Avoiding the blame game when meeting with parents

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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.

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!!!

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!