ENVoY

ENVoY  (Educational Non-Verbal Yardsticks)  A guide to classroom management
Michael Grinder, Founder

In June I attended the two-day training seminar for this systematic approach to non-verbal management.  I'd like to share my following brief summary.

While I am teaching, I will try to keep in mind the power of influence with these four focus points:

Body
     Posture (straight, weight even on both feet)
     Proximity (silently move to routine place in front of class)
     Location (stand still & settle in a freeze-body position)

Voice
     Volume (use ABOVE (p a u s e) whisper! )
     Speed
     Tone

Eyes
     Where (varies for certain situations)
     When                    "

Breathing
     Break & Breathe (use this technique when needed)
     Low and deep

The Book Whisperer

The Book Whisperer is amazing!  Donalyn Miller synthesizes years of research along with what she has tried in her own sixth-grade classroom to motivate students to become life-long, passionate readers.  

She starts by stealing every available moment for students to read their independent books.  Donalyn references Stephen Krashen when she states "no single literacy activity has a more positive effect on students' comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, spelling, writing ability, and overall academic achievement than free voluntary reading.   Students enter Donalyn's classroom, get out their books, and start reading.  If the phone rings during the middle of a lesson, students know to start reading their books.  If they finish early, they read.  Donalyn admits, kids are busy.  "If I don't make time for them to read in school, why should they make time for it in their life?"

Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence.  If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.     -Horace Mann

Students in her class are expected to read 40 books a year.  They are given some guidelines about genres, otherwise they are free to make choices about what books to read.  

Donalyn teaches content lessons.  Students practice in pairs with mentor texts and then they practice individually using their independent reading materials.  The results for her have been positive.  Students are engaged, behavior problems are minimal and test scores are up.

This book makes me wonder what giving up time at the front end of my class and having high expectations for book reading would look like in my classroom.  Do I have enough books in the different genres to support this approach?  Should I reorganize my classroom library by genre?  What is the best way to ensure that each student is engaged and reaching their potential while reading independent books?  How could technology support this mind shift?  I think I will read Visible Learning for Literacy before deciding.

Hacking Writing

For those of you not familiar with the term "hacking" in education it is a term used to rethink, examine, and challenge the status quo in education. There are a few books that fit this type of thinking (e.g., Hacking Assessment, Hacking Writing, and Teach Like a Pirate).

The picture above is from a popular game called Clash of Clans (CoC). I am sure a few of you have seen some of your students playing this game during class or in the halls ways, right? Well, why not use this powerful game to your advantage. I see multiple ways that students could translate this game to meaningful learning. Let's look at a few of them.

Maybe the most obvious way is the application to social studies. What about comparing a battle on CoC to the Battle of Gettysburg or or Stalingrad. Students could research the battle then compare the forces used in both. What type of weaponry and military tactics would be different on CoC? Of course there are a plethora of ways to enrich learning. Just think of the worst ideas. Often times they are the best ideas.

Another way to use this is for math and ratios, calculating and saving (a life skill that many adults need). For example, I have three gold mine producing 3500 units of gold per hour. I need 103,000 more units of gold to upgrade my defenses. How long will it take me to earn this gold? Students would have to prioritize what is more important in the game and blog about it. They could defend their reasoning by talking or blogging to comments from other students. So many ways to inspire students to learn these critical skills.

I have lots of other ideas about how to use games and gamification in the classroom. If you have and interest or comment, please let me know.

Happy Fourth of July.

Energy Educators Workshop Tidbits from Monnet & Nelson

Energy Education Workshop Tidbits

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

What we learned from our Energy Workshop

We had the opportunity to tour the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant (hardhats required!) and were impressed with the high level of security (yes we did challenge their procedure and opened the doors the "wrong" way and had security called down to let us out), and the continuous training the employees go through to ensure the safety of the plant. 

We also toured the Hasting Hydro Plant and got to stand at the bottom of the river with the huge turbines (above our heads) with the Mississippi river water flowing through them! 

MN is required to generate about 20% renewable energy and we learned that we do that (and more) through nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and biomass. 

The MN Energy Center sponsored this class. We received valuable resources that we will be able to implement into our classrooms next year. 

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The Flipped Classroom

Next week, three  of us from the math department are meeting during curriculum writing to work on the concept of "flipped classrooms."  I have been reading a book called "Flip Your Classroom:  Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day" by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams in order to learn more about it.

In case you don't know, let me explain what a flipped classroom is.  In a nutshell, it is when students learn the material at home via a video, book, or some other method and they do the "homework" problems at school with the teacher and the rest of the class there to help.

The rationale for the flipped classroom is the idea that today's youth love to watch things on the internet such as You Tube and so giving them the lesson online will increase engagement.  Another reason is that the students get help with their homework from a professional and not whomever may be at home.

I am willing to try anything that they say helps student achievement, but I have my doubts about completely flipping the whole year.  I tried it once a while ago and not one student said they preferred it over the traditional way.  They said they liked the interaction and the ability to ask questions during the lesson.

I went to a workshop once given by teachers in Byron that have been flipping their classroom and the data they gathered did not show any significant results on standardized tests and final exams.

I am wondering if maybe the flipped classroom is better than a traditional lecture format where the teacher talks the whole time and students do the homework completely at home but maybe it isn't better than the format where we go over homework from the night before, give the lesson using periodic formative assessments to check for understanding, and maybe do an activity or something else that different than a lecture.  I almost always give my class time to start the homework in class where i can help them.

Maybe I'll try a lesson or two using the flipped method next year and then survey the class or assess them to see how much it helped.  We'll see how far we get with the curriculum writing next week.

Helping Kids During Crisis

Following the tragedy in Orlando, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) posted crisis resources on their website in hopes of helping adults to better address the needs of students following a crisis.  The link below will bring you to the ASCA website where you will find webinars (free to watch I believe), links to support sites, and a helpful walk-through titled The Orlando Shootings: Parents' Guide to Talking to Children.  Even if we don’t have connections with Orlando, we are all left with questions and emotions that are hard to explain and our students are no different.

While some of the information on the ASCA website directly focuses on how to respond after the Orlando tragedy, the resources can apply beyond Orlando to crises that our community here in Rochester experiences.  I think back to the two situations we had at Willow Creek this past year and how that not only impacted the students at that school but some of our students here at Friedell.  Death, tragedy, and change are hard concepts for adolescent students to comprehend and cope with, even if the situation is removed from their personal life. At the same time, it can be hard for us as adults to know how to address student feelings that come with such unfortunate events.  The information listed here can help ease some of that difficulty and gives us some guidance on how to explain what seem like unexplainable acts and events.

http://schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/professional-development/2016-webinar-series/learn-more/helping-kids-during-crisis

Minnesota School Counselor Conference (MSCA) 2016

This past Spring, Duellman and I attended the annual Minnesota School Counselor Association Conference (MSCA).  This conference is held every year in Brainerd, MN and this year's theme was "Find your Inner Superhero".  The conference is a great chance for Heather and I to collaborate with fellow counselors and talk about common issues/trends that we are seeing within our schools.  Sessions at the conference vary in topic from career counseling to providing support for students struggling with mental health.  The conference is a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about best practices being used across the state and to reaffirm our beliefs and passions as counselors.

 

Heather and I were able to attend the following break-out sessions at this year's conference:

 

Increasing Group Counseling Effectiveness - School and University Collaboration

Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Schools

Anxious Youth: A Practitioner's Toolbox for Group Sessions

Gender Considerations

Counselor PLC's

Restorative Practices in K-12 Schools

 

Check-out our Google slides for a little more information on each of these sessions and some of our thoughts!  Let us know if you have any questions!



https://docs.google.com/a/isd535.org/presentation/d/1_GbR8CVtBfAUF3hajJtkS2SArv2w65iSm7o5VW21bv8/edit?usp=sharing