A Teacher’s Perspective on Cognitive Coaching Seminars®
by Sarah Logan, SPS Professional Learning Specialist

Barbara Wormington, 4^th grade teacher at Field Elementary, is one of several SPS teachers who were able to participate in Cognitive Coaching(SM)  training this school year. She credits the seminar for giving her effective communication tools and skills to use with various members of the school community. The impact is seen most directly with students in her classroom.

Find out more about what Barb has to say about Cognitive Coaching below:

Students in my classroom have benefited from my Cognitive Coaching training because there is rarely a time when I do not paraphrase their thinking.  I believe this makes them feel heard, and gives the rest of the class a chance to hear what that student has said in a different way.  It takes our learning to a deeper level.

I use Cognitive Coaching daily.  If it’s not with my students, then it’s with other teachers in my building or with parents. I think parents appreciate being paraphrased, and intently listened too. So often they stop by my classroom with a problem they are having with homework, or with their child at home, and it’s nice how quickly we can work through the problem resolving map and how much time it actually saves rather than me just listening and then talking back, or giving suggestions.

I hope to have a leadership position one day in the district, and the opportunities I have had with Cognitive Coaching have really prepared me for situations I will have as a leader: like handling difficult parents, and most importantly; giving people the tools they need to solve their own problems, which is part of my personal philosophy with teaching children, that directly applies to working with adults.  I’m definitely more prepared and qualified to hold a leadership position with my training and practices in Cognitive Coaching.

All SPS teachers, counselors, and librarians will have the opportunity to begin the journey into Cognitive Coaching (SM) this summer! Days 1-4 will be offered June 11, 12, 16 & 17. For more details, click here.

We look forward to seeing you!

Continue Strong
by Curtis Cunningham, SPS Professional Learning Specialist

May marks the culmination of months of planning and work.  We all want to finish strong. While this is a very common colloquialism, I wonder what might happen if we entertain a different perspective for the month of May-- What if we decide to continue strong?

Continue Focus:
It might be we have addressed all of the elements of our curriculum guide and are considering how to deepen or extend our students’ learning.  It might be we are prioritizing the most important “big rocks” to hone in on during this time.  Consider the following questions. What might be a topic that would be important to review?  What might be crucial understandings students will need to be successful in the next grade or next level of your content area?  What might be some topics you would like to cover based on student interest or learning profile?  While the bulletin boards might come down at the end of the month and the books might be inventoried, there are still opportunities between now and then to communicate to our students that learning can continue through the summer and serve as a spring board to the next school year.

Continue Impact:
We have heard it said, “Once a teacher, always a teacher” and many of us have realized that in our personal lives. That is why we want to redirect children we encounter at Walmart or work so intently with children in our families. Our role as a teacher never really stops.  To illustrate this point, try to remember the name of a favorite teacher.  Perhaps you have regular communication with this individual, if not, imagine a conversation with him or her.  How would you refer to them?  What might be your default?  I recently had the opportunity to interact with my Kindergarten teacher.  I was surprised by my immediate reaction.  “Hello, Mrs. Potts.”  Even though it has been decades since I was in Kindergarten, I still refer to her by her surname.  She will forever hold a special place in my life, as will all of my teachers.  Our role of teacher will never stop.  It might be that we no longer have daily interaction with this particular group of students.  It might be that we will no longer provide feedback on their progress, but we can be assured that we will always hold a place of teacher in their lives. We continue learning, we continue our role as teachers, we continue our impact. 

Greg Anderson, founder of Cancer Recovery Foundation International, encourages all of us to “Focus on the journey, not the destination.  Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it.”  As teachers in the month of May we have a choice.  We can focus on the finish line or we can continue to enjoy the journey with our students know that learning and teaching never really end.

An old Chinese proverb states “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”  Congratulations on the successful completion of another academic year.  Even more, congratulations for planning for a lifetime and hundreds of lifetimes over the course of the past nine months.  As we head into summer-- rest well, enjoy family and friends and continue strong.

Another Year in the Books
by Martha Doennig, SPS Professional Learning Specialist

Might these be familiar titles?

How to Survive and Thrive in the First Three Weeks of School by Elaine K. McEwan
The First Days of School by Harry Wong
Day One and Beyond by Rick Wormeli

Countless titles explore just what we might do to kick off a school year filled with stellar elements.  So where might one find the following book titles?

How to Survive and Thrive the Final Weeks
The Final Days of School
Day 175 and Beyond
or even
Assessment Window Closed, Now What?  

After scouring educational writings, my hunch is these books have not been penned for a simple reason: demand, or lack thereof.  Teachers have had a strong commitment to the principles of classroom management from day one, and are reaping the benefits in the final days and weeks of school. As the year has marched along, components of effective classroom management have been at the forefront of classrooms throughout Springfield.  

While I recently walked through a building, evidence of strong classroom management wafted through the halls. Energetic teacher voices and the hum of student conversation around concepts filled classrooms.   The intensity of work was exemplified by the substance of the content.  Expectations for procedures were clear; simple looks or quick directives moved entire classes.   Movement, contagious energy, and novelty engaged learning.   Strong relationships were apparent as students and teachers embraced what the other had to offer.  It was better than textbook and evident class after class, hallway after hallway.  

So as you count down the final days until this year goes in the books and continue to enjoy your well managed classroom, I invite you to revisit the Classroom Management Instructional Configuration.  Look at it with reflecting eyes; rate yourself and consider the following:   What have you done well to make things go so well?   What new learning might you have from this year?   How might that new learning transfer to your 2014-2015 classroom?

 

Purposeful Student Input
by Debbie Yonke, Coordinator Quality Assurance in Learning

When we think of teaching with a purpose and for a purpose, many times we reflect on how to make our day to day classroom interactions more powerful.  One way we can accomplish this is through the use of student input or feedback.  In Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, John Hattie stated:

“I realized that the most powerful single influence enhancing achievement is feedback. This lead me on a long journey to better understand this notion of feedback.  After researching and reviewing feedback from a student's perspective (e.g., help-seeking behaviors) and from a teacher to student perspective (e.g., better comments on tests, increasing the amount of feedback in class), it dawned on me that the most important feature was the creation of situations in classrooms for teachers to receive more feedback about their teaching--and then the ripple effect back to the student was high (Hattie & Timperley, 2007)" p. 12. 

The following video clip from Glass Classroom focuses on gaining student input and feedback regarding recent learning.  As you view this clip of Central High School teacher, Susanne Feldman, consider how you might incorporate one or more of these ideas into your classroom.

Susanne Feldman: Quick Input https://springfieldpublicschools.instructure.com/courses/174521/wiki/student-input

Source:  Hattie, John A.C. (2009) Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York, NY: Routledge

Why Professional Learning Matters

by Debbie Yonke, Coordinator, Quality Assurance in Learning

 

Learning Forward is an international association of learning educators who are committed to professional learning to improve schools and student learning.  In one of their 2010 publications entitled "Why Professional Development Matters" Distinguished Senior Fellow at Learning Forward, Hayes Mizell, discusses the importance of professional learning to any field, but specifically how professional learning can impact student achievement.

 

Professional development refers to many types of educational experiences related to an individual's work. Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants, engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and businesses participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job.

 

Many fields require members to participate in ongoing learning approved by the profession, sometimes as a requirement for keeping their jobs.  Professionals often also voluntarily seek new learning.

 

In education, research has shown that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For teachers and school and district leaders to be as effective as possible, they continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices. Educators learn to help students learn at the highest levels. 

 

In Springfield Public Schools we strive to offer high quality professional learning to meet the needs of both staff and students.  Our core focus is Site Professional Learning Systems (SPLS) where key learning is embedded at the site level. In addition to this, we are happy to announce the expansion of our summer learning opportunities to provide additional choices for you to deepen your learning in areas that are of interest to you and which have a positive impact on student achievement. We encourage you to review this summer's offerings using the link below and consider attending with another teacher or team from your site to expand your impact. Summer Professional Learning Opportunities