What's Your Superpower? -Day 2

The second day in many things had been accomplished the day before and today was no different. The morning discussion started in where a question had been raised the day before...

Question: We noticed that there is a new format for the "Who Am I?" on the shared drive. Is there going to be a new expectation this year?

The answer... Yes!

The 4 square was shared out. A sample and template can be found on the the shared drive in the "SRE and More Folder" in the sub-folder "Who Am I?"

Teachers are encouraged to make a copy and then personalize.

In Quadrant 1 (top left) the teacher is encouraged to identify this where the mission and vision will be and then add an image to indicate this is under construction.

In Quadrant 2 (top right) the teacher is encouraged to add information about themselves, the college(s) they attending and degree(s) earned, and/or hobbies or interest. This will serve dual purposes. By including the college(s) attended and degree with a small college image/pennant it will align with the Generation Texas week expectation for teachers to display the college they attended.

In Quadrant 3 (bottom left) teachers are asked to put two to three goals they are working in regards to professional growth and/or student growth. It is strongly encouraged to align this to T-TESS goals.

In Quadrant 4 (bottom right) teachers are to create a Google Form for feedback from walkthroughs done by peers, administration and district personnel. This Form designed by the teacher is intended to provide them feedback based on the two to three goals they have posted in Quadrant 3 of the "Who am I?"- Four Square.

A specific name for this "Who Am I?"-4 Square has yet to be determined. Teachers are encouraged to work on Quadrants 2 and 3. Rene Egle will be available for support to help with the Google Form for Feedback Thursday, August 24th in the afternoon. Email her to set up an appointment at regle@nisdtx.org.


Dr. Warren's Imperatives/Goals were shared out. His direct instructional questions are more purposeful and drive home the expectation for collective efficacy. Emphasis was placed on knowing our kids well, especially those that fall into our PBMAS data.

You can review those imperatives and questions HERE.

Instructional Focus/Problem of Practice (POP) was discussed. The collective whole was asked their thoughts, including did it need revamping.

4th Grade liked it and how it moved us toward more rigorous and relevant instruction and student work. They also noted that we need to add more about positive relationships and culture.

GLAMP referred back to the "Who Am I?- 4 Square and the use of the  QR Codes tied to the feedback walkthrough forms and how that adds in the accountability and allows us as a campus to do more to move toward true transparency. They noted ways it could improve was with more friendly wording that cut to the chase.

Kindergarten and first grade followed GLAMP's remark about more friendly wording pointing back to last year when they re-wrote the POP for their students using student-friendly language. It was noted that first grade made it part of their morning routine/meeting and students would state the POP both with words and hand motions. Often the students led the stating of the POP.

At that point the conversation led into how did our POP tie into our Mission and Vision. No one commented. Then John asked if anyone knew what our Mission and Vision is. No one really knew.

John then asked the staff to read the following article by George Couros: "Accountability and Action Toward a Shared Vision" from his blog The Principal of  Change.

After discussion about the article at tables ideas were shared out.

-Redo the Longhorn Pledge? (relate it back to the mission and vison)
-Mission and Vision posted in all classrooms
-Posted on the website
-Mission and Vision have a 'sing/song' dance like action tied to the mission and vision when students recite it that encourage positive behaviors and/or signals as reminder for behaviors (like what first grade did with the POP last year)
-Not on announcements everyday... loses meaning?
-Bring to community/students
-Put on Campus Improvement Plan and involve all stakeholders

It was then suggested that we hash out as a campus, then bring to stakeholders includes students then adopt that vision and mission.

Last year the OHI showed we were strong in relationships and trust and lowest in being data driven. This indicated that we were lacking a common goal.. a shared vision.

The definition of mission- is how we do things...
The definition of vision- is where we want to be

BOTH must be aligned.

It is believed that parents will be most likely to respond to emotional/relational piece with the POP and Mission and Vision.

At that point a T-Chart collecting the characteristics/qualities of a Vision and Mission was created with the staff:

From the above T-Chart of characteristics/qualities a criteria was created for what determines a well written Mission and Vision Statement. A list of 8 Criteria was created:

1. Character and Individual Development
2. Measurable/Accountability (data driven)
3. Accountability with all stakeholders
4. Learner Centered
5. Positive/Affirming Relationships
6. Simple/Kid Friendly
7. Actionable (Intentional/Purposeful)
8. Worth Fighting For

At this point it was determined that we needed to step away and revisit at a later time.

T-TESS update was next.

Click HERE for the full presentation/update.

Points of emphasis:

• goals need to be tied to the criteria that will be used to determine and evaluate vision and mission
• collect evidence throughout the year (can use feedback from self-creatheduleed feedback walkthrough form on "Who Am I?"- 4 Square); teachers may want to set themselves up a calendar reminder every couple of weeks to ensure evidence does continually get added
• communicate goals created/kept to John and Wilson; New teachers must schedule a goal-setting conference

The remainder of the day was talking about paper clip items. 

There is a link HERE to the Google Slide Show that discussed the various matters. The items that additional information was discussed included:

Library-

Google Folders

Brain Pop Survey to determine if we should continue its subscription for the campus

September 5th Library classes will begin

Guidance-

Lessons/Schedule

Send Trice your top three days and times

Starting second week of school Trice will visit K-1. Third week of school she will meet with 2nd and 3rd. 4th Week of school she will meet with 4th and 5th.

Trice is plannig to bring back bucket fillers. She will be reading the book that goes along with this. She asked that teachers NOT read this book to the class as she will be reading it to them when she visits classes over the next few weeks.

We will start honoring studenst for character traits at assemblies the second or third assembly.

To keep from too much of the same kids getting the same awards there is a historical log of awards. This can be found in the campus shared drive... go to the Common folder> BOY> Character... there you will be able to see who has received an award over the last three years.

NISD Elementary Grading policy has changed in regards to number of summatives required in Math on the marking periods with 5 weeks. Additionally only four formatives are required in K-3rd with a suggested summative in 4th and 5th grade for social studies. An email with the policy highlighting the changes will be sent to teachers as well as uploaded to the SRE Virtual Collaborative Classroom to easily access and refer to as needed.

There was some confusion about what will be shared via the SRE Virtual PLC Team Drives that will be shared soon. Lesson plans will NOT be expected to be uploaded, however, having team plans where support services like special education, library and gifted and talented can see them allows for everyone to be aware, supportive and add to our collective efficacy. Teams WILL BE expected to update assessment calendars outlining a marking period at a time in their team folders located in the SRE Virtual PLC Team Drives and include the dates they plan together as a team. More clarification will be provided on Wednesday, August 23rd.

It was a great two days and it seems that our Superpowers are only growing in strength because of us working together and coming to a consensus. Enjoy your time working in your rooms today until convocation. Be sure to check with John or Wilson if you don't know where you need to be on Tuesday for District Professional Development/Curriculum Updates. We will see everyone on Wednesday at 8:00am for ongoing conversations and staff development in the Library. 

Thank you to eveyone for actively participating and sharing honestly, openly and with positivity your thoughts, concerns, hopes and ideas!

Everyone Needs Feedback!

I don't know if you celebrated that your end of year T-TESS was complete, but as I met with my last teacher, I did a little celebration dance! It wasn't pretty figuring out T-TESS and I am already thinking of ways to improve, but it wasn't awful either. In some ways I will miss how it provided the opportunity for us to sit and talk uninterrupted for forty to fifty minutes. I will miss getting to hear you brag on all the little things you all do to make Sendera Ranch the best place on earth to "do school."...aww #warmfuzzies. That is, until the next T-TESS cycle.

Seriously, it was a good experience and process for many reasons for me. I believe it was a good experience and process for you as well. However I am not completely naive to think John and I don't have places to improve. Some we are completely aware; others, we are not. This is where we need your help. In the next few days, while the end of year conferences are still fresh on your mind, we would like you to fill out a feedback survey for us.
We have made it virtually anonymous (we did ask for you to tell us who your evaluator was so we could continue to calibrate and align our approach).

Here is the link: https://goo.gl/forms/4NOeLixjIdZio3Y33

We would love to hear what you think, how you believe the process went according to your perspective, and ways we can improve.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help us grow, be better and make this a process that is beneficial for us all!

How do you know you are growing as an educator?

I think I heard someone say as I walked in Monday morning... "Only ten more weeks."

Part of me was like, "Yes, I didn't die!" and part of me was like "No, I thought I would be better at this at this point in the year. I need more time to reach the goals I have set for myself!"

I could have let that defeat me. Instead, I decided I would not let the fact that I am not as far along as I would like to be in this new role as assistant principal be the determining factor of whether or not I am progressing toward success. Instead I am moving into a time where I am reflecting, reviewing and revising my goals. I am evaluating for myself what I have learned, how I have changed- for the better- and what I need to continue to work towards or abandon.

I think that is one of the beauties of the process with T-TESS. It creates a space for us to set goals, work toward those goals, monitor our progress (collect evidence), and reflect. It helps us measure and identify how we are growing as an educator. In this way, I believe it reminds us of how far we have come and shows us where we can journey next in our professional growth.

I came across the article "How to set smart goals that motivate you to action"  this week as I was thinking about where you all are in preparing for the end of year T-TESS conference. I love being challenged to grow, to set goals that may be almost unattainable but make me want to strive to try. We (John and I) look forward to meeting with you and learning more about the goals you have set for yourself for the upcoming year. Goals that grow you, excite you and most of all empower you as an educator.

We would love for you to share the process for how you are determining your goals for the upcoming year in the comments.

Our Journey With Planning

The journey with lesson planning and transparency in our practice, for us, started in late July with our Leadership Academy Team's determination to make this a focus on our campus Problem of Practice. We have had our leadership team, vertical PLCs, and grade level PLCs review, discuss and provide feedback. Now we move forward in action.

We have in place a lesson planning guide to direct our discussions in planning and drive our plans for instruction deeper in collaboration and independently. To see what we are doing, and encourage as well as sharpen our practice, we have designed a focused walkthrough form for peer to peer walkthroughs.

There are a few questions that continue to circle and the hope is that this blog post answers those questions.

• Is the Lesson Planning Guide going to be a "gotcha?"
• Not at all, this is designed to be used as an accountability piece among your team as you plan and as a way for us as a campus to be able to move forward and grow together. It is a way to identify components of lesson planning that are effective and encourage those practices to be the expectation as we continually improve together.
• What evidence are we looking for?
• We are looking for lessons that are warm to you. When you deliver a lesson it is already been discussed deeply with your team, reflected on by you and shows evidence of that. Evidence of that could be shown in the format like what was presented to the leadership team with the Origo lesson (pictured here).

Or it can be notes added to a lesson via post its and/or the actual artifacts and teacher model journals (also pictured below). 

• How will accountability remain if the expectation for turning lesson plans is no longer in place?
• The question that we asked ourselves was what was the purpose of "turning in lesson plans" and who was it for? The overwhelming answer... it was for administration. We want your planning to be about the intentional planning and delivery of instruction for the LEARNERS in your classroom. How will we know planning is being done? It goes right back to good teaching... it must be planned. We will be looking for alignment with learning targets, CBAs will help us see alignment and hold accountable your instruction. Additionally, we want to see your plans in your hands in use as we walk in and observe you instructing your learners. They should not look pristine and untouched but have evidence of your thoughts, reflections and the components from the the lesson planning guide.
• This is also where the walkthroughs indirectly hold each other accountable. The walkthroughs are designed for us to learn from each other and the root of our instruction comes from our planning.
• What is the expectation/philosophy for Learning Targets?
• Our lesson guide speaks to this. We also believe that as teams/content areas plan together their Learning Targets should be created together and be aligned to the standards. (Learning Targets should look the same in each grade level, each content area.)
• We do want to revisit and tighten up our understanding of Learning Targets at a later date. For now, our approach is to have alignment both to the standard and with your team/content partner(s) and is it "kid-friendly" in that the students understand and own it.
• What is the expectation for "turning in" lesson plans with T-TESS?
• Of course with T-TESS the plans should be brought to the pre-conference with a copy for your evaluator. Providing a copy ahead of time is helpful but not required. Using the T-TESS Pre-Conference form is also a guide... teachers can use the form or just a lesson plan that you are able to show how the lesson plan addresses the components of the pre-conference form.

We look forward to the growth, discussions and continued progress we make as a campus and as individuals in this journey. What are your thoughts on this? Please comment below.

-John and Kirsten

Purposeful Planning...

Planning is integral to student success in the classroom. No longer is it a quickly written page number from a teacher's edition or a title to a blackline master activity sheet. Today, lesson plans include many components including, but not limited to, the standard(s), learning target(s), guiding questions, anticipated misconceptions, breakdown of the lesson cycle (opening, work period, closing), differentiation, and targeted small group instruction. Additionally, this year factors to consider are the dimensions in T-TESS and Rigor/Relevance through the Curriculum Instructional Review Process.
Collaboration and Reflection while planning and as instruction is delivered is key. Todd Finley, in the recently online article "9 Ways to Plan Transformational Lessons..." concisely shares the layers of thought and action that goes into planning. How, as a campus, can we grow in our practice with purposeful planning? What are tools or practices we can streamline/develop to foster best practices?

Longhorn Master Builder News 9-12-2016