementary and secondary generic shells are available for use. All staff need to import the appropriate Generic Course Shell into the Bb class they have created via the Intranet. The video linked below demonstrates how to log into the SDW website to access the Bb Resources page which currently house the Generic Shell Templates. When Course-Specific Templates are completed, they will be located here as well and will easily integrate into the class you have created using the Generic Class Shell. Secondary Dual Language Course Shells will need to rename the tabs and content folders in both English and Spanish (ex. Unidad 1/Unit 1)

• Downloading the SDW Secondary/Elementary Generic Course Shell

• Follow Step 3 to add it to your Bb class!

Step 3:

After downloading the Generic Course Template, you are ready to import it into your existing Bb class. The video below explains how to import the Generic Course Template into the class you created using the Intranet Bb Scheduler.

• Importing the SDW Secondary/Elementary Generic Course Shell

Step 4: (Optional Depending on Previous Use)

Already have existing content in a Bb class you previously created? No problem. You can easily transfer it to your new class if desired.  Directions to Export and Import the content you have already built to your new class is shown in the video linked below. Don’t want to transfer it all to the new class? You have the ability to copy pieces of the class over if that better meets your needs. Dual Language classes that are exported should be revised to ensure that left tabs and content folders are labeled bilingually (ex.Unidad 1/Unit 1)

• Exporting/Importing Existing Content into a Bb Class

***Dual Language Tabs for K-5 Social Studies and Science will include items that are organized by trimester 1, 2 and 3.  We will be moving toward a trimester structure in the future.  What I recommend is that you use “Units 1-8” in each of those folders in place of units for now.  I have added Units 1,3,5,7 to Social Studies and 2,4,6,8 to Science-which is helpful to grades 2-5.  K-1 teachers will need to add the rest of the units.