Category Archives: Learning

Conferences, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Questions, Reflection

The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress Day 1

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Rhonda Mitchell (@rgmteach) and I are attending The Science of Early Learning and Adversity: Daily Leadership to Promote Development and Buffer Stress at The Saul Zaentz Professional Learning Academy. This professional development features keynote speaker Walter Gilliam (@WalterGilliam).

How can early education leaders support the design and implementation of strong early learning environments—those that buffer stress, reduce challenging behaviors, and promote development?

Agenda (with my notes)

Today’s Early Education Landscape
with Nonie Lesaux and Stephanie Jones

Understanding Stress and Behavior
in the Early Education Environment
with Walter Gilliam

Reflection and Application
with Walter Gilliam and the Zaentz Team
facilitated by Robin Kane

Strategic Planning Session
facilitated by Robin Kane and Emily Bautista

My list to think about, reflect on, and grapple with  from today includes:

  • Micro-stresses pile up.
  • How might we pay attention to and recognize stress?
    (Student stress, teacher stress, family stress, leadership stress.)
  • Empathy: Who is it given to? From whom is it withheld?
  • What are we looking for and who are we looking at?
  • How might we anticipate expected “unexpected” events?
  • What structures can be put in place to support learners, teachers, families, leaders?
  • When sharing information about a learner, check intent. Are we sharing knowledge and understanding to support the learner?
    • Can we offer evidence to show what we know and understand?
    • Can we share information without adding judgement and labels?
Connecting Ideas, Learning, Presentations, Professional Development Plans

Summer PD: Day 2 Mathematical Flexibility

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Summer Literacy and Mathematics Professional Learning
June 5-9, 2017
Day 2 – Mathematical Flexibility
Jill Gough and Becky Holden

Today’s focus and essential learning:

I can demonstrate mathematical flexibility to show what I know in more than one way.

(but , what if I can’t?)

Learning target and pathway:

Mathematics is a subject that allows for precise thinking, but when that precise thinking is combined with creativity, flexibility, and multiplicity of ideas, the mathematics comes alive for people (Boaler, 58 pag.)

…we know that what separates high achievers from low achievers is not that high achievers know more math, it is that they interact with numbers flexibly and low achievers don’t.  (Boaler, n. pag.)

UED: 8:45 – 11:15  / EED: 1:15 – 2:45

 Slide deck

Resources:

#LL2LU, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Learning Progressions, Presentations, Professional Development Plans, Questions

Summer PD: Day 1 Make Sense; Persevere

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Summer Literacy and Mathematics Professional Learning
June 5-9, 2017
Day 1 – Make Sense and Persevere
Jill Gough and Becky Holden

Today’s focus and essential learning:

We want all mathematicians to be able to say:

I can make sense of tasks
 and persevere in solving them.

(but… what if I can’t?)

Great teachers lead us just far enough down a path so we can challenge for ourselves. They provide us just enough insight so we can work toward a solution that makes us, makes me want to jump up and shout out the solution to the world, makes me want to step to the next higher level.  Great teachers somehow make us want to ask the questions that they want us to answer, overcome the challenge that they, because they are our teacher, believe we need to overcome. (Lichtman, 20 pag.)

… designed to help students slow down and really think about problems rather than jumping right into solving them. In making this a routine approach to solving problems, she provided students with a lot of practice and helped them develop a habit of mind for reading and solving problems.  (Flynn, 19 pag.)

Screen Shot 2017-06-06 at 7.53.02 AM.png

Agenda and Tasks:

Slide deck:

Resources:

Connecting Ideas, Information Age Learning, Learning, Learning Progressions, Professional Development Plans, Reading, Social-Emotional, Summer Reading, TED talk

Summer Learning 2017 – Choices and VTR – here’s the data

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In a previous post, Summer Learning 2017 – Flyer and Choices, I describe our summer learning plans and choices.  We make a commitment to read and learn every summer.  This year, in addition to books and a stream of TED talks, Voices of Diversity, we offer the opportunity to read children’s literature and design learning intentions around character and values.

Here’s the data on what we selected to learn:

Another way to consider the data:

Throughout the year, the Academic Leadership Team has been working with teacher-teams in many ways in support of our team goal shown below.

We can design and implement a differentiated action plan across our  divisions to meet all learners where they are.

Tier 1 Differentiation: Learner Choice and Voice

Our plan involves using the Visible Thinking Routine Sentence-Phrase-Word across all selections to notice and note important, thought-provoking ideas.

Tier 2 Differentiation: Level Up Pathway to Success

To meet our expectations, learners should read, view, or plan closely using the Visible Thinking Routine Sentence-Phrase-Word when engaging with their selection.  To exceed our expectations, learners again have choice.  They can use both Sentence-Phrase-Word and Connect-Extend-Challenge for deeper, connected thinking. Or, learners can learn and share publicly using #TrinityLearns, #TrinityReads or posting comments on the connected blog pages for reading a book, viewing the TED talks, or using children’s literature to build character foundation.

Be together, not the same. Learn and share. Level up when you can.

Assessment, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Questions, Reading, Reflection, Sketch Notes

#LessonClose with @TracyZager at #MtHolyokeMath

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I’m taking X.MTHED-404: Effective Practices for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics (K-12).

Here are my notes from Session 8, Lesson Close with Tracy Zager.

Tracy’s session connects, for me, to a practitioner’s corner in David Sousa’s How the Brain Learns.  He writes

Closure describes the covert process whereby the learner’s working memory summarizes for itself its perception of what has been learned.  It is during closure that a student often completes the rehearsal process and attaches sense and meaning to the new learning, thereby increasing the probability that it will be retained in long-term storage. (p. 69)

How might we take up Tracy’s challenge to “never skip the close?” What new habits must we gain in order to make sure the close is useful to the learner?

Sousa continues

Closure is different from review. In review, the teacher does most of the work, repeating key concepts made during the lesson and rechecking student understanding.  In closure, the student does most of the work by mentally rehearsing and summarizing those concepts and deciding whether they make sense and have meaning. (p. 69)

What new habits must we gain in order to make sure the close is helps them reflect on learning, make connections, and/or ask new questions? In other words, do we plan intention time for learners to make sense of the task?

Closure is an investment than can pay off dramatically in increased retention of learning. (Sousa, p. 69)

Sousa, David A. How the Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage, 2006. Print.

#LL2LU, Connecting Ideas, Learning, Questions, Reading, TED talk

Summer Learning 2017 – Choices and VTR

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How do we learn and grow when we are apart? We workshop, plan, play, rest, and read to name just a few of our actions and strategies.

We make a commitment to read and learn every summer.  This year, in addition to books and a stream of TED talks, Voices of Diversity, we offer the opportunity to read children’s literature and design learning intentions around character and values.

Below is the Summer Learning flyer announcing the choices for this summer.

We will continue to use the Visible Thinking Routine Sentence-Phrase-Word to notice and note important, thought-provoking ideas. This routine aims to illuminate what the reader finds important and worthwhile.

Sentence-Phrase-Word helps learners to engage with and make meaning from text with a particular focus on capturing the essence of the text or “what speaks to you.” It fosters enhanced discussion while drawing attention to the power of language. (Ritchhart, 207 pag.)

However, the power and promise of this routine lies in the discussion of why a particular word, a single phrase, and a sentence stood out for each individual in the group as the catalyst for rich discussion . It is in these discussions that learners must justify their choices and explain what it was that spoke to them in each of their choices. (Ritchhart, 208 pag.)

Continuing to work on our goal, We can design and implement a differentiated action plan across our divisions school to meet all learners where they are, we make our thinking visible on ways to level up.

When we share what resonates with us, we offer others our perspective.  What if we engage in conversation to learn and share from multiple points of view?

Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print

Ask Don't Tell, Connecting Ideas, Creativity, Learning, Sketch Notes

Building and Sustaining the Culture of Problem Solving in our Classroom with @FawnPNguyen #MtHolyokeMath

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I’m taking X.MTHED-404: Effective Practices for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics (K-12).

Here are my notes from Session 7, Building and Sustaining the Culture of Problem Solving in our Classroom, with Fawn Nguyen

I am struck by Fawn’s initial purpose. Building and sustaining a culture of problem solving in our classrooms demands vision with plans and commitment with continual growth through feedback.

How to we make use of structure in our planning to narrow our resources to build and sustain coherence and connectedness? Wen we plan, are we intentionally connecting to standards and intentionally stepping away from them to promote problem solving, visual learning, and deepening understanding?

What tasks do we select? How much time do we spend? And, most importantly, how do we show faith in our learners to promote productive, creative struggle?

Notes from previous sessions:

.