Pop Tart Habits

 

What were your bad habits during our long quarantine time? 

I had a late-night impulse buy of Pop Tarts once in April or May that I could not take back. Once Pop-Tarts entered our house, they became part of the family and we loved them and adopted them. 

I know they’re crap for nutrition. But tasty, tasty crap. Mmmmmm... 

So, two days into Weird Pandemic Teaching already? It’s definitely getting better, but still messy, I think, huh? 

Before you go any further into this school year, do yourself and your kids and families a favor. 

Ask them how it’s going. NOW. Before you get into any bad habits. Or before the kids get into bad habits. Or before things just... happen... in an unintentional way...

I know it’s harder than ever before to gauge how things are going. Some kids are at home. Some of THOSE kids have cameras on and some don’t. Some of your kids are in your classroom. Those kids have masks on, making it harder to read their faces than usual. 

Plus it doesn’t help that we are spending half our days troubleshooting our tech and not spending as much time really bonding with our students as usual. 

So, do yourself and your kids and families a favor. 

Ask them how it’s going. 

And then, read their answers and adapt your class if and in ways that you can. 

Now, quick -- before you pick up a ridiculous Pop-Tart habit (or worse, a weird new teaching/learning/management habit) that you don’t want to have to unlearn.  (Poptarts, I dread quitting you!)

I made you some survey questions you can ask. You can put them in Canvas or in Teams or on the board or in a Word Doc. Have kids answer in Forms or in Canvas or on a notecard. I know there’s so much variation with how you’re doing all this. 

But here’s one template you can use in Canvas. (you can also search in Canvas for “Newman” and “survey”). You can copy it into your course (it’s an assignment) and then you can see how this is going for your kids. 

I get it. It’s hard to see how kids are through a computer, with some cameras on and some off while you’re teaching live with masks on to make face-reading harder, too. It’s a lot. So, instead of guessing or waiting for eight million questions -- ask the kids right up front. It might help! 

Don’t wait for bad habits to form. Nip those bad habits in the bud and find out what’s happening now.  Before your whole family (I mean class) is addicted to pop tarts) Full survey link  https://lor.instructure.com/resources/59d61d3e45944bef8fa12296313f3cd1?shared  

And as always, let me know how it’s going. I want to hear. The good, the bad, and the crazy. Let me know! 

-Tracy

Mid Year Checkup

Welcome back, colleagues!

I hope you had a wonderful, restful break full of puppies, babies, margaritas, snowballs, books, bowl games, cookies, binge-watching,or whatever are some of your favorite things

Happy half-way point! Today, we are halfway through the school year. Your first semester is finished and our new semester is just beginning.

This is the perfect time for a little self reflection.

Now, you may or may not have made new year’s resolutions. It’s none of my business how many pounds you want to lose or how much money you want to save.

But it is (a little bit) my business to help you think about some mid-year check up  goals.

No, not at the doctor! That’s not my business either.

No, let’s talk mid-year teaching check up.

I read a great article in Edutopia that helps us to look both backwards and forwards here at the mid-point of our year.

First, take a look back at first semester and look at the things you have accomplished so far. Write them down, no matter how small they might seem

• Maybe you have streamlined your discipline plan from last year.   
• Maybe you have tried out some standards-based grading.
• Maybe you have taught some new benchmarks or strategies that you feel confident about.
• Maybe you re-arranged your room and it’s really working better.
• Maybe you incorporated enough collaboration that it finally feels normal and natural!
• Maybe you have made end-of-the-period formative assessment a consistent habit.
• Maybe you finally found someone to sit next to THAT kid who doesn’t exacerbate the problem!

Give yourself some kudos, pats-on-the-back, or margaritas and recognize your accomplishments. Then, write them down somewhere that you will see them again. On a sisyphean day when it feels like you never accomplish anything, take it out and remind yourself (and others) of you accomplishments.

This can also help you see patterns where you have already spent a lot of time or what got the most attention from you.

Next, start jotting down areas where you’d like to grow. Ask yourself some questions...

• What am I struggling to accomplish?
• Where do I need more help?
• Now that I have accomplished ___, a good “next step” might be ___
• Even though I share responsibility over ___  with (parents, administrators, etc.), how can work on MY corner of the problem?
• What areas of frustration exist in my classroom? How can I make them less frustrating?
• Now that I reached Kid 1, how can I try differently to reach Kid 2? Or class 2?

Now, pick one or two of those areas and think about an action plan.

• What PD might help?
• What book or reputable online resource can I use (but not Teachers Pay Teachers)?
• Who can I talk to about this goal?
• What steps can I try?

The best advice I heard? Find a PD Buddy (although a less-goofy name might make it more palatable) and hold each other accountable. Just like a Weight-Watchers group or quitting-smoking friend or  a running partner can help you stay on track, a PD Partner (I’m trying that name out. How does it sound?) who has similar goals can help you stay focused on your goal and can help you problem-solve it.

Don’t do it because of your evaluation.

Don’t do it because Marzano, or Dr. Grego, or your principal says so.

Do it because we all have areas where we can grow. Even the Teacher of the Year has areas for growth and challenges.

What do you want to work on?

YOU decide and then YOU make a plan.

Do you need someone to talk it out with? Don’t have a PD Partner to help you out? Just want to think out loud or on paper? Email me! Newmantr@pcsb.org

And Happy New Year!

That's So Meta

Metacognition is often defined as “thinking about thinking”. . Kids need metacognition for learning so that they can improve their reading, thinking and learning.

Why?

• Metacognition increases students abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks.
• They can think about the task and the context of different learning situations.
• It can help them think of themselves in different contexts.
• It can help kids become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, group members, etc.
• It gives kids the awareness of problems that need to be solved -- whether knowledge gaps, behavior issues, or social concerns.

The short argument is that metacognition helps kids learn. It helps them remember what they learned last year (or yesterday) and combine it with what they’re learning today. It helps them apply strategies from one lesson to another. It helps them know their own strengths and weaknesses  -- and then strengthen the weaknesses and build on the strengths.

The end-goal is for kids to become self guided. We can’t always do all the guiding. Someday, our little birdies will fly out of our nests and they need to be able to assess the situations that may arise and make to make in-flight decisions on their own

It makes kids become a part of their learning process. It helps us make learning something we do WITH them not, TO them.

It’s putting the “why” behind everything, everything you do.

It is an executive skill that helps kids MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.  

But it’s not a natural thought process for all kids. So how can we teach them to think about their thinking?

We can intentionally build it in to our classes, particularly with Formative Assessment (i.e. checks for understanding).

Here are my favorite ways of addressing Metacognition through Formative Assessment:

1. Misconception Check: Give kids a common Misconception statement about a topic. Have students quickwrite to explain why they agree or disagree with it.
2. Anticipation Guide: Choose several statements from the lesson you are about to teach that can be answered as True or False (make sure to have a few of each). Before the lesson, ask kids to give their best guesses and answer each statement. AFTER the lesson, ask kids to answer the same statements -- but this time, their answer should be based on learning. THis helps kids see where they learned and grew within a lesson.
3. Muddiest (or Clearest Point): At the end of a lesson, ask kids “What is the ‘muddiest’ point from today?”, meaning, what are you still confused about. You can drill down further and ask “what do you find unclear about the concept of Manifest Destiny?”. Alternately, you can ask about the “clearest point” and discuss the portion of the lesson that your students DO understand the most clearly.
4. I Used To Think But Now I Know At the end of a lesson, have kids complete the  sentence to see what they have learned about the lesson. “I used to think ______ but now I know ____________.
5. Four Corners: Have students choose a corner based on their level of learning for a particular topic. Once students have chosen their corners, allow them to discuss their progress with people who are in a similar point in their learning. Then, pair Corner 1 & 3 and 2& 4 for peer tutoring. For example, choose a corner based on your knowledge of the impact of Constitutional Rights:
1. Corner 1: The Dirt Road (There’s so much dust, I can’t see where I’m going!)
2. Corner 2: The Paved Road (It’s fairly smooth but there are a lot of potholes)
3. Corner 3: The Highway (I feel fairly confident bbut have occasional slowdowns)
4. Corner 4: The Interstate (I’m travelling along and could easily give directions to someone else)

How can you teach your kids to use metacognition? It will increase everything from their reading to their content knowledge to their test-taking to their real-life problem solving! I love to hear how you teach metacognitive skills in your class! Email me newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy