Danielle Terry's Blog

This week, Scott McLeod discussed redesigning the principal licensure program.  Scott said that they have currently identified "grand challenges" for building leaders, such as principals.   The grand challenges that he has identified, taken directly from his blog post are: 1. Turning around a low-achieving school 2. Repairing a dysfunctional school staff culture 3. Preparing future-ready graduates 4. Meeting the needs of students with unique needs 5. Better engaging diverse student and family communities Scott said that he is currently accepting submissions of what anyone thinks a grand challenge is that should be considered when redesigning their principal licensure program.   The first thing that came to my mind when reading this blog post was everything that we have learned and discussed in this class.  At multiple times in this course, it has been mentioned that some of us feel as though our principals or building leaders aren't pavin...

Through this course and my colleagues, I have learned about so many different technology tools to implement in the classroom.  I have especially become interested in Google and all of the different apps that can easily work in my classroom.  Recently, I decided to sign up to take the Google Educator Level 1 Certification Exam.  I worked through all of the modules and learned so much about ways to implement Google into the classroom and the various ways that Google tools can be accommodating for all types of learners.  Through the modules and the exam, I was able to easily see how Google Forms can be used for exit slips or surveys in the classroom, and how easily it is to track the data that you collect from Google Forms in a Google Sheets document.  I began using Google Forms in my small group instruction the day after learning about it! I also admittedly have always been nervous about trying Google Classroom, but after the training modules and exam, I can see...

As a school and district, we have utilized MAP all year and I feel as though I know a lot about my students and their growth, but we began to wonder "Do our students know a lot about their own personal growth?"  My team and I decided to spend time with each individual student to set personal goals for MAP performance before taking the spring MAP assessment.  We started the goal setting process, by first showing our students the growth that they had made as an entire grade level on MAP in reading and math.  Our students were so excited to see the graphs on the MAP website and to notice that they had made more growth than MAP had projected them to.  Their confidence was soaring and it was so exciting to celebrate with them!  We then used MAP to pull up individual student reports showing where each student had performed in the fall and winter and where they are projected to perform in the spring.  We took the time to sit down with each student and show them ...

This week Jennifer Gonzalez shifted her focus from Google to Microsoft. Microsoft has added ways to make it easier to use their tools for all learners, especially learners with visual impairments or English learners. There are four ways that Jennifer highlights that Microsoft is allowing educators to personalize learning experiences for their students. 1. Learning Tools: This was designed originally for students with reading difficulties, however, these tools are free and allow students to improve their reading and writing.  The tools appear under "Immersive Reader," allowing students to highlight words, change font sizing, have the text read to them, etc.  Jennifer suggests using learning tools in the classroom to allow students to break apart text in a way that works best for them. 2. Dictate: Dictate is an "add-in for Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook."  It allows users to speak in over 20 languages and accurately recognizes speech to the point of capitalization ...

Scott McLeod's most recent blog post focused on the benefits of active learning.  The blog post started by discussing quotes in an article from the Washington Post.  A childhood development expert told the Washington Post that research shows that young children learn best actively, however "rigorous instruction" is expected at preschool age. A researcher told the Washington post that he found that "Seventy four percent of teachers from high-SES districts and 64 percent from low-SES districts reported their schools had cut the amount of time scheduled for child-directed activities in recent years." Scott went on to explain that schools who provide more time for students to actively participate in their learning through project based learning or inquiry learning usually end up with higher test scores as well as students who are academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally functioning at higher levels.  Scott said in "other words these schools ROCK ...

I have always been an avid user of Go Noodle for either brain breaks or indoor recess.  I love that it provides students an opportunity to release energy and re-focus, especially if wellness isn't until late in the day for them.  Recently, I have been receiving emails from Go Noodle reminding me that they have uploaded videos relating to content areas.  We are working on geometry in my fourth grade math classroom and I knew I needed something to help the students remember all of the vocabulary (line, line segment, ray, parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines, acute, right, and obtuse angles, etc.).  I decided to search on Go Noodle and found the perfect interactive dance for my students! The very first day of geometry I told the students we were going to do a Go Noodle, not even mentioning that it related to what we were about to learn.  The students were dancing and doing all of the motions relating to all of the vocabulary words.  After the vide...

My team uses Google Docs for weekly PLC's.  We often plan using Google Docs and also use Google Doc's to collaborate with teachers at other schools.  This past week we had a PLC focused on RTI and noticed that with being departmentalized, students are often overlooked if they are not struggling in both reading and math.  We currently track student data by class using Google Doc's, but during this PLC we decided to create a document that tracked our Tier 3 students only.  Each math or reading teacher had kept data throughout the year on their own Tier 3 students, but we were able to combine this data to identify students struggling in multiple areas or to identify students who may only be significantly struggling in one area.  This was helpful to see how Tier 3 students are performing across the board, as some students may only be Tier 3 in math or only Tier 3 in reading.  This Google Doc was extremely helpful as often we are asked to send data to our co...

Recently, Jennifer Gonzalez created a blog post about upgrading your classroom design.  We often see classrooms that look cozy and modern, allowing students to collaborate and feel at home, yet many teachers believe that it is impossible to make their own classroom this way within budget constraints and small spaces.  Jennifer interviewed Bob Dillon to gather 12 things that teachers can do to make their classrooms more student friendly and a better place for learning. 1) Ask students throughout the year "What in this room supports your learning and what gets in the way?" 2) Take things out: if you remove items and you don't miss them then you don't need them in your classroom. 3) Mix up Student Seating: try different arrangements or allow students choice in where they sit. 4) Take notice of the perimeter: Are the walls distracting or do they add to learning? Do certain posters need taken down? 5) Reduce or Eliminate Teacher Workspace: Allow students more...

This week I incorporated Learn Zillion into my math lesson on line plots. I have heard many teachers in my hallway discussing Learn Zillion, but have not used it in my classroom before until this week. The discussions that take place between my students and I often lead my math lessons as this is where we address misconceptions and the students ask great questions that further their learning. I was nervous about utilizing Learn Zillion and my students becoming bored.  The video introduced line plots for students and gave them a solid basis of understanding before our in-class lesson.  However, the lesson turned out way better than I expected.  I was able to pause the lesson and the students asked questions that really started a great conversation such as, "In the video it said that the x's represent..." The students were using the knowledge from the video to lead their learning and then I was there to assist with the in-class examples.  To be honest, this was my firs...

Scott McLeod's blog post this week was focused around a quote by Ruth Simmons discussing leadership.  While this blog post was short, it was very powerful and one that should be read by anyone involved in leadership of any kind. The quote by Ruth Simmons discussed a misconception of leadership that exists, where it is often thought that a leader would need "specific skills" for specific jobs.  However, Ruth Simmons says this is not what leadership is to her.  Ruth states, "I think of leadership as more of a disposition- the ability to step into a situation to learn about the history of the enterprise, the opportunities that it faces, the culture that exists, and the people who are served by it." Ruth discusses that there should not be one specific type of leadership, but instead leaders should learn about an institution and find ways to improve it instead of coming in ready to put into place all new practices and routines. Ruth ends with, "I think leaders...

In the fourth grade, our students arrive in our classrooms between 8:55 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. each morning.  We then take our students to special area at 9:10 a.m., therefore our mornings fly by quickly with taking attendance, listening to announcements, checking agendas for parent communication, and settling students in with a morning greeting.  My team and I have been working to find ways to make our mornings flow smoother with only having 5 minutes of true instructional time before special area. One of my co-workers recently attended a district professional development on Smart Notebook and mentioned to my teammates and I that we could take attendance on Smart Notebook.  This peaked our interest.  We were able to find balloons on Smart Notebook that allowed us to edit names and include each student in our classroom.  When the students come in, they simply walk up to the Smart Board and "pop" their balloon as a way of checking in for the day.  This has bee...

This week Jennifer revisited an old blog post that she had created about, "What It's Like to Be an Instructional Coach."  As a subscriber to her blog, I received an email from her discussing how she would like to revisit the interviews she completed a few years ago to address anyone's concerns about what instructional coaching entails.  This post was highly beneficial for me as I would like to someday be an instructional coach, therefore I was very glad that she resent this blog post out. The post started as Jennifer defined what an instructional coach is: “someone whose chief professional responsibility is to bring evidence-based practices into classrooms by working with teachers and other school leaders.” She stated that often an instructional coach's job can look very different from school to school or district to district as we may utilize instructional coaches across the board in all subject areas, for only one subject area, for one-on-one coaching with tea...

The transformation of PD was this week's blog topic by Jennifer Gonzalez.  PD used to be a "sit and learn" experience with a "one size fits all model."  This week, Jennifer shares that she has recently learned that many schools are taking on "alternative models for professional learning." The models that Jennifer mentioned showed how schools are beginning to personalize learning for teachers, just as they do for students. The 9 models follow below: 1) Unconferences: This is a professional development where the educators attending are the presenters.  Districts or schools usually pick a day and place and then use a Google Doc to split the day up among educators willing to present topics in areas they are strong in.  JCPS does Ed Camp using this format.  2) Intentional PLC's: Intentional PLC's are when teachers choose the content based on a mutual agreement or area of growth.  This gives teachers a choice in what they grow in or work with. 3...

Being departmentalized, I often use a "Problem of the Day" to ease the transition as students come into each math each class.  The "Problem of the Day" is usually displayed on a small white board for the students.  This week, I decided to incorporate technology into this time period by using a suggestion from a colleague.  I did this through using Math Monster Fractions:  https://www.mathplayground.com/mobile/math_monster_compare_frac.html .  Math Monster Fractions is a free website and was easy to implement into our "Problem of the Day" time as it consisted of review fraction material.  I started each class period with a fraction review concept game, such as equivalent fractions or comparing fractions.  These were easily accessible from the home page of the website.  This placed a problem on the SmartBoard for students to work out as they entered.  Once the students were able to solve the problem, we discussed it and I allowed one student...

This week I was able to reserve enough iPads to allow my students to participate in research for Black History Month.  Admittedly, in the past, I have not been the best at teaching my students how to actually search for information because I have assumed that my students already know how to do this.  With the research we have recently completed in this class about digital literacy and how we still need to teach digital natives how to use technology for research and to communicate, I decided to do a mini-lesson on research. Going into this lesson I was very anxious as I was afraid my students would be bored and already know what I was going to teach them.  My students actually ended up being very engaged.  We talked a lot about using key words to search to find exactly what information they are looking for.  I was able to assign them each an important person for Black History Month and they each received a biography sheet that caused them to search for date of ...

This week Jennifer focused on teachers becoming activists in a time when our nation is leaving teachers feeling "hopeless or frustrated."  Jennifer stated that many teachers are feeling very frustrated with all of the demands placed on them, while also feeling frustrated with various policies that are being passed by lawmakers, but often in conversations teachers state they don't know how to fix it or where to start.  In order for teachers to begin to make changes, they must become an activist.  Becoming an activist doesn't mean we need a political background, but instead we can get started by using technology to follow education activist bloggers and to inform ourselves.  Anthony Cody is an education activist and also blogs about education and independent issues.  He is a co-founder of Network for Public Education .  Anthony met with Jennifer for this blog post and offered suggestions for teachers wanting to become involved in changing education policy....

Restorative Justice was the topic of Jennifer's blog post this week.  Jennifer defined restorative justice as, "it focuses on building relationships and repairing harm, rather than simply punishing students for misbehavior."  Victor Small, Jr. is an administrator in California, who has been using restorative practice for a long time and Jennifer suggests following him on Twitter, using the hashtag #RJLeagueChat.  In his Twitter conversations, he focuses on supporting teachers, who are implementing restorative justice.  He aided in this week's blog post. Restorative justice does more than just punish students for the behavior that they display.  It focuses on repairing the underlying cause of the behavior.  This reduces suspension, but does place more work on schools as there are no "steps to follow" for specific behavior incidences.  Instead, school officials have to analyze each incident and work with the student so that the student can figure out h...

This week, I didn't try anything fancy in my classroom with technology, but instead had a spur of the moment opportunity to utilize technology to further my students' understanding.  We are working on converting units of measure.  It is my first year teaching fourth grade math, and when asking a coworker (who taught math previously in fourth grade) what background knowledge students usually come with as far as measurement goes, she said in the past they had a basic idea of what each unit of measure was.  This year, of course, was not the case at all.  My students picked up on feet and inches, but kilograms, grams, meters, millimeters, etc. were all very foreign words to them.  I quickly realized that there was no discussion that was going to help them understand, so I turned to technology for help. We went through each unit of measure individually and because it was spur of the moment, I only thought to Google each unit of measure and show real-life examples of...

One of Scott McLeod's recent blogs was very short, but also very powerful.  He began with a quote by Marc Prensky.  Marc's quote was focused around the idea that if we allowed students to have cell phones in classrooms they would "vote with their attention."  Essentially, if students had cell phones and they became bored in a class, they would simply choose to use their cell phone instead of engage in class.  Marc's idea was that we do not allow cell phones in class because we don't want students to have the opportunity to "vote with their attention." He compared the way that students "vote with their attention" to the way that "adults vote with their feet."  When adults are not compelled by a meeting or presentation, they have the choice to leave.  This really rang true to me, as I have been at PD's where we were given a choice of sessions to attend and I often chose to leave certain sessions and attend a different one if I d...

This week in my math classes, we were finishing working on multiplicative comparisons and word problems.  My students enjoy working with partners on task cards.  When looking for task cards for word problems and multiplicative comparisons, I came across a set that had a QR code on each task card.  I wasn't really sure how this would impact my instruction or if it would become a huge distraction for my students, but I was willing to give it a try.  I was able to gain access to enough iPads for each pair to have one, and showed my students how to use the QR code readers.  The students were so excited and their motivation was high.  The task cards allowed them to solve a problem with their partner and then to scan the QR code to see if their answer was correct.  My students loved being able to check their own work, instead of having to raise their hand to see if they are on the right track.  It also freed up my own time, so that I could work intentio...

Jennifer's post this week is extremely helpful to those of us using technology to communicate ideas, especially if we are blogging.  This week Jennifer discusses the difference between being a Curator and being a Dumper.  There is so much information that we have access to, that we can share with other educators, but we must be careful that we are not simply "dumping" information on them.   "Dumping" information on others is actually bad for your brain as "cognitive load theory suggests that the brain can only take in so much at once."  If you simply dump information on someone, their brain can actually begin to shut down and they cannot process anything you have shared with them at all.  Instead of dumping, Jennifer suggests that we should be curators as educators.  To be a curator, we must organize information and only choose a few key points to share and arrange those points in a presentable order.  This allows our brains to sort and take in...

I often use Smart Notebook in my classroom, but I will be the first to admit it is often used to post an agenda or as an extra whiteboard in the classroom to call students up to work out problems.  My students have always loved getting to write on the Smart Board.  This week, I needed to teach elapsed time and to be honest, I was really struggling with introducing it.  I wanted an interactive lesson, which kept seeming to be impossible as our school only had a total of 10 mini clocks for the students to work with in a hands-on manner at their desks.  I remembered Smart Notebook and was able to create a lesson using it that I was really proud of and my students loved! I searched for a clock and found one under "interactive and multimedia."  This clock allowed us to move the minute and hour hand to review how to use a clock to tell time.  I was then able to put two clocks side by side and call on students to set each clock to a different time, so that we cou...

This week, I decided to go to my second blog choice for the semester as "Cult of Pedagogy" took a break for the week.  I will be summarizing Scott McLeod's most recent blog on challenge- based leadership.  This blog post really made me sit back and think about the different ways that my school challenges students and sparks their curiosity. The blog began by a quote from Sir Ken Robinson, "Young children have a ready appetite to explore whatever draws their interest.  When their curiosity is engaged, they will learn for themselves, from each other, and from any source they can lay their hands on."  This quote really stood out to me and made me reflect upon the eagerness that students have to learn something new and how our job as educators is to ensure that we are consistently keeping that curiosity and eagerness alive.  It really made me think, "Do I keep this alive in my students each day?" which is exactly where Scott went next.  Scott then q...

My district is currently moving toward all schools using MAP as a way to assess student growth throughout each school year and to compare student growth across several school years.  This week my students completed the winter MAP assessment.  I have always thought it is a great use of technology that each student is able to be assessed on the iPad, while completing questions at their independent learning level so that we can determine the grade level that they are currently working within.  However, my goal clarity coach was able to show me a couple of tools using MAP's online system that really changed my classroom. 1) Re-forming Small Groups: Using MAP's online data on each student, I was able to see both the grade level and percentile that each student is working within, therefore I easily identified my Tier 3 students.  I also noticed that two of my students moved from Tier 3 to now being Tier 2 students, which was very exciting to see the growth! I was also a...

This week Jennifer Gonzalez blogged about "Moving from Feedback to Feedforward."  This blog post was one that was very insightful to me as I am constantly looking to strengthen the feedback that I provide to my students. Jennifer touched on how much feedback impacts schools and how sometimes a school can be seen as one long day of feedback.  She really highlighted how feedback can be more hurtful than helpful in the way it is often received. For this blog post, Jennifer interviewed Joe Hirsch on the concept of Feedforward.  A quote that really stood out to me and made me understand the importance of Feedforward was, "When we give feedback to our students, or when our co-workers or administrators give feedback to us, the focus is on the past. People can’t control what they can’t change, and we can’t change the past,' says Hirsch. 'And that happens to be the focus of most of the feedback that we give or receive.”  I found this very interesting and insightful as I...

I have always been an avid user of ClassDojo in my classroom for behavior management, but this week I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try to start incorporating the new toolkit that many teachers had been telling me about.  I cannot believe I haven't tried it before, it was so easy and my students loved it! I'll highlight my favorite aspects of the toolkit below. Group Maker: The group maker was one that my students were really excited about.  I often group students for discussion or to work on a small activity together and my students often get tired of working with the people that they sit next to.  With group maker, I was able to quickly tell ClassDojo how many students I wanted in each group and it formed small groups for me to display.  I used it several times in the past week and it was a great way to mix students up.  This probably would not be best if grouping students strategically, but it does work to get students mixed up and talking. D...

This past week Jennifer Gonzalez created a blog post that could not have come at a better time for me.  She posted about the "6 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2018." 1) Flipgrid : flipgrid.com Flipgrid allows teachers to post a question for students to answer.  The students make videos of their responses and then can collaborate with other students through commenting on one another's videos. 2)  Insert Learning: insertlearning.com Insert Learning allows you to find any information on the web that you would like your students to participate with for a lesson.  Jennifer provided the example of using an article published online for your students to read and adding your own touch to it through questions, etc.  Your students responses are then sent to you.  I cannot wait to try this one! 3) Book Creator: bookcreator.com This allows students to create their own books and publish them online. 4) Newseumed: newseumed.org Newseumed is a news museum that...

This week presented the perfect opportunity to use technology in a new and engaging way for my students.  My students needed to review for the District Common Assessment for math.  I had recently heard about NearPod and decided to try it with my students for review.  While I do not have an entire class set of iPads, I was able to put students in small groups for this activity and give each group an iPad.  The students were then able to review math questions using NearPod and I was able to see each small group's real time response as well as discuss any misconceptions that I saw in student work. The students loved when I was able to display their work on the SmartBoard after they solved a free response question and they engaged in great conversation if we needed to clear a misconception based on a group's work.  This idea came to me the day before reviewing, therefore in the future I plan to know well in advance that I would like to use NearPod to allow my studen...