Recent Changes

Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement, by Eric Jensen
"Hands off Teaching Cultivates Metacognition"- Edutopia Article
Take-away: "Metacognition (or thinking about thinking) is the secret to and driving force behind all effective learning. If you want your students to learn as much as possible, then you want to maximize the amount of metacognition they're doing. It's a pretty simple equation."
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Promoting Resilience Summit {ACEs summit certificate.pdf}
Task Grade Book Screen Shots

I will work to employ numerous strategies in order to increase engagement in all classes. Many students do not have intrinsic motivation to succeed. Many students in my classes also do not seem to care about meeting proficiency on standards either. I will work to motivate them to learn through engaging them in content and skills in different ways. I will measure my goal through the completion of learning targets in Empower. By the end of the year 90% of my students will meet proficiency in all learning targets taught.
Student Choice
this class.
STUDENTS HAVE A SAY IN HOW WE LEARN
FIRST DOCUMENT
Students shall vote on which style to work in, and, if all votes are evenly spread amongst the students, different students will work in different groups and ways.
Given the fact one finishes before any amount of others, that certain student may progress to the next topic before said others.
No oneAnyone may decide
Real-Life Learning
Professional Readings and Viewings
Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement, by Eric Jensen
"Hands off Teaching Cultivates Metacognition"- Edutopia Article
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Promoting Resilience Summit {ACEs summit certificate.pdf}
Task Grade Book Screen Shots
The following screenshots are a series of pictures showing my task grade book in the program "Empower" for one of my social studies class. The students names have been excluded to protect anonymity, but each row shows the same students progress throughout the year. If you look at a column at a time, you are looking at one task for all 15 students on this list.

I will work to employ numerous strategies in order to increase engagement in all classes. Many students do not have intrinsic motivation to succeed. Many students in my classes also do not seem to care about meeting proficiency on standards either. I will work to motivate them to learn through engaging them in content and skills in different ways. I will measure my goal through the completion of learning targets in Empower. By the end of the year 90% of my students will meet proficiency in all learning targets taught.
Student Choice
The following was copy and pasted from a Google Doc owned by a group of students who were working on our classroom constitution at the beginning of the year. I have tried to keep this document in consideration when designing many of the lessons and units we have completed in this class.
STUDENTS HAVE A SAY IN HOW WE LEARN
FIRST DOCUMENT
Students may present their knowledge in any way or circumstance, with the exception of any known assessment, test, or exam.
Students may work at any pace they see fit, so long as they complete all required work by the end of every trimester.
Students may work in any fashion they choose, so long as it is not deemed off topic, rowdy, or non-educational.
Any work style may be adopted by any student, so long as the surrounding others are not offended, traumatized, or harmed by it.
Students shall vote on which style to work in, and, if all votes are evenly spread amongst the students, different students will work in different groups and ways.
Given the fact one finishes before any amount of others, that certain student may progress to the next topic before said others.
No one may decide to work in any sized group, or in solitude, if they see fit.
Real-Life Learning
Professional Readings and Viewings

2014-2015 Engagement Goal
I will work to employ numerous strategies in order to increase engagement in all classes. Many students do not have intrinsic motivation to succeed. Many students in my classes also do not seem to care about meeting proficiency on standards either. I will work to motivate them to learn through engaging them in content and skills in different ways. I will measure my goal through the completion of learning targets in Empower. By the end of the year 90% of my students will meet proficiency in all learning targets taught.
Personal Connections
At the beginning of the year, I attempted to have students connect to what we were learning in class by providing them with personal connections. In ELA we completed a personal narrative that described an important moment in each student's life. While it was difficult for many students to come up with a pivotal moment in their life that they were willing to write about, Student Choice
Real-Life Learning
Professional Readings and Viewings

I will work to employ numerous strategies in order to increase engagement in all classes. Many students do not have intrinsic motivation to succeed. Many students in my classes also do not seem to care about meeting proficiency on standards either. I will work to motivate them to learn through engaging them in content and skills in different ways. I will measure my goal through the completion of learning targets in Empower. By the end of the year 90% of my students will meet proficiency in all learning targets taught.
Personal Connections
to write about.about,
Real-Life Learning
Professional Readings and Viewings
January-March
{Task Grade Book Jan-March.png}
this target.
March-April
Book March-April.png}
This screenshot shows the task grade book for assignments from March to April. Again, this image shows many more students meeting standards for the more recent assignments. This class is well on their way to helping me reach my goal of having 90% proficiency.