February 2011 Blog Posts (15)

Is anyone else frustrated about commenting and website feedback?

When we decide to write a comment at the end of an article or blog posting, we get to read more than a few inappropriate and sometimes distasteful remarks. Posted by folks who do not understand why websites invite visitors to share thoughts and ideas, many unfiltered remarks are permanently attached to websites -- indiscretions waiting for the whole world to discover.…

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Given the cost and energy in going to a conference, I believe it's important to have some kind of formal process of reflecting upon the learning that was experienced and so here are my "take-aways" from the 2011 NAIS conference in National Harbor, Maryland:

 

1) We've all got to do more for our public educational system. Geoffrey Canada's closing keynote was an emotional call to action to do more for the most disadvantaged parts of our public school systems. Mr. Canada works…

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Many high schools are grappling with the question of teachers, coaches, advisor and dorm staff friending students.  We address this question in our newsletter.  The overwhelming response from independent schools we visit and hear from is NOT to friend students.  Read more at ChildrenOnline.org or download the pdf file here.

This morning’s conversation about where our high-, medium- and low-performing students were in their writing caused me to reflect.  Because I’ve been very focused on assessing and promoting basic competence in the classroom, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about how to enhance the writing skills of my highest-performing students.  What can I do for my high-level freshmen (apart from recommending them for English 2 Honors) to promote their engagement and development as writers? …

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One thing I learned this morning after I saw a bluejay in the yard was that everyone needs to get up and face the day.  So, I did, and when I did this, I found that we were going to have a nice discussion about exam essays today.

 

In this discussion, we learned that students value efficiency over analysis.  So, there is not that much thought, and more production of general responses.

I am growing as a teacher in the 1:1 environment by implementing a variety of assessment techniques into my instruction.  Examples of technology-based learning tools I've used to measure student understanding of material include: Glogster, Kid Blog, Blogger, Evernote, GoogleDocs, Moodle tools, Key Note, Power Point and a few others.  I think that my students are growing as learners because they're excited to use these learning tools and they apply themselves when completing assignments.  In…

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1) Student work reflection across physics levels.

My partner teacher in physics was absent due to illness, so I compared the mid-year exams I gave to the mid-year exams he gave in honors physics and AP physics.  There was a great deal of similarity in the structure, content and challenge of our tests with appropriately increased difficulty of questions in the Honors and AP tests.  Though we rarely have an opportunity to discuss our courses, the tests demonstrate that we teach very…

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The social studies team investigated the research process from grades 4-8. CherylAnne and I closely looked at citing sources and creation of a thesis statement from 4th to 8th grade. Tom & Jessica looked at note taking. Also present were Tom Ruddy & Lynn Salehi.

One area that concerns me, and my PDP area of focus, assessment, is the format used on rubrics we create. We considered whether it would be worth it to have a consistent format.That would require a lot of work to redo…

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The Fine & Performing Arts Dept. Margaret Gonzales (math/theatre) Karen Newman (curriculum & pro development) viewed the 3rd grade DVD classroom musicals.  We began to identify students who exhibited evidence of high, medium & low skills in public discourse.  Students perform in 4 classroom musicals during their tenure at Brookside and 12-13 concerts and the expectation is that there is growth with each performance experience.  We looked for expression, voice, volume, clarity, pace,… Continue

Research Process Grades 4-8

 

Locating Sources & Note-Taking: We noticed that we have a solid format / logical flow from 4-8 in how students are expected to research for papers and projects. 

 

Process begins in 3rd grade and reinforced in 4th & 5th grade when they are provided with pre-selected sources / classroom text to research.  Between 5th and 6th there is a bit of a jump, as students are expected to use sources provided, but are also encouraged /…

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4th and 5th grade have students getting lost in the spiral material and need more time/practice with the "current material" being taught.  Some of the students thrive on the spiral material but the other students need more grounding in the current material.

After analyzing student work in the research strand of our history department:

 

7th Grade Ideas:

• Continue doing Humanism essay so that there we can evaluate writing (thesis and organization in particular) before the research paper.
• Help students not use the word "important" in their thesis statement.
• Have 7th graders start using the 3rd Noodlebib card

8th Grade Ideas:

• Give students the "how to evaluate web sources…

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Sparks!

In separate conversations with Beaver Country Day School upper school math teachers James Chan and Joe Robinson about how to be “authentic” in our efforts to turn students gaze towards issues of equity and justice, that’s the the idea we came up with – help students find their own “sparks!”

Sparks! A student in James Chan’s statistics class examining data (those 65 and older) from the 2000 U.S. Census begins to question the growing consequences of the…

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 "Patience is a virtue we must all strive to possess.” – Miss Dmytryk

In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned my fifth grade reading and writing teacher, Miss Dmytryk (de-MEH-trick), as one of the most significant teachers in my life. She supported and nurtured my creativity, reading and commenting on week after week of stories that used all 25 words on my spelling list in context. And yes, she…

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Miss Porter’s School and School of the Holy Child in Rye, New York Become Members of the Online School for Girls

 

The Online School for Girls is proud to announce that Miss Porter’s School of Farmington, Connecticut and School of the Holy Child in Rye, New York have become member schools.

 

The Online School for Girls is the world’s first girls’ only online school.  The School offers a challenging and supportive online learning experience that emphasizes…

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