Monday 9-10 p.m. EST. Building a Culture of Learning. "We invite all educators, parents, students and any member of a school community to join our mission of moving away from compliance to create and foster a true COL."
Hello everyone! My name is Hannah Kelly and I'm an English Ed major at the University of Wisconsin Platteville! This is my first twitter chat! #COLchat
Good evening everyone! I’m Scott from mid Michigan. I’m a middle school dean. Enjoying some great Christmas shows as the chat goes on tonight! #COLchat
Our first #COLchat question will begin at 9:04pm. When answering a question tonight, please begin with A. followed by the question number. For example, A1. A2. A3.
#COLchat
A1. Our team looks for continuous improvement in ourselves as educators and our students. Personally, I believe improving as a person each day is just as important as improving academically. Look to improve in all areas of life. Socially, emotionally, academically… #COLchat
A1. We look to get more meaningful, hands on, out of the box lessons for our Ss, SEL activities, bringing the best out of everyone, highlighting their strengths, accepting weaknesses, & better P involvement. #Colchat
A1: Improvement, by definition, is good, so we take any and all, but we are generally looking for incremental improvement toward pre-determined targets. It doesn't usually happen all at once . . . but when it does WOW! #COLchat
A1: we look for improvement in parent satisfaction, T and S growth, overall satisfaction, staff morale, so many things to check and improve on daily. #COLchat
Hey, #COLchat gang! We're going to move pretty quick - 8 questions in 45 minutes - alternating between @FbellomoB and I. Remember to use the #COLchat tag in your responses.
A2. Failing forward is a mindset. We can't succeed at anything in life unless we try. Failure is a natural part of many things we will work towards in life. Through GRIT, we keep moving forward in an effort to one day accomplish the goal we have in mind. #COLchat
A2. I think Rocky Balboa knew about Failing Forward. That character had GRIT! You can either lay down and take the loss, or get back up and look to win the next battle! #COLchat
A1: we look for improvement in parent satisfaction, T and S growth, overall satisfaction, staff morale, so many things to check and improve on daily. #COLchat
A2: Failing forward, to me, means that you can't continue your education forward without failing. Failure is what keeps me motivated to work to be successful and achieve my goals! #COLchat
A1: As a preservice teacher, I obviously don't have experience working in a school, but with regard to my education cohort, we work to communicate better and find solutions to the issues we are faced with, especially in a constantly evolving educational world. #COLchat
A3. Each month our team has a PAWS-PBIS assembly in which we celebrate Improvement in behavior, Growth Mindset, and charac. education such as the Positivity Project @PosProject Other Academics are celebrated at 5th grade awards ceremonies. Celebrate effort over grades! #COLchat
A2: "Failing forward" brings to mind a way of turning past experiences that might have gone poorly into a way to improve future experiences, for self and student. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" #COLchat
A3 In the work I do it is seeing teachers successfully implementing standards-based learning and grading and seeing students become learners, not grade grubbers. #COLchat
A3: Each time I meet with my team, we share something that has gone well. It's a mini-celebration of sorts. Helps us to focus on the positive together. #COLchat
A3: In my education department, finding new ways to do things is met with great reception by our amazing administration and experienced team of professors. Professors encourage student feedback and collaborate often- @SFecich is a prime example of this!
#COLchat
A3: We always share good news to start any type of meetings, whether a one on one or a whole staff. This gives us time to celebrate changes and improvements of any kinds. #COLchat
A3: any improvement that pushes teachers to be better for students and activity that challenges the way we are doing education that isnt moving the needle.
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A3: We celebrate our students positive behavior choices as part of our PBIS program. We also celebrate student growth on our NWEA MAP assessments each season. Also, when Ss meet their quarterly personal goals. #COLchat
A3: In my education department, finding new ways to do things is met with great reception by our amazing administration and experienced team of professors. Professors encourage student feedback and collaborate often- @SFecich is a prime example of this!
#COLchat
A4. Student use of data and goal binders are one way to monitor academic progress and improvement. Students can be a part of self assessment when reviewing where they started, where they are now, and where they want to be in the future in relation to a target or goal. #COLchat
I like this practice.
So important to celebrate together as a team.
Maybe educators should develop poses like they do in the NFL following a TD. THAT would be a fun way to celebrate! #COLchat
A3: We always share good news to start any type of meetings, whether a one on one or a whole staff. This gives us time to celebrate changes and improvements of any kinds. #COLchat
A4. Equally important as self assessing in regards to academics is the idea of Ss being reflective in their behavior improvements and overall work ethic/effort. Don’t allow students to get caught up in the grades. The goal is continuous improvement no matter the size. #COLchat
A4: We have our Ss keep an evidence journal to monitor their attendance, behavior, classroom growth, and progress toward quarterly goals. They keep evidence of the successes they have during the year. Ss take more ownership in their daily journey. #COLchat
A4 We engage students in monitoring their growth over time by having clear student-friendly learning goals (both what and how well) and by building their self-assessment skills so that they can see themselves getting better. (Pink’s second key to intrinsic motivation.) #COLchat
A3. We celebrate all kinds of improvement! Behavior, grades, progress, Ts getting out of their comfort zone. I really am trying to find unorthodox things to celebrate to build a culture where celebrations are daily! #Colchat
This would be SO beneficial for the success of students! Allowing them to see the growth that they have made will encourage them to continue improving and learning each and everyday! #COLchat
A4: As I've been learning in my ed classes, there are many creative ways to digitally incorporate growth monitoring. Tools like chalkboard and google forms allow students to see how they are doing overtime, and reflect back on that progress as the year progresses #COLchat
A4: This is so important to me. We need to teach students that improvement does not usually follow a straight path. There are ups and downs along the way. Students get into following their own trends: when we teach them how. #COLchat
A5. Grading practices that welcome the idea of retaking tests or redoing assignments are practices that are truly looking for continuous improvement. If we know that all students learn at different rates, why do we stick to one chance to demonstrate learning? #COLchat
A4. Having Ss see where they were, & working w/ the T to plan improvements. We are going to build a school wide progress wall where Ss will place a pirate ship they decorated as to how much they grew on Fall to Winter MAP. #Colchat
It is lesser in importance. We really want them to focus on improving their areas of focus, but be aware of their standing in areas of growth on the MAP test. #COLchat
#COLchat A4 -- I'm going to use the data word. By keeping track of where a student started, you can easily show them how far they have traveled. Love it when they see the growth.
A5. Telling a S. they can’t retake a test or redo an assign. within the almighty grading window is like telling the student that you don’t believe they will ever understand it because they didn’t get it right the first time. Yes it’s more work, but we are in educators. #COLchat
Love the stuff you guys are doing! Our kids love celebrating YODA awards for using the Force….It’s really using a Growth Mindset. We throw on some Jedi music and announce their names like basketball players. It’s fun. Celebrating their success is fun! #COLchat
A4: As I've been learning in my ed classes, there are many creative ways to digitally incorporate growth monitoring. Tools like chalkboard and google forms allow students to see how they are doing overtime, and reflect back on that progress as the year progresses #COLchat
A5: It seems important to keep grading student based and personalized-- a letter grade is in the end less important than a student absorbing information correctly. Work to meet the student at their level, and show patience to achieve the best results class-wide.
#COLchat
A5: Ss get too caught up in the number/letter instead of if growth is being made. We need to get Ss to think about progress being made or where to improve. #COLchat
This would be SO beneficial for the success of students! Allowing them to see the growth that they have made will encourage them to continue improving and learning each and everyday! #COLchat
A5: grading should be a process & not final. Traditional grading is a system that says here is a numerical value but does little to fix the issues. It should be fluid in which the grade tells the teacher what could be retaught or done differently to increase engagement
#COLchat
A5 I need 1000 characters to answer this question. Top three for supporting learning are no formative ass't scores, just descriptive feedback, emphasizing more recent achievement when determining grades (no averages),& involving students in the ass't & grading process. #colchat
A5. Grading can discourage a S to think they aren't smart enough, which is upsetting when T are creating on compliance and not learning & knowledge. #Colchat
#COLchat A4 -- I'm going to use the data word. By keeping track of where a student started, you can easily show them how far they have traveled. Love it when they see the growth.
A5: I leave the grade blank on the first assessment & place only feedback on the checklists success. Then having Ss make corrections & ask questions before truly “grading” the assessment. I host lunch sessions everyday to help Ss improve. 65-70% of Ss have attended once. #COLchat
A6. Good is good but what if you could be great? Greatness comes from the willingness to continually improve. If you are not getting better, you are getting worse! This is with anything in life. Education, Careers, Sports…etc. Good is good but it’s not great! #COLchat
A6. When you are always looking to improve, you are challenging yourself to be better than good. If you aren’t worried about being "the best you that you can be", you aren’t interested in being GREAT! Greatness takes time, effort, and repetition. #COLchat
A6: Being satisfied with "just good" and "good enough" leads to a precedent of mediocrity. We want to always seek the best from ourselves, our colleages, and as a result our students! #COLchat
A5 I need 1000 characters to answer this question. Top three for supporting learning are no formative ass't scores, just descriptive feedback, emphasizing more recent achievement when determining grades (no averages),& involving students in the ass't & grading process. #colchat
A5: In my mind, grades only have value as communication. They should communicate to parents and students where the learner is in relationship to the target and what they need to do to improve. #COLchat
A6: I always try to use other words than good. Good I associate with mediocre and not being pushed or challenged. We need to focus on getting past good and working towards Great and what is beyond that! #COLchat
A6. By showing Ss, or staff for that matter, that good is good enough, individuals won't strive fyi push themselves out of comfort zones, take risks, or challenge the status quo! #Colchat
A6. By showing Ss, or staff for that matter, that good is good enough, individuals won't strive to push themselves out of comfort zones, take risks, or challenge the status quo! #Colchat
A7.
“If you have never failed or lost, or even worse, come close to losing when you have given it all you have, you’ve never truly had a challenge that requires your absolute best. Champions challenge themselves even when the risk is great.” @FbellomoB#COLchat
A5: grading should be a process & not final. Traditional grading is a system that says here is a numerical value but does little to fix the issues. It should be fluid in which the grade tells the teacher what could be retaught or done differently to increase engagement
#COLchat
Ken, these are wonderful ideas. More and more talk about not grading formative assessment scores. Feedback is so important. I think kids would work harder for feedback than they would for grades! #COLchat
A8. I will continue to work with our team to instill a Growth Mindset and GRIT in our Ss. Yesterday’s failures and today’s struggles will not define us. We must model continuous improvement for our students and allow them the opportunities to improve! #COLchat
Yes, especially when they don’t have a chance to redo things. Let them show you perhaps in a different way that they know it. Give them a chance at growth. Why are we stuck in the past! #COLchat
A8: Telling myself I don't have "time" to work on self-improvement to be a better teacher. If you have time to have lunch with a fellow educational colleague, you have time to improve growth mindset! #COLchat
A8. Especially this time of year, I will ensure to encourage staff that behaviors don't define kids. We can't take their behavior personally & must continue to teach & guide them every day. #Colchat
A8. Especially this time of year, I will ensure to encourage staff that behaviors don't define kids. We can't take their behavior personally & must continue to teach & guide them every day. #Colchat
Some people think I’m crazy, but more time with Ss learning in a less rigid environment has yielded great improvements in Ss learning this year. I just eat along side them and we chat and work through concepts they struggled with. I actually enjoy it. #COLchat
A8. Especially this time of year, I will ensure to encourage staff that behaviors don't define kids. We can't take their behavior personally & must continue to teach & guide them every day. #Colchat
It’s been awesome learning with all of you tonight and discussing Continuous Improvement. Looking forward to our next chat. Enjoy your week and your continuous improvement! #COLchat
Time flies when we're having fun!
Thanks all for participating in #COLchat tonight and contributing to the continuous improvement journeys of the group.
Great to hear the perspectives of veterans and the ideas of the up and coming.
Thank you @FbellomoB and @WaltKozlowski for letting me participate in tonight's chat! I learned so much in my first twitter chat and can't wait to expand my knowledge in many more!! #COLchat
Thanks @FbellomoB and @WaltKozlowski for a great chat! Glad I got to join in and connect! If we haven’t connected yet, let’s connect! Happy holidays everyone! #COLchat
