MRVED Update - October 9, 2019

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings:

October 16, 2019 - MRVED Common Inservice Day at Dawson-Boyd Schools
October 23, 2019 - Superintendents' Council
October 25, 2019 - Principals' Council

November 12, 2019 - Community Education Directors
November 15, 2019 - Principals' Council & TAC

October 16, 2019 Information:

Thank you to everyone who registered for the October 16th MRVED Common Inservice Day!

The schedule for the day is as followed:

8:00 a.m. - 8:35 a.m. - Coffee, juice, & muffins in the Dawson-Boyd Commons Area
                                           (Compliments of your administrators)
8:40 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - Morning Session
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch in the Dawson-Boyd Commons Area
12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - District Time (Location determined by your administration)

Notes:

1.  Enter through door #4 (located on 9th street - this is a ONE WAY STREET)
2.  Once you arrive, be sure to stop by the registration table near the commons area to pick up your registration packet (agenda with room numbers, clock hours, and lunch ticket, if applicable).  Your agenda is your CLOCK HOUR CERTIFICATE.
3.  Dress in layers.  Some of the rooms could be warm or cool depending on the number of people in the session.
4.  If you are not eating the catered meal, we suggest you bring a bag lunch.  If you are planning to eat off campus, please remember the next session begins promptly at 12:30 p.m.
5.  An electronic evaluation will be sent via email on Monday, October 21st.  Please complete it as soon as possible.  The feedback from the evaluation is used in planning future MRVED events.

*Please look for an email regarding additional details of the day coming soon!

If you have any questions regarding the October 16th MRVED Common Inservice Day, please contact Katie Raymo at 320-269-9297 or kraymo@mrved. net.

We are looking forward to a great fall inservice!

MELT 2020 Call for Presentations

The MRVED Educators Learning Together (MELT) conference will be held at Lac qui Parle Valley High School on January 20, 2020.  To help make this conference the best ever, we need your help.  The MRVED is looking for enthusiastic people willing to present on something great happening in your classroom.  This can be anything from Google Drive to differentiation techniques in your classroom.  Show us how you Teach Like a Pirate or incorporate Social Emotional Learning into your classroom!  Technology or no technology proposals are welcome.  Presenters will be paid a small stipend for your work.  You may submit as many presentation                                                                proposals as you wish.

**We are actively seeking any Pre-K people that would like to present, as well as Social Emotional Learning topics!**

**By filling out this form you are not committing to presenting, just providing the MRVED with your name and topic.**

Link to Proposal Form

Professional Development

Impact Education Conference (Formally TIES)

The TIES conference which is held every December is now called the Impact Education Conference as the TIES corporation no longer exists.  It's the same conference, just a different name.

Date: December 14-17, 2019
Location: Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

Registration Link

Book Study

Lead Like a PIRATE - Rapport, Ask & Analyze, Transformation, Enthusiasm

As I mentioned in the introduction to Lead Like a Pirate, this book will be beneficial to anyone in any leadership role, not just school administration.  What follows is simply my thoughts on the chapters, that will hopefully spur some thoughts of your own and maybe challenge your thinking and/or practices.  My little synopsis is by no means a substitute for reading the book!

Rapport
This chapter talks about the importance of making connections and building relationships with the people you lead.  The chapter provides a variety of strategies to make connections with people.  However, the one thing that stuck with me was the word "trust".  If people don't trust you, there is no way you can build relationships.  The authors provide a great example about the supply closet being locked in a school.  I'm sure there is a reason why it is locked, but the underlying tone is that we don't trust you to go into the supply closet.  Without trust, people will never get behind any ideas you have or anything you say.  Everything you say or do will be questioned.  A leader needs to develop the trust of their people before anything else can happen!

Ask & Analyze
"Good questions inform; great questions transform (Burgess & Houf, 48)."  This quote says it all.  An example of this would be to think about how you ask the following question:  "What are your goals for this year?"  One way to do this would be to ask, "What is something you have always wanted to do in your class, but haven't tried yet?  How can I help make that happen?"  Think about what different type of responses you would get for each type of question.  Now apply this thinking to any of the questions you ask.  How can we elevate our questioning?

Transformation
To be an effective leader, sometimes you need to truly transform your tasks.  I use the analogy of a toy Transformer.  The toy looks like a vehicle at the beginning, but by the time it fully transforms it looks like a robot.  Our tasks need to do the same.  They need to look nothing like what they looked like at the beginning.  True transformation is not tweaking one thing and calling it good.  It's changing the status quo.

Enthusiasm
The "E" in PIRATE stands for Enthusiasm.  Bottom line; if you aren't excited as a leader, the people that follow you aren't going to be excited as well.  Being a leader is hard work, and some days are not as fun as others, but the day is what you make it.  Your attitude is contagious with the group.  As Dave Burgess said, "Fake it until you make it if you have to".

Picture taken from https://leadlikeapirate.net/bookresources/

This wraps up section I in the book Lead Like a Pirate.  I'm excited to see what the rest of the book has to offer!

MRVED Update - October 3, 2018

MRVED Business

The MRVED Common Day will be October 17 in Dawson at the high school.  Dave Burgess will be the keynote speaker. Registration closes October 3 at 4pm. The last day to cancel lunch for the day will be October 5, after that you will be held responsible for the price. The day will begin at 8:40 with Dave Burgess speaking until lunch. The afternoon will consist of staff broken into two groups. Group 1 will be with Burgess while Group 2 is in specified rooms discussing content areas. Then Group 2 will be with Burgess while Group 1 is in specified rooms discussing content areas. Everyone will get an agenda when they arrive letting them know where they will be during the day.

On Monday, October 22, everyone will receive an email with a link to an evaluation for the day. Please take the time to fill this out as we use it the information for planning future MRVED Common Days.

Upcoming Meetings

October 17, 2018 Dave Burgess-MRVED Common Day
October 24, 2018 Superintendents’ Council
October 26, 2018 Principals’ Council

November 9, 2018 Joint Principal and TAC
November 16, 2018 Principal's Council
November 28, 2018 Superintendent's Council

2019 MELT Call for Proposals

The MRVED Educators Learning Together (MELT) conference will be held at Lac qui Parle Valley High School on January 21, 2019.  To help make this conference the best ever, we need your help.  The MRVED is looking for enthusiastic people willing to present on something great happening in your classroom.  This can be anything from Google Drive to differentiation techniques in your classroom.  Show us how you Teach Like a Pirate!  Technology or no technology proposals are welcome.  Presenters will be paid a small stipend for your work.  You may submit as many presentation proposals as you wish.

**We are actively seeking any Pre-K people that would like to present, as well as anyone that Teaches Like a Pirate!**

**By filling out this form you are not committing to presenting, just providing the MRVED with your name and topic.**


Link to Proposal Form

Tech Tip of the Week - Flippity

Flippity is a great tool to use in the classroom.  If you can get over having to use a Google Sheet, this tool can transform how you do things in your classroom.  You can easily turn spreadsheets into flashcards, quiz shows, crosswords, etc...  There are so many different things you can do within Flippity.  You really need to experience it to see the power it has.

If We Don't Allow A Redo, What Are We Teaching?

Rick Wormeli tweeted this article out the other day on redos.  It is well worth the read.  It is an account from an English teacher on why he allows redos.  There are some really good points in here.  Take the time to read this article today, especially if you are on the fence about allowing kids to redo assignments.

If We Don't All A Redo, What Are We Teaching? by Gary Armida

Teach Like a Pirate - Ask & Analyze, Transformation, Enthusiasm

For those of you on Twitter, there is a great Teach Like a Pirate conversation that happens all day long!  Follow #TLAP.

Ask and Analyze
Burgess talks about the ability to think creatively in this chapter.  In a hilarious anecdotal example, he talks about how "creative people" simply walk around and are smacked with creative ideas out of the blue.  Being creative is not something that you are born with, it's something you can become better at.  Carol Dweck - growth mindset vs fixed mindset!  Being creative is all about what questions you ask yourself as well as the ability to change.  The bottom of page 34 and top of page 35 offer an awesome way to ask yourself questions that can guide you to be creative.  Once you find that creative change, you must then have the ability to change your lesson.

Transformation
"Safe lessons are a recipe for mediocrity at best" (Burgess, 48).  I love this quote!  It is so true...we need to be able to take risks in our lessons.  Burgess talks about the 1000's of lessons that have been disasters.  It goes back to the Ask and Analyze chapter though.  When we fail we need to ask ourselves questions about the failure, analyze what we did, and then make adjustments.  We shouldn't continue to teach the bad lesson again and we shouldn't settle for mediocrity as well.  Our kids don't deserve mediocrity - they deserve our best!

Creating engaging lessons is also in the chapter on transformation.  I wanted to share a few quotes that hit home with me.

"If you can't explain why someone should pay attention to what you're saying, maybe we shouldn't be saying it." (Burgess, 62)

"History isn't boring, their history class was" (Burgess, 62)  I think of the phrase that I heard in my classroom, "this is boring".  What the student really meant, and I wish he/she would have said it, was "YOU are boring".  Burgess is right, your content area is not boring, it's the delivery that is boring.

Enthusiasm

Bottom line - you need to be enthusiastic about what you are teaching.  If you are not enthusiastic, then you need to fake being excited.  This is a big part to this book, so I'm not going to beat it to death here.  You really are an entertainer in your classroom.  You need to have enthusiasm for what you do, or the kids won't want to be there.

I'm going to leave these two thought provoking questions from the transformation chapter for you to think about:

If your students didn't have to be there, would you be teaching in an empty room?

Do you have any lessons you could sell tickets for?

MRVED Update - January 31, 2018

MRVED Business

MELT Recap

MELT evaluations came back in and the reviews were quiet positive.  About 85% of people that participated in MELT gave it an overall rating of a 4 or 5.  This is awesome!  Many thanks to the people that presented and made the day what it was.

Senators and Representatives Meet with MRVED Superintendents

The MRVED Superintendents met with local Senators and Representatives on Wednesday, January 24.  The legislators that were in attendance were Senators Dahms & Lang and Representative Miller.  The group spent the time discussing future legislative issues.  It was a great opportunity for both the legislators and superintendents to discuss issues pertaining to education in a smaller, intimate environment.

MRVED Meetings:
February 2, 2018  Title III Teachers
February 7, 2018  MRVED Board (7 p.m.)
February 22, 2018  TAC
February 23, 2018  Principals' Council
February 28, 2018  Superintendents' Council

Teacher Licensure Rulemaking Comment Period

The rulemaking for the new teacher licensure legislation is currently under review.  You can comment on the rulemaking until March 9, 2018.  It is strongly suggested you spend a couple minutes looking through the rulemaking document as it will have an impact on renewing your license.  Information on the hearings and comment period instructions can be found on the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings website.  If you have any questions on Teacher Licensure, feel free to contact any member of the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB).

Tech Tip of the Week - Google Story Speaker

Make interactive, talking stories without coding. Play your story instantly on Google Home.

Story Speaker lets anyone create talking, interactive stories with no coding required. Just write your story in a Google Doc, push a button, and every Google Home device linked to your account can play it. You don't need to know how to code. 

Basic and advanced templates get you writing quickly. There's a lot Story Speaker can do, including respond to what players say, give random responses, and remember what the player said. You can even export your story and so anyone with a Google Home can hear it. (Experimental!) This is not an official Google project. It's just a fun little experiment.

Will Letter Grades Survive?

A great article came across my Twitter feed this past week.  It really makes you think and question your own grading habits.  It is a very quick read and well worth your time.

Article Link

Innovator's Mindset - Powerful Learning First, Technology Second

Chapter 9 in Innovator's Mindset by George Couros is on the use/role of technology in our schools.  As the previous chapters, this one does not disappoint.  Couros writes some remarkable things that really make you think and question what you are currently doing.

Couros paints a picture at the beginning of the chapter that kids today have endless opportunities to learn, even before they enter school.  This statement is so true!  I think about my 5 year old, her favorite app is YouTube and she loves watching tutorial videos.  We have this information at our fingertips and yet, have not fully embraced the idea.

However, it takes more than just throwing devices into the classrooms.  There needs to be a shift in the mindset of teaching and learning.  We can't continue to do what we did prior to the devices being in the room.  Couros says that technology is not only a tool, but a "transformational" tool.  On top of it being a transformational tool, it should be a "personalized" transformation tool.  Think about the power of the device in the hands of our students.  With the tools we have we should be personalizing learning for our students in a way in which transforms the teaching and learning process.

Couros also talks about the importance of balance.  The balance between the learner and the technology.  Although we have all this power, we need to remember that the learner has something to learn in the process.  Sometimes we get fully wrapped up in learning the device and wanting to know the full potential of the device and we forget the learning process for the kids.

To end the chapter, Couros gives us four questions to guide our technology:

• What is best for kids?
• How does this improve learning?
• If we were to do ____________, what is the balance of risk vs. reward?
• Is this serving the few or the majority?