May 24, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset:  Look Fors in a Differentiated, Response Classroom (Part Two)

·         Expectations

o   Teacher expectations are high for ALL students.

o   Students and teachers believe in the ability to develop intelligence.

o   Potential is recognized through discussion, questions, and responses.

o   Teacher provides many opportunities for students to think for themselves.

·         Questioning

o   Students are given many opportunities to respond to and ask higher level questions. 

·         Higher Level Thinking

o   Instructional strategies that nurture/promote higher level thinking are embedded in everyday instruction

(concept attainment/formation, interpretation, reasoning, problem solving, evaluating).

·         Acceleration and Enrichment

o   Individuals and groups are given opportunities to excel beyond grade-level expectations in content areas.

o   Opportunities for enrichment occur through application of and reasoning with content, guest speakers, mentors,

and technology.

o   Instruction consists of differentiated strategies to reflect the intellectual processes of high-potential learners.

·         Classroom Environment

o   A growth mindset culture exists.

o   Learning stations and/or anchor activities are evident in classroom.

o   Room arrangement is conducive to group work.

o   A variety of student work samples are displayed.

Mindsets in the Classroom by Mary Cay Ricci

Intentional Instruction

Collaborative Community

I’m just gonna leave this right here.

Do YOU recognize your own greatness? Well, you should. OWN IT. So if you’re sitting there thinking, “Cathy, I’m not the kind of person who brags about myself!” I hear you. And this isn’t about saying these things out loud, saying, “See, look how great I am!” I mean you totally could though. Like I said, OWN IT. It’s more about naming these Q.O.G.s (Qualities of Greatness) to ourselves - we accept them in ourselves - and in the observation of others. THIS IS HARD, people. But I’m gonna drop some truth on you...we cannot begin to impact change on the world and the people we touch in our lives, or the kids we work with if we can’t even do it for ourselves. Mind-blown. I know.

So, over the summer, practice saying this to yourself, “I am great.” Then, when you feel good there, take it a step further...and be specific about what is great about you (compassionate, brave, patient, positive, funny, flexible, risk-taker, etc.) Keep going. Your list is endless.

I hope you all have an amazing summer, doing whatever makes your heart happy. You deserve it. RELAX. RECHARGE. And be ready to REIGNITE when we come back.

Nurture on,

Cathy

*Staff Shout Outs* 

May 4, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

Intentional Instruction

Collaborative Community

*Staff Shout Outs* 

April 19, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

Intentional Instruction

Collaborative Community

Growth Mindset………………..Helping Students Face Failure

One of the areas where students struggle is with the idea of failure. Whenever possible, take opportunities to discuss the value of failure.

We can all learn from our failures, and it is important for all of us to challenge how we view ourselves as learners.  As we age, many of us get more rigid in our thinking.  Young children can often serve as guides because they are learning and making new mistakes daily.  Developing a growth mindset is knowing that learning is not just about producing the right answers all the time.  It is about giving yourself permission to improve constantly, to make the effort, to think outside of the box, to create, innovate, and to stretch your brain and grow.  

Asking students to analyze a scenario, quote, or movie clip can be an effective way to engage students in a discussion about the value of failure.

Here are some examples of famous failures that you could discuss and analyze with your students:

• ·        R.H. Macy: The founder of Macy’s department store failed at 7 previous business attempts.
• ·        Colonel Sanders: Harland Davis Sanders’ famous chicken was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.
• ·        Thomas Edison: He conducted experiments on his concepts 9,000 times before he created the lightbulb.
• ·        Post-it Notes: A scientist at 3M Company was working to create a super-strong adhesive; it was a failure. Instead, he accidently made a reusable, pressure sensitive adhesive that later was utilized in sticky notes. 

Growth Mindset………………..Words that Matter

Changing your words can change your mindset. With a positive mindset, mistakes are for learning from; something new is an exciting challenge; hard work brings results; the world is a great place to be. Notice the difference in language used in describing the negative versus the positive. Changing your mindset can be brought about simply by changing the words that you use. Your choice of words, talking to yourself and to your children, is an important way in which you can create a happy world view.

You can help your children to develop a positive mindset by helping them to change the words that they use.

Words are powerful and our brains believe what we hear. Help your children, and yourself, to hear the right sorts of words that are going to create a great world in which they are happy to be and, consequently, in which they will succeed.

*Staff Shout Outs* 

**Everyone is AWESOME!**

April 12, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

Kudos to the teachers who are using specific, targeted reading strategies with their guided reading groups! 

Intentional Instruction

Our journey continues with the Growth Mindset.  We now move into learning how students learn from failure.  Einstein said, “Failure is success in progress.”  He also said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”.

The growth mindset is characterized by a willingness to try new strategies to find a better result.  The learning process is filled with mistakes and setbacks.  Learning is messy.  Real learning in your classroom with twenty-two different kids, with twenty-two different brains and twenty-two different perspectives is messy, loud, and unpredictable.  You can plan how to navigate those inevitable mistakes.

1.       Normalize mistakes.

a.       Inform students they’ll make mistakes and the mistakes will help them learn.  Having a consistent process for tackling mistakes makes students feel that mistakes are routine and expected, not embarrassing and uncommon.  Students need opportunities to experience failure at school so they understand that failing is not something to be covered up or feared, rather it is important and a natural experience from which they learn.

2.       Value mistakes as learning opportunities.

a.       Turning mistakes into valuable learning opportunities is also key to normalizing them. 

3.       Coach students through setbacks.

a.       Coach students when they make mistakes  Don’t fix the problem for them.  To benefit from the mistake a student has to work through it.

Strategies to help students:

1.        Ask three before me (teacher)

2.       Open-ended questions used by the teacher to provoke problem-solving in struggling students.  Give students time to answer.  “Why do you think this happened?”  “What’s another strategy you could use?”  “How might you avoid this mistake next time?”  Encourage students to think through the cause of the mistake and develop strategies to fix it.

3.       Reflection Journal—use to reflect on their learning

4.       Pre-flection activities-before learning occurs ask students to think about potential obstacles. 

5.       Use the mistake as part of learning

Remember, we as professionals are also “learners” and it’s okay if we mistakes too in our learning.

The Growth Mindset Coach by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley

Collaborative Community

Classroom management is an art. For some teachers, managing a classroom is natural and comes easy, while others struggle to find a balance and must test different approaches. Even when you have firm control, you may worry it will slip away at any moment.

Regaining control and resetting your class may be an uphill battle, but it’s never too late in the school year to meet it head-on. It may take rethinking your philosophy on classroom management or reaching out to a colleague or mentor for help.

Unfortunately, there’s no one solution that will magically transform your classroom—you may have to implement a variety of tactics—but we do have a few tips to consider as you set out to regain control of your class.

1. Focus on being a good teacher.

It’s natural for you to want to be liked by your students, but just because your students like you doesn’t mean you’re an effective teacher. Your number one priority is to educate your students, and you can’t do this if you’ve lost control of your classroom.

Focus on being a good teacher, earning your students’ trust and respect, even if that means strictly enforcing classroom policies your students don’t like, but you know are valuable to maintaining order in your class. If you allow your class to walk all over you, you won’t be able to effectively teach them, nor will they trust, respect, or like you.

2. Be firm and consistent.

Knowing that your number one priority is to be a good teacher, you have to be firm and consistent with rules, policies, and the associated consequences of those rules being broken. Your students will eventually adjust if you set firm rules and are consistent in their implementation, but also keep in mind that those who are abiding by your rules should be rewarded. If you’re calling home for students who are being disruptive, you should also call home for those students who are respecting your classroom and setting a good example for their classmates.

3. Turn weaknesses into strengths.

If your students have a weakness for talking during class, let them talk. Take time during your class to foster group discussions about your lessons and what you’re studying, and if the discussion begins to stray, guide them back to the conversation. If a student refuses to stay on topic or continues to disrupt the discussion, remember to be consistent and firm when it comes to consequences.

4. Collaborate with your students.

Sit down with your students to draft a list of behaviors and expectations they believe are necessary to successfully learn and for you to help them do so. Students understand what’s appropriate and not appropriate in a classroom, and they’re a world of knowledge when it comes to what should be expected with them. Once you’ve drafted a list of expectations, have your students sign off on it and hang it on your wall so it’s easily accessible.

5. Reward well and often. 

Discipline isn’t just punishing a student for not following the rules, it’s also rewarding a student for respecting their teacher and their classmates. Whether you decide to do whole class calls as mentioned above, or have other ideas for rewarding those students who model good behavior, acknowledgement of positive actions is equally important when it comes to regaining control of your classroom.

*Staff Shout Outs* 

Kristen English for embracing a new way of doing “Morning Work”.

Melissa Horan for implementing a center menu and holding her students accountable during station time. 

March 29, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

As we continue our journey with the growth mindset, why is a differentiated, responsive classroom important to a growth mindset culture?  If an educator views a child through a deficit lens, then that child will not be given opportunities to grow unless she is in a responsive classroom.  Deficit thinking is a practice of making assumptions about a child’s ability based on perceived deficits or because of economic status. Differentiation is “responsive instruction”.  Differentiation is the way a teacher responds to a student’s needs so that each student is challenged at the appropriate level.  Differentiation is key to help students “level up” as described in our Promise 2 Purpose district shared vision.

  

You (Kuehnle teachers) want to be responsive to the potential in all of your students.  Your belief in being responsive is reflective in our Kuehnle Core Vales:  We believe in a shared responsibility for supporting the success of each student. We believe all decisions should be data-driven and based on what is best for children. We believe that every student is special, unique, and capable of learning.

So ask yourself these questions:

·         Do you know how to effectively differentiate/be responsive to the needs of your students?

·         What instructional structures are in place to guarantee a responsive learning environment?

Here’s what Mary Cay Ricci says in Mindsets in the Classroom are the steps to have a responsive, differentiated classroom.

1.       Preview and Pre-assess:  finding out what students know about a particular skill, concept, or topic before planning for instruction.  (This could be done in a math or reading station with a Pre-test.)

2.       Curriculum Compacting:   an instructional strategy that streamlines grade-level curriculum by eliminating content that students have previously learned.

3.       Flexible grouping:  pre-assessment and compacting are necessary components when creating flexible small groups in the classroom. Teachers may find that, after pre-assessment, no student needs compacting, that all of the students how enough understanding that they would benefit from taking less time and eliminating material.  Some students have no gaps to fill and already have a deep understanding.  Some students are ready for enrichment while others need small group teaching/re-teaching. Flexible grouping/guided group is key to the growth mindset.

4.       Acceleration and Enrichment:  Acceleration-moving faster through content, allowing students who have already mastered content or who master content quickly to move on and “level up”.  Enrichment-learning with great depth and breadth; going deep and wide into the content.

5.       Formative Assessment:  checking for understanding during the learning process in order to modify instruction to improve understanding; this is an assessment FOR learning.

6.       Summative Assessment:  assessment OF learning that typically occurs at the end of a unit of study.

Eric Jensen (guru of the brain), author of 2005’s Teaching With the Brain in Mind, pointed out that “Research on brain maturation clearly indicates that the commonly mandated policy of ‘everyone on the same page on the same day’ makes little sense”.  This statement supports both differentiation and grouping (guided groups) with a growth mindset.

Intentional Instruction

Collaborative Community

Nurtured Heart Praises for our Kuehnle Core Values

Hello Teachers & Staff!

Remember, the goal of NHA language is to make it your own. Here are some ideas of how to tie NHA with our Kuehnle Core Values. These are some ideas of  how we can get really specific with our recognitions because remember “Good Job” isn’t enough. It’s junk food. One idea could be to focus on only one thing...for example, educational excellence, and begin to notice and recognize all the greatness you are seeing.

Educational Excellence:

I see the way you are paying attention to detail and I appreciate that skill.

I notice you are using your time well and accomplishing a lot.

You are being marvelous in how you are showing perseverance.

I like how you are making a hard task look easy.

I see your determination and the effort you have made.

Your writing has made others feel good.

Excellent use of logic.

Intentional Loyalty:

You are bringing out the best in others.

I like the way you are having consideration for others.

You are being like sunshine to others.

I really like how you are respecting yourself and others.

You have shown a real awareness in sensing the needs of others.

Collaborative Community:

I love the way you are choosing to be cooperative.

You are being very successful by using good teamwork.

You are being courageous to break away from the pack and do the work in a way that’s true to yourself.

I appreciate the collaboration and helpfulness you are contributing to your group.

*Staff Shout Outs* 

• Our 5th Grade teachers are using Lead4ward strategies and enjoying their students engaged in learning while having fun!! 
• Shout out to all the math teachers for exhibiting Educational Excellence by participating in a book study during this very busy time of year.
• Super STAAR Katie has been rockin' and rollin' with STAAR prep! Kudos and thanks for all you do! You are a ROCK STAAR! 

March 1, 2017

   

Educational Excellence

Growth Mindset

The first step in helping students have a growth mindset…guess what.... YOU are already doing it! Nurtured Heart has taught us that specific praise and proactive recognition is crucial in teaching students exactly what they are doing right and verifies that they are following your expectations.  Remember the “junk food” analogy?  Saying, “you are doing a good job” doesn’t give the student enough information on what they are doing right.  The Growth Mindset also says that “educators must be more aware of the way we praise students if we are journeying down the path of growth mindset school culture”.  Praise such as “you’re so smart” could be detrimental for students who hold a fixed belief about intelligence.  Saying “you’re so smart” is the equivalent of saying “you’re so tall”-what did the child have to do with being tall?  It is just a generic trait that the child had no control over.  Both praise statements recognize no action that the child has put forth.  No effort is recognized.  Instead a teacher might say, “You did a great job on that paper. I can tell you worked very hard”.  Modifying or adding effort to praise is all it takes to send a growth mindset message.

So….take your nurture heart language and expand it beyond behavior recognition and start adding it to your language of recognition of effort in academics.  When adults praise actions or tasks that children “do,” the children attribute accomplishment to their own effort.

Intentional Instruction

Collaborative Community

*Staff Shout Outs* 
If you would like to recognize a colleague for something outstanding, please send the information in an email to Hailey for the next published blog.  

CONGRATULATIONS
 'LIESE ALTENDORF, PAM MUDDIMAN, NANCY WOOD, & CATHY BIRDEN FOR BEING RECOGNIZED THIS YEAR AS THE TEACHER OF THE YEAR AND OUTSTANDING EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR!  

Special Recognition for Mrs. Altendorf, Mrs. Barthelemy, Mrs. Keith, Mrs. Brown, Mr. Austin and Mrs. Lenard.

These fantastic group of educators are successfully and “effortlessly” demonstrating our core values. 

Great work in supporting PE with their hoedown!