When you look at your Adult Learning Practices (ALF's), have you added as measured by statements so you can truly measure this over time?
What components of the Coherence Progression are you working towards? Are these outlined in your monthly milestones?
How is your school different one month in because of your SAIL work?
This week our EMLSS project teams continued their work. Our team working on training in the district reviewed our vision statement as well as our common definition for training.
SDW Training VISION: In the School District of Waukesha training will equip new and experienced staff with knowledge, strategies, and skills that will build a foundation to empower our educators to disrupt inequities and improve outcomes for all students.
Training in the School District of Waukesha educates staff on theory, instructional strategies, and evidenced-based practices that address the needs of all our students with a priority on our marginalized students. Training will use consistent adult learning practices and be aligned to district goals, while being flexible enough to support a diversity of needs, roles, and building priorities.
The team is heavy into developing a checklist for high quality professional development. Think about all the professional development that has happened over the last month. How can we ensure it is high quality for you?
Creating a guidance document when designing professional development would be helpful and impactful. More to come on what this might look like for future professional development offerings not only by the district, but by each of you in your schools on a monthly basis.
We are excited to announce
that the Waukesha School Board has approved the adoption of the
McGraw Hill IMPACT
Elementary Social Studies Resource for Elementary Students in grades K-5
The curriculum writing team is made up of representatives from around each of our elementary schools and includes colleagues who are enthusiastically piloting resources this year.
Our representatives will be aligning the resources to the Wisconsin Social Studies Standards, and determining units of study that are supported by the resource. Our goal is to have determined the units of study K-5, and completed a deep analysis of the shift in standards by November 2021. Through the winter months our team will focus on building the units, aligning the literacy skills and focusing on preparation for Spring and Summer Work to complete the curriculum design process and professional development plan.
Your representative will update your site monthly on the advances that we make and how to access additional information and supports.
We look forward to bringing out students an amazing opportunity to learn and grow!
Welcome back to the new school year! In the School District of Waukesha, we have been training teachers in Add+VantageMR since 2015. During that time, many teachers have experienced the value of learning more about numeracy development in students and how to better facilitate learning. Last year, we only offered courses virtually in the spring. We will continue to offer the training virtually this school year as well due to the shortage of substitutes.
The following TDP courses will be offered that connect to AVMR, if there is enough interest. Again sign up now so the classes are not canceled!
If you are interested in participating in any of these learning opportunities, please fill out
this Google Form and indicate your choices now.
Our secondary coaches and principals met on September 10th to learn more about Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (PCI) - a system for continuous school improvement that addresses student learning, teacher knowledge, school processes, and school culture. PCI is also connected with many educational agencies, such as, DPI, CESAs, universities, and other schools/districts that support the work.
Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy is about investing in personalized professional learning and building strong, collective teacher efficacy.
The images below reveal the coordination and alignment between grade levels and buildings within our secondary system as we participate in deep learning around learning theory. This learning is then connected to specific instructional practices that empower students and teachers in all classrooms.
The images below showcase our secondary coaches and principals as learners who were intentionally placed into situations where they acted and/or talked about the new knowledge. Through moving into action and producing language, the learners moved through the "transformation line" of the learning cycle. The "transformation line" is a critical point where the "tyranny of information" stops and the learners create in order to deeply integrate the knowledge into their brains.
Elementary Principals took a deep dive into the seven principles of apprenticeship learning:
(1) Observation and responsive teaching. Teachers must become expert observers of what students are doing, especially in small groups and design instruction based on strength and needs.
(2) Modeling and Coaching. Teachers use gradual release of responsibility with demonstrations and explicit language. Principals should be looking for modeling in small group instruction.
(3) Clear and Relevant Language for Problem Solving. Teachers use language prompts that enable children to initiate planning, monitoring, and regulating actions for resolving problems with efficiency during literacy activities. Each of us needs to understand the language used to prompt problem solving.
(4) Adjustable and Self-Destructing Scaffolds. Teachers provide adjustable scaffolds that are removed when they are no longer needed. Scaffolds can be linguistic and non-linguistic through thoughtful logs and anchor charts as a few examples.
(5) Structured Routines: Teachers create predictable frameworks with organizational structures that promote children's independence. Have we ensured that our schedule is set up to support this work? Teachers should be meeting with students in guided reading groups or LDG's often (3-5 days a week with students who struggle and 1-2 days a week with students who are advanced).
(6) Assistant and Independent Work. Teachers provide balanced opportunities for children to work at assisted and independent levels. Purposeful planning for assisted and independent practice opportunities make learning stick! There should be only 2 goals for independent practice: automaticity and transfer.
(7) Transfer. Teachers teach for the transfer of knowledge, skills, and strategies across shifting circumstances and for varying purposes. Teachers must teach for transfer and principals must know how to look for it.
"The single most influential component of an effective school are the individual educators within that school." ~ Marzano
After coming off of a year meeting all virtual, we had our first face to face EMLSS district meeting this week. This district team represents district leaders, school administrators, instructional coaches and school student services professionals. The Theory of Action that we have been operating under for the past year and a half states that: Without deliberate improvement in instructional practice resulting in student impact, universal student performance will remain stagnant. We have 3 workgroups taking action to address our root causes; (1) There is inconsistent district-wide implementation of a guaranteed and viable curriculum,(2) There is not a clear system of assessment including universal screener, benchmark and common assessments, (3) Teachers do not have the depth of knowledge needed around grade-level standards.
Since the Spring, we have built intentional training with our instructional coaches and have added consistent Comprehensive Literacy professional learning district-wide. We were able to garner extra resources from Dr. Sebert and allocate FTE in the area of district and instructional coaches to focus on supporting our teachers in the most impactful way. We have 6 PCL (Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy) focused elementary schools this year where we are able to have a full time coach in those particular schools. The schools are Prairie, Whittier, Meadowbrook, Hillcrest, Banting, and Hadfield.
We are working intensely with Michelle Amend, our Partner in Comprehensive Literacy consultant, to equip our coaches with learning and transfer with the instructional framework of Gradual Release of Responsibility and our Comprehensive Literacy Model. As we identify and develop our model classroom teachers and our lead teachers across the system, they will grow their capacity and further be equipped to truly lead the transformational work that needs to be happening in each of your PLC’s throughout the school year. I will keep you updated throughout the year on our action planning progress and want to thank all of you for your intentional work to help us achieve at high levels for each and every student in our district.
If you have not watched Ted Lasso yet, you might want to jump on the bandwagon. This feel good series follows Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team with zero experience in the sport.
One of the mantra's Ted talks about is that we all should "Be a Goldfish". In Ted's definition, being a goldfish means forgetting the things you can't change so you can move forward in life. What's not to admire about that? You know what the happiest animal in the world is? It's a goldfish. It's got a 10 second memory.
It was wonderful to get around to schools this week, to see the flurry of kids and learning taking place. Students that ate their lunches in the gym/cafeterias for the first time ever and teachers smiling through exhaustion after what felt like 2 a day tryouts for those athletes in the crowd.
A few things happened this week that were likely out of your control. Be a goldfish!
You control the positive relationships you are building with each and every student.
You control the academic expectations of your classroom.
You control the outrageous love you give to your students and your teammates.
Now enjoy the weekend ahead and "Be a goldfish!"
