MRVED Update - February 23, 2022

MRVED Business

MRVED Meetings

Friday, March 4, 2022 - Principals' Council 

Friday, March 11, 2022 - Title III Paraprofessionals

Friday, March 18, 2022 - Title III Teachers (Virtual)

Wednesday, March 23, 2022 - Superintendents' Council

April 14, 2022 Information

ESL Consultant Needed

The MRVED is looking for a part-time ESL consultant to help assist districts in creating a newcomer program. Must have an ESL license with at least 3 years of experience in the field. You can read a more detailed description on Edpost or contact Karen or I for more information.

Resources

The Advantages of Heterogeneous Student Groups in Math

I recently read an article from edutopia from Joseph Manfre that really made me think about teaching and learning in the classroom. The article talks about students who are fast processors of information, in this case math, are often times isolated from learning experiences. It really made me think about students who are fast & slow processors of information and then how do we effectively differentiate in our classrooms for those students. It's a quick read, and you won't be disappointed.

The Advantages of Heterogeneous Student Groups in Math by Joseph Manfre

Professional Learning

LETRS Training Offered Free from MDE

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is excited to announce a new initiative to offer LETRS professional learning to educators across the state.

The Minnesota LETRS® Science of Reading Professional Learning Courses will provide sustained and job-embedded professional learning about the science of reading, at no cost to educators. These impactful courses will be based on Lexia’s LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) literacy professional learning and are being offered to thousands of educators.

Who is eligible?
Funding is available for licensed Minnesota educators. Priority will be given to educators in the following roles:

• K-3 classroom teacher
• Administrator
• Elementary special education teacher with responsibility for reading instruction
• Elementary reading interventionist/reading specialist or literacy coach
• Literacy professor in MN Institute of Higher Education

Book Study

Row the Boat - Chapter 6

As we near our April 14th Common Inservice day with PJ Fleck, I'm getting more and more excited to hear him talk about Row The Boat. Chapter 6 is a short, but crucial chapter in the book. It provides the context and symbolism around RTB.

There are three key components to rowing the boat; the oar, the boat, and the compass. "The oar is the energy of your life - your mission and your purpose" (Fleck, 53). The oar (your energy) is the only thing that moves the boat. It is up to you if your oar is in the water or not. When the waters get rough, we need to row a little harder, but we need to keep rowing through the storm to get through it.

The second component is the boat. The boat represents sacrifice. The more you give the bigger your boat gets. During those rough seas, having a bigger boat helps you get through those times a little easier. 

The third component is the compass. The compass provides you with direction. If you want to be a doctor, point your compass in that direction, pack your boat, and keep rowing!

MRVED Update - February 9, 2022

MRVED Business

MRVED Meetings

Friday, February 11, 2022 - Title III Teachers

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - MRVED Board Meeting

Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - Superintendents' Council

Friday, March 4, 2022 - Principals' Advisory Council

Resources

Valentine Day Math Resources

Valentine's Day is approaching. If you are a teacher of math and looking for a way to incorporate the big day into your lessons, Sara VanDerWerf provides some excellent ideas from her blog. Sara was a presenter at MELT a couple years ago and is now the Math Specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education. She is full of knowledge and ideas, not to mention an awesome person. If you have any math related questions, need ideas, or are wondering about the new math standards, don't hesitate to shoot her an email. (Sara.VanDerWerf@state.mn.us).

Teaching With the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics are in full swing. This is a great opportunity to bring current events into your classroom. Pretty much all content areas can work the Olympics into their classrooms in some way. The students can really get connected to the Olympics as there is so much variety and it is covered widely on television. Here are some resources for teaching the Olympics.

We Are Teachers

The Teachers' Corner

Home School Olympic Resources

Professional Learning

Testing 1,2,3

The Minnesota Department of Education created a website specifically for MCA testing called Testing 1,2,3. This resource is very rich in all information related to the MCA's. I particularly like the "Assess" tab. It covers everything from how the tests are formulated to offering retired questions. It is really worth the time and effort to dig through this material to give you a better understanding of the MCA process. The Testing 1,2,3 website would be a great tool to bring into any PLC. There are also webinars to go along with most of the pages. Check it out today!

Book Study

Row the Boat - Chapter 4&5

I hope you are following along with the Row the Boat book study. By no means is my interpretation or writing about the chapters a replacement for buying the book and reading it. There are so many tidbits one can take away from reading the PJ Fleck book. If you don't have a copy, go get one today! It's a cheap read, not to mention very quick!

This week we will look at chapters 4 & 5. Chapter 4 talks about the Row The Boat philosophy and chapter 5 talks about the beginning & launching of Row the Boat at Western Michigan.

"Row the Boat" is a never-give-up mantra and an approach to life and work that anyone can adopt and implement. (Fleck, 29). Take note that this is "Row the Boat" not "Paddle the Boat". When you row, your back is to the front of the boat and you can't see what's coming. This represents your future. You don't know what's coming and you have to react to it as it happens. When you row the boat, you are in the present, and the only thing you can control is the oar in your hands. The past is represented by what is behind you. Since you a rowing, you can see your past. Learn from it and move on. Fleck does a much better job of outlining his philosophy in chapter 4, but for sake of conversation, we'll leave it short.

Chapter 5 goes into detail about the first 4 years Coach Fleck instilled Row The Boat at Western Michigan. He talks about the 4 different stages. I won't go into detail on the stages, but simply outline them here. He likens RTB to building a house. The first stage is digging the hole. The second stage is pouring the foundation. Stage 3 is putting up the framing, and the last stage was putting in the windows. Coach Fleck mentions how the first couple years his team barely won any games and how doubt crept into his mind. But he used his own RTB philosophy and kept rowing through the storm. By year 4 his team finish 13-1 and playing on a New Years' Day bowl game