Boom Boom Pow

According to Chris Harris, these are the creative digital natives sitting in your classroom everyday. They love to express themselves, remix and create. What are you doing to accommodate their learning styles?

Must See Video

Here is a little video on why teachers should learn to blog, so they can teach their students the very same skills. Remember....your students are digital natives and will gravitate towards this kind of activity. You can find videos like this on Teacher Tube.

Feedback is King!

Please go to the following site and fill out the survey so that our team can use your feedback to provide you with the best support and experience in Eagle County Schools. WE REALLY LISTEN.

Survey

Another Great Resource

Martha Kaufledt has spent much of her career working on Differentiated Instruction, especially with Gifted and Talented students. Her website Begin with the Brain talks about classroom environment and best practices for instruction. She has two books pictured below.

Customize Your Blog

There are a number of sites that can tutor you in customizing your blog with banners, as well as changing the html codes to really give your blog a unique appearance. Below are two sites that will walk you through some of those steps.

Blogger Buster

Cutest Blog on the Block

Blog Candy

Win a gift certificate to the Smiling Moose Deli in Eagle or Edwards just by leaving a comment. Winners will be announced on Thursday, August 20th.

Motivation & Engagement - The Sequel

We cannot wait for August 26th and 27th to get here. All of our teachers are invited to an amazing conference at the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek to spend two days working with some wonderful presenters who will share some valuable content. Listed below are the presenters with a link to their own sites.

Spencer Kagan
Richard Cash
Eugene Garcia
Beth Skelton
Grace Dearborn
Chris Harris

Must Have Resource

The resource for the idea in the Visual Expectations post below came from Rick Smith the author of Conscious Classroom Management. You can find a copy in your school's professional library, or buy a copy at our Motivation & Engagement conference in Beaver Creek on August 26th and 27th.

Visual Expectations

In his book Conscious Classroom Management, Rick Smith says "Procedures are the train tracks and content is the train." Teachers with smooth running classrooms spend time at the beginning of the year intentionally teaching their students procedures and routines and then revisit those expectations throughout the school year. One very effective strategy for supporting students in remembering classroom expectations is to provide them with visuals that are easily referenced. Below is a 1-5 photo rubric on the expectations of a clean work space.


In this photo students see an example of an unacceptable work space that would score a 1 on the Expectation Rubric.


In this photo students see an example of an almost acceptable work space that would score a 3 on the Expectation Rubric.


In this photo students see an example of an acceptable work space that would score a 5 on the Expectation Rubric.

At the beginning of the year, the teacher should spend time explaining the expectations of the physical environment of the classroom and how respecting the cleanliness of the work space makes for a better learning experience. Once this expectation has been thoroughly explained to students, the teacher only needs to reference the posted photos to give students feedback on where they are in the expectation and then ask students to make adjustments to meet the 5 on the rubric. Use of this procedure will increase the amount of time spent on instruction in the classroom.

Please leave me a comment to check out your work space expectations.

~ Liz