Professional Development Spotlight

SOUTHERN BOONE COUNTY

R-I SCHOOLS

Why... and What Does that Mean?

Greg Tang’s Influence on Math at SBC

I had the amazing opportunity to attend the

Greg Tang one-day conference on “Teaching the

Tough Topics”. Greg Tang is one of the best pre-

senters I have had the pleasure of learning from.

With my new role as the Math Interventionist for

Grades 2-4 I was looking for ways to make num-

bers and math make more sense to kiddos.

Greg's goal is to give teachers a deeper, more

connected understanding of critical math con-

cepts. Each workshop targets important skills,

strategies and standards, and combines Greg’s

proven techniques with the best practices from

around the world. The knowledge I walked away

with was not only beneficial for my own under-

standing of math and numbers, but has proven to

help students at multiple grades with varying de-

grees of abilities.

Math had always been one of my best subjects

in school and as an adult. However, math was

somewhat easy for me because I could

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow this link to see Southern Boone students using Greg

Tang’s funny numbers and cubes to understand subtraction

with regrouping: https://drive.google.com/file/

d/1d61ic0nNebxwWdNr8ZkZYgH9spZXJXp_/view?

ts=5a8c32e6

Spring 2018

memorize formulas, steps and how to do the

problems. The thing I was missing was, “WHY”

do I do it that way or what does that mean?

Often times we teach our students to just

memorize the steps or a formula because it’s

easier and we don’t allow them to understand

why we do what we do with numbers. Greg

Tang allowed me to re-think how I do math and

how I approach math with the students I come

in contact with. I have had the pleasure to share

with the entire Special Education Department,

the Primary School and Elementary School here

at Southern Boone. My goal in sharing with

teachers is so we can rethink some of the ways

we approach numbers and math with our stu-

dents to try something new and different. Greg

Tang teaches kids to have “true mathematical

thinking” which is so important for not only

math skills,

but also for

life skills.

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Southern Boone Primary has been recognized by the Department of Elementary and Secondary

Education for promoting a culture focused on collaborative learning while effectively using data

to increase student achievement. Interim Commissioner of Education Roger Dorson presented

Primary school leaders with their award. “These teachers and leaders have accepted the chal-

lenge of ensuring high levels of learning for all students,” Dr. Dorson said. “We appreciate their

commitment to helping students succeed and congratulate them on this recognition.” The state

PLC school-improvement model focuses on increasing student achievement by building the ca-

pacity of school personnel to create and sustain the conditions that promote high levels of stu-

dent and adult learning. All Southern Boone schools focus on these 4 questions:

1. What should students know and be able to do?

2. How will the school determine that students

have learned the essential knowledge and skills?

3. How will the school respond when students do not learn?

4. How will the school respond when they already know it?

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MOAHPERD Rejuvenates Physical Education Team To Benefit Teachers and Students On November 10th and 11th, four ladies from the Physical Education department attended the MOAHPERD conference. This year there was one presenter in particular that stood out from the rest. Scott Williams was a fantastic presenter from Virginia. He pre-sented brain breaks, dance and physical education favorites. As we attended the confer-ence, we made sure that one or more of us attended his sessions. He had wonderful ide-as, and was very energetic and passionate about teaching Physical Education. We learned a lot from him, and he shared his website with us so we can continue to learn new ideas. At the Elementary, Coach Craig learned several new ideas and games for her classes. Some of the games were perfect for the season, as there were Thanksgiving and Christmas themed dances/games. New ideas for “class challenges” were discovered and Craig plans to put them to good use. Coach Craig says, “Students in the Elementary enjoy challenges, especially if you announce the winner during the morning announcements!”

The Middle School coaches attended several sessions on dance, which inspired dance to be incorporated into more lessons. For example, if the Cupid Shuffle comes on, student’s know to start moving and dancing. Another fun example was around Christmas time, Jingle Bells was played as students danced and created their own 8 count moves. The smiles on their faces were fun to experience as they danced.

The Middle School coaches also learned new ideas by completing core work to ben-efit fitness testing in a game situation. For instance, playing Push-Up Tag and Catapult Ab-dominal Relay.

Coach Branch brought back many instant activities and ideas (22 Scadoo, Dance Train, etc.) to use during PE this year. This conference was extremely beneficial, not only for the tons of activity/lesson ideas, but for the networking with other physical education teachers. It was motivating to see what is going on all over the state. MOAHPERD was definitely a shot in the arm for rejuvenation which not only benefits us, but our students. It has been a while since there were this many of us there together and I think it helped us grow as a team.

One last tip from the conference was to use brain breaks. Not just in PE, but in all classroom settings. We all had an enjoyable time at the MOAHPERD Conference and gained knowledge and ideas that we will incorporate into our classrooms. Thank you for the opportunity to attend this conference, as it helps us grow as educators.

4

High School English Department Joins English Teachers

From Across America at NCTE

The English department had the

opportunity to attend the National Council of Teachers of English conference in St. Louis, Missouri. In the opening session, thousands of English teachers from across America gathered to be inspired by the famous poet, Jimmy Santiago, and students reading their own poetry. Aside from the larger general sessions, the conference included hundreds of breakout sessions. Independent reading and valuing student voice in the classroom was the main focus.

The English team was particularly interested in the sessions on independent reading. Our team attended sessions led by professionals in the field including Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, and Nancy Atwell, as well as other sessions led by high school teachers who have implemented independent reading as a regular part of their classroom. We gathered research-based strategies to spark department conversation on phasing in independent reading while keeping the curriculum we’ve worked so hard on. We are excited to integrate daily independent reading practices next semester with our 9th graders who have already proved to be avid readers. We hope that by providing class time for stu-dents to read what they want, they will develop reading interests and habits of their own while also improving reading comprehension and student writing in the classroom.

Attending the NCTE conference in St. Louis was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Southern Boone High School English team. Dedicating three days to the empowering at-mosphere of passionate teachers and professionals, eager to share research-based strat-egies to promote literacy in our own classrooms proved to be beneficial and supports our Building Comprehensive School Improvement Plan.

Dance https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KF3kKDRd6zOHsD3xbPtxM63R37vEV0SNetgSprQUxZk/edit?usp=sharing

Brain Breaks https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sf9d_q0ncEjjhZEL7GOjULCpLjHaKh8h8yG2Y5Zlng4/edit?

usp=sharing

PE Favs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uHK5qYJf6vTFTpg2i9SHZh498C3d2kUmiXejd6rpn4o/edit?usp=sharing

5

Eagle Time at the Middle School was created to be both an advisory time and an intervention time. The first part of

the year was devoted mainly to advisory types of learning so that students became comfortable with our school and

had an adult (in addition to classroom teachers) who would monitor their progress. For example, students learned

Middle School procedures and elements of PBIS.

During third quarter, we moved to incorporate intervention during Eagle

Time. Specifically, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, reading intervention has

taken place. Students were identified to receive targeted instruction based

on last year’s MAP results. In particular, students who scored at the Basic

level in ELA, but who were very near the Proficient level were selected to

receive intervention. The four reading teachers provided the instruction,

which meant kids would leave their regular Eagle Time classrooms to go to

work with one of the reading teachers. We called each parent of the identi-

fied students to make them aware of the change to Eagle Time and to alert

them that intervention would take place for their student. Parents appreci-

ated this opportunity for their students and were enthusiastic about

it. Feedback from students has been positive as well, regarding the skills they are being taught.

To prepare for the next phase of intervention in March, math teachers have been working to identify students who

would benefit from targeted math instruction. Eagle Time will be used for math intervention and will follow a simi-

lar structure. We are optimistic about this because reading intervention has been so well received, and we are con-

fident our math teachers will provide high quality targeted instruction.

Singleton Staff Teams with Mike Mattos—The focus: how singleton staff

(us staffers that are the only ones that teach our subject) can have a suc-

cessful, productive PLC team. He talked about different types of teams

that we could create like a building team, a district team, and even form-

ing teams online with teachers outside of our district. His example was a

Dinner Theater that allowed for authentic experiences for students and

teachers that stayed in their subject matter. Mattos also pointed out Da-

vid Conley's, College Knowledge, as a good place to start to find common evaluation points about skills kids need

before college.

How You Know When You Have an Intervention vs Activity—Interventions have to be systematically picked and

used based on the need of the student. Interventions need to have a specific area of need, should not last very

long, keep track of how long you are doing an intervention , track how the student is doing with what you are

intervening on and allow other team teachers to see what's been done prior to their intervention.

Data Cycles to Guide Wednesday Collabs—The data cycle consisted of four area rotations: Cycle 1- Pre assess-

ment (set SMART goal) identify 1 standard- template for SMART goal for each teacher to write their classroom

goal and display on the wall. Cycle 2- Projecting Unit: What do you need to work on, what to do to be prepared

for the meeting. Establishing a scale, students use to assess self. Cycle 3: Analyze Data and Adjusting plans- stu-

dent evidence of where are they (quick sorts of data). Cycle 4: Post Assessment and Data Analysis. This cycle

would create a clear focus for Wednesday discussions and guide RTI (grouping/identifying).

6

MSCA Fall Conference Assists Counselors in Helping Students be

College and Career Ready

The 2018 Missouri School Counselors Association annual fall conference

provided a well-rounded look at school-based programs and interventions

that have succeeded across the state. School counselors from our district

sought strategies to impact students in areas that our faculty has identified as

growing points, such as persevering through difficult concepts, providing ad-

ditional resources for At-Risk students, and further developing advisory les-

sons for freshman and other 8th hour interventions.

The passing of Senate Bill 638 has driven the urgency to revise the current personal plans of study

for students in grades 9-12. Pictured here, Kara Hinton and Rachelle LeCure are using information

from MSCA workshops to revise the Individual Career and Academic Plan, formerly known as Per-

sonal Plans of Study, for students entering grades 7-12. New requirements are encouraging students

to take a more active role in exploring their future aspirations prior to entering high school through

areas of academic planning for high school, career path exploration, and post-secondary options. Best

-practices learned at the MSCA Fall Conference have been instrumental in providing a framework for

expanding these concepts to incorporate grades 7 and 8 for 2018-2019 school year. We are looking

forward to taking a vertical team approach to preparing students to be college and career ready.

Next Generation Science Standards Make an Impact in SBC Classrooms

Erika Hill and Lori Condron attended a conference on incorporating Next Generation Science Standards in the

classroom led by Mike Szydlowski, Science Coordinator for Columbia Public Schools. At the conference, they

learned practical ways to create a more process based, over content based, curriculum. They also learned ways

to use student’s natural curiosity to plan more inquiry based lessons. Hill and Condron are using the information

learned from this conference by sharing with other team members and while writing new science curriculum. Lori

and Erika also learned a new model of teaching called Phenomenon First Teaching. Here is a further look at

what this model looks like: In the past, science instructors taught content , vocabulary, etc. and then students

had a chance for an experiment. Now think about reversing this format...let’s do the experiment first, discuss

what is happening in our observations, increase vocabulary by making meaningful connections, add variables for

different outcomes and voila, you have an inquiry based science lesson!

Here are some action packed pics of students making ice cream and determining which variable melts ice faster.

7

Finding Joy in imPerfection with Mrs. Rogers at the Write to Learn Conference

At the annual Write to Learn Conference, held at the Lake of the Ozarks February 16-18, participants attend-ed sessions presented by their peers from across the state, embodying the principle of the National Writing Project that “the best teachers of teachers are other teachers.” Southern Boone Gifted Teacher, Justine Rogers, attended the conference and enjoyed work-shops on Project-Based Learning, Flash Fiction, and Genius Hour. She also presented at the conference on “Wabi Sabi Writing: Find Joy in Imperfection.”

Research on anxiety in students today tells us that 1 in every 8 students in our classrooms experiences some level of anxiety disorder in their lives. These manifest themselves in the classroom in various forms, including perfectionism, task avoidance, with-drawal, and refusal to perform. Reflective practitioners of teaching are constantly develop-

ing new strategies to work with the students in their class. By developing new methods to help students overcome their anxiety we produce better learners, and consequently, better results. Rogers’s presentation focused on the need for teachers to remove focus from the end product in a project and redirect it to the process. This is especial-ly important in writing for students, particularly those whose performances are negatively impacted by per-fectionism (many students labeled as “gifted” deal with perfectionism). Rogers offers students in her

class, projects that embody the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi -- the belief that prod-ucts which are unique and flawed are superior to those that are mass-produced and lack originali-ty. Her middle school students worked with a local ar-tisan last year to create hand-made coffee mugs, and this year completed a project called “Pieces of Me,” which asked students to smash a mass-produced ce-ramic bowl into pieces and re-create it as a symbol of their uniqueness. Students also completed reflective writing pieces with each of these projects that gave them exercises in reflective expository and process analysis writing.

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Interface 2018 for grades K-6 was held at Tan-Tar-A on Feb 22-24 and was attended by 5th grade teach-

ers Lisa Levery and Ashley Van Black, 4th grade teacher Kali Binkley, and Math Intervention-

ist Jami Troth. Interface promotes best teaching practices in mathematics and science education with an

emphasis on STEM activities. The goal of the conference is to increase teacher knowledge of content and

pedagogy, which in turn increases

student achieve- ment in these

content areas.

This year, the keynote speaker

was John Anton- ette. If you ever get

a chance to hear him speak, do not

pass up the chance! Humorous

and motivational, Mr. Antonette has a

message which inspires teachers to

create learning tasks to engage

learners through intellectual, aca-

demic, and emo- tional engagement.

Interface provided a multitude of ses-

sions for educators to attend. One of

the favorites showed how to cre-

ate escape rooms that used math tasks students had to solve in order to break out and win a prize. In an-

other, educators were introduced to "Number Talks" and learned how to take 5-10 minutes a day to build

mental math strategies with students. Number talks should include low-risk problems to get everyone in-

volved and it also encourages "math talk" within the students and the classroom. Educators were also

shown the importance of using "C-R-A" (Concrete, Representational, Abstract). Always start with

"Concrete"-the doing stage; using manipulatives or real objects to show the problem. Then move from that

concrete model to "Representational"-the "seeing" stage; taking the concrete and turning that into draw-

ings, models and pictures. Finally go to the "Abstract"- the "symbolic" stage; number and operational sym-

bols, using equations to connect to the concrete and the representational. Some really exciting sessions

had educators use materials to create a battery operated marker-bot and a rubber band car which then

had to be modified to measure certain variables. In another session, different kinds of rockets were creat-

ed to emphasize the different parts and the importance of stabilizers! The rockets were launched, distanc-

es were measured to create graphs, and modifications were made to maximize distances.

Interface 2018 proved to be a valuable experience, one that these teachers were glad not to have missed.