Team Approach to Personalizing Intervention

One of the focuses this year for our team has been personalizing accommodations for students, especially our struggling students who may at time have a "D/F." This year with having a full staff and each subject matter on campus at all times we have been able to come up with a process that is so far having solid implication on student learning through quarter one with a significant reduction in student failures

The Process

Our process begins with a team meeting. Using Google Sheets, Briana created the Holy Grail of data collection spreadsheets. On our sheet we track all things from "D/Fs" per subject, parent contact, interventions being provided and assignment completion. This data allows us to get a better picture of the student as a whole as opposed to the snap shot of a student that we got when we were in a traditional setting.

We begin the team meeting by updating our "D/F" list so we are working with current data. From there we discuss each "struggling" student and develop an action plan.

Interventions

We have a standard list of our go to interventions that we like to pull from. That list includes the following: 

• Room 500- this room is used for our quiet work and testing. Minimal talking is allowed. Great space for students who are struggling with focus or just need a quiet space. 
• Assigned seating- typically just need a better choice made for them about who they are sitting next to
• List of missing work- with the students in charge of their own learning sometimes all they need is a "to do" list to get them back on the right track.
• No Phone- The lifeline of all teenagers. We use a "phone jail" and just have students toss them in there
• Pull from lab- the lab is the reason our students come to us, and typically something they absolutely love. Thankfully, our lab instructors are great about making sure core academics are a priority. Typically, pulling a student from lab is a great motivator to get back on track
• Email lab instructor- sometimes all a student needs is a pep talk (or stern warning) from their lab instructor. We also just like to keep them in the loop with how things are going and making sure we all have the best picture of the student as a whole as we can
• Parent Contact- Our goal is to create a self motivated learner however we have really tried to increase parental involvement and when all else fails the parent call or email home is always a go to. 

The above is simply our starter interventions from there we discuss other options such as scheduling one on one time with a teacher, encouraging retakes or deciding what topics students need remediation on. We also keep a running tally of the interventions we use for each student so that we can see what is effective and what is not.

The Impact 

We've only been implementing this for a little over 15 weeks so the true impact is yet to be seen. In the short term though we have seen our number of failures in the first quarter drop by about 23%. With the end of the semester on the horizon we will see if that number changes. Data aside these focused team meetings have spurred many educational conversations about student learning and struggles that I had not been apart of before. I've also heard comments from all of my team members that they feel like they have a much better idea about what is going on in all classes and have a much better picture about our students as a whole. So overall, this approach has been a big positive for our south academic team

Have a better approach to student intervention or ideas to improve ours? Leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you. 

New Year, New Beginnings

Its day three of a new year here at the Delaware Area Career Center and there have been quiet a few changes from last year. Our staff has been reorganized in preparation for our building merger and we are now in three separate teams. One of the focuses this summer for our south campus team was how to better prepare students to be successful in our unique learning environments to begin the year(see earlier posts if you are just joining our journey). Reflecting back on the first two days I think we did a much better job of preparing students to jump in to our system. Heres what our schedule looked like for those days. Disclaimer: We only have students for half of the day, the other half they are in their labs so we have about a 3 hour window with them. 

Day One:
1. Started with formal introductions of our staff and administrators

2. Split our group in half. One half was given an orientation and login information on how to use the Chromebooks. The other half did some great team building and get to know you activities to break the ice.

3. Once we switched we broke students into 4 different groups. In these groups we had each one attend a different session 1. Session one was on policies and how to start their day 2. Session 2 was with their math instructor going over class set up on Blackboard or Google Classroom and getting them going on their first assignment. 3. Session 3 was with the science instructor doing the same. 4. Session 4 they completed learning style inventories and another get to know you activity.

4. With only about 30 minutes left until lunch students were given time to complete their first math videos and assignments

Now I know of these sessions don't seem like the most exciting but I think overall we had a good mix of team building activities getting students out of their seats and giving them the necessary skills and knowledge to get them going.

Day 2 was more tech focused and went as follows:

1. We again started them with some team building activities. We wanted to get them talking to one another and make sure they were awake. Our new English teacher, Mrs. Friece,  had some great activities that had the kids laughing and talking.

2. We again broke them into 3 smaller groups. In these sessions we went over the basics of Google Docs, Classroom and Drives as well as having them download some different extensions that we thought would help them be successful.

3. After our tech sessions we split the group in half and had them switch between their English instructor and myself,  their government teachers since we are the only ones who have every student in our setting. After quick intros, discussion on expectations and class set up we gave students the last hour or so to get to work and ask questions.

Moving around and talking to students after all this they seemed to be comfortable with our way of doing things and were really excited to get going. Day three seems to be a reflection of that sentiment as they have really gotten after it and seem to be comfortable in our new learning environment but of course we are in the honeymoon stage :-)

There were lots more changes from last year that we will be sure to update you on over the next week or so. Hope everyone's year starts off as well as ours did.

Hears to a new year and a new beginning.

Making the Switch To Google

Getting a staff on board to make a switch to a new technology can be incredibly difficult. Especially when that group is a made up of a high percentage of "seasoned" educators. Our small district had been using the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) for the past 5 or so years. Many of our staff had slowly been building curriculum on the LMS. Starting in the 2014-2015 I piloted the HP Chromebook 14 with a group of freshman as well as some of our other teachers piloted it with a small group of 25 seniors. With the success of our pilot and the opening of our new academic area our school decided to go essentially all in with Google Apps for Education.

How we got buy in...

The original pilot was a lot of trial and error. Our biggest mistake was not seeking out any formal professional development. We thought since we had a working knowledge of Sheets, Docs and Slides we would be good to go. It took us a while to realize the great potential in Classroom and Forms. 

Near the end of our pilot year, we realized the potential we had in changing our school and the way we delivered content. We committed to buying more Chromebooks for both campus and we were on our way. 

Our first step was creating a "Google Team." This consisted of teachers who had either incorporated GAFE apps into their classroom during the pilot or were comfortable enough to help other instructors learn the basics of the apps. The group was led by one of our tech department members who has been one of the most helpful an supportive people I have worked with in education. Having a tech member on our side when the rest were very pro Microsoft was a Godsend.

Using the "Google Team" and a generous stipend from the school we offered a 2 day teacher training day before the school year began. During our two day together we covered the basics of all things Google. From Sheets, Docs and Slides to the newer Hangouts and the almighty Classroom At the conclusion, each teacher had the basic tools needed to start their journey into all things Google. 

Along with attending our training before the school year, teachers were required to meet these basic requirements throughout the year to qualify for the stipend:

1. Utilize Google Forms as a formative assessment tool in the classroom.
2. Create a Google Site or a Google Classroom to centralize information for your students.
3. Create a Google Calendar that is shared with your students. Include assignment due dates and other
reminders that are pertinent to your class.
4. Create and facilitate opportunities for student collaboration in Google Drive.
5. Use GAFE to collaborate or share with your PLC’s and other teacher teams.
6. Explore Apps and Extensions that may be useful in your classroom, and find a way to integrate them.

With these goals in mind we were off and running with our first full year of school wide access to GAFE. Each student and staff member was given their Google account at the beginning of the year with no mandated expectation of use. At the beginning of the year, GAFE was used primarily by almost our entire academic staff. Some much more so than others but by the end of the first quarter all academic teachers had attempted to use it at least a handful of time. Second quarter is when things really took, as lab instructors, many of whom did not buy in at the beginning, began to see the ease of use and the opportunities. They saw how quick the chromebooks were to log in and how students were quickly proficient in using them. Many of them who had not come to the before school training were now interested. They began asking questions, meeting with our "Google Team" after school and on planning periods and asking for more PD. Now we had them...

Next Steps

Half way through the year, we provided a Google Workday. The concept was just an open day where staff was able to meet with a "Google Team" member and work on whatever they wanted to continue the journey to all things GAFE. Topics ranged from how to upload files into Drive to how to differentiate for students using Google Classroom. Many of our instructors, both academic and lab, were hooked. Since this training, the chromebooks we have available for any teacher or student are signed out before school even starts. Lab instructors are lining up waiting to get their hands on them. This is exactly how we wanted it to spread, organically as they saw the benefit not forced and mandated. 

Next Year

We are looking to grow the use even more. We have around 80% of our labs using the chromebooks weekly, some who incorporated technology sparingly in the past so we feel we've been pretty successful from that stand point alone. Two labs have decided to actually write the purchasing of chromebooks into their student fees so that every student, both full day or half day will have access. We're also planning more work days in the future to hopefully have 100% buy in. For the more veteran "Googlers" we are continuing to self evaluate and look at add ons and apps that can further the educational experience for our students. We will sit down sometime before the end of the school year and finalize a plan moving forward. Lots of exciting stuff to come, more blog posts as they come.

Quick advice for those looking to take the Google plunge

1. Create a team of "experts" who work well with other staff members and are passionate about ed tech
2. One of the biggest complaints I hear from educators is "I don't have the time," find time in your PD schedule to dedicate to just working. It was a big hit with our staff and we saw things take off after this day. 
3. Level your PD for staff. We provided everything from beginner sessions to advanced sessions to keep everyone engaged.
4. Get buy in from tech staff from the beginning having these guys on board from the start makes things go much smoother. 

Good luck and feel free to contact any of us for further advice...Happy Googling!

Traveling Soldier

If this is your first time reading this blog, stop. Read the previous posts written by Brian Hale (@MrBHale) and Briana Kelley (@MrsBKelley1).

Welcome back. As a first time educational blogger, my introductions are admittedly a little weak, but like James Harden’s defense, I need time to develop. Okay, horrible analogy. You’re either thinking “Who the hell is James Harden?” or “James Harden’s defense will never develop. He’s a dominant attacking force in the NBA who would help his team more by cooking up one of his signature dishes than playing his version of defense.”

I digress.

Our district has adopted a mindshift to a collaborative, blended learning environment. This mindshift is forcing our staff to rethink how we educate our students. For the next few years, we have a little taste of both styles of education at our school. These styles are separated by two campuses - North and South. This school year I am assigned a “traveling schedule”, meaning I spend my morning at North campus and afternoon at South campus. I’d like to briefly outline my unique school day. I hope you find it as interesting as it plays out every day.

NOTE: This is not a persuasion post. I’ve designed this post to give you a taste of my day (beware -- future posts may involve heavy persuasion).

North Campus

This campus is structured as a traditional high school - 40 minute class periods, 9 periods in a day, etc. Here I teach Algebra 2 and Precalculus to juniors and seniors.

Here is a peak into my classroom:

South campus:

This campus is designed for a cohort learning environment with a blended, online learning approach. No bells. No class periods. Just time and ample space. The academic team has one general academic area with two smaller classrooms available to pull groups of students out for smaller instructional opportunities.

Here is a look at the academic area:

Three biggest differences from traveling between these two learning environments:

1. One-on-one availability-

The traditional 40 minute class periods at North campus lends itself to more direct instruction. The cohort learning environment at South campus allows for much more one-on-one time. About 95% of my time at South is available for one-on-one time with students.

2. Student pacing -

My class North campus is set up for one lesson per day. Students are all working on the same assignments at the same time, taking quizzes/tests on the same day, etc. South campus students are working at their own pace through the curriculum. There are minimum due dates, but students are allowed to pace themselves through the lessons and assignments as they see fit for their schedule.

3. Flexible grouping sessions -

The North campus traditional schedule has assigned students in each classroom. From there I am able to group these students as I please. The South campus environment allows me to group students however I need.

As you can see, the uniqueness of my schedule allows me to experience two completely different styles of education in the same day. In two years, our district is combining into one campus and adopting the cohort, blended learning approach. Though I’ve tried to remain impartial during this post, I will say that I’m very excited and look forward to this consolidation.

@MathMitchellR - Mathematics Instructor