New Teachers Day Four

Day Four was a great wrap-up to the first week with new teachers.  Our objectives included:

• investigating classroom management techniques
• determining first day activities
• setting one goal to implement at the start of the year
• communicating with their principal

Dan Ernst, the Executive Director of the Nebraska Council of School Administrators provided a keynote about how to make a difference as a teacher, the importance of building relationships, and servant leadership.

Administrators and building principals had the opportunity to meet with their teachers to review ideas from the training and any other school related information.  We truly appreciate the willingness of our administrators to meet with their new staff AND their continued support of the program.

As always, the information can be found on the EIS Wiki.

The Waverly Crew

Colin provides wisdom to the Centennial bunch.

New Teachers - Day 3!

Day three is all about grading and homework - oh and as always some tech.  Lynne showed how to use google forms and some folks even worked with scripts.

Our objectives for the day were to:

1. understand common grading issues
2. develop a grading philosophy to improve learning
3. develop homework policies to improve learning
4. investigate technology tools

Grading was the central topic of the morning and we probably raised more questions than answers - however the discussion was really beneficial.

Lenny also provided a good session on homework and a lot of information can be found on Lenny's Homework Wiki.

Jill led the group through a tech tool "smackdown" right after lunch.  People had two minutes to show a tool or strategy to the group.  
The following are some of things folks showed:
Remind 101
Glogster
Doodle
Edmodo
Evernote
Prezi

As always more can be found on The EIS Wiki.

The Middle School Group

Marci is excited to talk about grading!

Lynne showing Google Forms

Amanda and Sara playing "homework fact or fiction"

New Teachers - Day Two

Day two - we have everyone back - plus one.  Today we are focusing on instructional routines and brain based learning. The objectives include:

• learning brain based strategies
• identifying strategies to boost retention
• applying active participation techniques to engage more students

We strongly believe that schools need to develop and use a common language of instruction.  Our training stresses the importance of naming the strategies, describing the strategy, and determining how (and when) they can be used.

Today Lenny will be providing some really good content on brain based learning; with most of it based on David Sousa's work.  See Lenny's Brain Based Wiki for more resources.

Some of the strategies we will demonstrate today include:

• Give one, Get one
• Clock Partners
• State Changes 
• Response Boards
• 5-4-3-2-1 Countdown - to refocus the class
• Interaction Sequence

More information and strategies can be found on our Craft Knowledge Wiki.

Lynne will provide training on how to use twitter and the subsequent clients and how to use hashtags as a search tool.

The agenda for the day can be found on the EIS13 Wiki.

Clock Partner Discussions

Table Discussions

Lenny demonstrating how to group students

EIS - Day One

This is day one of our new teacher training - the "Effective Instruction Series" (EIS).  We have 36 teachers who are new to their districts - some new to the profession - some with experience.  This is one of the best experiences we offer and are proud to have teachers from the following distrticts:
Centennnial
Crete
Dorchester
Exeter-Milligan
Friend
Heartland
McCool Junction
Milford
Seward
Waverly
Wilber - Clatonia
York


The objectives for today are for participants to understand:

• who is in the class of 2013
• the importance of building relationships with students
• the structure and goals of EIS
• "The Art and Science of Teaching" as a framework of instruction
• Technology tools - specifically Kidsblog for reflection

The goals for the series are for participants to:

• Utilize assessment, reporting, and grading practices based on current research and literature.
• Utilize instructional routines and strategies based on current research and literature.
• Implement classroom management practices based on current research and literature.

More information can be found on our EIS Wiki.

Chris and Jake  getting into the blog

Andee - flamboyant is the word!

Melissa will be teaching Spanish at Waverly

New Administrator Day

We are having a great day with the administrators new to ESU 6.  Our team is hosting a get to know you day that is proving to be very successful.  

We have three goals for today:

Build relationships with new administrators

Showcase ESU 6 PD Programs

Provide resources for an effective start to the school year

Let's introduce the folks that are in attendance:

• Alyson Dickinson from Friend Elementary School
• Jessica Dominey from Seward Elementary School
• John Schwartz from Seward High School
• Christine Radcliff from Wilber -Clatonia Elementary School
• Mark Fritch from Wilber -Clatonia High School
• Ross Ricenbaw from Waverly Middle School
• Cameron Soester from Milford High School
• Aaron Veleba from Fillmore Central Elementary School

In addition we are fortunate to have the expertise from practicing administrators lending their knowledge to the day.  Our team of experts include:

• Mitch Kubicek - Dorchester Superintendent
• Laura Kroll - Exeter Milligan Elementary Principal
• Josh Fields - Seward Public Schools Curriculum Director
• Brandon Mowinkel - Milford High School Principal

More information can be found on our wiki page for New Administrators on our Principal Wiki.

Aaron and Mark working with Google Hangouts

Ross and Brandon pretty much have it figured out.