Summer Learning Opportunities - Part Deux
Virtual Summer Leadership Institute
July 7–9, 2021
Might you be looking for a math PD opportunity this summer? If so, MLC just announced a PD opportunity to grow as a math leader.
The Math Learning Center is pleased to announce that registration is now open for our virtual Summer Leadership Institute. This three-day event, held July 7–9, offers instructional leaders, coaches, curriculum specialists, and teacher-leaders tools for initiating and sustaining a successful implementation of Bridges® in Mathematics. This year’s virtual leader gathering will feature keynote speakers Fawn Nguyen, Kyle Pearce, and Jon Orr.
Click the Virtual Summer Leadership Institute link to find out more details including the daily schedule.
If interested in this MLC opportunity, please fill out a PD request and submit it to Lynn.
Summer Learning Opportunities
It is exciting how many of you have signed up for at least one of the TCRWP Summer Institutes 2021! This is a fantastic learning opportunity to learn and grow. If you have not signed up yet and are still interested, it is not too late!
Looking for a learning opportunity with more flexibility and less commitment than an institute? Check out TCRWP’s Asynchronous Courses. Designed to last approximately 5-6 hours and priced around $100 each, these courses might be just what you are looking for to spice up your summer professional development.
Please fill out a PD request and submit it to Lynn if you’re interested in attending any of the TCRWP’s PD opportunities.
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Twitter users share their funny teaching moments from Zoom
LOL
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Increase Student Engagement by Connecting Students with Real People
By Steve Barkley
With equal parts affirmation and inspiration, Steve Barkley reminds us of several high impact elements to increase student engagement.
Students are connected, safe, and welcomed.
Students have choice, voice, and agency in their learning.
Students are able to connect what they are learning to real-world meaningful applications.
Check out Steve Barkley’s latest article to explore more ways to increase student engagement and learning. Feel free to reach out to any of the coaches to keep this conversation going!
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Those of you who know me (Hilary), know that Headspace (app) is one of my many obsessions. I love everything about Headspace: Youtube channel, Netflix series (multiple), Sleepcasts, kids section for all ages, Move, Focus Music, Focus Exercises, Mindful Earth, Soundscapes, all of it!
One of my favorite parts of Headspace is The Wake Up. “The Wake Up content is designed to help members start their day on a mindful note by prompting users to take healthier actions throughout the day, focusing on five key elements of living a mindful life: meditation, sleeping, moving, eating, and playing.” (headspace.com)
And, those of you that know me, know that I’m always connecting my experiences to our students. Often, The Wake Up contains scientific research-based information on brain function that can be implemented into our instructional practice. Here is one such episode...
Can music improve your memory?
Have you ever thought of singing your read alouds to kids?
Take a journey with John Legend and Headspace Wake Up to see the effects.
Music on My Mind with John Legend and Headspace (9 minutes)
Going Further with parents and kids:
“Headspace is here to help caregivers and kids show their minds some love. In Headspace Breathers, family mindfulness expert Samantha Snowden shares her favorite tips, games, and mindfulness techniques for helping kids and parents manage their emotions, find positivity, focus, and more.”
Balancing Your Child’s Emotions, Balancing Screen Time, Helping Kids Focus, Dealing with Separation from Loved Ones, for Young Kids, Separation from Loved Ones, for Big Kids (all about 5 minutes)
It’s a treasure trove, Check It Out!
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As we get closer to the end of the year, we will be reflecting heavily on the data that we have collected and reporting on student progress. A group of teachers in Newport Beach, California have been part of an on-going study into how to most effectively utilize data all the way down to how teachers collect data. They make a case for shifting to an asset lens - to look for a build upon what students know. Here is an article called “Rehumanizing Assessment through Building Internal Capacity” which is part 3 in a series called “Humanizing Assessment” on the AchievetheCore website. What do you think about this shift in collecting data? Hopefully, we can begin a fruitful discussion on how best learn about and address student learning from an asset lens!
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Focusing Student's Attention
10 New Focused Attention Practices
When students are able to achieve a calm state, they can think clearly, problem-solve, and create stronger memories of what they are learning with increased attention. Focused attention practices prepare and prime our brains and bodies to create and hold a state of relaxed alertness. Consider building new practices into your whole class, small group, and 1:1 sessions for you and your students. Adding focused attention practices to your routine will promote emotional, social, and cognitive wellbeing for all students.
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Reader’s Theater
Looking for an engaging activity for your small group sessions? Consider using reader’s theater scripts to spice up your small group sessions. Reader’s theater is an authentic strategy to support reading fluency. Reading A-Z has many scripts available in a range of reading levels, topics and genres. From scripted fairy tales to reenactments of historical events you will likely be able to find a script that is both engaging for your students and connects to other content areas. Want to learn more, but not sure how to get started? Reach out to Reader Man (ralex@aischennai.org) for more information.
Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills.
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An education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. We support organizations, families, and educators in taking action to disrupt racism in young children.
Last week, we saw how some books that were highly regarded for a long time simply aren’t fit to be read to children and needed to be removed from publication. This week, here is a resource providing excellent options to use in class to counter and resist negative stereotypes and more. Check out the conscious kid website. Here are some highlights:
Six Dr. Seuss books pulled over ‘hurtful’ images
Here are some resources to further explore:
A focus on our ELLs. Suggested resource and reading:
Word Wall Generate interactive activities for academic language development. Samples: match game, word search, anagram, quiz. Contact Mary Kelly for more information.
Supporting Multilingual Learners in Hybrid Classrooms (Edutopia), Hands-on learning strategies help English language learners participate in discussions—whether in-person or online. (4 minute read)
Teaching Multilingual Learners Online (WIDA) Suggested resources to support WIDA guiding principles. (10 minute read)
Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals - Contact Mary Kelly if interested in joining a book club!
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Bridges is at it AGAIN! The Math Learning Center released virtual support materials for their intervention sets volumes 1, 2, 5 & 6. It is a fabulous resource to use to help students get that extra practice you identified they need from a screener or the “just in time” support Erma Anderson likes to reference. These can be used in small groups or one-on-one sessions. You can find them on the Bridges Website on the Resources and Support for 2020-2021 page. Click on the Int (linked here) at the top of the page to get to the intervention materials. If you have any wonderings or questions about utilizing these materials, please reach out to Elliot.
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Thank you to everyone for attending the different PD sessions on Wednesday. We are excited to see how you might put your new learning to use in classrooms across the ES. Please reach out with any questions or wonderings that you may have. Below you will find resources and sessions for each PD. Please take a moment to check out some of the sessions that you didn’t get to attend this time around.
Book Clubs (Alex)
Virtual Book Club Google Slides
Zoom Recording from Virtual Book Club
Virtual Field Trips (Mary Kelly)
Zoom recording (including when I got bumped from Zoom!)
Pear Deck (Dave)
Pear Deck 101
More Pear Deck Tutorials
Pear Deck Handbook
Nearpod (Priya)
Password: edteamaisc
Username: techteam@aischennai.org
Open-Ended Questions (Elliot)
Open-Ended Questions Google Slides
Open-Ended Questions Resources
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During the February 10th faculty time, we will offer a range of workshops for you to choose from. Before finalizing the options, we would like to know what is of most interest to you. Please indicate your preferences by completing this short survey. Thank you!
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Have you ever wished you could give feedback right on a piece of work in Seesaw? Here’s a hot tip about targeting feedback directly on the student work space in Seesaw. It’s possible to write your feedback right on the page. You can even record a message across multiple pages of a post. BAM!
Do you have 2 mins? Watch a very quick how to video
(Special shout out to an anonymous male, third-grade teacher for providing this tip. Feel free to reach out to him for more cool Seesaw tricks!)
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Jennifer Serravallo continues to know exactly how best to support teachers! Her recent blog post on Engagement in the Online Classroom and book titled, Connecting with Students Online, offers us simple and practical strategies to support our students in the digital world. The blog post offers several instructional graphics and the ability to read one chapter from Serravallo’s new book. It is worth checking out!
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Check out Flipgrid’s Discovery Library, where you can find topics for discussion to share with your learning community! Explore organizations such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, music education from WURRLYedu, DiscoveryEdu, LEGO Education, Wonderopolis, and consider how they might support your students.
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Erma Anderson Math Session 3:
Here is the recording of the 3rd and final session with Erma Anderson. Are you looking to expand your resource bank? How about some new ideas around EAL instruction in the virtual world? You can check out this video on navigating the Livebinder for rich math tasks from Elliot. Below are some of the resources that were shown or talked about in the session. Reach out to a coach if you’d like to reflect or chat more about using these resources in class!
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Subscribe to this incredible blog: www.theliteracynest.com
Recent posts include:
How to Keep Active Students Engaged During Distance Learning Sessions
6 Picture Book Suggestions During a Pandemic
8 Tips if You’re Feeling Overwhelmed by Teaching Online
10 Tips for Using Poetry with Challenged Readers
Also, check out the free Wordlist Builder tab. This is a great resource for creating a variety of word related activities and games.
Feel free to reach out to Alex if you have any questions or want to explore more together.
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Make every lesson interactive with Nearpod
AISC has an account. Contact Hilary for details and/or tutorial overview.
Got 2 minutes? Watch how Nearpod works!
Nearpod is one of the most interactive educational tools available to teachers. Students access lessons using a link and then type in their name. Responses are recorded and can be printed out and viewed by teachers at their convenience. Students can use Nearpod with any device. Lessons can be taught synchronously or asynchronously. Use lessons as is or customize to meet your students' needs.
Here are some of the best features:
Pre-made lessons on every topic, subject, and theme you can possibly imagine: meditation, social-emotional learning, covid, history, world languages, phonics, reading books, coding, grammar, writing instruction, teaching points from reading/writing workshop, and many more.
A variety of lesson formats: Virtual Reality, Polls, Collaborate Boards, Simulations, Interactive videos with pause and respond feature, Immersive reader with audio recording, and game-based quizzes.
Multiple ways for students to enter their responses: audio, drawing, integrated Google search, collaboration, text, matching pairs, fill-in the blank, etc.
Partnerships with: Learnzillion, Common Sense Media, Phet Simulations, Teaching Tolerance, Desmos, Science Kids, BBC, and many more…
Try out a lesson:
Fact and Option, Time to Climb, game-based quiz, 3-5
Me gusta ir al mercado, Novice
Celebrating Diwali, 3-5 (other grade levels available)
Asking Questions, PBS Kids, Ellenor Wonders Why, KG
Skateboard Lab, Phet Simulations, K-2
There is so much to explore!
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During our Connect, Reflect, and Celebrate sessions this week we reflected how celebrations impact wellbeing. We have uplifted our students through celebrations in many ways this year. You are invited to share your ideas here. How might you celebrate students, a colleague, and yourself in the coming weeks?
We also reflected on how we continue to intentionally work to build positive relationships while teaching, learning, and collaborating online.
Resources to explore:
Creating Moments of Genuine Connection Online, Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy
How to Maslow before Bloom,, Edutopia. Consider how these strategies can be adapted to virtual learning.
A Little Guide for Teachers: Teacher Wellbeing and Self-care, Bethune and Kell. Just released - eBook available
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Literacy and Lucy:
Did you read the American Public Media article on Lucy Calkin last week? The article builds on their previous reporting on effective reading instruction and the science of reading. The new article is worth reading. Check it out: Influential literacy expert Lucy Calkins is changing her views. You can read Lucy’s response here.
Here’s a major takeaway from the article:
“...decades of cognitive science research show that skilled reading requires an ability to decode, matching the sounds in words with the letters used to spell them.”
In a statement, “Calkins’ group now says that beginning readers should focus on sounding out words and recommends that all children have access to “decodable” books that contain words with spelling patterns students have been taught in phonics lessons.”
What does this mean for our use of Lucy’s strategies that include cueing? Do we continue to teach our younger readers to use pictures and context cues to figure out words? Is it time to stop this practice entirely and focus primarily on phonics instruction and making sure children only focus on sounding out words?
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Spark students’ curiosity with a science demonstration. Find out more here. Reach out to Hilary for support or more ideas.
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There are SO many ways that we help students during these times. Today’s coaches corner is targeted at our parents. We want to keep our parent community well informed about the amazing work that is happening in the classroom. As we have done in years past, we will be sending home the Math Family Letter before we launch into each unit. Please ensure that the Unit 2 letter goes home in a separate Seesaw post as soon as possible if it has not yet gone out. Wondering where to find the letter? Follow these steps to find the letters for all units in the Bridges website.
1) Go to the Bridges Site and Click on the Resources Tab
2) Scroll down and find the Family Letters Tab in the right margin
3) Find the Unit 2 Family Letter Overview and download to add to your Seesaw Post
We’ll end with a bit of humor. Check out this 3 minute video that most of you can probably relate to.
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As you begin to think about upcoming units, consider a Student-Centered Coaching Cycle. Invite a coach to work side-by-side with you for the duration of a unit by co-planning, co-teaching, and co-assessing, all centered around a student learning goal. Reach out to a coach to learn more and sign up!
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Shared Reading
Are you wondering how shared reading might be incorporated into your virtual teaching repertoire? Check out Kristi Marz's blog post and video of her leveraging shared reading on Zoom with her students.
Text Complexity
We know readers grow by having exposure and experiences with texts that are increasingly more complex. Having a handy resource that can help us identify the complexity of a text can allow us to more precisely identify a student’s next step and/or a future teaching point. Here are two new resources (A- M and K-Z) you might consider using when conferring or planning for a small group session.
Balanced Literacy
Check out Erin Kent’s recent padlet for more videos, ideas and resources on teaching Balanced Literacy virtually.
Special Invitation!
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Are any of your students or families looking for extra activities? Mystery Science to the rescue…
Mystery Science has added many new features for distance learning. Mini-lessons are short, engaging videos narrated by a science expert. Lessons include discussion questions and extension activities. It is a great family learning activity. Share mini-lessons with a link. New mini-lessons, related to current news, are added almost every week.
As you begin to think about teaching science in the next quarter, Mystery Science has added new features. The new digital assessments collect student responses and digital handouts can be filled in by students without printing. Make sure to check out new lessons on scientific thinking and engineering.
American International School Chennai has a membership to Mystery Science! Mystery Science lessons are open-and-go, simply gather a few materials and start teaching right away!
Click here to join your school's membership:
https://mysteryscience.com/start?school_id=13254
We appreciate each and all of you!
- Hilary, Alex, Elliot, and Mary Kelly
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Woo hoo! Bridges and the Math Learning Center have responded big time to the challenges of virtual teaching. They have released Tech Enhanced Activities (TEA) that support some sessions in each module of our units. They will continue to release more for upcoming units. These TEA’s are super helpful for asynchronous and synchronous learning. Please reach out to Elliot if you’d like to partner around how to implement this great new resource on the Bridges website!
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Co-Planning and Anecdotal Notes
As we develop new ways to collaborate and gather student data, co-teaching teams are creating ways to plan and gather information. This example shows how you might use Google Sheets in various ways. Have you created a helpful tool? Please share! We’d love to add it to the Coaching Corner. Reach out to Mary Kelly to chat more.
Conferring Tips and Ideas
Are you looking for new conferring tips and strategies? Would you like to see conferring in action? Jennifer Serravallo's new book Reading Conferences K-8 is full of fresh and exciting ways to leverage the power of conferring to engage our young readers and writers. Although we are not on campus to access this resource, you are able to add this resource to your Heinemann account. Simply use the code CEREADCON to register this new resource. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Alex.
