Effective instructional strategies

When looking at effective instruction, two places that shed good light on what should be taking place in the classroom is Hattie's effect size and Marzanos 9 Strategies for effective teaching and learning. For all the debate about what is best practice, both of these sources give us good research based models to help us understand what should be taking place in the classroom on a daily basis.

Let's focus this week on effective instructional strategies. Come to coffee with colleagues to hear from your fellow teachers how they put theses strategies into practice.

Add to the discussion all week using #58connect

Classroom Management

Teachers must have strong classroom management to be effective.  This week, the conversation will be driven by teachers as we consider the importance of strong classroom management.

A few questions to consider:
How do you command the classroom?
How do you establish procedures?
What are your classroom expectations?
What are your core values relating to student behaviors?
What are the non-negotiables in your classroom?
How do you establish high expectations for student behavior?
Where does effective classroom management take place?
When do you involve a parent?
When do you involve others? Counselors? Administrators?

Twitter
#58connect

Coffee with Colleagues
Friday morning-7:00 am

High Expectations

Fremont's Mission

The mission of Fremont Public Schools is to produce creative, adaptable, productive citizens committed to life-long learning. 

Further, it is the goal of the Fremont Public Schools to provide an educational program that will produce productive citizens prepared to successfully compete in the twenty-first century global society.

Developing High Expectations of Learning
How do we create an environment of high expectations?  Let's take a look at each section of this mission.  In doing so, let's define each and then look at what we need and what we must do for students to meet these goals.

• Creative
• Adaptable
• Productive Citizens
• Life Long Learner
• Productive Citizens
• 21st Century Global Society 

Culture of High Expectations
What actions must we take to create high expectations of all students?

Twitter
Participate in the conversation on twitter using #58connect

High Expectations: Behavior

How do we establish an environment with high expectations for behavior?

Establishing a framework for High Expectations
Some questions to consider:

1) How do you communicate high expectations?

2) Does your team:

• Define what we want for behavior from students.
• Define positive and negative consequences for students.
• Develop a common language.
• Teach positive behaviors in a proactive way.

Timeline for High Expectations Conversation

January 7-January 18:
Please find resources over the course of the next 2 weeks and share on twitter.  Don't forget to use the hashtag #58connect.

January 18th-Coffee with Colleagues

Behavior Programs

Listed below are some behavior programs.

• Boys Town 
• PBiS 
• Love and Logic
• Living Above the Line (from Brent's Blog)

• 10/90
• See it, Own it, Solve it, Do it

Twitter #58connect

Time to Talk Teaming

As we approach the scheduling topic for the upcoming year, curriculum will largely drive the discussion on how to best use our time for effective teaching and learning.

Interdisciplinary Teaming has been used at the middle level in Fremont for many years.  Student learning is the key component of scheduling.  A discussion must be considered about the effectiveness of common plan time and teaming.

Transition from elementary to secondary schedule
In the elementary schools, students largely are with one teacher throughout the day with the obvious exception of music, PE, art, media, etc.  In the high school, students all have different schedules and have many different teachers who do not share them in common. Where do we go in the middle?

Questions to consider

• Q1: What impact does interdisciplinary teams have on student learning? Student behavior? High expectations?
• Q2: Does teaming improve instructional quality? How does teaming effect communication/feedback between teachers and students?
• Q3: Do we have a better understanding of students because of teaming? Do we better understand prior cognitive ability? students disposition to learn? Does teaming improve our ability to intervene and/or enrich curriculum based on student needs?
• Q4: What advantages does interdisciplinary teaming have when compared to departmental teaming?  What  are advantages departmental teaming?
• Q5: Can we use teams to increase parent involvement?  In what ways do we communicate with parents through teams?
• Q6: How important is teaming in our future schedule?  What other factors are important?

Use twitter to discuss.  Use the hashtag #58connect .  Use Q1/A1 format to answer questions from this blog.  

Brent's Blog

The Case for Teaming in the Middle Level

Scheduling for what Matters -the other side of teaming

Schedule:

• December 8: Time to Talk Teaming Blog
• December 8: The Case for Teaming Blog
• December 8-December 20-Twitter Conversation: tweet anything then put #58connect at the end.
• December 14 Coffee with Colleagues-7:00 am
• December 20 Coffee with Colleagues (Hold the Coffee-bring a lunch) 11:45 a.m.

Feel free to participate in any portion you would like.  You can come to coffee with colleagues and lunch on Dec 20.  

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3: Is this thing Working?

NWEA, NeSA, CRT, EasyCBM, Skills Pointer, C4L, ELDA, LMNOP, ETC.

Data driven decision making, something we can all agree is a good idea.  Data driven decisions means that we look at how a student is doing and use that information to help us make decisions.  Accountability based on a one or a few tests is what is less popular with most educators. Regardless of our opinions on the use of tests and data for accountability, we know that testing is a big part of our school life.  Let's consider a few questions. 

• How do we use data to inform decisions? How can we better use this data?
• How does testing effect our school culture?
• How can we make testing a positive?
• How can we make changes in the bigger picture of education? 
• What do we have to do to compete?
• How does the emphasis on testing impact our exploratory classes?  
• How do we create the right balance of preparing students for tests and preparing students for life?
• What considerations must we have for students who are either poor, english language learners, or have special needs?
• How do we ensure a meaningful curriculum for students who do not have special needs?
• What do we do for high ability students?
• How do we raise our expectations for ALL students?

Homework: Huhh, What is it Good For? Absolutely...

What is it good for?
Mostly, it is a mixed bag of research.  Some say no value and others say some value.  Most would agree that the benefit becomes larger as students get older.  Most would agree that homework's value comes from how purposeful the teacher is in assigning the homework.  Some say that it is good for public relations because parents want to see homework.

Homework has often been the subject of debate.  It is something that has always been there so we just keep giving it.  So let's take a moment to consider homework practices.

Questions

• What is the purpose of homework?
• How much homework is appropriate?
• When should homework be given?
• What does research say about homework?
• In what subjects is homework effective?
• Should homework be graded? If so, how much is it worth?
• Why do you assign homework?
• How do you know students are ready for the homework?
• Is homework what you don't get done in class, or is it more intentional than that?
• Is public relations a valid reason to give homework?

Researchers and Scholars
Rick Dufour
Robert Marzano
Alfie Kohn
Rick Wormeli

Brilliant Blogger-(OK, it's just me.  But I think I'm brilliant)
Homework at the Middle Level (just my opinion)
Active and Purposeful Learning
Supporting No Zeroes
Homework Grading Practices