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. 

DACC Mannequin Challenege

Here's a quick tour of our space through our "Mannequin Challenge" video we did with our senior academic. More posts to come in the near future.

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.

Three Reflections On Year One In The Open Space

Year one in our open academic setting with a full staff is in the books and was a resounding success. Enrollment is up,  our space is being expanded and the student exit surveys show a high satisfaction with the set up, delivery and approach. That being said there is always things that can be improved. As we move into the summer here are some things we as a team will be reflecting on:

Testing
One of the biggest issues this year with students working at their own  was having a quiet space to take assessments and an easy place to monitor students to maintain test integrity. Some ideas we had to remedy this:

1. Dedicating part of the new space to be a quiet work/test area monitored by different staff members throughout the day
2. Dedicating a specific chunk of the day as "Quiet Hour" where the whole space would be quiet to complete any assessments that required monitoring.

We are waiting to see the new spaces before making a final decision.

Pull Out Sessions

A three hour block of time can be quiet awhile for kids to be working independently on various tasks. A goal for next year will be finding the right balance between independent work days and days that have more direct instructions. Feedback from the students show that they would like to meet as a class at least once or twice a week. As we meet this summer finding the right balance will definitely be something to discuss. 

Cross Curricular Projects/Activities

The open concept has provided more opportunity for collaboration amongst peers than I have had combined in my 5 years of teaching. The team did a fantastic job in monitoring students and gaging progress throughout the year. An area for us to improve on is creation of projects or activities that incorporate the different disciplines within one project, unit or activity. Personally, I'm looking forward to being able to collaborate with the English teachers next year. My schedule this year had me in the opposite campus as my English counterpart. Being in the same space with 2 next year will be great especially with the heavy focus to the examination of primary sources. 

Another great resource we will have next year is a STEAM lab with a 3D printer. I would love to design a project that ends with the creation of something with the printer, nothing like making student learning tangible.

Have any great cross curricular projects or ideas for a 3D printer? Share them with in the comments or on twitter.

@mrbhale

@mathmitchellr

@MrsBKelley1

The Dynamics of Desmos

If you teach math in a blended environment and have never used Desmos, you are missing out!



As an Algebra 2 and Precalculus teacher, I've embedded this free online graphing calculator into the curriculum. I taught the students how to use it (which doesn't take much time because it's really intuitive!) and encourage them to use it in lessons.

Though I could spend days on this topic, for now I'll provide you the basics. Keep in mind this resource does so much more than just graphing functions, which I encourage you to explore.

This year in Precalculus, students have used Desmos to explore the following types of functions -

Polynomial, Exponential, and Radical 
 

Conic



Trigonometric


Parametric


Polar


As mentioned before, this is just a small taste of the power of this FREE online resource. Enjoy!

@MathMitchellr

Piktochart: An Alternative to the common visual aid

In the age of Pinterest and other social media students are becoming more and more visual with their learning and wanting that. A great app I found for the easy creation of infographs can be found in the Google Chrome Web Store. The app has a free "Lite" version that provides the ability to make a completely customizable infograph or templates that can be used. The app also provides easy to use templates for presentations, posters and reports. 

My financial literacy class are using it this week as an introduction to investments and will be creating infographs on the different types of accounts that are available. The app can be used for a multitude of different purposes such as comparing and contrasting different viewpoints, visual aid for presentations or in place of the always popular PowerPoint or Google Slides. 

Anyone ever used Piktochart before? Leave us a comment and let us know your successes in the classroom. 

Student Summer Plans

As a teacher to juniors and seniors in high school, it’s important to encourage students to use their summer wisely as potentially one of the last extended breaks of their life. Students should focus on activities that will prepare them for the future, and activities that they enjoy and love to do. Here is a great list of ideas for students to keep them active and engaged for the summer months!

Get a Job: With open availability, this is a great time of year for students to work, earn, and save. Typical jobs for high-school students include retail and food industry. Some jobs might be future interest based, like a paid internship, working in an office, or as an apprentice for a labor position. There are also seasonal positions like lifeguarding, summer camp counselor, child care, zoos, golf courses, etc. Students would be wise to look at their potential earnings and coming up with a goal or savings plan. Check out this article for ideas on high school part time jobs.

Classes: I know, I know: classes kind of defeats the whole definition of summer. However, with the extended expectations of degrees in college, many students opt to earn dual credit at community colleges or take summer school classes that free up their school year for more advanced opportunities.  Students still have a break from the full school day experience, and don’t feel as overwhelmed having work for just one or two courses in the summer as opposed to a full course load.

Hobbies and Talents: with the great weather, and the flexible schedule, students should take full advantage of doing something they really love.  Like I said, this may be the last time in the near future to take advantage of a break. Play a sport, take up running, join a theater group, take up an instrument,... just do something you love.

Volunteer: Junior and Senior year is when students are in full swing of college applications.  Students should have a few volunteer and extra-curricular activities in their back pocket.  There are great opportunities at libraries, churches, child care facilities, parks, and community centers. Make sure to log or have documentation of the hours completed and a description of the event or task. Check out this article for community service ideas.

Prepare for Future: There is no time like the present to start working for the future. Summer is a perfect time to prepare for college entrance exams, visit college campuses (although there might not be as much activity in the summer), save money, or research scholarships. Here is a great resource for college planning.