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Teacher Hack: Attendance Shortcut
1.9.2019Teacher Hack: Attendance Shortcut
PTO Grants: It's the most wonderful time of the year!
12.14.2018PTO Grants: It's the most wonderful time of the year!
The Metcalf Laboratory School PTO collaborates with classroom teachers in a unique way to assure that our students have the best educational experience possible. Kyle Black, serving his second year as PTO president, explained that Metcalf’s unique teacher grants program started years ago as a way to help fund innovative teaching ideas when the resources or materials were not available. The PTO is careful to distinguish between teacher needs that can and should be provided by the school or parents of the classroom and teacher wants, materials that will help make the classroom’s learning experience even more amazing than it was the year before.
Soon after teachers return to school in the fall, the PTO shares their grant application. It is a simple form including: items to purchase, cost, how materials will be used and how the proposal will benefit the students. The grant committee, made up of two teachers, the principal, the PTO president and 2 parents, meet to review all requests. PTO members love getting a glimpse into each teacher’s classroom and learning about their dreams for the coming year. It is helpful to have administration and teachers participate in the grant discussions and provide clarification or feedback.
We ask teachers to make a wish, and we try to fulfill these wants.
We ask teachers to make a wish, and we try to fulfill these wants.
Historically these grants were awarded in the spring of each year, but the PTO recently determined that fall would be a better time. Teachers have had the summer to refresh, work on their curriculum and dream big. Moving the grant application timeline to the fall didn’t change the number of applications, but it did affect the vision of the applications. Black notes, “The requests made in the fall have been more forward thinking and less a replacement of used or aging materials. This has been a neat transition.”
Teacher Hack: Utilizing the Bookmarks Bar for Commonly Used Documents
11.6.2018Teacher Hack: Utilizing the Bookmarks Bar for Commonly Used Documents
The Orff Music Experience
11.5.2018The Orff Music Experience
Metcalf music teacher, Aundrea Wells, is passionate about the Orff approach to general music instruction. The Orff process, developed by German composer and music educator, Carl Orff, focuses on experience and exploration before concept revelation in the general music classroom. Orff combines music and movement into a playful learning experience for students.
While the Orff process can be implemented at any grade level, Wells starts a heavy Orff curriculum in first grade. “Metcalf has structured their music curriculum with a melodic focus in PreK and Kindergarten and a rhythmic curriculum in first through eighth grades,” Wells reflects.
A typical general music class follows a structure similar to that outlined below:
1. Warm Up
- Students move with the music to warm up with length of phrase.
- Rhythm War-Teacher versus the students has the class repeat the teacher’s rhythm.
Teacher Hack: Opening a New Google Application
10.19.2018Teacher Hack: Opening a New Google Application
MLS Teacher Hack 1- New Google Application (1).mp4
Middle School Math Workshop
10.09.2018Middle School Math Workshop
7th and 8th-grade math teacher, Christine Mitchell, was looking for a way to structure her classroom so that a variety of activities could happen during her block scheduled time when she realized that the workshop model was ideal for her middle school classroom.
While the first half of her class follows a more traditional structure, including a warm-up, mini-lesson, and interactive notes, it is during the second half of class that the students break into their four workshop groups. Each group, of five to six students, travels to either the Meet with Teacher station, Technology station, Hands-On station or does Independent Work at their desk.
Mitchell kicked off her math workshop by creating two anchor charts with the classes to set expectations. The first explained what Math Workshop should look like and sound like, as well as defined the student and teacher roles. The second anchor chart defined what materials were required for each station, where each station is located, as well as what to do if there were questions.
Both students and teacher value the Meet with Teacher station as a sacred time during Math Workshop, so those from other stations know to ask someone in their group for help when it is needed and to utilize transition time for question that are teacher focused.
Early Read-Aloud Discussions
10.1.2018Early Read-Aloud Discussions
Thomas Metcalf kindergarten teacher, Cassandra Mattoon, and Dr. Sherry Sanden, Interim Associate Director of the School of Teaching & Learning at Illinois State University and Associate Professor of Early Childhood Literacy, have a shared passion for honoring how early learners respond to literature. Dr. Sanden’s interest in how pre-school teachers support literature discussion during read-aloud sessions led to a collaborative partnership that both teacher and researcher have come to value.
During their research, Ms. Mattoon planned daily read-aloud sessions, audio recording just one experience each week. The colleagues transcribed and collaboratively reflected on the transcripts once a month. Both researcher and teacher identify the audio recordings and transcriptions as the key to their success. The session transcripts provided a concrete piece of text that allowed the two to ask and answer questions. This conversation encouraged Mattoon to become more self-aware, reflect, and change her read-aloud structure, providing a richer literacy experience for her students. Not only did the collaborative reflection build Mattoon’s teaching practice, but it enhanced Dr. Sanden’s understanding of how teachers grow in their professional knowledge.
“I didn’t realize how much information I could learn about the language a teacher uses with students by recording, transcribing and reflecting on a single audio recording,” reflects Cassandra Mattoon.
The Power of Yet
9.19.2018The Power of Yet
You never know how lessons taught in the classroom translate to a student’s personal life, but every so often an educator receives a message making all the hard work worth it. At Metcalf School, we had one of those moments this week.
For the last two years, students and teachers at Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School have focused on Learner Qualities. Our students are taught to be engaged learners that can get themselves out of “the pit” when they:
Wonder
Wonder
Think
Think
Question
Question
Connect
Connect
Have Grit
Have Grit
Are Self-Aware
Are Self-Aware
Reflect
Reflect
Empowering our students with Learner Qualities has built a growth mindset among our students because they have the tools to dig themselves out of the pit that when they haven’t mastered a skill or standard. These Learner Qualities allow our students to embrace the “power of YET.”
Learning Environment and Classroom Culture
9.5.2018 Learning Environment and Classroom Culture
It is back to school time, and teachers across the country are spending hours preparing their classrooms for their students. They spent the summer scanning Pinterest and hitting party stores, but how do these thematic learning environments affect our classroom culture? I spoke with Metcalf Laboratory School teachers, Kim Carthans and Amy Schumacher, about how they intentionally establish their learning environment to build a positive classroom culture.
3rd grade teacher, Kim Carthans, believes that the time spent establishing her classroom theme at the beginning of the year pays off because it develops an “instant connection, through common language and experiences.” She has used the superhero theme for several years because it connects to her own passion. She has found that by infusing her interests into her teaching, students are more engaged and excited about learning because she is as well.
Using Seesaw in the Physical Education Class
Using Seesaw in the Physical Education Class
8.29.2018
Jon Haws has been a Physical Education teacher at Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School for 6 years and this is his 10th year in teaching. As a tenured teacher at the Laboratory School, he is conducting research in his classroom connecting increased focus on the Learner Qualities of self-awareness and reflection to increased physical performance skills in the PE classroom. After testing numerous products, Haws chose Seesaw to help his students focus on self-awareness and reflection. “Students don’t always get the chance to view themselves in PE. It is easy to turn a critical eye on others, but not as easy to be aware of what you are doing,” Haws reflects.
Seesaw allows students in his Physical Education classes to record, view and leave comments on their performance skill levels at any moment. Thomas Metcalf is 1:1 with Chromebooks and the PE department also has access to iPads. Haws recommends taking the time at the beginning of the year to set up class rosters and build activities in the library based on the assessments you intend to use with the app. He cautions that this is still PHYSICAL education and students are not recording and reflecting on every activity. It is essential to determine what skills within the standards will be assessed through Seesaw. He has found that selecting 4 performance skills per quarter allows students the time to record, watch their videos, and comment as they become self-aware, focusing not only on the end result, “where the ball went,” but what THEY did to make the ball go where it did.
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