Holiday Fun

Happy Holidays Deep Creek School Family, 

We are changing things up a little this year for the holidays. Beginning on Thursday, we will begin our 12 days of Christmas fun here at Deep Creek. We understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas but we hope you see these days as gestures of good will and appreciation.  

Please follow this link for the 12 days of fun. We will send reminders each day but we wanted you to see in advance so you can play along. 

DCES 12 Days of Christmas

All the Elves have been busy prepping this fun so please enjoy! 

Thank you for all you do each day! 

Adrienne and James

Reflection

Good morning to all,

We hope that each of you enjoyed a Thanksgiving break that gave an opportunity to be with family and recharge for the next 4 weeks.  We both have started formal observations and have a few more before break.  Don't forget that you may schedule at any time.

Today's MMM is going to continue the highlighting of the elements under Design Question 2.  They are steps that help students interact with new knowledge.  Again, not all of these elements are part of the CCPS evaluation process, but each are proven to help students' learning.  It needs to be constantly reiterated that these elements are not just something that should be used for a teacher evaluation, but research based methods that show how students learn.  The elements are a "road map" to show directions on how students' brains will absorb new information.



Helping Students Reflect on Learning is Element 13.  Strategies for reflecting on learning not only focus students' attention on the content but also on themselves as learners. (Marzano 2017)

Some strategies for this element appear in the table below.

The essential focus of reflection is to help students understand their role in the learning process.  Students must understand that this process must involve their attention and effort. 

Teachers should be able to see the following behaviors in their students.

• Students can describe what they are clear about and what they are confused about.
• Students can describe their levels of effort and the relationship of their effort to their learning.
• Students can describe what they might do to improve their learning.  

The elements in Design Question 2 lead to student learning, instructor introduces new information and alerts students to what is critical (Element #6), instructor organizes students, previews content and presents material in "digestible bites", which leads to students organizing and representing the knowledge (Element #12) and finally (Element #13) where a student reflects on their role in the process of learning.  Once again we will close by stating that these elements must not be thought of as strategies that are used for formal evaluations, but as a blueprint on how the brain operates and student learning.

Thank you for reading.  Candy Cane Lane is this Thursday evening at 5:30PM.  Be sure to check the Master Calendar for upcoming events.

Have a great week,

James & Adrienne

Happy Thanksgiving

Good Morning Deep Creek School Family, 

We hope you take time to reflect and be thankful over this break. We have a fabulous school for which many want to be a part. As with any family, we have our ups and downs. We are thankful for each of you and what you contribute to this family! 

Please rest and rejuvenate over the break. You deserve it! 

Thankfully yours, 

Adrienne and James

Element 12 Record and Represent Knowledge

Dear Staff,

It was shared previously, but it needs to be emphasized that Dr. Marzano and colleagues have worked tirelessly to determine the best methods to reach optimal student learning.  Instructional thinking needs to continue to shift that the Marzano Framework is not an evaluation tool, but a blueprint on the necessary steps that lead to the most effective manner in which students learn.  Students come to school to learn how to learn and the Marzano Framework is the map to their success.

A few weeks ago the focus was on Element 6, Identifying Critical Information.  The next step will be one of the elements that the Deep Creek PPC chose as a focus, which was Element 12, Helping Students Record and Represent Knowledge.  This is was a wise decision by the PPC since there has been tremendous effort at DCE in the common language of using Thinking Maps across all grade levels.  Looking above one should notice that each of these elements fall under the same Design Question, which is Helping Students Interact with New Knowledge.  To simply, it will greatly assist student learning if instructors emphasize critical content and help students organize this critical content in a manner such as Thinking Maps.

The proceeding graphic shows the rubric for correctly using Element 12.  The expected standard is highlighted in yellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk2b2yJN6IM

Also to go along with the rubric is the above link that enables the viewer to see the element being used at the Beginning level all the way through to the Innovating level.

Beginning is shared up to the 1:42 mark.  It highlights an error that is often observed where the critical information is being highlighted and organized, but it's being completed by the instructor instead of allowing students to work through the content.

Developing is then shared up to the 3:33 mark.  One can see the error here is that time is not used to ensure that all students are not being monitored for the desired effect.  The teacher stops and works with only one student.

Applying: 5:06 The instructor is allowing all students to prove their organization and understanding of the critical information.

Innovating Starting at 5:07 the instructor notices two students have mastered this portion of the lesson and adds an extension for them to continue as the remainder of the class completed the first part.

Thank you all for watching and reading.  Please make sure to look at the Master Calendar.  We do have a fire drill and code red drill on Tuesday.  We will do them one after another as we practice the Reverse Evacuation.  Looking forward to a great week.

James & Adrienne

Vote 11/6/18

Good Morning Deep Creek School Family, 

Let this be the year, we all get out and vote. No excuses!

Someone shared this website with me https://www.vote411.org/ so I thought I would pass it along. I am not sure the nature of it but I found it helpful to read about each item.

I am looking forward to our day together on Tuesday. Just a few reminders:

• park in the bus loop
• cafe and staff lounge are off limits
• try to use the side entry and limit access to the foyer unless you are voting 
• make sure you sign in "PD Day #2"

Here's to another great week! 

Adrienne and James