Week of October 24th

Week of October 24th 
Bus Duty: Ben and Lena

Monday 10/24- Collaboration Day
Tuesday 10/25 -
Wednesday 10/26 -
Thursday 10/27 -
Friday 10/28 - Activity schedule for Boo Boo Q:  Angie will follow with more information... Right, Angie?

Thank you, Angie, for the presentation in the commons.  Everyone is enjoying the fall flavor of the slide show and all the information it contains.

Monday Collaboration
7:00  - Cross disrict collaboration
8:30- 10:00 Faculty Collaboration
10:15 - 11:15 Dept. mtgs
11:30 SLT Meeting
12:15 - lunch
1:00 - 2:00 MTSS
2:00 - We will be excused at 2:00 because you did not get your duty free lunch on the PSAT day.

What if we all just talked less?
What did you think about this passage from page 81 of Visible Learning for Teachers... "This dominance of teacher talk leads to particular relationships being developed in classrooms - mainly aimed at facilitating teacher talk and controlling the transmission of knowledge:  'Keep quiet, behave, listen, and then react to my factual, closed questions when I ask you,'  Interaction means, "tell me what I have just said so that I can check that you were listening, and then I can continue talking."  

Here are some strategies to reduce teacher talk from this website:  https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/reducing-teacher-talk/

1. If a student asks a question, instead of answering it yourself, ask another student.
2. If a student makes a great contribution to a class discussion, don’t be tempted to add      to it yourself, ask another student to.
3. Student groups present their work, which is then critiqued by the rest of the class.  Give direction to the critique though e.g. each group focuses on a different aspect of the presentation and all students have to give feedback that is kind, specific and helpful.
4. Hidden resource – working in pairs/small groups, one student has a picture that is relevant to the learning, that they do not share with the other students.  The other students then have to question  them to find out what it is.
5. Snowballing – pose a question, then give students thinking time (individually) to come up with an answer.  Discuss their answers in pairs and come up with an agreed answer.  Then in fours – then each four shares with the class.
6. Phone a friend  – if students get stuck they can ‘phone a friend’ – literally by mimicking  a phone with their hand, and a ringtone!  Other students can ‘answer’ (again mimicking a phone with their hand) and offer support with their question.
7. Use visual symbols for anchors. 1 stick man = work alone, 2 = pairs, 3 = group, house = HW, open book = read quietly, pen=writing.
8. Give yourself a ration – say 10 mins in a lesson. Let one student time  and call stop when time is up. Even q&a sessions count.
9. Write a series of questions on post its. Students write their name and  answer on it and stick on the board.   Students then look at all of the post its and discuss the answers.
10. Think, pair, share – pose questions, give students thinking time to answer the questions, discuss it in a pair and then share their agreed  answer.
11. Diamond 9 – students have to discuss the relative importance of 9 statements (on card) and then agree their ranking by placing them in a diamond shape (1,2,3,2,1).
12. The perfect answer – have a number of exam questions around the room on A3 paper.  Groups of students then answer a question each.  They then rotate, look at the previous answer and improve it.  They keep doing this until all groups have contributed to all questions and you end up with…..the perfect answer!

Because I think it's funny: