September 1
This picture was taken in the
spring of 2017. Dylan's school had a mother/son NEON dance. It was a fun
night!! We both danced all night long!!
As
parents we worry. As they go into surgery- we worry even more. Dylan's disease
is very rare so we won't know what to expect until they perform surgery. This
unfortunately will be the first of MANY surgeries during his life.
As a family we had a
great conversation during dinner last week. We have a weekly dinner regimen.
Every night during dinner each person shares the most positive thing that
happened to them during the day. Last week Dylan decided to change the
question. He wanted each person to share the accomplishment in life that they
were most proud of. Chris shared. Maya shared. Then Dylan says, "I am so
happy that I got to experience my life with you guys as my family," My
thoughts- What? Is he for real? Does he secretly read Hallmark cards when we
aren't looking? Poor Grandma had to go after him. I told her good luck
following that one. I know with his positive attitude he will always be
positive about his disease and accept what comes, but as parents we want to
protect them as much as possible. I am going to refrain from my work email and
be a mom the next four days. I appreciate the well wishes and will keep you
posted how surgery goes. His surgery will be at 1:30pm tomorrow. 
7 Things to Remember About Feedback
1. Feedback is not advice, praise, or evaluation. Feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to a goal.
2. If students know the classroom is a safe place to make mistakes, they are more likely to use feedback for learning.
3. The feedback students give teachers can be more powerful than the feedback teachers give students.
4. When we give a grade as a part of our feedback, students routinely read only as far as the grade.
5. Effective feedback occurs during the learning, while there is still time to act on it.
6. Most of the feedback that students receive about their classroom work is from other students – and much of that feedback is wrong.
7. Students need to know their learning target—the specific skill they’re supposed to learn—or else “feedback” is just someone telling them what to do.
“Data doesn’t belong to the teacher. The data belongs to the student and is on loan to you.” --Damen Lopez
Developing a Commitment to Common Assessment Practices
(Damen Lopez)
The The most successful teams display a clear purpose on the way that they take a joint effort to utilize valuable assessment practices. These teams exhibit the following characteristics:
1. Speak the same language, the language of data. Successful teams continue to go back to the numbers. While emotion is often an important quality that helps us to nurture and teach from the heart, getting results is the ultimate goal. If a team is kind and nurturing, but their students are failing then they have not done their job. Take the emotion out of the situation and look at the numbers.
2. Share data openly with one another. One of the most difficult things for us to do as a teacher is to share our data. We hide it out of embarrassment or fear of being judged. Successful teams make commitments to looking openly at their data with the purpose to not cast blame, but to help one another.
3. Take responsibility for all students. The easiest way for teams to get over their fear of sharing data is to decide that they are responsible as a whole for every student. Being a team means working interdependently. This starts with the way you collaborate about students.
4. Tie assessment to strategies and interventions that work. It is often said we are “data rich and information poor.” No one would argue the fact that assessments are crucial to ensuring academic success for students. However, assessments that are given without plans to turn data into strategies that create success for students are useless. Simply put: Once you know where students stand, it is your responsibility to make use of that information and generate academic success as you teach them. The data you collected during your grade level meeting is your starting point.
Great website for Science lessons.
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Eat lunch with a student that you may have a difficult time with. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM!
Play: I have observed many students AND teachers having FUN during our morning walk. Thank you Mr. Kimble for organizing it.
Choose your attitude: BE POSITIVE!!!
Make Their Day: Thank you after school yard duty team. The heat doesn't even stop you from doing the right thing for kids. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!! SO proud of ALL of our staff and teachers!! Thank you Kristin for helping out!
