K.+Conklin

=Pre-work for the first webinar=

Assignment 1:

Reflection and Practice of Chapter 5
 * 1) Question 1:
 * Entering the Classroom
 * 1) Enter the classroom while greeting the teacher
 * 2) Place your homework in the homework folder
 * 3) Grab your binder from the back
 * 4) Turn to the section in your binder for Do Nows and begin the Do Now written on the board

Expectation: silence, focused, and orderly
 * Group Work
 * 1) Join with the members at your table unless instructed otherwise
 * 2) Have every member put their name on the worksheet or lab needed to be completed
 * 3) Work with 12 inch voices, follow the directions on the worksheet or lab and stay focused
 * 4) Work together when following directions or filling out the worksheet by questioning one another and discussing with one another
 * 5) Upon completion, check your work to ensure mastery and then raise your hand to let your teacher know
 * Props: to create a strong culture of teamwork and support, the class will partake in props to further each others learning
 * 1) Two snaps and two stomps will be given to congratulate, encourage, as well as further student learning
 * 2) Expectations: this signal of support will take no more than 5 seconds, it will be in sync with the class as a whole, and any other distractions will not be tolerated
 * Binder Preparation
 * 1) Binders will be given to students on their first day of school that are theirs to keep but only in the classroom. These binders will only be permitted to take home if the student requests or if there is an exam the next day where they need all of their work
 * 2) Their binders will be graded according to their order and structure; therefore, they need a table of contents with all pages numbered and in the right folder section such as homework, notes page, Do Nows, labs, etc.
 * 3) These binders will be picked up at the beginning of class at one section and returned to the same place at the end of the day
 * SLAM Position: this position is SLAMing and will be used to get them in their successful learning position
 * 1) Sit
 * 2) Listen
 * 3) Attention
 * 4) Mute

Question 3: Quotes:
 * 1) Using the restroom
 * This request signal can only be used when I am NOT teaching a lesson; therefore, during lab time, group work, or independent work. To request to use the restroom, they will hold up a green paper that will be in each of their binders. Depending on the work load needed to complete for that day, the teacher will then decide if the student may or may not use the restroom. If it is clear that it is a real emergency, they will be allowed to go but they will be given a 5 minute time limit.
 * 1) Sharpen their pencil
 * As part of being a successful learner and student, students will be informed in the beginning that they must come prepared. If they are using a pencil and they believe it has the potential to be broken, they should bring two with them to class every day. Or they should bring a sharpener that does not need to have the shavings thrown away. It is not approved to sharpen their pencil during my class. They will be allowed to before their Do Now and that is it. This will be communicated to them on the first day of class.
 * 1) Throw something away
 * Unless specifically told that a lab material needs to be thrown away after using or any other specifics, students should not need to throw anything away during a lecture. Anything that is trash will be thrown away when they are leaving the classroom and that is it. Again, this will be communicated to the students on the first day.
 * 1) Discipline:
 * From the book: teaching "the habits and processes of being a successful student and community member"
 * Other: “Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.”- Coach K
 * 1) Management:
 * From the book:"get them to do things regardless of consequence, and to inspire and engage them in positive work"
 * Other: "Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership" - Woodrow Wilson
 * 1) Control:
 * From the book: "get students to do what you are delegated with helping them to achieve"
 * Other: “Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves"- Lao Tzu
 * 1) Influence:
 * From the book:"inspire them to want for themselves the things the class is trying to achieve"
 * Other: “All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” //- Walt Disney//
 * 1) Engagement:
 * From the book: "change from the outside in"
 * Other: "Be the change you wish to see in the world"- Gandhi
 * 1) ====**What are big goals that you want to set for your scholars this year at Ranson? (Year bound, middle school bound, high school bound..)**====
 * That they develop a strong character that has the necessary tools, skills, and confidence to be a successful individual in school, in business, in life, and as a citizen
 * To know that college is a norm
 * To recognize that despite any conflict or troubles, hard work, determination, and confidence will help you obtain your dreams because they are possible!
 * 1) ====**What connections will you make between the content you will teach and success in school, other content areas, in high school and in life?**====
 * In School:
 * Organization and note-taking is huge in this class as well as others and that organization will help them in other classes
 * Other Content Areas:
 * Physics, chemistry, and biology, are all great ways when they can practice their math skills
 * In High School:
 * They can choose to take more rigorous classes (with a solid foundation in the content) that will allow them to get AP credit and/or college credit.
 * In Life:
 * Science is applicable to their world now, to their world in 5 years, and to their world in 50 years.
 * Giving examples of basketball players, Olympians, doctors, nurses, vets, the President, the Atom Bomb group, and Steve Jobs to show how these successful people use science to further their success and ability
 * 1) ====**How do you plan on investing the students in these goals? (How will you inspire and motivate?)**====
 * I want to show them the "mirror." I want to show the students what they can become with great learning skills and a solid background in science. In doing so, I will have pictures of their role models on the wall and include a description regarding how science makes them successful. In addition, I will show them the path these individuals took to get where they are. This way, they will see that success comes from hard work and determination to achieve their goal. To inspire and motivate them to then want to attain the success they see in these leaders, I will work to make those reminders and comparisons with their good work daily. That way they can see what their success looks like and with that feeling, I will help them achieve their highest bar. Success feels great and I want them all to know that they can get their

Focus Technique #1 Focus Technique #2: Focus Technique #3: Focus Technique #4: i. This aspect also helps create a strong classroom culture because no matter your ability, everyone can get easily praised if they put forth the effort; therefore, it proves that with a little bit of work you can succeed ii. Furthermore, students will be daily praised for following directions in front of their peers. With narrating students will begin to see role models in their class and will work to simulate those same actions. Focus Technique #5: Focus Technique #6:
 * Pre-work for the second webinar: **
 * 1) The steps that Lemov identifies to get 100% of students on task include:
 * 2) Use the least invasive form of intervention
 * 3) Lightning-quick public correction
 * 4) Rely on firm, calm finesse
 * 5) Emphasize compliance you can see
 * 6) Video 1: focuses on the solution and not the problem as the two teachers make corrections quickly, with a subtle and calm finesse. Video 2 is emphasizing compliance you can see as she is waiting for everyone’s eyes on her and has the whole class watching out for one another
 * 1) Mr. Livingston makes his students completely stop at the door as he greets them by name. He then gives them their personalized seat arrangement for that day. He also made comments to a few, showing that he deeply cared and was interested.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Thresholds are great because they really make the classroom seem more like an experience. It helps the student take the time to put on their student game face. However, from the video of Mr. Livingston it seemed as though his threshold took awhile. When instructional time is so critical, I wonder how much time is used for just this threshold. Furthermore, some students will have a longer period of work time than others.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The name of this technique should probably be different. I suggest we call it, "Take Gradual Action." The three keys of effective responses to student misbehavior are establishing rapport, setting class tone, and reinforce class steps for that excellent routine.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Positive framing believes that people would prefer to seek success than do actions to avoid punishments. While they basically are the same thing, one is framed in a much better way and people strive for this. While you still give consequences to bad behavior, it is better to make them corrective so giving them the chance to know how to seek success. This frames the consequence better because it gives the individual to perform better. Elements include:
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Live in the now: by giving students ways they can be successful now no matter what happened previously
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Assume the best: do not immediately assume someone did something to purposefully be bad, instead, give the person the ability to quickly get their behavior on task. This way, if someone just forgot to do something, they do not feel like a failure when they are yelled at
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Allow plausible anonymity: do not always embarrass students for misbehaving, again give them the benefit of the doubt that they just did not hear you. Give the class as a whole a reminder on expectations and procedures
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Build momentum, and narrate the positive: make it exciting to do well and be on task, by narrating students doing the positive of following directions, they will be proud of themselves and want to keep going.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Challenge: make good behavior exciting and use it to get your class up and moving so by having them beat their times for getting silent or collecting papers will let them be great together or show off their individual greatness. Since this greatness all revolves around following directions, everyone wins
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Talk expectations and aspirations: align all procedures towards their future goals this way they know that what they are doing is actually beneficial for them.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">During institute I could have done positive framing for their walk to lunch. The person who led the lunch line was always so proud of their position and took it very seriously. They walked with their heads held high, following the path instructed, silently, and swiftly. Furthermore, since I had used positive narration for holding the doors for others, the person at the front loved having the opportunity to hold the door for everyone. While the first person was great, the rest of the line seemed to be off centered, chatty, and moving slowly. Since we were walking, I did not use positive narration, I only complimented the person at the front but those at the back who caused the most distraction could not heat this and as a result, did not follow procedure.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Conscious actions for a balanced warm and strict classroom:
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When giving consequences, always give the explanation as to why you are giving them, this way students know exactly what they did and why it was not appropriate. By giving the way, students know that you gave a consequence for a valid reason that only will help them
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The same goes for when giving procedures. When you are giving a procedure for a lab for instance say that you are giving explicit instructions because this lab could be unsafe and you do not want anyone to get hurt.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Give students more freedom and responsibility BUT tell them that they must follow all instructions otherwise this freedom will be revoked. In other words, telling them that you trust them but will only trust them as long as they are respectful.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unconscious actions to get in the way of balance:
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Working with an urgency to get material done. With this urgency, there may not always be time to give an explanation à <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> work on this by writing a note to each student and giving it to them at the end of the day so that they know what they do wrong and why
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Assuming that it is obvious as to why a behavior is inappropriate à <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> always be sure to give the why even when it is obvious
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Establishing a cold calling norm from the beginning establishes the standard that everyone must be paying attention at all times. In addition, it also establishes a norm of participation as everyone will participate, practice their public speaking and articulation, and be active members of the class. However, cold calling may also discourage students from participating because they know that even if they raise their hand they may not be called upon. This can be overcome by doing both à <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> asking for hands and participation. It can also make students annoyed. This strategy must be explained to students before you start using it so they know why you are embarrassing them or singling them out. Therefore, this strategy must be explained prior to use. Finally, it could take up more time as you wait for the student to maybe ask for the question again or need to ask for help. With the time issue, I am not too sure how to overcome this unless it is also treated as a check for understanding in the lesson plan
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">His voice is powerful. In other words, it is strong, not monotone, and makes everything seem just so obvious. With that tone, he seems to bring out more participation because it inspires inquiry.

On Friday, September 21st, I visited Candra Skrzypek's classroom. She was just about to begin a rock lab and was giving instructions on how to prepare and proceed with the lab. My key takeaways from her lesson include:
 * Teacher Observations**
 * The way she had the scholars repeat only the most important imformation like the amount of crayons needed. This way she would not have to repeat that instruction and they could begin working independently.
 * Her voice was low and level. She was not over excited yet she was still enthusiastic about the lessow. Therefore, their voices stayed at a low level as well. Even though there was talking during her class, it was so low that only their table partner could hear.
 * There was a timer on the powerpoint. This allowed the scholars to not go over the allotted time for the experiment. It kept them all in check and once it buzzed all scholars sat waiting for further instructions.
 * Candra walked around the room. In the small 2 min time during the set up of the lab I think she hit every single table, asking questions, observing, as well as realigning all scholars to ensure they are on the right track.
 * Finally, during her table observations she noticed that a lot of answers were 1 word answers so she quickly corrected it. She did this without putting blame or calling out people, she just quickly reminded them that if they were only using 1 word answers, they should re write them.
 * Finally, she used so many different styles of teaching. The one that stuck out the most for me was the erosion hand motion. When they were reviewing what they learned from the lab, the scholars forgot about erosion so she quickly did this hand motion which reminded all scholars of the answer. This way she was not just giving them the answers, she still made them search for it.

On Wednesday, October 3rd I visit Sarah Goldstein's classroom. She was talking about evolution and she played a video. My key takeaways from her lesson include:
 * Instead of actually telling someone to "be quiet", she did a simple shh quickly and quietly but visablly
 * Reminder when a scholar calls out that "if they have something to say, raise your hand hun"--> very nice, consistent, and unintrusive
 * Scholars were very interested and had tons of questions
 * She said "thoughts?" instead of questions or answers... this opens up the conversation for everyone and includes the whole class
 * In addition, science words are tough and instead of just going ahead with the lesson she said, "for those of you who do not know the vocabulary" and then quickly explained the word
 * Also, her posters on appropriate language are great! This is a great and efficient way to remind scholars what is appropriate and what is not