Nuts/Bolts - Week of 5/1/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Specific verbal praise for WHY they are receiving the card. 
- Supervision Team B  - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - 3rd Line send in the referral! 
- Tardies - Remember teachers should actively communicate home when students have 3-4 tardies so my detention doesn't come as a surprise at tardy #5! 
- MTSS - Document interventions in this shared space
- ZAP Continued: Dana will run ZAP Tuesday-Thursday
- CICO / Mentoring: In Horizontal meetings this week discuss who would benefit from "mentoring" or CICO. Dana and I will share the CICO kids. 

Support WE & Jump Clubs' Baby Shower Drive 

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Monday, May 1 - Public School Appreciate Day - WEAR BLUE! 
Tuesday, May 2 - Team Leader Meeting @8am
Wednesday, May 3 - Homeroom Schedule "Working Wednesday"; PLC = Horizontal
Thursday, May 4 - RTI Sweep through P.E.
Friday, May 5 - Happy Hour - RSVP through Calendar Invite

Shout Out! - Sandra Schneider

This week's shout out to Sandy! She worked hard to coordinate a guest speaker last week for our 8th graders. She recently attended "Gearing Up" training and is actively working to promote this social/emotional support for students at Travis and across the district. She also just completed her annual life skills project with sock monkeys and worked "extra hours" to ensure that ALL students were included and received a finished project.  

Tech Tip: Twitter in the Classroom

I was recently listening to the radio and heard that Twitter has shown significant growth in users recently. I've read about and actually experienced using Twitter in a live educational setting and it can definitely create a forum for a student parking lot (to ask clarifying questions, etc.) to share resources, or to have students really hone in on their succinct / concise writing (i.e. collaboratively write and tweet a thesis statement in 140 characters or less). 

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

How Kids Learn Better By Taking Frequent Breaks Throughout The Day

According to research and the media, Finland is now synonymous with contemporary education. This ARTICLE explores the idea that most elementary schools there use a very structured system of breaks for learners. "In Finland (students) normally take a fifteen-minute break for every forty-five minutes of instruction. After these shorter recesses, students appeared to be more focused in the classroom."

In looking at the application of this theory to our secondary classrooms, brain research supports "giving the brain time to rest, through regular breaks, lead(ing) to greater productivity and creativity." The research suggests that students need this break after every 12-15 minutes of instruction. 

This can come in the form of "get up, move, find a partner, talk" OR "listen to this song" or "watch this short video clip" OR "talk to your neighbor for 1 minute about this question" OR "stand up, stretch, close your eyes, etc."

"What’s important is that you watch your students carefully," to gauge when students are "drifting" and provide the "Brain Break" as appropriate. 

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 4/24/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Specific verbal praise for WHY they are receiving the card. 
- Supervision Team A - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - Please see the updated flowchart
- MTSS - Document interventions in this shared space
- ZAP Continued: Dana will run ZAP Tuesday-Thursday, New Slips will be delivered Monday as we're finalizing locations. 

Support WE & Jump Clubs' Baby Shower Drive 

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Monday, April 24 - 8th Coffee House Poetry in Riley, Period 2-5! Check it out! 
Tuesday, April 25 - Inside-Out / Backwards Day
Wednesday, April 26 - Homeroom Schedule; PLC = Structured PD; WE Club Members @ 
                                    WE Day
Thursday, April 27 - WE Club Members @ WE Day
Friday, April 28 - TRTV Schedule; MS Dance; PTA Talent Show 6:30-8:30pm

Shout Out! - Laura Moody, Bethany Curtis, Cynde Riley, Catherine Sullivan

Many thanks to this fantastic team who put on our NJHS Induction ceremony on 4/18. There are a lot of moving pieces with identifying the students who qualify, keeping track of current members' service hours, getting the programs ready for the event, rehearsing students roles for the event, getting sound/stage ready and working, etc. We ALL really appreciate the hard work you each put into making this event a successful one. All this was done on top of your already busy schedules at the end of 3rd quarter! Thanks again! 

Tech Tip: PYLUSD G-Suite "Team Drive"

PYLUSD just recently opened a new feature that you may have noticed in your Google Drive account called "Team Drive". It gives you the opportunity to share files, folders, projects, etc. in a shared space. This way, every team member can get to department resources the same way. 

How Schools Can Face The ‘Bad Habits’ That Inhibit Meaningful Changes

This ARTICLE from Mindshift argues that long-held school beliefs, culture, and structures may actually prevent a school from progress. Seems like an odd idea when we place so much value on traditions and consitency; however, "While habitual behavior can be good — like when it reinforces a positive culture or set of norms — it can also be a stubborn obstacle to enacting meaningful change." 

The article goes on to identify "initiative overload" and the context of technology integration.  

According to the article, both teachers and administrators must "fight hard to recognize and replace their own bad habits, (because if we) truly want to see changes to teaching and learning, we must name negative habitual behaviors, own them, and intentionally make plans to address them. Substituting new belief structures and habits will also take time."

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 4/17/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Focus on students who are respectful, on-task, with specific verbal praise for WHY they are receiving the card. 
- Supervision Team B - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - Please see the updated flowchart
- MTSS - Document interventions in this shared space
- ZAP Continued: Dana has agreed to continue to run ZAP at both lunches. It may only run 2-3 days a week...stay tuned! 
- No Block Grant $ Next Year? Consider Saturday School! - Organizing a Saturday School will not only earn you an extra paycheck, but also $$ for your classroom. The $$ recouped will come back at a rate of $10/student as a materials/supplies budget. Get 25 students here for an activity, review, writing assistance, etc. = $250. Even better, get your department on board for just 1 Saturday and have $1,000 (or more) as extra department funds! See Mike for details. 
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Monday, April 17 - Welcome Back! 
Tuesday, April 18 - NJHS Induction Ceremony 9-10am, Gym
Wednesday, April 19 - Homeroom Schedule; PLC = Vertical OR Horizontal Teams TBD
Thursday, April 20 - 8th Grade Assembly - Guest Speaker Details TBD; Fire Drill 6th Period
Friday, April 21 - Rainbow Dress-Up; JUMP Club @ Cypress College

Shout Out - Amie Newberry

Amie Newberry has been an aide at Travis Ranch for almost 3 years now. She's working to earn her credential and earning student teaching credits under the supervision of Suzanne Borgese. As an instructional aide, Amie is highly skilled making connections with students quickly through consistent positive encouragement.

She's always willing to jump in head first and do what is asked of her. We've thrown her a thousand curve balls since she started and she has handled each and every "pitch" with poise, patience, and professionalism! Yes...she's a triple-threat Trailblazer!

We ALL want to thank you for serving our students, staff, and community with dedication and compassion!

Tech Tip - Quizlet

I've heard a lot of buzz around a new studying tool called "Quizlet". The tool is an online tool that has built in games and activities to review content. Teacher Quick-Start Guide. You can integrate it with Google Classroom and students can use it on any device. 

A brief overview:

10 different gaming and study modes - including a new classroom game, Quizlet Live

125 million study sets to choose from or create your own

Free and easy to get started

Hidden Brain Podcast

The more I listen to the radio and read about educational trends, the more I hear about podcasts trending as a great resource for our classrooms. There are so many out there to choose from for any/all content areas. There are sound podcasts and video podcasts. You can subscribe to the ones you like and get them delivered to you like a subscription to a newspaper. Here's a "How-To" subscribe guide for iTunes, iOS, and Android.

This particular podcast is very interesting and comes from NPR. It's called "Hidden Brain". They've recently launched into a new foray where they include a "study guide designed to supplement teachers' existing curricula...tailored to serve a range of different learning levels, from middle school to high school to college. Hidden Brain Study Guides. Pretty cool stuff!

Here's an example of one:

STUDY GUIDE

PODCAST: