Jay's Journal

Family smore from 1.25.19

mertonint on Instagram

I've got one more video that you have to see. It's from Joe Sanfelippo, a friend of mine from Fall Creek. It's a must see about that one moment 10 years ago. Here is the link. (#GoCrickets!)

That's all I've got for this week. I hope that you stay warm today.
Be the spark!
Jay
Take care of the kids. Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell

Monday, January 21, 2019

How to encourage amazing teachers

Recently I was asked to share ways that I encourage our teachers to be amazing. I was asked to share specific examples of feedback I had provided as well as if it was impactful and/or implemented by the teacher. I reflected on this request and came up with the following list.

Classroom visits
I visit classrooms every day. Although it's powerful to visit classrooms to connect with students, it's also powerful to visit classrooms to see staff work their magic in their rooms. Occasionally staff will ask me why I haven't visited in a while because I am in classrooms so often. I use a Google sheet to keep track of visits and the type of feedback I provided.

Face to face interactions at end of visit
Following almost every classroom visit, I do one of the following things. I make eye contact, give a thumbs up, fist bump or high five, or share a comment. These are not formal bits of feedback, but they are feedback that teachers come to enjoy and expect.

Face to face conversations
These are the best ways of getting to know your staff. It's a time to put down your phone or laptop and pay attention to what's being said. These conversations can occur during prep time, before or after school, during lunch time, and at passing time. I just recently had my favorite conversations with staff as we spent 15 minutes for a "halftime" talk, discussing what they wanted to celebrate from the first semester, what they were proud of from the first semester, and how I can better support them so that their second semester is as good as, if not better, than their first semester.

Handwritten notes
Who doesn't like a handwritten note. I don't do this often enough, but when I do, I know that it makes a big impact. I also share handwritten holiday cards right before Winter Break. I have stopped in classrooms days, weeks, months, and years later, and I see some of them posted on file cabinets or on walls. I actually have a file folder of notes that I've received that I look through whenever I need a pick me up.

Voxer messages
One of my favorite apps is Voxer. From time to time I'll use the "My notes" feature in Voxer to record a message after I've been in a class. Then, while I'm walking to the next classroom, I'll send the voxer message via email to the teacher.

Student Learning Objective/ Professional Practice Goals meetings
These SLO/PPG meetings are part of the evaluation process for all teachers in our district. The teacher and I collaborate to determine the objectives and goals to start the year. We then meet halfway through the year to celebrate and adjust the objectives and goals. At the end of the year, we meet one final time to celebrate the progress of our students.

Pre-observation/ Post-observation meetings
These meetings are part of the formal evaluation process with teachers on cycle. There is a formal written part by the teacher for the pre-observation meeting. We meet to discuss what the teacher wants me to look for during the observation. I take notes during the observation and then tag these notes as evidence, which I share with the teacher. We finish up this process by both filling out our own post-observation reflection. We exchange and read our reflections, and then the magic begins. This is when we get to talk about the celebrations from the lesson as well as any suggestions for improvement moving forward. The paperwork is important, but the conversations are vital.

Social media posts
If something is posted on social media it is part of the story of our school. Some posts are made by me, but others are posted by other staff members. I almost always retweet these posts that our staff shares on social media. We use two hashtags, #mertonint and #MertonProud, when we post on Twitter (@mertonint). Our school Instagram account (mertonint) is followed by lots of our students and our school Facebook page (Merton Intermediate School) is followed by lots of our families. Posting on social media may not really encourage amazing teachers, but I think if teachers know there is a chance their classroom activities will be posted on social media, they are more apt to want to provide amazing learning opportunities for our students.

In a follow up conversation with the person asking me about how I encourage teachers to be amazing, I stated this fact (Well, it's a fact to me.). Teachers won't be amazing unless they want to be amazing. If a teacher wants to be amazing, then it's possible that a principal, or a colleague, or a friend, or a family member can encourage them to be even more amazing. Hopefully the ideas I mentioned in this post have helped me encourage our teachers to be even more amazing then they thought they could be.

What other things do you do to help encourage your colleagues to be amazing teachers? I still have room in my toolbox for more ideas.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Halftime!

Back when I was a high school basketball coach, halftime adjustments were my greatest challenge. If we were playing well, I wouldn't want to do anything to mess it up. We'd make a change or two, but the basic game plan would stay the same. If we weren't playing well, I would try to do something to change up our defense or offense to be more successful. Sometimes the adjustments were great and other times they weren't. But basketball is just a game. What we do as educators for our kids is life. This year we have had a great first half. Take a moment to reflect on what has gone well.

(Seriously pause right now and reflect.)

There are some great things to celebrate, aren't there? Now, take a moment to think about a change, or two, that you would like to make for the second half. It could be with curriculum, or delivery, or a relationship with a student or colleague.

(Seriously, take another dramatic pause for reflection.)

I'm sure you have some great ideas. Share them with a colleague or family member. Ask for someone to check in on you to see how the changes are going, or reflect on it on your own. Please know that I am here for you to give you support or the constant gentle pressure you need to keep improving. As Dr. Max Goodwin of New Amsterdam (the only show Jen and I watch together) would say, "How can I help?"

Great things I saw this week...
Dance routines in PE
Read alouds in lots of classes (I enjoy listening to you read and sharing your thoughts as much as the kids do!)
8th grade behavior for the AHS counselors (They were impressed, too!)
TEDTalks in 6th grade
Boys basketball teams in action
The smiles on faces of students sharing their improved MAP scores with me, and the smiles on the faces of those who work with those students.
The effort of Carey, Jackie, and the Student Senate students for Kindness Week and the Kindness Olympics.
The kids, and all of you, having a great time yesterday with Kindness Olympics.
Individual halftime conversations with staff.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

Saturday, January 26th
EdCampMadWI (at Sun Prairie High School)
Staff get together

Monday, January 28th
BLT meeting 4:15
School board meeting 7:00

Tuesday, January 29th
Jay in Madison for AWSA webinar (Anyone up for a GOOSE pass for helping cover lunch and recess duty?)

Tweets, quotes, and blogs
Are you focusing on the race or the training? (from George Couros)

“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” – Mister Rogers

Must Education Feed Your Soul? (From Jon Harper)

#ReclaimingOurCalling #UndergroundBookClub (from Brad Gustafson)

The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all.

Mignon McLaughlin,
journalist and author

#InnovatorsMindset Instagram Book Study 1.27.19-2.9.19 (from George Couros)

If you're so inclined, Adam Welcome is having a contest for schools and districts to have him as a free keynote speaker. Adam is the co-author of Kids Deserve It!. This form is being used for the contest.

mertonint on Instagram
Student assembly from 1.17.19

Family smore from 1.17.19

Thanks for a great first half. I'm looking forward to an even better second half!
Be the spark!
Jay
Take care of the kids. Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell

Friday, January 11, 2019

You are amazing!

We're finishing up the last full week of the first semester. Can you believe it? As I visited classrooms this week, I realized one thing. Our kids have amazing teachers. I didn't just realize this now. It has been evident for quite some time. But this week put an exclamation mark on the word amazing. Here's why. I continue to see you working hard to build connections and relationships with our kids. And it is hard work, but the benefits are immeasurable. I watch develop create procedures and expectations that the kids follow and rise to. They often exceed those expectations, too. No matter what, you all put kids first. Always. I may not send you an email, or leave a note, or say it to your face. And I know I should do all of those things more often, because it's true. You are amazing!

Great things I saw...
Students working with small groups in Science to come to a consensus.
Students sharing their research in Science.
Students, and me, enjoying read alouds in Language Arts.
Smooth transitions from one activity to another.
Students being great audiences for their friends who were presenting.
Students putting great effort into their TEDtalks in Language Arts.
6th grade band learning a new song.
Students getting right to work (reading, writing, math, you name it) as soon as the directions have been given. Procedures and expectations get results.
The sound of students reading (silence, for the most part) and the click of keyboards while annotating.
Most students dressed properly for recess.
Students debating in LA.
Watching the 7th and 8th graders put together dance routines.
Toy prototypes in Science.
Students really focused during MAP testing.
The excitement of the students involved in Mary Poppins Jr.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

Wednesday, January 16th
Culver's Night

Thursday, January 17th
Half day- PM schedule, but not really as it's Kindness Day.
We will be having our WIN Wednesday assembly with all students and staff in followed by Kindness Day activities until student dismissal. Here is the schedule.
PM PD

Friday, January 18th
AM PD
No School for students

Saturday, January 26th
EdCampMadWI (EdCamp Madison, in Sun Prairie)

Tweets, quotes, and blogs
10 Fun Alternatives to Think-Pair-Share (from We Are Teachers)

Perhaps we cannot raise the winds. But each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it.

E.F. Schumacher,
economist

Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

John Henry Newman,
theologian

Discipline or Compliance? (from George Couros)

mertonint on Instagram

Family smore from 1.11.19

I have a challenge for you. It comes from the #AWSAconnect Twitter chat I moderated last night.

Each of you is a leader, and you all know a leader who has impacted you or our school or both. In the words of Mission Impossible, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is as follows. Have a discussion with them. No need to blog about it or tweet it out, but that would be cool if all of us did that.

Have a great weekend!

Be the spark!

Jay

Take care of the kids. Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell

Friday, January 4, 2019

Choice, voice, and taking a chance

I read this quote and thought of our school family- both adults and children.

The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.

Joan Oliver Goldsmith,
writer

I really want you to think about this quote, too. Think about break. Did you sing at any point in time? If not, what held you back? If so, what was the reason? I thought about this even more as I walked about the school this week. I saw all sorts of ways that you were connecting with students, some on purpose and some through conversations that you just didn't know where they were going (Am I right, Dave?). The key was that you were rebuilding relationships in a way that was your choice. You gave students the chance to have conversations that shared what they did over break. Regardless, you took a chance which allowed students to take a chance too. When we model allowing for choice, voice, and taking a chance, you'll be amazed at what the kids will do.
P.S.- In the Tweets, Quotes, and Blogs section below is a blog post from Tom Murray that I saw after I wrote this introduction. It's worth your time to read, but if you don't have the time to read it, make sure to watch the minute long video embedded in his blog.

Great things I saw...
A variety of ways of reconnecting with our students when they returned to school.
Peer evaluation of Math projects.
Student involvement in notetaking.
Partner projects getting started in Science.
7th graders listening intently and with respect to a fellow student sharing about the new version of Scratch.
Mindfulness practice in Language Arts.
Energy games in Science class.
Staff helping out guest teachers.
Brainstorming ideas for Kindness Day (More to come from Student Senate.).
A really cool balloon activity in Choir (Ask Michael about it.).
TEDTalks in Language Arts.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

Wednesday, January 9th
WIN Wednesday meeting and assembly are cancelled so it's a "normal" day and schedule.

Thursday, January 17th
Half day- PM schedule, but not really as it's Kindness Day.
We will be having our WIN Wednesday assembly with all students and staff in followed by Kindness Day activities until student dismissal. More information to come soon.
PM PD

Friday, January 18th
AM PD
No School for students

Tweets, quotes, and blogs

"To give your kids everything in life." (from George Couros)

The Work You Do Has Power (from Tom Murray. If you don't read the blog, at least watch the video.)

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.

Freya Stark,
explorer and writer

My #oneword2019 (from my blog)

I'm struck by how laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.

John Cleese,
comedian, actor and producer

How Do You Model Risk-Taking? (from Tom Murray. Don't shy away from reading this, or watching the video. We are all leaders!)