New school year, new students and a NEW Evaluation System, Oh my!

I currently work at a Title 1 school who volunteered to be a part of the new evaluation system. There are 14 Phase 1 schools in the county. On Monday, all of the Phase 1 schools received training on the new teacher evaluation system based on the Charlotte Danielson model. This training was presented by fellow teachers from my staff. During the summer they attended a week of training on the new system.  This program is broken up into 4 domains: Domain 1-Planning and Preparation, Domain 2- Classroom Environment, Domain 3- Instruction and Domain 4-Professional Responsibilities.  Within each of these domains, there are several components depending on your job title.
     I have to say that after the first 30 minutes of the training, I was completely overwhelmed and a little freaked out. Looking at all of the papers, the coordinating book and seeing all of the different domains and its components, I wondered if I would have the time to teach or would I have to be focused on meeting each criteria so that my overall evaluation would be positive. Needless to say that as I looked around I was not the only one who seemed to be engulfed in a sea of papers and looking for some help. We received that help from our amazing trainers (Jan, Samantha, Wendy and Marilyn). Each one took a domain and focused on helping us to understand what was required. Marilyn had us discussing verbiage, Wendy and Samantha had us working in groups and Jan had us using visuals. By using several methods of teaching, the trainers explained a multitude of information in ways where each member of the faculty could understand, process and ask pertinent questions.

        Once this section was complete, we still had to learn about the different "Levels of Performance" that each teacher will be evaluated on. This system is ranked from: Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient to Distinguished. This section was the most enlightening because as a teacher I want to be the best (distinguished) all of the time. This in reality is impossible and that is OK!! One of our trainers put it perfectly: "You LIVE in Proficient and you VISIT Distinguished." We as professionals strive to be the best all of the time and that is a great goal BUT there is always room to improve, change or tweak something. I know that we always tell our students that they are "Always Learning" and as teachers we need to remember that we too are "Always Learning."
     Our next training session is on the new Professional Growth Plan (replacing the IPDP). I am looking forward to see what this entails and how this plan will be personalized for my needs.

Singapore Math

I am going to make these to go
with Count and Quack!

I have to admit I was curious when I heard the term Singapore Math.  I think I have a math brain and would rather do math than read a book.  I know kind of crazy right.  I often try to find ways to help with my teaching of math.  Over the years I have found number sense to be a tough subject.  Osceola Elementary sent a group of teachers to the annual Singapore Math Conference this summer.  They in turn are teaching teachers strategies and sharing resources to improve math instruction.  The 3 hour workshop at Turie T. Small Elementary was jam packed with ideas and games to use right away in the classroom.  Kim Fischer, Janet Dockery, and Meredith Gilbert were AMAZING! They started the workshop with a pretty tough word problem.  Yes, the end to our summer...  They also said something so profound, "If I can see it, I can do it!" We then went on the see them "model draw" several word problems.  WOW!  I could see the problems and found another strategy to use with students to teach word problems.  Then it was off to the primary section with Meredith.  She had samples she made, visuals to show, and paper games for us to copy.  I snapped pictures left and right wanting to make sure I had everything documented.  Thanks to these ladies I feel confident about teaching number sense in a different way this year to my first graders.  I truly believe it would make life easier if children really had number sense.  I learned you can't teach number sense it has to be developed.  I plan on keeping in touch with these ladies so I can develop away...

Project Based Learning FUN! Oh yes, FUN for all!

Today we participated in a project based learning workshop led by Steve Waterman and Robert Miller.  Let me give you a little background on these fabulous men!  Steve Waterman was the creator and coordinator for the Project Tides grant.  Steve is Osceola Elementary's Teacher of the Year.  He provided professional  development to teachers at 5 Volusia Schools on how to integrate Apple products and Web 2.0 tools into daily instruction.  Teachers at these 5 schools then collaborated with one another to share student learning. YES that is what this blog is all about!  Robert Miller teaches 5th grade Gifted at Port Orange Elementary.  He is a Distinguished Apple Educator and recently a Google Educator.  He uses Edmodo and video production to enhance his daily teaching and project based learning approach.

If you teach in elementary school you might have seen the Science Probe books floating around your school.  If not you might want to find out who has them and get your hands on them quick.  Each probe starts with a lead in, question, or scenario to get one thinking.  You will then need to think and answer and explain your thinking.  Background information is provided to help with misconceptions and suggested prior knowledge. Robert created a Science Probes Edmodo group for his students.  Instead of printing and answering the worksheets he has created videos to capture attention and use the poll component.

We were to create our own video using our iTouch, MacBook, and iMovie for video editing. You have to check it out below.  We had the best time listening to Robert and Steve and soaking in their knowledge.  They were so creative and informed in how to motivate students, understand their thinking, and where to take them next.  I know I will look for these books at my school and encourage the concept.  I want to make more videos and add them to my youtube channel.  Yes, we even learned how to create a youtube channels to house our videos.  Just think if we made videos and shared them across grade levels...  Just think if you saw them and loved them but didn't have the Apple hardware...well if we collaborate we all win!