AVID October 2016

KHS Students visit VVM 8th Graders

IM Hosts Parent AVID Information Session

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

KHS AVID Contract Signing Day

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

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.

WICOR Strategy of the Month

I See What You Did There

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:

Elementary

Secondary

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.

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

Weeks at a Glance

Daily/weekly elective class lesson plans

On-Demand Modules

Informational/instructional videos, handouts and downloads covering many AVID Essentials, including Writing, Inquiry, Tutorials, Data and Site Teams.

AVID Live!

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