Sunday, February 9, 2014

WHS Students Take On #COLchat (2-3-14)

The following is a snippet from our first Twitter #COLchat (Culture of Learning):
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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Reflection on Learning After Adapting New Practices

Standards-Based-Grading and Learning

Participating in our recent #EdCampMadWI (Madison, Wisconsin), I had the opportunity to engage in several conversations about genuine learning, standards-based grading and learning and the need to differentiate instruction, assessments and support to empower all students to learn. I’m realizing that offering a standards-based learning environment enables more students to engage in genuine learning and retention for the sole purpose of learning compared to the traditional environment where students are prompted to “play school” and “earn points” through a variety of ways that do not tend to contribute to their education. When students learn to “play school” well, them become compliant and cooperative, but the focus in not necessarily on learning for application and retention. I have noticed a huge shift in how and why our students are learning via our standards-based approach. Students are focused on understanding and relating concepts rather than just doing them to get them done for a grade. Most students have realized that our standards-based learning environment fosters real understanding through questions and reflection. Students are provided choice and several opportunities to prove their proficiency. Thanks to several enlightening conversations with Garnet Hillman (@garnet_hillman) and Jasper Fox Sr (@jsprfox), I’m now differentiating instruction, assessments and support for the benefit of many learners. During a single class, students can be working on a variety of related concepts that are tailored to their needs as opposed to providing a “one-size-fits-all” classroom. After an EdCampMadWI session where educators conversed about how to design learning environments to empower challenged and high achievers, I’m now facilitating better learning environments rather than teaching to the “average student”. After watching a recent TED talk about the fact that there are no “average students”, I’ve learned to offer more meaningful and relevant learning where fast and slow learners are encouraged and challenged.


Open Communication with Students

In addition to facilitating a standards-based learning environment, I’ve learned that keeping communication open between students and teachers fosters more tailored learning, more opportunities for meaningful feedback and opportunities for reassessment. After providing relevant feedback to several students, we have engaged in useful conversations around learning and proving proficiency through face-to-face conversations, additional practice opportunities and reassessment. I’m still stunned by the progress that several of our students are making purely based on having an aggressive desire to learn, a willingness to provide more practice to get needed feedback and a reflective mindset that is enabling them to ask pointed questions resulting in regular “ah-ha” moments. More and more students that are unsure about new concepts are willing to facilitate our learning by leading the class through a thoughtful reasoning process to arrive at a meaningful solution. Several of our students are using divergent thinking to arrive at the same solution and discussing why the varied approaches converged. Toward the end of the first semester, I had several students approach me with the desire to prove a higher level of proficiency. They have recently received feedback from me that suggested they might want to make some adjustments in their thinking. We then discussed additional practice opportunities and follow-up times where they could prove higher levels of proficiency. Every one of these students was willing to learn to a higher level, engage in relevant and meaningful additional practice and re-assess to proficiency!


I am so proud of how dedicated our students have become based on our standards-based learning environment, suggested practice opportunities and willingness to reassess until they achieve proficiency.
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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Madison's Memorable Moments

  1. Let's empower and encourage all learners to find relevance in learning through meaningful and collaborative experiences.
  2. Engage students to build interdisciplinary skills based on relevance.
  3. Let's minimize compliance and maximize passionate and engaging learning that is meaningful and relevant. 
  4. Differentiate for the high and low achievers and enable all students to reach their potential.
  5. Let's load our lessons with creativity and passion through questions from teachers and students.
  6. Think about which deadlines are really important and why. Let's not present students with Summative Assessments (SAs) before they're ready to demonstrate proficiency.
  7. Let's always record a student's most recent evidence of proficiency and stop averaging prior to proficient practice with recent learning. We want all students to find their highest level of proficiency.
  8. Record only Standards-Based Formative Assessments (FAs) and Summative Assessments (SAs), not quiz #2, test #3, worksheet #19 or page 31.
  9. Pre-heat the grill, advertise and create excitement prior to class.
  10. Get students out of their seats at least once in a 50-minute class
Our Professional Learning Network (PLN) is comprised of an incredible group of educators who are committed to encouraging and developing each other along with providing the best possible education to our students. I have learned a tremendous amount from so many of you and our students and I thank you!
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Friday, January 3, 2014

Tic-Tac-Toe for Algebra 2

 

 

Solve

 

Graph

 

Write

Linear

Practice

Practice

Practice

Quadratic

Practice

Practice

Practice

Cubic

Practice

R4C3

Practice

 

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Prototype Tic-Tac-Toe for the "Rule of Four"

 

 

Equation

 

Table

 

Graph

 

Verbal

Linear

R2C2

R2C3

R2C4

R2C5

Quadratic

R3C2

R3C3

R3C4

R3C5

Cubic

R4C2

R4C3

R4C4

R4C5

Rational

R5C2

R5C3

R5C4

R5C5

 

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Tic-Tac-Toe (Creative Confidence as its Best)

 

 

 

 

 

R2C2

R2C3

R2C4

 

R3C2

R3C3

R3C4

 

R4C2

R4C3

R4C4

 

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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Ready to Experience Creative Confidence

Thanks to a much needed and restful Christmas school vacation, I've taken the time to read, reflect and refresh. In addition to the 3 R's, I accepted the #BlogAMonth challenge along with several dedicated Twitter tweeps. Speaking of Twitter, I feel compelled to express my deepest appreciation to many of the committed educators in our Professional Learning Network (PLN). Not only have I learned a great deal this past calendar year, but my participation in #sbgchat and #colchat have had a significant impact on our classroom learning experiences. More on that later as I want to honor my commitment to continue our blog posts.

Our PLN Challenge
  1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger - Thanks Joseph Devine (@JosephADevine)
  2. Share 11 random facts about yourself
  3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you
  4. Nominate 11 bloggers for our Challenge
  5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate and let them know they've been nominated
11 Random Facts About Me:
  1. I'm eternally grateful that God has a plan for my life and that He wants to use me to impact others.
  2. 14 years ago I switched from a well-paying financial services career to become an educator. For me, being an educator is my calling and I haven't looked back once. Thank you MINT (Vicky)!
  3. I have two black cats that I adore. They're usually at the door in their stiletto heels when I arrive home!
  4. Each morning, I grind the coffee beans for my Starbucks Breakfast Blend and perk it. The aroma and taste every morning is something I savor. 
  5. I won a ski trip to the Canadian Rockies Mountains and stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise. That is when I learned to ski! 
  6. I met Bart Connors, an Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast after he won his medal. He was part of a Gymnastics Spectacular at the TD Garden (then the Boston Garden). When he met me prior to the show, he offered me seats on the floor next to the rings. When he finished his event, he walked over to me and and said, "Rik, how was that?". I nearly melted. He made me feel so important and now I try to offer the same to others every chance I get. 
  7. My parents and grandparents instilled a great work-ethic in me. I'm so grateful.
  8. I've been playing the piano since I was 8 years old. It soothes my soul. 
  9. I'm an avid gym rat and enjoy the opportunity to exercise and relieve stress often.
  10. I am the youngest of two boys. However, when I was at Bentley University finishing my masters degree, a wonderful family took me in. Mom and Dad have gone on to Heaven, but I'm thankful to still have John and Michele as my younger siblings. I love you both so much!
  11. The first time I went skydiving, my chute did not open! I had chosen to jump alone and, therefore, did not have my jump master with me to help. I had severe line twists and needed to untangle the lines going from my back up to the partially opened chute about 5 feet above my head. I was falling at 88 miles per hour and just heard my guide on the ground say through the receiver in my helmet, "Rik, we see you're in trouble, but you'll have to resolve it yourself since no one can jump and catch you. It's all you!" I'm so grateful I focused and watched the 5 hours of videos prior to my jump where they showed all the things that could happen and how to resolve each one. Obviously, I was able to untangle the lines and land safely! Oh, I went back three more time to conquer my fear!
11 Questions from Joe:
  1. If you weren't in education, what would you do? - I'd still be a software engineer, but for educational purposes.
  2. Who is your favorite actor of all time? - Julie Andrews is my all-time favorite actress.
  3. If you could have attended any famous speech in history, what would it have been? - Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech
  4. What to you do to relax? De-stress? - To relax and relieve stress, I lift and do cardio. 
  5. If you could invite anyone to dinner, who would you invite and why? - Princess Diana 
  6. Would you prefer to visit a zoo or an aquarium and why? - I'd prefer a zoo so I could mingle with the animals. I'd prefer that to swimming with the fish. 
  7. Favorite Twitter chat? - My two favorite Twitter chats are #sbgchat (Wed at 9pm) and #colchat (Mon at 9pm). 
  8. What is one thing you tried last year that you learned from your PLN? - Thanks to Darin Jolly, I became a co-moderator of #sbgchat along with Garnet Hillman (@garnet_hillman), Michele Corbat (@MicheleCorbat) and Darin (@drjolly). Thanks Darin for encouraging me to join your team! 
  9. Best place to be quiet and reflect? - The recliner in my living room next to the fireplace 
  10. Favorite book of your life? - The Bible 
  11. What is one thing you never/rarely share that you are exceptionally proud of? - I'll be forever grateful to all the sacrifices of our parents when I was growing up. They gave up so much for my brother and myself. I honor my Dad's memory and treasure the time I still have with my Mom! 
My Turn to Nominate:

Name
Twitter Handle
Blog Address
Bob Lochel
@bobloch
http://mathcoachblog.wordpress.com/
Joe Mazza
@Joe_Mazza
leadlearner.com
Tom Murray
@thomascmurray
thomascmurray.com
Kevin Deissler
@MrDeissler
mrdeissler.wordpress.com
Justin Aion
@JustinAion
http://relearningtoteach.blogspot.com
Jeremy Lenzi
@MrLenziGS
http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com
Steve Kwikkel
@SKwikkel
middleman2012.wordpress.com
Kevin Kelly
@EmmausKevinK
schoolpsycwaypost.blogspot.com
Justin Staub
@DrStaubSTEM
http://drstaub.wordpress.com/
Jasper Fox Sr.
@jsprfox
jasperfoxsr.blogspot.com 
Jim Cordery
@jcordery
jcorderyteacher.blogspot.com

 Here are your 11 questions:
  1. Who has impacted your life most significantly and how?
  2. What specifically do you do to have a reasonable work and life balance? 
  3. Share any event in your life that was life-changing. 
  4. If you were offered the opportunity to speak to hundreds of young people, what would you say? 
  5. What legacy do you plan to leave and to whom? 
  6. What foreign country have you visited that was memorable? 
  7. What have you learned in the past year that has impacted you? 
  8. Describe your happiest childhood memory.
  9. What is the nicest or most thoughtful gift you have ever received? 
  10. What famous person would you most like to dine with and why? 
  11. What are your favorite Twitter chats? 
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