Sarah Richter : Activity

Is blogging spuratically about random topics fruitful?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:46:23 GMT

Let's remember that our professional learning community of bloggers is in its infancy. Yes, we have plenty of room for growing into a more purposeful community.

There are roughly 6.5 billion people on earth, about 2.5 billion in China and India, 300 million in the United States, 1.7 million people in Nebraska, and 90,000 in the panhandle. (please double check my math)

Let's look at the numbers another way. We, the population of the panhandle make up 0.00139% of the world population. That means 99.99861% of people in the world live somewhere else.

In the global society of today, technology, specifically Web 2.0, is a tool for keeping us connected to the rest of the world.

So we may be blogging along with only an emerging, purpose, audience, and voice, but we have taken a meaningful step into the future by joining the professional development blogging community. Keep the blogs coming

Why isn't there any follow up to staff development?

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:10:23 GMT

"Staff development needs more follow up." Yes, it does. Is your district prepared to make it happen? Do you have...

1. Scheduled staff development time on school calendar spread out across the school year

2. A consistent method and scheduled plan for being in classrooms to collect the data of what is happening in the instructional setting (doesn't have to be solely work of principal)

3. A regularly scheduled leadership meeting in which data from the instructional setting and student achievement data are analyzed and used as a springboard for planning staff development (could be the SIP team, should include principal(s), curriculum director, teacher leaders, possibly superintendent)

"Structure is the first step toward organizational maturity." AdvancEd

Until a district has these structures in place, effective follow up will only be something we talk about.

Evolution of a Blogger

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:30:58 GMT

Last night I googled myself. Today I came to work, edited all my blog titles, asked our photographer for a new picture, and gave thanks that I don't have too much of a following yet

I mean really, in the fast paced world of networking on my free time, it is all about pictures and enticing leads. There might be quality content out there, but if I have to dig through lackluster photos and wordy titles, I probablay won't get to it. Why would I expect anything less of other educational networkers?

Persisting through boring and blaa will always be a necessary life skill. However, I will be making more of an effort to keep it out of my blogs.

A day in the life... at school.

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:51:50 GMT

Doctors exist to make sick people better. Businesses exist to make money. Schools exist to make kids learn. Each world-- medicine, business, education-- functions through a process. Our process is called school improvement. Every action of our day aligns to this process.

"Good morning, Mr. Johnson. What are doing today in math class?"

"Working on fractions because increasing this understandings in the minds of our students will result in higher levels of achievement which will lead our school toward making our school improvement goal that math achievement will rise. Thanks for asking."

"Good Morning, Coach Ayala." What are you planning for today's practice?"

"Extra lines and wind sprints. When our student athletes are stronger and faster, not only are they more successful in the competition, they are more able to learn the fractions in Mr. Johnson's math class. They are even more likely to be in school in the first place because of their extra curricular involvement. Therefore, it could be said that extra lines and wind sprints are leading us toward our school improvement goal of increased student achievement in math. Thanks for asking."

"Superintendent Smith, what are you doing today?"

"I am attending the RtI meeting with our principals and curriculum director because once we learn about RtI, we will have a structure to establish in our district that will facilitate the achievement of our school improvement goals. Attending today's meeting is part of our professional development. Being here today and then acting on what we learn is the way to school improvement. Thanks for asking."

"Sarah, what are you doing at the ESU today?"

"Working on several projects that our panhandle schools need to improve their schools. Every day is about school improvement. Thanks for asking."

School Improvement Basics

1. Every thing that happens at school is toward the end of accomplishing the school improvement goal which is one of three things- improve reading, improve writing, or improve math.

2. A district has a professional development plan so it can map out the when, what, who, and how the school improvement goal will be accomplished.

Step 1 Highly functional schools have the dates for staff development on the calendar for the the next year before the current year is even over. Of course, the school might not know exactly what the staff development will be April 27 at 2:00, but we do know that somehow at that place and time we will be working toward our school improvement goal.

Step 2 If a school already has the structure for staff development in place, the next step is to set objectives for those days that support the achievement of the school improvement goal.

Step 3 Monitoring.

"What gets measured gets done." McRel

"What is not monitored is optional." Learning Network

We do staff development and wonder why nothing sticks or gets implemented. Are we doing walk throughs at our schools specifically looking for what the staff development was about, giving timely and meaningful feedback in relationship to the staff development objective, and then collecting data about the current level of understanding and implementation to use in planning the next staff development?

Looking for the condesed research base for asking teachers to set learning goals with students?

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:42:07 GMT

“Broadly defined, goal setting is the process of establishing a direction for learning. It is a skill that successful people have and have mastered to help them realize both short-term and long-term desires.” Classroom Instruction that Works Marzano, Pickering, and Pollack, 2001

“When anyone is trying to learn, feedback about the effort has three elements: recognition of the desired goal, evidence about the present position, and some understanding of a way to close the gap between the two. All three must be understood to some degree by anyone before he or she can take action to improve learning."
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standard Through Classroom Assessment                                   Black and William 1998

“Given clear requirements for success, students are better able to gauge the appropriateness of their own preparation and thus gain control over their own academic well-being. Students who feel in control of their own chances for success are more likely to care and to strive for excellence.” Student-Involved Assessment for Learning Richard Stiggins, 2005

“When we sense that our actions bring meaningful results, we have greater incentive to perform those actions.” The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Covey, 1990

What are we doing to keep up with the skills of our students?

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:00:41 GMT

RtI for Dummies

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:20:29 GMT

RtI thinking tells me that if 80% of my students are achieving proficiency, then what I am already doing is working for most learners. RtI is a framework for refining practice and process to better reach the other 20% of learners.

Try something new consistently for set amount of time. Measure to see if the learner is making gains. Reflect on the resluts. Make a plan to continue the intervention, try another intervention, or return to core programming.

When I apply the RtI process, I am making a genuine, scientific attempt to ensure learning for all students.

Our job is to keep working at teaching until learning occurs. Sure, RtI has its critics. But are they offering any better ideas?

Mouse Poop and Money

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:11:24 GMT

Why do I work in education?

-Book report posters that include real mouse poop in a zip loc baggie

-Lists of famous painters including DaVinci, Michealangelo, and Bob Ross

-Explanations such as, " I know the book's genre is fiction because an alien wouldn't wear braces."

I chose to work in education because opportunity for all children is at the heart of our work and because the English major I started out in got too irritating when my interpretation of the Dog poem (that it was about dogs) wasn't literary enough.

I thought about a new career after six years in this work when I looked around at my noneducator friends who had no college degree who were buying airplane tickects, houses, cars, and clothes. The newspaper advertised for an executive secretary who could write grammatically correct correspondence. So after teaching a morning of spring break school to some fourth grade English language learners, I headed to an office building on the classy side of town for an interview.

"How glamourous," I thought, "to work in such an impressive looking building, to wear clothes and not be concerned about marker washability, wire notebook snags, or sticky hand prints." Then I opened the doors. No love poured out. No laughter. No original artwork. By the time I got to the office on the third floor, I was whispering "sucker" everytime I passed those sorry employees in the hall. Afterall, I had just come from a morning of work where I had seen eyes light up over learning how to use a Spanish/English dictionary. Who in this office knew the joy of discovering that burgers and mocos were the same thing?

I went home proud to be in education and still broke. As if business were really for me anyway. Estimation is how I balance my check book, I am already looking forward to my tax return, and if the school children need something, I tell someone and they buy it. Besides, education is about kids learning, not money. Right?

Last week I went to a meeting of school "finance people." So what I think now is that I need to study up on school finance in addition to personal budgeting.

To think that finance is separate from school improvement and curriculum is inadequate. Without knowledge of school improvement and curriculum going into financial decisions, how can we be sure that our money and our teachers are working toward the same end?

Learning for all children is what our work is about whether our specialized knowledge is finance or school improvement and curriculum.

Science, magic or technology?

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 18:48:48 GMT

My first blog.