Look out, Leonidas.... we've conquered ancient Greece!

Wheewww. Finally a moment to breathe and reflect on the awesome job our students did conquering ancient Greece. From the moment we divided the kids into teams and told them their topics, they embarked on a conquest that led to their showing off their work on Tuesday, December 20th, in the cafeteria at the ancient Greece EXPO. Each of our houses set up exhibits filled with everything from baklava to shot puts to parthenons and proceeded to tell all comers everything they knew about their topic. (And sometimes the topics of others in their house!) I was a little surprised, but very pleased by the number of people who came in support of the students' academics. Even some people from Grafton who were there for the basketball game came in and looked around. When Mr. Shaffer introduced himself, they asked him if the kids were AP students doing this exhibit! Wow! The kids really exceeded anything we could've imagined when we first envisioned "It's All Greek to Me."

Are You a 21st Century Teacher?

This was a blog post by Lisa from SimpleK12.  In it she details 21 activities a 21st Century teacher might do with her students.  Here are the first five:

1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.

Check out the article to see the other 16!

World Religions

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

We had a guest speaker, Reverend White, in our classroom today. The students learned about myths and other aspects of the Christian relgion.

The Mylan Collaboration Room

Students using the Mylan Collaboration Room for group projects:

Counselors in the Freshmen Classrooms

The counselors recently visited Kristin and April's classroom.

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.

Getting the hang of it

We started our PBL on Ancient Greece this Monday, and it seems to be off to a great start! For the first time, I feel like we have something that we'd want to use again. For the entry event, we opened with a 30 min clip of 300 and popcorn. We felt that we owed the kids a break from they typical fast pace of the classroom. They were appreciative and the day started off on a positive note. After watching the valiant sacrifice of the Spartans to preserve Greece in 300, we challenged them (via PPT) to "revive the legacy of Ancient Greece" for modern day. The houses are competing against each other in an EXPO on Dec. 20th that will showcase Ancient Greece. The prize to the winning house is bonus points, which appears to be quite the motivator!

For this PBL we grouped students according to their preferences on seven different Greek topics (wars, government, daily life, mythology, etc...). Each group will have their own display as part of the larger EXPO. Grouping students according to preference seems to be working very well. The best part of this strategy is that we don't have to convince them to be interested in the topic they're assigned which is sometimes an imposible task anyway.

We've given students packets consisting of research questions, research materials, a calendar of events and deadlines, a daily work log to gauge progress, and more.
The students are responding well to their challenge, topics, and workload so far, so maybe we (and our students) are starting to get the hang of this whole PBL thing.

Wow! I think we're trying to address all of these!

Here is a link to the following post from The Innovative Educator.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011

Is Your School Preparing Learners for Success? 5 Questions to Consider

Guest post by Shane Krukowski

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

~C. S. Lewis

Redesigning education involves much more than providing content online, prescribing canned interventions and adding interactive whiteboards to every room. It means choosing the abilities that transcend today’s paradigms, so that we authentically prepare students for the emerging challenges and opportunities ahead. It also means valuing assessment that gives us MORE THAN high scores, but low ability.  If you look at  just about any school’s website, brochure or annual report you’ll see many references to similar goals. However upon closer investigation we often find this is not reality.

How do you know if your school is preparing students for their future or their teacher’s past?  Here are some questions to think about when considering if learners are effectively being prepared for their world.

1. How is your schedule effectively meeting the needs of your learners?

As Tom Vander Ark articulates in his book “Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World, “Master schedules will give way to interesting blends of customized learning experiences and projects that encourage integration and application. Just-in-time learning will become more common, slowly replacing the current model of just-in-case learning.” 

2. How do you prioritize pedagogy over ‘curriculum’?

What are you doing to create rich learning experiences and cut through superficial busywork that makes adults feel productive, but does little to reinforce/expand a student’s skills, interest and knowledge. If a school responds with the standard brochure talk of ‘high expectations’, ‘common core’ and or ‘interactive whiteboards in every room,’ follow with the question “how?” 

3. How do you build relationships with learners? 

How are positive relationships with teachers, mentors, coaches and family being fostered and supported? 

4. How are you educating parents to the importance and relevance of personalized assessment? 

Look up a stock on Google Finance and see how many qualitative and quantitative measures you have at your finger tips.  Why is it for human capital we don’t have the same appreciation for multiple metrics?  

5. How are you motivating students to keep learning?

In his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell recommends we maximize the number of innovators we cultivate and foster which requires looking at human motivation in new ways and recognizing the importance of imagination and creativity. How is your school fostering empowering students to own the learning?

Too often schools attempt to polish the edges of their model in attempt to live up to this bigger vision. They hand select individual pieces of effective practice and then when it fails or doesn’t scale, they wonder why. These are schools that do things like proclaim, ‘we do competency-based evaluation’, but use course-based transcripts with GPAs--and they don’t realize the inconsistency. To effectively scale authentic, personalized learning and assessment, educators need to embrace new practices, utilize different tools, and ask important questions such as these. 

Assigning vocab would have been so much easier!

What happened to the days when I could pass out a vocabulary list and assign a short story and the questions following it, and then sit at my desk to grade the quizzes from the previous story while my students completed their assigned tasks in relative peace and quiet? That scene has been replaced by lessons so much more valuable. This past week really brought that home to me.

Our students finished their projects, practiced them one last time, and made their first presentations to "outsiders" on Wednesday. While I know the students were anxious about standing up and talking in front of strangers, I found myself experiencing anxiety as well! I must say that I was proud of them for their performances. Even though no one pulled off an AMAZING presentation, they conquered their fear of speaking in front of a group and worked as teams to present their ideas.

On Thursday, we stressed over completing the first writing benchmark and moving on to answering some questions concerning their project experience. We asked the students some pretty tough questions such as:

• "What did you learn about yourself during this project and presentation?"


• "What would you have to change to make yourself more successful next time?"


• "What could your group have done differently to be more successful?"

Then, on a Friday nonetheless, we tackled the job of sharing their responses as a means of "debriefing" about their experience. Let me just say that after today, I definitely need a week off! The students were very honest which led on more than one occasion to the mood in the room becoming very emotional. Mrs. Gouzd even had to take one group to another room to allow them to continue their discussion of how they felt they worked together. She said that when they sat down, one of the young men said that they should begin by each sharing their feelings about what had happened. He continued to "run the session" much like a counselor or mediator would have. In the end, they decided that they'd like another chance to work together on a project. We had a team member publicly apologize to his teammate for monopolizing the presentation. Over and over we saw freshmen behaving in a manner mature way beyond their years.

This maturity was evident again when each team was given their scores and asked to determine how to divide the points among the members according to how much each contributed. Some teams agreed that everyone contributed equally, and therefore, the points should be divided equally among them. However, more than once I heard teenagers say, "You really did more work than I did, so I think you should get more points than I do."

While passing out vocab assignments would be less stressful (and easier to put in Edline!), I am so glad that I have been part of seeing how much our students have grown in just a little over 12 weeks, and I'm so looking forward to the messy business of watching them grow and mature through the remainder of the year.

Buy-in

Who wants to sit in a "meeting" for an hour and a half on the day before a three day weekend? Twenty-two North Marion staff members, that's who. We talked, but most importantly, we listened, and this is what I heard.

• Freshmen core teachers are building a foundation for their students.



• Many teachers are ready to build on that foundation by trying new ideas in their classrooms: co-taught units, PBL, hands-on lessons, ...



• Teachers need time. Time to plan, time to observe others, time for professional development.



• Counselors need more personal contact with students.



• Exactly what is happening in our building that is causing such a stir? Better communication is essential.

I will venture to say that no other school stayed at a voluntary "meeting" until after 3 o'clock yesterday. That's buy-in.

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!

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.

Charleston trip

Thanks to Kristin and her dad, ten teachers and Mrs. DeVito met for two hours with Raamie Barker, senior advisor to Governor Tomblin 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.

Still learning "how to PBL"

Mary Anne and I have had several meetings now with Matt Anderson (PBL-extraordinaire) from WVU to develop our next PBL on ancient Greece. I'm trusting his reassurance that if we plan a PBL (or two) with him and he teaches us the structures integral in developing PBLs, then we'll be flying on our own in the spring.

We are so pumped about this Greece PBL! We're planning to challenge students (as travel agencies) to "re-brand" Ancient Greece to make connections to the modern world. They'll display their final products in an "expo" both during and after school and will have to advertise to entice visitors to their displays. They'll be competing among each of our four sections to see which agency gets the best overall evaluation score from the people who tour their section.

We're both excited and nervous about pulling this off because we'll be putting huge responsibility on our students to guide visitors through the expo, connecting ancient Greece to the modern world in a real way. We also want this event to display the wonderful work our students are doing to parents and community members. To work on their speaking and presentation skills, we're going to make these skills the major focus of their current PBL in which they're presenting proposals to a panel. To get them used to talking to people other than us (of whom they're not intimidated), we plan on bringing in upperclassmen and additional teachers/administrators to serve on these panels. Hopefully the skills they develop and the mistakes they make this time will serve them well for the expo!

Articles on Using Social Media in School

This article discusses different ways of using social media in schools, including community outreach.  And here we have an article about using Twitter in school.

I don't think I am ready for any of this yet, but maybe someday soon.  :-)

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?

Kudos

Just a general shout-out to the freshman core teachers who have combined forces to engage and challenge our students. I frequently chat with MaryAnne, Christina, April, and Kristin, and their commitment to the IZ is truly energizing. I am SO happy and proud that NM is becoming an academic role model.

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!

What's wrong with the rubric?

Last week at our meeting after school with Freshman IZ teachers and administrators, we talked about our (somewhat failed) use of rubrics in the classroom. I haven't understood why the students don't make better use of the rubric as a guide to complete their final product. Kristin said something that shed better light on the topic for me: "They understand that we use it as a grading form, but they don't understand that it's their instructions."
So, how do we bridge this gap for them? Tomorrow we're going to try a "Fakebook" activity in which students will be creating a "Fakebook" page (info, posts, comments) as characters from the Giver and leaders of the Persian and Chinese Empires. We've structured the rubric more like a checklist in hopes of their going step by step through them.
We'll see if this slight change makes a difference! I can't wait to meet with Matt this week and get help!

We've Got to Be That Light

Dr. Jeff's gift to teachers.

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!

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!

Should Teachers Talk Less?

Ariel Sacks asks this question on her blog, On the Shoulders of Giants.

NMHS Teachers are on the Cutting Edge in So Many Ways

Kristin and April, you have instinctively exhibited many of the 20 Tips for Developing Positive Relationships with Parents found in this blog post by Elena Aguila from Edutopia.  :-)  Thanks, Kristin and April, for all you do!

There are Ups and Downs to PBLs--and we can calculate the force, momentum, acceleration, and kinetic energy for all of them!

Students are studying Newton's Laws of Motion using roller coasters.  They had to construct a roller coaster out of paper and test it.  There are many formulas that go along with the scientific laws... so they learned to solve one and two step equations while they were at it:  force = mass times acceleration, distance = rate divided by time, kinetic energy = 1/2 mass times velocity squared... 

And more to come..!

Parent-Teacher Conference

Our parent-teacher conference experience didn't go quite as smoothly as it has in previous years. As always, it was wonderful to meet the parents of our students, and reassuring to know that so many of them have wonderful support systems at home. The difference this year was the panic from the parents of the Straight-A students. We'd heard going into this year that the students who struggle the most with PBL are students who have excelled in the traditional classroom. Why would they want to change things up when they're great at tests, quizzes, and bookwork? These students are extremely grade conscious because they are already thinking college, scholarships, and future which is fantastic! At the same time, these students feel that they are taking on most of the burden in their groups' project.


The parents of these students conveyed this concerns to us and expressed concern that the group work would ruin their childrens' GPAs. We tried to reassure all parents, that the majority of grades our students receive are INDIVIDUAL grades, so group projects shouldn't tank their averages. Also, we informed the parents about the process of calling a group meeting and potentially firing a group member if he isn't pulling his weight. We hope that in the next PBL we do a better job of preventing one or two group members carrying most of the load for the whole group. I don't think it happened in most groups this time

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!

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

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!

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.

Essentials for Culture

Just found this interesting as I'm reading for a grant:

Essential Elements of School Culture include:

• Intense focus on school culture
• Students are comfortable talking with adults about academic and personal issues
• Verbal and written reflection shared among staff members
• Rituals (e.g. new student orientation; International Night; alumni reunions; etc.)
• Pick Me Ups (formal time to start each day as a community)
• A focus on professional development/life-long learning for staff members
• Inter-grade & across-grade student groupings
• Democratic governance
• Student leadership
• Respect and caring
• Diversity recognized and celebrated
• Clear policies and expectations for behavior
• Emphasis on reflection
• High attendance rate
• High graduation rate
• High college acceptance rate
• Low dropout rate
• Fun!

Creating a new culture---

A step in the right direction? This is the graffiti MaryAnne found in the upstairs girls' bathroom last week:

Deep thoughts...

Do the opposite

This is a link to another blog about innovation.  Very short.

Around the Zone!

     I love it that our entire school is an Innovation Zone!  When we wrote the grant, we researched and found that there are 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention.  These strategies work best when they are done together; it's not very effective to try just one or two.  This research only confirmed what our teachers had already brainstormed and what both teachers and students had said in an Edline survey we posted.  Therefore, we designed an ambitious, multifaceted project.  Three large areas we are focusing on this year are:  innovative, engaging lessons; embedded use of technology; and building community and connections.  Here are some of the dedicated and creative ways that our principals, teachers, staff, and students are working to bring about true educational reform at North Marion:
(Did I forget YOU?  Just tell me what's going on because I'd love to report about it!) 

Innovative, Engaging Lessons

• Mrs. Poling and Mr. Stalnaker are working to develop a journalism class in conjunction with the technical center marketing classes.
• Dr. Baxter is going into the ninth grade English/Social Studies class to teach them about the citizenship test.  Dr. Baxter is a primary source for this information since she is originally from Peru.  Dr. Baxter is also using Project Based Learning in her Spanish classroom. 
• Mr. Graser, Ms. Richards, Ms. Merrifield, Mr. Gerard, Mr. Myers, Mrs. Stanton, and Mr. Milanese are beginning a roller coaster PBL!  This will integrate physical science and math.  Students need to utilize the equations for distance, speed, momentum, velocity, and kinetic energy as well as use proportions and conversions of units as they design, build, and test their roller coasters.
• Mrs. Gaines and Mrs. Moore substituted in the ninth grade integrated class to get a look at what they might want to do next year as teachers of tenth graders!
• Mrs. Duckworth and Mrs. Schneider are using blogs instead of notebooks in their collaborative Earth Science classes.
• Mrs. Barner had students make biology collages to fill a bulletin board in the hall.  She also starred in a video "entry event" for a freshman PBL. (Mr. Graser dougied on a lab table for it, too!)
• Mrs. Stanton is using a time tested biology lab in which students burn peanuts and marshmallows to determine the calorie differences in food.
• Ms. Plachta began an oral communications class for ninth graders to help support the increased number of presentations that they will be required to do in their PBLs.
• Mr. Brown is inviting local emergency services personnel to his classroom to teach CPR with the dummies!  (Do not laugh about this--I know what you are thinking!)
• Mr. Barker and Mrs. Rakocky are developing a PBL on quilting and geometry.

Technology

• Mrs. Shackleford has stepped up to the challenge of handling all our technology needs from the library, and done a nice job of it.  Her son donated an entire day of installing software on the new laptops.  Both Mrs. Shackleford and Mr. Gerard provide tons of tech support without any additional time in their schedules apart from their normal job duties. 
• Mrs. DeVito has learned how to use WVEIS to set up the merged time frames for the integrated classes and then how to set up the schedules and grade books to go with that.
• Ms. Gilpin, Mrs. Mullenax, Mrs. Gouzd, and Ms. DeVaul learned to use Edline to set up students' assignments and daily agendas.  This will help students become more self-directed learners.  They are also designing an Edline training for parents.
• Ms. Carpenter and Ms. Elmer have started Globaloria at North Marion, a class in video game design.
• Mr. Milanese researched and purchased laptops and led a team of teachers who installed software on them two days after school.
• Mr. Beavan put together four lockable storage carts for the laptops.
• Ms. Carpenter oversees this blog in the evenings.

Building Community and Connectedness

• Mrs. Powell has revamped the peer tutoring program along with help from Mrs. Doshier.  Twenty peer tutors will receive FOCUS training in connecting with freshmen through GEAR UP funding.  Mrs. Neptune's WVU intern helped design the tutor forms and prompts used in the program, and has pledged some of his contract hours next semester to help with it.  Mrs. High, who implemented the first peer tutor program at North, will be volunteering here.
• Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Furbee, Mrs. Straight, Mr. Butcher, Mrs. Duckworth, and several other teachers are hosts of peer tutors and helping implement the new program.
• Mrs. Gouzd and Mrs. C. White have started a club called "Husky Mentors" that pairs freshmen with  upper classmen mentors who will be friendly to them in the hallway, send them notes, and eat lunch with them.  Several teachers have started new clubs so that students have a place to feel connected.
• Mrs. Neptune and Mrs. Powell continue to expand the C.A.P.S. program at our school, which stands for Community Awareness and Partnerships for our School.  Some volunteers from C.A.P.S. have already asked to sponsor a LEO club, and have signed up for e-mentoring through a program we are piloting.
• North Marion Alumni attended a panel discussion hosted by the freshmen and their teachers to provide the background of North Marion's history for the first freshman PBL.

Our students are benefiting from the hundreds of extra hours our teachers as professionals are giving of their own time to make North Marion a better place.

And thank you for being kind when I've forgotten to write about you today.  Many of you are holding down the fort and making these things possible.  Many of you are awaiting your opportunity to contribute, perhaps later this year or maybe next year, and I want to remember you in the next post.  Thank you Husky Family for your positive and supportive attitudes.  But then, what else would we expect from Huskies?

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!!!

Interesting video

Here's a nice video about High Tech High School, which is a total PBL school. It's a little long, but the "guy in charge" has some interesting things to say about why PBL instruction works and what has worked for them specifically.

The Signs are All Around Us ! :-)

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.

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!

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!

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.

Thank you to both of those organizations for their support of our mission!

Husky Mentor Update

Debbie, Carol, and I met today to make plans for the Husky Mentors as the beginning of the school year is rapidly approaching. We drew up a contract for the mentors, and we have 2 trainings scheduled for the mentors (Aug 1st and 15th). At those trainings we will be reinforcing the vision of the program, and brainstorming with them what they will need to communicate with their freshmen (for ex., get contact info, ask questions about schedule, etc...) and how they can communicate with them (text, notes on/in lockers, meet in morning, etc...).
After these trainings, the mentors will meet with their freshmen at orientation, make introductions, ask and answer specific questions (that they come up with at training), and do some icebreakers.
We still have a lot of questions- a major one being: when is freshmen orientation?
We hope that, with administrative approval, the mentor program will become a club meeting throughout the school year. We see it being a bigger deal with more time involved at the beginning of the year, tapering off throughout the year. However, we do feel that the mentors can be helpful talking to their freshmen throughout the year, and a debriefing session at the end of the year would benefit the program as a whole.
We are really excited about this program, and if you would like more info about it or would like to get involved, we invite you to attend either of the training sessions (Aug 1st 6:00, Aug 15th 1:00)!

Fairfax Textbooks Going Online

Fairfax County Schools may use online textbooks for social studies classes in middle and high school.

Click here to watch the news story.

Links section

I added a Links section to the left-hand side of the page. Please add links that you think people would be interested in, or send them to me and I'll add them. I added Edutopia to the list, but here's a specific link to an entry I read today:  Benefits of writing for math and science

What Happened to New Tech?

Our teachers spent many hours researching the New Tech Network as a possibility for North Marion.  However, we found that our timelines did not coincide well.  For North Marion teachers wanting to be "on the ground and running" by August, this meant that we would have to try to implement many of our ideas on our own.  We give much credit, however, to Jon Reinhard and the New Tech Network for the impetus they gave us to take trips together as a faculty to see New Tech Schools in action.  These trips provided three things for our teachers:  1) An opportunity to bond as professionals which began the process of further developing our dream, 2)  The idea that a school culture component is a desirable element to our plan, and 3) Opportunities to interact with other educators who are excited about change in their schools. 

And so our project goes on as a grass roots movement rather than as a part of a more formalized, non-profit organization.  We are still excited about our opportunities, but needing time to explore our options rather than committing to one certain direction.

by Joetta Schneider

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If you want to be an author on the blog, send me your email (carpenter.amyl@gmail.com) and I'll send you an invitation so that your posts will appear under your name instead of the generic North Marion account. If you already have a blogger account, you can comment on posts under your name, but you can't write a new post. You can actually send yourself an invitation under the permissions tab when logged in as North Marion, but I'll be happy to do it for anyone who doesn't know how.

Also, when you post something new, try to put a label on it (in the area under the white space where you write your post) so that the post will be categorized in the Labels cloud on the right hand side of the blog. That way, you can easily find blogs about specific subjects instead of having to sort chronologically as we add more and more posts to the blog.

I added a Follow by Email gadget. If you want, you can have new posts sent to your email so that you don't have to check the blog as much.

Does all of that make sense?

More pics of Danville

PBL planning

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.