In PLC this afternoon, the Bill Roberts staff met in teams to focus on writing. Mrs. Jackson and I decided to work on goal setting for our students, and we’ll meet regularly to set individualized writing goals for them. We will focus on these goals in both classrooms to provide continuous support to each student in his or her area of greatest need. The students will be aware of the goals we have set, and the goals will also be communicated to you so that you can better support their writing development at home.  This directly relates to our schools SIP (school improvement plan) in which our staff is focusing on writing, specifically writing standard 2.

This week, we learned how to analyze and use data from Star Reading and Early Literacy assessments.  We also talked about SMART goals for our students.  There was a great way to remember how to quickly create them:
S- Specific
M- Measurable
A- Attainable
R- Relevant
T- Time Framed
I will be using this format more frequently when we are setting our individual goals for the students.  Another great tip from our PLCs! :)

There was no school this week...so no PLC update!

There was no school this week...so no PLC update!

This week in PLCs we had the opportunity for Michelle from PEBC to lead our conversations.  Each teacher brought artifacts from their classrooms to share with each other and talk about how things were going in relation to the thinking strategies.  These are some of my favorite PLC meetings because it really lets us collaborate with other teachers and get new ideas to try in our own classrooms.

This week we had a presentation from our fabulous RTI (Response to Intervention) team.  They shared information and clarified thinking about interventions and accommodations so that we can help our students even more than we already do!  We had the opportunity to look at all the amazing things we offer here at Bill Roberts (focus groups, extension groups, curriculum, etc.) and realized the extensive support and resources available to our staff.  We are very grateful and blessed to have such a great staff we can share and learn with!

There were no PLC's this week due to Fall Break.

This week for PLCs we had a presentation about Content Language Objectives.  These are what you will find posted in our classroom to help give students an understanding about what we are learning.  I think they are even more important for me as a teacher to make sure that my thinking was clear in the planning of my lesson.
We also had a presentation by our SLT to help clarify questions around Writing Standard One (Argumentative Writing) and Writing Standard Two (Informational/Explanatory Writing).  We looked at student writing to help decide where opinion writing falls as well as looking at the Common Core State Standards Exemplars.  This was really important for our staff to do because we are focusing on Writing Standard Two for our School Imp

Today we had a short meeting as a staff to discuss our next step towards our mission and vision as a school.  The staff then spent time doing various activities.  These included: preparing for October Conferences, preparing hallway displays of student work, catching up on grading, meeting with teams (vertical and grade level) planning, or a variety of other options.   This was such a gift to our staff as October can be very stressful with the amount of work that seems to compound during this time of year.  During this time I was able to catch up with my grading and read through student writing from their inquiry circles and respond to each group.  You will see the benefits of this time in my classroom by the more focused work with each student.  I value the time I get to sit and reflect and write to my students so they know that I respect their views and beliefs and want to help them be successful learners.  I was also able to meet with my teammates and make plans for future activities and discuss the similar vocabulary we want to use in our classroom around the thinking strategies and other areas. 

Today we had Michelle from PEBC to facilitate our PLCs.  Each teacher brought an artifact that related to Chapter 4 from our book 'Making Thinking Visible'.  We then shared them with each other in small groups and received feedback.  We talked about how we integrated the thinking routines into our classrooms and which ones worked and which ones we'd alter next time.  We then planned which ones we'd try to incorporate from Chapter 5 during the next few weeks to prepare for our next PEBC meeting.  In our classroom we used what was called 'Chalk Talk'.  This routine involves students writing their thinking down (whether a question, comment, connection or thought) about a certain topic on an anchor chart.  We used the question 'What makes leaves change color?' and did some investigation and added to our chart over the course of a week.  It was the perfect timing for our plant unit and the fall colors changing all around us.  It is currently hanging in our classroom if you'd like to come check it out!