Goals for iObservation

Good morning, colleagues! The school year is in full swing with a three-day Labor Day holiday! Can't believe that I've had four weeks of four-day work-weeks in a row! (A tiny bit ridiculous, right?!) Now that the school year has really started, it's time to set goals for the school year and for our growth plan.

Our district uses iObservation, which is a professional growth website designed by Learning Sciences International. LSI is partnered with Marzano evaluation tools which is what our district uses. I just completed my growth plan for the year with two goals.

1. My focused element is #2: tracking student progress. I'm pretty sure that this was a goal I used in the past, but I did a pretty terrible job with it as a teacher (and saw little growth with my students). Now that I'm in my second year as a broadcasting teacher, I really want to see improvement from my students to have strong broadcasts throughout the year. My plan for tracking student progress through formative assessments is as follows:

• The first broadcast is set for September 14th. On the 14th, after watching the broadcast (and potentially throughout the following week), I will conference with students individually. I will show them their first scale grade, discuss their baseline knowledge of broadcasting, and have them set a specific broadcasting goal (one goal for improvement and a discussion about their strength to be in). I will post these goals/strengths as post-its on my classroom cabinet where they can see them at any time (necessary for the third bullet point below!)
• I will check in with students three times through the remaining semester: October 4th, November 9th, and December 14th. I will be charting students’ scaled grades on individual progress reports and on a whole class report. When I conference with students on those days, we will discuss their progress on their goal and strength, and we will discuss their progress compared to their colleagues’ progress. 
• We watch the broadcast every Friday, so I will add a question to the feedback form where they reflect on their progress towards their goal and strength based on that week’s video. 
• At the end of the semester, students will post on their digital portfolios with their best and their favorite segments from the semester. They will also publish their individual progress report and reflect on their goal and the strength for the semester. 

Is this a lofty goal? Maybe. But I think it could make for real progress with my students in my class. 

2. My personal goal is to work on building my advanced broadcasting curriculum this year (as it is brand new and I'm making it up as I go). I'm turning my curriculum into interactive hyperdocs so that the curriculum is available to them as we go through the units. It will take me all year to build the hyperdocs, so I'm hoping to have the hyperdocs all completed by the first day of the last unit of the year, April 8. Example of these hyperdocs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lYGDJyJoF6JnaGHiEMbN_bBiNi55MkInQd7vn9x8-q4/edit?usp=sharing

The lovely thing about our growth plan this year, different from previous years, is that we are reading The New Art and Science of Teaching book together in our large team meetings. It gives real purpose to our meetings (instead of meeting just to meet) and gets us thinking and talking about the Marzano elements. I'm also glad that we are only focused on one target instead of three (in previous years). I really feel like I can use my growth plan, for the first time in thirteen years, to actually see growth in my class instead of checking something off the list. 

As your school year gets into full swing, think about what your goals are for the year. Are they personal? Are they professional? And also think about the purpose of your goals - are they for you, for your students, or for the "higher-ups"?

Enjoy your three day weekend! Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Work that matters to you.

Hello, colleagues! This week I've been thinking about my job change (prompted by my yearly teacher evaluation) and how I love my new job. I enjoy this position because I feel like I'm making a difference! Making a difference fits in with my personality (which I blogged about already). It's important to me to feel like I'm making a difference because it means that my work is meaningful. I can see the impact that my class is having on my students, the rest of the students in the building, and on the staff members. So, in this post, I want to talk about HOW to create meaningful work! Why is it so important?

Step 1. Work. Continue to work. Go to work every day.
I am lucky that I enjoy my job. I don't love waking up early, and I don't love going in to work every day, but I like it more than I don't. I am also lucky that I have a job that excites me and is a little bit different every day. I'm also passionate about making people better, so I throw myself into my career to make my students better people. I care about education, and I care about how to educate people, so I am continually learning new ideas to use in my classroom.

Step 2. As you work, what makes you excited?
I was also lucky in that, after six years of teaching, I was asked to be on a 1:1 iPad team. I threw myself into digital education and how it can be useful. I got excited about using technology in the classroom.

Step 3. Start to focus on what makes you excited. Focus on that excitement and research to learn more.
I decided that I wanted to become THE iPad teacher. I wanted to be 100% paperless, and 100% focused on the device. I wanted to become the teacher that everyone came to for advice on using tools seamlessly in the classroom.

Step 4. Dig into your excitement and pull out those pieces. Get specific. Find the meaning.
I realized, especially over the last two years, that using technology wasn't always the answer. Figuring this out shook me to the core. But I realized that I cared more about educating children than just using a device in class. So I focused on excellent strategies to use in the classroom, with technology or without. I focused on being a fabulous teacher that uses technology a lot.

Step 5. If your excitement wanes, try something new in your life. Get excited about it.
After five years of being on a 1:1 team, I was burning out. I was working TOO hard because of my passion for education. Sometimes it's hard to be a "black sheep" and an innovator. I paved a singletrack trail, seemingly by myself, and didn't have a support system. I knew I had to take a step back and be passionate about other things. I regularly went to yoga, I bought a new camera for my photography, I read more books more often (and not about education).

Step 6. If your excitement continues to wane, go back to your work. Then repeat steps 1-6.
Then I had the opportunity to move to a new position - one that is concrete and provides real-world skills for students and also allows me to share my passion for education with my colleagues.

I would like to think that every teacher wants to make a difference and wants their work to be meaningful. I also would like to believe that teachers want their students also to be creating significant work. I've talked in the past about student voice and choice. It's become an integral part of my educational philosophy. Giving the students an opportunity in how to speak their voice provides meaning to your class for your students. Realize that you can use these same six steps with your students!

Allow students to work on open-ended topics and/or essential questions in your class. Have them do lots of work in class. Keep them busy, but don't focus them too much on one thing. Start picking their brain - what do they find interesting or exciting? Have them dive deeper into those ideas. Would you rather have a student memorize dates or make connections to someone who escaped from slavery? Would you rather have a student know all grammatical rules or write a creative story that has a well-written character and descriptive language? As their interest wanes, and they feel that they've covered the topic, move on to another unit and repeat the steps.

For students to grow (as students) and become young adults, we don't want them to worry about whether or not they got an A. We want them to create good work and be prepared for the future. Students have to produce in order to be creative. Students have to work to see what is solid work. In order for students to grow, they have to find their passions. Give students some autonomy, make their work complex, and help them find connections between your content AND who they were in the past, who they are now, and who they want to be.
Autonomy (freedom from external control or influence; independence). Give students some flexibility (e.g., student voice and choice). That doesn't mean that students to get to do whatever they want, but they should have opportunities to make decisions. Let students pitch you different options. Let students redefine your rubric. Let students invest in content that is useful to them. Let students build relationships with each other and build trust with you.
Complexity (the state or quality of being intricate or complicated). Make your students think. Give them hard questions that make them wrestle mentally with themselves and others. Force your students to think "outside the box" and present outside the box. Give students time to dedicate themselves to these tasks and support them. Make your students stretch, in your class, to be the best citizen possible when they leave at the end of the year. Set ambitious goals and help them map a process to achieve them. Don't let your students sit idly by.
Make connections (a relationship in which a person, thing, or idea is linked or associated with something else). Don't let your class only be about content, objectives, and standards. They are necessary, but they're not enough. We don't live our daily lives through content, goals, and standards. We crave connections and meaning. Make your classroom a place for making bonds, whether it's to a historical figure, a data point, another person in the room, to the school, or to themselves. Let your classroom be a tangible place for the students, so they walk away with some appreciation for life.

There are a lot of ideas in this post, but in the end, we want students to come to class, to care, and to create. Hopefully, something sits with you, and you make a change for Monday. Thanks for reading! I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Looking at a morale problem...

Good afternoon colleagues!  I'm posting this week about an issue (but not a problem) that I'm having in my new position... I've become a sounding board for others. I'm trying to help people sort out problems, both technological and personal. I enjoy being a sounding board and I'm shocked that people come to me for advice! But because morale is SO low at Skyview right now, the majority of these conversations are negative. It's hard to be positive when I'm surrounded by negativity.

So instead of focusing on the negativity, I'm going to provide advice. Is this a step towards positivity? Not sure, but here we go.

I have to start with what I see at Skyview that is causing low morale and poor climate.

1. At the end of the school day, we have an advisory period called REACH. These 30 minutes are meant to be used for interventions, catching up on school work, doing homework, or checking in with enrichment classes. This year, based on state requirements, we had to make a change. REACH time, on Monday and Wednesday, is now used for extra, pre-made lessons. The problem is that the students (and teachers) were not notified much before the school year beginning. This led to animosity from tired teachers and from students who rebelled at their lack of study hall.
2. We have too many programs going on at the same time, so it is hard to focus on what is essential. How do we mix Capturing Kids Hearts, Path2Empathy, and Marzano at the same time without overwhelming teachers and taking up precious class time? How do we also implement high-reliability math and reading strategies, new technology, and design digital portfolios?
3. We have a good administration team that is lacking in some critical areas: transparency,  visibility, and perspective. Part of this is out of their control as our middle school is hovering near 1200 students and we are in a "choice state." I see administration spending more time in customer service than in servicing the building. They are often not transparent with the staff in WHY we are doing something, they are not usually visible in the hallways or classrooms, and they do not have the greatest perspective in what's necessary for teachers (which trickles down to students). 
4. MEETINGS. We have meetings four of the five days of the week and have staff meetings once a month. Most of the time, it feels like we're having a meeting because we're supposed to have a meeting. It feels like forced collaboration which just does not work.

That's a lot. As a "lowly" teacher, there is not much I can do to change the climate of the whole school. I am trying, however, to change the view of using technology. My goal is to move my role from reactionary technology support to proactive technology support. I am doing this by providing technology support through the tech tips newsletter and by making screencasts for colleagues instead of requiring face-to-face meetings. I hate when my time is wasted and feel it is crucial for me to also not misuse my colleagues' time.

What advice do I have to give about these four problems?

• Problem #1 - new REACH lessons: I genuinely believe this problem with sort itself out over time. Teachers will know that this is a future expectation, and students will be less likely to rebel over time. It won't be helped that teachers are tired at the end of the day, but students won't push back. This will trickle up into the high school as well. This year is just an in-between,  learning year. I do think that the administration needs to survey the staff at the end of the year about how it can be improved. It's not going away, so how can it be better? 
• Problem #2 - too many programs: the unusual thing about all of these programs is that they work independently from each other. CKH is a way to build rapport with your students through greetings and dismissals and positive interactions. Path2Empathy are character building lessons that can be connected to content. I would encourage teams to split up the Path2Empathy activities so that each teacher only "loses" one day a year. And Marzano is a way to backward design your units and lessons. Is it a lot? Yes. Is it manageable? Yes. This may be another blog post for a different time, but I feel like teachers can spend time in their classrooms better and can actually prioritize their lessons differently to save time. 
• Problem #3 - administration: This is a sore spot for a lot of the staff, and I know I need to tread carefully here as I could be written up. The administration just needs to listen to the teachers and prioritize solutions. I thought they started to do this earlier in the year when they had us do the post-it activity. Teachers were asked to write down what to start doing, keep doing, and stop doing in the school. Most teachers went all in, and of the post-its that I saw, there were some great ideas. Administration took the post-its to our leadership team, and from what I heard, the conversations were contentious, and some administrators took the discussions personally. I've heard nothing about the post-its since. When situations like this arise, teachers feel like they're not being listened to. Most teachers don't want to complain... they want solutions! I would love to see this post-it conversation continue to show that administration is listening to the staff is that the building is moving forward. I also want to see admin in the classroom more often. I read a blog post from a principal who says that she blocks an hour of time (or more) a week. She marks it on her calendar as a meeting, and for that hour, she's in classrooms. If a parent stops by, the secretary can say that the principal is in a meeting and when the principal will be back in their office. By doing this, administration could have a good pulse of what's happening in the building and in individuals' classrooms. This helps with giving feedback, helps with evaluations, and also makes their presence known to students and staff. 
• Problem #4 - meetings: I'm not sure how to fix this issue. One thing that I've been asking for for years is a pre-made agenda. There has to be a way to replace forced collaboration with reasons for collaborating, but I don't know if I have answers for this. 

My last bit of advice is for the teachers themselves. When teachers have low morale, it leads to burnout, which then leads to teachers switching schools or leaving education altogether. How can you take care of yourself to prevent this? How can you change your attitude? I gave this advice to a colleague and friend the other day. Make a list of what's important to you. Rank everything from most to least important. My guess is that your job isn't what's most important to you, so don't spend all of your time working. I call this my "midnight rule." Like nothing good happens after midnight? Nothing good happens when you're at school past four. It can wait until tomorrow. 

Spend time doing what you love. I want to be healthy and I enjoy reading. For the past month I've been going to the gym and walking on a treadmill for an hour. It's not much, but I'm getting my 10,000 steps a day. I also take my Kindle and read while I walk. So far, I've read 16 books this year. 

Spend time with your family. Have a drink with your friends. Take a bubble bath. Purchase a subscription box. Take your dog for a walk. Light a candle and listen to music. Cheer on the US at the Olympics! Just do something for your. Take care of yourself. Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Personality tests

Hello colleagues! So I have a random story to tell you to start the blog this week. I was scrolling on Twitter not long ago when I saw my high school best friend post about her personality type. I've taken personality tests in the past, but I figured I was due for an upgrade. Turns out that I have the exact same personality type as her, INFJ. In the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, INFJ stands for introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging.

I used a website called 16 Personalities for my "assessment." I don't usually push sites like this, but there is a reason that this website is the first Google search result! The personality descriptions are quite descriptive, and I must say, spot on. When I read through my personality type, my jaw kept hitting the floor. My husband was trying to watch baseball, and I kept interrupting him to talk about my personality and all of the things I was learning about myself! It's like someone had finally unlocked my brain code. Apparently, INFJs are the rarest personality type which explains why I've felt so isolated my entire life!

Some of my personality strengths include

• creativity (I'm pretty good at thinking outside the box)
• decisiveness (ask me a question, and I'll give you a definitive answer. Where are we going to eat? Done.)
• determined (hello magical word that I chose for myself during Path2Empathy)
• altruistic (I don't care about money, fame, and power. I want everyone to be better). 

Weaknesses?

• I'm private (You don't need to know about me - apparently other people don't feel that way!)
• sensitive (Did I take my no crying pills today?)
• perfectionist (HELLO)
• can burn out quickly (Why were the last five years so hard?! I did it to myself). 

While reading through my INFJ personality, I realized why I'd felt so misunderstood here at Skyview and how I just wanted my job to have meaning. I want people to be better because I think we, as teachers, can make a difference.

So, what's the point of this blog. Am I just talking about myself here?

Giving the kids the Myers-Briggs assessment is the perfect way to start the school year (a little late... I know!). Giving the students a personality test isn't new or innovative, but I wish I had done THIS assessmet with my students every year. Knowing my little type A self, I would have put together a Google Sheet with students' names and personalities. This would have helped me better approach students. I could have better through through my groupings and team "jobs," and I could have pushed my students towards a certain set of occupations. Also, I want all of my colleagues to take the personality test so that I can learn a little more about them. I want to have better collegial relationships, especially in this new role.

I did, earlier today, ask some of my close colleagues to take the Myers-Briggs assessment, and you know what? I learned a lot about some of my closest friends (and even sisters). Some of their strengths and weaknesses were not surprising (because I know them well), but some made me look differently at my friends and family. I guess I just enjoy learning more about people. Is that part of my personality type? :)

Thanks for reading. And if you want to know a little more about yourself (I see you teachers... I know you will), TAKE THE QUIZ. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Designing an Interactive Google Map

Good morning colleagues! I was not planning on blogging today, but I wanted to share about my awesome Spring break while ALSO demonstrating how to create an interactive Google Map!

In Drive, create a new map

Title your map, then add a layer and title

In your locations layer, click the pin, search for your location, and add to map

You can change the color and icon of your location.

In locations, add a second location. You can add an image and text description of your location.

Click on the "directions" icon. This will add a new layer where you can search from point A to B.

Change your map sharing directions so that everyone can see it!

And of course, here is my map of my break. Enjoy!

I hope that you could see a way to use these maps in your classroom, and I hope this was helpful in walking you through how to create one. Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

High Reliability Schools

Good afternoon colleagues!

This past week, a co-worker and I sat in a team meeting. While completing the activity that was given to us, we had a side conversation about what we were doing. Our instructional coach provided us with a flip chart of Bloom's Taxonomy verbs and inquiry starters for each level. We were told to create a question for the top three levels of Bloom's. My partner and I had no problem coming up with these statements, and in fact, I was inspired to use one of the questions that day in my class!

My teammate wondered out loud if we were doing this activity because our school is actively seeking the level two High Reliability endorsement from Marzano. I hadn't even thought of it, but once she said it, it made sense. Our school just passed level one, so it makes sense that we would be working towards level two.

This made me think about three things this week: 1) what does level two entail, 2) how can I ensure that my teaching practices support level two, and 3) what has Marzano's High Reliability levels done for our school.

1. Level Two: Effective Teaching in Every Classroom: Our school has a committee that is working towards this process. The committee hasn't been secretive per se, but I will admit that most of the staff have no idea what exactly is going on. I do believe this is on purpose as the point is to make these practices common place within the school instead of people putting on a "dog and pony show" when the Marzano peeps come to town. I am lucky that a good friend is on the committee, so she's told me a few things about what Marzano is looking for. I still had to, however, do some online digging for more information. I found a decent PDF from 2014 that helped detail what I was looking for.

I feel like our school is doing a fairly decent job with level two, but we definitely have some work cut out for us over the next few months.

2. How do my teaching practices support level two: It is interesting to look at the indicators and see that it does not fall much on me, the classroom teacher. Many of the indicators come from administration or instructional coaches. What falls on me is clearly communicating with my grade level administrator, my evaluator, and the instructional coach on when I feel as though I am not being supported in these ways. I do think my teaching practices will come more into play if we attempt level three as a school. 

3. How things have changed at school: Now that I have a better idea of level two, it has become apparent how things changed from when I started teaching at Skyview eight years ago. In the last couple of years, I have noticed that I could request to attend trainings, or even more recently, I asked to co-teach with my mentee, and was enthusiastically given a "yes" and a "how can I help." For teachers to grow, they have to be given ways to further develop their pedagogy and curriculum. I do believe that our weaknesses, as a school, appear when talking about sharing effective instructional practices and being provided with clear, ongoing evaluations. It will be interesting to see if these practices change over the coming months, knowing that they have to change to achieve level two. 

I am aware that this post has been rather tedious and cumbersome, but it was something that I actually reflected on this week. I am excited for the changes that I've seen recently, and do wonder if this has something to do with it. Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website