MRVED Business

MRVED Meetings

September 30, 2014 - Agriculture (off site tour)

October 2, 2014 - Music
October 7, 2014 - Science
October 10, 2014 - Art (Ben Lecy farm) PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A NEW DATE
October 10, 2014 - Title III Paraprofessionals
October 15, 2014 - MRVED Professional Development Day
October 21, 2014 - Math
October 22, 2014 - Community Ed
October 23, 2014 - Business
October 29, 2014 - Superintendents'  Council
October 30, 2014 - Title I Teachers

Communication Briefings
I don't know about you but I always struggle with the words into and the phrase in to.  I came across a very easy test to determine which of these words to use.  Basically, if you can remove the word in, and the sentence still makes sense, use in to.  Example:  "It is time to go (in) to the meeting."  However, if you took the word in out of this sentence, it would not read correctly, "Your hard work turned this project into a successful venture."

I hope that clears up some of the confusion on these two words.

US History Cohort

The Minnesota Historical Society is hosting a teacher cohort for the 2014-15 school year. Build relationships with your fellow U.S. history teachers from around the state throughout the 2014-2015 school year in a series of professional development opportunities, created to provide resources and a unique learning environment. The U.S. History Teacher Cohort for 2014-2015 includes four required elements:

• an in-person workshop 
• an online webinar 
• a two-day summer experience 
• online communication throughout the school year

The theme of the cohort is "American Pop Culture: A Window to U.S. History." All experiences will focus on various aspects of pop culture and will include content and instruction from various organizations, and resources and materials for the classroom. The cohort will provide a small group of U.S. history teachers the opportunity to build networks of colleagues outside of their schools, and share resources throughout the school year and beyond.

All cohort participants will be expected to attend all three opportunities and be active in online discussions throughout the year with fellow cohort members and MNHS educators. Program cost is $200.

Cohort members will receive books and resources related to each of the workshop topics, Continuing Education Credits, meals and parking during the in-person experiences, and an individual Minnesota Historical Society membership. Some subsidy funds are available to defray the costs of sub fees and travel.

Workshop topics, dates, and locations:

• Wed., Dec. 10, 2014. 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: "Baseball as America: Sports and U.S. History" Target Field, Minneapolis
• April webinar, weekday afternoon/evening (date to be decided by cohort group): "Teaching with Art"
• June 24-25, 2015: "American Pop Culture: A Window to U.S. History" Minnesota History Center, St. Paul and other metro cultural institutions. This two-day experience will focus on other aspects of pop culture, such as music, film, fashion, literature, etc.

This experience is intended for U.S. history teachers in Minnesota, teaching in grade 7 or in high school. Applications are due Mon., Nov. 3. Successful applicants will be notified by Mon., Nov. 10. Space is limited for this exciting opportunity! Apply online.

Fall Conference Dates

Fall Conferences
Art Educators of Minnesota - November 7 & 8 in Rochester
Minnesota Business Educators - November 6 & 7 in Bloomington
Minnesota Association of Health/PE - November 3 & 4 in Wayzata
Minnesota Council of Teachers of English - Fall Workshop October 27 in Brooklyn Park
Education Minnesota - October 16 & 17 in St. Paul

Tech Tip - ClassTools.net

Classtools.net offers some great tools to be used in the classroom.  If you want your students to create Facebook pages for historical figures and/or characters in a book.  You can also create fake tweets and fake text messages from people as well.  Aside from those things, students can do much more with the many different tools on the site.  The best part, it's FREE!

Repair Kit for Grading - Fix 3

Fix 3: Don't give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a higher level of achievement.

Much like deducting points for being late, adding in bonus points distorts grades as well, especially if the bonus points are given for tasks that demonstrate no educational achievement.  Examples include; cleaning the whiteboard, bringing in Kleenex, dress like a _______, etc...  Ken O'Connor even states that giving bonus points on quizzes or exams should be avoided as well.  Many times the extra credit questions are high order thinking questions that all students should be required to show they know or do not know, it shouldn't be a choice.

Extra credit inflates grades and does not accurately reflect student learning.  Ask yourself, "Does this grade accurately reflect what the student knows and is able to do?"  It's a hard thing to throw out of your classroom especially if it has been a past practice.  Avoid providing extra credit for menial tasks that are not related to student learning.

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings

September 24, 2014  Superintendents' Council
September 25, 2014  Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)
September 26, 2014  Community Ed (Sanford Education Center)
September 26, 2014  Principals' Council (9 a.m. start)
September 30, 2014  Agriculture

October 2, 2014         Music
October 7, 2014         Science
October 9, 2014         Art

Communication Briefings - Can or may?

Many people use them interchangeably; others favor "can" over "may" in an effort to sound less stilted or formal.  But do "can" and "may" really mean the same thing?  No.

"Can" means physically able to.  Example:  "Can you lift 20 pounds?"  In contrast, "may" means permitted to.  Example:  "May I stop by your office?"

Repair Kit for Grading - Fix 2

Fix 2 is a subset of fix 1.  Fix 1 was to not include student behaviors in grades.  Fix 2 is; "Don't reduce marks on "work" submitted late; provide support for the learner".

Fix 2 might be a tough one to swallow for some.  This fix requires a change in thinking for the teacher.  Many times grades are used as extrinsic motivation.  Some recent research on extrinsic motivation by Daniel Pink shows that extrinsic motivation may not necessarily lead to better results.  It may, in fact, have the opposite affect on the desired behavior.  Again, by adding or subtracting points on assignments for being late or on-time the teacher distorts the grade on achievement.

The flip-side of this argument is that when an adult is late on a bill, they are normally penalized.  This is true, but are we replicating the real world, or trying to prepare our students for the real world?  There are some things in life that you can turn in late without penalty, and there are some things you will get penalized for being late on.  If we are preparing our students for the real world, we should teach them how responsible adults deal with being late.  If I am going to be late on a bill, the responsible thing to do would be to call the person you owe and negotiate a new reasonable date.

A teacher could also include timeliness as part of the behavior grade mentioned in fix 1.  As teachers, we should also be helping our students develop the skills needed for life after school.  By continually punishing for being late, we are doing nothing but punishing the student.  We should be setting up supports for the student.  Just like if a person cannot continually pay a bill on time, there usually are supports there to assist the person in paying the bill.  The old adage, "if I don't pay my electricity bill, the power company flips the switch".  This is true, but they don't flip the switch after one day of being late.  If asked, they will work with the person who is struggling to pay.  Treat students the same way, support them, don't punish them!

Overall, punishing distorts the achievement grade.  Always ask yourself, "Does this grade accurately show what the student knows and is able to do?" 

A Repair Kit for Grading. Ken O'Connor

MCIS Workshop Offered at the MRVED

MCIS Workshop



When: October 15, 2014

Time: 8:00-3:30

Location: Minnesota Valley Area Learning Center

Cost: Free

Lunch: On Your Own

What: Minnesota Career Information System website training.
The Minnesota Career Information System (MCIS) is an Internet-based system that combines a wealth of career, educational and labor market information into one comprehensive, easy-to-use exploration tool. With MCIS, students and clients can:

• Learn about over 520 occupations
• Develop a personal portfolio
• Research colleges, universities, and career schools
• Find scholarships and financial aid
• Improve job search skills and create a resume

Registration Link

Questions can be directed to:

Deb Parkos
Phone: 651/582-8321 or 800/599-6247
debbie.parkos@state.mn.us

Tech Tip - ThingLink

thinglink has become one of my favorite tech tools.  It has so many applications in and out of the classroom!  thinglink is a website and an app.  thinglink allows users to create interactive images.  There are so many different ways you can use this in the classroom.



Check out the 73+ Interesting Ways to Use ThingLink in the Classroom from Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

Check out my example!

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings

September 19  Title III Teachers
September 24  Superintendents' Council
September 25  Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)
September 26  Community Ed (9-11 a.m.)
September 26  Principals' Council (11:30 a.m. start)
September 30  Agriculture

NOTE:  FACS meeting originally scheduled for November 18 has been rescheduled to December 16.

Communication Briefings

Don't embarrass yourself with poorly written emails and texts

In the day of autocorrect mishaps and the overuse of Reply All, it's important to consider your electronic messages and their recipients carefully. Consider these items before sending a message:

Emails

• Write, then edit. Did you carefully review the content to make sure your points are clear? 
• Check professionalism. Is your email as professional as a paper memo you would write? 
• Use Cc's appropriately. Is your email addressed to the proper people, and do the Cc'ed people need to be included? 
• Assess your confidence. Is your email written well enough that you would let anyone read it? 

Texts

• Know your recipient. Is your relationship casual enough for texting? 
• Check for clarity. Is your message short and clear? 
• Beware of autocorrect. Have you ensured that autocorrect didn't inappropriately change your words? 
• Consider the topic. Is your subject matter light enough for a text? 

— Adapted from "Strong Guidelines for Electronic Communication to Reduce Risk," Patrick Tamburrino,www.bizjournals.com.

Repair Kit for Grading Series - Fix 1

The first 15 weeks of the MRVED update is going to feature a series on the book A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades by Ken O'Connor.  This is an excellent and quick read for any teacher.  O'Connor really makes one think about what you are grading and how you are grading your students.  The best part of the whole book is he offers practical ideas that can be implemented into the classroom tomorrow.  These posts will only be an overview of the fix.  I highly suggest this book, and it would make for a great PLC book study.

The book is broken into chapters:

• Chapter 1: Fixes for Practices That Distort Achievement (Fixes 1-6)
• Chapter 2: Fixes for Low-Quality or Poorly Organized Evidence (Fixes 7-10)
• Chapter 3: Fixes for Inappropriate Grade Calculation (Fixes 11-12)
• Chapter 4: Fixes to Support Learning (Fixes 13-15)

Before diving into the fixes, we must first come to agreement on the purpose of a grade.  As defined by Ken O'Connor as to the purpose of grades, he states "I Believe that primary purpose to be communication about achievement, with achievement being defined as a performance measured against accepted published standards and learning outcomes." (O'Connor, 7)

Fix 1: Don't include student behavior in grades; include only achievement

This fix is the first one for a reason.  It is one of the biggest problems with grades today.  If a grade is used to communicate what a student knows and is able to do based upon a certain standard or benchmark, then the grade should accurately reflect that.  Adding or subtracting points based upon behavior severely distorts the grade, thus not showing exactly what the student knows and is able to do.

Behavior can go both ways; a teacher could have a student that knows everything, but misbehaves in class, therefore reflecting in a lower grade.  Or, a teacher could have a student that might not know everything, but tries hard, thus reflecting in a higher grade.

O'Connor is clear in that he is not saying that certain behaviors are not important to learning.  Many students who exhibit desirable behavior will achieve and many students who do not exhibit the desirable behaviors do not achieve.  But the grade for achievement should not reflect these behaviors.

In a truly standards-based environment, this fix is easy, (the student either knows it, partially knows it, or does not know it at all).  The easiest way to fix this is to have a separate grade for behavior.  I encourage you to try this quick grading fix for a quarter.

MCIS Workshop Offered at the MRVED

MCIS Workshop



When: October 15, 2014

Time: 8:00-3:30

Location: Minnesota Valley Area Learning Center

Cost: Free

Lunch: On Your Own

What: Minnesota Career Information System website training.
The Minnesota Career Information System (MCIS) is an Internet-based system that combines a wealth of career, educational and labor market information into one comprehensive, easy-to-use exploration tool. With MCIS, students and clients can:

• Learn about over 520 occupations
• Develop a personal portfolio
• Research colleges, universities, and career schools
• Find scholarships and financial aid
• Improve job search skills and create a resume

Registration Link

Questions can be directed to:

Deb Parkos
Phone: 651/582-8321 or 800/599-6247
debbie.parkos@state.mn.us

Carl Perkins Program Approval Deadline

Carl Perkins Program Approval Deadline
For those who receive Carl Perkins funds, the program approval deadline is December 1, 2014.  If you need help with your application or have any questions please let Brandon at MRVED (braymo@mrved.net) or Gail (gail.polejewski@swsc.org) at SW/WC Service Cooperative know.

Program approval forms can be found on the Minnesota Department of Education website.  Other Carl Perkins information can be found on the SW/WC Service Cooperative website.

Tech Tip - Kahoot

Kahoot

If you are looking for a way to do fun review in your classroom, pull in a set of devices and play Kahoot with your kids.  Kahoot is a great tool for all ages.  It is a game-based way to assess. Teachers can either create their own questions, or select a quiz from the many quizzes already created in the public gallery.  Kahoot requires no student signup, so playing a game in your class takes very little time.  Give it a try during the first couple weeks of school.

Kahoot Tutorial Video

Welcome Back

Welcome Back
The MRVED staff would like to welcome all teachers to the 2014-15 school year.  We hope your summer was relaxing, rejuvenating, and enjoyable.  If you are new to the MRVED, or are a returning veteran, please note that the MRVED is here to support you.  We can assist you with anything from curriculum alignment, to grant writing, to technology integration, and anything in between.  Do not hesitate to call and ask if we can be of service to you.  We are in the office M-F from 7:15-4:00.  If you are still curious as to what we do at the MRVED, please check out this MRVED Services Chart.

MRVED Best Practice Meeting Schedule

Meeting Schedule
The MRVED Best Practice meeting schedule can be found on our website by going to the MRVED website.  We look forward to seeing many of you come through our door this coming school year.  For each meeting you are a member of, an agenda will be sent to you a week in advance.  If you are unsure if you are the person who is supposed to attend the meeting, please talk with your building principal.






MRVED Meetings:

September 9, 2014 - MRVED Online Teachers (3:15 p.m. via codec)
September 10, 2014 - MRVED Board (7:00 p.m.)
September 19, 2014 - Title III Teachers
September 24, 2014 - Superintendents' Council
September 25, 2014 - Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)
September 26, 2014 - Community Ed (9-11:00 a.m.)
September 26, 2014 - Principals' Council (11:30 a.m. start)
September 30, 2014 - Agriculture

Tech Tip: Plickers

Plickers
Clickers in the classroom without devices!  If you are like many teachers and only have one or two devices in your classroom, Plickers is the tool for you.  Plickers is an app you need to see to believe.

Each student has a piece of paper with a shape on it.  Each side of the shape corresponds with a letter (A,B,C,D).  The teacher can ask a question, the students hold their pieces of paper up, with the correct letter on the bottom, and the teacher scans the room with his/her iPad.  Plickers will calculate who has the correct answers and you will be able to see each students answers in augmented reality.  It really is as easy as the video shows.  Go to Plickers today, set your class up, and "plick" away!