Updates -- 21 Nov. 2014

Hello everyone,

Happy Friday-payday!  Happy belated Life Day!  Just two more work-days until we break for our long Thanksgiving weekend!

Looks like any change in the weather is still a long way off (maybe around 01 December?), so your Thanksgiving day should be splendid weather-wise, I think.

Hope you're able to spend your holiday with those you love while doing fun stuff together.  That's my plan.

Higher Order Critical Thinking Questions
During pre-conferences we discussed that this year I would be paying special attention to the kinds of questions you were asking your students during your evaluation-lesson.  I've found this endeavor fascinating and have enjoyed carefully scripting this portion of your lessons.  My notes in this regard, based on the questions I heard you ask during your observation-lesson, are included in the Questioning And Feedback portion of your first formal evaluation document. I hope you will spend a little time reviewing them.

We've discussed this in pre-conference, but I'd like to reiterate that the Innovating level of the TPEC rubric states:
Teacher provides consistent, immediate feedback to all students. Teacher uses Questioning Strategies that address higher order thinking and allow students to critically investigate the subject matter on a consistent basis.
Note the differences in wording between the Innovating and Integrating levels:
Teacher provides feedback to students. Teacher uses Questioning Strategies that on occasion address higher order thinking and allow students to investigate the subject matter.
Teaching our students to ask and answer critical thinking questions is an essential component to helping them become better prepared for their futures as rational and self-aware individuals.  In the article Inquiring Minds Really Do Want To Know: Using Questioning To Teach Critical Thinking, the author, Alison King, points out, "Good thinkers are always asking What does this mean?, What is the nature of this?, Is there another way to look at it?, Why is this happening?, What is the evidence of this?, and How can I be sure?"

In the aforementioned article, King has compiled a helpful table of examples of critical thinking questions.
Click to enlarge
As a rule of thumb, it's helpful to remember that "thought-provoking or critical thinking questions require students to go beyond the facts to think about them in ways that are different from what is presented explicitly in class or the text... Critical-thinking questions induce high-level cognitive processes, such as analysis of ideas, comparison and contrast, inference, prediction, evaluation, and the like."

Evaluations: Round 1
Pre-conference review and sign-off
This week I officially completed evals for all of our wonderful gen-ed certified classroom teachers, which means I have just our awesome SPED and other exceptional special-area teachers' evals to complete before we fully conclude Round 1 of formal teacher evaluations for the 2014-2015 school year.

I've watched so many excellent lessons and seen such an array of exceptional teaching throughout this process thus far this year.

Formal observation acknowledgement
I'm especially thrilled to have seen so many of you working through the early stages of familiarizing yourself and your students with EngageNY as a supplement to our Envision Math curriculum. I am likewise pleased that a number of you have reported to me your satisfaction with this new Core-aligned teaching resource.  I have every expectation that it will help us prepare our students for AzMERIT.

Please note: Many of you still need to sign-off on your TPEC pre-conference document and acknowledge your first formal evaluation.

If you have not completed both of these important steps, please log-in to your TPEC and do so now, as in right-now, without hesitation.

Calendar

 There will be NO end-of-the-week Blue Note on Tuesday, 25 November.

 Week B
  • Monday, 24 Nov.
    • Coe @ Kinsey for TPEC calibration mtg, 9:30-11:00
  • Wednesday, 26 Nov.
    • NO SCHOOL -- Thanksgiving Holiday
  • Thursday, 27 Nov.
    • NO SCHOOL -- Thanksgiving Day
  • Friday, 28 Nov.
    • NO SCHOOL -- Thanksgiving Holiday
Week A
  • Monday, 01 Dec.
    • Coe @ Admin Council, 11:00-4:00
  • Wednesday, 03 Dec.
    • PTO in the Library, 6:00
  • Friday, 05 Dec.
    • Canned Food Drive, 9:30
    • Two-hour Professional Development -- CANCELED
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