MRVED Update - January 11, 2023

MRVED Business

MRVED Meetings

Monday, January 16th - MELT @ LqPV

Tuesday, January 17th - Community Education Directors

Wednesday, January 25th - Superintendents' Council

Thursday, February 2nd - Teachers' Advisory Council

Friday, February 3rd - Principals' Advisory Council

Friday, February 10th - Title III Teachers

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of you from all of us at the MRVED. We hope that 2023 will be a great year for you and your students. We know it's been a slow start for many of you with snow days. Our hope is that Mother Nature has purged the snow from her system and we will have an uninterrupted rest of the school year.

MELT Information

The MELT conference is once again knocking on our doorstep!  

The MELT (MRVED Educators Learning Together) is only days away. MELT is held at Lac qui Parle Valley High School. The conference has over 600 individuals registered with around 100 sessions throughout the day!

Please look over these important points regarding the conference:

• First and Foremost, the WEATHER POLICY: If the weather is inclement, any cancellation or delay relating to the MELT will be posted by 6:00 am on the WCCO website under ‘School Closings’. We will be listed under MRVED (just the initials). This will also be posted on WCCO’s TV channel (CBS). It will also be listed on our MRVED website at http://www.mrved.com under “Latest News”.

• Enter through Door #5 (follow the walkway to the left of the eagle statue). The door has the number “5” on it.

• Be sure to stop by the registration table in the commons area to pick up your registration packet (personalized agenda with session selections, room numbers, clock hours, and lunch ticket, if applicable). We have over 600 people picking up packets, so if you would say your name when it is your turn or simply find your own registration, it will go that much faster.

• Breakfast will be available when you arrive, compliments of your administration. Breakfast will be available until 8:40 a.m.

• The first session will start promptly at 8:40 a.m.

• Please DO NOT switch sessions as the sessions become overcrowded and there will not be enough seating for everyone.

• Coats - The bleachers will be down in the gym for you to leave your coat. Please pick up your coat after lunch and bring it with you to your last session as the janitorial staff will begin cleaning up.

• Dress in layers. The commons area (morning refreshments and lunch) could be cool because the main doors are there and people are always coming and going. In addition, some of the rooms could be warm or cool depending on the number of people in the session.

• Coffee and hot water for tea/hot chocolate (you must bring your own tea bags and/or hot chocolate packets) will be available all morning in the commons area.

• Lunch - There will be 2 lines so that lunch can be served in a timely fashion. Both lines will form around the outer edges of the commons area, NOT down the middle. You MUST have your lunch ticket to go through the line. If you have misplaced it, see Katie Raymo at the registration table.

• If you are not eating the meal provided by LqPV, we suggest you bring a bag lunch. Per Minnesota Department of Health regulations, bag lunches CAN NOT be stored in the school’s cooler/refrigerator. Food CAN NOT be heated up in the school’s kitchen either. You may either carry your lunch with you or leave it in the gym with your jacket. The school is out in the country and nearby towns are not close enough to allow you to drive there, eat a relaxing lunch, and return in time for the afternoon session which begins promptly at 1:00 p.m.

• Please be aware that there is poor cell phone reception inside of LqPV school.

• An electronic evaluation will be sent out on Tuesday, January 17th. Please complete it as soon as possible. We listen to your suggestions and feedback.

• If you are attending a networking session during the day, remember there is no “expert” presenting at these sessions. This is a time for you to bring items (websites, lessons, apps, projects, etc.) to share with others. The facilitators in these sessions are simply to provide guidance and order to the session.

• There will be rooms available for nursing moms. Check with Pam Weber, in the high school principal’s office, for availability.

• Here are the session times in case you are not arriving right away in the morning.

            o Session 1: 8:40-9:40 a.m.

            o Session 2: 9:55-10:55 a.m.

            o Session 3: 11:10-12:10 p.m.

            o Session 4: 1:00-2:00 p.m.

• There will be students located throughout the building to assist you in getting around the building.

• The students will be selling pop and candy in the hallways for your convenience.

• There will be press at the conference taking photographs or video. Presenters may be taking photographs or videos as well.

• We ask for your patience and understanding in the case that a presenter(s) becomes ill at the last minute.

We are looking forward to a great MELT!

#WeAreMRVED

MRVED Meeting Updates - Weather Woes

The Teachers Advisory Council (TAC) and Principal Advisory Council were set to meet in December. However, due to school being cancelled in all the MRVED districts on those days, these meeting were not held. The TAC meeting was rescheduled to January 11th. The group will be discussing and devising a plan for the April MRVED common in-service day. The principal meeting was not rescheduled. The Superintendents met briefly during their regularly scheduled monthly meeting, but the meeting was cut short due to many schools releasing early due to snow and wind. We are crossing our fingers that all our snow days are behind us and it's sunny and 75 very soon!

MN ELA and Math Standards Update

ELA

Rulemaking Public Comment Period for Proposed K–12 Academic Standards in ELA

The public comment period for ELA’s Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR) in the statutory rulemaking process started on Wednesday, Dec. 28, and will run for 30 days, closing on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 4:30 p.m. To provide feedback on the standards as a part of the statutory rulemaking process during this period of Dual Notice, review the Request for Comments document posted on the MDE rulemaking webpage for the proposed Minnesota K–12 Academic Standards in English Language Arts. Comments must be submitted to the Office of Administrative Hearings’ e-comments system.

Next Steps in the Statutory Rulemaking Process

The next step of the statutory rulemaking process is that MDE will review the public comments submitted to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) during the 30-day statutory public comment period. If there are 25 requests for a hearing to discuss the K–12 Academic Standards in ELA, a public hearing will be held Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Math

Rulemaking Public Comment Period for Proposed K–12 Academic Standards in Mathematics

The initial public comment period in the statutory rulemaking process began on Wednesday, Dec. 28, and will run for 60 days, closing on Monday, Feb. 27, at 4:30 p.m. To provide feedback on the standards as a part of the statutory rulemaking process review the Request for Comments document posted on the MDE rulemaking webpage for the proposed K–12 Academic Standards in Mathematics. Comments must be submitted to the Office of Administrative Hearings’ e-comments system.

Additional Public Comment Period for Mathematics Benchmarks

The public comment period on the supporting benchmarks will last 30 days and will close on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 4:30 p.m. To provide feedback on the benchmarks as a part of MDE’s public comment process, complete this Public Comment Survey or email mde.academic-standards@state.mn.us. Comments sent via postal mail will also be accepted.

Next Steps in the Statutory Rulemaking Process

It is still early in the statutory rulemaking phase of the standards review and revision process. There are multiple opportunities throughout this phase for the public to make comments and provide feedback on the proposed standards language and for changes to be considered and made to the initial proposed standards draft. Learn more about the K–12 Academic Standards Development Process.

The next step of the statutory rulemaking process is that MDE will review the public comments submitted to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) during the 60-day statutory public comment period. Next, MDE will draft the Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR), which has traditionally taken 14-17 months. The full statutory rulemaking process can take up to 24 months.

The statutory rulemaking process for the Minnesota K–12 Academic Standards in Mathematics is not complete until the Notice of Adoption is published in the State Register. Each content areas includes an implementation date in the adopted rule language. If adopted, the proposed K–12 Academic Standards in Mathematics will be implemented in the 2027-28 school year.

Resource of the Month

Minnesota Questions Tool

The Minnesota Questions Tool (MQT) provides access to the released questions from past MCAs (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments) in math and reading across all grade levels. The MQT includes released items for Science MCA IV in grades 5, 8, and HS.

Users can search questions by standard, benchmark, and grade; read rationales for correct/incorrect answers; review student performance data; and download questions for use in planning classroom assessments and instruction.

• The questions in the MQT are provided as examples of questions that probe students’ knowledge and skills of a specific content area in different ways
• a way to see how our students have performed on the question

In order to maintain test security and ensure validity of results, a certain number of questions must be kept secure and are not released for public use. The released questions in this tool do not represent a complete assessment that meets the blueprint outlined in the test specifications, including the range of cognitive skills assessed and difficulty level. These questions are not intended to be used as practice tests for future MCA assessments. Rather, they are intended to support educators in understanding how the academic standards are assessed on the MCA, to help identify student misconceptions, and to provide examples of questions that assess student understanding at different DOK (Depth of Knowledge) levels

Interesting Read

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022

I found this article posted on Edutopia and compiled by Youki Terada and Stephen Merrill interesting because it covers a variety of different topics of significance to the world of education. There are studies on effective highlighting to understanding and using brain breaks in the classroom. I highly suggest glancing at the article and then digging deeper into one of the topics that interests you.

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2022 by Youki Terada and Stephen Merrill

EL Resource

Language Objectives for English Learners

Teachers and administrators are familiar with content objectives, that is the specific content that will be taught in the lesson. There are also Language Objectives that can be written for the purpose of supporting Multilingual Learners (MLs, English Learners). The purpose of Language Objectives is to articulate for learners the academic language and skills they will need to fully participate and meet the grade-level content standards (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

Writing Language Objectives

• Language Objectives involve one of the four domains of language, speaking, listening, reading, or writing
• Considerations when writing Language Objectives
• Choose key vocabulary, concept words, and other academic words
• Think about language functions (how will students be using the language?) and language skills
• What task or assignment will the students be completing after the lesson? What language will they need to be successful?

Objective Examples

(https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-objectives-key-effective-content-area-instruction-english-learners)

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.