Bravo Zulu!
Bravo Zulu to Teacher Casey Alexander for stepping up to participate in a high level professional Development exercise this week, the very first day back from Spring Break. Casey demonstrated for district staff on Monday his consummate professionalism by teaching a class for observation with many district VIPs. Though I am sure Casey received some good coaching conversation, on Monday, we administrators, too, learned something as well. Our PD was to help us improve our practice in conferring with our stronger teachers in order to push their thinking and practice. It was so interesting to see Casey discuss his pedagogy and deep thinking about instruction in a fishbowl situation with a coach and several district executives. I was so proud of Casey and how he represented himself and New Start. Fresh off Spring Break he handled it like the true professional he is. Thank you Casey and Bravo Zulu for a job well done!
Instructional Point: Still Looking for Rigor
After our conversations with District Coach Jenn McDermott, and our own Casey Alexander, the conversation at one point swung toward “rigor”, what does it look like? This is not new, necessarily. We have often discussed what rigor looks like to us, and the strategies we use to increase rigorous thinking for our students. Certainly, we scaffold experiences, and often we have students “look back” to reflect, connect or evaluate their own learning. (not just review) We know this creates deeper thinking in our students. Also, we try our hardest to make connections for students, and have them authentically apply their new skills. (easier said than done)
I was interested when we talked about What “rigor” Looks like in our students? What is it they say, or we catch them doing, that indicates they have just had a rigorous learning experience? Application and connection came up time and time again. Students begin to think about their lives in a context of the discipline (Math in this case). Students describe their lives using words like increasing or decreasing rate of change, they talk about the arcs of their relationships and begin predicting what will happen next. We see math fully contextualized in the regular daily conversation about their lives. I saw this earlier this year in Nicole Starkey’s Math class at CHOICE, where I saw student really beginning to think like “mathematicians”.
Please respond to me, not what rigor looks like in your classroom. Rather, what does it look like in our students? What does Rigor look like in their words and actions?
Friday PCT: April 27, 2012 – Is a district wide Job-Alike collaboration time. This means you should be meeting with colleagues in similar educational work as you. District counselors meet, and I know special ed and PBIS groups get together. Teachers of the same discipline at different schools meet as well for their own professional growth. Please let me know your intention for District Job Alike day.
My Schedule:
Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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New Start
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New Start / ERAC
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NS/CH/ERAC
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Adventuress
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PSESD / New Start
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April 23
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April 24
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April 25
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April 26
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April 27
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Weekly Office
Eval Writing
ALE Audit Work
Evaluation Meeting
Presentation Practice and Planning with HIPP Students
District PBIS Meeting
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Weekly Registrar
Evaluation Writing
Weekly Sped
ALE Audit Work
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Evaluation Meetings
Becca Update Meeting
SU Social Workers Visit New Start
Evaluation Meeting
CHOICE SOC
AVID Meeting
ALE Audit Work
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Sailing - All day visit to the Adventuress with our students on Puget Sound.
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HIPP Presentations at PSESD
Monitor District Job Alike PCT
Class at SPU
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Fair winds and following seas for the Adventuress this week, as Bev Mowrer sails her students into the wild blue. I am hoping for good weather myself on the day I visit them on the water. May all of you have a wonderful and productive week!
Mike
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