Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Progress Made at Oct. 13th In-Service

Today we made some great progress in terms of our next steps.

Below is our big picture thinking....working backwards from the Student Led Conferences we enhanced the format and process of how students prepared for their conferences.  





We discussed and decided that we would lead students in goal setting using the following options:

Option #1:  Take Hopes and Dreams and develop them into SMART goals.
Option #2:  Passion goal (for smaller faction of students that are more passion related)
Option #3:  Other (Teacher influenced & supported)

We then broke up into 3 groups to support our efforts to support students:
  • Advisory System  (Jean B., Amy, and Carol)
  • Tech Integration Menu for Documenting Learning  (Doug & Allison)
  • ELA & Wellness on Tuesday (Lesson Planning)  (Cristal & Jason)

Tech Integration Plan for creating a menu for documenting learning:  (Allison & Doug)
On Tuesday, October 22, Allison (and Doug) will introduce the Google Site and have students copy and create their own site. They will also learn about the different tabs located on the site. The last thing for that day will be to review the location of the videos that will show students how to imbed a Google Doc, a photo and a link to a blog post. The following three Thursdays, during TFlex Time, will be reserved for students to being working on this site at their own pace utilizing the videos.

Proposed Advisory System: (Amy, Carol, & Jean)
Purpose of Advisory/Use of Advisory Time:
  • Near future: establish SMART goal, identify first steps
  • Ongoing times: small group facilitation, blog and verbally (reflection word bank)  reflect on progress, share out on progress/next steps/ celebration
(Because we are a Responsive Classroom School, community-building occurs during Morning Meeting.   The purpose of our advisory time will be to to support student PLPs, not community-building.)

Advisories: All advisories will meet on Tuesday’s from 9:45-10:15
31 students in the 5th/6th grade
7 Advisors/Advisories
4 groups of 4 and 3 groups of 5

Students can use Flex time for ongoing work on their goals, although their advisor may not be available to work with them during Flex Time.

Action Steps:
  • Set up a Google Doc for advisees that would be used by classroom teachers to direct how students spend their time during flex time (so teachers know what students’ goals are and where they are in the process of working on goals each week.)
  • GROUPING Kids:  We should make this decision as a team.  Questions to consider:
    • Do we want advisories to be mixed grades OR just 5th grade/6th grade?
    • Do we want advisories to be interest-based (similar goals grouped together)? If so, kids would need to  identify goals before placement in advisory groups?  OR Should we just plan advisory groupings based on our knowledge of kids (kids who would work well together or kids who shouldn’t be together, etc.)  
    • All IEP kids not in one group, but at least one IEP student in each case manager’s group.
  • Proposed Use of Time
    • 10/20- initial brainstorm with SMART goal worksheet template. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aDWC6JJADXiCV6--gCkQplZZqwBljJxbHwiYiTFjAqg/copy This could be done in small groups but not necessarily in set advisory groups.  We could then do an affinity mapping exercise during the PLP planning time to group kids with similar goals into advisory.  
    • 10/27- Update on goal setting/share out, I-pad time for entering SMART goal into PLP templates
    • 11/3- Completions of entering SMART goals, Check in, Reflection on goal setting/ blog entry??
    • 11/10-
    • 11/17

ELA/Wellness Lessons (Cristal & Jason's work)


Things to do
Talk to Allison about Children’s Books
Ask for LA times to be extended on 11/24
Print cards for Boss vs Leader
Allison to set up Web Sites on 11/17
Send Survey home on 11/3 (Jean)
Allison to do a mini lesson on resources 11/3
Talk to Jean about 11/10 - does he want to be involved
Allison to help with video on 12/10

Day 1 (10/20)
Small Group Work (45 minutes)
How do we define a leader? (chart paper)
What values should they epitomize?
Share out

Book Characters
Students (small group) analyze picture books in which the main character exhibits one or more leadership traits. Students make an artifact that illustrates the leadership qualities of the main character.


Blog Post
Who are the leaders in your lives? What values do they exhibit?
How are you a leader in your community? What values of a leader do you possess? How have you demonstrated these values (be specific)?

Writing Piece in Language Arts (Introduced on Wed)
Choose a character from a popular fiction novel, a leader. What values do they exhibit? Provide examples from the book.

Day 2 (10/27)

Blog Post
Identify times in your life when you have been a leader and/or a boss.


Day 3 (11/3)
Social Studies Report - Leaders in Mesopotamia - Using values as a thread, provide a brief biography of this person’s life, and times when they demonstrated values associated with leaders and bosses.  

Allison to do a mini lesson focused on resources for research

Day 4 (11/10)
Mesopotamia leader/boss continued (in addition to LA time throughout the last week)

Day 5 (11/17)
Set up Web Site
Cristal to share her Identity piece
Identity (paragraph with photo)
Some students may move on to poem, Wordle, one minute video etc.

Day 6 (11/24)
***Start Language Arts/Wellness at 9:45, afternoon class 12:35-2:00
Inside Out Movie

Day 7 (12/1)
Lesson related to Inside Out  
Writing Piece

Day 8 (12/8)
Relationship Web
Jean’s Survey

Day 9 (12/15)
Multiple intelligences (You’re Smarter Than You Think)
In small groups study one particular intelligence and create an artifact to share with the class
Students take an assessment
Blog Post

Day 10 (12/22)
Natural High (decisions involving drug and alcohol abuse)
Video & Book
Students identify their natural high
Class video (Allison to help)

Day 11 (1/5)
Natural High lesson continued

Other Potential Focuses for Jan-Mar
Bullying
Developmental Assets

Goal Setting

Last week, students began to work on goal setting. Some students have a pretty solid idea of what goals they have for the year while others are just beginning to think about the prospects.

It's not the goal setting that I want to focus on here, but on the goal setting process. Jean presented kids with a SMARTIES challenge which helped them discuss goal setting strategies. Kids related the SMARTIES challenge to how to set good goals, how to modify goals after reflection, and how to work towards your goals.

The students seem jazzed to begin working on their own focus areas...