Jay's Journal

Family smore from 2.22.19

Can you believe it? We had a five day week, including outdoor recess every day. I'm filled with pride as I walk through our school and into your classrooms every day. I know that you are proud, too, as you tell me about the great things happening with our kids in your classroom. There are struggles, but I never hear you giving up on a kid. It's just not in your nature. Keep on keeping on, and realize that at this time next week we'll be in the month of March.
Be the spark!
Jay
Take care of the kids. Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell

Friday, February 15, 2019

What are you most proud of this week?

Although it was only a three day week, I know that some pretty great things happened this week. As you reflect on the week, what's that one thing you are most proud of from this week? Was it something one of your students did for the first time? Was it something that was unexpected? Was it something that you did with a student or a colleague? Was it something that someone in your family did? Was it something you did? I know that there is something, and I'd love you to share it with your family, or a colleague, or me. I'm most proud of the effort of our 7th and 8th grade staff in putting together an e-learning experience for Tuesday's snow day. It was a risk and we all learned from it. I ask you to take risks all the time, and you do. Thank you for that. I especially like it when you ask me to visit your classrooms to see something cool or new or, even better, those times when you say to me, "If you had only been here three minutes ago." The funny thing about education, you really never know when those three minutes might happen.

Great things I saw this week...
5th graders fired up about social concerns work in Social Studies.
Students working with clay in Art.
Great mid-year discussions about SLOs, PPGs, and mid-year LA coaching goals.
Our 7th and 8th grade students and staff giving e-learning a try on our snow day. I'm proud of them!
6th graders presenting their newscasts in Social Studies.
Focused students during a Math test on Wednesday, the day after our snow day.
Two part harmony in 6th grade choir.
The kids' effort during the skill check in Language Arts.
Listening to the 5th graders ask their classmates about their chocolate milk letters.
A meeting with one of our students and his teachers to make a plan to make Wednesday better than Monday.
The Great Chocolate Milk Debate in 5th grade (Yes, we will still have chocolate milk at lunch.).
Watching teachers working with individual students and small groups to provide them the support they need.
The joy on Michael's face as he shared with me that our 7th and 8th grade choir was selected by the Brewers to sing the National Anthem before a game this season.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

*Don't forget to schedule your mid-year SLO/PPG with me as soon as you have your mid-year results (MAP tests completed or other in class assessment that was used)

Wednesday, February 20th
Culver's Night

Thursday, February 21st
4:30-8:00 5th, 7th, and 8th grade invitation conferences

Friday, February 22nd
2:00 NJHS induction ceremony

Tweets, quotes, and blogs

(from MindShift)

No Way! Way! (from Jon Harper- A story about a lesson or two that didn't go so well for Dave Burgess)

(from School Leadership 2.0)

The Importance of Not Stepping In (from George Couros)

24 ways to use Screencastify (from Matt Miller)

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody -- a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns -- bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

Thurgood Marshall,
US Supreme Court justice

Where do you focus your attention for the growth of your organization? (from George Couros)

Master Teacher, Master Learner

Family smore from 2.15.19

It was a three day week, and I'm getting kind of annoyed by them. We have a series of 5 day weeks ahead of Spring Break so we can get back into the routine you have created because of your expectations and procedures. But expectations and procedures alone don't create the routines. Your classrooms are built on relationships. So spend the next 5 weeks fostering and improving on those relationships. It takes effort and caring and hugs and high fives and fist bumps. And sometimes it just takes a smile or a listening ear. We might not be able to make everything better for everyone, but listening and smiling are a great start to making things better.
Be the spark!
Jay
Take care of the kids. Take care of each other. Take care of yourself.- John Gunnell

Friday, February 8, 2019

Always getting better

I subscribe to George Couros' blog and he sent out this gem on Friday. Please take a moment to read it.

If made me think of all of you, the work you do every day, the learning you do every day, the effort you put forth to make great learning opportunities for our kids. I honestly believe that you are all like Tammy, and sometimes it brings a tear to my eye, just like it does for George.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

*Don't forget to schedule your mid-year SLO/PPG with me as soon as you have your mid-year results (MAP tests completed or other in class assessment that was used)

Wednesday, February 13th
WIN Wednesday

Friday, February 15th
PD day

Thursday, February 21st
Invitation conferences

Friday, February 22nd
NJHS induction ceremony

Great things I saw this week...
When you are with kids, you are so focused on the kids. I notice and so do they!
Spikeball in PE class.
Vex construction and design in Science.
A pair of students doing independent Lego robotics. Very impressive!
Your flexibility with our group yearbook pictures on Wednesday was impressive.
Teachers involved with a discussion about student behavior with the kids.
The kids.
The laughter during our BLT and grade level meetings. I hope that you found the time to laugh while I was gone, and maybe even at me.
All of you willing to help cover lunch/recess and Homework Club while I was gone.

Tweets, quotes, and blogs

4 Tips for Becoming More Observant in a World Full of Noise (from George Couros)

You don't appreciate home until you leave it and, let me tell you, you can't appreciate life till you've almost left it! Some people hope and die with their song still in them.

Patsy Cline,
singer

Driving a Stick Shift Car video (Comparison of manual and automatic transmission to explain dyslexia. It's well worth your time!)

Two Positive Ways to Look at Change (from George Couros)

What is your why? (Robert Blessington shared this at a session at the state principals conference.)

Conflicts may be the sources of defeat, lost life and a limitation of our potentiality but they may also lead to greater depth of living and the birth of more far-reaching unities, which flourish in the tensions that engender them.

Karl Jaspers,
psychiatrist and philosopher

(Jen shared this with me.)

Family smore from 2.8.19

I appreciate you all taking the time to read through this blog every week. I hope that you find something that resonates with you or at least makes you reflect a bit.

See you this afternoon!

Be the spark!

Jay

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

Friday, February 1, 2019

It's definitely Winter

Winter is here. The snow. The bitter cold. The windchills. Indoor recess. Sometimes we get what we asked for. I admit I was sick of the brown grass, hard ground, and uncertainty of whether to wear my snowpants at recess. This week there was no uncertainty. What was interesting is that the conversations I heard weren't about the joy of missing school. The conversations that I heard were that you were missing out on our kids, and they were missing out on you. The routine of school is one thing, and sometimes the routine can be too much. The real part of school that is most important is the relationships. As I look at the upcoming weather, I doesn't look like there's another snow day in our future. We will get back into the routine of 5 day weeks with a normal bell schedule, but don't take for granted the importance of fostering the relationships we have with our students and one another.

Great things I saw this week...
The focus of you and the kids on Tuesday, even knowing that there was an impending deep freeze.
Table ball in PE.
Stitching in Art.
A limited number of emails from me to you, except for yesterday.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

*Don't forget to schedule your mid-year SLO/PPG with me as soon as you have your mid-year results (MAP tests completed or other in class assessment that was used)

Monday, February 4th
BLT meeting 4:15PM

Wednesday, February 6th
Group yearbook pictures in the AM
Jay leaves for AWSA after lunch

Thursday, February 7th
Jay at AWSA all day (GOOSE pass for those covering lunch duties)

Friday, February 8th
Jay at AWSA until after lunch (GOOSE pass for those covering lunch duties)

Wednesday, February 13th
WIN Wednesday

Friday, February 15th
PD day

Thursday, February 21st
Invitation conferences

Friday, February 22nd
NJHS induction ceremony

Tweets, quotes, and blogs
Four Ways to Support Colleagues who are Supporting Students in Crisis (from Allyson Apsey)

(from staff bathroom at Fred Lynn Middle School, Hamish Brewers' school)

Creating an Environment Where Innovative Teaching and Learning Flourish (from AJ Juliani)

(In case you missed it. Mike and I need singing lessons, Michael!)

4 Thoughts to Help You Move Beyond Harsh Self-Criticism (from George Couros)

(One of my all time favorite videos- Lollipop moments)

(from Kristine Klodowski, a family friend)

Family smore from 2.1.19

Cold Day Reading Challenge

This was fun, and some of my PLN joined in on the fun, too.

It's been a weird week. I don't remember a week like this in my 32 years as an educator. Make today a great day, and don't try to fit Wednesday and Thursday into Friday. It might be a good idea to go over procedures and expectations again today. It may help, but I think outdoor recess will help the most. Don't forget to wear your blue, and we have soup for lunch, too.

Be the spark!

Jay

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

Friday, January 25, 2019

Stories

I have a few friends in my PLN that just blow me away. Today I'm going to share a blog from Don Gately, a friend from NYC. He shared a blog about two of his teachers and, honestly, I wish that I would have written it about you (Yes, you!). Here's Don's post.
Now that you've read his post, I'd like you to do me a favor. Select one of your colleagues here at school and write them a note about how you noticed their awesomeness, how they crush it every day for our kids. As the first line of Don's blog says, "if you don't tell your own stories, somebody will tell them for you."

Great things I saw this week...
The first semester started strong on Monday.
Andrea (Megan's student teacher) stepped right in for a read aloud.
Despite the impending snow day, you and the kids kept right on working up to 4:00 on Tuesday.
This email from Thursday-

Good afternoon!

I saw a lot of kids today at the Kids Build Wisconsin booth at Milwaukee Tool. Out of the 400 kids I saw in the morning session, the three that stood out the most to me were from Merton. We were charged with assisting the rebuild of the wall too many times to count – but your three kids not only stuck around and built it up repeatedly without the reward of knocking it down but rebuilt a new design every time, each an improvement on the wall before. It was fun to watch engineering minds at work.

My coworker and I kept talking about how they were our shining stars today on the way back, and they made our day three times better. J

Quality control lesson in Social Studies (Ask Carey and Mary about this.).

Interesting seating for readers and writers (Check out the smore.).

A new way of playing table tennis (Again, check out the smore.).

Great grade level conversations about kids.

The kids effort during MAPs makeup testing.

The care and concern Jackie has for all of our kids. If you haven't been in a parent meeting with her, you should. She is amazing.

Calendar
Intermediate School Special Events

*Don't forget to schedule your mid-year SLO/PPG with me as soon as you have your mid-year results (MAP tests completed or other in class assessment that was used)

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?)

Friday, February 1st
8:15 staff meeting to discuss the use of key fobs

Tweets, quotes, and blogs
As Technology Becomes Easier to Use, Our Depth of Learning Needs to Continue to Increase (from George Couros)

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.

Carl Schurz,
Union Army general and American statesman

Is School Really Safe for All? (from Pernille Ripp)

30 Day Challenge For a Happier Teacher You (from Pernille Ripp)

I think if you want to make art, at some point you have to suspend judgment, and you have to involve yourself with play and not worry about the outcome.

Richard Serra,
sculptor

The Hidden Stories of Those Around Us (from Tom Murray)

22 Moments from 80s Movies That Sum Up Teaching Middle School (from WeAreTeachers)

Family smore from 1.25.19

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.