Tips for Open House

Open House is right around the corner!  If you’re like many teachers, you have some concerns about how to make this a positive experience for you, your students, and their parents.  Here are some tips that might help make your evening go a bit smoother.  Pick and choose which ideas fit your personality, teaching situation, and timetable.

I.                   Make Parents Feel Welcome (Remember...They Get Nervous, Too!)
Smile and greet them at the door. Let each parent know how happy you are that he or she could come.

a.       Have students introduce their parents. Prior to Open House, teach and practice proper introductions with your students.

b.      Invite parents' input. Give parents an information sheet to fill out that asks for information such as “Three strengths my child has are...” and “Three things I would like to see my child learn this year are...”

c.       Let parents get to know you. Make a small display with your own family photos, favorite books, travel mementos, and so on.

d.      Send thank you notes. To simplify this task, write a letter and photocopy it.  Have parents write their addresses on envelopes during the visit.  Another option would be to create an e-mail distribution list of parents and send a group thank you.

 II.                Three Things Every Parent Is Looking For  

a.       A Supportive Environment. Parents want to know that your classroom is a positive and friendly place.

b.      A Sense of Your Expectations. Share with parents the classroom rules that you and your students have created together. Give them a hand-out that clearly states what you want your students to learn by the end of the year.

c.       Open Communication. Let parents know that you consider them equal partners in their children's education. Tell them how you will keep in touch (e.g., newsletters, quarterly reports). Hand out cards with your contact information, and the best times to call.

III.             Veteran Teachers Share Open House "Don'ts"

a.       Don't conference. Make yourself available to parents, but do not discuss individual students' progress or grades. Respect their privacy and the time of the others who are there. Invite parents to schedule a phone call or meeting at another time.

b.      Don't make it too formal. Like you, parents have already put in a full day. Make it fun. Keep presentations brief, informative, and enjoyable. What's most important is for parents to get a chance to see the classroom and ask their own questions.

c.       Don't assign homework. Both your students and their parents will appreciate the consideration. Try to plan a light day to follow Open House for your own sanity!

d.      Don't try to do too much!  Relax and enjoy meeting everyone.

IV.               And finally…

a.       Save some energy. Take a break, if at all possible, between the end of the school day and the start of your Open House to rest and recharge.

b.      Smile. Smiles mean a lot. When you smile, you let parents know you are happy and excited to see them.

c.       Give parents concrete examples of what they can do at home to help their child's education, such as setting a regular homework time.

d.      Be proud of all that you do. Enjoy an evening in the spotlight. Parents come to Open House because they want to experience all the wonderful things going on in their child’s world.

Sounds of Summer: Tefft Edition

by Sarah Logan         

Summertime offers some of our favorite times—baseball game time, relaxing at the pool time, family vacation time….a change of season time for everyone. School may be out for the summer, but for many of us in SPS, summertime offers opportunities to learn and work together in creative and different ways. Taking a cue from the Beach Boys, whose “Sounds of Summer” collection features classic summer tunes, the Tefft team is proud to introduce our Sounds of Summer collection (not available in stores).

Track 1: Be True to Your School Throughout the summer, teachers, administrators, and support staff members representing multiple SPS sites are flocking to Tefft. They are participating in workshops, trainings and sharing their expertise for curriculum and assessment projects. Why? Because what they accomplish this summer will truly benefit our schools in the days that follow!

Track 2: Surfin’Safari Coming soon to an SPS website near you: even MORE resources and features to support your work in the district. Professional learning specialists are working diligently to update and expand online learning opportunities.

Track 3: I Get Around Familiar faces abound this summer! Many people are participating in multiple workshops and trainings or are providing input for our curriculum facilitators. Smiles abound as well, making it clear that we enjoy spending time with colleagues from buildings all around town!

Track 4: Wouldn’t It Be Nice? Yes, it would be nice to launch the 2012-2013 school year with materials and resources aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Thanks to much of the work accomplished at Tefft this summer, our district will accomplish this goal!

Track 5: Good Vibrations If you’re one of the many to attend a professional learning opportunity in the Tefft auditorium this summer, you’ll be sure to pick up some good vibrations from its fresh new look!

Track 6: Fun, Fun, Fun Clearly we have meaningful and enjoyable work happening at Tefft this summer! We look forward to including you! 

Site Professional Learning Systems

The Department of Professional Learning of Springfield Public Schools recognized that a great responsibility rests on schools to provide focused, purposeful, productive professional learning. Thus Site Professional Learning Systems (SPLS) was created with the purpose of empowering our schools for collaborative work.  Through SPLS, sites have support for creating a systematic approach to professional learning that keeps standards high and provides common language for how teachers collaborate.   A list of critical components for healthy site professional learning was designed to provide details regarding what a teacher should be able to identify in their personal experience at their site.  The Critical Components for SPLS are as follows:

The learning should be:

1.      Research-Based

2.      Data driven

3.      Exhibit Best Practices for Collaboration

4.      Have Accountability at the team, site, and district level

5.      Portray Leadership

We are pleased that the SPS Board of Education has approved time within our contract for professional learning.  We know that it is our responsibility as professionals to use that time effectively.  The expectations for professional learning at each site are as follows:

• Teachers use contract time to actively engage in collaboration/learning.
• Data drives each team’s work and classroom instruction.
• Plan and work aligns with SIP and exhibits cycles of improvement.
• Teams document work and monitor outcomes.
• Leader provides written and verbal feedback to collaborative teams and opportunities to make the work public.

In 2011 and 2012 a team from each site has had the opportunity to analyze the degree to which the Critical Components of SPLS and District Expectations for SPLS exist within their school.  An explanation of the critical components has been provided and teams have had critical dialogue around choosing focus, aligning to their SIP, and distributing Professional Learning and Professional Work hours within the next school year’s calendar.  Our department is committed to providing support to intentional professional learning through our department website and facilitating our annual training.  For additional information and support, please contact our office or visit our website at http://springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/staffdev/Pages/SPLS/Resources.html.

Communicating with Your Ears

One of the three capabilities of the SPS Learning Model is Communication.  Typically, we consider communication the sharing of ideas through written or spoken word or through gestures.  However, listening is a key component in effective communication.

Dr. Paula Denton in her book The Power of Words gives a strong rationale for listening to others.  Listening allows us to know others and allows others to learn about themselves.  We will build a sense of community by listening and we help others to become better communicators.  When we listen we are able to form more effective questions and in turn everyone takes their task more seriously.

Pausing and paraphrasing are two skills which can improve your ability to communicate through effectively listening to colleagues, students and parents.  Pausing simply means that you will allow some wait time after a person is finished speaking to formulate a response.  By pausing and formulating a response after the speaker is finished talking, the listener is able to fully attend to everything the speaker is saying. 

Paraphrasing is restating the essence of what the speaker is saying.  An effective paraphrase will allow the listener and speaker to ensure they are “on the same page” regarding the topic at hand.  Denton suggests some simple tips to make sure the paraphrases are appropriate: avoid using I, keep it brief, use an approachable voice.

The Center for Cognitive Coaching has many valuable resources to support continued refinement of communication skills.  You can visit their website http://www.cognitivecoaching.com/ or visit PD360 at www.pd360.com and search Cognitive Coaching.

Differentiated Math

by Jill Cook, Bissett Elementary
               

                I find differentiated instruction essential to the growth and performance of all students in my math class.  In order to effectively organize students in their groups for differentiation, there are many things that have to be done.  I first begin by looking at my students’ performance testing results.  I place each student into a quartile based on their assessment results; then I create my personal data wall.  After students are placed in the four quartiles, I group the students based on their achievement scores, which correlates with the inform series since it provides recommended skills for each student based on their score.  I have a large binder from which I look at the students’ scores and find something based on what they need to be able to do in order to move up another level by the next testing period.  Note:  These are skills that typically do not correlate with whatever mini-lesson I am focusing on that day. 

            Here is my current example of what has recently happened in my classroom:

            I teach a mini-lesson on division.  After modeling and practicing the strategy together, the students participate in guided practice with one another.  Usually, this is a game or cooperative learning activity in which they participate.  Then, the students complete their independent practice page.  This usually consists of no more than ten problems; however I typically assign 4-6 problems because I feel that students who can’t do 4-6 problems correctly don’t need the added stress of completing more problems when they may/may not be consistently successful.  Once the students are finished with their independent practice, they go to their differentiated instruction bin (I call them group activities).  While students are practicing independently, I start meeting with small groups on whatever strategy we are focusing on. 

            My group activity station consists of four shelves.  Each student’s differentiated activities are on those shelves.  I have my students grouped as the green triangles, orange squares, red trapezoids, and yellow hexagons.  The students are able to go to their shelf and choose an activity to participate in.  There is a large variety of skills they can practice, but they all focus on whatever our mini-lesson was or whatever skill I am working on in small group.  My green triangles have division problems to solve on their whiteboards and other activities that help them with our current small group focus, which is identifying landmarks of a data set.  My orange squares have the same division practice, but have games and activities that help them estimate products.  The red trapezoids are currently working on multiplying decimals, and my hexagons are reading and interpreting circle graphs with percents and fractions.  As you can see, there are a variety of activities the students get to choose from.  I include Everyday Math games, independent whiteboard practice from the math journal, use of manipulatives, and cooperative learning practice cards.  They also have inform questions in an envelope that they solve on the back with a pencil next to their initials.  They are in charge of solving 4-5 inform questions each day as well as checking other students’ work in their group to determine if they solved it correctly.  I have the EM Teacher's Guide to Games, so that is a great resource to use for my groups.  The students love playing landmark shark, factor captor, and multiplication top-it.  They use the Everyday Math fraction, decimal, and percent cards, as well as the telling time cards. 

            By integrating this differentiated instruction into math workshop, my students absolutely love it.  They get to work with one another and gain a sense of success because the students are learning and experiencing skills they are prepared to learn.  There is a high level of engagement, and my mid-year test scores show that this is an effective way to integrate differentiated instruction by using inform scores and recommended skills to help them make (and hopefully exceed) their expected growth.

Cooperative Learning: An End-of-Year Strategy

The end of the year is getting closer and the use of Cooperative Learning could be a strategy to help keep your students engaged.  Cooperative Learning has long been one of the best practices used by our district.  Here are some tips from SPS teachers that could facilitate the use of Kagan Cooperative Learning.

Follow the structure closely, having PIES embedded will provide:

·         Positive Interdependence: Is a gain for one, a gain for another? Is help necessary?

·         Individual Accountability:  Is individual public performance required?

·         Equal Participation: How equal is the participation?

·         Simultaneous Interaction: What percent are overtly active at once?

When introducing a new structure or one not used frequently, teach the structure using non -content material. Students can understand the structure directions then focus on the content material.

Think about how you would like to establish teams (heterogeneous teams, random teams, student selected teams, or homogenous teams).   

Keep in mind that all libraries in the SPS District have Kagan Cooperative Learning resources for teachers to check out.

Listed below is the homepage for Kagan Cooperative Learning. This site is primarily a resource for purchasing Kagan materials and training.  However, two features that could be really helpful for teachers are the Online Magazine and the Discussion board.

The Online Magazine has several departments to peruse, but some personal favorites are:

·         Featured Structures

·         Teacher and Training Tips

·         Tech Tips

·         Brain Matters

The Discussion Board is a blog that addresses questions about the use of Cooperative Learning.  There are responses from other educators as well as the Kagan staff.   Some examples of topics are given below.

How to support students with special needs during Kagan Cooperative Learning

Should middle and high school sit in teams?    

Kindergarten ideas

Kagan Publishing & Professional Development - KaganOnline.com

Learning is a "TEAM" effort

As teachers for Springfield Public Schools we know that we are immersed in numerous opportunities for professional development.  One of the most beneficial opportunities for me as a second year teacher was my cooperative learning training.  We all know how important cooperative learning is in the classroom and the results it has in engaging our students.    One key aspect that often gets overlooked is team formation.   I found forming teams according to the Kagan method of high, high-medium, low-medium, and low to be essential in managing differentiated instruction.   At first I was overwhelmed when forming my teams because I had so many behavioral issues.  I thought that I wouldn’t be able to put certain students with other students because of “behavioral problems.”  I was pleasantly surprised to realize that by grouping my students according to this structure, it minimized my behavioral problems due to that fact that I was better able to effectively engage my students.  I sorted my students based on writing/reading scores at the beginning of the year (high, high-medium, low-medium and low).  I used the student’s math scores as a way to differentiate separate math groups.  The students in my class are grouped by mixed-ability for their teams, and then when we break into math stations I group the students by like-ability.  I find it interesting that I have more behavioral problems in math stations when the students are working with like-ability partners, rather than when they are grouped in teams according to the Kagan Cooperative Learning team formation structure.   I am so thankful to have a better understanding of cooperative learning and love using it as a way to manage my classroom.