| It was an extremely fun day today at sites across the district celebrating Halloween. Students were so excited while participating in their Halloween Parades, class parties, and other Halloween related activities. Today was definitely one of the days that I wished I was still in the classroom. |
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Today, my district's Chief Academic Officer of Elementarty Education asked our TOSA team, "What does classroom supporter mean to you?" A mirror and a telescope. A mirror to help highlight the good teachers are already doing and help foster megacognitive mindset. A telescope to help teachers see goals and possibilities. Build community. Smile. Listen. Listen to the student voices. Connect with your students. Attend their birthday parties and sports events. Let them know you care. (They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.) These phrases, and many more, are ones that we hear in our teacher prep and credential programs. These phrases are ones we continually hear for those who are just starting their careers and those well into their careers. These phrases are true no matter how long you've been teaching. The connections we make with our students, no matter how insignificant it may seem to us, means the world to them. I received a message today that is an amazing example of how the power of the connections we form with our students. The following is a message through a Google Hangout message from one of my fifth graders from last year. Needless to say, it really filled my bucket! Build community. Smile. Listen. Listen to the student voices. Connect with your students. Attend their birthday parties and sports events. Let them know you care. (They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.) I challenge you to share your contact information with your students. They may or may not contact you, BUT if/when they do, you'll be amazed by their message. Today I received an amazing piece of feedback about my professional development presentation last week. It was truly a moment that I wanted to capture so I can remember it on days that are tough, which they will inevitably come.
Trust.
In an activity led by the coordinator of professional learning, Kelly Bikle, we discussed the aspects of trust in a coaching relationship. Kelly shared a book by Tschannen-Moran, 2014, in which 5 aspects were proposed for trust and collaboration. Openness, competence, reliability, honesty, and benevolence. The above sketch was my visual representation of the coaching relationship and the trust that's needed in the relationship. I visualized an image of a safety net at the bottom of a burning building. In order for someone to trust the coach/mentor enough to jump, that net needs to be held up with these five pillars. As coaches, do we start our coaching relationships built on these five pillars of trust?
There was such a buzz in the air at the Back to School Nights at the four elementary schools in Palo Alto Unified School District that I got to experience this evening. Teachers were prepared to share their grade level curriculum programs, expectations, and structures; parents were eager to meet their child's teacher; principals and assistant principals were roaming throughout the schools greeting families and supporting the entire school community, and administrators from the district office were able to stop by to support the entire evening. It's always great to see the excitement at this point of the school year! One thing I really want to highlight was the process a third grade teacher at Fairmeadow used for her classroom families to sign up for parent volunteer opportunities. It was definitely a great way to manage the sign up process in a paperless manner.
Another amazing evening of gathering with our TOSAs (Teacher on Special Assignment) to discuss relationships on #TOSAchat. Kelly Martin (@kmartintahoe) moderated this important chat discussing the importance of building relationships in our work as TOSAs, ways to support educators who are already on board and those who are hesitant or reluctant, and ways to keep teachers on track of their goals and objectives. It was another very powerful time of engaging in academic discourse with the #TOSAchat community. Here are some examples of the valuable insights that came from that evening's chat. For the complete Storify, follow this link.
Escondido Elementary School in PAUSD had its Back to School Night last night and I had the pleasure of attending to support the staff, meet some of the members of its PTA, and see the community. It was incredible to see the number of families there for the first hour to get a sense of the after school activities from the booths of programs. There was such an excitement in the air at that time. In my opinion, it was ambitious to have Back to School Night on day 3 of the school year. Mr. Merrit, Escondido's principal, shared with me that the school's tradition has been to hold its Back to School Night early in the year so parents may have the opportunity to immediately get to know their child's teacher, build relationships with others in the school community, and continue to feel a sense of belonging at the school. That is truly a powerful and purposeful vision for Back to School Night. As we all enter this new school year, let's remember those things:
What an incredible success! Last night was the first #TOSAchat on Twitter and there was such an amazing turn out with over 1,000 tweets during that hour for TOSAs (teacher on special assignment). #TOSAchat all began as an idea from Ben sometime in late June/early July this past summer. Ben reached out to Karly, Kelly, and me about starting this chat. We definitely jumped on board and things quickly materialized. We messaged each other within Twitter, starting out as tweets and then into a thread of a group direct messaging. Within the first few days we had discussed what we needed to get started and we had a lot set up already. We started a gmail account and registered the Twitter profile @tosachat. With the Google account, we create sheets of possible questions, a form for participants to fill out with suggestions for topics (Karly's foresight in making the chat interactive beyond the tweets), and had a place for the amazing graphics for @tosachat's profile and advertisement banners (from Kelly's creative mind). It was an incredible example of "teamwork that makes the dream work," as Ben often says. One thing I really appreciated was that we picked what seemed like a late start date for the chat at that time but it turned out to be perfect for several reasons.
Teamwork definitely makes the dream work. Please join us for #TOSAchat on Monday at 8:00 PST for incredible discourse with a fantastic community of educators. Here's the Storify for our inaugural chat in case you missed it. How many dots do you see? Today, Laura Reeves and I were invited to join the Pre-K, transitional Kindergarten, and special education teachers at Greendell for their staff development day. It was a great experience for me since I've seen many of those teachers in previous workshops and trainings. The first thing about today was learning where Greendell is. Up until today I had no reason to go onto the Greendell campus since workshops with those teachers were often at the district office and the former portable C. I had driven by the sign indicating Greendell's campus for years but I never knew where it was. What a lovely campus it was! Such a gem in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Dawn, Greendell's principal invited Laura and I to lead a discussion and training on Number Talks/Dot Talks. It was great to examine the structure of Number Talks, discuss how they connect to the Common Core State Standards, and explore the benefits of Number Talks for students and teachers. One of the best parts of the workshop was the experience for Greendell's teachers to put the practices into place. It was good to see the teachers practice giving their Dot Talks and also play the role of students explaining their mathematical thinking. I hope to have the opportunity to partner with the Greendell teachers again really soon. Today was PAUSD's first elementary TOSA Team Meeting of the 2015-2016 school year. It was a wonderful opportunity for all seven of us to sit with Barbara, the Chief Academic Officer for Elementary Education, and the coordinator of the BTSA coaches to discuss our roles as TOSAs / coaches, work out some logistics of leadership teams at school sites, and gather in shared learning and shared objectives. I had the pleasure and privilege of leading a Number Talk / Math Talk with the TOSA team. I've had many experiences leading Number Talks with my students in first, second, and fifth grades. I've also led training workshops for teachers on how to plan, lead, and reflect on Number Talks. This time I led the Number Talk as if I was speaking to my students, cutting in and out of that when addressing the metacognitive reasons for parts of my Number Talk. Through the Number Talk, my colleagues effectively shared their mathematical thinking and the strategies for how they solved an addition problem with three 3-digit addends. A few members of the TOSA team noticed that I explicitly write down and label the strategies for each method (decomposing, near doubles, partial-sums, ...) and we engaged in a discussion about how that practice helps our students. By identifying the strategy and labeling it on the board next to the method(s), students receive continued exposure to academic language, deepen their understanding of the strategies, and increase the chance they will internalize the mathematical concepts and apply them in new situations and problems. My closure for the Number Talk was asking my colleagues to share something they learned or re-learned. Barbara's comment highlights the value of Number Talks. Barbara, like any adult who experiences Number Talks for the first time(s) may have a few ways to solve a given problem, but through the process, they learn many more strategies and also the academic language for those strategies. "My new learning was decomposing." PAUSD educators throughout the summer had the pleasure and privilege of hearing from Patricia Swanson, Associate Professor of Education at San Jose State University, speak about mathematical practices that addresses the Common Core State Standards. This week, Patty Swanson offered a three day workshop for educators who support fourth and fifth grade students. It was great attend this workshop with academic specialists, teachers across the district, a teacher from the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital, and members of the group DreamCathers. In this workshop we explored mathematical practices and activities that support children's process of making sense of math. Math is not about memorizing facts and algorithms but making sense of them - constructing meaning. I was really impressed with the discussions throughout the institute and workshop that focused on equity for all learners. Patty offered ideas and structures that help manage group roles, ensure every member contributes, and holds each group member accountable for the wellness of the entire group. Some highlights from the institute include: -The Broken Squares activity that really calls for cooperative group work. -Explorations of multiplication models and the distributive property with an activity called "Cover Up." -Discussions that go beyond classroom management into how those systems and structures benefit ALL students and ensure for equity of roles and responsibilities. Clear, purposeful structures like that are essential for all learners. -Powerful discourse between professionals examining the deeper levels of thinking involved with the eight mathematical practices of the Common Core State Standards
It's been an amazing week being around so many professionals and highly motivated educators this week at the Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative's Coaching Institute. This was SVMI's 16th annual coaching institute and my fifth year participating in this fabulous professional development event.
In previous years I attended breakout sessions that focused on Lesson Study. Palo Alto Unified School District had quite a large group of teachers attend the institute that worked collaboratively on Lesson Study and Number Talks. I really enjoyed those summers and the impact the things I learned had on me, my teaching, and, ultimately, my students. This summer I had an equally inspiring experience. This summer, as I began my new role as a match coach/TOSA, I attended the "Content Coaching" breakout group. It was great to be with other math coaches all around the Bay Area to explore the intricacies and nuances of coaching structures, communication styles, and mindsets. Some highlights from this year's institute include: -The activities with the Problem of the Month(s) were, as always, powerful, enlightening, and challenging. Participants of the institute got to work on the new POMs of 2015 titled, "Get to the Point" and "Ride Around." I heard similar comments from people who were familiar with POM and those who were new to those types of problems and the format suggested for POM. "Each level provides challenge for all students at all levels." "I really appreciate the gallery walk experience." "The chance to make a status poster was really freeing. It helped give us a chance to show what we know right now and not worry about having the problem solved with an explanation yet." -Language matters. In our whole-group gatherings, we explored the importance of language for all students. Are we using language in our speech, directions, and/or word problems that are accessible for ALL students? Are we mindful of the intricacies and nuances of our language and idioms that often leads to misunderstandings and misconceptions in our students? -Mindsets. No matter how much anyone has explored mindsets it's always powerful to examine mindsets again (even if you're Carol Dweck because she's most likely continuing her research on mindset). In the whole-group gatherings, we discussed language and The Power of Yet. This is a link to Carol Dweck's TEDx Talk in November 2014. The following is the embedded video from YouTube.
-Models. We examined the use and power of models to improve decisions. Modeling links mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making.
-Five Productive Talk Moves:
Revoicing Asking students to restate someone else's thinking Do you agree or disagree and why? Would someone like to add on? Using wait time. -Language coaches can use that encourages reflection. -Analysis of the roles of a coach as a collaborator, a mentor, and a leader. If you have never attended a SVMI Coaching Institute, I highly recommend it. It is a very powerful professional development opportunity. The 2015-2016 school calendar starts for me today.
The feelings I have today compared to previous school years as a classroom teacher aren't very different. I'm excited about the possibilities, motivated by the professional development I've done during the summer, inspired by the successes I've experienced in previous years, and ready to refine the art and craft of my teaching. I am excited to empower students, highlight student voice, and continue to engage in professional development with other educators. Empower Students Highlight Student Voice Professional Development The difference is that this year I will be coaching and mentoring teachers so we both can empower students. I will be creating structures at school sites rather than in my own class to highlight student voice. I have the privilege of engaging with many more educators in professional development. I am glad this is Day 1. Let it begin. |
Joe YoungMath & STEAM Coach / TOSA in Palo Alto Unified School District. Categories
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