AVID October 2016
Post date: Oct 10, 2016 6:14:20 PM
In October’s AVID Newsletter you'll find information on Kennedy High School’s AVID Contract Signing Day, Indian Mounds Elementary School’s Parent Information Sessions, Valley View Middle School’s visit from Kennedy AVID Seniors, Kennedy High School’s recent field trips and activities, the “I Saw What You Did There” WICOR Activity, AVID Weekly article information, and AVID professional development opportunities.
Spotlight on AVID
Four seniors from Kennedy High School’s AVID Leadership team served as a Q/A panel for AVID 8th graders at Valley View Middle School last month. The 8th graders’ feedback from this experience session was very positive and supportive of their hard work in the AVID program! Students were asked...
…share one thing you learned about AVID
- You can still take the classes you want to take and AVID, too
- AVID helps for time management
- That AVID really helps you a lot in high school with organization and getting ready for college
…where do you see yourself in 4 years?
- In an AVID classroom
- In AP classes
- Applying to colleges
- Applying for scholarships
- Being involved in my school and/or community
…share one final thought, feeling, or opinion
- I know that AVID will help me a lot in high school
- AVID has helped me through the year. The seniors coming and telling us about the high school experience really helped me appreciate being in AVID. It also convinced me to stay longer and to stay focused in school
AVID has a strong parent and community partnership component. As a part of that, many AVID schools host special opportunities for families to come in and learn about AVID and what students are doing within the program. At a recent Indian Mounds AVID parent meeting consisted of a brief information session in the media center, followed by tours of the 4th and 5th grade classrooms where students and teachers were engaged in AVID strategies such as 3-column note-taking and leveled questioning and parents could see student use of AVID organizational tools such as the binder and planner.
KHS AVID Leadership Team Sets Norms
Kennedy High School AVID Students attended a signing ceremony in September as a celebration of their commitment to the hard work and responsibilities they are taking on as they move along their pathway to college and career.
KHS AVID Leadership Attends WeDay!
The AVID leadership team attended WeDay to get inspired to make change. Students will choose one local and one global cause and will meet weekly during advisory to discuss what action(s) they will take. The focus will be on education, water, health, food, or opportunity. Students learned that they have a voice and can be "game changers".
KHS AVID Students Escape!
The AVID 10 students were working on successfully completing a BreakoutEDU puzzle. BreakoutEDU activities promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork to crack the codes of 5 different locks in order to solve the puzzle. Both of the AVID 10 teams ALMOST broke the codes! They all agreed it was a great experience even though they didn’t quite solve the puzzle. They reflected about what skills they need to hone over the next few weeks before they work together to successfully complete the next BreakoutEDU puzzle they will be challenged with in October!
KHS AVID 9 Students Tour the U of M
AVID 9th graders from Kennedy High School recently toured the University of Minnesota Campus as one of three college/career-related field trips AVID students take each year.
AVID Resources
WICOR Strategy of the Month
AVID Weekly Article of the Month
Elementary: Interactive Robot Befriends Hospital’s Youngest Patients to Soothe Away their Anxiety
This article describes how a small, interactive robot helps to calm and teach young hospital patients in Florida.
Secondary: Why Do Drivers Use Mobile Phones While Driving?
In this article, the authors researched the involvement of compensatory beliefs (e.g., that negative effects of a behavior can be “neutralized” by participating in a safe behavior) on a driver’s cell phone use while driving.
All AVID Weekly articles, lesson plans and activities are archived monthly and are available in the following Google Folders for anyone to access and use:
As we strive to take AVID school-wide, we are finding that many teachers are using a variety of Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading (WICOR) strategies regularly. An “I See What You Did There” ticket is one way for students to show that they recognize when these strategies are embedded into learning tasks. It’s also one way they can show that they appreciate their teachers’ efforts in making learning even more rigorous, meaningful, and accessible to all students.
AVID Support and Events
Upcoming FREE AVID Training Opportunities
Register on MyAVID
- ALL AVID: Site Team Workshop
Modules include: Designing WICOR Based Lessons, Collaborative Study Groups, STAR Note-Taking, Fostering a Growth Mindset
- Maplewood, November 3
- SECONDARY: AVID Elective Teacher Workshops
Modules include: The AVID Class as a Family: Building Relational Capacity, Developing Teacher Leaders for AVID Implementation Growth and Sustainability, and Coordinator Talk: Best Practices for Documentation and Data Collection (select one date to attend)
- Circle Pines, October 25
- Shakopee, November 17
- MIDDLE SCHOOL: Showcase
The Showcase experience includes AVID Elective and content class observations and a chance to speak with experienced AVID site team members and students.
- Nicollet Middle School Burnsville, December 1
- Oltman Middle School South Washington County, January 18
- ELEMENTARY: AVID Elementary Workshops
Modules include: Designing WICOR Based Lessons, Writing to Learn, and Interactive Notebooks (select one date to attend)
- Fairbault, October 26
Online AVID Support
Daily/weekly elective class lesson plans
Informational/instructional videos, handouts and downloads covering many AVID Essentials, including Writing, Inquiry, Tutorials, Data and Site Teams.
A time-sensitive support and collaboration forum for AVID Elective Teachers and Site Coordinators, providing an opportunity to collaborate with other coordinators and teachers from all over the country about issues and topics affecting their students and classes right now.
This web meeting allows coordinators and teachers a wide variety of dates and times to choose from to best fit their schedules.
*If you would like access to any of these resources and do not currently have an account on my.avid.org, contact Kelly Killorn-Moravec