Shark Spotlight

Here's my first Shark Spotlight!! I will start to share great activities, anchor charts, etc. that are happening at ISNP, and I'll make sure to share where I spotted them so you can reach out to learn and share with each other!

Spotted...

A Growth Mindset anchor chart in Mrs. Hodge's class! Her students  have been working with growth mindset since the beginning of the school year!

Concrete learning happening in Mrs. Legaspi's math class in interactive math journals! So exciting to see that students are manipulating equations in this first grade classroom!

A math art activity where second graders in Ms. Fernandez's classroom had to use arrays to show their understanding!

Growth Mindset and Feedback

Perseverance Strategies students could try...

CRA: Sequence of Math Instruction

Thank you to all of the math teachers who attended today's roundtable discussion! It was wonderful to hear everyone generating strategies and solutions to our barriers, and sharing ideas across grade levels!

I am sharing the anchor chart from our discussion today, and I cannot wait to get into classrooms to see concrete and representational learning happening!

Don't forget about our blog challenge:

1.     Comment on my blog post how you are going to incorporate concrete learning in your next (or an upcoming) lesson.

2.     Set up a time for next week for me to come in and see concrete learning taking place in your classroom.

Also, follow my Math board on Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/abrannack/mathematician/

Happy math manipulating!!

Anchor Charts with Purpose

If you've ever searched through the education section of Pinterest, you've seen a plethora of examples of anchor charts. Some colorful and with illustrations or designs. Some with less color and more writing. We all have different styles, so regardless of how you might design an anchor chart, we all should have purposeful anchor charts. Anchor charts stand as visual anchors for student thinking based on learning happening in their classroom. They support students and should be easily referenced.

What constitutes as a purposeful anchor chart? Well, that depends on why you're making a chart, and how you plan to use it. What is the standard you are focusing on? Anchor charts can range from:

    - Introducing a skill
    - Reviewing content
    - List of class expectations
    - Interactive graphic organizer/chart for lesson
    - List of strategies for specific skill/standard
    - Enlarged rubric for writing
    - Character Expectations

These are just a few, but there are so many other ways that anchor charts can be used in the classroom!

Things to Remember:

1. Use academic language.
2. Writing should be large enough to be visible in the classroom.
3. Colorful writing can make charts more appealing to students.
4. Keep charts focused on one topic/skill/etc.

Common Conversation: Homework and Practice

Teacher assigns homework.

Student A whizzes through it.

Student B struggles for an extended period of time.

Student C doesn't turn in any homework assignments.

Student A's parents ask for more work for their child to practice with.

Student B's parents complain that homework is taking too long and their child cannot even explain how to complete it.

Student C's parents work late and share that their child always says they have no homework, or it's completed.

Does this sound familiar?? Is homework a battle that you are always struggling with?

For years, I couldn't get a handle on this. I've read educational articles, blogs, etc. on ideas. But just like with all other topics in education, homework practices are ever changing. I recently read an article on Edutopia titled "Homework, Sleep, and the Student Brain" written by Glenn Whitman
Director, The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, about assigning manageable homework. Below are a couple of interesting statements from the article.

-"For too many students, homework is too often about compliance and "not losing points" rather than about learning."

-"Homework can be a powerful learning tool -- if designed and assigned correctly."

-"It should be challenging and engaging enough to allow for deliberate practice of essential content and skills, but not so hard that parents are asked to recall what they learned in high school. All that usually leads to is family stress."

Here is the link to the article if you'd like to read more: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/homework-sleep-and-student-brain-glenn-whitman

We will continue to discuss strategies to assign homework and practice with our teams, especially taking a look at the amount of time being spent between both reading and math homework based on our school's homework policy. Here are a few things to consider in the meantime:

1. Do all students have an opportunity to be successful with the assignment independently?

2. How long will the assignment take a struggling student, an on level student, a high achieving student?

3. Does the assignment directly correlate to the students' current learning in class?

4. What is the purpose of the assignment?

(Found on Pinterest Pin)

Weekly Wrap Up: 9/18/15

This week I was happy to meet with all of the intermediate teachers to discuss using STAR data to drive instruction! Don't worry primary teachers...next week on Thursday (I'm out on Wednesday), I will meet with all of you to see how our iReady and STAR data can guide us in the right direction with our instruction.

Thank you to those who came to the STAR and USA Test Prep PDs after school also! I know we have teachers and staff who really want to do what's best for our kids!

During many of our planning meetings, I've heard concern about fitting everything into the instructional block, especially when it comes to interventions and small group instruction. Here are a few things to consider that I mentioned during our block breakdown discussions:

1. Consider how long you are spending on direct instruction -- depending on grade level, attention spans vary and keeping students actively engaged gets more difficult with longer periods of direct instruction.

2. You can maximize student practice during small group instruction while pulling groups of students needing interventions, or a brief reteach of the day's lesson.

3. If students are constantly needing to be retaught each day's lesson, there may be a common deficit in a foundational skill or strategy that needs to be addressed.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are struggling with this. I am more than happy to help look at data or a specific student, model a lesson, or plan with you. I will check in during team meetings, but you can always reach out. :)

Growth Mindset PD coming in October!!



Mrs. Mannine's 2nd graders working towards their IDR goal!

Weekly Wrap Up 9/11/15

This short week flew by! In our team meetings on Wednesday, I loved getting to see how each team is planning together in your own unique ways, and working together to solve issues as they come up with testing, etc. For the next two weeks, we will be having data chats to look at the data from iReady and STAR and discuss how to use this data to drive your instruction. 

This week, we also looked at what specific interventions are, and the resources that we have available to us to provide students with these interventions. Don't forget to reach out to me if you need help grouping your students or deciding how to build a specific intervention for any of your Tier II students. 

Important Upcoming Dates:

9/15 - STAR training (grades 1-5)           @3:15

9/16 - STAR data chats (Grades 1-5)       during planning 

9/17 - USA Test Prep PD (grades 3-5)     @3:15

9/22 - Open House

9/23 - iReady data chats (Grades K-2)     during planning 

Weekly Wrap Up 9/4/15

Thank you to all teams for being present and participating in our Thursday roundtable discussions of essential components of successful literacy blocks and math blocks. I appreciate your input and enjoyed sharing ideas between teams! Check your emails for the Prezi that I shared, and if you look below you will see the link to the Teaching Channel video that didn't load in some of our meetings.

Teaching Channel: Reading Workshop Overview

Based on the Needs Assessments that I received from some of you, I noticed a need for rubric development and use, and note taking strategies. I will be sharing some ideas via email and here on the blog this week.

As we have made it to the middle of the STAR and iReady windows, I am preparing for our first data chats of the school year! The focus will be on how to look at data and in turn using it to drive your instruction. I will share a "cheat sheet" on how to pull reports, etc.

I will be joining your team meetings Wednesday...see everyone then!

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Tech Tips!

I hope you're having a marvelous Monday!

Just a note to check back each week for a technology tip under the "Helpful Hints" links on the left side of this blog...they'll be posted by the beginning of the week.

Happy Monday!

Welcome Back, ISNP!

What a wonderful first week back at ISNP! 

I am so excited to be available to guide you through deciphering the tough spots that we have all encountered -- from planning lessons, tackling new classroom management strategies, understanding all of the available resources, to just needing a listening ear. I hope all of you will reach out to me if you need a helping hand. I am more than happy to collaborate with you to continue making ISNP an amazing place for students and staff!

Here's to an even better week two!

-Alison