Time to take care of yourself!

With all the normal craziness of the start of a new school year and then adding in a global pandemic, I know things are especially exhausting right now. We have embarked on a new way of planning, teaching, and existing. It's overwhelming, constantly changing, and the unknown of tomorrow causes a lot of anxiety and stress.  There is so much we can't control, so worry about what you can. One thing that often gets pushed to the bottom of the list is taking care of ourselves.  I know we all hear this time and time again but how many of us actually make an effort to take 5 minutes or more for ourselves each day? I am guilty of not doing this regularly but have it as a goal.  

Taking care of yourself doesn't mean taking lots of time every single day for yourself. Every day is different in our demands at work and home. But take some time to focus on you and you alone. 

Here are some ideas:

1. Meditate when you wake up or before you go to bed.  Meditating can take any amount of time you have and is a great way to support your mental health.

2. ASK FOR HELP. At work, if you are stuck, overwhelmed, or have lots of questions ask a colleague, administrator or myself for help. We are all here to support. At home, ask your spouse to do something for you one night to take something off your plate.  Give the kids a new chore that will give you a little extra time. 

3. Go outside during lunch. Disconnect from your technology for those 30 minutes. Walk the halls during lunch or outside when it's nice. Do a quick meditation during a prep or during lunch. 

4.  Write down one or two positive things that happen at the end of each day.  Keep track of them somewhere to look back on when you are having a rough moment, day, or week. 

Try something new or start doing something you used to do again. Give yourself permission to take care of yourself each day and know that it will only make things better. 

Increasing Student Talk - Part 4: Socratic Seminar (with guest blogger Heidi K)

I have been focusing many of my blog posts this year around how to increase the quality of student talk in your classroom.  One such strategy to use is a socratic seminar.  I am by no means an expert at running socratic seminars myself but we have some teachers in our building who are.  I asked one of those teachers, Heidi K, to do a guest post on socratic seminars.  

Enjoy!

I love Socratic Seminars! It is one of the only times during the year where students take 100% control of the class that day. Usually, lessons tend to be somewhere around 70/30, but Socratic Seminars are 100% student-led. In my classroom, we do Socratic Seminars at three points during the year. Each one builds on the skills learned from the previous one:

• First Socratic Seminar: Students focus primarily on asking and answering high-level questions. Before the seminar, we spend time talking about the difference between low-level questions and high-level questions and students practice creating those high-level questions (see the link at the bottom for the resources I use).
• Second Socratic Seminar: Students continue to focus on asking and answering high-level questions but also focus on using textual evidence to support their responses. Before the seminar, we spend time talking about close reading  and finding the best evidence from a text to support their opinions and responses. 
• Third Socratic Seminar: Students continue to focus on asking and answering high-level questions and using textual evidence but also focus on making meaningful text connections that strengthen their discussions even more (see the link at the bottom for examples). 

Doing a Socratic Seminar for the first time can be overwhelming for both the students and teacher. It takes a lot of patience for a teacher to give up control to the students. And, it takes a while for the students to feel comfortable running things themselves. But, I found it to be very worthwhile when they do. Here is a brief overview of how my seminars run on the day, and you can find more detailed information in the link at the bottom:

• First, students sit in either the inner circle or outer circle of desks. The inner circle (the ones actually discussing out loud) get out their books, notes, and other materials. The outer circle (the ones participating in an online backchannel) get logged in to the backchannel that I use most often (todaysmeet.com). 
• While students are given a couple minutes to look over their notes and prepare, I get my rubrics and score sheets ready to go. I also remind the outer circle what they should be chatting about in the backchannel (what the inner circle is doing well, what advice they have for them, and whether they agree or disagree with the topics brought up in the discussion).
• After that, I sit back and just listen. The students run the discussion, and I take notes on my scoresheets to make sure students get the grades they deserve. At a couple points in the hour, we will take a quick break so the inner circle can turn to the outer circle and get advice or suggestions from them (based on what was discussed in the backchannel).
• The next day, the inner circle and outer circles switch.

For a much more detailed description of how I run my Socratic Seminars (and links to all of my resources and other materials), please CLICK HERE. And, feel free to let me know if any of you have any questions regarding Socratic Seminars or would like some help putting one together!

Heidi K (Formerly Vandy)

What I learned at the ONE conference!

Each year going into the ONE Conference I am excited to learn some new tidbit of technology that I can use to enhance my classroom.  I tell teachers to find something in each presentation they can implement soon and, maybe, something that would be a stretch tech goal for themselves.

This year I was able to sit through a bunch of different presentations as I walked around the conference.  The first session I went to was led by the keynote speaker and he had some many quick tech tools to try, it was incredible.  Although he talked about many more, here are a few I thought were pretty good.

Poll Everywhere - A great website to use in a variety of different ways.  (There is also an app for students to log into if you want!) You can post a question and have students submit their thoughts.  The site can be used as a back-channel during a Socratic seminar with questions posted on it.  It can be used as formative assessment to get a quick feel on the students current proficiency.  Questions can be multiple choice, rank order, sortable list.  You can see the results in a variety of ways as well.  You can have many different questions and keep the answers to review.  The options are endless.




Post-It Plus (app) - This app will change your life if you regularly use Post-it note activities in your classes.  You can take a quick picture of the Post - its, with the app, sort them digitally, and have discussions with your class.  If they are Post-its you will use for more than just the moment, you can save them for future use.



Google Slides Q&A - Instead of having a completely different back channel going on while you present, Google Slides Q & A allows the audience to answer and ask questions, and you can see those immediately in your presentation.  Check out the link for a quick how-to.

Increasing Student Talk: Part 3 - Quick Writes

Increasing Student Talk: Part 3 - Quick Writes

Wait! How can you increase student talk with quick writes, that seems weird?  There are different ways to use quick writes during a lesson which will help you increase student talk.

One way to use quick writes to increase student talk is to have students work together to collaborate on the quick write.  As the teacher, you give the class the same prompt, or a different prompt to each group, and have the groups write about the prompt.  The groups can write on post-it notes, poster paper, or any other place you would like to collect their responses.  At the end of a set period of time, the groups can share out what they responded with the rest of the class.

Another way to use quick writes to increase student talk is to give the prompts to students to write about individually.  Then, after a period of time, have the students share with a partner, group, or full class.  This way students have already thought through their responses and may be more comfortable to share what they have to say, rather than thinking quickly.  Having students do a quick write first, before talking, also allows students who take longer to process questions the chance to share their responses.

Quick writes can be done in any content area. Check out this idea sheet for some quick writes in different content areas.  Also doing a search online regarding a specific topic might bring you more ideas.  I have also found some awesome quick write ideas in a book called "Independent Reading: Inside the Box" by Lisa Donohue.  I have a copy in my office if you want to check it out! You could also create an anchor chart around expectations during the two different types of quick writes.

Increasing Student Talk - Part 2: The World Cafe

When we think about increasing student talk and plan for it, student engagement will increase.  A great strategy to use is a World Cafe.  World Cafes can be done in a variety of ways depending on the level and the comfortability of students and teacher.

So what is a World Cafe?

All students are first exposed to similar things.  They do not need to read or watch the exact same thing but there should be a general theme or topic that you would like them to discuss.  Students are then split into groups of any number, usually 4 - 5 makes the best size with one table host/leader.  The groups then all discuss a set of questions led by the table host. As the questions are discussed, the host or all the participants write key ideas discussed on a large sheet.  It is best to think about who will make a strong table host before the class period begins. 

After a set period of time, the students all switch to different groups and the table host stays at the table.  The table host then discusses what their first group discussed and the new group members make connections with it from their previous groups.  After this discussion has "finished" the new groups can then discuss the same questions or a new set of questions.  They will add to the sheet at their table which helps to make their thinking visible for all groups. 

If you wanted to, you could do another switch and go to another table or they could return to their original table to see what was added.  At the end, you can have the table hosts share what was discussed at their table with the whole group.  

A World Cafe can be done in a variety of ways.  Figure out what works best for your students and you.

For more information on World Cafes, here is a great resource.

Increasing Student Talk: Part 1 - Conversation/Sentence Starters

Throughout the school year, I will be focusing on how we can increase student talk in our school.  I hope to provide quick and easy strategies for you to implement in your classrooms and lessons to increase the quality and quantity of student talk.  Because, as we all know, students develop a deeper understanding of a topic if they talk about it.

The first strategy is to teach students conversation or sentence starters to use during class discussions, small group conversations, and socratic seminars/debates.  These sentence starters could be general to be used daily in your classroom, or specific to the type of "student talk" they will be doing.  Sentence starters can be made into anchor charts, posted around your classroom, or taped to the top of students desks for quick reference.  Many times, student talk gets stalled because students don't know how to properly construct a response to a prompt or another student's comment.  If we teach students how to have discussions and give them good sentence starters if they get stuck, the hope is, the student talk will be more engaging for them and students will get more out of the talk.

The pictures included are different ideas of "student talk" anchor charts you could create with your students.  Or use to teach students how to improve their ability to discuss topics in your class.  There are many resources online for you get started with ideas, just start looking!

When deciding what sentence starters or stems to use, be sure to think about the students in your class and the type of discussions in which they will be using them.  Do not provide too many to lower level students and be sure to provide ones that meet the current need of the class.  This should be a work in progress for your class and a skill to develop throughout the entire year.  

Are you a marigold or a walnut tree?

Over the summer I saw this article online.  It is from 2013 but is so relevant each year at school, no matter how long you have been teaching, and in your personal life.

The article talks about finding your "marigold".  Marigolds are often planted near vegetable or other plants.  They are planted nearby because they protect many plants from harmful weeds and bugs.  Marigolds also help the other plants flourish and grow better than average.  In our school, a "marigold" is a peer who helps us grow throughout the year.  They may support us emotionally one day and with curriculum the next.  A "marigold" is the first person to pick you up on a bad day and help you get through it.  They are also the first person to celebrate a successful lesson/day/year with you.  You may have multiple "marigolds" depending on the day and situation. Seek out your "marigold"!  Our school is full of "marigolds".  Who are yours?

On the opposite end are walnut trees. Walnut trees are toxic.  They inhibit growth of plants nearby and eventually kill everything around them.  Many gardners try to avoid planting anything near walnut trees. All of us have our days/moments when we are "walnut trees".  But try not to live as a "walnut tree".  Some teachers are more "walnut tree" than "marigold".  Some teachers are more "marigold" than "walnut tree".

Surround yourself with many "marigolds" and grow.  We are all in this together and the more we are each others "marigolds", the more our students will benefit, which in the end, is the ultimate goal.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed their summer and is slowly starting to settle into the school year.

I am personally very excited for this school year.  The goals developed by the SAIL team for the school year will give us a great focus and help to improve North and our students for years to come.  As we develop our students to be well-rounded young adults, we need to remember to be well-rounded adults ourselves.  Being well-rounded adults means taking time for yourself and your family away from work.  Make sure to take time away from work each weekend and just enjoy! This will leave you refreshed and ready to put your best foot forward each day at work.  (My husband used to give me a maximum of 4 hours for the whole weekend to do work stuff. And then he would take everything away from me!)

As we start to get into the school year, feel free to stop in with things you need support with in the classroom.  I will do my best to support you in anyway I can.  If you want to schedule an appointment with me please use ktorzala.youcanbook.me to see when I am available.

I look forward to working with everyone throughout the school year.

Kristin

End of Year Educator Effectiveness

It's that time of year!  Time to finish your Educator Effectiveness work for your end of the year evaluation.

So what do you all need to do?

1.  SLO - For your SLO you need to give your final assessment to determine if your student group has met the goal you set out for them.  After the assessment, complete an ASW form.  Once you have looked at your data, fill out the end-of-interval section on the SLO document you started at the beginning of the year.

2. SLO Scoring Rubric - Your next step will be to think about your score for your SLO.  A scoring rubric is available on the Google Classroom for Educator Effectiveness.  Look this over before your meeting to gauge what you think your score will be.

3.  PPG - Complete your end-of-year review on the PPG document you started at the beginning of the year.

4. Self-Review - Look at your self-review from the beginning of the year and, informally, reflect on where you feel you are now.  During your end-of-the-year meetings, you will discuss with your administrator or myself your scores on each component. Know where you feel you are to promote good discussion.

5. Artifacts - Artifacts should be collected for each component in Domain 1 and 4, for your SLO, and your PPG.  Each year, whether on summary year or not, you will be collecting artifacts.  Come up with an organized system that works for you to collect your artifacts.  (Many different templates have been shared as ideas. If you want to see them, just ask or look on Google Classroom.) You should have a couple artifacts for each component but you can use the same artifact in multiple places.  Remember to identify the year you added the artifact.   Your artifact collector should be shared with your administrator by April 30th, so they can start reviewing them prior to your end of the year meeting.  Make sure all your links are able to be opened by your administrator.

Quality over quantity, keep that in mind.

6. Schedule meeting - You will need to schedule an end of the year meeting with your cooperating administrator if you are on summary year.  (Details regarding the deadline for this will be out shortly.)  If you are not on summary year, you need to schedule a meeting with me on ktorzala.youcanbook.me.

If you would like to meet with me prior to discuss end of the year stuff, please schedule a meeting with me at ktorzala.youcanbook.me.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!  The end of the year is near :)

A little bit of stuff. Part 2

Purposeful classroom environment
When was the last time you really spruced up the environment of your classroom? When did you last update the "things" on your wall?

Many teachers have gotten better at displaying student work on walls, creating word walls, and making student centered/created anchor charts.  But does everything on your walls have a purpose in your current unit? Or do you just leave everything up and not really change it?

When putting things up, make sure they have a current purpose in your classroom. Change things that are on the wall regularly.  Have the walls work for you and your students.  Make reference during lessons to what is displayed on the walls.

Collecting Artifacts
Have you started collecting artifacts for your end of the year evaluation?  Collecting artifacts doesn't have to take a ton of time if you spend a little time each week working on one.  Schedule fifteen minutes each week to pick an artifact, assign it to components, and write the reflection.

Always remember it is quality over quantity.  For example, a project thoroughly laid out, showing differentiation for students, and project objectives, could hit every component in domain 1: planning and preparation.  You need to collect artifacts for domains one and four.  You only have to collect artifacts for domains two and three if you feel it is necessary.

Collecting artifacts is a large part of your evaluation.  Even if you are not on summary year, you must be collecting artifacts.  During your summary year, your evaluator will look through your body of work, over the full three year period, to determine your "score" for each component.

How you collect artifacts is up to you.  Just be sure everything is able to be viewed by your evaluator.
If you want help with collecting artifacts, feel free to contact me or your administrator.

A little bit of stuff!

Often teachers ask questions about the walk through feedback or just questions on general topics in our building.  So here is a little on a few of the topics that have come up recently.

Anchor Charts: Many teachers have drastically improved the creation and usage of anchor charts in their classrooms. But are those anchor charts still relevant to what you are doing today, or are you just leaving them up because they are pretty? Now that you all are comfortable with creating them, push yourselves to find ways to have your students create them or co-create them with you.

Increasing the "I do": Model your thoughts. Model your way of doing something. Activate prior knowledge.  The more you model, the more successful our students can be.  Check out my blog from November 23, 2015 on this topic.

SAMR and the ONE Conference: Now that the ONE conference is done, what are you doing to level up?  Start with "leveling up" one lesson, in one class, and expand from there.  If you currently "live in" Substitution, start moving more of your lessons into Augmentation.  Remember you can't always live in "Redefinition", visit there when you are ready.

All of us fill out an "I commit" tag.  What did you commit to doing? Are you actively working to committing to what you wrote?  What can you do to accomplish the commitment you made?

Conferring vs Touching Base: Conferring and "touching base" with students are very similar things.  The main difference is the purpose of the conversations happening.  When conferring, you have a specific content focus.  There tends to be more teacher:student collaboration when conferring and the
student drives much of the conversation.  The picture to the right shows the roles of the student and the teacher when conferring. When you "touch base", it may be just a quick check in, "how are you doing?", "Your grade is this and this is what you need to do to improve it".

Check out this article for more on conferring!

Leveling up: Getting ready for the Waukesha ONE conference

Waukesha ONE is getting closer!

If you were here at North two years ago, we hosted this conference for all district secondary schools and it was a huge success.  Now we are in the second year for the conference with all schools contributing. A lot of work has gone into making it even better than the last.  You will get to see YOUR colleagues present on things they are doing in their classrooms with students just like yours.  (Not somebody from somewhere else, with much different students and much different technology.)

The theme of the One Conference is "Level Up".  Presenters will be sharing how they have Leveled Up! in their use of technology. But what does it mean to "Level Up"?

Level-ing up comes from increasing the SAMR level of a task.  SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.  SAMR is designed to show how teachers have infused technology into teaching and learning in their classrooms.   If you are using technology in your classroom, you are on a SAMR level, but often we are asked "how can I increase my level?" or level-up.  (It is important to know that throughout a lesson or unit you could be hitting different levels of SAMR.)


Go to this site to learn what it means to be on each level or search SAMR technology for more great resources.

The Waukesha ONE conference website is ready to be viewed here.  Make sure to look at this prior to heading to the conference on Friday.  You can build your schedule on the site so you remember where you decided to go and also have other options in case the session you choose is full.  Talk with your PLC teams and other colleagues to see what they are doing.  Divide and conquer.  Don't just go to a session because your friend is going.  Go to different sessions and share the knowledge with each other.

SLATE 2015: Some things I learned

The last two days I have been at the SLATE conference in the Dells.  When I go into sessions I hope to learn one thing I can use in my role and one thing I can share with others.  Here is me sharing.  I think these are two untapped, valuable resources that can increase the literacy across our building.  AND increase the variety of text in our classrooms.

Google Cultural Institute
The Cultural Institute is an amazing site where you can take students to places you couldn't before.  You have access to art exhibits and museum exhibitions.  It includes online exhibitions showing the story, both pictorially and written, of historical moments in ways never done before.  There is music, science, history, english, science, art, and the list goes on.

Google Books
There are some great classics on this site to download, for free, if you can't access them anywhere else.  The coolest part of this site is the access to magazines.  This site has EVERY edition of many magazines for free, including Life, health-based, Popular Science.  The magazines don't just include the articles but every advertisement and picture in the magazine originally.  You could have students study how advertising for certain products have changed over time, from cameras to cars, from fruit to cigarettes.  You could have student research other things that were going on in the world at the same time as a huge event in the "social media" of that era.  For example, what else was going on in the world when we landed on the moon or when JFK was assassinated.

Increasing the "I do" in your lesson

So often we have heard "teacher led instruction is bad" or "don't be the sage on the stage" that we end up trying to avoid teacher lecture because we don't want to "get a bad walk-through".  But in fact, we should be spending about 30% of our time in the "I do" phase of the Gradual Release of Responsibility lesson.

The "I do" phase of the GRR lesson plan is extremely important in building a students ability to be successful.  In this phase, the teacher models his or her thinking and understanding of the content for students.  The "I do" phase allows students to see the purpose of the lesson and focus in on the standards they are learning.  During this time, teachers can build and, possibly activate, background knowledge.

The "I do" phase will look different in every classroom.  Also the amount you do, will vary slightly depending on student ability and background knowledge needed.  Some great examples are:

• Reading out loud a couple of paragraphs of the assigned reading.  The teacher then discusses how they would annotate it, what they found interesting, and how they connected to background knowledge they have from previous to the reading.  
• In a math class, a teacher may teach a rule, then go through an example while verbalizing their thought process.  
• In science class, a teacher models how to properly use a triple beam balance and graduated cylinder in order to correctly calculate the density of an irregularly shaped object.  

Rachel Hermann did a great post on the SDW - Connect Blog in October on this same topic.  Check it out!

In talking with Amanda Wagner, the instructional coach at South, she stated "I think the biggest reason people don't model more is because they think kids know what we expect . I always try to get people to step out of their subject area and think about how they had to learn the particular skill when they first started learning or even teaching such a skill."

Remember, the full process of the Gradual Release of Responsibility may take longer than a day, it may also take less than a day.  The important thing is to know what your students know and what they need to know to be able to take more responsibility for their learning.  

Utilizing a Variety of Texts

One of the goals this year is to have our students use a variety of texts in each class.  In September, according to our school walk-through data, 50 of the 96 documented classrooms used some sort of text.  In those 50 classrooms, there were only 12 documented types of text, from math word problems to textbooks to novels.  What our goal is is to push ourselves beyond the texts you expect to see in your class and try some new things.

In history classes, you often see students reading in their textbook or short stories.  But what about drawing inferences from a picture? Making historical connections to a cartoon strip?  A picture is text.  A cartoon is text.  Text doesn't mean just words in a book.

In math classes, students have texts as word problems, data tables, and charts.  Can they read a newspaper article and answer math questions from it?  Can they memorize a math equation from a song?

In science, students could read a short science fiction story and discuss what is scientifically fiction in the story.  Or watch a short movie clip and comment on the science behind what happened in the clip.

Your goal is to try a new type of text in your classroom by November 6th.  When you do, tweet it to me @ktorzalaWN.  Then I will post all the awesome things we are all doing in this blog after that!

What can you try today?

Are you ready to improve your Google apps work flow?

Do you use Google Drive to share documents regularly with students?  Are you sick of making sure they make copies, then share it with you and getting 100s of emails with assignments from students?  Then Google Classroom is for you!

Google Classroom is a great way to send out Google Docs to students that you want them to individually or collaboratively work on.  You can create assignments, set reminders, and ask questions that can be used for formative feedback.  Google Classroom is not as full featured as Blackboard in many ways, but does do some things that make working in the Google world much easier.

Once a student is enrolled in the class, they will have a Google folder created for your class in their Drive, which is already shared with you!

1.  Everyone can create a classroom and have students enroll themselves.  If you go into the 9-square app finder and scroll down you will find Google Classroom.  We, as teachers, can both enroll in classes and create classes.  To create a class, go to the + next to your email in the upper right corner and select "Create Class".  Name the class however you choose and you can get started!  Once a class is created you will have a class code to have students sign-up through. (If you don't see the Create Class option, let Wendy Liska know.)

2.  To add things to your class, click the + in the lower right corner and you get many options:

• Reuse post - allows you to reuse an old post from any class you have previously created.
• Create question - you can post a question for students to answer privately or as a full class discussion.  You will receive all the answers in one place for easy grading
• Create assignment - you can add an assignment, with a due date, for students to complete.  This is a great way to send a Google doc to students to have them work on.  You have different options then of just allowing students to view the Doc, allowing all students to edit the same Doc, or creating a copy for each student in their individual Drive.  Once a student is done with an assignment, they must submit it to you, and it appears as done in your Google Classroom!
• Create announcement - this is just for those friendly reminders of things students need to complete or due.

The possibilities for creating an assignment are pretty extensive.  They can submit their own Google Docs or any file to the assignment for teachers to view and you do not have to check each individual Drive folder.  The best part: no need to search for assignments.  All assignments are submitted to the same link.  

Google Classroom is also connected to a students Google Calendar so they can see any due dates coming up right on their calendar!

The possibilities with Google Classroom are different than they are with Blackboard, but if you are looking to improve your work flow with Google Drive this is the place to do it!

If you have any questions or can't wait to get started schedule an appointment with your instructional technology coach for help!

#shachat

Want to learn more about the School District of Waukesha and initiatives in the district?  Love using Twitter?  #shachat is for you!

#shachat is a great way to expand your professional learning network in our district and learn what other teachers are doing.  #shachat allows for professional development from the comfort of your home!  This was extremely successful last spring and will begin again this fall.

See the flyer below for more information.  Can't wait for you all to join us at the first #shachat on October 28th!

What's an Anchor Chart?

One of the focuses this year in our walk-through's is seeing if teachers have anchor charts in their classrooms and are they being used effectively.  So what's an anchor chart?  (No, it isn't a picture with an anchor on it.)

An anchor chart is a tool used to support instruction.  They are a way to help students be more successful in your classroom.  They may have classroom expectations on them.  They may have friendly reminders of daily procedures.  An anchor chart could be as simple as a formula which students regularly need.  An anchor chart could be up all year, be used for one unit, or could evolve throughout the course of the year.  Many times they are just "friendly reminders" or "things to think about" for students to look at if they "forget" the next step or process.

Anchor charts are often created collaboratively with the students but do not need to be.  They can be hand-written or typed.  They can be purchased from a store and tweaked or "stolen" from a fellow teacher.  

How can you use anchor charts effectively?  Point them out when students should be referencing them during a lesson.  If you don't, then they are just decorations on the wall.  Have students create or add to the anchor charts, throughout the unit or year.  

If you want ideas of what you could use in your classroom, check out the awesome anchor charts already in our building.  (There are many more but I couldn't include them all.)  Or Google it!  There are so many great resources out there, so use them!

Why is this my new normal?

While sitting in a training on inquiry last week, my mind kept wondering to "how will this work in a math classroom?"  And then I had to stop and remember I am not only a math teacher anymore.  I need to retrain my brain to think about all subject and how these things could work in all classrooms.

For the past ten years, I have been a math teacher at Waukesha North.  I love teaching. I feel comfortable doing it.  It's where, I feel, I belong.  I have also been a Grading for Learning coach, an Infinite Campus coach, and had many other teacher leader positions.  When the instructional coaching position became available, I felt it was something for me.  I am blessed to be able to still teach my AP Statistics course and now "coach" other teachers, too.    It just seemed so natural of a position for me and I definitely hope I do it justice.

Each day I learn more about how I can do my absolute best in this role and I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings.

My New Normal

Hello Everyone!

Well, here it is, my first blog post.  I didn't think I would ever have one of these but here I am writing one.  Funny story, I have a younger cousin, who is now 23 years old, who came up with the word "blog" long before it became popular in today's culture (she was probably five or six).  For some reason, if you would say this word she would tickle you, so it turned into a game where we would try to trick her into saying it.  She refused to say it for years.  One day we finally tricked her into saying it and she cried for hours.  She, to this day, will not say blog.

This week has been fun getting to know my new normal and figuring out my new position.  I have loved getting into so many classes and seeing what other people are doing.  As of right now, I have only missed 5 teachers in the building.  I plan on spending as much time in classrooms this year as I can, even if for five minutes when I have down time.  This is the only way I know how to get to know what is going on in our classrooms.  Be used to me being in your classroom and stopping in to see how things are going.  I want you to think it is abnormal if you don't see me, rather than if you do.  

In my "travels around North", I saw some pretty awesome things going on in so many classrooms.  Here are a few of my shout-outs for the week:
- Nancy Senger did a scavenger hunt around her classroom so students noticed all the resources available on the walls.  They had to find posted targets, vocabulary on the word wall, and other math resources.  During the lesson that day, I saw students turning and looking at the things on the wall.  What a great way to get students used to using the awesome resources available to them each day.
-  Dan Knuth did a getting to know you activity with a twist.  Each student had to learn one thing about one of their table partners then write about the thing they learned but with a mythical twist. After reading the stories out loud, the rest of the class had to guess what the story was about. The stories I heard were incredible and had much thought put into it.  A very unique way to get to know each student.
- Heidi Vanderbush did a very traditional "introduce your self and say one thing about you" but added a twist that engaged her students immediately.  Once they were all done introducing themselves she went around and said each students name, memorized right away.  She only missed one student!  How impressive and a great way to connect right away to your students.
- While talking with Robb Syverson he mentioned how awesome it is to have Matt Carrell in class.  In his years of teaching, he has had several co-teaching experiences, and he said none have stepped up and been a true co-teacher. Robb said day one Matt was comfortable teaching the class.  Robb is very excited to teach with Matt the rest of the year.

Hope everyone continues to have a great week and enjoy your weekend!  Take time for yourself.  

Kristin