Making Learning Personal
Fall 2021
Vanguard Speaker Series
Vanguard Applications are open!
Go to vanguard.fcps.org to apply for Cohort 6 of the Vanguard Teacher Program. The deadline to apply is November 5th.
Student Engagement in a Post-Pandemic Classroom
Lindsay Anderson, Frederick High School
@ArtfulAnderson
Make sure you have a piece of paper and something to write with as you read through this article. Together we are going to explore and discover new ideas to immediately implement in our classrooms, and re-establish an engaging, creative, and exciting learning environment for our students.
For the past 18 months our students’ education has been disrupted. It’s important to recognize that the last normal school year for seniors was ninth grade. Our freshmen were sixth graders, and so on. Let that sink in for a moment. As we explore student engagement, we should strive to put executive functioning supports in place as well. Here’s a quick presentation with some teacher tips to help support students’ executive functioning skills as they become reacquainted with in person learning.
Student disengagement is a fundamental problem we as teachers need to address. It’s not our students’ fault they are disengaged. It’s an incredibly long list of factors that contribute to lack of engagement in the classroom. Fortunately, teachers are superheroes therefore we can and will engage our students and provide meaningful experiences for them.
According to Catlin Tucker, engagement is the active involvement in learning that is relevant, valuable, and interesting. Grab your pencils so we can break it down and put our thoughts on paper.
Learning that is Relevant: How can you make real world connections in your content to prove a topic is relevant to your students? Take a moment to brainstorm and jot down some ideas (even if they seem completely out of reach).
Learning that is Valuable: What makes your course valuable? Why are the topics you teach valuable? You know your course is valuable, but how do you convince your students of its value? Take a moment to brainstorm and jot down some ideas.
Learning that is Interesting: What are your students interested in? If you don’t know, you might want to find a way to change that. However, I’d be willing to bet you can come up with at least three things right now that you know your students are interested in. Write them down.
Next, based on your initial ideas (above) let’s explore some ideas and strategies that you can implement immediately to get students more engaged.
The Katas of Formative Assessment: Immediate Feedback
Christina Tongyai, Frederick High School
@Mrs_TG_FHS
A large stack of papers glares at me from my desk and when I fire up my computer I have inescapable notifications from Schoology stating that I have students who have turned in assignments. It looks like another long night and possibly a longer weekend. Just getting through the slough of grading papers. At least that used to be the case. Until I started asking myself the question, “What do students need out of this?” Was it a grade? Or was it something else? How was holding onto all these papers and work doing them any good? How was this helping them and myself?
The answer? It wasn’t. I was getting burned out. It was taking two weeks to get work back to students. By that point we had moved on in class and the things they needed to work on were forgotten. It was useless feedback, nothing more than another grade. They weren’t seeing what they needed to fix until it was already too late. I struggled with what to do. Like many professionals do. How do we make the balance of grading, feedback, and timeliness work for us and our students?
I found the answers in an unlikely place.
Martial Arts.
“Keep your hands up!”
“C-step through, don’t stomp.”
“More power.”
“Widen your stance. You’re too narrow.”
“Follow through.”
“Lock your back leg.”
These words might not make sense, but they are all feedback. Feedback that is precise and concise and given in the immediate moment. Useful and applied to the current kata (form) being practiced. Feedback that I can immediately apply to what I’m working on. It isn’t long or drawn out explanations, it is short, quick, and personalized. How does this all tie into teaching and immediate feedback with formative assessments?
Take Chances! Make Mistakes! Get Messy!
Lorraine Marshall, Career and Technology Center
@Lorraine_Mars
“Wahoo!” “Take Chances! Make Mistakes! Get Messy!” proclaims Ms. Frizzle.
Ms. Frizzle epitomizes the perfect teacher. She is fun, engaging , enthusiastic, and encourages her students to explore.
Everyone wanted to be in Ms. Frizzle’s class, and my young daughters were no different. We bought every Magic School Bus book, watched every TV episode, played every Microsoft software game, and we even owned all the fact cards. My girls loved Ms. Frizzle. They slept with their books and pretended to be her. They would take turns at the desktop computer exploring the human body, the rainforest, the ocean and solar system. My daughters remembered everything she said. She was a role model to them. She was fun! She was cool!
#FCPSVanguard
Upcoming Dates and Reminders
Nov. 3, 8:00-3:00 - Workshop with Katie Martin (Teach Year)
Nov. 3, 4:30-6:00 - Vanguard Speaker Series: Katie Martin (All Cohorts)
Nov. 4, 8:00-3:00 - Workshop with Katie Martin (Coach Year)
Dec. 7, 8:00-4:00 - Group 1 Forum
Dec. 9, 8:00-4:00 - Group 2 Forum
Dec. 13, 8:00-4:00 - Group 3 Forum
Dec. 15, 8:00-4:00 - Group 4 Forum
Vanguard Teacher Program
Email: eric.haines@fcps.org
Website: vanguard.fcps.org
Phone: 301-644-5182
Twitter: @EHaines24