CoachTogether.net

Searching for Resources

I've been getting requests for lots of resources which tells me it's time to do some house cleaning.  I'll be working on tidying up the site and will just add links to what you are looking for right here.  I hope everyone is having a speedy start up of school and I look forward to some time to unpack, set up a desk and catch up! :)

Badge Tag Cut Scores with Science on Badge

Download Book Levels (Is it time to take the PLA collum off?)

Fourth Grade Teaching Plans for Bridges (with finding the Yearlong Map)

 

Entry for x0jane0x0 Holiday contest.

via www.youtube.com

Yast Tutorials

I'm making a few tutorials to help both you and I learn more about tracking our time on the Yast webpage.  I'm not looking forward to logging in all my past hours but I AM excited to see the colorful reports and data to share with my leadership! :)  Join me in learning this tool.  If you find a new trick - please post below.  If you have a question and need help - let us know and we can trouble shoot together.  Here is a link to my tutorials ( All mistakes in the tutorial are on purpose! I meant to say that!).

Go to Coachtogether.net - click on Yast on the top of the page (or click on this link).

For Staff Developers

Just as there is an art to effective classroom instruction, there is a related but specialized art to building a good staff development program. Stenhouse books and videos are most effective when used as part of a sustained PD course of study. Whether you are an experienced staff developer, an administrator, or a beginning literacy coach, you’ll find a number of useful resources in this section of our website.

 

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ctd/2478447901.html

Teachers' Use of Coaches - What is their responsibility?

Sunday, May 8, 2011 Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud: TEACHERS' USE OF COACHES What responsibility do teachers have when instructional coaches are placed in their buildings? In my workshops for coaches and principals I often suggest that principals should be communicating to teachers that there is a professional expectation to make use of the coach as a resource provided to the school. In the February 2011 issue of JDS from Learningforward (Vol.32 No 1), Davis Yopp and others wrote, “How to be a Wise Consumer of Coaching….Strategies Teachers Can Use to Maximize Coaching’s Benefits".

Read More: http://blogs.plsweb.com/2011/05/teachers-use-of-coaches.html

Budget in Wordle

The Superintendent shared her budget message.  Here is a Wordle of the "read more..." page on our district home page.  Just thought you should know.

Mobil Office

We all know that next year will look very different for the ICs with SKPS.  We are all a little nervous and anxious as we begin the work week containing our interviews.  It will be a challenge no matter which level you are in or which area you are assigned.  Working at multiple schools poses more challenges than we can imagine but one of the most concrete is a work space or office.  I was bumping around on the internet and found this solution!  I thinkto would prove to be very useful as well as welcoming with the built in guest chair.  As we all recalebrate what we would consider a normal work space, I would like to offer this suggestion: http://dornob.com/mobile-foam-office-compact-computer-desk-2-chair-set/

I wish us all great fortune in our decisions and choices for next year.

We Give Books

We Give Books is a free website that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online.

Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf.

The more you read, the more we give.  http://www.wegivebooks.org/

January 31st Staff Development Day

Coaches,
What are you planning for professional learning for your staff on our Staff Development Day on January 31st? The more we know, the more we can collaborate, right?

Stacey Lund
Brush College Elementary

Plimoth Plantation Live Video Webcast

Tuesday, November 16th return to: http://www.scholastic.com/thanksgivingwebcast/
This event has past but you can see a replay of "real" settlers and Native Americans.
This was very clevery by the Scholastic folks.  Many other features on this site to support your study of New England.

Ways to support teachers and families during conference

Stacey is collecting ways to support our teachers and families during conferences.  Please add a comment below with your suggestion or idea on what you plan on doing or have done in the past to offer support.

Envelopes to capture creative writing

This is a great time of year to inspire letter writing. This link has a variety of clever envelopes, boxes and containers for your students' great prose. http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/templates.htm

Mentor Texts from BookSource - Organized list

Many of you may have already done this put I am passing this along in case it may be helpful.  My library assistant has made a spreadsheet cataloging and organizing all of the reading and writing mentor texts we got last year and their location in our library.  

You may notice that not all of them are in our professional collection.  This is because our EGC did not receive a set of books so the titles that we already had in the regular library, we gave the new ones to the EGC for book bins.  All of the titles listed are from the lists we got last fall.  Nothing new has been added so if it will be helpful, feel free to use this document and change as you like.
Jennifer Foster, Scott ELementary

Download Mentor Texts-Writing-Reading

Progress Monitoring Tools

So in researching some ideas for a PD meeting I found some progress monitoring tools on the web.  I'm wondering if you have any that you really like?  Please share in the comment section below.

Easy CBM (Curriculum Based Measurement)

Another CBM type tool

National Center on Response to Intervention

PM and RTI article

THe National Center on Student Progress Monitoring

RTI Tools: A response to Intervention Directlry

Before you say no: This is a great spreadsheet to track your interventions and create a chart - all the work is done for you!!

Here is a spreadsheet to make your head spin!

Web 2.0

http://discoveryutopias.wikispaces.com/Enhancements

More Web 2.0 Tools.

Balanced Literacy in Norwalk-La Mirada California

Balanced Literacy Videos - Nice to see what other teachers are doing and thinking about literacy:

http://dev.nlmusd.k12.ca.us/literacy_media/index.html

On Screen Egg Timer

This is such a great timer!!! BIG and Beautiful! 

Leveled Book Badge Tag

I've gotten lots of requests for the pink leveled badge tags.  Here is the file so you can download for your own staff if you don't have one.  

Happy New Year!!! Download Badge Level Tag

You can now pre-order from Amazon!

Teacher Appreciation Days!! :)

Office Max Teacher Appreciation Event

Mark your calendars for the Office Max Teacher Appreciation Day - August 15, 2010 - yes, Sunday, August 15, 2010, not August 8th! :) All teachers will receive a free re-usable shopping bag and will receive 20% off everything you can fit in it. You must be a Max Rewards for Teachers* member.

Staples Teacher Appreciation Day - Keizer and Corvallis Staples on Aug 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

Big Lots Teacher Appreciation Day 08/14/2010!

Big Lots would like to show their appreciation to America's teachers and educators with a special Teacher Appreciation Day (home educators included).

On Saturday, August 14th, 2010, all educators will receive a 10% discount on all purchases with a valid school ID.

Office Depot Teacher Appreciation Day - August 22-28 with the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast on 8/28 from 9-11. 

All week, Star Teachers get:

• 10% off instantly on qualifying in-store purchases with your Member Card
• 50% back in Rewards on products from our sponsors 50% back³ in Rewards on products from Avery®, Carson-Dellosa, Crayola®, Command™, Expo®, Five Star®, Mead®, Paper Mate®, Post-It®, Scotch®, Sharpie® and Stanley Bostitch®
• $25 off any Lexmark™ printer regularly priced $199 or above

Social Network sites and KIDS!!

June 1 & 2 Menu

Rachael assured me that they would have food for all Meatatarians,  Vegetarians and Chickitarians! :) 

June 1 - Salad buffet

June 2 - Potato Bar

Science Links

Environmental Inquiry:  http://ei.cornell.edu

• Assessing Toxic Risk
• Invasion Ecology
• Decay and Renewal
• Watershed Dynamics

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign: http://www.nappc.org

• Curriculum thinking -processes

Jing Sample

http://screencast.com/t/MmYwOTU3Y2

What do students need to be successful in doing a work sample

Poll Everywhere

Cool Polling for FREE! http://www.polleverywhere.com/ When you set up an account folks can respond to polling with their twitter account, cell phone or webpage voting! EXCELLENT replacement of the clickers.

Moving Science Forward

Happy Monday Morning!! :)  I'm here at the ESD at the ODE's pilot of the "Moving Science Forward Workshop."  If you are interested in learning more - check out their webpage:

http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=2906

Teaching as Leadership

Hey All...

I am into a really good book right now, "Teaching as Leadership" by Steven Farr.  There is a great companion website www.teachingasleadership.org.  Check it out in your spare time if you so desire :)

I especially like the TAL Rubric...it's unlike any teacher standards I've seen before.  The PDF files towards the bottom are hundreds of pages long...very comprehensive...but you may be able to pull some out for staff PD.

If someone else has read or is reading this book...I would love to book talk with you :)

Jennifer VanSlander

Perhaps you all know about this website already, but one of my teachers just showed it to me today. Check it out if you are not familiar with it, delete this message if you are familiar with it!

http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/index.html

Enjoy your day!

Sue

Writer's Workshop

Coaches,
Wanted to share a cool website I found on Writer's Workshop, if you hadn't found this one yet. Would be a great piece of an intro to your teachers on Writer's Workshop, has pictures and examples of mini-lessons, anchor charts, student notebooks, and celebrations.

http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/writing_workshop%20Structure.htm


Stacey Lund
Instructional Coach
Brush College Elementary

Ocoee Middle School Gotta Keep Reading from Michael Cardwell on Vimeo.

Teacher Resources

Stumbled on this website - love the use of Wordpress. Great multi content area connections.  Love the look of the website!  I wish we could get that with typepad!! :) 

http://www.resources-teachers.info/

Shared Reading Webcasts

Here's how to get there!

www.curriculum.org/secretariat/literacy_en.shtml     (there's and underscore between " literacy"  and the "en" of the address) 

Once the site comes up, click on the yellow "post-it" note that says "view our Archived Webcasts", then scroll through the webcasts...scroll, scroll, and scroll...until you see "Shared Reading, Continuing the Conversation"...then there are different choices for watching!   Whew!

Enjoy!

brainrules.net

Hi Boo,

Great book, good web site.  Lots of food for thought in easily digestible form about what we need to consider for getting our kids (and our own) brains to work better.  Definitely worth a look.

http://brainrules.net

Ahhh, February.
Alison

read, write, think.org

With dynamic new features and improved navigation, ReadWriteThink.org delivers research-based instruction and powerful, proven tools for teaching in and out of the classroom.

• Innovative, high-quality lesson plans written and reviewed by experienced literacy professionals, sorted by grade level, and aligned to state and national standards.
• Classroom-ready, easy-to-use resources for experienced and new teachers alike, including interactive tools, calendar activities, and classroom printouts.
• NEW! A dedicated professional development section with strategy guides on effective teaching practices and access to a wealth of professional development resources.
• NEW! Parent and afterschool resources to help extend students’ learning after the bell, including activities and projects, online games, podcasts, and more.
• Opportunities to interact with our community of dedicated literacy professionals through shared stories, commentary, and social networking sites.

A partnership of the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Verizon Foundation, ReadWriteThink.org will help you turn reading and language arts theory into best classroom practices. Visit today and you’ll find everything you need for tomorrow’s lesson plan—www.readwritethink.org.

What Matters Now: Big Thoughts and Small Actions Make a Difference

From the Big Fresh - Choice Literacy:

What a marvelous gift for leaders in any field! Seth Godin has put together a smart little leadership eBook - What Matters Now:  Big Thoughts and Small Actions Make a Difference.  The contributors are top names from many professions, riffing on the one word that will guide their actions this year.  It's a just-right text to help you construct some thoughtful early January plans to carry you through the rest of the year.  The book is designed to be shared freely and widely, with almost no copyright and use restrictions:

 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1053.cfm

Yahoo Groups on the Daily Five

There are 2 really great group on Yahoo about The Daily Five. The kindergarten specific one is called "KindergartenD5" and the other is simply "Daily5" but it's for all grades. I highly recommend joining the groups. You don't have to use Yahoo for your email account. People post how they adapt it to work in their classroom.

Oregon ELA Standards K-5

The following documents were created out of the need to communicate progress and skills toward the benchmarks between teachers who share students.  The following were also used at conferences to make the ELA Standards more comprehensible for parents.

If you have feedback on these documents, please share!! 

• Kindergarten:  Download _KG Literacy Progress Report
• First:  Download 1 Reading Progress Reportchart
• Second:  Download 2 Reading Progress Reportchart
• Third: Download 3 Reading Progress Reportchart
• Fourth: Download 4 Reading Progress Reportchart
• Fifth:  Download 5 Reading Progress ReportChart

Literacy Model Continuum

This is a one page version of the Comprehensive Literacy Model Implementation Continuum.  Remember this is a DRAFT of a form. 

Download LitModelImplementationContinuumReading

Report Card Prep Both Intermediate and Primary

A teacher requested a prep tool for getting ready for the report card.  I made the attached spreadsheet and imported her student information into it.  I'm hoping someone else might find this useful??

Download KG Report Card Prep Tool  ~  KG Report Card

Download 1-2 Report Card Prep Tool  ~ 1-2 Report Card

Download 3-5 Report Card Prep Tool  ~ 3-5 Report Card

Journaling a connection...

I have a celebration I just had to share....

So I discovered a way to connect with a teacher here that is totally new to me (the venue,not the teacher).  She is very "intellectual" about things and has asked me to find articles etc. for her to read regarding her focus of Critical Thinking on the lit. model and incorporating it into reading and writing.  She is often busy or doesn't "have time" to meet with me so I grabbed a great article that I had read, journaled a quick response to it about my own learning and connections I saw to her values we discussed earlier and gave her the article and my journaled responsel.  She came to me later and asked if it was OK for her to journal back with me and could we keep doing that with other sources and experiences!  

I have done back and forth journaling with kids and was thrilled that she wants to do this and that the idea sort of came from her (with a little bit of a hint from me :)).  I am hoping this opens more doors for us to work together in other ways.

Anyhow, this whole thing was new to me and I wanted to share in case anyone else had a similar person this might work with to get a foot in the door, or if you have had similar experiences maybe you could let me know how they worked and worked out.

Have a good day!

Jennifer

Library and the CAFE

Here are some pictures of CAFE and other Literacy components (Shared Reading & posting standards) and how they might look in the library. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Jen VanSlander

Questions for Life (by Steven Barkley)

Many of you asked about the Questions for Life. Attached is the handout from Steven Barkley.
If you would like to order a book please let me know on Monday. 

Download Questions for Life final

Playful Learning

Great activities and ideas for learning and playing at home and at school! :)

Playful Learning

I Pick Video - Great class website!!

Correlation Chart

Janis sent out the new and improved correlation chart. 

I made it to fit a whole page and am looking at making it a large poster for our book room. I focused on the levels K-5 for the poster chart as those are the students we are looking for resources on a leveled basis.  I'm thinking that when kids are at a level 50 that they know how to pick a book and we aren't necessarily intervening with them on a leveling basis at that point in their reading continuum.   If that helps you - here you go! :)  Download Correlation Chart for Leveling Systems

Instructional Coach Roles and Log

We met Friday to get an overview of the coaching program.  WOW We got a chance to connect faces with names and really see how powerful the district coaching/mentoring/ela specialist-ing force is!! 

Rachael handed out the Roles for Instructional Coaching Program Handbook and the Instructional Coach Log.  You can download both here.  The log is the single sheet that wee need to turn into Rachael at the end of the month. 

UPDATED:  Gwen made the coach log in Excel and it auto tabulates the hours spent in each catagory.  You can try hers here:  Download Instructional Coach Log Autotabulate

Collaborative Coaching Forms

Attached are some forms that the coaches may find helpful...These are from the Beginning of the Year Technical Coaching Training by the New Teacher Center

Download Collaborative_Coaching_Log

Download Collaborative_Coaching_Notes

Collaborative Coaching Forms

Lynn shared two collaborative Coaching forms that she saw at the new coaching training. 

Download Collaborative_Coaching_Log

Download Collaborative_Coaching_Notes

Reading Level Badge Tag

I received the updated or current correlation chart.  I also updated the reading level badge tag to reflect the current correlation chart! :) 

You can download the ReadingLevel Chart.xls here.