MELT Registration

MELT Registration Open

2016 MELT Registration is open.  There are over 120 sessions to choose from throughout the day.  You will notice in each session description it is indicated if it meets a relicensure area.  Register today to ensure you get into the sessions you want.  Sessions will close quickly as they fill up.  Registration will close Tuesday, December 22, at 3:00 p.m.

MELT Brochure

MELT Registration

MELT Information

Date: January 18, 2016

Time: 8:40-2:00

Location: Lac qui Parle Valley High School

MELT Reminders a la Mary Brown

1.  If you have a student teacher in January, please have them register by December 22, 2015 and select the district where they will be doing their student teaching.  Direct them to the MRVED website (www.mrved.com) and they can click on the MELT Registration article and it will take them to the brochure and the registration link.  If they are unable to do this by December 22, please have them contact me directly at mbrown@mrved.net or 320-269-9297.

2.  If you are presenting at the MELT, please register for your own session.  If you have already registered and haven't done this, no worries, I will register you for your own session.  Do not reregister.

3.  If you have selected to eat the catered meal, please pay your district the $6 by January 8, 2016.

4.  Lastly, if you did not receive a confirmation email at the completion of your registration, it is because you have entered your email incorrectly.  I have had about a half dozen emails come back to me because of that. I have corrected your emails in the registration but I'm not sure the program resends a confirmation.

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings
January 8, 2016  Title III Paraprofessionals
January 13, 2016  Community Ed
January 15, 2016  Principals' Council (11:30 a.m.)
January 18, 2016  MELT (LQPV High School)
January 27, 2016  Superintendents' Council

Happy New Year
This is the last update of 2015.  We hope you have a restful and peaceful break.  The MRVED offices will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and will be operating on a limited schedule December 28 - January 1.  If you plan to stop by the office during this week, please call to make sure someone is in the office (320-269-9297).  Happy New Year and enjoy your break.

Best Practice Meeting Updates
World Languages
The World Language teachers gathered at the MRVED on December 8th for their annual best practice meeting.  This group is always very talkative and obviously passionate about their content area.  The morning was spent participating in an activity on grading practices.  There was some awesome discussion over each scenario presented.  The group then had the opportunity to showcase an activity they use to teach vocabulary.  It was a great activity where many different activities were shared.  Lunch was spectacular as usual.  In the afternoon the group networked and had the opportunity to hear Brandon talk about lesson planning with technology.  Another great meeting with a great bunch of passionate educators!

Social Studies
Brandon's favorite group ;-) (Disclaimer: Brandon is a social studies teacher).  The social studies group started the meeting off like all other best practice meetings, with the activity on grading practices.  The discussion was deep and reflective from this group.  After talking grading, the group aligned their curriculum and courses to the current standards.  The laughter and discussion over lunch was fun to take part in.  The afternoon consisted of networking and Brandon talking lesson planning with technology.

TAC & Principal Meetings
Our December TAC and Principal meetings were cancelled and will not be rescheduled.

MELT Registration
You have less than a week to register.  See the other blog post for more information.  So far 400+ people have registered and a number of sessions are closed.

Bonus Tech Tip - Seesaw

Seesaw
As I was browsing through the 1000's of tweets from the TIES conference this year, one resource caught my eye.  It seemed like many people were talking about Seesaw.

From the Seesaw website

Seesaw empowers students of any age to independently document what they are learning at school. Students capture learning with photos and videos of physical work, or by adding digital creations. Everything is uploaded and kept organized for teachers. Teachers can invite families to Seesaw so parents get an immediate, personalized window into their child's learning.

Seesaw looks like a great way to have students show you what they know and keep it all in one spot.  It's a great resource for the 1:1 classroom or the school that has classroom sets.  If you try Seesaw or know anything more about it, I would love to hear about it!

Tech Tip- Appear.in

Appear.in
If you are looking to videochat with 1 or 7 other people, Appear.in is a great way to do this.  The best part about Appear.in is that there are no logins or creating accounts, even for the person creating the room.  There is a screen sharing capability as well as an onscreen chat.  Appear.in also works on a tablet or smartphone by installing the app.  This would be an easy and efficient way to host a meeting with colleagues over distance.  You could also use Appear.in to connect with a homebound student.  It's free, no login, give it a try today!

Minnesota Math Benchmark Toolkit

Math Benchmark Toolkit
     On December 2nd, Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota Commissioner of Eduction, released a Benchmark Toolkit for Mathematics.  Below you can see her email introducing the toolkit as well as a link to the toolkit.

Dear Colleagues,

I am increasingly concerned that our math performance seems to be stagnant. In order to provide additional support in your efforts to improve student’s math achievement, I asked Beth Aune, Director of Academic Standards, Jennifer Dugan, Director of Assessment, and Sue Wygant, Math Specialist at MDE to analyze where there are opportunities for us to strengthen our efforts. As a result, MDE has created a new Math Standards Toolkit designed to support teachers in their efforts to improve math achievement.

Given that the math standards will not change, we have an opportunity to work with teachers to ensure they fully understand the level of difficulty of the math items being assessed. The toolkit will enable you to review your curriculum maps, make adjustments in the areas that have caused you the most difficulty, and make sure teachers have what they need to ensure students are understanding the more difficult concepts. A detailed overview and instructions about how to utilize the toolkit are included in the memo below.

As always, thank you for your work on behalf of our students. Wishing you Happy Holidays and a great rest of the school year.

Toolkit Memo

Book Recommendation

Book Recommendation
Over the summer I dove head-first into learning all I can about what it means to be an instructional coach.  The more and more I learn, the more my perception of instructional coaching has changed.  The purpose of an instructional coach, or any coach for that matter, is to get the "most" out of those they are working with.  I was looking for a step-by-step process as to how to do this.  I have seen many models presented and heard many different people talk about the process of coaching.  Despite the process, the one common theme is really how do I have a productive conversation with someone that can move them from point "A" to point "B"?  Which has in turn led me to your book recommendation this week.  I am currently reading Jim Knight's new book, Better Conversations.  Although, Mr. Knight is a legend in instructional coaching, this book offers much more than having better conversations with teachers; it really is about having better conversations in general.  Yes, the focus is instructional coaching, but the concepts in this book can be applied to any parts of your life, from your marriage, to colleagues, to your kids.  I highly recommend this quick read.

MELT Registration

MELT Registration Open

2016 MELT Registration is open.  There are over 120 sessions to choose from throughout the day.  You will notice in each session description it is indicated if it meets a relicensure area.  Register today to ensure you get into the sessions you want.  Sessions will close quickly as they fill up.  Registration will close Tuesday, December 22, at 3:00 p.m.

MELT Brochure

MELT Registration

MELT Information

Date: January 18, 2016

Time: 8:40-2:00

Location: Lac qui Parle Valley High School

MELT Reminders a la Mary Brown

1.  If you have a student teacher in January, please have them register by December 22, 2015 and select the district where they will be doing their student teaching.  Direct them to the MRVED website (www.mrved.com) and they can click on the MELT Registration article and it will take them to the brochure and the registration link.  If they are unable to do this by December 22, please have them contact me directly at mbrown@mrved.net or 320-269-9297.

2.  If you are presenting at the MELT, please register for your own session.  If you have already registered and haven't done this, no worries, I will register you for your own session.  Do not reregister.

3.  If you have selected to eat the catered meal, please pay your district the $6 by January 8, 2016.

4.  Lastly, if you did not receive a confirmation email at the completion of your registration, it is because you have entered your email incorrectly.  I have had about a half dozen emails come back to me because of that. I have corrected your emails in the registration but I'm not sure the program resends a confirmation.

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings
December 7, 2015  District Assessment Coordinators (DAC)
December 8, 2015  World Languages
December 11, 2015  Social Studies
December 16, 2015  Superintendents' Council
December 16, 2015  MRVED Board (7 p.m.)
December 17, 2015  Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)
December 18, 2015  Principals' Council (11:30 a.m. start)

Best Practice Meeting Updates
Industrial Technology
The Industrial Technology best practice meeting was cancelled due to the weather.  We will meet in the Spring.

English Language Arts
The English Language Arts teachers gathered at the MRVED for their best practice meeting yesterday, December 3rd.  Like all the other best practice groups, the day started with an activity centered around grading practices.  Great discussion was had amongst the groups.  After the grading practices activity, they had the opportunity to meet as a district team and dissect data.  Pizza Ranch was amazing as usual.  In the afternoon the group networked and learned a little about integrating technology.  Another great meeting!


MELT Registration
It is that time of the year again!  Registration for the annual MELT conference will be coming to you on the morning of December 9th.  This year there are over 120 sessions to choose from.  Be sure to register early as sessions fill up.  The deadline to register will be December 22nd.  Registration is crucial to the process of the MELT, so please make a point to get it done right away.  Last year we had over 200 people register on the first day!  Let's top that number this year!  Look for the registration on December 9th from your Principal!

Tech Tip of the Week - TIES Twitter Hashtag

TIES Conference Twitter Hashtag

The largest educational technology conference in the state will be happening December 12-15 in Minneapolis.  This conference has the best lineup of educational technology sessions in the state.  If you can't make it this year, don't feel left out.  You can follow along with the Twitter hashtag #TIES15.  People will be sharing resources from the breakout sessions and great insights from the keynote speakers.  This is a great way to fill your tech toolbox without having to go to the conference.  You can check out the conference lineup by visitng the TIES conference website.

Christmas Resources

Christmas Resources For the Classroom
With the holiday season upon us, here are a couple resources you can use for your classroom.

• Classroom Christmas Ideas - Pinterest
• December Lesson Plans - Education World
• Christmas Plans for ELL Students
• Christmas Around the World

Arts Integration

Arts Integration
I came across this great article on arts integration that is pertinent for all grade levels and content areas.  Integrating the arts is something many teachers try to do, but often times feel as if they are not qualified.  Here is a short list of things you can do to beef up the arts integration in your classroom.

Arts Integration or Arts and Crafts by Susan Barber at Edutopia

SAMR Series Part 6 of 6 - Lesson Planning

Lesson Planning With Technology
Part 5 of this series talked about how to climb the SAMR ladder when integrating technology into your curriculum.  The last part of the article mentioned always, always, start with your learning objective.  We are going to dive deeper into starting with your learning objective when lesson planning with technology.

To begin, we will talk about Simon Sinek's TED talk on Starting With Why (Edited version).  Sinek talks about what it is that makes businesses successful.  He points to one thing; each business knows why they do what they do and they sell that to you (see the video for further explanation).  He says, "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it."  This is a very powerful statement and got me thinking about technology.  Kids aren't "buying" what you do, they are "buying" why you do it.  The kids aren't interested so much in the technology, but why are you using the technology.  To put this into perspective, let's look at the why diagram.

When we are lesson planning, we should always start with the "why".  This is the learning goal, target, objective, etc...  Whatever your school calls it.  Then we move to the "how".  How do we meet the goal?  What activities am I going to have my students do to meet the goal.  The last step is the "what".  What tools will I use to achieve the goal?

So often we see a flashy new website or tool that we think will work great in our classrooms.  We figure out how to use it and what activities we can use it for in our class.  We then take that tool and activities and try to crunch it into a learning goal regardless if it fits or not.  If it doesn't fit, we get frustrated.  This is where many teachers go back to, "the old way was easier".  Well, it probably was because when you planned the "old way", you probably started with the goal in mind.

We need to lesson plan from the "why" up and not the "what" down.