Middle School Matters

The big NMSA national convention is coming up soon. Held in Houston, TX on November 7-9, this is one terrific conference. We are getting “geeked” up. Literally. We’re hoping to record some podcast segments while at the conference. Learning and soaking up information will come first, but we do plan on getting some “work” in as well.
Are you going to the conference?
If you are, drop us a note.
If not, what would you like to hear about?

Podcast #8 continues our conversation about Professional Learning Communities. Specifically, we address two of the foundations of PLC’s- Mission and Vision. PLC’s are currently the happening movement in education. One of the best parts of PLC’s is that they are based around the classroom. They also call for all teachers to be involved and part of the process.

The first topic of discussion is the Mission.

Mission is the first building block: Basically, this asks the important question:

Why do we exist?
All schools currently have mission states. All of them sound very similar, this is OK. Next we take on the All kids can learn conumdrum.

This is based upon everyone agreeing that All kids can learn. However, we may have different definitions of what that means. DuFour points out four different possibilities:
All kids can learn
…..based upon their ability. Learning is fixed and educators have little effect. Educators create multiple tracks (pathways) to address the differences in learning. Future is predetemined.
…….if they take advantage of the opportunities. Educators must present things in clear and engaging ways. In the end, it is up to the students though.
…….and we will accept responsibility for ensuring their growth. Educators are responsible to help students grow but the extent of that growth is determined by the student.
……..we will establish high standards of learning that we expect all students to achieve. We create work that results in high level of achievement. We are prepared to work collaboratively with colleagues, students and parents to achieve this shared educational purpose.

The second Building Block: Vision
What do we hope to become?

Vision should present a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization.

5 scenarios of implementing a vision:
Telling
Selling
Testing
Consulting
Co-creating

Although not the most efficent way, co-creating is the most likely to result in a shared vision.
Which level? District needs to be guiding the schools.
All stakeholders should be engaged.
How long? Some say once it’s done, it’s done. Some say that it should be done annually. These authors suggest a 5-7 year cycle.

Benefits:
Motivates & Energizes people
Proactive orientation
Gives direction to people within the organization
Establishes specific standards of excellence
Sets a clear agenda for action

Everyone must be ready to wrestle with 2 important questions:
What is it that we expect all students to learn?
How will we respond when they do not learn?

What are your thoughts?

One of those things we practice and hope we never have to use, a District Disaster Plan.  Today we had put ours into action and the kids pulled through nicely.  We had a chemical spill upwind from us today and had to evacuate to another location.  We were fortunate in that the rain in the forecast today held off and kept the situation from being worse than a precautionary evacuation.  The kids followed the plan like we practiced and although excited by the evacuation, kept their cool, followed directions and showed the news that middle schoolers can pull together.  Huge thanks to Baker College for hosting the evacuation site!

Show #7 A Little PLC

One of our most serious shows, we start the discussion of Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s). Specifically, we use DuFour and Eaker’s Book (Professional Learning Communities at Work – Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement) as a starting point. Here’s an overview of what we talk about:

Previous School Reform:

• 1983 -National Commission of Excellence Movement – Consistent direction- schools just needed to do more!
• Goals 2000
  • All Children will start school ready to learn
  • HS graduation rate will increase to at least 90%
  • American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated compentecy in challenging subject matter (including English, math, science, history, and geography)
  • US students will be first in the world in math & science
  • Every adult American will be literate
  • Every school in America will be free of drugs & violence and will offer a disciplined environment that is conducive to learning
• Restructuring Movement
  • site-based management
  • bottom up change
  • too vague
• According to a recent report, most teachers believe that schools are doing as well as possible given societal problems and parental involvement. This would mean that school improvement must be made outside of school. This argument assumes that what happens in school is largely irrelevant.

Why has school reform failed:

• The complexity of the task
• Misplaced focus
• Lack of clarity of intended results
• Lack of perserverance
• Failure to appreciate and attend to the change process

Next we discuss the characteristics of a PLC:

• Shared mission, vision, values
• Collective inquiry
• Collaborative teams
• Action Orientation & experimentation
• Continuous improvement
• Results orientation

Change is difficult:

1. Allowing too much complacency
2. Failing to create sufficiently powerful guiding coalition
3. Underestimating the power of vision
4. Undercommunicating the vision by a power of 10
5. Permitting structural and cultural obstacles to block the change process
6. Failing to create short-term wins
7. Declaring victory too soon
8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the culture

Download Directly:

http://www.divshare.com/download/2349510-4cd

On the “Podcast” tab you can listen to the show directly. No need to download or go to iTunes.

Try it with the latest show.

We’re looking forward to attending the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference. We hope to provide you with several posts about our experiences there. This is always one of the very best conferences around. If you have the opportunity- Go.

In episode #6, we take a look at Common Assessments. We discuss the various levels of common assessement, the structure and Formative vs Summative assessments. We also take a quick look at the assessments from a students point of view.

We even take a look at a video from Carpenter Middle School. (This one is from TeacheTube).

We also take a look at some technology that can help.

Finally, we discuss rubrics (and where you can make them easily).

Links:
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/caf/ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:zs7bPB9twksJ:www.fremont.k12.ca.us/ahs/Small_Learning_Communities/May%25201/Common%2520Outcomes%2520Master%2520April.pdf+Common+Assessments&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1NtthAmUDvgJ:www.smcaa.org/file_library/Five%2520Ws%2520Common%2520Assessments.ppt+Common+Assessments&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/dufour231.cfm

http://www4.nau.edu/assessment/main/course/csexamples.pdf

http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=46
Let us know about the new opening.

Hey, on this week’s show we take a look at Homework. Why do we even have homework? What is the theory behind homework? Why are some parents trying to stop homework? Shawn and I discuss whether or not homework should be an every night experience and how much is enough? how much is “too much”? What are some ideas behind getting more homework turned in? Tune in to the podcast for all the answers, but here’s a taste of some of the discussion.

Vicki Quinn is a new teacher who writes about her experience in examining homework. She found that the best came from (surprise, surprise) students. She had started by always giving homework under the belief that it would help students stay focused and learn new skills. However, she soon discovered that the students weren’t participating in class discussions, (why read the stuff for homework if the teacher is just going to discuss it anyway?), and were failing basic comprehension quizzes. She also came to the realization that her 20-40 minutes of homework was combined with other classes to add up to 4 hours of homework every evening. She asked around about homework policies and discovered that there was no uniformity in ideas, beliefs or theories. She decided to ask the students. They also gave her mixed results. Some had no problem with time management or outside activities. Others preferred to do homework during the week and have weekends to relax.

One idea is to make sure that the homework has more relevance. Wormeli points out that students will quickly tire of copying sections (answers) from the chapter. There are a myriad of other ways that students can demonstrate knowledge, or move the information from short term into long term memory. One of those methods is called RAFT (Roles, Audience, Formats, Time). This allows students to take a point of view and “argue” from that point. Wormeli provides an example, borrowed from his article, below:

RAFT [from Rick Wormeli’s “Help With Homework“]

Figure 1.

One of the really nice things about this is that a teacher could quickly set this up. It allows for students to take different roles without a ton of time or work from the teacher. Once the students had done a couple, the teacher could provide a couple for each row and then solicit other examples from the students.

Some tips for parents (or to share with parents):

• Emphasize quality over quantity.
• Take time to discuss homework completed. Ask your child to explain the key ideas.
• Ask to see homework that has been checked by a teacher. If students know homework will be checked, they are more likely to complete it.

from the NMSA webpage, The Family Connection, 2004, Vol. 8., No. 1

Tips for Success! [from: http://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/midlschl/homework.htm ]

1. Write down assignments. Calendars, planners, or learning logs are great!
2. Use self-stick notes. Attach them to books needed for homework. Take home everything with a note on it.
3. Get organized. File papers and divide a binder into sections or designate folders for each subject.
4. Make “to do” lists. Create a list of tasks to complete during study time. Crossing them off will help stay focused and feel a sense of accomplishment.
5. Set up a study spot. Choose a place that is well lit, quiet, comfortable, neat, stocked with the needed supplies, and attractive.
6. Stick with study routine. Consider setting a required work time when your child is most alert.
7. Set priorities. Make test preparation a priority over other activities. . It is probably best to start with the hardest subjects because they demand the most energy and attention. However, sometime starting with the easy parts may help get started. Short, regular breaks help most people think better.
8. Be supportive. Expect that homework/studying will always be done well. Keep a positive attitude. Keep criticisms to a minimum. Be a good listener to your child’s frustrations, and help your child set reasonable goals for reading and writing assignments, test preparation, and projects.
9. Follow through. Encourage your child to review all assignments before placing them in his/her backpack If your child doesn’t complete homework, consider reducing the freedom your child has until grades and effort improve.
10. Reward orderliness and hard work. Display well-done work in a prominent place in your home.

We also discuss the movement against homework. Most of this seems to be centered at the elementary level, but still we need to be aware that there are some parents against it.
Homework Articles:

• http://www.weac.org/newteachers/2005-06/sept05/vickiquinn.htm
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_43/ai_n6361600
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_43/ai_n6361599
• http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleGround/Articles/February2002/Article6/tabid/203/Default.aspx
• http://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/midlschl/homework.htm

Join us next week. Our intended topic is Common Assessment. Drop us your questions at middleschooleducators@gmail.com