ALWAYS FREE

COHORT CORNER
D.C. REGION PILOT COHORT / JANUARY 3, 2012
Please send along your students most recent assessment data so I can be looped in about where your kids are and we can use the data to inform next steps in our work together.

Issue # 6

Action Items
SEND YOUR STUDENTS MOST RECENT ACHIEVEMENT RESULTS

Announcements







JAN 7TH PDS When: Starts at 9am (note earlier start to cohort time to allow for new collaboration structures), but end time is different
depending on whether or not you opted into a 2nd afternoon workshop. Check TAL for your schedule! If you didnt opt for a 2nd workshop, then youll end at the regular 3pm time! Where: Gallaudet ST. ANDREWS MENTOR MEET-UP (NOTIFIED CMS ONLY) What: CMs who have been paired with St. Andrews mentors will have a chance to meet their mentors, gure out a plan for support, and share samples of student work with their mentors When: During workshop 1 time at PDS (1:30-3pm)

Making Change that Lasts

The New Year is nally here, and with it comes a perfect opportunity to make high-leverage changes in your classroom and your life. As you reect on the wins from this rst semester and things what youd want to be different by June, Id highly recommend considering the four principles for lasting change from one insightful book written by experts on personal change: Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Find the Feeling: In almost all successful change efforts, the sequence of change is not analyze-think-change, but rather see-feel-change.Youre presented with evidence that makes you feel something. It might be a disturbing look at the problem, or a hopeful glimpse of the solution, or a sobering reection of your current habits, but regardless, it hits you on an emotional level. Often, we assume that our students dont do things because they dont know how. That can denitely be true, but its rarely new knowledge or know-how (on its own) that leads to behavior change. Its when you get students to feel something that theyre compelled to learn how and then act. Find the Bright Spots: Rather than reinvent the wheel, reect on and then clone your bright spots or successes. Often times, the answer to a difcult challenge lies in the steps youve taken in the past to resolve a similar challenge. If youre trying to help a student make change, help them reect on the moments when they made the right or a better decision. Doing so builds condence because it reminds us that our personal histories afrm that we often can do what we doubt we can. Cultivate a Growth Mindset: people who are equipped with a growth mindset (or believe that with effort they can improve at anything) are far likelier to persist and improve at a given task than those who believe their abilities are static. In classrooms where kids are embracing this mindset, Im seeing teachers do a number of small but powerful things. For instance, they praise student efforts as opposed to getting the right answer, acknowledge what is correct about a students partially incorrect answers, push kids to explain the how or why behind their answers, reward students correct answers with more rigorous follow-up questions, encourage kids to take multiple sides during a debate or seminar, and teach kids to learn from their mistakes by having them peer edit each others work or complete test reections and corrections. Start Small and Celebrate: As the authors note, big problems are rarely solved with big solutions. Rather, small and very concrete changes followed by prompt celebration snowball into bigger wins. For instance, in one study, participants were far likelier to become and stay Vegan if they were rst asked to limit their intake of meat rather than stop eating meat altogether. As these participants noted, starting with the small goal of limiting meat was far less daunting and guilt-inducing than quitting meat cold turkey. With students, its the same thing. Dont overwhelm them with a list of things to work on or present changes as all-or-nothing bargains. Change is a process, so break their plan for improvement into achievable goals that you can build up over time.

Resource Spotlight






















PARENT ENGAGEMENT VIDEOS Looking for new parent/family engagement practices and/or to get inspired? Check out the Flamboyans awesome YouTube channel (features 26 videos) CLASS CULTURE SURVEY (GRADES 5 AND UP) Eager to get a pulse on how kids are viewing school, their futures, your class, and more? Get holistic feedback from students with this class survey. Ask her how she turned it into a Google Survey, which made it easy for her to splice data into helpful graphs and charts. DREAMBOX.COM (K-3RD) Cendahl recommends DreamBox.com for awesome resources for gauging student understanding in Math and engaging activities (some free, but others accessible through inexpensive subscriptions) INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITY ON RECIDIVISM (SECONDARY) Check out the awesome interdisciplinary activity that Chelsea Kirk created with the Math department at her school. I love the way she uses her students study of this important phenomenon to reinforce graph analysis skills! MANAGEMENT/CULTURE RESOURCES Molly France recommends this board for
great ideas for fostering class culture and improving management! Just search for topics under the education section!

Team Shout Outs

Lauren Delaloye: for having the high school subcohort at her place to discuss ideas and for being open.Glad we grabbed coffee! :) Shajena Erazo Anamika Dwivedi: for getting that grad school work done! ;) Shajena Erazo Beth Dukes: for her incredible dedication to putting together the Socratic seminar session at the SMATH Summit this weekend (not to mention her awesome enthusiasm). It was great!Jordan Bock Anamika, Lauren, Clair for letting me and Jordan observe their classrooms!Eliza Varner Campbell Glennfor taking some risks and rolling out a brand new stations review system for students to empower students to lead their own review. The activity was a huge success with students, and it was exciting to see them so engaged and working well together.-Joaquin Shajena and Lauren: for organizing and hosting a lovely Secondary pedagogy brunch!Gillon Anamika Dwivedi for support in getting my kids invested/ engaged!Eliza Varner Clair Briggsfor successfully launching her rst-ever Socratic seminar on evolution and then bringing students to SMath summit to do a mock seminar for teachers and making instructional adjustments which have led to big jumps in mastery! Im excited to see rigor as well as student engagement and learning spike at this point in the year :)--Joaquin Staci Holthus, Lydia Peele, and Kelly Gleischman: for joining me on co-observations of excellent Math classrooms at DC Prep. I was particularly impressed with how quickly Staci and Kelly incorporated the best practices from the observation into their classrooms. Kelly even led a highly successful school-wide professional development session on what she learned during the visit. Download the PD materials HERE.--Joaquin Alex Krupp: for working hard to instill within her kids a sense of academic accomplishment and clear sense of what her vision means at the daily level. She has tried everything from weaving elements of her vision into daily Do Now reections, class-wide visual trackers that celebrate academic progress, and incorporating more discussion based activities into her classroom to empower her kids to embody her vision of a student-driven classroom of Socratic scholars.Joaquin Abby Wihl: for successfully raising funds through DonorsChoose to get leveled readers for all of her students. Check out photos of her kids using these resources!--Joaquin Josh Gillerman: for taking his lower elementary students on a successful college trip to inspire their interest in college and for reaching out proactively for J-factor resources (password: tfa2009) so he can add joy into his classroom. Im excited to see how he puts these resources to use and how his students budding investment in their short and long-term goals develops over the course of the year Joaquin Anne Marie Norgren: for leading an incredible PD session on facilitating discussions in Math classrooms. Anne Marie masterfully synthesized video and softy copy resources that she picked up from other teachers, her own classroom experience, as well as from observations that we conducted at The Brooklyn Latin School. Im excited to see how other teachers incorporate rigorous expositions

and discussions into their classrooms to push their students conceptual understanding of math as well as their presentational skills. Joaquin Lauren Delaloye: she decided that for her AP students to succeed, they would need to come in three times a week for an additional 45 minute class before school even starts. Not only was there a 100% commitment from the students to the morning classes, but they were actually excited by the prospect and knew that it was necessary for their success on the AP exam. What a testament to the tremendous job Lauren has done instilling drive and intrinsic motivation in her students!!Gillon Crichton Eliza Varnerfor reaching out proactively to strategize around her classroom so that she can get semester 2 off to a great start!--Joaquin Meredith Ackermanfor hosting a parent night that provided her students with an opportunity to teach families and teachers the Spanish theyve been learning and for arranging to teach Spanish to a congregation that meets at her campus in the evenings. By doing so, shes empowering students to use their language skills to connect with members of the surrounding community and cultivate important leadership skillsJoaquin Chelsea Kirk: for hosting an amazing cohort brunch, which provided everyone with an important opportunity to reconnect, reect, and generate ideas that have become the impetus behind exciting new collaboration and PDS structures for our cohort!-Joaquin Laure Kohnefor raising money to purchase level-appropriate books so that she can introduce her students to their rst-ever book clubs after the holiday break. I cant wait to see her kids begin conversations around texts and push each others thinking about what theyre reading--Joaquin Laure, Anamika, and Merediththank you so much for being there for me on a really hard day.Your support, advice, and friendship means so muchBeth Dukes Julia Sadowsky, Lauren Delaloye, Josh Gillerman, Gillon Crichton, Clair Briggs, Chelsea Kirk, Carolyn Byrne, Molly France, Indira Cruz, Maria Roth, and Megan Gilbert: for agreeing to open up their classrooms to host observations for other CMs in our cohort so that they can learn from the strengths and talents of the teachers who are a part of our team. Im already excited by the cross-fertilization of ideas that these visits have generated. Im seeing teachers pull great practices from those both within and outside of their respective content areas and using these visits as a springboard for future collaboration.Joaquin Hillary Colemanrealizing that her high school students knew far too little about college, Hillary created an awesome college-themed unit that introduced her students to the college application process. Props for seeing a need amongst your students and your willingness to step outside of the curriculum to give students important knowledge and skills theyll need to achieve future academic success. Joaquin Staci Holthusfor (perhaps unknowingly) sharing a great "island survival" lesson focused on practicing accountable talk. My students loved it and there has been a clear shift towards better communication skills and teamwork in my classroom!Lydia Peele CJ Libassifor making quick execution adjustments and planning a lesson rehearsal PD activity for PGCPS Foreign Language teachers. Im excited to see what he comes up with for that!.--Joaquin

Shout outs continue on next page!

Team Shout Outs (continued)

Anamika Dwivedifor her admirable generosity and willingness to pitch in with whatever other CMs need help with. Whether its talking with a colleague who is having a rough day, photocopying awesome resources so that members of our cohort can get new ideas for rigorous activities they can add to their lessons, offering LP resources to rst years, or collaborating with other teachers in her building, Anamika goes above and beyond to help others whenever the need arises. Recently, she was recognized by her school with an award for embodying this team player mindset and for going above and beyond to help her students achieve personal and academic growth. Congrats for the award and thanks for your contributions!Joaquin Shajena Erazofor weaving her vision (literally powerful, powerfully literate) into her daily instruction by pushing students to analyze themes relating to characters relationship to power and encouraging students to take the reins by facilitating seminars and discussions. Its inspiring to see how this transfer of classroom power (from teacher to students) is pushing her kids to engage in higher-order thinking and learn from their peers perspectives.Joaquin Jordan Bock and Hillary Coleman for always being on the ball in PGCPS reading class.---Eliza Varner Cendahl Cornelio Alterfor inspiring within her students a love of reading through frequent praise of the actions they are taking to become better readers, expressing her own enthusiasm for reading both in word and deed, and showing students the progress theyre making through reading growth celebrations and conferences. Students who started the year disliking school now readily say they like school, and most importantly, report their love for reading and learning. This is a huge testament to her ability to leverage strong relationships with students and families to re her kids up about school!Joaquin Nicole Spoelmafor using community meetings as a successful lever to build culture in her classroom and introducing book clubs to push her higher-performing kids to engage in meaningful conversations around text. Im excited to see how these take off over the course of the year!-Joaquin Josh Johnsonfor working hard to prepare students to participate in an awesome school-wide science fair, which is a logistical and planning feat that Im left marveling at. Check out his super awesome

science fair manifesto (a nearly 70-page packet of awesomeness) that he is using to keep kids accountable to producing highquality projects!Joaquin Megan and Joshfor letting me come to their classrooms. It was so inspiring to see you both at work!Molly France Indira Cruzfor hosting an awesome fashion show in which kids dressed up as celebrities (anywhere from Nicki Minaj to Elvis), walked down the runway, and used Spanish to describe the models outts. In an especially meaningful twist, she invited parents and family members to attend the performances. Doing so gave students an opportunity to shine in front of their parents and practice their Spanish in a fun and creative way. For a taste of what it was like, check out this photo of Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk down the runway :)--Joaquin Jordan BockFor driving all over the county/DC with me to observe classrooms of teachers in our cohort! Eliza Varner Debbie, Lydia, Jordan, and Josh major shout out to all four of you for the middle school meet up we had! We had such a great conversation and I walked away with so many good ideas and helpful resources. Thanks Jordan for the awesome snacks and for letting us crash your apartment :) Middle school love!Kelly Gleischman Debbie Simfor incorporating her rstever Math expositions into daily lessons to create a more student-centered classroom. By doing so, shes pushing students do more of the cognitive and talk about mathematics and Im excited to see how this boosts student condence and helps her class to become more student-centered--Joaquin

Most Viewed Videos of the Month

1.
Nicole Spoelma: Community Meeting (K-12) 2. Contagious Enthusiasm Clip (All grades) 3 . S t ro n g Vo i c e ( T L A C Resource) 4. Joy Factor (All grades) 5. Virtual Visit to Morgans C l a s s ro o m ( S e c o n d a r y Management Revamp) 6. Teacher v. Student Game (Prek-Elem) 7. 100 Percent (TLAC Resource) 8. Ms. Rife s Eng a ging Pacing (Elem and up) 9. Wait Time (All grades) 10. Indiras Clothing Unit Fashion Show (Secondary JFactor)