Our focus is on serving you!
The
A Message From Dr. Bell
Connector September 2013
Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration!!! I suppose all of you were wondering what topics ESU Administrator Training centered on this summer. The three main themes are listed above. Yes, you are correct. They appear to be a bit redundant, but with the changing roles of educators it is imperative that ESU 10 staff reposition our efforts to reflect what is going on outside of our organization. The main tool to achieve this seems to be consistent collaboration. It has been the mission of ESU 10 for many years to”partner with our customers to meet changing needs through professional expertise, training, and support”. That mission becomes even more important today because the ESU customers have changed greatly in scope and need over my twenty year tenure at ESU 10. Educator roles have changed and continue to change. The biggest current challenge appears to be that achievement has become the constant with time being the variable. Anyone who works in a school district understands the value of time and effort. ESU 10 must continue to transform to be a viable partner in the educational process. We must become more like conveners to help keep schools on the cutting edge. Somehow we need to use our expertise to help you find ways to streamline your efforts in this brave new educational world.
It all sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Oh yeah, and then there is that time variable thing. We will need to work together to become more efficient and effective. We need to listen and respond to your needs. Changes have already been made this summer to programs after reading survey responses. Our staff must remain as a nimble dance partner and not stomp on your toes. In conclusion, I hearken back to the words of my favorite Canadian philosopher, Red Green. He constantly said, “Remember I’m pulling for ya. We’re all in this together.”
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So, you say, what do you intend to do about this? We continue the ESU 10 Continuous Improvement Process. Just as a quick reminder, our four areas of emphasis are:
• To provide professional, knowledgeable, responsive staff. • To strengthen and develop customized products and services. • To bridge gaps of time and distance through maximum utilization of resources.
• To assist our customers in identifying and achieving their goals. All four Priority Area Committees have been diligent in their efforts and are hereby publically commended for their work. In October we are going to bring together the entire staff to specifically identify which school districts receive which services and by whom. We will put that in a data bank and update it annually. We already have copies of your School Improvement Plans. Armed with this information, teams of ESU 10 staff members will meet with school district leadership and staff to explain what is being done – since a constant response in the annual survey is that folks don’t know what we are doing for them – and then listen to school district needs to help us COLLABORATE to design the best solutions to meet those needs. 76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
Fall Workshops
Fall Technology Workshops
September Workshops
16 Math Teachers Network
18 Using Problem Solving to Support a Positive Learning Climate
19 Assessment for Autism Verification: Part One
19 iPad Intro-Getting to Know Your iPad 25 LAN Manager Meeting 25 NSSRS Workday 27 PowerSchool “Basics”
October 08 PowerSchool
10 Fall Analytical Scoring of Student Writing Samples 14 Continuous Improvement Process Support for YEAR 5 Schools 15 Teaching with an iPad 16 NWEA Stepping Stones to Using Data 17 Moodle for Teachers: Managing a Course 21 Continuous Improvement Process Support for YEAR 1 & 2 Schools
September 19 - iPad Intro-Getting to Know Your iPad Join us for a one-day workshop on “Getting to Know Your iPad.” You’ll learn about buttons, swipes, and apps, as well as how an iPad can assist you personally and professionally. Bring your iPad with the latest iOS updates and know the Apple ID you’ll use to download apps on this device. If you’re not sure about either of those, visit with your administration or LAN Manager before you come. October 15 - Teaching with an iPad You’ve got the iPad basics down (See iPad Intro: Getting to Know Your iPad) and you’re feeling fairly comfortable using it personally. Now you’d like to teach with it. In this one-day workshop you’ll learn how to use an iPad as a presentation tool as well as explore educational apps, course management resources, and file storage. Whether you only have one iPad, a cart, or one for each student, you’ll leave with a plethora of educational uses for this mobile device.
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Using iPad in the Curricular Classroom Let’s explore how the iPad can be used as a productivity and instructional tool as well as a learning device. Using free apps, you will create several projects that could be used as unit openers, chapter reviews, or periodic checks for understanding. Time will be allowed for exploration of apps in core subject areas and gaming apps that challenge students to increase their understanding of a subject or skill.
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October 29 - Using iPads in the Elementary Classroom October 31 - Using iPads in the Math Classroom October 31 - Using iPads in the Science Classroom November 5 - Using iPads in the History Classroom November 7 - Using iPads in the Language Arts Classroom
Fall Analytical Scoring of Student Writing Samples October 10-11 An opportunity for districts to gather early data for each student in fourth, eighth, and eleventh grades is offered again this fall at ESU 10. Each student paper is assessed separately for each domain by two trained writing teachers for a minimum of 8-12 individual evaluations per paper.
76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
New Faces at ESU 10 Nicole Langrud School Psychologist I am originally from Alliance, Nebraska. After graduating high school, I attended Chadron State College for a couple years before transferring to UNK. There, I graduated with both my Bachelor’s and Education Specialist’s degrees. I completed my internship in Ralston, Nebraska and then worked for CNSSP in Grand Island for seven years. Kurt and I have been married for five years. He is a web systems administrator for The Buckle. We live in Kearney and share our home with our dog, Ziva. (She’s our child!) I enjoy spending time with friends and family (especially spoiling my niece). I also enjoy cooking/baking and reading. Kiley Wrage Speech Language Pathologist I am originally from Albion, Nebraska and graduated from Boone Central High School. I received my bachelor’s degree in 2011 from the University of Nebraska Kearney in Communication Disorders. In 2013, I received my master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology, also from the University of Nebraska Kearney. I was able to complete my school internship with ESU 10 and had nothing short of an outstanding experience. I am thoroughly excited to begin my professional career with ESU 10. My husband Nathan and I were married in March of 2012. Nathan is originally from Shelton and currently manages Ace Hardware in Kearney. We have two dogs, Sophie and Lilly. My hobbies include spending time with my family and friends, traveling, and watching sports.
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Roni Boeser Occupational Therapist I am originally from western Kansas. I graduated with my masters degree from University of North Dakota in Occupational Therapy. I worked for Aegis Therapies in the nursing homes in Cozad and Broken Bow for a year before contracting with ESU 10 last year for five area schools. I am married to Chancy Boeser who works for Custer Public Power as a lineman. We have a little boy named Quinton who is 16 months old and have called Broken Bow home for the last 1.5 years. My hobbies include attending rodeos, family time and gardening in the summer.
76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
New Faces at ESU 10 Peg Coover Instructional Specialist My name is Peg Coover and I am thrilled to be a member of the ESU 10 family as an Instructional Specialist in the NIS department. I will be working with Jason Everette and Graci Gillmig facilitating technology trainings for teachers. I grew up in Alliance, NE and graduated from high school there in 1982. I attended Kearney State College for 3 years and received my BS in Biology from the University of Wyoming in 1986. I worked for Western Research Institute as a laboratory technician until my husband Jim finished pharmacy school at UW, and then we moved back to central Nebraska. I went back to school to get my teaching certificate and complete my masters degree and started teaching math and science in 1991. I taught at Centura Public School for 18 years—everything from 7th grade science to Calculus! I loved the variety and being busy. While at CHS I also coached cross country
and track, was the HAL coordinator and did anything I could with technology, including creating and maintaining the school website. I started a Computer Media class and one of our accomplishments was creating CenturaVision for multimedia presentations in our gym. It was exciting when our school was one of the first in Nebraska to have a 1:1 laptop initiative in 2006! After my son graduated from Centura in 2009, I decided to make a change and I started teaching science at Grand Island Northwest. Most recently I was an Instructional Coach for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, via the National Center for Research in Rural Education. I worked with science teachers throughout the state, helping them implement science inquiry in their classrooms. Jim and I have been married 29 years and we have two children and two grandchildren. Micki, our daughter, is a science teacher at Gibbon Public School. Her husband Tyler is a pharmacist at Good Samaritan Hospital and they have two boys, Ethan and Drake. Our son Jake is a student at Arapahoe Community College in Colorado. 4 If I’m not at work, or working on one of my Apple devices, I am probably running! I have completed 7 full marathons and 15 half marathons, as well as dozens of other races! My other hobbies include gardening, canning, reading and chasing around our two dogs, Dexter and Kramer.
76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
New Faces at ESU 10 Merrie Nickel Visual Consultant I grew up on a farm north of Arapahoe, NE and attended high school there. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from Kearney State College; my graduating class was the last to graduate from Kearney State before becoming UNK. My first teaching job was teaching multi-handicapped students at Lincoln East High School. I happened to have a blind student in my class and became interested in earning an endorsement for Visual Impairment through the summer program at UNL. I student taught for my VI certification at Omaha Westside and then worked for the Leavenworth County Special Education Cooperative in Lansing, Kansas for about 12 years serving visually impaired students throughout the area. My husband Tim and I adopted our daughter Caitlen in 2001. Caitie and I moved back to Nebraska in 2006 where I previously worked for Kearney Public Schools as a teacher of visually impaired. I’m excited to be at ESU 10 and look forward to hitting the road and getting to know all the visually impaired students in the ESU 10 area, as well as part of the ESU 9 area. 5
What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain Yet scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn “functional specialization,” that is capacity for optimal efficiency. Read this entire article here taken from Psychology Today magazine published on March 14, 2013. Check out one of the many video clips of the Write Right series from Learn 360® that can be checked out on ODIE from the ESU 10 Media Library. Below is a description of the first clip.
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hen we adults went to school, one of the first things we learned was how to write the alphabet, in caps and lower case, and then to hand-write words, sentences, paragraphs, and essays. Some of us were lucky enough to have penmanship class where we learned how to make our writing pretty and readable. Today, keyboarding is in, the Common Core Standards no longer require elementary students to learn cursive, and some schools are dropping the teaching of cursive, dismissing it as an “ancient skill.”
Write Right: #1 Getting Started In this program, students actively participate using a blank piece of paper and a pencil; students listen and adjust their paper, slanting it correctly and holding their pencil correctly. Students interact with the video, responding to suggestions to get started writing cursive: sitting up straight with two feet flat on the floor, slanting their paper, holding their pencil with a “V” as demonstrated and so on. This program is intended to motivate students to learn cursive and to introduce them to the song that steps them through the concepts above.
76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
Explicit Instruction
by Susan Evans, Professional Development.Coordinator
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o you crave college credit, collegiality, and cognitive energy??? If you do, we would like to extend an invitation to Explicit Instruction; a course we will be offering during the spring semester at ESU 10 (starting in January). This course is a structured study of the research and instructional routines presented in the book Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (Archer & Hughes, 2011). Using the chapters of the book as a framework, participants will be challenged to consider the what, why, and how of using wellplanned, research-supported instructional routines to improve or augment their professional practice. Throughout the course, participants will have multiple opportunities to discover occasions for application and evaluate how explicit instruction aligns with their current K-12 classroom.
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Course Objectives: The participants will be able to: • select critical content for lessons, breaking complex tasks into obtainable pieces. • design organized, systematic, intentional lessons that contain an opening, a body, and a closing, adjusting the lesson to the content (skills, strategies, concepts, vocabulary, academic rules, facts). • present lessons in an engaging manner that optimize student attention and learning. • elicit student responses throughout the lesson. constantly monitor the accuracy of students’ responses and adjust the lesson based on student performance. provide immediate feedback on students’ responses in order to close the gap between current and desired practice. provide judicious practice on skills, strategies, concepts, vocabulary, academic rules, and facts to ensure retention. create a classroom climate that promotes appropriate behavior, academic learning, positive relationships with peers and the teacher.
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We hope that offering an evening course that allows you to receive college credit through Hastings College is something that interests you and would be of benefit. Please, register here or contact Susan Evans at sevans@esu10.org if you have any questions about the course.
Math Teachers Network Workshop
Math teachers need to stick together! Join us for the Math Teachers Network September 16 & December 4 • Connect with other area math teachers • Share best practices and tech tips • Learn about the latest issues in math education Register at odie.esu10.org today! 76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
Continuous School Improvement
Continuous School Improvement ESU 10 Technical Assistance
Join us at ESU 10 to get the technical assistance, consultation, and work time you need to continue your School Improvement Process!
Monday, October 14th
9:00-3:00
https://odie.esu10.org/workshops/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=2765
• YEAR 5 schools hosting an external visit during the 2013-14 school year • Getting ready for the day the external team arrives
Monday, October 21st
9:00-3:00
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https://odie.esu10.org/workshops/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=2767
• YEAR 1 & 2 schools hosting an external visit in 2016-17 or 2017-18 • Getting off to a good start in a new cycle
Monday, October 28th
9:00-3:00
https://odie.esu10.org/workshops/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=2766
• YEAR 3 & 4 schools hosting an external visit in 2014-15 or 2015-16 • Keeping your process on track
Committee Chairs and/or Committee Members
ESU 10 76 Plaza Boulevard Kearney, NE 308-237-5927
76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org
Available in the ESU 10 Media Library! Magic School Bus on DVD! If you would like copies of the following titles contact Susan Sandoval ssandova@esu10.org 3346 ALL DRIED UP 3366 BLOWS ITS TOP 3344 BUTTERFLY AND THE BOG BEAST 3342 COLD FEET 3341 CRACKS A YOLK 3371 FLEXES ITS MUSCLES 3439 FOR LUNCH 3350 GETS ANTS IN ITS PANTS 3373 GETS EATEN 3448 GETS LOST IN SPACE 3451 GETS PLANTED 3388 GETS READY, SET, DOUGH 3339 GETS SWAMPED 3375 GETTING ENERGIZED 3377 GOES TO SEED 3462 GOING BATTY 3338 HOLIDAY SPECIAL 3436 HOPS HOMES 3423 IN A BEEHIVE 3337 IN THE ARCTIC 3453 IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE 3384 INSIDE RALPHIE 3452 KICKS UP A STORM 3336 MAKES A RAINBOW 3386 OUT OF THIS WORLD 3355 PLAYS BALL 3452 SPINS A WEB 3348 THE BUSASAURUS 3335 WET ALL OVER
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76 Plaza Blvd • PO Box 850 • Kearney, NE 68848-0850 • Ph: 308.237.5927 • Fax: 308.237.5920 • www.esu10.org