Learning This Week Oct 4-8

 

Welcome back,

First, a thank you all for the work everyone has done to start the year off! We are now well underway.

Call To Action! 

I would like to give people a chance to contribute to this post as a way for us to check in with each other.

1. Please see the Student Profile above

2. Go the to comment box on the bottom, and write in your name and what Student Profile you like the most and why.

About This Post

Below on this week’s post of learning this week, you will find information about

1.       Status of Schedule

2.       Staff Update and changes

3.       Meeting Monday 4:15 room 7E1

4.       Routine for start and end of class

5.       Routine for dismissing class

6.       Do Now Examples

7.       Exit Ticket Examples

8.       Lesson Structure

9    

      These routines and updates to daily practice are intended to make life better for all of us: Students will benefit from consistency and focus on learning, teachers will benefit as they support each other, passing the baton on to the next teacher to set everyone up for success!

1.       Status of Schedule:

Continue following the current schedule. By the end of this week, a new schedule with room assignments, adjustments, and lunch and breakfast times for specific teachers will be released for use starting Oct 11

2.       Staff Update:

·         Ms  Zulekha is re-joining us as the Grade 11-12 Homeroom teacher. She will also be doing teacher coverage.

·         In another week Ms. Leyla will join the secondary school from the primary school. She will take over the Grade 7E2 Homeroom, and cover classes for absent teachers.

·         We are currently interviewing for 3 Teacher Assistants for Elementary school.

I would like to thank everyone who continues to support the students as we work to get our staffing up to date to meet the needs of the students.

3.       Monday Staff meeting 4:15- 4:45

This will be the last Monday staff meeting for a while, it will not be a weekly happening going forward now that we are getting the school year set up and we are establishing means of communication such as this post.

Agenda of Monday Meeting. Room 7E1

·         Do Now, Examples

·         Routine for grade 6-8, Start of class and dismissal from class

·         Exit ticket examples

·         Introduction of Grade Level Leaders

 

4.       Routines for Do now and end of class Starting on Monday, Oct 4

 

·         Grade 6,7,8 are all using a class journal starting this week.

·          The class journal is in each classroom and is used for the Do Now activity in all subjects.

·         All teachers 6-11 should be providing a Do Now activity. This should be ready when the students enter the class. Students should get to work on it immediately.

·          Grade 6-8 will use the class journal. 9-11 will use the subject copybook.

·         Students in grade 8 do not have to line up anymore, this can be reinstated if needed.

·         Grade 6,7,8 will all be treated the same. They will be asked by the subject teacher to leave the room at the end of class and will be let back in with the next teacher.

Below are the Routines for Dismissal. All teachers should follow this grade 6-11. This will help maintain the classrooms and give all teachers a good room to start their class in.

This includes some modifications of what we have been doing in grade 8 as we see what works best.

 

5. Teacher Routine for Class Dismissal

• The "Exit Ticket" summary should start with 6 or 7 minutes left in the lesson.  Students Write in their subject exercise book
• About a minute before the bell, have students properly pack up their things at their desk: Text Book, Subject Exercise book, Pencils and pens, pencil case, Backpack, etc. to be put in  the cubby. The Class Journal will be left neatly on the desk. It is put away at the end of day.
• Dismiss them in an orderly fashion by rows.
• "This row, stand and push your seat in, put your books in the cubby and, have a good day..." Repeat with the next row.
• Monitor students to be sure they are putting things away properly in the cubby and they are leaving their desks empty and area clean
• Leave the room after all the students have been dismissed and the room is in order

 

6. Do Now Examples

Here are good examples from hunt4 science .com. Notice they are intended for science, but could be broad enough for any class as they focus on getting students thinking of “Big Ideas”

https://www.hunt4science.com/do-nows

A bevy of math worksheets for do now can be found here at teachnology

https://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/math/donow/

A long list of Do Now questions designed for Second English Language Learners (That is all our students)

https://www.weareteachers.com/questions-to-ask-middle-and-high-school-kids/

 

7. Exit Ticket

All classes 6-11 should be using an exit ticket at the end of the lesson, it allows consolidation of learning and allows time to properly wrap up a lesson and dismiss the students in an orderly fashion. The Exit Ticket should be done in the Subject Exercise book. It is a summary of subject learning and can be used to study.

Here is a good list of questions from the OWL Teacher that go beyond “Summarize what you learned”

https://theowlteacher.com/24-exit-ticket-ideas/

8. Lesson Structure

Questions for Teachers

What routines are you teaching the students about making the transitions in the lesson?

What Routines are you teaching the students about how you get their attention?

What routines are you teaching them about how they can contribute to the class?

During the developmental part (The classic teaching) What have you told the students they should do? Take notes? How to take notes?

Are you sure all students have a job to do all the time, no one is left just watching? If students are just left watching with no instructions on what to do then teachers are giving students a choice of what they can do. If a teacher does that, the teacher must take responsibility for student’s bad choices.

Here are some ideas for classroom transitions https://www.teachstarter.com/au/blog/the-secret-to-effective-classroom-transitions-au/ 

This includes some ideas for 'Organizational Prompts', templates for students note taking while the teacher leactures  https://ctl.iupui.edu/Resources/Teaching-Strategies/Tips-for-Making-Lectures-More-Active 

Some tips on teaching students to take notes during a lecture 

Have a Great Week!