Rock Hill School News For February 14, 2012

News from Elaine T. Baker, Director of Information Services, Rock Hill Schools

Feb. 16 "RAP" Session

A reminder  of the February 16 "RAP" (Raising Awareness of Parents) session that will be held in the Sullivan Auditorium from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The session, open to all parents free of charge, will be on the topic "Parenting A Challenging Child."

 

First-Year-of-School Enrollment

The dates of February 21 - March 2 have been set aside for enrolling students in 4K, 5K, and first grade for the 2012-13 school year. Brochures have been sent home by elementary schools, and posters are on display. More information can be found on the district's website: http://www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us/news.aspx?article_id=3106.

 

Tweeting About Science

David Norton, the district's science instructional specialist, is now hosting a science tweet on Twitter (@rhsci) that's for teachers, students and parents. It contains items such as current science happenings, interesting science TV shows, upcoming astronomical events and information on famous scientists.

 

 

 

Reinventing The Wheel

I guess it's the thrill of exploring - to go out on your own to find your way. The Rock Hill Schools have several pilots on the use of IPADs, IPODs, and other tech devices. There is no doubt these new high tech devices are fun to use - but are they the best way to bring 21st learning to public schools?

The New York Times had an article in the Sunday paper about a small public school district just 35 miles up the interstate from Rock Hill. The Mooresville School District is being held up as the model for 21st century digital learning. Should we reinvent the wheel, or just use the wheel to go 35 miles up the road to learn how to do it.

Click here for the link to the New York Times article on the Mooresville Schools.

How Important is Student Feedback?

Many years ago I was helping to coach a Little League Baseball team - the one that went from age 9 to 12. The coaches would get together at the end of the season to pick an all-star team from the 11 and 12 year olds. One year we decided to get input from the 11 and 12 year olds.  Before getting the feedback, some of the coaches said the players would only pick their friends and not the best players. So we agreed we would only use the information for comparison purposes. The coaches then picked "their" all-star team and the players picked one. At the end of the process, their was only one difference between the two teams - and who could say which one was the "right" one.

The article below asks the question, who knows more about a teacher's performance. An Assistant Principal who pops in and out, or a student who has been there the whole year?

They are not suggesting students should be the only feedback, but that they should have an element of the feedback. Click the blog link to read the article

From the Chaz's School Daze Blog:

Rock Hill's #1 Question

The Winter Newsletter of Rock Hill's #1 Question is out. Click here to read about the upcoming events.

Possible Classroom Management Changes?

Click here to read the Blogging Through The Fourth Dimension blog:

10 Easy Things You Can Change in Your Classroom Today

Let's be honest, most teachers at the halfway point in the year are feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the great ideas they want to implement.  Our students are grooving, perhaps even getting a little too rambunctious, the routines are in place and yet it seems like there are so many things on our plate.  So I present to you 10 simple things to change to make your life a little easier....

1. Assign jobs.  I have jobs for everything and they change weekly.  My students take attendance, pass back papers, run messages and help pick up the classroom.  They love to help, they know it is expected, and together we take care of our room.  I don't have to hound people to do their jobs, at most I give them a reminder but it is a lot easier for me to say "Do your job" than remind 23 students to sign in every day.
2. Be on a need to know basis.  My students don't need to ask for permission to go to the bathroom or get a drink, just let me know either through a raised hand, a look or a gesture.  Class keeps going, students take care of themselves, everybody is happy.
3. Have extras.  This year has been the needy year for markers and calculators.  Instead of asking whether they can borrow something students just grab whatever they need, put it back when they are done.  If they accidentally take it home, so be it.  I will have to find more then.
4. If you can, plan right away.  After my morning math class my students leave for recess.  I take that opportunity to finish correcting fact tests and plan the next day's lessons.  This works much better for me since what they are secure in or not is fresh in my mind.  The next morning the lesson is ready to go and we are picking up right where we left off, reveiwing, securing and deepening our knowledge.
5. Keep a Google Calendar.  On our classroom blog we have a Google calendar where I put everything related to the classroom as soon as I know.  If I am gone from the classroom, it's on there, if we have a large project due it is on there.  Parents know I update it faithfully and go there to answer their questions regarding upcoming events.  This has cut back on a lot of confusion and questions from everyone, plus I refer to it in later years.
6. In fact, have a classroom blog.  Our blog is our hub of activity; upcoming events, extra project information, pictures, videos - all have a home on our classroom blog.  The students post there sometimes, I post often, and parents have a place where they can go for the information they need.  I showcase it on orientation and encourage them to add it to an RSS feed or get the email updates, this has cut back paper copies by a huge amount.
7. Ask your students.  This has to be my mantra for our classroom.  Winter is here, colds are all around us and I am pregnant - all reasons that lead to less creativity in lesson planning.  Yet my students are still amzingly creative and have no problem sharing their ideas.  The problem lies in that we forget to ask.  So take 10 minutes at the beginning of a lesson and ask them what they would like to explore, what would they like to create and then actually listen to their ideas.  I promise you, you will not be dissapointed.  (And yes it can fit into your standards and goals no problem - those don't dictate the path you take).
8. Dance a little.  This time of year can be rather depressing, particularly with winter in Wisconsin, so to bring in a little bit of fun and a little bit of sun, we take 4 minutes to dance.  The students pick the song (I usually check the lyrics) and then we crank it up.  We get back to work right after with a smile on our face and tensions gone.
9. Ask your papers where they want to go.  I used to have a very strict organizational system that required me to do a lot of thinking of where I put things.  I cannot tell you how much time I spent trying to remember where I had organized something to.  So one summer I decided to let my papers tell me where they wanted to go.  Those places now have trays in them for said papers and everything is in its place.  By letting your subconscious mind create your organizational system, things seems to stay organized.
10. Follow the one minute rule.  I am a procrastinator when it comes to filing or dropping things off.  It seems like I always have something more urgent to do than to take care of whatever I have in my hand.  So now I live by the 1 minute rule; if it can be done in 1 minute, do it right away!  My room is cleaner, my emails are more quickly answered, and I feel on top of things.  I even do this at home, what a difference it makes in a home with a toddler!

So there you are; 10 easy things you can do right now to, indeed, make your life easier.  Do you have mroe to add, please do share.

The Questions We Don't Ask About Technology

The SpeEdChange blog had some interesting thoughts about schools, learning, and technology:

"The media you use makes no difference at all to learning," Clark, director of the Center for Cognitive Technology at USC, is quoted as saying. "Not one dang bit. And the evidence has been around for more than 50 years." Which is all quite true, and I do not know here if Clark's statement is being used completely out of context here or not by Hiltzik, because Clark is not heard from again.

And Hiltzik leaps to a different academic, and a different argument immediately. "Almost every generation has been subjected in its formative years to some "groundbreaking" pedagogical technology. In the '60s and '70s," he writes before another quote, '"instructional TV was going to revolutionize everything," recalls Thomas C. Reeves, an instructional technology expert at the University of Georgia. "But the notion that a good teacher would be just as effective on videotape is not the case."'


If you are a teacher, a parent, an administrator, or the President of the United States, I do not care how or what you learned in school. Or, let me put it this way, your experience in school, or in sitting with your mom studying books in the wee hours of the morning, is completely irrelevant to any discussion of the education of today's students.

Maybe worse than irrelevant. Maybe dangerous. The belief that "your" experience is relevant leads to a nightmare loop. 

And thus all who are "different" in any way - race, class, ability, temperament, preferences - are left out of the success story.


Technology is everything humans have created. Books are technology - a rather complex and expensive one actually, for holding and transmitting human knowledge. The schoolroom is technology - the desks, chairs, blackboards, schedule, calendar, paper, pens, and pencils. These are not "good" or "bad," but at this point, they are simply outdated.

Yes, we still have stone carvers. Yes, we still have calligraphers. But we no longer teach students to chase the duck, pluck the feather, and cut the quill. We no longer teach Morse Code. We no longer teach the creation of illuminated manuscripts.

Now we must give up teaching that ink-on-paper is the primary information source. It is not. We must give up insisting that students learn "cursive" writing. Instead, they must learn to text on their mobiles and dictate intelligibly to their computer. We must toss out our "keyboarding" classes and encourage students to discover their own best ways to input data. We must abandon much of Socrates' memorization and switch to engagement with where data is stored. We must abandon the one-way classroom communication system, be it the lecture or use of the "clicker," and teach with conversation and through modeling learning itself. We must lose the idea that "attention" means students staring at a teacher, or that "attendance" means being in the room, and understand all the differing ways humans learn best. We must stop separating subjects rigidly and adopt the contemporary notion of following knowledge where it leads us.

And we need to start by understanding that we are preparing students for the world that is their future, not the world that is our past.

- Ira Socol


Read the full article by clicking here.

Rock Hill School Board Work Session on Monday

SCHOOL BOARD WORK SESSION
LOCATION: Northwestern High School
START:   5:30 p.m.
DATE: Monday, February 13, 2012
AGENDA 

1. Presentation by Northwestern High School James Blake - 30 minutes
2. Innovative Practices in Technology by Luanne Kokolis - 30 minutes
3. Policy DC ‐ Taxing and Borrowing by Elaine Bilton - 10 minutes
4. Policy KBC ‐ Social Media Policy ‐ by Luanne Kokolis - 15 minutes
5. Policy GBEB ‐ Staff Conduct by Luanne Kokolis - 10 minutes
6. Policy JICDA ‐ Code of Conduct by Luanne Kokolis - 10 minutes
7. Facility Use Agreement by Tony Cox - 15 minutes
8. Vehicle Use Agreement by Luanne Kokolis - 15 minutes
9. SCSBA ‐ Board Retreat by Ann Reid -10 minutes
10. York County Day by Jane Sharp / Jim Vining -10 minutes
11. Legislative Update by Walter Brown - 10 minutes
12. Board Communication by Jane Sharp - 10 minutes