Austin Experiences Project Based Learning...

If you've followed us for any length of time, you know that Austin Elementary is on a journey to implement the Schoolwide Enrichement Model (SEM).  You also know that as a district, we are digging deep ("soaking") into the CISD Learning Framework.  Additionally, each campus has been charged with selecting a learning design model (UbD or PBL).  Austin Elementary has selected Project Based Learning because of how closely it aligns with SEM Enrichment Clusters.  Put all of this together, and you have somewhat of a PD melting pot.  

With that in mind, we set out to design a meaningful learning experience for our educators that (hopefully) can kill three PD birds (SEM, Learning Framework, and PBL) with one stone.  Thus, our Austin educator PBL unit was born!  If done correctly, this educator PBL unit could help strengthen our understanding of the relationship between SEM and the CISD Learning Framework, AND provide the opportunity for our educators to actually experience a PBL unit as we go through the training.  

SEMCamp @ Austin

Austin Elementary is a school of passionate individuals (both learners AND educators).  We're so passionate about what we do that we included it in our guiding purpose...

"At Austin Elementary, we are driven to unlock the passion

and cultivate the uniqueness inherent in every learner."

One of our passions as educators is sharing our experiences of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model with others.  That's one reason why on Friday mornings we continually play host to educators from other campuses curious about what SEM looks like "in action."  

With that in mind, we have dreamed up what we affectionately call SEMCamp. This will be a 3-day experience designed for classroom teachers and administrators alike where we will dive deeply into the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and how it can impact a campus.  Check out this Smore, and learn more about what SEMCamp could do for your educators!

SEMCamp Smore!

PD... It's Not Just For Teachers!

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, there is at least one thing you know for sure... At Austin Elementary, we are passionate about giving learners the opportunity to explore and grow with their interests! That is the foundation of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM).

Aside from fostering those interests and passions, SEM also provides us with a vehicle to strengthen and build reciprocal relationships with our community and local businesses.  This is evidenced by our weekly E-Time visitors from around the community and the countless ways that our learners have made a difference in Coppell (through fundraising, community service projects, etc.).

The next step in strengthening that school/community relationship is inviting our parents and community in to actually partner with us in facilitating enrichment clusters.  Today, our SEM Coordinator (Liz Malone) is doing just that.  Hence the title of this post:  PD... It's Not Just For Teachers!

We are thrilled to have a group of community/parent volunteers going through "SEM Boot Camp" and experiencing the same professional learning as our Austin educators.  Here are just a few things they are exploring-



• What is the difference between E-Time and Enrichment Clusters?
• What is the "WHY" behind our work with SEM?  What "WHY" do they bring to the table in wanting to share their passions/interests with our learners?
• What are the 5 components of a strong Cluster?

By inviting our community to be a part of our professional learning, we hope to further strengthen our commitment to building reciproal relationships with those around us and provide more authentic enrichment experiences for our learners. 

Want to know more about the Schoolwide Enrichment Model at Austin?  Check out our SEM Blog!

Learning Made SEMple

  

Austin Represents @ Learning Forward National Conference #learnfwd13

We're just back from the Learning Forward National Conference located down the road in Grapevine, TX!  Over the past few days, several Austin educators were able to attend various sessions on a wide variety of topics (Digital Learning, Supporting New Educators, "Teaching Like A Pirate," etc.).  It was an amazing learning opportunity made all the better by the fact that it was hosted in our own backyard.

It addition to attending the conference, 3 Austin educators also led a session on school transformation. Laurie O'Neill (Principal), Cooper Hilton (Assistant Principal), and Liz Malone (GT Facilitator) hosted a session on "Navigating The Winding Road of School Transformation."  Their objective was to provide a case study of the growth and transformation that Austin Elementary has undergone over the past few years.  They were able to share progress/celebrations/hurdles that they have experienced while continuing to transform.  Below is a "SMORE" outline of their presentation.  Haven't used SMORE?  It's a great tool for creating online newsletters, brochures, etc.  Several Austin educators have adopted it as a tool for communicating their class newsletters each week.

Don't hesitate to contact any of the presenters with questions about the Smore!  Also, feel free to leave questions in the comments section of this post.

"Navigating The Winding Road of School Transformation" SMORE

Want to explore more of the learning from Learning Forward?  Search for #learnfwd13 or #austinlearns on Twitter, and join in the conversation!

From Ordinary to Extraordinary...

From Ordinary to Extraordinary... A Hero's Journey

That is our theme in the Coppell Independent School District this year.  Personally, I think it accurately describes the work ahead of us; transforming an ordinary/stale/broken educational system into something meaningful/engaging/relevant.  That's no easy task, and as the slogan implies, it will take a group of educational "heroes" to achieve such a gargantuan feat!

After attending the 2013-2014 CISD Principals' Academy over the summer, the administrative team @ Austin Elementary (Laurie O'Neill, Principal and Cooper Hilton, Assistant Principal) was charged with continuing to lead this transformation.  Though our professional learning for this year has only recently begun, we'd like to share a little bit with you from our learning on August 23rd and highlight some of the tools that are helping enhance our transformation.

Our Return to Confratute...

If you've read any of our previous posts, you may have come across this strange word that we keep throwing around... CONFRATUTE.  Don't try looking it up.  If you do, you probably won't come up with an accurate definition or description (chances are the definition will say something like Conference, Fraternity, and Institute).  That is because CONFRATUTE is indescribable.

Educators from Austin Elementary have been attending CONFRATUTE at the University of Connecticut for several years now.  It is, after all, the "hub" of professional learning for the Schoolwide Enrichment Model and gifted pedagogy.  We were fortunate enough to have our very own Liz Malone, GTI Facilitator and SEM Coordinator, attend again this summer.  Check out her "take-aways" below.  Hopefully, they'll help you come a little closer to understanding what CONFRATUTE is all about!  For more details on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model @ Austin Elementary, check out           Learning Made SEMple .

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CONferenc...FRAternity…InstiTUTE  - Put it all together and you have CONFRATUTE, an amazing, weeklong adventure in learning on the beautiful University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut.  If you have been following this blog for very long, you know that CONFRATUTE is where our SEM dream began four short years ago.  That summer, eight educators, accompanied by our principal, Laurie O’Neill, visited CONFRATUTE for the very first time.  When we arrived, we were immediately immersed in a culture of enrichment and talent development that would forever alter the way each of us thought about education.  It didn’t take long before we were absolutely convinced that the journey of SEM implementation was one our school needed to make.  Since that time, we have taken great strides towards full implementation of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model at Austin Elementary.  As a staff, we have spent countless hours on professional development, exploring the research behind The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, and designing what it would look like for our learners.   We have redesigned the way we form our classes, and have implemented “E-Time” on Friday mornings to provide a dedicated time each week for school wide, learner driven enrichment.  Last year, we moved forward with the implementation of Enrichment Clusters.  During these 5-8 week enrichment journeys, our learners were engaged in authentic, real world learning experiences through which they had the opportunity to pursue their interests, develop their talents, and make a difference in our world. 

Who's Asking The Questions In Your Classroom?

Some of the most meaningful and useful professional learning sessions share ideas/strategies that you can take away and immediately implement.  That's what Liz Malone (GT Facilitator & SEM Coordinator) and Cooper Hilton (Assistant Principal) set out to do yesterday afternoon for the educators at Austin Elementary.  They presented a session on promoting student questioning.  This was yet another piece of learning brought back from the National Learning Forward Conference they attended this past December.

The information and technique from their session came from a book called Make Just One Change: Teach Students To Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana and is based around the Question Formulation Technique.

Check out their Slide Rocket presentation HERE.

As part of the process in determining where we stood as a campus (what percentage of questions are student generated) and where we want to be as a campus (what percentage of questions SHOULD be student generated), Liz and Cooper experimented with a simple polling tool KwiqPoll.  It's an easy way to gather quick data using any device (iPhone, computer, etc) and could be a great formative assessment tool in classrooms.

If you would like more information on how the Question Formulation Technique could impact your classroom, leave us a comment!

Promoting Global Competency at the Elementary Level



At a recent faculty meeting, Kara Cadue, Liz Malone, and Cooper Hilton led the staff in exploring the ideas behind Global Competency and what it could mean for our learning community.  This interest originally stemmed from their attendance at the Learning Forward National Conference.  After exploring how promoting Global Competency aligns with who we are as a campus, they decided to begin a conversation with the staff. 

Check out the basics of their presentation at Global Competency.

Here are a few of the questions we began exploring-

• How could promoting Global Competency impact our learners and our learning community?
• What does Global Competency look like at the elementary level?
• How does this align with our campus vision and Transformation Plan, and why does it matter?
• What could Global Competency look like within the context of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model?

A Big Opportunity!

In a previous post, we featured the experience of a few Austin educators who attended the National Learning Forward Conference in Boston, MA. Liz Malone (GT Facilitator and SEM Coordinator), Kara Cadue (4th grade), and Cooper Hilton (Assistant Principal) had an amazing experience at this national conference learning from the best in the field! 

We will have an opportunity to attend this conference once again, as this coming year's National Learning Forward Conference will be held in DFW.  Aside from sending additional educators this coming year, we were inspired to submit a proposal to present and lead a session for other educators from around the world.  We have received notice from the organization that our proposal ("Navigating The Winding Road of School Transformation") has been accepted!  Given our imperative to transform our current educational practices, we chose to focus on our transformation within the context of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model.  The following is an excerpt from our session description:

Experience an actual case study of one school's transformation from a culture of remediation to a school of enrichment where educators are driven to unlock the passion and cultivate the uniqueness inherent in every learner. Gain insight into their successes and roadblocks.  Learn to create conditions and capacities conducive for educators and learners to perform at high levels.

We are excited (and slightly nervous) for this opportunity to share our experiences! 

An Exciting Showcase

This past Friday, our 2nd/3rd grade learners had the opportunity to showcase their learning at their Enrichment Cluster Showcase!  You could feel the excitement in the building.  Our learners had just about every topic covered: electricity, magic, CSI, medical response, etc. 



We were thrilled to have several visitors come and enjoy the day with us!  Several CISD board members, Dr. Turner (Superintendent), and several other central office administrators came and took part in the learning.  Also, two guests from Laurel Mountain Elementary came to witness our progress on our journey towards implementation of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model.  We are extremely grateful for their help and time as we have gone through the process!

Check out this brief video of the Showcase from Liz Malone, GT Facilitator.

Showcase Video



Parent Course #2 (Schoolwide Enrichment Model)

Professional Learning at Austin is not just limited to our educators.  Through the transformation currently underway, we also realize an obligation to share these professional learning experiences with our  parents.  With this in mind, we are hosting four Parent Courses this school year.  Our first course (see earlier blog post) focused on CISD's Operation Transformation and what that looks like at Austin.

This past week, we were honored to host the second of our four sessions, this one featuring Austin's implementation of the Renzulli Schoolwide Enrichment Model.  If you were unable to attend or would like to review the presentation, please access it here-  Parent Course #2 (SEM).

If you have further questions regarding the Schoolwide Enrichment Model, please contact Liz Malone at lmalone@coppellisd.com.  Also, we invite you to join us one Friday morning to see SEM in action!  Please RSVP at E-Time Tour/Visit.

A Big Success...

If you've been following us for very long, you know that we are in the process of fully implementing Dr. Joe Renzulli's Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM).  It is an integral part of our Operation Transformation as we challenge ourselves to create a more meaningful and engaging 21st century learning environment.  

One of our biggest hurdles this year in the implementation of SEM was conducting our first round of enrichment clusters and the subsequent enrichment cluster showcase.  It was a big undertaking for both our educators AND learners as we took much of the structure and ideas behind E-Time and dug deeper, but we couldn't be more proud of how it went! 

Below are a couple of resources for you to check out if you're curious about our SEM journey and want to know more about how our first cluster showcase turned out.

-Explore our Schoolwide Enrichment Model blog Lifelong Learning Made SEMple!.  It includes a video with footage/photos from the 4th/5th grade Showcase.

-Check out the following video- The Video Production Company  This 4th/5th grade cluster saw a real world problem (declining participation in our school bank Mustang Mutual) and used their talents and passions to address it.  Check it out!


As always, we welcome your feedback and input!  

Educators as Learners... @ The Learning Forward National Conference!

One of the things we frequently discuss as a staff is our dual role of Educator AND Learner.  This was evident recently as three Austin educators attended the 2012 Learning Forward National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts.  Kara Cadue, Liz Malone, and Cooper Hilton spent five jam-packed days learning from leading educators, researchers, and professors from around the country.  We suspect they also managed to squeeze in some time catching the city "sites." :)

We have asked them to each share a reflection from one of the sessions that they attended.  In addition, they will share their learning with the Austin staff at an upcoming professional learning day in February.

Parents Are Learners Too

Today is an exciting day at Austin!  We are starting off with the 1st of our series of 4 Parent Courses devoted to informing and involving our parents in the work we're doing with Operation Transformation.  Part of that work is a realization of the responsibility we have to build reciprocal relationships with our parents and community.  This is a great first step towards achieving that.

We've used a great (FREE) tool to help us organize the event and plan for our attendees.  SignUpGenius.com was an easy way for us to publicize the class and keep track of those attending.  It's a great tool for organizing volunteers, parent conferences, etc.

Check out the link below for the presentation that we'll use. 

Parent Class #1 Presentation

One item that the presentation references is the Campus Pedagogy.  The Campus Pedagogy is a component of the Transformation Plan that was developed at the summer Principal Academy.  In short, it outlines what we believe our school community should look like.  Take a look at the graphic version below, and give us your feedback!  It is meant to guide us over the next few years as we "transform" our learning environment.  Of course, it will change and evolve as WE change and evolve.

We Believe...

For the past few years, Austin has had Belief Statements that voice what it is that we believe about education and the needs of our learners.

Having since composed our Campus Guiding Purpose, we realized that we needed Belief Statements that reflect that Guiding Purpose and tell our community what distinguishes Austin from other elementaries, so we bravely undertook the task of reviewing our Belief Statements and updating them to be authentic reflections of what we hold to be true!  Our team leaders helped facilitate this process with their teams.  Needless to say, there was plenty of cutting, pasting, adding, omitting, and rewording.

We couldn't be more proud of our final product!  What we ended up with truly verbalizes how Austin is unique and strives to ignite passion in our learners AND educators.

Check them out, and let us know what you think.

 

Operation Transformation Is In Full Swing

At Austin, we are thrilled (and maybe a little anxious) by the announcement that Coppell ISD was selected to participate in the High Performance Schools Consortium.  Read the article here.  This means that we will play an integral part in the transformation of the public education system in Texas.

Fortunately, we have already begun working to transform our school to a 21st Century learning environment, but we will have a long road ahead of us.

As part of this work, we have updated our Roadmap.  You may remember last year's Roadmap to SEM from a previous post.  We found that this was a great visual representation of our vision and where we are headed as a campus.  Check it out, and let us know what you think.

As you can see, we've already taken several steps this year.  Most recently, the staff met to review our Beliefs Statements and evaluate their compatibility with our Guiding Purpose.  It was a tough process! 

Prepping for Clusters

After a successful implementation of E-Time (see E-Time posts), Austin is ripe and ready to begin digging even deeper with Enrichment Clusters!  Clusters are similar to E-Time in that they are both interest based and student driven.

Liz Malone (GT Facilitator & SEM Coordinator) has been working this week with our 4th grade, 5th grade, and support staff teachers as we prepare to kick-off the first round of Clusters with 4th and 5th grade at the end of October.  Additionally, we will work with our parent volunteers who have graciously agreed to share their passions and lead / co-lead a Cluster!

Here are a few of the things that our educators are discovering about Clusters-

Why are Clusters important?

• They support kids' interests.
• They help learners discover new interests.
• They challenge learners on different levels.
• Students learn from each other and from experts.
• Clusters support our Guiding Purpose of unlocking students' passion and cultivating their uniqueness.
• MANY more reasons!

Curriculum Compacting: A Tool For Differentiation In The Classroom

Since the beginning of the school year, we have featured a few guest bloggers and their reflections on their learning from Confratute.  To close this series, check out the article below from Liz Malone (GT Facilitator & SEM Coordinator) on Curriculum Compacting.  We are excited about the work she will do with ALL of our learners this year and the coaching/planning work she will do with our educators. 

Curriculum Compacting: A Tool for Differentiation in the Classroom

I was so excited this summer to once again attend Confratute, a week-long educational conference held on the beautiful University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut, just outside of Hartford.  While there, I had the opportunity to participate in an exploration of Curriculum Compacting, led by Dr. Deb Goldbeck, a leading researcher in this area.  Dr. Goldbeck shared with us much of the research surrounding the practice of curriculum compacting as well as a wealth of information about the tools and resources that are available to facilitate the implementation of curriculum compacting in the general education setting. I have attempted to share just a taste of her wisdom in the paragraphs below, but I am looking forward to sharing more information as the year progresses. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is curriculum compacting? 

Curriculum compacting is simply another tool that can be used to differentiate classroom learning experiences so that we are able to effectively meet the unique needs of every learner.  Dr. Goldbeck defines it this way: “Curriculum compacting is a procedure used to streamline the regular curriculum for students who are capable of mastering it at a faster pace.”  In other words, we do not continue to require students to practice those skills and concepts in which they have already demonstrated mastery.  Instead, we create experiences which allow them to explore those concepts at a higher level of depth and complexity and in a way that relates to their own personal interests and talents.

A Back to School Tradition

It's becoming somewhat of a back to school tradition for Austin to create a video and share it with parents on Curriculum Night.  It's the perfect opportunity for parents to put a face with the name and get to know some of the people that work with their child each day.

This year, it was also the perfect opportunity for us to share a preview of upcoming Schoolwide Enrichment activities and a few details on CISD's Operation Transformation.

We were able to find a very talented young narrator to help us out.  Check it out, and let us know what you think!

Reflections on Creativity

Last week, we featured a Confratute reflection on a series of math sessions that our teachers attended.  This week, we would like to spotlight Lisa Ricciardelli (Art teacher @ Austin) and her reflections on Creativity at Confratute.

I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to attend this year's Confratute and fully enjoyed all the speakers, classes, workshops, and scoops of farm fresh ice cream. The energy there at UCONN is really playful, informative, and inspiring! Yet if I could sum up this experience with just one word, it would definitely have to be creative.

 

In one of my favorite classes of the week, “Motivation, Meta-Cognition, & the Importance of Creativity”, we learned that there are two types of creativity according to Dr. Bonnie Cramond: expressive and inventive. Expressive creativity illustrates conceptions or emotions and aesthetics where the inventive type addresses a worthwhile problem to find novel and appropriate solutions. Both have equal merit in education and can be woven into our curriculum in a plethora of ways. From the new Fine Arts TEKS:

The Fine Arts, as universal languages, incorporate the study of dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts to offer unparalleled experiences and empower students to explore realities, relationships, and ideas. The Fine Arts engage and motivate all students through active learning, critical thinking, and innovative problem solving. Our disciplines develop cognitive functioning and increase student academic achievement, higher order thinking skills, communication, and collaboration. Students develop relevant aesthetic and cultural awareness through exploration leading to creative expression. Creativity is essential and the study of the Fine Arts nurtures and develops the whole child.