via GIPHY
How do we determine our next instructional steps? How about our next steps for behavior? How do students own their own next steps? Evidence and what we do with evidence of student learning is vital to increase student achievement. As teachers looking to increase student outcomes academically and behaviorally for students we must think like assessors of our instruction and impact on learning.
An assessor of impact looks to find how students are doing in relationship to the objectives they have for student learning? They assess where students are daily and even from one learning task to the next. By thinking like an assessor teachers can determine what the next steps are for instruction. These next steps will determine whether we close the learning gaps that students have or merely move ahead and widen the gap for students. We all have objectives posted and share these objectives with students at the beginning of the lesson and should be referring to them throughout the lesson then assessing them at the end. By doing these crucial best practices we help students know where they are, where they are going, and what next steps they need to take to get there as learners. They also serve as a reminder to teachers in real time to check for where students are and help determine instructional next steps with regards to the student objectives
Are you thinking like an assessor? Are you carefully planning your next steps in real time? Our success depends on us measuring our impact and taking the appropriate next steps and learning from where students are in their learning. Think like an assessor!
How about behavior? We all have desired outcomes for students regarding behavior. Behaviors that assure students are respectful, responsible, positive, and safe and also behaviors that help students become better learners. Teaching behaviors and planning next steps for teaching these behaviors might be even more important that the content that we want students to know and be able to do. Through survey data from teachers 100% of our teachers feel that students have personal problems that interfere with their learning and 96% of our teachers believe that some students behavior interferes with other students learning. So what are our next steps regarding this data? We must be intentional about teaching behavior and assessing where students are, where they are going, and planning next steps. Are our students thinking about where they are, where they are going, and what their next steps are regarding their behavior and the steps to becoming a better learner. We must also think like assessors regarding the affective domain of student learning to close the learning gaps between students. How will you think like an assessor with regards to student behavior and what will be your next steps?
Team Lincoln:
Thanks to Rachel Anders and Kevin Garrity for hosting another Pineapple Day this past week. Their lesson on teaching linking verbs, (really exciting stuff) is evidence of planning next steps and thinking like assessors. They purposefully planned a learning opportunity for not so exciting content that incorporated movement and made student connect the activity to the objectives. This is just one example that I have witnessed over the last week. I also heard and saw evidence of Mr. Schwing doing the same in his classroom with the Pythagorean Theorem. Well done to all teachers who got students up and moving this past week to help improve student learning, thought like assessors, and carefully prepared their next steps. Well done!
Welcome Back to Sam VanLue. Sam returns from her maternity leave on Monday and we are excited to have her back. While away the life skills students were in great care with Jennifer Caudill and we thank her for the great experiences that she implemented for our students.
Congratulations to our 7th and 8th grade girls basketball teams on winning the conference championships Saturday. We love winners and are proud of their hard work and outstanding play to bring home the trophies. They have cemented their success in Lincoln athletics history as their accomplishments will be displayed on the conference championship wall. Great job coach Hollabaugh on leading the girls to victory.
Upcoming at Lincoln:
Artifacts: Teacher artifacts for annual evaluations are due this year by Friday April 12th. Teachers are responsible for uploading evidence in domains 1 and 3. Evidence for domain 2 is gathered via admin observation. Teachers need not upload evidence in domain 2 unless asked by their primary evaluator.
Read Ins- Once again it is the time of year that we will promote students reading through our annual trip to watch the South Bend Cubs. This trip is always a fun time and the students love it. We will have two days that we will start the day with 2 hour delays and have read ins for the two hours. The dates are Friday March 15th and Friday March 22nd. Students will read in their advisory classes and teachers are welcome to make it fun for students on those read in days.
National Junior Honor Society Inductions- Eligible students received information on applying to the honor society. The induction cereromy will be held on Tuesday evening April 9th. (This is a change form March 17th) We thank Betsy Barron for her sponsorship of the honor society and if any teachers have ideas for service projects please share with Betsy.
Student led conferences- I have changed the dates for each grade. 7th grade will have their conferences on Monday March 18th and 8th grade will have their conferences on Tuesday March 19th. This change was due to our Academic Junior Super bowl teams competing on the 19th and 4 of our coaches are 7th grade teachers. Advisory teachers should begin preparing for students to lead their conferences. We will implement these the same way as we did in the fall. Teams should plan to meet their students and parents in the following locations listed below. Our goal is always for lots of parents to attend, 100%. Please keep track of your numbers and personal invites are always a great way to get parents here.
Monday March 18th- 7th grade traditional advisory teachers room 101
Innovation Academy advisory teachers red room
Tuesday March 19th- 8th grade traditional advisory teachers cafeteria
Innovation Academy advisory teachers green room
Note: Elective teachers can choose one of the two nights to attend or both
your choice. Please just communicate with your students your choice and find
a way to communicate with parents as well. If not available both nights please
communicate how parents might get a hold of you to discuss any questions
they have.
Class scheduling for 2019-2020 school year- We will begin this process with our 7th graders this week and with our 6th graders the week of March 11th. On March 12th we will host the 6th graders and their parents for an open house evening at 6:30 to 7:30. This has always been a nice gesture to our incoming 6th graders and families. I would like for 7th grade teachers and elective teachers to plan on attending the evening. If you attend feel free to wear jeans the rest of the week.
Jeans Week- Speaking of jeans week, PCSC will have a jeans week the week of March 18th-22nd. Donations of $10 to wear jeans will help raise money for Relay for Life. This effort is being led by the 6th grade Innvoation Academy students. Please give donations to Sandy in the office.
Lincoln PD- We will meet Monday in the red room at 7:45 for our PD- Agenda includes travel award presentations and continued School Improvement Council discussion around student learning data and goals. Future Monday PD schedule:
Monday March 11th- Collaborative Behavior Teams
Monday March 18th- Collaborative Academic Teams
8th Grade Innovation Academy- Field Trip to WSOI - Tuesday 9:00-10:15
MOMO Challenge- Maybe you have heard about this. We thank Megan for sending out a warning that students are talking about it. Here is information that was prepared for parents from research conducted on the challenge. Always good for us to know what it is.
Feb/March Survey
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