MRVED Update - March 20, 2019

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings

March 27th - Superintendents' Advisory Council
March 28th - Teachers' Advisory Council
April 12th - Title III Teachers


April 18th Common Inservice Day

The spring MRVED Common Inservice Day will be held on April 18, 2019, at the Dawson-Boyd Schools. You will be welcomed with coffee, juice, and muffins to begin your day. The day will consist of attending one session for the entire morning and the afternoon will be time with your district, determined by your administrator. The choices for the morning sessions are: Social Emotional Learning, Teach Like a Pirate, and Structured Unconference. Registration has been sent out and is also available on our website: www.mrved.com

New at this inservice day will be a catered lunch provided by Trish’s Catering. The menu will be pork roast, baby red potatoes, green beans, broccoli grape salad, bar and lemonade. The cost is $10.00 and is to be paid to your district. DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY TO THE MRVED. The last day to cancel your lunch is March 29th by 4:00 P.M. After that date, you will be held responsible for the lunch cost.

Closer to the inservice date, you will receive an email with detailed information including the school's address, which to door to enter, and other information. Please read this carefully. When you arrive, your meal ticket and agenda will be in the commons area at the registration table.

Registration is now open and closes on March 29th at 4:00 P.M.

We look forward to seeing everyone on April 18th!

(Please Note: Districts not participating in the inservice due to a school make-up day: Minneota/Ivanhoe, Ortonville, YME)

MRVED - Did You Know

The MRVED schools are all members of a Flexible Learning Year (FLY).  The FLY allows schools the ability to start pre-Labor Day.  It also aligns 4 common inservice days for the 9 districts.  The first common day is during inservice.  The staggered start dates for the districts allows Brandon and Karen the ability to get into more districts prior to school starting.  Prior to the FLY, it was a race to schedule Brandon or Karen as all our districts had the same inservice dates.  The first date that all our districts have in common is the Wednesday prior to MEA break.  This date has been designated as our "Best Practice" day.  Typically we have a keynote speaker that deals with classroom practices and is completely teacher focused.  January is the annual MELT conference with around 100 breakout sessions.  The spring date corresponds with Easter break and is used as a follow up from the fall or a look ahead to next fall.

Early Care and Education Grant

The Southwest Initiative Foundation is seeking request for proposals for a $5,000 Early Care and Education Grant.  More information can be found at the following link:

https://swifoundation.org/how-to-apply/grants/early-care-education/

PreK-3rd Grade Alignment 

Enhancing the continuity and consistency of learning for children birth to grade 3 through trainings and professional development, resource development, strategy implementation, quality staff planning time or building community-wide approaches.

Social and Emotional Development 

Building resilient communities through the enhancement of existing or development of new trainings, prevention, education and programs that continue to have a far-reaching impact.

Early Care and Education 

Increasing access to and availability of high quality early care and education environments through (including, but not limited to) staff development, curriculum and/or assessment implementation, Parent Aware rating attainment, expansion of number of children in care, provider appreciation, community conversations, etc. 

Funding requests of up to $5,000 will be considered. We expect the project will be completed within 12 months of the grant award date, at which time a final report will be due. 

This is a competitive grant program. It is our expectation these funds will help our region address early care and education. Grants will be awarded in May 2019. 

Questions can be directed to Jodi Maertens at (320) 583-4775 or jodim@swifoundation.org. Applications Due by 5 p.m. on April 26, 2019.

Article - Test Prep Doesn't Have to be Overwhelming

Everyone is probably in some form of test prep mode right now as Minnesota gears up for the MCA tests. Edutopia published a great article by Heather Wolpert-Gawron titled Test Prep Doesn't Have to be Overwhelming.  In the article Wolpert-Gawron provides tips and reminders for teachers as they enter test prep season.  This article is a nice reminder for all of us as we prep our students for any test.

Tech Tip of the Week - MCA Released Items

The Minnesota Department of Education has a database of released items from the MCA test. These items are different than the item sampler many teachers are familiar with. The released items are questions directly from the MCA tests that have been retired out of testing. Educators may choose to use them to better understand how the MCA is aligned to the Minnesota K–12 Academic Standards and how the items are written to reflect the rigor and complexity of these standards. The released content, data table, and rationales can be used by educators to explore examples of questions that evaluate the knowledge and skills expected in the standards.

These questions would make a nice addition to any test prep you do in your course.  There is currently math questions and reading passage sets available.

Released Item Database from MDE

Ditch That Textbook - Section 3, Part 2

We will examine Chapters 27-29 this week.  Again, what follows is my thoughts on the chapters.  This, by no means, takes the place of reading the book.  Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller is a super-fast read and well worth the time!

Chapter 27 is about classroom management with devices.  This is a chapter that every teacher in a 1:1 environment should read.  One of my favorite lines in the whole book is in this chapter.  "We can't make students use their time wisely; that decision will always have to be their choice".  Miller compares it to a child sitting at a bus stop.  We can't make a kid get on the bus, we can only help them make a good decision.  Miller offers the following suggestions:

• Circulate frequently
• Ask questions
• Develop relationships
• Set mini-deadlines
• Keep it engaging

Chapter 28, Jump In and Try!  A teacher cannot be afraid to try new things in the classroom.  Think about how boring life and your classroom would be if you did the same thing every year!  Always have a purpose for what you are doing.  Miller says, "don't use technology for technology's sake".  I fully agree with this statement.  Don't just use the latest greatest website because it looks cool.  Think about how this technology enhances the activity or assignment.  Without a plan in place, we set ourselves us for failure from the start.  But, we cannot be afraid to use the tools.  My second favorite quote is in this chapter, "Inaction is crippling.  Action is empowering."

The last chapter is titled, Don't Use it All.  We all go to conferences or inservice trainings where we see tons of cool, new technology tools.  I present trainings titled 60 sites in 60 minutes or 30 tools in 60 minutes.  My hope when doing these trainings is not for you to walk away with 60 websites you can use in your classroom tomorrow.  My goal is for you to grab one, maybe two things you can bring back and implement into your classroom.  You can't do it all!  Don't try to use them all!  It goes back to the old saying, "It's better to be really good at one or two things, than mediocre at 10".  Take one or two things per year and become really good at it.  Don't get complacent and stagnant and not learn anything new.

MRVED Update - March 6, 2019

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings

March 15th - Principals' Advisory Council
March 27th - Superintendents' Advisory Council
March 28th - Teachers' Advisory Council

April 18th - MRVED Common Day Inservice       *More information to follow soon!*


MRVED - Did You Know
The MRVED financially oversees the Minnesota River Valley Career and Technical Education Collaborative.  The MRVCTEC is a collaborative of Lakeview, RCW, YME, Montevideo, and MACCRAY.  They provide CTE courses for those schools, mostly for college credit.  Bruce Bergeson is the director of the collaborative.  If you have any questions or want further information please contact Bruce (bbergeson@mrved.net).

March Madness in the Classroom

When Dave Burgess was with us this past October, he talked about incorporating March Madness into your classroom.  Here is his blog post that explains the use of brackets.  Let's see your creative uses of brackets on Twitter using the hashtag #mrvedtlap.  March Madness would be a great topic to bring in this year especially as the Final Four is in Minneapolis this year.

Tech Tip of the Week - Chrome Music Lab

This tool goes under the category of, "I'm not sure how to use this in the classroom, but someone might have an idea".  Chrome Music Lab is a neat website that allows users the opportunity to make music in a variety of fun ways.  You can drum a beat with a couple monkeys, play a piano, or draw music, among other things.  Like I mentioned, I have been trying to think of a way in which to use this in the classroom and have yet to have a great idea.  If you have an idea, let me know on Twitter with the hashtag #mrvedtlap.  In the meantime, you can check out my wicked bad beats.

Example

Ditch That Textbook - Section 3 - Ditch That Textbook

Sections 1 and 2 of Ditch That Textbook dealt primarily with theory and mindsets, whereas section 3 is the ideas for your classroom.  Miller did a great job in sections 1 & 2 laying the groundwork for the remainder of the book.  Many of the theories and mindsets need to be put into practice before these ideas take hold.  Without the prior mindsets in place, the ideas will fail.  Here we will examine chapters 23-26.  Again, this is simply my thoughts and reflection on the chapters.

Miller starts by talking about creating a home for your stuff.  As you start ditching your textbook, you replace that content with something digital.  You will need a home for your digital "stuff".  He suggests using a website to organize and save everything.  Think of your website as a digital file cabinet.  You can put your links, worksheets, printables, etc... here.  Make it as interactive as possible as well.  Use your site to post student work or pictures of your class in action.  Creating a USABLE website for your class is very important if you are going to ditch your textbook.  Without this space, you are going to be frustrated and lost.  Without it, you will come back year 2 and wonder, "what was that video I used to show topic A?".

Once you have your space, you will need content on there.  You will probably start by finding content on the web, but more than likely, you will start to see the benefits of creating your own content.  When you create your own content, you are in control of what the students are learning.  It makes meeting your learning targets so much easier.  Miller provides a wealth of examples in this chapter, of which I am not going to take the time to highlight here.  Don't be afraid to use student-created content as well.  One example from my own teaching, that proves the point of kids being able to grasp content from other kids, is my students made videos of the Epic of Gilgamesh.  I had a group create a phenomenal video.  In fact, it was so good, it was actually better than what I had been using.  So every year following, I used that video and then provided a challenge to the class to make one better.  Kids were extremely motivated to make a better video.  It was fun to see.

In the next chapter Miller talks about having kids write and create utilizing a blog or something similar.  Having kids create their own blog or website is a great way for kids to be able to showcase their work.  It also creates a global audience, versus an audience of one.  Have kids post their work, share their work via Twitter, etc... It creates a powerful learning experience for all.