Nuts/Bolts - Week of 6/12/17

- RISE Card STORE CLOSED! No more drawings - Replacement incentive? = High-5's & Candy
- Supervision Team B
- Admin Referral - 3rd Line? Send in the referral! 

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Goals / Objectives: Primary Evaluators will make sure they return your Goals/Objectives forms (and any other observations/evaluations) for final signature prior to teacher check-out on Friday. 

Monday, June 12 - PM Assembly Schedule "MS-Recognition Assembly"; 8th-grade yearbook distribution

Tuesday, June 13 - Final Team Leader Meeting; 

Wednesday, June 14 - Positive Behavior Reward / Minimum Day Schedule; 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony Rehearsal. After 1st period attendance, 8th graders sent to the gym. Supervision Coverage

Thursday, June 15 - Minimum Day Schedule. Students released at 1:20 p.m. 10 additional minutes on 7th period.  8th Grade Promotion Ceremony; After 1st-period attendance, 8th graders sent to the gym. Supervision Coverage. 6th/7th-grade teachers, @ 9:15 a.m. line up along the blacktop to "clap out" the 8th grade class of 2017. 

Friday, June 9 - @ 9am Social Committee Breakfast in the MPR; Teacher Check-out; Laptop Sign-Out Form; Year End Yippee @ Borgese's

Tech Tip: Feedly

If you are used to bookmarking your favorite websites and visiting them individually, this will BLOW YOUR MIND!

Feedly is a tool that allows to you to subscribe to and organize online information. It will pull new articles from your favorite websites into one location and you can "tag" or "label" and organize them into collections. You can save them for reading later and create boards that you can share / collaborate on. This would be a fantastic tool to teach students as they collect information online for research papers.

Even better, it's available via website, Chrome extension, and apps for iOS and Android. It all syncs on the cloud, giving you access to everything from everywhere.

Children Must Be Taught to Collaborate, Studies Say

"At its worst, group tasks can deteriorate into awkward silences, arguments—or frustration for the one child who ends up doing everyone else's work." Throughout the year, I've witnessed every teacher emphasizing collaborative work in their classrooms. I've also listened to students and parents as they continue to struggle with the imbalances of group projects. We all strive to make the process inclusive, fair, and purposeful for kids. We assign roles, have students grade each other, etc. 

This article includes some ideas about how to accomplish equity and reinforces the importance of teaching students the skills required for group work, including: communicating with others, resolving conflicts, and managing tasks.

I also noted that the article indirectly supported our co-taught and honors cluster models in saying, "Instead of trying to choose whether the high-performing students will benefit the most or low-performing students will benefit the most, if teachers focus on prioritizing interaction quality, … both benefit."

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 6/5/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! 
- Supervision Team A  
- Admin Referral - 3rd Line? Send in the referral! 

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Monday, June 5 - ELA & Spanish Textbook Collection
Tuesday, June 6 - 8th Grade Textbook Collection, 1st period
Wednesday, June 7 - Homeroom Schedule; 6th Grade Textbook Return, 1st Period; Final Homeroom Lesson TBD - 6th & 7th graders receive registration packets during homeroom; Pop Show, Gym 7-8pm
Thursday, June 8 - 7th Grade Textbook Collection, 1st period; ELA Team @ Training for new ELA Adoption; Concerts in the Park, 6-8pm, Field
Friday, June 9 - TRTV Schedule; 8th Graders Promotion Dance 6-9pm

Shout Out! - ALL STAFF!

As the year is closing out quickly, we have ALL  found ourselves busier than usual. During these times, we truly rely on our teammates. We are asked to cover, pick up the slack, perform, compromise, balance, and carry each other across the finish line with the same energy we started the year with. 

To meet this goal, our staff at "The Ranch" truly puts students first.  We go WAY above and beyond our individual job descriptions and are willing to assist, support, and recognize each other every day. This trust, mutual respect, and teamwork are what makes our campus special. WE ARE TR! Thanks to all for your continued dedication and commitment to our school and community! 

Tech Tip: Stick Pick

Sometimes, during interviews, I stumble upon a tool that a teacher is using that is something I've never heard of. This one is called "Stick Pick". I know that many Travis teachers select students at random using a dice, equity sticks, playing cards, etc. This practice increases student engagement and accountability while extracting a comprehensive metric of ALL student learning. But THIS randomizer doesn't just randomly pick names...it has embedded Bloom's Question stems AND the ability to assess / store student scores. Pretty slick!  Also available for Android. 

A Powerful Way to End the School Year

"Year mapping allows students to see what they’ve learned in your class, and it’s a great resource for your incoming class." As a teacher, at the end of every year I surveyed students and talked to them about what they learned and what they would change to make my class better. In the same way, as an administrator, I'm always attempting to gather input to ensure our environment stays positive, energized, and synergized! This Edutopia post resonated with me as we close out 16-17. Essentially, students create posters and put them together into one big learning map and then present portions of the map to the class. Leave it up on the wall and it's a great introductory visual for the incoming class that you can use the 1st week back. I thought it was a cool idea. Read the article for more details. 

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 5/29/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! 
- Supervision Team B  - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - 3rd Line? Send in the referral! 

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Monday, May 29 - Memorial Day!
Tuesday, May 30 - 6th Graders @ Irvine Outdoor Ed
Wednesday, May 31 - Homeroom Schedule; Lesson 10, Part 2; PLC = Structured PD
Thursday, June 1 - WEB Carnival; Retirement Celebration 3:45-4:45 p.m.
Friday, June 2 - 8th Graders @ Knott's 

Shout Out: Ismael Gutierrez + Christina Gibson

Ish is ending his first year at Travis Ranch as plant coordinator. He has truly demonstrated an amazing work ethic. He keeps our campus clean and our buildings maintained. This is no short task with a building that is showing signs of its age. He's very well connected at the district office and knows exactly who to call to get work orders prioritized. Because of his efforts, we've been able to get special attention from the maintenance department including fresh paint, new lighting in the lunch shelter, etc. I saw him running around like crazy at the Carnival and was reminded how thankful we are to have him! 


Christina is also in her first year at TR. She has shown tremendous patience and skill as she's learned her caseload. She has worked closely with her team to meet the needs of students who have speech and/or social pragmatic deficits. In IEPs she's very professional and provides parents with specific information about how to help their child. By the way, she shares her talents with Bernardo as well! Great job Christina! 

Tech Tip: 6 New Edtech Tools

I'm thinking this website has something for every teacher. The tools posted include: interactively explore math concepts such as Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus; learn English through stories; record and share video notes, understand the scientific mindset, and seartch a cool music history resource. I love this website as they are constantly posting the latest and greatest in EdTech. I'd bookmark it or subscribe to it through Feedly or another RSS feed. 

How I Eliminated (Almost) All Grading Problems In My Classroom

In our jobs, we hear the words "assessment", "measurable", and "data" are heard at least one-thousand times daily. In this short article, teacher Terry Heick outlines what he has done over the years to make assessment more "ubiquitous and always-on." It's more the quality than the quantity that he finds is the best approach, and he also believes in finding ways to publish / promote students work to increase the audience in the feedback loop. He begins to address grading policy a bit and believes in grabbing different tools to assess. Mostly, I appreciate that the intent of the article is to reduce the amount of busy work for teachers "because it takes time and mental energy–both finite resources" and gives "students substantive reasons to do their best work, correct themselves, and create higher stands for quality than your rubric outlined."

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 5/22/17

- RISE Cards - Give 6 Daily! - Time is running out to recognize students for their efforts! 
- Supervision Team A  - Please be on time to duty & write it into sub-plans
- Admin Referral - 3rd Line? Send in the referral! 

STUDENT PERFORMANCES - PLEASE CONSIDER ATTENDING 1 STUDENT PERFORMANCE BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. JAZZ JAM, POP SHOW, CONCERT IN THE PARK. Thanks for your support! 

Staff Appreciation Week!
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Monday, May 22 - Mike Out All Day
Tuesday, May 23 - MS Awards Night @ EDHS PAC, 6-7pm
Wednesday, May 24 - Homeroom Schedule; Working Wednesday - 6th & 7th graders vote for ASB Officers 17-18; PLC = Vertical; Jazz Jam @ EDHS PAC 7-9pm.
Thursday, May 25 - Elementary Textbook Training in MPR all day; attendees have been asked NOT to park in marked stalls. 
Friday, May 26 - International Day; TRTV Schedule

Shout Out! - Dinah Vigil & Dana Worden & Jalinda Larkin

Many thanks go out to Dinah Vigil for successfully running our 3rd and final Benchmark Screening for reading comprehension and fluency. This is no small task and she always approaches the task with diligence and professionalism. Also, she recently helped organize and coordinate testing supports for students with IEPs. Finally, she has been a great support to our new SLP, Christina Gibson. Great job Dinah! 

Each year, Dana and Jalinda share the joy that is gathering and inputting close to 700 students' registration forms for the next school year. They receive input from 5th grade teachers, the district, elective teachers, etc. for placement and work very closely with teachers to ensure students get the schedules they've requested. They do this always with precision and integrity. What's most impressive, is this is on top of their normal, heavy work load. We appreciate you both! 

Tech Tip: Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is a free resource included with your PYLUSD account. It's like Skype for Google. You can use it to invite guest speakers, go on virtual fieldtrips, and much...much more! This website provides 7 ideas of how to quickly integrate it into your classroom. My top 2 easy to start with are: Invite a Guest Speaker & Go On a Virtual Fieldtrip. With the end of the year approaching, it might be a fun idea to "pilot" a test drive of this or any other Tech Tip I've posted this year. Click on "Tech Tip" in the Navigation Bar at the top of this blog. Share what you tried!? 

The Power of Introverts - Susan Cain

Susan Cain contests that most contemporary institutions, including education, have over-glorified extroverts and collaboration. Although this runs incongruous with current educational research, it resonated with me. She argues that the majority of creative and innovative thought comes from individuals who are in fact introverts. The video reminded me of the importance of balancing group and individual tasks. The video should also remind us of the importance of seeking out opportunities to find our own time for reflection, thought and creativity. Great video and worth a watch!

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 5/15/17

- 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.
- State Testing: Proactively report any technology issues with an email to Jason = jle@pylusd.org

Staff Appreciation Week!
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Monday, May 15 - State Testing, English CAT Day 1
Tuesday, May 16 - State Testing, Math CAT & Math PT; PTA Honorary Service Awards, 6-7:30pm, Yorba Linda Country Club
Wednesday, May 17 - Homeroom Schedule; Lesson 10, Part 1; PLC = Staff Meeting, 
Rm 36
Thursday, May 18 - State Testing, English PT
Friday, May 19 - End of 4th Qtr. Progress Report Period; PTA Carnival 3-7pm

Shout Out! - Beelner, Chapluk, Briggs

Many thanks to our amazing testing team! They worked hard to ensure the testing schedule and technology were organized to support testing all middle school students at one time. This is no small task. They stayed late on Friday to ensure all carts were plugged in and that we got off the ground without any major snafus this morning. Without their help we'd be dead in the water! Also, many thanks to our awesome office staff who triaged assistance this morning over the phones and radios! Also to Marita, Cynde, and Lisa Gilles for running around and assisting wherever they were needed! 

Tech Tip: OER Commons

This is a cool resource that houses over 30,000 educational resources that are catalogued by grade level, subject, and standards. Worth exploring if/when you find yourself seeking out some free common Open Educational Resources.

6 Traits of Life-Changing Teachers

This Edutopia Article explains a poll that was recently conducted on Facebook to help identify how adults characterized the 6 best traits of teachers they still remember long after exiting the classroom. Of course, traits like patience and passion popped up, but surprisingly so did toughness. This article explores these traits and reminds us how we will be remembered. I especially appreciated the emphasis on "Safety (as) part of the education starter kit", and a reminder that "learning can be slow and messy." Towards the end of the article they say that of the 700 respondents, 145 went on to pursue careers in education. 

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 5/8/17

- 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 - 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.
- State Testing: Try your login for CAASPP prior to our PLC on 5/10: 

Staff Appreciation Week!
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Monday, May 8 - 
Tuesday, May 9 - PTA Honorary Service Awards 
Wednesday, May 10 - Homeroom Schedule "Working Wednesday"; PLC = Staff Meeting, 
Rm 36
Thursday, May 11 - PTA Car Wash; Art Show, 9am-3:30pm, MPR (Staff & Students)
Friday, May 12 - Art Show, 9am-3:30pm, MPR (Staff & Students); 3rd Annual Art Show, 6-8pm, MPR (Parents, Staff, Students)