Nuts/Bolts - Week of 4/3/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Focus on positive students!
- Supervision Team A - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - Please see the updated flowchart 
- Sign CICO Forms Daily! - Remind students!
- MTSS - Document interventions in this shared space

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Monday, 4/3 - Homeroom Lesson 8, Part 2
Tuesday, 4/4 - 
Wednesday, 4/5 - Tie Dye Day, PLC = Vertical Teams, 5-8pm REACH Foundation MS Track 
                            Meet @YLHS
Thursday, 4/6 - Open House 6:30-7:15pm
Friday, 4/7 - End of 3rd Qtr. + Positive Behavior Reward / Minimum Day Schedule

Shout Out! - Dana Worden

This week's shout out goes to Dana Worden. Dana, once again, took the lead and planned a fantastic Career Day for our students today. This was in tandem with presenting registration information to all students, collecting registration cards, facilitating high school counselor vists, GATE Shadow day, etc. She continues to identify students with 10+ missing assignments to assign to ZAP, counsels students with social/emotional needs, and works hard each and every day with a laser focus on students. Thanks for all you continue to do to serve our students Dana! 

Tech Tip: Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is an online and iOS platform to create cool images, videos, and websites. There's a great article about how to integrate its tools with Google Classroom. I have the app on my phone and it's pretty slick and produces some high-quality products. Add it to your "menu of options" for a class project and let students explore and design using the tool! 

Sharing the Depth of Knowledge Wheel With Students

In this Edutopia article, there are tips for integrating Webb's Depth of Knowledge with students. The article first starts with a focus on the importance of integrating literacy skills across all content areas; something Travis Ranch teachers do with purpose and pride! The research supports that literacy instruction includes the following:  vocabulary instruction, comprehension strategy instruction, opportunities to discuss surrounding texts, work that enhances student motivation and engagement, and individualized intervention resources. 

Later on, authors describe how they deliberately teach the DoK wheel while encouraging learners to formulate their own questions. This culminates in "rich, metacognitive learning experiences."

Finally, the article gives a great implementation strategy for use in any classroom:

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 3/27/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Focus on positive students! SSC Student Rep called for 8th grade teachers to step it up a notch! :-0
- Supervision Team B - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral
- Sign CICO Forms Daily! - Remind students!
- MTSS - Document interventions in this shared space
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Monday, 3/27 - Homeroom Lesson 8, Part 1
Tuesday, 3/28 - Band @ EDHS for Festival, Advanced Women's Ensemble Fieldtrip
Wednesday, 3/29 - Horizontal PLC (discuss intervention model for 4th qtr.); department and 
                               other awards nominations
Thursday, 3/30 - HS Counselors collect registration forms
Friday, 3/31 - MS 3rd Annual Career Day Schedule; Happy Hour Anybody?

Saturday, 4/1 - PRIDE Day, 9am-12pm

This was reviewed at our meeting 11/16/16. Let's keep our commitment! 

Shout Out: Sharon Fagan & Jalinda Larkin

Every morning when I walk into our front office, I'm greeted by Sharon's smile. She is truly the first point of contact for parents, students, community members, and staff. Not only does she ensure visitors, guests, and volunteers get where they are needed, but she does so with warmth and kindness. She coordinates our Watch DOGS' schedules, submits and follows up on work orders, covers the health office, uploads pictures to our main office TV, takes incoming calls, and the list goes on and on and on... 

Jalinda is an amazing sidekick not only to her colleagues in the main office but to all of us! She is Cynde's ASB clerk handling all incoming and outgoing ASB $$, assists Dana with master scheduling and schedule changes, manages the 100+ calendars we have, is my personal go to for help with queries, produces our recognition certificates for students, handles incoming calls & the health office, and on and on and on... 

We're all VERY lucky to have both of you on the front line Sharon. Thanks for your dedication to making Travis Ranch an efficient, friendly, and welcoming place! 

Tech Tip: ClassFlow is the new Promethean Planet

When's the last time you visited "Promethean Planet" to grab some flipcharts or resource packs? It had been a while for me too. I went there and it's been totally revamped. It's now called "Class Flow". They've got a slick new search engine and just a better "browsing" experience. Their "Lesson Marketplace" provides you free resources of already created content by subject and grade level.

Even more advanced, you can build lessons, assignments, assessments, etc. from this online platform and connect your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts. Here's an overview video and a link to a beginner's tutorial.

Emotional Agility as a Tool to Help Teens Manage Their Feelings

This article from KQED's Mindshift page addresses the "prevalence of depression in adolescents has increased in the last decade." We observe this trend on our campus and across the district, seeking research-based strategies to ensure students are equipped to handle the school and home environment with "emotional agility. "Emotional agility is defined as “being aware and accepting of all your emotions, even learning from the most difficult ones,” and being able to “live in the moment with a clear reading of present circumstances, respond appropriately, and then act in alignment with your deepest values.”

According to the article, "Two strategies parents and teachers can draw on are: values affirmation and autonomy. Research out of Stanford University found that asking middle school students to reflect and write about the things that truly mattered to them during stressful points in the school year resulted in significant academic gains, particularly for at-risk students."

This quote summed up the best approach if/when we encounter a child (or adult) in duress: 'When children and adolescents are very upset, literally just the presence of a loving person helps to de-escalate and creates the space where calm is invited in.”

Parents and teachers can support teens by providing them with scaffolded autonomy, giving them opportunities to try (and fail) to solve problems, talking through their choices and potential outcomes, offering them authentic choices and resisting the impulse to rush in to save the day.

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 3/20/17

Room 27 - Please actively monitor student's on any/all computers. Several computers in Room 27 have been tampered with. Consider requiring students to show you their screen before they logoff. 
- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Celebrate and Empower Students!
- Supervision Team A - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referrals - Curious what students are being referred for most? - Data Snapshot
- Sign CICO Forms Daily! - Please remind students! Teacher-driven intervention! 
- MTSS - If you are implementing academic, behavioral, or social/emotional interventions 
  with student(s) consider documenting them in this shared space

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Sunday 3/19 - REACH Foundation ShamRock n' Run @ Yorba Regional 

Monday 3/20 - Management Monday; HS Counselors Meeting 8th Graders

Tuesday 3/21 - Crazy Socks Day; APLE Lunch in Teacher's Lounge; Spring Choir Concert 

                        7-9pm

Wednesday 3/22 - WE Club "WE Are Silent"; PLC - Staff Meeting, Rm 36

Thursday 3/23 - Leadership Candidate Interviews; SSC Meeting 3:45-4:45pm

Friday 3/24 - TRTV Schedule; Encore @ Katella Competition; 

Shout Out! - ALL Staff!

Within the past couple weeks, I've been running around visiting multiple classrooms for formals, informals, 5th Grade orientation (day & night), Chapman University, and hosting our Principal for a Day. I'm consistently reminded of the amazing staff we have at Travis Ranch! Regardless of when I've walked in, you have demonstrated your ongoing commitment to ensuring learners are engaged bell to bell. Students are reading, writing, rehearsing, performing, drawing, coding, etc. All this inspired this little video clip I put together for the orientation evening. Thanks for your dedication! 

Tech Tip: Near Pod

This is the 3rd time I've heard about this resource THIS WEEK! You can create a lesson in PowerPoint (or Google Slides and download as a PowerPoint) save as JPEGs and upload as Nearpod slides. The Nearpod presentation that you create is interactive so students can write/draw on the slides. You can also use it as an assessment tool and gather live data. So cool! There is a free account, and for more "enhanced" features there's a paid subscription. It's also sorta like "Teachers Pay Teacher" in that you can download other people's lessons. Some are free. Anyone interested in test-driving?

10 Ways To Help Kids With Learning Differences That Could Benefit All Students

An omnipresent theme in education is "meeting the needs of our diverse learners". We find this embedded within PBIS, MTSS, UDL, Differentiated Instruction, Scaffolding, etc. Yesterday, Susan, Lisa, and I attended a leadership training about both sexual harassment and the co-teaching model. It was clear this theme of addressing learners' unique needs continued to be reinforced within these topics. We will share more at a later date, but this ARTICLE from Mindshift resonated with me and the trends and targets we continue to see within our own educational landscape. Of course, the article is worth a read...AND as a bonus this week, I've included a 5 question comprehension quiz via Google Forms new quiz feature. $20 restaurant gift card to the first teacher with a perfect score! 

- Be Intentional
- Rely on Evidence
- Break Down the Traditional Structure of School
- Provide Clear Instruction on How to Think
- Be Mindful of Working Memory Limitations
- Teach Reading Explicitly
- Manage Behavior Through Prevention
- Use Communication to Your Advantage
- Use Supporting Programs in a Targeted Way
- Celebrate and Empower Students

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 3/13/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - 8th Graders have been sharing it's been hard to earn them!?
- Supervision Team B - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referrals - Reminder to automatically submit if/when 3rd line in planner OR major behavior including: cell phone, PE Non-Suits, and Academic Dishonesty.
- Sign CICO Forms Daily! 
- MTSS - If you are implementing academic, behavioral, or social/emotional interventions 
  with student(s) consider documenting them in this shared space

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Monday, 3/13 - 8th Grade @ Museum of Tolerance
     Coverage = Mary Chapluk's 6th period - Shay; David Gillette's, 3 - Saltzman, 4 - Faller,  
     6 - Saltzman, 7 - Schneider 
Tuesday, 3/14 - Homeroom Schedule
       6th- slide 69 Lesson 7.2
       7th- slide 87 Lesson 7.2
       8th- slide 77 Lesson 7.1
Wednesday, 3/15 - District Initiative, Room 32
Thursday, 3/16 - PBIS Team @ OCDE; WEB Leaders Activities with 6th Graders
Friday, 3/17 - PM Assembly Schedule - "Fire & Ice" Pep Rally, GATE Shadow Day, ; Mike's 
      Gone...again! 

Shout Out - Club Advisors!

I am continually impressed by the extra dedication of all of our club advisors. Each week when we put together the Tribune, I am simply astounded by the number of clubs that meet each week under the guidance of these great individuals! 

• WE Club - Paola Hellwig
• JUMP Club - Mary Chapluk
• Robotics & Coding Club - Cari Briggs
• Athletic Club - Brian Shay & Marita Buckley
• Sign Language Club - Shirleen St. Claire
• Buddies Club - Bob Lexin
• Message Club - Vanessa Amorin & Dana LaRue

Thanks for your continued commitment to involving students in extracurricular activities, events, and service to our community! 

Tech Tip: Peer Grade

Originally created for use at universities, it’s a platform where students can evaluate each other’s work anonymously. After the teacher creates an assignment and a rubric, students submit their work. Next, Peergrade randomly distributes the assignments to different classmates for evaluation. Students give feedback to their classmates using the rubric set up by the teacher; they can add written comments as well as selecting options from the rubric. Finally, students can view the feedback given to them; they can rate the comments as helpful or not, and even flag problematic comments.

How to Practice Effectively...for Just About Anything

This great Ted Talk explains the neurology of effective practice. The myelin that covers axons in our bodies physically changes with practice, creating an effective flow of electrical signals along our neural pathways. Essentially, it allows our brains to communicate faster with our bodies. 

The talk also emphasized that "mastery isn't simply about the amount of hours of practice, it's also the quality and effectiveness of that practice." This connected me back to the classroom and how essential it is that we are providing our students not only with repetition or practice of skills, but also with quality practice. The implications for warm-ups, class work, group work, homework, and all learning tasks should be shaped by this focus on quality and rigor to ensure the myelin in our student's brains