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I hope everyone had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving Break. This week's blog contains some repeat info from last week and some new points, too!
Kudos to Oner Medrano for scheduling the 8th grade boy's basketball team to compete in the Emmons Tournament this past weekend. Coach Medrano dedicated his Friday night and entire Saturday to his boys as they played 5 games in two days. #Dedication!!
and
To David Roat for earning funds for his 6th grade STEM class through DonorsChoose.org!!
-Both from Jeff Sefcik
To Amanda Rash for putting together an AMAZING Day of Service video!!!
and
To all the staff who attended last Tuesday's Board meeting...even though it was the night starting a much needed break! Special kudos to Melissa Williams for doing an outstanding job honoring the 7th grade girls' volleyball team in front of the Board, our staff, and LOTS of their family members!
-Both from Heather
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When you have a kudo to share for someone, please just email me and I'll include it here! The goal is to create system celebrations--so your input is truly welcome!
News from the Business Office--Repeats from last week
Upcoming Payrolls
Please be aware of the following payroll dates---and please be sure to plan accordingly. :)
3 paychecks in December:
December 1, 15, 20
1 paycheck in January:
January 13
2 paycheck in February:
February 1 and 15
Please let Becky Allard (Interim CSBO) or me know if you have any questions!
Becky can be reached at becky.allard@foxlake114.org.
Learning Opportunity!!!
On Thursday, November 30 from 6-7 pm, Johnsburg CUSD 12 will be hosting an informative session regarding autism and sensory needs.
Parents are welcome to join as well.
This will be a free event and there will be 1 CPDU available for teachers/staff.
FACILITIES UPDATES
If your room gets too hot or too cold, please don't hesitate to contact Don with a work request (see link below)--he's happy to help and show you how to make adjustments to the temperature.
We're also making sure that all systems are "go" for any winter weather processes and clear, consistent communication! More to come with the details, but know that plans are coming together. If you have suggestions or thoughts on what's worked well or how we can improve, please let me know!
Keep watching here for updates!
Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates
Membership cards have arrived! Building representatives have distributed the cards; if you haven't received one and haven't let Melissa Williams know, please do so via email asap. If you have any information that needs updating, please mail the postcard attached to your card to the IEA with any corrections. Don't forget, if you haven't already, or are a new member, you can create an account using your member ID at https://ieanea.org/.
On Friday, December 1st we will be voting on delegates for the 2018 IEA-NEA Representative Assembly. It will only take a minute, please stop by, fill out your ballot, and sign that you voted. If you are still interest in being a delegate, encourage your colleagues to vote for you as a write-in candidate!
Lotus voting will take place outside room 103 (Tiffany Tardio's room).
Stanton voting will take place in the library on the back counter.
Melissa Williams, President
Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff
Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff
Katy Gardner, Treasurer
Betty Cwiak, Secretary
Barb Brown, Region Representative
Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative
Tiffany Tardio, Lotus School Representative
17-18 Payroll Schedule--UPDATED 10/22/17
Blue Cross Blue Shield:
Guardian:
Starting a series on STUDENT ENGAGEMENT...
Questions for thought as you read...
What does student engagement mean to you?
Why does student engagement matter?
If I asked you to do a time sample of your classroom...how much of the time would data show that 100% of students are actively engaged?
What Does Student Engagement Look Like?
Engagement. . .it’s another one of those words that’s regularly bandied about in higher education. We talk about it like we know what it means and we do, sort of. It’s just that when a word or idea is so widely used, thinking about it often stops and that’s what I think has happened with engagement.
We know that engagement is an essential part of learning. For years, folks have correctly pointed out that the term “active learning” is redundant. When learning’s the game, you’ve got to be on the field, actively engaged. No sitting on the sidelines. We aren’t like plants, if you can stand another metaphor. We don’t get much by osmosis, but must instead rely on effortful acquisition for the knowledge and skills we need.
We aspire to get our students engaged because most of them don’t come to us that way. Our first (and often default) strategy is participation. We believe if we can just get students talking in class, they’ll be engaged. It’s that part of our thinking that merits a revisit. In the April issue of The Teaching Professornewsletter, I highlighted research that explores the participation-engagement relationship. It’s a complicated, two-study design with most of its eight hypotheses and three research questions confirming this conclusion: “oral participation is not a good indicator of engagement.” (Frymier and Houser, p. 99)
The findings do not indicate that participation is a bad thing or that it can’t engage students, just that it didn’t do so very convincingly for this cross-disciplinary cohort of more than 600. What the research team found did indicate engagement was something they call “nonverbal attentiveness.” It’s associated with behaviors like frequent eye contact, upright posture, seat location (closer to the front than the back), note taking, and positive facial expressions. In other words, silent students can be engaged and perhaps even more so than some who participate.
We tend to think that either students are engaged or they aren’t. In fact, engagement varies in intensity and duration. It “can be short term and situation specific or long term and stable.” (Fredricks, et. al., p. 61) It can be measured at different levels as well. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) gauges it at an institutional level—the extent to which a large cohort of students is engaged in the experiences that constitute post-secondary education at their institution. Other measures can be used to assess the involvement of an individual student in a course, a program, or at the institution.
In reading more about engagement, I’ve discovered that it’s a multidimensional construct—the academic way of saying it’s composed of parts. Most of the research has focused on three aspects: behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement.
- Behaviorally engaged students do what students are supposed to do in class. They adhere to the rules and norms, and they display behaviors associated with persistence, concentration, and attention. They may ask questions and contribute during discussions.
- Emotional engagement reveals students’ attitudes toward learning. Those attitudes can range from simply liking what they’re doing to deeply valuing the knowledge and skills they are acquiring.
- Cognitive engagement involves effort and strategy use. It’s wanting to understand something and being willing to go beyond what’s required in order to accomplish learning goals. Those who are cognitively engaged use strategies associated with deep learning.
Although these parts of engagement can be defined separately, they don’t function that way. They are “dynamically interrelated within the individual.” (Fredricks, et. al., p. 61) Think a fusion of forces directing the student’s learning processes. What’s not yet been sorted out are the relationships between these parts of engagement; how exactly it is they work together. Furthermore, engagement interacts with related aspects of learning, such as motivation and self-efficacy, and those connections are also not well understood.
However, the general consensus is that engagement is “malleable.” It responds to external forces, such as the classroom climate in a course, and that leads us to the question of greatest interest to teachers. What teacher actions or interventions promote more and deeper student engagement? We’ll work on that question in the next post, but we’ll do so with a new perspective of what student engagement really means. It’s not all that cut and dried, not the automatic outcome of student interaction, and not an aspect of learning that works in isolation.
References: Frymier, A. B., and Houser, M. L. (2016). The role of oral participation in student engagement. Communication Education, 65 (1), 83-104.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., and Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74 (1), 59-109.
© Magna Publications. All rights reserved.
Source: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/student-engagement-look-like/
November 29 at 3:15--EAFL Exec Board/Monthly Meeting
December 1 after school---help with Santa's Breakfast Set Up
December 2--help with Santa's Breakfast...please!!! ❤
December 3--Rotary Christmas Event at Camp Duncan (let Heather know if you'd like details)
December 15--Ray Chevrolet Christmas Event
December 19--Board of Education Meeting (approve levy, review audit)--7:00 PM at Lotus
Strategic Planning Committee
Dates:
January 23, 30
February 6, 13
Likely times 6:30PM-8:30PM
Lauren Conway will be joining the D114 family full time starting on Monday as our new occupational therapist. Danielle Alessi has chosen to go a different direction, and Lauren will beautifully step in for her.
After making sure her schedule is set for success and that seeing all students regularly is a guarantee, she'll begin direct service. She's a great person with passion, knowledge, and commitment to learning from and collaborating with our teams, students, and families.
Please make her feel welcome in our fabulous family!
Let's make this an amazing week!
Heather
