Curriculum & Instruction Newsletter

Do you know anyone who gives up easily and avoids challenges? Perhaps, you yourself have been afraid of making a mistake out of fear of appearing “not smart or even dumb?” Have you worked with students or colleagues who always feel as if they have to prove themselves and never fail? All of these are characteristics of a fixed mindset.

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in an interesting learning discussion with some other educators around the topic of: Can you Change Someone’s Mindset? Prior to the discussion, I was encouraged to take a short survey in order to recognize fixed mindset elements in myself and then reflect in order to improve. I found the experience extremely worthwhile and wanted to share the premise for the survey and the link for you to take the short survey and receive your own feedback concerning your own mindset and beliefs below:

“Our mindsets exist on a continuum from fixed to growth, and although we’d like to always have a growth mindset, the reality is that we can only be on a journey to a growth mindset. The goal is to recognize fixed mindset elements in ourselves and then reflect on feedback and strategies for how to improve.”

Click here to take the survey: http://blog.mindsetworks.com/what-s-my-mindset

The majority of my learning groups’ conversation centered on the work of Stanford researcher, professor, and author, Dr. Carol Dweck. In Dr. Dweck’s research on Mindset, she has found that people’s theories about their own intelligence have a significant influence on their motivation, effort, and approach to challenges. Those who believe their abilities are malleable are more likely to embrace challenges and persist despite failure. The opposite is true for those who believe that intelligence is fixed or innate. When one believes that the brain can grow, research has found that you in turn behave differently.

The research on growth mindset is especially important as we work with students and examine the type of feedback we give to students with whom we interact on a daily basis. In the video clip below, Dr. Dweck explains the impact of assessor feedback on student effort when attempting to solve simple puzzles. One group of students heard more intelligence based comments like, “Wow, you did really well. You must be really smart.” The other group of students were praised for their effort. These students heard feedback like, “Wow, you must have tried really hard.” The students who heard praise for their intelligence wanted to stick with easier puzzles and the students praised for effort tended to be willing to risk and try the more difficult and challenging puzzles when asked whether or not they wanted to try the easier or more challenging puzzles moving forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTXrV0_3UjY

The implications Dr. Dweck’s work are extremely valuable as we move forward together into a creating a learning environment for our students that prepares them to be lifelong learners in the 21st century. Do our students believe they will succeed at an academic task? Are they willing to persist and use cognitive and metacognitive strategies to improve their performance? Do students interpret academic challenges or mistakes as opportunities to learn and develop? Does the belief that ability and competence grow with effort permeate the culture in Manheim Central? The professional learning community that I was fortunate enough to be a part of developed a “top five list” of ways to encourage the Growth Mindset of others.

Top Five Ways to Encourage and Develop the Mindset of Others:

§ Teach others that our brain grows stronger when we are challenged and that intelligence is not innate

§ Provide praise that focuses on the process and the effort rather than correctness or speed of an assignment, task, or work

§ Create environments where intellectual struggles and hard work are embraced and rewarded

§ Create opportunities to celebrate and learn from mistakes

§ If others are struggling, affirm high standards and provide reassurance that you believe in their ability to succeed

I challenge all of you to take the Growth Mindset survey, reflect on your own movement toward a growth mindset, and either choose one of the top five above or one statement from the image below and think about how you may encourage and nurture the mindsets of those who are in your direct circle of influence.

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela

In October, the members of the high school world language department attended the annual fall conference of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association (PSMLA). Megan Flinchbaugh and Nathan Campbell (Spanish teachers) had the privilege of creating and leading the pre-conference workshop entitled, “Connecting the Standards: Communication, Cultures, and Communities.” During the conference, Megan and Nathan, as well as German teacher Jennifer Campbell, presented additional sessions about language, culture, and world language resources.

A highlight of the three-day event was the Friday luncheon, where PSMLA recognized Nathan as the Outstanding K-12 World Language Educator of the Year. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and outstanding contributions to the profession. Congratulations to Nathan on this well-deserved award!

Exciting things are happening in the high school band program! The reigning Cavalcade of Bands Patriot ‘A’ Champion Marching Barons are continuing to experience growth and are 117 members strong—the largest they have been in more than a decade! To convey the story of this year’s theme show, Pompeii, the Marching Barons are getting an education in music ranging from Baroque opera of the 1600’s to original wind band music and modern movie scores! The marching band has performed well in its first two competitions, garnering a High Percussion award at the Conestoga Valley Cavalcade of Bands Show on September 23. The Marching Barons will perform in exhibition on October 28 as they host a show here at Manheim Central, and will perform at the New Oxford Cavalcade of Bands show on Saturday, November 4, and the Cavalcade of Bands Patriot Division Grand Championships at J. Birney Crum stadium in Allentown on Sunday, November 12.

On October 2, the high school concert band students had the opportunity to experience a performance and Q&A session with some members on the “President’s Own” United States Marine Band—the most highly regarded service band in America—right in our own auditorium! The Marine Band members performed selections as a woodwind quintet (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, horn), explained the music in their performance, discussed both their path to becoming a professional musician and their roles and responsibilities as a professional musician and member of the Marine Band. It was a great experience for our students to see musicians who play their same instruments, at such a high level of virtuosity, and understand the discipline, practice and rigor that goes into both technical facility and musicianship. The students, clearly impressed, asked many thoughtful questions that will hopefully drive their own continued pursuit of musical excellence.

Additionally, through the generous auspices of McFEE, the high school concert band has been able to commission a brand new musical work, written specifically for our band, by Dr. Jim Colonna, a local composer of high standing in the wind band world, and Director of Bands at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA. His music has been performed at many honors band festivals across the country, prestigious college ensembles such as the Hartt Wind Ensemble and professional ensembles, including the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides. Dr. Colonna has communicated with the band throughout his writing process to give them a unique insight on composing, and will continue to workshop the piece with the band as they rehearse and practice, giving them the additional, unique experience of actually working with the composer of a piece in their repertoire. The Manheim Central High School Concert Band will have the honor of WORLD PREMIERING the piece at the high school spring concert, Thursday May 15, 2018.

Increasing Student Achievement

Teachers and coaches share the same vision. We strive to improve student learning by strengthening our own teaching and learning. As an instructional coach, I have the opportunity to collaborate with teachers to evaluate, share, and strengthen practices so that our students needs are met.

Supporting teachers and students through new district initiatives is one example of instructional coaching. Pictured above, kindergarten students are navigating eSpark, a personalized learning program that works on specific math or reading skills. Another example is through Teacher Learner Communities (TLCs). These teacher created groups meet regularly, share expertise, and focus on a common goal to increase student achievement. Current TLCs are collaborating over topics like curriculum review, enhancing ELA instruction, and developing engaging math instruction. Some teachers have chosen to work with the Instructional Coach individually. Individual goals include student ownership for learning and engagement through technology.

‘The true sign of knowledge is not intelligence but imagination.’ –Albert Einstein

Manheim Central is fostering imagination within its youngest learners and stepping up to STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. STEM is curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM is integrated across all content areas, allowing for a certain depth of understanding and conceptual knowledge. This is done through real-world applications and these experiences are accessible to all students in order to prepare them for future readiness.

For several years, STEM has been prevalent in the middle and high school. However, this school year, MC is ensuring that our youngest learners at the elementary level are acquiring a love of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics…all while getting to use their imagination.

STEM education at the elementary level focuses on introductory level STEM courses. STEM curriculum and challenges are designed to make the students reason and think, manipulate objects, and collaborate with peers on their challenges and observations. The activities are student-directed; the teacher gives the students a starting problem or question and they must come up with a solution. Sometimes their solution works and sometimes it does not; the focus is not on whether or not they got it right but on the problem-solving process that they must go through (Engineering by Design).

Students learn about the Engineering by Design Process. During each STEM activity or challenge, students go through the following process: ASK (What is the problem?), Imagine (What are possible solutions?), PLAN (What materials do I need?), CREATE (Does it meet the plan?), IMPROVE (What can be done differently?), and COMMUNICATE (Is the problem solved?). During this entire process, students are using the 4C’s: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

What does STEM currently look like at the elementary level? Third and fourth graders across the district will receive STEM as a special for half of the year (one half they will have STEM and the other half they will have health). Students will meet once a week for 45 minutes and participate in STEM challenges that directly align with grade level curriculum. Students in third grade will be focusing on water in Every Drop Matters. The culminating grand challenge will be for them to design a pet washing system that conserves water. Students in fourth grade will be focusing on power in The Power of Solar. Their culminating grand challenge will be for them to design a way to get light and warmth without electricity if they were to ‘go off the grid’.

Students in kindergarten, first, and second grade each have their own STEM program that is being integrated into our existing curriculum. Each grade level focuses on a different subject and, like third and fourth grade, ends with a grade challenge. In addition to this curriculum, teachers are also working with the STEM coach to provide other learning opportunities for their students. Careful attention has been paid to the ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies curriculum to find connections to different STEM challenges. For example, students in second grade were learning about nocturnal animals. One of the challenges they were presented with was to construct a spider web out of a hanger and one container of dental floss. Students tested their prototype by seeing if their web could hold a rock spider. Kindergarten students recently completed a unit of study on apples. Students were engineers and had build a structure out of toothpicks and apple slices.

STEM is also integrated into our writing curriculum. Students are learning that it is important to record their thoughts, plans, observations, successes, and failures in a STEM notebook. Students record information from different STEM challenges. Some of these notebooks consist of paper and pencil; some are digital portfolios through Schoology.

The STEM program is also focusing on robotics. Spheros, which are robot balls, were purchased to tie into existing curriculum and teach students basic programing. For example, kindergarten students can program the Spheros to practice letter and number formation. In second grade, students can program them to represent the different states of matter. In addition, students will also have access to a 3-D printer in the coming weeks, allowing them to bring the ideas that they develop during the imagine and planning phase to life!

Manheim Central is stepping up to STEM and fostering a love of learning, problem solving, and creativity. Are you? These skills will be important as they continue school and enter the workforce.

Scan the QR code above to watch a video that highlights the importance of STEM!

The MCSD Art Department is proud to announce the release of a new curriculum for all students grades K-12! The curriculum now being offered is based on the newly released 2014 National Art Standards, which were developed by leading Arts educators. With a new intent to focus on the creative process, each grade is provided with age-appropriate standards that guide the students through the artistic processes of Create, Respond, Present, and Connect.

These four areas are concerned with allowing students opportunities to collaborate, communicate, use and develop creativity, as well as employ critical thinking skills-- skills of the 21st Century Learner! While art projects are still created, the focus becomes less about the makings of an artist and more about how an artist thinks and responds to the world around him or her, providing a deeper understanding of their learning, as well as their connections as citizens.

Come check out the results of this new curriculum at the District-wide K-12 Art Show! Details regarding the show will be released after the month of January.

In the year 2017, STEM in the Manheim Central School District is exploding with a passion. We offer several courses at the High School that would fit the criteria for a STEM opportunity for our students. Project Lead the Way, PLTW, is a nationally known program that helps foster the importance of learning STEM in a rigorous environment that exposes students to authentic experiences related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. However, please understand that all though other content areas although not in the acronym STEM, they are present throughout the student experiences.

PLTW offerings are five courses strong at the high school. They include Introduction to Engineering Design, IED, Principles of Engineering, POE, Aerospace Engineering, AE, Civil Engineering and Architecture, CEA, and Computer Science Principles, CS. Three teachers deliver the PLTW curriculum at the high school, Mr. Bechtel IED, POE, and AE, Mr. Eckman IED and CEA, and Mrs. DiSanza CS. The program is answering the needs of about one hundred and forty students on a yearly basis.

The past few years we have brought about change to the Technology and Engineering Department at Manheim Central due to the generosity of MCFEE through the grant process and additional budget expenditures. We were able to acquire additional STEM equipment, a CNC Turning Machine, a CNC Milling Machine, and a Laser Cutter. Students in the Manufacturing classes are learning how this equipment is changing the face and perception of manufacturing. The district is investing in the future of our students by providing numerous opportunities for them to experience authentic STEM practices.

The high school under the advisement of Mr. Zach Pratt has started a MCHS Chapter of the Technology Student Association, TSA. This student run organization will work on challenges throughout the year and compete in the spring against other high school students in our region. The competitions vary from projects to design challenges as well parliamentary processes. We are excited about the addition of this student club for our students to be able to gain authentic practice.

The Middle School offers PLTW course to all levels of students. Fifth grade started PLTW Robotics and Automation last fall offering part 1. Students in sixth grade this year will get part 2 of the PLTW R & A. This gives students an opportunity to learn about coding in a friendly drop and drag environment. Student can simulate robotics and well as gain knowledge by building prototypes of robotics components. Programming an app controls their models and simulations.

In the seventh grade students are exposed to PLTW Design and Modeling. A course that introduces the design process, sketching and CAD drawings. From conceptualization to design, students begin to get a feel for how a product originates. They see the dream of a product become a final idea through the design process steps. Eighth grade gives the students a taste of gearing and assembly production line processes in a PLTW Automation and Robotics course. Students are able to construct scale models to explore gear ratios and power trains to begin learning about mechanisms. Students have the ability to learn coding a program to automate a mechanism.

When teachers improve their instructional practices, students learn more effectively. An instructional coach helps teachers improve student learning and teacher practice. The instructional coach’s job, built upon a forged relationship between the teacher and the coach, is to support the teacher with improving both his/her teaching and student learning. In order for this to occur, teachers first need to be willing – coaching is voluntary – to involve the coach in their classroom and in the teaching process.

Together, the coach and teacher figure out what student learning needs to occur and the best way to make that learning occur. Structured similar to a teacher evaluation, the coach meets with the teacher prior to observing a lesson to determine the desired student behaviors. When the coach comes to observe in the classroom, the students are the objective, not the teacher. If the students are producing the desired behaviors and learning, then the teacher has been successful. If not, then the instructional practices of the teacher change and another observation occurs. The coach and the teacher meet after the observation and discuss successes and revisions, often creating another pre-conference and observation. Teachers seek out coaches for assistance, to help them figure out and achieve what is next for their teaching and for their students.

At Manheim Central Middle School, the instructional coach is available to all teachers. The job involves leading professional development sessions, modeling and planning lessons, providing feedback for all teachers, and coaching teachers through the cycle outlined previously. So far this year the instructional coach has worked with close to twenty teachers in various content areas. Observing students engaged in learning, co-planning lessons and assessments, and working through classroom concerns are only a few of the ways coaching is impacting teachers and students at the middle school.

Students are ultimately the ones who do the achieving in school, but the teachers are the ones influencing and driving that learning. Each teacher deserves to work with an instructional coach in order to improve his/her craft and, most importantly, student learning.

5th grade COMPUTERS/STEM Steve Waddington and Karl Peifer

During 5th grade computer, students learn about desktop management, Office 365, as well as, Word and Excel. Initially, students learn how to create and organize their folders and documents in Microsoft’s OneDrive. This cloud environment permits students access to their folders and files anywhere they have internet access. After spending time on desktop management and OneDrive, Excel is the next area of focus. In this unit, students will have the opportunity to discover the benefits of and reasons for using Excel. After this brief introduction, students will spend time identifying various parts of an Excel document. As students gain more familiarity with Excel, they apply learned skills to create a grade keeper. This allows students the opportunity to show how Excel can be used to organize and calculate data. Finally, in our last Excel activity, students are guided through the process of creating a line graph of the average temperatures in Lancaster, PA. Through this creation, students can demonstrate how Excel can be used to display information in the form of a graph. As the marking period closes, students will get acquainted with Word. During this unit, students will review basic text formatting and discover how to setup tab stops, indent markers, as well as line and paragraph spacing. Furthermore, students will learn how to add headers and footers, columns, pictures and will have the opportunity to work with these elements within Word.

Project Lead the Way, is a curriculum being taught nationwide, in over 6,000 schools to millions of students, introducing students to engineering. The district offers PLTW classes up thru 12th grade with intent of preparing students for careers in the many areas of engineering. In the middle school students receive PLTW curriculum in all four grades.

In 5th grade STEM/Technology and Engineering Education students experience Project Lead the Way’s LAUNCH engineering-based curriculum infused with Technology Education. 5th grade’s PLTW curriculum is called Robotics and Automation. Students are actively involved with the following activities: learning about technology and inventions; learning about robots – focusing on why humans are using robots, inputs and outputs, and eventually compete in our robot maze challenge; finally students build a sailboat out of styrofoam, wood and vinyl, (while doing science and math), that they race in our water-filled race track.

6th grade COMPUTERS/STEM Steve Waddington and Jenn Barr

During 6th grade computer, students learn how to code through various programming sites, such as Code.org, App Inventor and Scratch. While working through a myriad of activities in combination with these sites, students have been strengthening their computational thinking skills. Code.org is an organization found by Hadi Partovi, to promote computer science in all schools around the world. Coding teaches students to be computational thinkers at the same time preparing students for the jobs of the future. Scratch and App Inventor are other programs, created by MIT to teach students to code using blocks of code similar to those found in code.org. In addition, some students have used Scratch to program our two Finch robots to do various tasks. Throughout this course, students will learn about algorithms, programming, pixels, compiler, loops, debugging, conditionals, binary code, events and computational thinking.

6th grade STEM/Technology Education & Engineering is a continuation of 5th grade PLTW curriculum, which is the Robotics and Automation Challenge. Students explore the application of autonomous robots in a variety of situations and learn more about a particular type of robot. The activities and project in this module develop skills and knowledge associated with the utilization of computer software to program robots.

7th grade Technology and Engineering Education/PLTW - Jenn Barr

7th grade Technology Education & Engineering is the Design & Modeling curriculum from PLTW. It allows students to apply the design process to solve problems and understand the influence of creativity and innovation in their lives. Accurate measurement is also reviewed, and students apply measurement when sketching, making a skimmer design, and using a computer modeling systems called Inventor. They also practice conversion between units. The use of Orthographic sketching helps them to communicate design ideas, and allows them to understand the basics of technical drawings. A Career Exploration project pushes students to research different trades and engineering career options for future consideration.

8th grade Technology and Engineering Education/PLTW - Karl Peifer

The 8th grade PLTW curriculum is called Automation and Robotics. In this 22 day long class students spend time; building and examining 11 different types of gears; doing a problem solving activity where they build a pull-toy mechanism out of 4 or more of the 11 gears; building a robot; learning a programming language called ROBOTC; programming their robot; and competing in a robot maze challenge. Teamwork, problem solving, self-motivation and communication are emphasized throughout their time in the lab.