Calling in Sick....Again

Here is another example of a student calling in sick.

"I just wanted to let you all know that I will not be attending school today due to a stomach virus. If there is any work I can do from home, please let me know. Thanks!"

World Religions

Kristin and I have been teaching a World Religions PBL. Yesterday we had our students do exit visas. They wrote a question about Christianity on a Post-it. Before they could leave, they had to stick it on the door.

Today we had a guest speaker, Reverend White, to talk about myths and answer the students' questions about Christianity.

Collaboration: It's not that easy

I think some people believe that collaboration comes easy for Kristin and I when, in fact, it definitely has its challenges. Take this picture for example. This weekend we attended the NCSS Convention in Washington, D. C. where we stayed in a hotel together. This photograph represents us well. If you know us, you can automatically pick out which bed is mine and which is hers. We struggle with being complete opposites all the time.

My bed is on the left. No clutter, no mess. This may be a result of the self-diagnosed claustrophobia or maybe it's just how I am. Regardless, I am more structured. I like to have a plan.....for everything. If things don't go as planned, it's alright; however, I like to have a back-up. I like to consider myself an organized and tidy person, sometimes to the point of annoyance. Just today I was re-wrapping all of our laptop chargers....this is probably a twice a week occurrence.

Kristin is more laid back and unstructured. For her, having a general outline is comfortable for her. And because she is a great speaker to the kids, she is able to loop around information to make a great point without having the details of a lesson plan 100% laid out for her prior to her deliverance. You can imagine how this may strike up some anxiety when we teach together. Here is an example of the method of her madness....

This is her explanation of the term advocate using Cyrus the Great, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It was a beautiful mess. I was so amazed at her delivery of the message that I took this picture specifically for this blog. Our students were nodding their heads while she was talking and demonstrating the definition of one vocab term. I knew at this point that we could coincide with each other and I was able to let go of my structure a little.

So maybe opposites attract, but it sure is difficult when you have different teaching styles. Collaboration has a lot to do with compromise. We give and take everyday, but the most important thing is that we both have the same goal for our students - we want all of them to succeed. I believe it is our professionalism that gets us through the day.

Crazy Mondays

Well, after a week off for Thanksgiving break I assumed our students would be ready for nothing today; however, they were ready to go and wide awake. Maybe they were bored at home? Who knows. But after the Monday we had today, I sure am glad we have the great students that we do.

Writing Benchmark Enthusiasm

I've not been teaching too long, but I have been around long enough to know that students hate taking standarized tests, especially the writing portion. It was a little different this time, however. Last week I didn't have many students who grumbled about having to take it. Usually I have several students that write a little and submit, not caring about their score. This time most of the students took their time and wrote a lot more than what I expected and when they submitted their essays, they were angry. They wanted to retake it right then. They wanted higher scores! I'm not 100% sure why they felt this way, but I do believe that they're beginning to experience intrinsic motivation. It felt good to witness that as their teacher.

November 8, 2011

Calling in Sick

In the working world it goes without saying that one must call in sick when they are not going to be in attendance. Roughly 3 months into instilling the new culture of Trust, Respect, and Responsibility into our students, we are seeing results! On the current PBL that our student's are working on, April and have seen an improvement that showcases  all of the above character traits that we are striving for! It's truly amazing! A great example is an email that we received from one of our students the other night. The student emailed both April and I, essentially "calling in sick". He let us know that he had gotten the flu and wouldn't be in class the next the day. Much of this had to do with the fact that he was working in a group and they had deadlines to meet. He needed to make sure that he could still contribute even though his health prevented him from being there! While we still have a long way to go and many hurdles to jump, it's moments like this that make it all worth while!

November 4, 2011

Classrooms by Design

My husband and I are at the point in our lives when we're looking into buying our first home together. We've been looking at different styles of homes and how we could decorate each one. If you're a fan of HGTV and DIY network like me, you know that there are different design genres. You have the more traditional styles, then eclectic, modern, contemporary, etc.

When I saw the word "traditional" tonight, I started thinking about my first classroom and how it looked. I was SO PROUD of it! I knew I took some pictures and I dug them up to post on here. As you can see, it looks like your typical, run-of-the-mill setup. There are desks in rows, lots of books on the shelf, and it's a very organized space.

You can tell that my classroom was just that....MY classroom. It was totally teacher-lead. I loved giving direction and lecture. Sure, I did group work and projects, but they were not embedded like we're doing now. There was really no purpose for most of the projects I assigned them to do and now I know why there was so much grumbling. I guess I can say that I had a good rapport with my students for my first two years and that is something that I haven't changed.

If you take a look at the modern version of OUR classroom, you'll see a world of difference. There are no desks in rows. There are no teacher-created bulletins. There are no meaningless projects hanging on the walls. This was no longer my classroom....it was time to share. This is our students' classroom. They guide us to what we do and how we do it based on their needs and interests. I believe if someone analyzed these pictures they could tell that the aforeseen photographs were a classroom, but the more recent ones display a meeting-type room where people would be working.

So back to the different styles of design in homes....I don't feel like I'm a traditional-type person when it comes to, well, generally everything. I tend to lean towards a more modern or contemporary style. I wish I would have known this earlier in life. I think so many of us, if I may be so presumptuous, see something (a design idea, a teaching method, etc) and mock it because it's the norm and because it's what makes sense, or maybe it's just safe for us. It takes someone innovative, perhaps creative, to SHOW us that we can do things differently and have a different rationale and that's ok.

Although I loved my first classroom, and let me tell you I LOVED IT, I would never go back to it. I would never want to teach by myself again. I would never have a desire to put different colored, broken desks in rows back in there again. I would never revert back to a teacher-centered classroom ever again. I've seen a different "design" of teaching and I know it works. I am no longer a traditional teacher - it's just not my style

November 4, 2011

Charleston trip

Thanks to Kristin and her dad, ten teachers and Mrs. DeVito met for two hours with Raami Barker, senior advisor to Governor Tomlin today. When it comes to education, this man gets it.
Loosely quoted, he said

• We don't teach subjects, we teach students.
  
• Teaching is a calling, like the ministry.
  
• We don't teach students how to make a living, we teach them how to live.
  
  
• A teacher of the year is sitting in this room.

A successful road trip indeed. We look forward to hosting Mr. Barker, Governor Tomblin, Michele Blatt and others soon.

October 30, 2011

The Power of Words Project

I am extremely passionate about this PBL. It not only gets kids reading, but it gets them involved in their community and MEANS SOMETHING to them. Allow me to explain....

We've been talking a lot about the theme of human rights in class. We learned about Cyrus the Great who developed the first set of human rights and that's how he was able to conquer a lot of the land known as the Persian Empire. We discussed what human rights actually are and why they are not met. In the students' reflections on how they felt about the Holocaust, the institution of slavery, chaos in the middle east, etc. the majority of them expressed that they were so angry that they wanted to do something about it.

In light of their motivation, Kristin and I developed the Power of Words Project. The students were able to choose a novel from the library and they will pick out a theme. Depending upon the theme of the novel, they will submit a proposal stating what they would like to do based on a human right that is not being met. Once the proposal is approved and the project is thought out, the students will actually carry out the project and fulfill a basic human right for another human being.

The students already have ideas in mind before they've even finished the first chapter! They are so motivated and excited about this because they understand how lucky they are and how unfortunate others can be - they will be making a difference and they will be demonstrating their knowledge. Who knew this all could come from Persia?

October 28, 2011

Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide

As I was driving in my car one of my favorite songs, The River by Garth Brooks came on. It reminded me a lot of the challenges that we have to face every day in education. The part of the song that really hit home with me was, "So don't you sit upon the shoreline and say you're satisfied". Translated in to relevance to me this summed up the fact that for the most part, society is satisfied with what is in place and few "choose to chance the rapids or dare to dance the tide". In other words they don't want to go through the difficulties of change. I've been struggling this past week trying to understand why setting high expectations has so many frazzled. Don't we want our children to perform at their highest potential? And wouldn't the students have the intrinsic motivation required to absorb the importance of stepping their game up in the classroom? I tossed many ideas around in my head until I finally came to rest on two very powerful buzz words...
1. Learned Helplessness
2. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

In my classroom, which is a world history class integrated with English, the standard at which I expect my students to perform is high. I'll make no sugar coating of the fact. For some reason, the students have done everything in their power to attempt to convince myself and April that this bar should be lowered. "It was too hard", "It made their head hurt", "It was the hardest assignment ever". All lines from the student's mouths that we heard frequently. We heard their cries and we weren't ignoring them. At first, we couldn't figure out why we were getting this reaction from the students. Once we sat down and started to assess the students and how they learn, we realized that they suffered from learned helplessness. Learned helplessness refers to the expectation, based on previous experience, that one's actions cannot possibly lead to success (Dweck, 1975, 1978). Performance goals are much more likely than learning goals to lead to ability rather than effort attributions and to result in feelings of learned helplessness. Heyman & Dweck (1992) recommend encouraging students to focus primarily on learning goals, while keeping performance goals in perspective by enjoying recognition without letting it become an overriding concern. Teachers can accomplish this by focusing on learning rather than normative comparisons when reinforcing students, by modeling the use of learning goals, and by using the scaffolding strategies. So, to bring this back to our class, we realized that based upon the student's previous experiences in public education, they were certain that these "challenging assignments", would not permit for them to reach success. They had never seen this type of rigor before. Using scaffolding strategies, such as drilling down guiding questions for inquiry based discussion was a great start for us in reversing this learned helplessness. It's quite the process when attempting to break old habits, however, the students have been amazingly responsive to the drilled down scaffolding. Their analyzing skills and connection to the modern day world have sky rocketed! So, as far as the student's go, it's not the fact that the bar is too high or that they don't want to perform at their highest levels, it's simply placing new learning goals and performance expectations into their idea of education.

The second problem that was holding our student's back in excelling in the classroom was self fulfilling prophecy. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a phenomenon by which people’s expectations about the future events lead them to behave in particular ways that, on occasion, can cause the expected event to occur. People tend to find what they are looking for. More than that, they may even tend, unwittingly, to create what they seek. How does this relate to the classroom and education? Simply put, our student's were only performing at the levels in which they had always been expected to perfrom at in the past. Basically, this means that to be an "A" student, it was expected that student be able to master the firs tlevel of Blooms taxonomy, and recall. Memorizing vocabulary words, recognizing key terms, etc. If a student could carry this tasks out in the classroom then they successfully met the expectation and were considered an "A" student. When we set our expectations of an "A" student at the level of Bloom's taxonomy, which is evaluation and anyalzation, student's didn't believe that this was something attainable to them. The reason was because it had never been expected of them before! We were asking them to provide us with demonstration of their knowledge rather than memorization. Much like the learned helplessness, self-fulfilling prophecy is a tough guy to tackle! It's hard to erase pre-concieved notions and replace them with new ones. I think a great example of this change starting to take place in our classroom was the OUTSTANDING essays that have been turned in the last few days! At first, the student's were in a "shock and awe" momement! They could not believe that we were actually asking them to write 6 whole paragraphs and then the next night 8! They couldn't do it and they were sure of it! When we showed them how their scaffolding questions and inquiry during discussion would serve as fantastic guides for this writing, they were a little less uneasy about the task. They still didn't think that they could do it. We reassured them over, and over, and over, and over, that we were positive that they could do it. That we believed in them. Guess what? The essays came, almost all 115 students turned them in and they were jaw droppers! The students had not only written the paragraphs, but they had achieved demonstration of their knowledge! They were writing about Persia, Human Rights, the United States, Iraq, Germany, Lybia, the institution of slavery in the U.S., the holocaust, Hitler, Goddaffi, Saddam Huessien, Cyrus, Assyria, Schennarib, Elenor Rosevelt, Martin Luther King JR,  and so on. Wow! What a list! Our main content was Cyrus and Persia but these children amazingly associated Cyrus and Persia in a comparing and constrasting manner to all of the above listed! And much to amazement, some students were even using prior knowledge from the ancient river valley civilizations pbl and inserting it into their essay! Simply amazing for freshman! An example of prior knowledge, they compared the importance of Cryus putting the first human rights on something tangible like the cylinder to Hammurabi doing the same with Hammurabi's code!
The next night the wrote more! Only this time they brought the information that they had demonstrated above to an issue closer to home for them. They wrote about all of the above in connection to the bullying/cyber bullying issues that exist today in our world. They drew from the accomplishments of Cryus and his human rights as well as the failures and tortuous methods of the Assyrians, Hitler, Saddam, and Goddaffi! Again, simply amazing!
Since we are using human rights as topic in my classroom right now, I'll stick with that in closing! In just a little less than three months these students have grown intellectually and socially! They began to take their learning to the demonstration stage and make connections with relevance of what we learn in class to their world! They have started to gain and develop the vital 21st century skills that are needed to survive in the world we live in today! So, is it hard for them, you bet! But to deny them this opportunity to grow and showcase their true potential and abilities would be a violoation of their human right to education! To lower the bar for these students would be doing them such an injustice! Each time April and I observe a step that they take on the their ladder, we are truely moved and profoundly affected by just how much a teacher can shape the minds the world!

October 18, 2011

It's What's on the Inside that Counts....

If you've been down the hall by room 222, I'm sure you've noticed the fantastic Twitter pages that English 9/World 1900 students created this past week. At first glance they're amazing! The students did an amazing job with their graphic designs and modern depictions of the characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Their task was to read an excerpt from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story that is based on the first epic hero or the first superhero. This story took place in ancient Mesopotamia, which is one of the civilizations that the 9th grade students just finished studying. With the creative mind of Matt Anderson assisting, the idea was derived to have the students read the Prologue and Forest Journey and create a Twitter page as if they were Gilgamesh. So to restate their task, the students had to assume that Twitter existed when Gilgamesh went on his epic journey in the forest and create tweets that depicted their reading comprehension. As we checked the Twitter pages we realized that the students were making outstanding projects, however, they weren't enriched with the content knowledge that we were striving for. So, even though they looked nice on the outside, what was on the inside, the part that mattered, was lacking.  When we debriefed about this issue with Matt Anderson and Dr. Whitehouse today, I told them that I just didn't understand why the students were lacking the reading comprehension knowledge in their projects. I continued to tell them that I heard April tell the students that they had show reading comprehension in their Twitter pages.....Matt replied, "Stop right there"! He asked me again what I said and I told him that I heard April say that we wanted to see the reading comprehension evidence in the Twitter pages. He then clarified that just because I heard that information and retained it didn't mean that all of the students heard the information. So what does this mean exactly? It means that we needed to do a better job laying out the structure or foundation for the students when they were working on projects. This is certainly something that we are working on and as a matter of fact, April has spent hours tonight creating questions that will better secure the structure of the current project that the students are working on. What we've began to realize is that while we want the students to have "self discovery" we have to provide a foundation for them to stand on during this process. We must teach them how to self discover. Matt provided us with a great example to help us wrap our heads around this. When a five year old wants to pick out their own clothes for school, the parent lays out three outfits. The child still has choice and through that choice establishes ownership of their decisions however, the choices are guided by the expert so that they will not fail. As the child grows and becomes more aware of what it takes to match an outfit the parent provides less structure, eventually setting the child free to make the choice on their own. If we apply this method to our students in the Innovation Zone classes, it will ensure that the students are getting the solid foundation that they need to stand on in order to excel in these very rigorous classes!

October 18, 2011

PBL .... You're Not an Easy Mountain to Climb

Planning a PBL should be easy with two teachers working on it right? Wrong! Planning a PBL is painstakingly difficult! It takes hours upon hours! When it's finally complete and you're ready to roll it out in the classroom, the level of excitement is heightened to a place undefinable by words! April and I went through the many hours of planning to get our PBL that we launched today ready for the students! We were, as described above, incredibly excited to present the lesson to our students today! We had it right this time, we were sure! About midway into the actual presentation of our entry event, which is what begins each PBL, I think it's safe to say that we were treading water to stay afloat! Our presentation wasn't as smooth as we had hoped. While we had captivated the interest of the students, neither one of us were pleased with how things went! We didn't even need to verbalize the fact, it was obvious. We could tell by simply looking at each other that we had not met the level of our expectations. We tweaked some things for the second go at it and things went better. They continued to go better throughout the day and by our last class I think it's safe to say that we both were feeling pretty good about the presentation! The kids were interested and excited! Whew! We could take a deep breathe! We finally had gotten it right ...... or at least we thought! Enter Matt Anderson and his ten minutes of teaching in our class that reassured us that we were still missing something when we were doing our PBL's. Who's Matt Anderson and why was in he our classroom today? Matt was our 9-1-1 responder after our first attempt at using PBL with an integrated content.
 After the first PBL that we presented in our class we went back to the drawing board. We knew that we were way off track on our first PBL. We actually felt pretty much defeated, like there was this mountain placed in front of us and we had no idea how to climb it anymore! We were at a stalemate! So with our heads hung and emotions running high, we stepped away from everything for a couple hours. Once we had stepped back from the situation we realized that what we needed was some help! When we reached out for help, we found an amazing resource in a Professor at WVU. Matt Anderson, who is a seasoned teacher of PBL's, having taught with the method in the inner city of New York. Matt was a godsend for us in our strive to make learning more relevant for our students via PBL's. We contacted him and his response was immediate. The first thing he did was offer to travel to North Marion and simply observe us. We couldn't fix what we were doing wrong because we didn't know enough to pin point our mistakes. We just knew that we were making them. Matt watched us and gave us some amazing feedback! Instantly things began to make more sense to us. Hearing things from someone who had been there done that was priceless! Even though Matt was making things clear to us, we still didn't know how to get to where he was. So, Matt offered to help us plan. He graciously took time out of his schedule to meet us one day after school and plan our PBL that we launched today. So, this brings us back to our PBL that we initiated today.
We were pumped! He had help planning it and when we were going through all of this with Matt, everything was smooth and made sense. When we attempted it today ..... things weren't so hot. Matt came back today and he watched us various times. He was excited at what we were doing, which boosted our self confidence. Then, when we got done with our last session, and the students were researching, Matt asked us if we minded if he talked to the students for the last 10 mins. of class. Of course, we obliged, we were excited to see what Matt had to say. Needless to say, within about 2 mins of watching Matt work with our students, we knew were still weren't getting it! Matt had our student's undivided attention and his dictation was smooth. When he said things we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it.
When the students left, Matt stayed to talk with us. He also brought another resource for us, Dr. Whitehouse, alumnus of Harvard and Professor at WVU. With clumps of our hair in our hands we pleaded to Matt and Dr.Whitehouse, asking them for help. We just didn't understand why things didn't go the same way for us that they did for Matt. First of all, they both reassured us that we are doing the right thing. The changes we are making are the right ones. Then they began to talk us through the process of teaching through PBL's. They helped us see our mistakes that we had made with this lesson and offered an amazing gesture to us .... they both want to continue working with us. They want to be our support system and help us make sure we are doing things right! We spent over and hour with them today, just talking and mostly listening to them. Their information was such an asset to us! Do we have everything down now that we spent time with Matt and Dr.Whitehouse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what we do have is the reassurance that as we try to climb this mountain, when we fall, we have people there to catch us! We have people to coach us! Lesson learned today ..... be opened to constructive criticism and let those who have the knowledge and experience offer guidance and help! Also most importantly, this change in education that we are making at North Marion High School, is the right thing and with the continued hard work of all those involved we will better our students beyond our wildest imaginations!

October 3, 2011

PTC - From Apprehensive to Astounded!

All of last week I was secretly dreading this parent teacher conference. I had heard through the rumor mill that numerous parents were not pleased with the IZ classes and especially the notion of group work. We are making great changes in the world of education at North Marion and anytime there is change, there is conflict! I kept preparing myself, going over possible questions that the parents would pose and attempting to have a ready-set of answers to give them. When 5:30 hit and I glanced outside of our door, what I saw made the knot in my throat get bigger! There was a line of parents waiting and that line never got smaller until 6:40. To amazement my apprehension was built up for no reason! As the parents began to trickle in, I quickly realized that they were not opposed to what was happening in the Innovation Zone. They were however, anxious to learn about this new way of teaching. As April said in her post, we broke it all down for the parents. We explained everything to a t! We had examples of group projects, which the parents were absolutely amazed at! They couldn't believe that their children were producing such professional products! Personally, what I think made a huge difference, was the fact that April and I were not shy to let the parents know that this is new to us to. We stressed to them that this was a learning experience for us as well as the students. Every parent was responsive to the fact that we would make mistakes along the way and they were incredibly supportive of us and our innovation zone! Many told us that even though we had mistakes here and there that they felt this was a wonderful experience for their children! We apologized to almost every parent for the misconception we gave the students when we introduced the classes at the beginning of the year. We realized quickly that we gave the students and parents the impression that our grades in our class were going to be based solely on group work. When we showed the parents that the students were in fact receiving more individual grades than group grades they were very relieved! With this being said, they were instantly more open to the concept of their students working in groups! It was amazing to see how quickly the parents made the connection between how our classes were functioning and how the real world functions! They thought it was wonderful that we were preparing their children for the real world! Also, we took the time to make sure that each parent we saw knew how to use edline and if they didn't we logged into our page and showed the parents how to use it. They were very happy to have this process explained to them! Also, every parent that we saw wanted to be involved in their student's education they just needed assistance in knowing how to be involved. Speaking of involvement, we actually had one parent tell us that herself and a group of other parents wanted to work with us in the innovation and provide any help that they could! This was such a positive thing to hear! It let us know that not only are we engaging the students but the parents are eager to be engaged as well!! We had many thank yous from the parents for various reasons! We had thank yous for exposing their children to technology because that was something that they wouldn't be able to get home. We had thank yous for caring for their children and the outcome of their grades! We had thank yous for hearing their concerns and taking the time to explain things to them! As April said when 5:30 came and the announcement was made that parent teacher conference was over, we walked out in the hall and told the line of parents that we would stay and see them all. They were so appreciative that we made this gesture and each parent that came in our room after 5:30 thanked us for staying to see them! We ended up staying until 6:40 to make sure to see every parent and we generally spent at least twenty minutes with each parent. The thank yous were worth more than the parents would know! This change is stressful for everyone, teachers, parents, and students, but we're doing great things and it's not gone unnoticed! Who knew parent teacher conference would be such a motivating experience!! Oh and an important fact to note, we saw very few parents who had children that A's. No parent put the blame for the lack of an A on anyone other than their student! They didn't blame April or I and they had no other excuses for that matter! Simply that they would work with us to ensure that their students were working harder!
P.S. - Every parent LOVED the calendar that keep on edline! It allows them to be more in touch with their student's education on a day to day basis, as well as, making them a more active part of daily instruction!

October 3, 2011

Our 1st IZ PTC

I will be honest in saying that I have never really enjoyed parent - teacher conferences; I do believe they are necessary, however. I was extremely nervous about tonight's conference specifically because we have implemented this new way of teaching. Surprisingly, we had not one parent who was angry or challenged us in any way, shape, or form. I WAS SHOCKED!

Here's why I think it went as well as it did:
1. We were able to explain PBL and how our classroom works so that parents were able to get a clear understanding of what goes on.
2. We had an example of student work readily available (they were shocked at the amount of rigor their child was able to endure and amazed at their final products).
3. We listened to their concerns and addressed them in an understanding manner.
4. We explained that we were new at this way of teaching and that we are doing our best to work out the bugs as we go along.
5. We apologized for any misconceptions or issues.
6. We expressed that we want all of our students to succeed and that we would be willing to work with students to help them understand the content/directions for assessments/skills to complete assignments.
7. We made sure that parents knew that we wanted to include them in this new process as much as possible. (They're input was extremely eye opening because they have a different perspective)
8. We also made sure parents and students knew that we wanted to empower students to take charge of their learning and have an active role in education. (We reiterated the firing process)
9. We showed them how to navigate through Edline - which we still need to have a parent seminar for this. Many of them expressed that it would be beneficial and that they would help their children with their work, but they can't because they don't know how to use it.
10. We told them we appreciated them.

It was great to hear from the parents and know what they're thinking. We heard that many parents were not happy about the group work and the IZ, but we had such a great response that we were worried about nothing. I believe they are just concerned and they walked away from us feeling a little better because they had more of an understanding about what we do. Most of the parents seemed to agree with our professional business culture approach as well. They really like the fact that we are teaching them to work together and use technology to reach a common goal. They also like the firing process because "that's what happens in the real world". Again, I cannot believe that we had 23 conferences and not one of them was bad!

By the way, we were there until 6:40. Every parent after 5:30 thanked us for staying and told us that it meant a lot for us to speak with them. Teachers make a lot of sacrifices and that was one that was well worth it! :D

September 26, 2011

Deck the Halls

So, it's not hard to tell upon entering the second floor that it's homecoming week in Husky Country! The halls are decked out with school spirit ... something that hasn't happened in this school for a long time! Being the sponsor for the Freshman class allowed me to have the opportunity to encourage the Freshmen to go all out when they decorated! It was a success! The freshmen loved the idea of showing their pride in their school by decorating a hallway! To my amazement, the energy and and enthusiasm of the Freshmen trickled downward almost immediately! When the Seniors and Sophomore classes, who were working on their hallways at the time as the freshmen, saw how much pride and spirit the Freshmen were displaying .... they followed in suit! Within a short time the seniors and sophomores had regrouped and gone back to the drawing board! They too were going to get involved and show how much they cared about their school! What a wonderful moment to witness! I couldn't stop smiling! It made me realize what a difference this staff is making at North Marion this year! I draw from the popular movie, "Remember the Titans", "Attitude reflects leadership"! And  that is exactly what is happening at North Marion this year! The innovation zone began as just a far fetched thought, sometime last year and much like the students with the hallways, it has trickled downward to the majority of the staff! A major component of teaching this Freshman class was to teach them a culture. We wanted the freshman to have an attitude filled with respect, trust, and responsibility! If you look down the hallways you will find that not only has this been instilled in the freshman class, but it has also began to filter throughout the school! The deal breaker? Well, that would be the hard-working staff at North Marion! Staff members give up countless hours of unpaid time to make this school and their students better! The innovation zone, the innovative teaching of all teachers, and the fact that North Marion's teachers aren't afraid to roll their sleeves up and go to work is changing this school for the better! Oh yes, and not to be forgotten.... the Juniors have jumped into the running of the homecoming hallway battle!

September 19, 2011

Empowering Our Students

As Amy, Joetta and I were discussing student voice during a grant meeting this evening, I kept thinking about all the ways Kristin and I are empowering our students in our classes. I just had to share this story with everyone because I think it is so extremely powerful.

Today, I had a young lady approach me with a concern about one of her group members. She explained to me that her male peer had done something that was inappropriate and she and her group members wanted to fire him from the group because he had not been taking his work seriously. So, instead of approaching him upon hearing this information, I talked it over with Kristin and we decided that we should try the mediation approach because we both agree that it would be more powerful coming from his group members than a teacher telling him that his actions were not appropriate and....we were right.

I had Mr. Shaffer, our assistant principal, sit in on the mediation session so that the group knew that it was a serious matter. I gave everyone a chance to speak and express how they were feeling about the situation. I was so impressed at how they conducted themselves. The student that had caused the issue was very accepting of the process and did not become angry that his group members had brought the problem up. Instead, he owned up to this mistakes and realized that what he did, did not make his group happy and that he would make sure he stayed on task from here on out.

To see freshmen students conduct themselves in a way that they could problem-solve and discuss an issue within their group was certainly eye opening. It didn't turn into an argument. It wasn't a blame game. It was a genuine conversation from several peers to another, letting him know that they wanted him to work with the group and not distract the group from their work, otherwise, they were going to fire him.

I feel that if I or Kristin had approached this student on our own without the other group members, it wouldn't have had the same effect. This empowered the students to have a say in how their peer "got in trouble" so to speak. They were able to have an honest, open conversation with a great end result. I may be assuming when I say this; however, I believe that students respond better to their peers (when executed in the right way) than to teachers, even parents maybe.

I'll have to keep you updated on the student's behavior for the rest of the PBL, but if I had to guess I'm sure he'll be working diligently from here on out

September 15, 2011

In the Zone

Since the first day of school it seems like everything has been moving a hundred miles an hour! I think we quickly found that this is just as much a learning process for the teachers as it is for the students. We've had to learn how to lesson plan together, teach together, and discipline together. Technology is a huge part of curriculum that we are trying to implement into our teaching delivery as much as possible! For those of you who have experienced what blackboard via Fairmont State or Mix via WVU look like and how they function, we are tyring our best to run edline in the same mannerisms. With this implementation, we've found that it requires us to troubleshoot technology more than we had anticipated! Many things that we assumed students knew how to use, pertaining to technology, we have found they needed instruction in. Simple things like, how to send an email and how to attach a document. This are great learning tools because we know that in the future this is foundation with technology is something that needs to be done with the whole class prior to starting content based instruction.
Discipline wise, we have found that in most cases, many of the issues that we previously experienced in our classes disappear when the students are engaged. They are too busy in the classroom with their activities to pick up their cell phone and get on a social network or text.
Culture - Teaching a culture to the students was essential. We spent the first three weeks of school developing and instilling a culture with our students. This culture was based on trust, respect, and responsibility. The students responded wonderfully to this! They really latched on to the notion that we were giving them privileges and a voice. We did activities such as allowing them to create their own classroom management plan.
Another thing that we have noticed is that some of the students who would have been honors students in a traditional classroom setting have experienced some frustration in having to think outside of the box and work in a collaborative method. While they are not resistant to the approach we are taking, they are frustrated because they want direct instruction 100% of the time. It's what they're used and as many of you know, change, even though often times for the best, is something that is difficult to swallow. All in all, the results have been amazing thus far! We haven't had a head hit the desk and we've even had to tell students that they had to leave class because they don't want to get up from their work! Watching students utilize self discovery is wonderful thing! Their faces light up when they achieve the goal of finding an answer on their on and they take ownership!
One last thing, this has been such a great group effort from the entire staff! Everyone has been so cooperative and eager to assist! Without everyone, this wouldn't be possible, so many thanks go out to everyone! We'd love for every teacher in the building to come in and experience this on their own! Our doors are open and our students are eager to share with you! Come visit anytime!!!

September 2, 2011

WBOY t.v. came to North Marion to learn more about the Innovation Zone

Click here to watch the WBOY t.v. news story about the innovation zone !  Here is a link to the previous story they ran in March.

August 31, 2011

Keeping it PBL

One of the biggest challenges in the planning process for me so far, is to stay true to the PBL method. Several times I've found myself wanting to be too prescriptive in my guidelines, or wanting to present students with information instead of their discovering it more independently. Thankfully, Mary Anne Mullenax, my PBL guru, keeps me on track in those moments, reminding me that "that's not really PBL." I think that straying back to "traditional" methods early on would be dangerous, and before long we'd look more and more like a traditional classroom with fancy laptops.
Thinking PBL is becoming more second nature each day, and when I stray I'm counting on Mary Anne to reign me back in!

August 17, 2011

North Marion Teachers are Ready to Roll Out the Innovation Zone

The "First Wave" of North Marion Innovation Zone teachers are ready to roll!  Excitement was high as teachers wrapped up last minute plans for the first day of the Innovation Zone co-curricular classes tomorrow.

Algebra I and Physical Science 9 will be co-taught and so will English 9 and Social Studies.  First Wave teachers have moved to new rooms, co-opted new furniture, and designed engaging lessons for the freshmen.  However, they are not without the support of the rest of the faculty.

Other faculty have pitched in to support the First Wave teachers as we've designed the new Husky Mentor program, a Peer Tutoring program, and started piloting the e-mentoring program offered by the WV Education Alliance.  Our idea is to help students make connections that foster better attendance on our way to an improved graduation rate.

Additional teachers have made new signs for the classroom doors, written more grants, and set up trainings in Edline and other technology and software.

Stay tuned for more exciting news on the IZ front!

August 17, 2011

North Marion Receives $22,500 in Grant Money!

On August 28th, North Marion Principal, Rusty DeVito, and several North Marion teachers accepted a $20,000 award from the George W. Bowers Foundation in a public ceremony held in Mannington.  This grant was written to pay for laptops that this year's freshmen students will use in their Innovation Zone classes.  Although 18 additional laptops will be needed to reach the desired 1:1 computing ratio, other funding is still in the works.  North Marion also received $2,500 from Mylan Pharmaceuticals, which will be used to purchase lockable, mobile storage cabinets for the 60 new laptops

PBL Planning - June 25, 2011

This past week, some of the "first wave" of IZ teachers at NM started planning our PBLs for the first semester. Kristin asked if I had ever worked on lesson plans in the summer, and the answer was no--especially not as early as June!
Since I didn't go to the training in Texas, Kristin, April, and Mary Anne helped me figure out what a true PBL is compared to our traditional way of teaching. Mary Anne used an analogy that I liked. She explained that traditionally we teach a unit and do a project at the end as the "dessert." With PBL, the project is the "main course."
I really enjoyed firing ideas back and forth among the four of us, and am surprised by how excited we all are about teaching this fall. Normally, I spend all summer trying to forget about school, not planning for it.
Mary Anne and I worked on a PBL for Ancient Greece and The Odyssey. We reached out to a Greek History professor from WVU to be a resource for our PBL, and he responded very quickly and seems very excited to help! We think he might be part of our entry event to grab our students' interests.

June 6, 2011

On Faculty Senate day, June 3rd, 2011, North Marion teachers began the work of Professional Learning Communities focused on moving our innovation zone forward.

These committees include:  School Culture, Mentoring and Peer Tutoring, PBL teaching and learning, Technology and Software, Digital Media Master's Degree, Community and Business Partnerships, and Evaluation (including Action Research).  In addition, the Steering Committee will continue to do their work of supporting each of these PLCs.

Only moments after the formation of these PLCs, the Mentoring PLC designed an upperclassmen mentoring program and asked for permission to speak with each student class on Monday to begin implementing their vision!  Huskies rock!