Welcome Back

Welcome Back

The MRVED would like to welcome everyone back to the 2016-2017 school year.  Our hope is that this school year is the best ever!  We have already hosted a handful of meetings this year and look forward to serving our 9 member districts this coming school year.  This past summer the MRVED was busy planning for the upcoming school year as there are a variety of changes in the way the MRVED will be serving your district.  Below is a short list of some of the changes you will notice:

• Minneota has joined the MRVED to bring the total to 9 MRVED Districts
• Ortonville, Lac qui Parle Valley, Dawson-Boyd, Montevideo, Benson, Yellow Medicine East, Renville County West, Lakeview, & Minneota
• All best practice meetings will be held on October 19 and April 13
• Elementary will meet in Montevideo, Secondary will meet in Dawson
• More information to come
• Todd Whitaker will be our keynote speaker on April 13, with best practice meetings to follow.
• The MRVED schools submitted and were approved for a Flexible Learning Year (FLY) program for the next 3 school years.

About the MRVED Update

The MRVED Update is sent to schools on a bi-weekly basis.  The update will contain pertinent information to upcoming meetings and trainings the MRVED is offering.  The update also contains articles and resources for your classroom.  It only takes a few minutes to scan through and hopefully can give you things you can use in your classroom, or simply keep you in the loop of what the MRVED is doing.  If you ever come across something you feel would be beneficial for other educators to hear or see, please pass that information along to Brandon (braymo@mrved.net) for future updates.

About the MRVED

About the MRVED

The Minnesota River Valley Education Districts (MRVED) is a consortium of nine (9) school districts and one Area Learning Center in southwest rural Minnesota. The following districts make up this consortium: Benson, Dawson-Boyd, Lac qui Parle Valley, Lakeview, Minneota, Montevideo, Ortonville, Renville County West, and Yellow Medicine East. The mission of the MRVED is to effectively and efficiently assist the member districts in meeting the goals they have set for themselves, their students, and their staff. The MRVED strives to positively impact student learning and works to be on the cutting edge of school improvement efforts.

The MRVED employs four people:

• Karen Jacobson - Director
• Brandon Raymo - Assistant Director
• Mary Brown - Administrative Assistant
• Pam Bruns - Administrative Assistant

MRVED Services Chart

If you ever need any help on any of the items on the services chart, please let one of us know.  If there is something not on the services chart and you are wondering if we can help you, please contact one of us to ask.  If we cannot help you, many times we can direct you in the right direction.

Upcoming Meetings:

September 20, 2016 - Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)

September 21, 2016 - MRVED Board (7 p.m.)

September 23, 2016 - Title I Teachers

September 28, 2016 - Superintendents' Council

October 7, 2016 - Title III Paraprofessionals

October 19, 2016 - MRVED Common Day for Best Practice meetings

October 26, 2016 - Superintendents' Council

October 28, 2016 - Principals' Council

What Great Teachers Do Differently

What Great Teachers Do Differently

Over the next couple weeks we will take a look at the book "What Great Teachers Do Differently" by Todd Whitaker.  We will highlight the 17 things Whitaker says great teachers do differently.  The book is a quick read and I highly recommend it for any teacher, new and veteran.  Todd Whitaker will be our keynote speaker on the April 13 MRVED Common Day.

The first of the 17 things great teachers do differently is, "Great teachers never forget that it's people, not programs, that determine the quality of a school".

If you have been in education long enough, you certainly have seen the "magic bullet" come and go.  Schools have invested copious amounts of time, energy, and money into programs to improve scores and help students.  When in reality, it's the people who carry out the programs that initially are the driving force behind success.  A great example Whitaker talks about is a discipline policy.  A principal can bring in a discipline policy, say...a student misbehaves and their name is written on the board and every subsequent misbehavior a check mark goes behind their name.  A principal can do walkthroughs and one teacher could have a dozen names on the board with 3 or 4 check marks next to each name.  The principal can then walk into another room, and there are no names on the board and things are orderly and students are on task...what's the difference?  It's not the discipline policy, that made the difference, it is the teacher and classroom management that is the difference.  "People, not programs determine the quality of a school."

This maybe is a given when talking about school improvement, but it needs to be stated.  People truly are our greatest asset in any school, whether it be teachers, support staff, administration, coaches, etc...  Invest in great people and great things will happen!

Tech Tip - Formative Assessment Tools

Formative Assessment Tools
If you are like many teachers and are looking for a quick and easy way to use the devices in your classroom or school, Formative Assessment tools can be the answer.  All these tools are device agnostic (they work on any device with an internet browser), and are fairly easy to learn.  Each tool has it's advantages and disadvantages.  Try a couple of them in the next couple weeks to see what you think.  Most of these tools can be used in a K-12 environment.

Quizizz - Game-based quiz game

Kahoot - Game-based quiz game

Socrative - More formal formative assessment

GoFormative - Much like Socrative, but offers a couple other types of assessment

Doing Social Studies Video Series - Free Videos

The Doing Social Studies video series and accompanying video guides are now available on the Minnesota Department of Education website. These videos offer explanations and strategies for teaching the social studies content, concepts and skills in the standards and benchmarks. Watch these videos to help with curriculum writing and instruction during the 2016-17 school year.

For more information about the Doing Social Studies videos, please contact Jessica Winkelaar(jessica.winkelaar@state.mn.us).