Crowdsourcing A Few Of Our Favorite Things

 I’m happy to be presenting with my friend Jessica Bogie, a “My Favorite” style session from the old days of Twitter Math Camp. When you are the only math teacher at a small rural school, you miss out on collaborating and brainstorming with other people who care about what you care about.

We planned several topics to discuss when we can share ideas and record them live so that everyone can leave with a document of new ideas.

Crowdsourcing A Few Of Our Favorite Things by Elissa Miller

Feel free to email elissajmiller at gmail for any further questions!

Increase Engagement Screen Free: Using Hands On Card Sorts To Improve Understanding

I am happy to be presenting at the Wisconsin Mathematics Council's annual Conference in Green Lake Wisconsin.

I'm sharing my presentation below as well as a link to my Google Drive Card Sorts Folder where I share all the downloadable activities. These are all pdf's. If you would like any of the original documents for editing purposes, feel free to email me at elissajmiller at gmail.

Screen Free Card Sorts by Elissa Miller

I'm happy to answer any questions or help you brainstorm ideas for card sorts that would suit your purpose.

Thanks for reading!

Unit Circle Art IX

 It's that time of year again for my unit circle projects!

My requirements are that it can't be made out of paper and has to contain radians, degrees, and ordered pairs. 

See my previous posts here:  Unit Circle Art I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII.

PBIS Conference

 Getting Started with PBIS In High Schools

https://www.upforlearning.org

The kids will tell us if we have consistency across the building.

Focus on what matters to your teachers and youth. Ask teachers what is getting in the way of instruction (over what the data says).

PBIS is not a program but a framework that organizes all the things you do. This is a public health prevention model placed in schools.

Don’t hurry this implementation.

Tier 2 and 3 staff need extra layers of support, not snarky comments.

Use data to make decisions, create systems so that grownups can do their jobs, and use evidence based interventions with kids. Find what matters and use data, practices, and systems around it.

Rewards are only baby-ish when they don’t mean anything. Ask the kids what matter: prom tickets, first in line for lunch, homework passes, lunch with adult.

Teach the whole staff the job of a tier one team. We need a team in our building with an administrator on it that represents our community.

Have youth weigh in on different expectations in different places: school, community, and home. “This is what we expect and this is out of bounds.”

Culture is how it feels in your building.

Safe
Respectful
Responsible

We need a matrix that breaks down what that looks like in the classroom, hallways, cafeteria, bathrooms. The matrix is not for kids, it’s for adults to remember to use the words.

Expectations: did we teach them or did we tell them? We need a system on how to teach them. Teach them, don’t tell them. Get their feedback. Decide when you will all teach it. Follow up with staff on how the lesson went

If you want to shape behavior then you have to teach them and then acknowledge them.

Acknowledgements: Immediate, intermittent, long term (making kids feel like they belong). Find acknowledgements that matter to your kids.

Kids who experienced trauma need safe, consistent environments.

Pick your one thing, find data around it, then discuss what it actually means and what you’re going to do about it. We have to figure out how we’re going to have conversations about it. You cannot hurry or you’ll have blowouts.

Relationships and connection have to stop taking a backseat to test scores and social order. There is no age where we need to stop teaching connection and belonging.

Strong sense of belonging at school and home are the two biggest factors for preventing at risk behaviors.

Excellence depends on practice. With the right kind of practice, we can develop nearly any skill.

ami.flammini@midwestpibs.org

Classroom Strand 1

Removal should only be about safety.

What we do is a probability statement of what the student will do next.

After misbehavior, how do we pause and consider what gets us to the best possible outcome.

What do we want teachers to do when confronted with misbehavior?

The prize is calm and compliant. We have to consider the prize before and during interactions.

HS- positive interaction from adults in common areas every 4.3 minutes but a negative every 23 seconds.

The example we’re not teaching is “what do you do to be respectful when someone disrespects you?”

We want adults verbally acknowledging kids. You can’t give treats as frequently or as freely as you can give verbal acknowledgments.

You get more benefits from teachers increasing positive affirmations than with a reward system.

The more routines, the more habits. The more habits, the more they are doing it right, the more positive feedback you can give. Explicit instruction creates more opportunities to give positive affirmations.

Building a habit of positive affirmations increases the students willingness to not break the momentum with a misbehavior. How can I keep saying good job?

Your first response to a misbehavior is eye contact.

What do we have to do maximize the probability of the prize?

Effective High School Classroom Environments

Educators commit to being a dedicated coach for one strategy and a dedicated learner of one new strategy.

Integrate SEL within the course they teach: what problems are you experiencing? Use that information to guide pd and coaching.

When tier 1 isn’t enough…how do we intensify? Tier 2 and 3 are extra doses of what they already have, not a separate curriculum.

CICO- teach teachers how to do the interaction. The magic is in the interaction not the paper or the points.

Make a list of top 20 strategies teachers are already using linked to see definitions/templates.

Outside snapshot that works individually with teachers on whatever they want to work on- doesn’t have to be shared with colleagues.

Mental health grant?

Tier 3 intense help is different than a special ed referral for a disability.

Menu of responses expected before it comes to the office to clearly define responsibilities.

Juniors who meet state testing are exempt from finals.

Restorative practice or diversionary run by social workers as alternative to suspension (maybe just for substance abuse)

Teacher buy in comes more from teacher leaders than admin.

Social Emotional Behavioral Managements

Don’t make assumptions that adults know how to do this automatically.

Small daily doses embedded each day.

Alignment is above implementation.

Custom Name Coloring Bookmarks

 

I have a weird obsession with making bookmarks each year for our interactive notebooks. I've tried ribbon and paper clips in various forms and they always seem to fall apart in some way.

My newest attempt is bookmarks that students can color. I make name sheets for the front of their binders that they can color. This year I've noticed a lot of students coloring when they get done with a quiz or test and are waiting on others to finish.

I decided to make my own bookmarks, have the students color them, and then I laminated them, and they hole punched and added a tassel.

Here is the file and the font is KG Blank Space.