School Posters That Should Exist...

Source: Michael Smith's Principal Blog

A Letter From Santa

Written by Mike Gorman (http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

Dear Teachers,

I have been meaning to write this letter for a long time! It is a letter that I feel is long overdue and with the elves getting all ready for my long ride, I finally found the time! I have been watching teachers for many years and I am amazed at the work they do. I have come to a conclusion that the teaching profession, like my own, must be filled with bits of  magic! Please let me provide ten statements of evidence for my belief.

1.  I travel the world one night of the year visiting all the boys and girls of the world. The teaching profession works with every boy and girl all year long. This equates to each teacher fulfilling educational needs for 30 – 200 children each and every school day. Seems like magic to me!

2. I deliver presents to all the boys and girls. From my Toy Repair Shop statistics I find many of these gifts are broken or no longer garner a child’s interest within months!  Yet teachers find inner gifts in every child. Teachers nurture these inner gifts  until they develop into true presents that will last a lifetime.  These kinds of gifts sure seem like magic to me!

3. I keep my naughty and nice list for every child. Some people believe this job is pretty amazing! Yet when I look at the teaching profession, teachers provide a constant evaluation of all their students! Their list covers all the aspects of developing and learning which they report to children’s parents and to the children themselves! This evaluation is based on a wide variety of observations, data, and student performance.  Teachers will then use this list to help improve each and every student! Wow, keeping track of every student’s ability and prescribing ways to be successful must really be magic!

4. I leave presents to students who are on the nice list and who believe in me. Teachers work with all children because they believe in every student. Teachers continue to do so, even when students stop believing in the educational system’s ability to help them achieve.  That type of persistence has got to be magic!

5. I have operated my workshop using the same technology for hundreds of years and it has worked for me. Then again, I work with children when they are asleep, delivering presents in my own way. Teachers work with children when they are awake and they have spent time learning how to engage children using googles, blogs, phlogs, glogs, prezis, and all these other words I really don’t know! Being able to teach, transform, and accommodate for this new digital generation must really be magic!

6. I have made it a practice to leave coal behind for children who do not make my good list! It seems every year the same children always get the coal. Teachers refuse to leave coal, in fact, they are working hard at leaving no child behind. To work towards a goal of leaving no child behind is a true act of magic!

7. I read the news and I am always so thankful to read all the nice articles about my work. It really does provide me with motivation to keep up my vocation. I read news articles about the education profession and it seems that most articles are unsupportive. Yet, teachers keep working hard at providing success for their students! These teachers must be operating on a little bit of magic!

8. I have thousands of elves, of course the reindeer, and the  community of the entire North Pole to assist me. Teachers work every day, many times by themselves, as they provide new opportunities for their students! Carrying that load alone must be much heavier than my bag of toys. It must really be magic!

9. I receive many a thank you and millions of pictures of happy faces as children open their presents each year. Teachers don’t always get the thank yous, or may never see the present get eventually opened. When they do, appreciation may come from decades later!  A thank you that appears after many years must be the result of pure magic!

10. I discovered a light in Rudolph brightens up a dark, foggy, or snowy night so that I can deliver joy to all the children across the world. Teachers provide the light that brightens our world in both the darkest night and brightest day! It is the light of learning and knowledge!  The ability to keep that light burning  bright  must take a quite a bit of magic!

You see, I have found that magic does not come easily! It is made possible only by those who work hard and keep believing, and seek what they know is possible! As you can see, there must be a great deal of magic in the education profession! Please continue to keep this magic alive and know that you are all on my good list! After all, I had to learn all that I do from somewhere! So from across the years I know I have many teachers to thank!   Last, to all teachers across the world… I really do believe in you!

Thanks for all the magic,

Santa

I hope you enjoyed this very special message from Santa. Please take a moment to share this letter with other educators across the world. It will truly help bring out the magic in our profession! Please accept my present to you,  which is another year of postings by subscribing at 21centuryedtech. Feel free to follow me on Twitter (mjgormans).

Some Important Holiday Sites

Also, you can see the reindeer before their big night...

Click Here:
http://reindeercam.com/

WLMS Pride! Former Graduates Make a Mark!

Brothers create computer data sifter 

By Carolyn Y. Johnson 

Globe Staff 

December 15, 2011

Photo Credit: Chie Yu Lin, courtesy of Pardis Sabeti

Brothers David, right, and Yakir, left, Reshef developed the new statistical tools under the guidance of professors from Harvard University and the Broad Institute.

It is an unusual starting point for a high-profile paper in a leading science journal: Two brothers, students a year apart at universities down the Charles River from one another, decide to work together on a summer project. The research unfolds through ideas scribbled on the walls of a laboratory, insights gained during downtime working as an emergency medical technician, and brainstorms shared at a fraternity house in Boston.

Yesterday, the influential journal Science published the fruits of that labor: the creation of a powerful computer program that rapidly flags patterns and identifies correlations in huge databases, from sports statistics to online social networks to the genomes being churned out by science laboratories.

While it is rare for two brothers in their mid-20s to share credit as the lead authors of a paper, the achievement demonstrates how creativity often arises from the back-and-forth of a team, in this case, David and Yakir Reshef, who have been collaborating since childhood.

“I think, in some sense, David and I have been roping each other into things for our entire lives,’’ said Yakir, 24 and a Fulbright scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. 

The summer after his senior year at MIT, David began working with Pardis Sabeti, a biologist at the Broad Institute who had an interest in global health. David was developing an approach to sift through large, international health data sets, highlighting potential relationships between demographic information and the incidence of infectious diseases, such as cholera or HIV.

“We just wanted a simple way to figure out what was in the data sets,’’ said David, 25, who is pursuing a dual degree in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. “At first we thought we would go find some methods that existed. It turned out to be a much more complicated question to answer.’’

To read the entire article, click here: Boston Globe Article

      

As the amount of data that comes out of the lab increases, so does the time it takes to analyze it. Yakir Reshef and his brother David and have developed an algorithm that will allow researchers to comb through vast amounts of data to find results they may not have otherwise noticed.

WLMS Pride!

WLMS Students Train as Triathletes

TriColumbia, the Mid-Atlantic’s premier endurance event production company, partnered with WLMS to provide  triathlon instruction during physical education classes in an effort to educate students on the experience and lifestyle benefits of triathlon. The partnership was formalized with an official signing on September 28 at Wilde Lake Middle School in Columbia, Md. Above are pictures of our students beginning the training process.

Because of this partnership, 15 triathlon bikes have been donated to the school and our students have gained access to use the Columbia Aquatic Center to enhance their swimming skills. Thanks to TriColumbia for their support and to our amazing PE teachers Ms. Middleton and Mr. Tiffany!

Happy Holidays! Go Terps!

Holiday Greetings from the University of Maryland! from University of Maryland on Vimeo.

The History of the Book

WLMS Pride: Council Honors WLMS's Karen Stiller

The Howard County Council honored WLMS math teacher, Karen Stiller this past Monday evening for being selected Maryland's Outstanding Mathematics Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics! I want to thank Council Member Mary Kay Sigaty and the entire Council for helping to make this special recognition possible for our amazing math teacher. Way to go Karen!

Project Based Learning Explained

Restructuring Middle Schools in Howard County

In 2010, Maryland was one of the first states to adopt the Common Core Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. As a result of this decision, major changes to the state's curricula and assessments are beginning to take shape. One of the biggest changes is the emphasis on disciplinary literacy.

What is Disciplinary Literacy?

 
Disciplinary Literacy is defined by
Shanahan and Shanahan (2008)
as advanced literacy instruction
embedded within content-areas. 
Disciplinary Literacy instruction
engages learners with content in
ways that mirror what scientists
and mathematicians do to inquire
and gain understanding in their
disciplines.

Consequently, it has become important to review how Howard County middle schools are currently structured and determine whether changes are needed to to deliver the new state curricula for all of our students. This past week, a proposal was presented to the Board of Education that opens an important dialog about middle level education here in our community.

We know the Common Core Standards require students to be fluent thinkers, readers, and writers within the context of a variety of disciplines. Students will need to be able to read, analyze, and respond in writing to complex texts in a variety of subjects. This will require them to be familiar with the vocabulary, compositional style, and particular structure of texts from all content subjects, as well as the larger perspectives, modes of thinking, and forms of evidence embodied in such texts. The demands of the standards will also be reflected on the new assessments, which will replace the MSA's during the 2014-2015 school year.

Currently, Howard County middle schools provide a stand alone reading class for all students. This practice has served our students very well for more than a decade. In fact, Howard County middle school students have ranked at the top or near the top in reading as assessed by the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) each and every year this state testing program has existed. However, the Common Core makes it necessary
to move away from teaching reading skills in isolation from content and towards infusing literacy into all disciplines. In doing so, the program will move closer to providing students with the skills, knowledge, and confidence they will need to be successful in high school and in a variety of educational and career contexts.

While basic reading skills were a foundation of the MSA, the Common Core raises the bar and requires students to use higher level reading skills outlined in disciplinary literacy. Therefore, to help our students meet the rigorous demands of the new curriculum as well as the PARCC assessments which align to the standards, it is important that we restructure the middle school program of study here in Howard County. This includes the elimination of reading as a stand alone course and providing time for content teachers to begin to address the concepts found in disciplinary literacy. 

As part of the restructuring, we hope to include world language classes for  6th graders, extending access to physical education, and providing additional assistance for students who need more instruction in mathematics and/or literacy. We will continue to provide direct reading supports for those students who are reading below grade level.

The time for change is now!

Source: Howard County Public Schools Middle School Report, 2011

An Amazing Kid!

Inspiring-Bringing Light to the World: Isang Litrong Liwanag

The New Technology of Story Telling

US Secretary of Education Duncan Visits Wilde Lake High

I had the opportunity on Tuesday to meet Secretary Duncan and Alexa Posny, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, on a visit to Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md. During the visit, Duncan and Posny observed classrooms and joined in a discussion with students, parents and community members about the importance of inclusion and closing the achievement gap for students with disabilities. The discussion was facilitated by Patty Daley, director of special education from the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) and James LeMon, principal at Wilde Lake.

During the discussion, Duncan and Posny probed students with a variety of questions aimed at drilling down to the reasons why students at the high school have been so successful, with a particular focus on the tremendous gains that Wilde Lake has made in the achievement measures of its special education students. Secretary Duncan observed that the faculty here is “absolutely committed to making sure that every student fulfills their academic and social potential.” When Alexa asked the students on the panel what makes special education students so successful at Wilde Lake, one student shared that the cultural stigma of being a special ed student had been eliminated and declared that it had been taken over by the notion that, “I am a student!” We know that Wilde Lake takes this belief very seriously, as more than 90 percent of their students spend more than 80 percent of the school day in a general education setting. 

Through the discussion, we learned that the staff at Wilde Lake, led by Principal LeMon and supported by Patty Daley, has taken extraordinary measures to establish and promote a culture of acceptance and individualized instruction within their school programming. They have taken purposeful steps to engage families in a meaningful way, even including them as stakeholders in professional development activities. The school community has a strong belief that each individual is a stakeholder. They routinely analyze student data, make instructional decisions based upon this data, and identify targeted interventions aimed both at supporting students who are falling behind and enriching those who need an extra push. They use research-based instructional practices to maximize the learning for all of their students, citing the use of Classroom Focused Improvement Process (http://www.blogger.com) as one example. This targeted, “laser” focus of both Wilde Lake and HCPSS, led by the district’s superintendent, Dr. Sydney Cousin, has enabled an effective mainstreaming environment for all students with disabilities, recognizing that they can and should succeed. They have developed an expectation that all students are self-advocates.

Assistant Secretary Posny noted in her opening remarks that, “There is a greater tragedy than being labeled as a slow learner, and that is being treated like one.” Students with disabilities at Wilde Lake are not treated like slow learners, but are treated as equal partners in education with the same expectations for success as their peers. Truly, the mantra “I am a student!” is a pervasive part of the culture, and in that regard Wilde Lake should be a model for all schools across the country. (Source: Greg Mullenholz, a Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education.)

I am Thankful: A Principal's Top 10 List!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays!  I love its simple premise that we gather with the ones we love to give thanks for our many blessings. There’s no need to exchange gifts and few expectations beyond a properly cooked turkey, stuffing and a large enough TV to watch the football games. It is a day where we can focus on the people we love as we sit across from them and enjoy good conversation, laughter and a deliciously cooked meal. It is a wonderful opportunity for each of us to express how thankful we are for family, friends, and those we work with.

With this in mind, I wanted to thank the staff of Wilde Lake Middle School, the central office staff of the HCPSS, my McDaniel friends, my amazing wife, my incredible kids, my mom and dad and all of the wonderful people who read this blog whom I don't know. I am thankful for each of you and I am wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Here is my Principal TOP 10 List of what I am thankful for as 

I head into the 2011 Thanksgiving Break. 

I am thankful for:

11. High fives and pounds from students, the daily laughs in the front office, working out solutions to problems, and seeing growth in faculty while initiatives move forward.

10. WLMS parents who are overwhelmingly positive about what we do here and when they are critical, they do it kindly.

9. A staff full of professionals who not only work hard but are still hungry to learn more.

8. Our custodial crew for keeping our school looking so beautiful!

7. The new teachers who have entered our WLMS community and have brought new ideas and fresh energy.

6. The students who are generally responsible, respectful, ready, safe and eager to learn.

5. The WLMS Leadership Team who are able to give me advice and counsel with a perspective unlike any one else’s.

4. The front office staff here at WLMS. Need I say more?

3. The talented content team leaders (Lindsay, Brett, Emily, Laura and Lauren!)

2. The hard working and amazing grade level team leaders (Joanna, Jeanette and Damisha!)

1. Lisa, Ann and Michele for helping me each and everyday!

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, and, it is more than 10!

What would be on your top 10 list this year?

Another Great Project: The Life of Leaf

How About Better Parents

NY Times OpEd
By Thomas L. Friedman

IN recent years, we’ve been treated to reams of op-ed articles about how we need better teachers in our public schools and, if only the teachers’ unions would go away, our kids would score like Singapore’s on the big international tests. There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

How do we know? Every three years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., conducts exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in the world’s leading industrialized nations on their reading comprehension and ability to use what they’ve learned in math and science to solve real problems — the most important skills for succeeding in college and life. America’s 15-year-olds have not been distinguishing themselves in the PISA exams compared with students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai.


To better understand why some students thrive taking the PISA tests and others do not, Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the exams for the O.E.C.D., was encouraged by the O.E.C.D. countries to look beyond the classrooms. So starting with four countries in 2006, and then adding 14 more in 2009, the PISA team went to the parents of 5,000 students and interviewed them “about how they raised their kids and then compared that with the test results” for each of those years, Schleicher explained to me. Two weeks ago, the PISA team published the three main findings of its study: “Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all. The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family’s socioeconomic background. Parents’ engagement with their 15-year-olds is strongly associated with better performance in PISA.”
Schleicher explained to me that “just asking your child how was their school day and showing genuine interest in the learning that they are doing can have the same impact as hours of private tutoring. It is something every parent can do, no matter what their education level or social background.”


For instance, the PISA study revealed that “students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child ‘every day or almost every day’ or ‘once or twice a week’ during the first year of primary school have markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents reported that they had read a book with their child ‘never or almost never’ or only ‘once or twice a month.’ On average, the score difference is 25 points, the equivalent of well over half a school year.”


Yes, students from more well-to-do households are more likely to have more involved parents. “However,” the PISA team found, “even when comparing students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, those students whose parents regularly read books to them when they were in the first year of primary school score 14 points higher, on average, than students whose parents did not.”
The kind of parental involvement matters, as well. “For example,” the PISA study noted, “on average, the score point difference in reading that is associated with parental involvement is largest when parents read a book with their child, when they talk about things they have done during the day, and when they tell stories to their children.” The score point difference is smallest when parental involvement takes the form of simply playing with their children.


These PISA findings were echoed in a recent study by the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education, and written up by the center’s director, Patte Barth, in the latest issue of The American School Board Journal.


The study, called “Back to School: How parent involvement affects student achievement,” found something “somewhat surprising,” wrote Barth: “Parent involvement can take many forms, but only a few of them relate to higher student performance. Of those that work, parental actions that support children’s learning at home are most likely to have an impact on academic achievement at school.
“Monitoring homework; making sure children get to school; rewarding their efforts and talking up the idea of going to college. These parent actions are linked to better attendance, grades, test scores, and preparation for college,” Barth wrote. “The study found that getting parents involved with their children’s learning at home is a more powerful driver of achievement than parents attending P.T.A. and school board meetings, volunteering in classrooms, participating in fund-raising, and showing up at back-to-school nights.”


To be sure, there is no substitute for a good teacher. There is nothing more valuable than great classroom instruction. But let’s stop putting the whole burden on teachers. We also need better parents. Better parents can make every teacher more effective.

What are your thoughts?

Howard officials propose changes in middle school schedule

The Howard County school system is considering major changes to its middle school class schedule that include discontinuing reading as a stand-alone subject for most students, school officials said.
In addition, the school day might be reduced from eight instruction periods to seven 50-minute periods, with physical education classes held every other day.

The proposed changes are part of the system's efforts to implement the common core curriculum, adopted by the Maryland State Board of Education last year for math and English language arts. The common core is a nationwide set of shared goals and expectations for students at each grade level.

To read more of this article, click here:
Howard officials propose changes in middle school schedule

A Great Project!

Congratulations to our newest NJHS Inductees!

This past Wednesday evening, we conducted our annual National Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony. It was really a wonderful event. It is great to have an opportunity to celebrate the many talented young scholars we have here at WLMS. In addition, attendees had the opportunity to hear about all the great acts of service each inductee is doing to improve our community. 

I want to thanks Ms. Baldwin and Mr. Merrills for organizing this event for our school and serving as the advisers for this amazing group of students.

Amazing Art Work at the Lake!

 

What amazing artists we have here at WLMS! 

A special thanks to Ms. Simpson for being such a great teacher and inspiring such wonderful artistic expressions from our students!

Teacher Pay Study Asks the Wrong Question, Ignores Facts, Insults Teachers

As millions of Americans search for work, and millions more scrape by to make ends meet, researchers affiliated with two Washington think tanks -- the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation -- have recently announced a "finding" that defies common-sense: America's teachers are overpaid by more than 50 percent.

The new paper from Jason Richwine and Andrew Biggs fails on several levels. First, it asks the wrong question. Second, it ignores facts that conflict with its conclusions. Lastly, it insults teachers and demeans the profession.

Instead of asking whether teachers are overpaid, Richwine and Biggs should have asked what it would take to recruit and retain highly effective teachers for all students. Surveys show that many talented and committed young people are reluctant to enter teaching for the long haul because they think the profession is low-paying and not prestigious enough.

McKinsey & Co. did a study (PDF) last year comparing the U.S. to other countries and found that America's average current teacher salaries -- starting around $35,000 and topping out at an average of $65,000 -- were set far too low to attract and retain top talent.

The McKinsey report found that starting teacher salaries have not kept pace with other fields. In 1970, beginning New York City lawyers earned $2,000 more than first-year teachers. Today, a starting lawyer there can earn three or four times as much as a beginning teacher.

Money is not the reason that people enter teaching. But it is a reason why some talented people avoid teaching--or quit the profession when starting a family or buying a home. Other high-performing nations recruit teachers from the top third of college graduates. That must be our goal as well, and compensation is one critical factor. To encourage more top-caliber students to choose teaching, teachers should be paid a lot more, with starting salaries more in the range of $60,000 and potential earnings of as much as $150,000.

Great teachers stand at the summit of one of the hardest, most challenging, and most consequential professions for our children and the country's future economic prosperity. They deserve our respect and should be well-remunerated. Nevertheless, through tortured analysis, and in some instances a disregard of their own data, the authors of this new study reach a predictably contrary conclusion.

Traditionally, economists have analyzed teacher pay the same way they analyze pay in other professions--they have compared the pay of teachers to workers with similar education and work experience. Like many before them, Richwine and Biggs found that teachers did indeed receive lower pay than similarly educated workers -- almost 20 percent lower.

I agree that educational credentials are not the best measures of teacher effectiveness -- but the researchers go on to assert that teachers should not be compared to workers with similar educational credentials because teachers do not score as well on the Armed Forces Qualifications Test. Setting aside the fact that the AFQT does not measure teacher effectiveness, it is insulting and demeaning to argue that teachers are not smart enough to receive market compensation comparable to their peers based on the results of a test that most of them took as teenagers.

The researchers also ignored a chart in their own paper showing that teachers have similar overall benefit packages to private employees. Unhappy with those findings, they then exaggerated the value of teacher compensation by comparing the retirement benefits of the small minority of teachers who stay in the classroom for 30 years, rather than comparing the pension benefits for the typical teacher to their peers in other professions. 

Finally, they appeared to create out of thin air an 8.6 percent "job security" salary premium for teachers -- despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of education jobs were lost in the recession and teachers continue to face layoffs. 

By the end of this decade, more than half of America's 3.2 million teachers are expected to retire. That demographic shift presents a stiff challenge and a special opportunity. States, districts, and schools have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to modernize the teaching profession and expand the talent pool. But doing so will require dramatic change in the way we recruit, train, support, evaluate, and compensate teachers.

I agree with Richwine and Biggs on one point. If teachers are to be recognized and compensated as professionals, states and school districts must shift away from a blue-collar assembly line model of compensation--and do more to reward effectiveness and performance in the classroom. A performance-based compensation model will enable great teachers to earn more, justify higher salaries, and raise the stature of the profession.

Americans need and deserve an honest, open debate about the teaching profession, framed by evidence, not ideologically-tilted studies like this one. The debate in Washington today should be about how to judiciously invest in education. How can we best modernize schools with crumbling infrastructure so they can teach 21st century skills? How can we keep teachers in classrooms, instead of on unemployment lines? And yes--even when budgets are tight--how can we make teaching a more attractive career and elevate the profession?

The answer to these questions cannot be to cut teacher pay and put tens of thousands of teachers out of work. Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense. It's an investment in the future.

Arne Duncan is the U.S. Secretary of Education

This post was updated on November 10, to more accurately reflect the authors of the study.

Secretary Duncan will be coming to Wilde Lake High School this week. I have been invited to attend a briefing that he will conduct this coming week. I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet him and hear the message he will deliver.

My Teacher Is an App!

For more information about this subject, read the article by the Wall Street Journal reporters STEPHANIE BANCHERO and STEPHANIE SIMON. Click here: http://online.wsj.com/article

What do you think about this approach?

Respect Your Parents!