Don't walk in the Hallways!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2019!   During our first staff meeting of 2019 we talked about setting our themes for the new year.  What will be your theme for 2019?  Setting a theme helps "reboot" our intentions for the year.  I would encourage you to spend some time and think about what your theme will be for 2019.

The second semester has brought new changes to our school.  New staff and a new schedule.  I would like to welcome Tyler Riffel, our new music teacher, and Julie Waldschmidt, our new special educator teacher to our district!  We are glad to have them with us!  I also appreciate everyone collaborating in the designing of our new schedule.  It takes an enormous amount of work on everyone's part to find a win-win within a schedule.  

In this effort we have to decide what are "norms" of collaboration are as a staff.  When something gets hard, how are we going to treat each other.?  When something gets hard a school staff has a tendency to circle the wagons and shoot inward.  This doing school thing is hard enough without us having to overcome each other in the process.  I would encourage all of us to understand how we operate in stress and especially how we act upon that stress.  I don't expect us to be perfect, believe me I've had my moments.  I expect us to work on our awareness, understand how we respond in stress, and make sure the conversation we are wanting to have isn't lost in the energy we are dealing with at that time.  I'm confident this is something that we will be successful at in our collaboration.

Lastly, at today's staff meeting we watched a video on sensory hallways.  I mentioned that I had another video which showed a Manitoba school using the system in their hallways. Here is the link to Sensory Hallways.

Give me your thoughts if this is something that we would like to bring to our elementary hallways!  Hope you enjoy the video!

Dipsticks in the Classroom

Come on now.  When you think of "Dipsticks" in the classroom you were not thinking of assessing instruction!  LOL!  

Evaluating our instruction is an ongoing process.  I love the analogy author Robert E. Stakes gives.  "When the cooks tastes the soup, that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative."

This "Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding" article goes into detail of efficient ways to check for student understanding in the classroom.  I think the common question that educators have in this summative and formative assessment conversation is how much is too much of combining the two in student grades.  If we go back to Robert Stakes' analogy of cooking.  It makes me think of the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen".  Too many formative grades combined with the summative grades can spoil the "dish" of learning that we are using for true assessments.  

If all of this, the article, staff meeting discussions, and individual conversations, has got you thinking about how you are using, or maybe overusing, formative assessment for grades then by all means stop by and have a conversation with me.  If you are thinking about making a change with your grading process it is always a good rule to explain this to your students and parents so they are not blindside in the change.  

The Innovator's Mindset

What does having an Innovator's Mindset mean for educators and students alike?  Click on this link to view a video from George Couros, author of "The Innovator's Mindset".  

Here is a great summary from his book.  "Kids walk into schools full of wonder and questions. How you, as an educator, respond to students’ natural curiosity can help further their own exploration and shape the way they learn today and in the future. The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It’s time to recognize that compliance doesn’t foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity–and those are the skills our students need to succeed."

You can also check out his blog post on this website link. 

What if our school and your classroom was more and more like this?  What impact would it have on our students in their educational journey at Attica?  It is this kind of opportunity, for our students, which makes me excited for learning in our school system.  The question I have for you as a teacher is:  How can being curious expand your own learning as a teacher and eventually impact your classroom?  

Here are some characteristics of an innovative classroom.  

What learning in your classroom is involving all of these eight components?  We will continue to talk about how this mindset shift can happen more with our own and our student's learning.  Would love for us to start sharing each other's ideas and work in this area.  Who would like to be the first to share at our staff meeting on Fridays?

Putting Relationships First

As you have already seen in the previous blog post is the direction of our state.  The focus on social skills have become just as important as our focus on academic skills.  I know this is easy for all educators to understand.  How many times have we seen "life" get in the way of academic work.  Life can be so many different things for our students.  It could be home life, interactions with peers, how I feel about myself, and etc...   Probably every week if not everyday.  Because of this several school districts are putting in time during the day to build relationships.

Here is an example of what one school district is doing to help the students work through their emotions.  Morning Meetings. What I would like to do is set up a Social and Emotional Professional Learning Community to research and come up with recommendations for our school district.  This would need to be a committee of four to five people equally divided out representing all grade levels. Let me know if you are wanting to help lead the district on this topic. 

I want to commend everyone for being out in the hallway in the morning and during the day.  Greeting students with a smile, handshake, high five, fist bump, has some really good research behind it.  Here is a great article on this very fact.  Welcoming Students

I have been meeting with our Junior and Senior High Class Officers to review our student handbook.  During our last meeting I wanted to interview them on what they think of "How we do school".  I got some really good feedback.  They are very interested in the hands on approach of learning.  This would have us emphasize the application phase of learning.   Some instruction requires us to be up front and leading.  Other settings requires us to be the "guide on the side" and learn with the students.  This leads us to think how can we do school in order to meet the way student's want to learn.  If we meet them at this level then their learning will go through the roof!

The Kansas Can Bedrock Principles will help guide us in the reflection of how we do school and what we want to do at Attica.  The question is for us as educators.  What role do you want to play in this redoing of school?

If you need something to help you think about how we do school, this video is a great way to get you in thinking differently.  What is School for?

This book also can get you thinking about how to move in a new direction with school.  Great book and if you want to read it let me know and the school will purchase it for you!  Here's more information on the book.  George Couros

The Harper County Community Foundation grant deadline is fast approaching.  It is October 1st.  If you are interested in applying for a grant, you can go to the foundation website at http://harpercofoundation.org/ or by calling the foundation assistant, Michelle Fahring at 620-840-1153, email is harpercofoundation@gmail.com

Here are some more pictures of the Mr. Fahring's Carpentry Class helping with the grocery remodeling project.  Great experience for these young men on pouring cement!

These pictures are from our new Youth Entrepreneur class.  Or better known as YE.  The activity is designed to create teamwork, cooperative trading of materials between the groups, focusing on the win-win component in a business.  These students will eventually write a business plan and  have an opportunity to make their own money in their business.  This program is fully funded by the Koch Foundation.  For more information on it check it out on their
Youth Entrepreneurs website.

These pictures are the Pillowcase Project done by the Red Cross.  They worked with our kids and provided a pillow case for each of our students.  This Red Cross project was started after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The concept is to educate children in disaster preparation.  Here is more information about the program. Pillowcase Project.

Becoming a Resilient Educator

The Social and Emotional piece of the new Kansas Can Vision starts with us.  If we struggle every day with our resilience how then can we model this behavior with our students?  So how can we become more resilient in our own work?  The "How Educators Can Become More Resilient This School Year"  article is a great way to help all of us.  If you are interested in the book "Onward" which the article refers to, just let me know and we can get it for you.  You can do this individually or as a study book group.   Here is another resource regarding finding happiness at your work place.  I give you these resources to reinforce our culture work at our own work place.  Culture of our work place is everyone's responsibility.   It is everyone's responsibility because we all are part of it.  In other words if we all have to exist in the culture then why not make it the best possible environment. 

Be Resilient!

The following information has to pertain to the Kansas Report Card and Attica Public School success rate.  Please take the time to look at our district's report card.  You will have to look go to the drop down bars at the top of the link and look up USD 511 information.  To understand more about the success rate you will need to watch this Post Secondary Success Video.   

Here is a great article on the importance of social skills in the elementary classroom.  Social Skills are Important!  To reinforce the importance of teaching social skills to our students you can review the KSDE Kansas Can "Vision Launch" by clicking on the PowerPoint presentation located on the link.  To say the least it's powerful information for our students, schools, and communities in our state.  

I wanted to draw your attention to a classroom project which Robert Adcock is doing in his classrooms.  He is teaching his Social Science students about Primary Sources.  Through his research he was given some great feedback by one of his sources.  I'll let you read the email below.  It's exciting to see our junior and high school students learning skills undergraduate students don't even have.  

It’s really wonderful to hear that you are integrating primary and secondary source research into your classroom. I think that it’s really important to expose students to this kind of research at such a young age, and it’s definitely something that doesn’t happen as much as it could. I have met with plenty of undergraduates here at UMass Boston that had never worked with primary sources before, so I’m glad that you’re introducing those kinds of materials to your high school students!

University Archives and Special Collections

Joseph P. Healey Library

University of Massachusetts Boston

Another great project in our school has been started by Ali Harbin, our Eighth through Senior class, Language Arts teacher. In order to improve our students writing skills she has started a school newsletter.  I am sure most, if not all, of you have already seen their first newsletter!  If not here is a picture of their first "The Doghouse News" edition!  Love the title!   Maybe this concept of displaying student's writing can grow into other areas of our district?  The best way to become a better writer is to do more of it, get feedback, reflection, and rewrite.  This Authentic Writing Aligned to the Common Core from eleducation is a great resource for writing projects in all classrooms.  Enjoy reviewing it!

Lastly,  I want to provide you a new way of thinking with project based learning in your classroom. Several of you attended the Buck Institute training back in the first part of August.  One of the hurdles in using PBL in the classroom is having a thorough alignment to the state standards in a project.  Several schools are starting to use the Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge system to insure a thorough project.  Here are a list of schools which are using the Merit Badge system.

  

Hutchinson High Alternative School

McPherson High English Teacher - Mark Malaby  

Little River High School Teacher- Karen Hull 

Reno Valley Middle School

Prairie Hills Middles School

Haviland Elementary School

Here is the link to the Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge System.  If this is something you are interested in doing within your class PBL projects let me know and I will support your efforts to learn.  

Just so you are comfortable with stretching your own professional learning, I give you permission to fail in the process.  It is a powerful learning process when we fail, reflect, and recommit in our learning as educators.  So get out there and fail!  :)

Just a short note about how I love my job and all of my staff and students.  I'm very proud to be working with all of you!  I'm doing a little bragging in this section and want to show off the picture Carol Jean, our Attica Independent reporter, took of my office colors.  Very proud to be showing off the Black and Gold colors!   

Yea Black!  Yea Gold!  Yea Attica Lets Go!

"A Beautiful Grind"

Glass Beach Fort Bragg, California

Our first week of school has come and gone.  We all have experienced the excitement in the start of the school year.  Sooner or later, most are sooner and some come later, the new wears off and we, meaning both the adults and kids, will fall into a routine.  This routine can start to wear us down. Educators are not alone in this, for everyone who has a task of doing something over and over again every day.  This is just a simple fact of life.  Get up, go to _____, go home, go to bed, and then start all over again.  If not careful we can fall into a rut and the joy of day can be ground down by the routine.   I would encourage everyone to be, not only be physically, but most importantly mentally present in their day.  By doing so we will see so many "small miracles" in our daily routine.  These "small miracles" end up becoming a bigger story in our lives. Take the picture above as an example.   This is a picture of "Glass Beach" in Fort Bragg, California. What most people might think is trash is actually broken pieces of glass bottles which have been smoothed over by the waves and sand.  Our, and the students, daily routine can break us down or make us into something beautiful.  It's all a matter of a choice in our own perspective.

As we start moving throughout the year I'm always looking for ways to inform the staff on new and innovative ways of doing education different and hopefully better.  I think this is important to stay up and new trends and ways to reach and teach our students.  Check out the new trends in education in the links below.

Everything you want to know about Flexible Classroom Seating.  I would really encourage all grades levels in considering this in their classroom.  Sometimes it can be as simple as allowing students to stand in the back of the room or sitting in another area of the classroom.  I know as an adult it helps me to stand when I have sitting for long periods of time.

Moving Away from Behavior Charts in an Elementary Classroom

Building Relationships in the Classrooms

I want to let you all know the you have permission to experiment and even fail in trying something new in your classroom.  I'm a firm believer in the following saying by Nelson Mandela.

I would like to spotlight some great items by our staff and students from the start of the school year.


A big shout out the elementary teachers, kids, bus drivers, Bret Ricke, Monte Miller, and most importantly our community of parents and/or guardians.  Because of everyone's efforts our bus loading and unloading zones are very safe for our kids and the vehicles whom enter our school zones.  You will notice new crossing lines painted, courtesy of Bret and Monte, on the street south of our elementary building.  Thank you everyone for helping keep everyone safe!



Another shout out for the cheerleaders and Ms. Polson for putting together the Back to School Photo Booth.  Here is a picture of the line which was forming on the first day of school!  Fun to watch!

Lastly, I want to draw your attention to Mr. Farhing's first hour Carpentry Class.  In order to apply the knowledge he has been teaching in the class he has been meeting his students at our old, soon to be new, grocery store and helping with the remodeling project.  This is a great example of using partnerships with school and community to have students use real world application skills.  Here are some of pictures of our young men at work!  

A few updates on policy and procedures:

The Jr. and Sr. High School Student Handbook is being reviewed by the Student Council and Class Officers past Thursday and Friday.  I'm sure it will take longer than just two meetings to review, ask questions, research, and eventually settle on any revisions.  Hopefully we can work together and get the review process completed in a short period of time.  

Crisis Drills will start up in September.  The first one will be a scheduled drill with plenty of notification by the office.  I will have resources available to use for the classroom.  This include all ages Pre-school through Seniors.  I also will be sending out information to our parents and community so they are well informed.  In the mean time please review the Crisis Plan for Attica Public Schools.  I also need to remind everyone that school officials are only allowed to give five minutes warning for a Fire Drill.  This is to prevent any premeditated incidents by someone wanting to harm our students or staff.

Culture Audit:  We will be catching up the other half of our staff on September 13th and 14th.  Please allow for some flexibility within the work day to meet for about one hour with the VenturedIN consultants.  I have a list of names, you will have to go to second tab on the bottom of the sheet, on the September Training Google sheet.  If your name is listed then you are involved on either the 13th or 14th of September.  I will follow up with the participants before those dates to let them know the schedules for the two days.

Thank you all for everything you are doing for our kids!  They could not have a good day if you didn't help them through their day!  I end on this great quote from St. Bernard Clairvaux of the late 1000 A.D.  When reading it think about how you retain and disperse your gifts and energy to our kids and parents.

“The person who is wise, therefore, will see his/her life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself ...

Welcome Back to School!

It's one of the biggest understatements of the year to say how excited I am to start 
this new journey at Attica Public Schools. I want to thank everyone, staff and 
community members alike, for making me feel so welcome to my new position.  
I know all of you have also made our new faculty members feel very welcomed to 
our school!  I would encourage everyone to take that same type of energy and use it 
to welcome our kids and families back to the new school year.
One of the most exciting things about the start of a school year is the new 
beginning it creates for all of our students, families, and staff. Old memories are 
cherished from last year and new ones are made throughout this school year.  
To kick our year off I would like to have a few areas of emphasis we could focus on 
as a staff. The links below will help guide us through the themes we can all set our 
intentions on through out each and every day with our students.

Love in Education

Be present with the students!

Trauma with Understanding not Discipline

How do you want to welcome them everyday into your classroom?  Do you want 
to use handshakes, high-fives, fist-bumps, hugs or come up with your own way to 
greet? The research on greeting whether it be a handshake or some other type of 
greeting sends a message to our unconscious state that "people think positive of 
one another. Here is a great article to reinforce this state.  

Handshake and the Meaning.  

As the school starts and moves throughout the year, I would encourage you to 
think about how to greet your students everyday at the start of the day but also 
each time they come into your room.

The next topic I want to focus on is something that has been talked about in 
education for years, but this time with a different spin. Most of you have heard about 
closing the "Achievement Gap" in education. I would like for us to focus on closing 
the “Opportunity Gap" for our students. In a small rural community sometimes 
students don’t know what they don’t know.  Let’s show and give them the 
opportunities which are out in our world. The videos below are just a few examples
of the opportunities for careers which will become a way of life for us.

Amazon Prime Air

Amazon Unmanned Airships

Amazon Go

Is this technology used in Kansas?  Amazon has three major 
"Fulfillment Centers". Kansas City, Gardner, and Lenexa, Kansas.  
The link below not only uses technology in Kansas but also right here 
in Attica, USA! Realtor and Google Maps  

So how do we help our students work towards the jobs which don't even 
exist today?  Research will discuss getting kids to learn in a collaborative 
setting. This will reinforce social and emotional kids need in their future.  
Learn to have a state of mind which looks for solutions, opportunities and 
choices. Academic skills are needed but they are not the point of emphasis 
in student learning. Have them start learning about who they are and how 
they operate in hardships and joyful moments. This Future Jobs article 
helps reinforce what I'm referring to.
This new school year will be an adventure is new to some of us and 
routine to others.  Together, with our students and families, we can make it 
exciting school year for all of us!