Webinar Part II

- Relevance - Relevance - Relevance - Relevance - Relevance -

We will get into our heading in a little but first we will talk a little about rewarding students...not just candy but also recognition. If you catch kids being good then they learn to get caught for being good it does not necessarily shape their behavior. 

Honor kids everyday not at events. You can't wait to honor kids because they don't know why they are being honored. The same goes for punishment, which is something we have been talking about for years. 

FOCUS ON FEEDBACK, THE PROCESS, AND LEARNING. Which translates to in our words, thinking outside the box and metacognition. As educators it is our job to show students how to think; through think-alouds, real world examples, and directly teaching our students to be aware of their minds. 

The heading for our post this week pertains to teaching relevant content and projects so that students are more engaged...which relates too... the SLC's at our school can have a decent negative impact on student motivation. Meaning we have students who don't want to be in the community they are in and thus do not care about the classes we are taking.

Inductive Strategies:

- Categorize research and given information.

GOODBYE FRIENDS 

Motivation

"We cannot motivate others... we can only work to create the conditions for people to motivate themselves."

During our PLC we watched a webinar discussing developing intrinsic motivation in students and why the old reward system should not be used or relied upon.

It is important we build confidence in our students through praising students strengths.

To Be Continued...

We Surved the Storm

Today our positive learning team discussed teacher motivation. What is teacher motivation? How do we create life-long learners when we do not practice those very principles. As a team we discussed what motivates each of us, not just as educators but as citizens and adults. 

Below is a rough list we came up with as a  result of spitballing together.

• Having people (others) come to 'me' for assistance. 
• Money
• Assisting Others
• End product ( seeing success)

We again asked the question? We are trying to figure out how to motivate our students but we have to know first how to motivate ourselves? 

Signing Off

Family Advocacy Day

Last week we had the school-wide family advocacy day where students and parents came in to meet with their teachers. Our PLC set up a booth where we gave out pamphlets in multiple languages.   On the pamphlets we had tips and suggestions for parents to encourage their children in a positive way. 

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare worte poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Martin Luther King, Jr.


Signing off!

Showcase Supplies??

I don't see any supplies requested for the Showcase.  If this changes, please see Dr. Cheryl Wright by November 30th.

Plans are underway to follow-up with information from the Kansas Enrichment Network.  Next, our parent-school liaison is a strong resource as we explore the names of motivational speakers to "kick-off " the after-school parent outreach program.

PLC Showcase

At the end of our semester of work, all PLCs will be showcasing their work at the Wyandotte High School PLC Showcase on Wednesday, December 12th in the Social Hall.  The showcase will be a public demonstration of our learning, collaboration, and results.  Each PLC will showcase work that reflects how your learning and collaboration has impacted student learning.  Each PLC is encouraged to be creative and innovative in their demonstration (student examples would be highly encouraged); however, please be sure the following are addressed through your presentation -
    PLC Focus

Collaborative Actions   

Summary of PLC Learning

Impact on Student Learning

Connections to Future Teaching and Learning

In addition, all staff will have an opportunity to visit each demonstration during the Showcase.  Many outside guests will also be in attendance.  

If your PLC requires any kind of additional resources, please submit any requests for those materials via the comment section to this blog entry by NOVEMBER 9th. You will receive these materials by or before your November 28th meeting, so you will have AT LEAST two weeks to work on organizing your demonstration.