September 6, 2019

What is Academic Discourse or Academic Conversations with students and why are they SO POWERFUL??  We MUST get our students to SHARE WITH EACH OTHER!!!!

Don't you learn more from your friends, colleagues, peers, etc than you do when you "sit and get"?  C'mon, be honest.  You know you do =)  Our kids DO TOO!!!

Check out this video with links HERE for guides, ideas, and getting students to TALK!

Have you ever sat and thought about how we have the best job ever?  Do you ever question it sometimes?  It's human nature, we understand!  Check out THIS ARTICLE about 11 reasons why we have the BEST JOB EVER, including how middle school students tell it like it is, they have a ridiculous sense of humor, you have an endless supply of humor at any part you go to, and more.  It's an easy and fun read, AND a FABULOUS reminder of our WHY.  What is your WHY???  WHY do you do what you do??  WHY do you want to work with our students?

THING TO REMEMBER ABOUT FEEDBACK

*Feedback can be guidance, information, advice, praise or support.  It's information about how we are doing to reach our goals!  This is why we come into classrooms weekly!

*If OUR students know the classroom is a safe place to make mistakes, they are more likely to use feedback for learning.  If our VIKING staff knows it's okay to make mistakes and it's safe, then we KNOW you all will take more exciting educational risks to reach our students!

*The feedback OUR students give OUR teachers can be more powerful than the feedback OUR teachers give OUR students.  Think about that for a sec!

*When we give a grade as part of our feedback, OUR students only see the grade.  Feedback is SO much more powerful!

*Effective feedback occurs during the learning, while there is still time to act on it!  Then REFLECT and CHANGE if needed!

*Most of the feedback that OUR students receive about their classroom work is from other students- and much of that feedback is wrong.  Their discussion aren't wrong, just the information sometimes!

*OUR students and OUR teachers need to know their learning target- the skills that they're supposed to learn, otherwise feedback is just someone telling them what to do! 

We all need people who will give us feedback.  That's how we improve. ~Bill Gates

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• SUPER awesome shout out to ROSIE for helping me with the cross walk after school!!
• SUPER awesome shout out to the TAP TEAM for springing into action to help a student in need! Great Job! ~Someone who would not be able to do what they do as well as they do =)
• SUPER awesome shout out to JASON, GWYNN, MARLYS, TIFFANY, and LYNN for taking care of a stressed student on Thursday!
• SUPER awesome shout out to KAREN and the ENGLISH DEPT for working together to get SpringBoard books checked out! ~Megan
• SUPER awesome shout out to JASON for help with Chrome Book issues during MAP Testing! ~Julie
• SUPER awesome shout out to JAMES for all of the positive emails going home!!
• SUPER awesome shout out to KC for making the staff meeting like someone's birthday party! ~Lynn
• SUPER awesome shout out to LYNN for organizing ALL of the 6th grade events and plans!
• SUPER awesome shout out to CRISTINA for buying 6th grade teachers cups and filling them with goodies! ~Lynn
• SUPER awesome shout out to LARISSA for helping me with Google Classroom! ~Kimberly
• SUPER awesome shout out to RYAN as I am happy to have my partner back!  It's going to be a great year! ~ Karron
• SUPER awesome shout out to JASON for helping during 1st period prep and Lorraine for her help with MAP testing! ~Marlys
• SUPER awesome shout out to MEGAN and LYNN for leading our MAP training!
• SUPER awesome shout out to KAREN who is more than a ROCK STAR with the management of the books and chromes going out along with the History pilot program.  Thank you so much! ~Carol
• SUPER awesome shout out to DUSTIN for being the go to guy, love having you on the history team! ~Carol