During the staffwide training, Mr. Garcia went over the Discipline Steps that he had developed using a lot of staff input gathered during the past 2 sets of PLC Meetings. During the team meetings, we brainstormed the specific evidence for the T-TESS Dimensions that make those indicators visible to their students and observers. The teachers gave a lot of valuable input on what observable evidence we could look for while conducting their observations. This activity was done to inform observers and to familiarize the teachers with the rubrics enough that they can select their Refinement goal for this year’s T-TESS Feedback Cycles. In our next meetings, the teachers will select their goals and start conducting research that will help them develop a lesson plan that helps them progress towards their goals. Throughout this week, I did a lot of research to gather resources for the teachers to help them reach their T-TESS goals. I’m looking forward to helping teachers meet their individual growth goals. With two instructional coaches and with the right systems in place, I think we can really start to individualize professional development for the first time this year.
During Week 17, several staff members started new preps to accommodate some of our recent staff turnaround. Mr. Ledbetter joined our staff and became our new Geometry teacher. Mr. Deidehban joined our staff and became our new Algebra I and Precal teacher. Ms. Castanon joined our staff and got promoted from Algebra 2 student teacher to official Algebra 2 teacher. All 3 new teachers are new graduates of the UTeach Program of the Natural Sciences, an excellent teacher prep program based at UT Austin. Ms. DiMaria moved from Geometry to teaching Calculus and Algebra 2. She also became the new Math team Lead. Mr. Ray moved from Biology Applications to teaching Anatomy & Physiology and Environmental Sciences and he became the new Science team lead. After their first days, I asked Mr. Ledbetter and Mr. Deidehban how their first days went and they both said they had had good first days. Whenever I walked past their classrooms, there seemed to be a positive busy buzz in their rooms; it really looked like they were really diving into their positions with a lot positive energy. We were really lucky to be able to recruit 3 strong math teachers from the UTeach program who are really into student-centered instruction RIGHT after they completed their fall student teaching assignments. They already look like they are in rhythm with their classes and that’s pretty huge.
On Tuesday, I model taught a lesson on lab reports to the Physics / Engineering class. I decided to experiment with a new way to teach lab reports. Instead of going through all the parts and then giving them free work time, I divided the workshop into 5 tiny workshops immediately followed by a quick write session, and a Q & A session. I thought that giving students the opportunity to immediately apply the info in the mini workshops into a quick write of a specific lab report section would help students really figure out their true questions. The students I taught played along. Many wrote a surprising amount during the quick writing sessions and were able to have nearly finished drafts of their lab reports by the end of the cycle of workshops. I hope the workshop translates into good first attempts at tackling lab reports this year.
This week I also observed presentations in Mr. Rodriguez’ Art 1B class. In this project, they used Adobe Illustrator to create a superhero superimposed unto a background that told the superhero’s backstory. In their presentations, the students presented their hero’s powers, back story and what they enjoyed learning most and how they would improve their work if they had more time. The student’s work was very creative and a lot of the pieces turned out really well. I liked how the works on this project built on skills they had learned and applied in earlier project this year when they learned how to use perspective to draw cityscapes.
I observed Mr. Fishman and his Electronics class using simulations to investigate the properties of the 555 timing circuit. They started by doing a cool warmup involving combinations of capacitors. I wish someone had taught me how to make stuff using a 555 timing circuit when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school.
I observed Mr. Adeboyejo launching a biology project on taxonomy. It was quite a busy period. In one class period, the students formed teams, created group contracts, analyzed a Prezi presentation to determine their Knows and Need-to-Knows, watched an Intro video on taxonomy, read an intro article on Taxonomy, and wrote a team definition of taxonomy. Earlier this year, he had experimented with using Trello to do Knows and Need-to-Knows. It was cool to see how that worked. Students can recognize Knows and Need-to-Knows they share with other teams by placing their color at the top of items written by other teams. This labeling practice added another layer of accountability. I saw students calling out teams for writing lazy Need-to-Knows (need-to-knows already answered by info in the entry doc).
On Saturday, I met with our Robotics Team, FRC 2789 TEXplosion to watch the FIRST Stronghold Kickoff videos, read over the unlocked manual, and brainstorm our strategy for this season. It was cool to see so many alumni (Stella, Zoe, Maya, JD, Martin) at Kickoff. Even better, by the end of the day – we had arrived at a really cool game strategy that involves a robot design with features we know we can design and build in order to accomplish A LOT. I’m really excited for our build season. I think we’re going to create something really great and have fun doing it.
