Weber High School -

I hope everyone had a great day and had many wins. I had an amazing first day with four of our incredible teachers: Mr. Daniels, Mr. Webster, Mr. Kempke, and Ms. Cassity. I went from technical theatre to college English to cyber defense to math. It was a pretty cool variety of content areas.

I started off in technical theatre with Mr. Daniels. Within about a minute of the class starting, he said "we don't do back row Joes" in this class and got the students into a seating chart. Students immediately responded. He provided structure and expectations for his students right away. Teachers that use seating charts experience lower levels of disruptive and problem behavior, especially if established early as the norm in the classroom. Mark has been teaching over 25 years, is highly engaging, builds extraordinary relationships, and still uses a seating chart. That speaks volumes.

Mr. Daniels followed up by modeling his "why" for teaching. This was a critical step because he then transitioned to having every student stand up and share about themselves and their interest in theatre. This, in itself, was an effective strategy. Mark did something though that leveled this up from just effective to highly effective. After every single student shared, Mark engaged individually and commented specifically on what every single student said. He took 60 seconds or more to follow up on each student's share out before moving on to the next student. The leverage would not have been as great here if he just went from student to student without following up with a dialogue and commenting on every single student's contribution to the task. Every single student in the class, by the end of this activity, felt seen, heard, and acknowledged by Mr. Daniels. Furthermore, there were some technical exchanges about the skills and work the students will be doing this year. It wasn't strictly relationship building.

I want to highlight a more sophisticated aspect of how Mark decided to start this first period. It has to do with the idea of students doing the heavy lifting. This task placed the cognitive and emotional load on the students. Every student in the room was watching their peers contribute and thinking about how they were going to contribute, how it would affect their social value in the class, and whether or not it would be positively received by the teacher and their peers. They weren't given permission to be passive recipients for the duration of this task. Engagement was high. I have to applaud Mark for strategically deciding to start class off this way before moving into more direct instruction about the class, expectations, and procedures.

Activity 2: Class discussion with greater than 90% participation framed around "what makes a tech crew great?" He didn't need to cold call once to elicit responses. He couldn't write fast enough to keep up with the participation from the class. Ask him about how he facilitated this. Mark also embedded teaching our core values of accountability, integrity, and respect to this activity. Expertly done.

Activity 3: Back to School Bingo as a "get to know you activity." This is easily transferable to any classroom setting, content, or course. Ask him about it. When this activity started, Mark threw on his Audio Enhancement System gear. It made a difference in student responsiveness. Mark followed up with a class discussion after a time period of student-directed bingo time.

Activity 4: Mark asked students to write down on a card what they are most interested in learning over the course of the year, but it had to be an element of technical theatre. Students who are given opportunities to direct their own learning perform at higher levels and demonstrate greater transfer after leaving a course. The second prompt of this activity involved Mark asking students to also note their own skills that they can provide to the tech team.

I'll end my note from this amazing period of instruction with Mr. Daniels by sharing that he waited to cover any logistical, nuts and bolts style information until 45 minutes into the class period. He invested time up front that paid massive dividends for him by the end of the period. Students were actively writing and noting the nuts and bolts type information Mr. Daniels was asking them to account for.

Great job Mr. Daniels.

I headed to English 1010 with Mr. Webster for second period. Mr. Webster started off right into the structure of this pure college course. Mr. Webster spent the first few minutes of class explaining some of the structural aspects of the class and its expectations relative to the university. Mr. Webster explained that his whole purpose in this course was to prepare students in English 1010 to be prepared for college level writing. 

Mr. Webster periodically asked students to raise their hands to gauge various levels of preparedness and task completion for class. I am sure many of you engaged in this activity regarding chromebooks, the AUP, and other things more specific to your course today and do it in an ongoing way. While not the fanciest or most glorious instructional strategy, asking students to raise their hands as a measure of self-reported success or understanding in various tasks gives you a lot of great information as a teacher. It shows you who is willing to engage with you, who is more reserved, and other great qualitative data points about who your students are. Be sure to understand, when using this strategy, that it is only a high fidelity and accurate check for understanding if you believe everyone was willing to participate in honestly answering your question. This strategy highlights the critical difference between a "check for understanding" and a "formative assessment." Come see me if you want to discuss the difference between these two core teaching concepts.

Mr. Webster spent a few minutes of the class with a segment of direct instruction explaining his philosophy on grading and the concept of rewriting. Mr. Webster championed the idea of rewriting papers and continuously working on them as a measure of practice and preparedness for writing at the college level. Instilling the idea of practicing course skills in this way to students early is more likely to produce the desired mindset in student writing. Most of us who write are very familiar with the idea that a paper or written piece is never truly done, we just have to let it go to the greater world at some point.

Mr. Webster has a unique procedure where any student, for virtually any reason, can sit under a sign that hangs from his ceiling that says "sit here" and it is a cue for him to know that one of his students has a need that needs to be addressed. Students in his class were given an immediate tool they can use when they need individualized help.

Toward the middle of the period after getting through a lot of the structure and essential information for the college course, Mr. Webster turned over the heavy lifting of the class to the students, asking them to follow along as he read an article about students thinking about something they are really good at. Mr. Webster continued through a few one on one interactions with students who voiced their individual skills. He had an exchange with a student who is amazing at the cello, and another student who crochets! Another student shared that he is really good at taking naps and falling asleep, anywhere, at any time. This was a high leverage move for those individual students allowing them, through one on one conversation with their teacher, to tie who they are and their skills to the article at hand, which is about becoming a good writer.

Nice job today Mr. Webster. It was a pleasure.

I landed in Mr. Kempke's cyber defense class for third period. Mr. Kempke started the class by asking how many students have had him before as a teacher. Similar to Mr. Daniels, Mr. Kempke started off immediately by talking about seating arrangements for the class. As I stated earlier, seating charts, even if they are flexible or have wider parameters, still lead to lower levels of disruptive or off task behavior, especially when introduced early.

Mr. Kempke transitioned to telling a story. Storytelling, when done well, can pay massive engagement dividends for teachers. If students connect with the story, it can set the stage for high levels of motivation, which, when paired with learning, create high impact student outcomes. The story David told may or may not have been about how he successfully hacked someone's bank account. You'll have to ask him more about the story when you see him.

Kempke ultimately ended his segment of direct instruction and storytelling by explaining that this course and its content is more like a puzzle or escape room. He then transitioned directly into a class activity and directed students to get logged in. Prior to getting into the essentials of the activity, Kempke spent time ensuring that every student was logged into the appropriate area and was at the proper step to fully and accurately participate in the escape room activity. This distinction is key as it reflects Mr. Kempke's focus on the students. One exchange even included Mr. Kempke stating, "Zach, are you the only one not in?" Not participating in the activity was not an option for Mr. Kempke. This type of student-centered instruction and facilitation has positive effects on student learning that aren't easily seen or observed in real time. Kempke was more concerned with student behavior than him simply going through the motions and hoping students got it.

As students worked on the escape room activity together, Mr. Kempke continuously walked around the classroom, making multiple rounds in close proximity to every single student. Proximity shows teacher engagement and supervision, and leads to higher on task behavior and successful access to course content and activities.

Mr. Kempke, several minutes in, offered up step two of the escape room activity. A number of students got up to move on to step two of the activity while Mr. Kempke immediately transitioned to supporting students still on step one. This is differentiation in action. The class immediately split into students needing further instruction to extend and those who required targeted support. Kempke managed both groups expertly. Differentiation means students are receiving different levels of instructional guidance based on the distance between their current level of learning and the learning target. As time in the instructional period carried on, students could be on any of steps one through four, with Kempke continuously providing clarification and differentiation to students who might be on any of the steps in the activity.

Portions of this escape room activity included Mr. Kempke planning a way to get students up and moving around to find sticky notes and other information posted in different areas of the room relative to the cyber security tasks that were required for success in the escape room activity. Kinesthetic learning, when purposefully planned by the teacher, even if adjacent to the true learning skill, can help with transitions, engagement, and on task behavior and continuity in the lesson. 

Mr. Kempke's class was full of student learning and effective teaching, with many students learning at different paces at different times, all with Kempke's support and guidance as the period of instruction progressed. He ended the class with a getting to know you activity that helped him solidify the seating chart. Here were his questions: 

• What is your name? 

• What's one "old person" thing you do? 

• What is your dream job? 

• If your life was a book or movie, what would it be? 

Prior to having students jump into this, Kempke said "I won't ever ask you to do something I won't do" and modeled the getting to know you activity.

Nice work today Kempke.

I ended my fourth first day of school here at Weber High with some math III honors. I was immediately pumped because Jessica was standing at her door and after I entered I heard her check in individually with each student who entered the class. Very few strategies pay higher dividends than regularly (not every day necessarily) standing at your door as a teacher and checking in with students. Take all the fluff and cliche notions out of this strategy if you have them. There is an extraordinary amount of science behind this and the effects it has on classroom climate, enduring classroom culture, and even, indirectly, engagement and motivation in students. A high school I worked at previously in a high poverty area implemented this strategy with efficacy and saw a significant reduction in fights and other violent behavior in the school, simply by the teachers collectively deciding to regularly stand at their doors in between passing periods and check in with students as they entered.

I want to point out a smaller win Jessica gathered in this fourth period class. On her opening static slide, she lists instructions for students. Step two includes permission to socialize if students want. Sometimes as teachers we fall prey to the "expert blind spot" phenomenon (see term in association with field of cognitive psychology). Students who walk in and see that the teacher allows or even encourages periods of socialization immediately shows respect and trust with students. This is a small win, but documenting opportunities for students to socialize in class was a strategic move. We forget the small things, because we haven't been kids in high school in a long time, and the little things matter.

Easter egg opportunity: At some point during class, a teacher came in, unprompted, and publicly praised Jessica's teaching ability in front of all of her students. The first school employee, who isn't Jessica or this unnamed teacher, to tell me who the teacher was that praised her in front of her students, gets a leave early pass from Rachel. Check in with Jessica to find out who it was. Well done, teacher who shall not be named.

Heads up English teachers, Jessica said to her students that reading is super important for math and she even has a library in her math classroom. I hope that you guys return the favor! Multiple teachers provided some cross curricular goodness today.

About 35 minutes into the period, Ms. Cassity gave the students a mini break. She allowed them to get up, move around, talk to their friends, and have just a few minutes of unstructured time to reset before she jumped into math specific instruction. The short break Ms. Cassity allowed brought her extended time on task with higher engagement with her students for the remainder of the period. Think about meetings you attend as adults. Small breaks are great and appreciated. I encourage you to talk with Jessica about how she engineers these breaks and the extent to which she feels and has observed the small breaks paying greater dividends throughout the period of instruction. 

Ms. Cassity moved into the modeling of calculator skills related to radicals... I think. I want to highlight a high leverage use of technology to enhance classroom instruction Jessica employed. Instead of students receiving only verbal instruction about calculator steps via teacher direct instruction, Ms. Cassity employed a full calculator model up front on her smart board that allowed students to effectively follow along by seeing exactly where to press various buttons to stay on track. This is simple, but if there was any student in her class that was unaware of where to find various buttons, that student would have been lost if the instruction was purely verbal, without the use of technology. The technology and calculator software might have prevented just a small number of students, or more, from getting lost in the flow of the instruction. If it helped one student, the planning and strategy was worth it.

Well done Ms. Cassity!

When you see any of these four rockstar members of our faculty today or later this week, tell them good job, and that they are incredible.

Day one of 180 down. Day two, we're coming for you.