RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS WELCOME Creating Responsible Learners: Strategies for Teaching Students to Take Control of Their Education DOE: IS Brandman: EDDU9399

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The world is changing….

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Why this is important and how it relates to this class, is that as the world changes at the speed it does, you must change with it or be left behind. There will be a new definition of the “Haves” and the “Have not’s.”

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The “Haves” will be those who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to learn and adapt to the changes they will be experiencing.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The “Have not’s,” will be those who don’t.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Think of your of class of students this past year. I believe they fall into 4 categories. 1. Those that did well academically and you know will do well in the future, no matter what field they go in.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS They possess both the cognitive abilities as well as the attitudes, skills and knowledge to be successful.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 2. Those who did well academically, but you have concerns related to their lack of social skills, ability to control their emotions and how they handle setbacks.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The days of one man or woman working independently in a lab is over. Today’s inventions are a collaboration of individuals working together.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 3. Those that did poorly academically and don’t possess the skills to be successful in the future.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS These are the ones that you know will struggle in life. You feel bad for these students as you know their life will be filled with challenges they can’t handle.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 4. Those that did poorly academically, but you know will make it in the future.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS They have the skills that we will talk about in this class to learn, unlearn, adapt, change, persist, etc.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS So the “Haves” will be those who are responsible learners or lifelong learners. It really doesn’t matter what we call them, they have the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be successful.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Think of all the changes you have experienced in the last few years.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS New technologies…

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS New technologies… How many of you ever taught using one of these?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS How many have one of these in your room?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Changing values in students and parents…

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Changing values in students and parents…

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Teacher baiting… Students video or audio taping you in your classroom.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Legal issues How much do you think about liability issues? Charges of improper conduct with a student? Facebook and other social media

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Work loads… You are continually asked to do more.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The reality is… Successful people know how to adjust to the environment in which they must learn/work. Unsuccessful people are still waiting for the world to adjust to them.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The challenge for education… We must at the same time make the accommodations so the student can learn, while also teaching them how to make those accommodations for themselves in the future.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We must make accommodations for students. -Seating -Presentation styles -Pacing -Working in partners -Structure -How we approach them -Etc.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS But we believe, we must give them the skills, knowledge and attitudes to succeed when the environment is not tailored to their needs.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We must teach them how to: -Cope -Adjust -Minimize -Endure -Tolerate -Accept -Bend -Adapt -Learn

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS That’s who succeeds in life and is happy..

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS And that’s what this class is about. We will look at the 20 characteristics and give you ideas of how to incorporate those characteristics into your lessons to teach your students the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to succeed.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We are not asking you to create new lessons. We are asking you to incorporate the teaching of these characteristics into your existing lessons. You are not reinventing the wheel…just fine tuning it a bit.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Understand, no one excels in all 20 characteristics. We each have strengths and weaknesses related to the 20 characteristics. The goal is to get each of your students to be better in the 20 characteristics.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 1. We do not use the payment tab on the PDE3 website. Because of that, it will always show that you haven’t paid for the class. We keep our own records and if there is problem with your fee, we will contact you.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 2. After the class is completed, we don’t send you back your Portfolios. They will be available next February. Come to one of the classes that we teach in February and Dave will have your Portfolio available.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 3. You can download all the Powerpoints used in this class at Joe’s website: JoeLoVerde.com Also the Portfolio, Practicum and Workbook are available for you to download on the website.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The Portfolio, Practicum and Workbook are in Microsoft Word format. If you have any problems downloading the pages, contact Joe.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 4. You can turn in your Portfolio/Practicum in either a hard copy or electronic form. We encourage you to type up your Portfolio. We have had a couple of Portfolios rejected because the reviewer had a difficult time reading the responses.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS When people type up their answers, they seem to put more thought into those answers. Not sure of the dynamic at work there, but can tell you it does make a difference.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 5. Once the Portfolios are turned in, we review them and will contact you if we have any concerns about the quality of your responses or if you failed to address one of the questions. We then forward the grades to the PDE3 office and they then ask for around 10% of the Portfolios for them to review.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We then take a second look at each of the selected Portfolios.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The selection of those 10% of the Portfolios is random and we have no control over whose Portfolio is selected or not selected.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We have the system down and if you answer all the questions and put some thought into those responses, your Portfolio will pass review.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 6. We must require that you turn your Portfolio in on time. We have to send the grades in together, so if a Portfolio is late, it is holding up the credit for everyone else in the class.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 7. The Data Sheet has been ed to you on your Lotus notes and is available for you to download on Joe’s website It contains our contact information and other important data about the class. It also explains our refund policy.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS If you decide that the class is not for you for whatever reason in the first 3 days of the class, you will get a full refund. If you can’t complete the Portfolio for any reason, you won’t lose your $185 as you can apply it to any future class we teach. We teach 4 classes per year and there is no expiration date on that credit.

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CHARACTERISTICS

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The 20 characteristics include: -Knowledge -Skills -Attitudes Don’t get caught up on which of the three it is…that’s not important.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Knowledge… There are things that they must know about the world and about themselves.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Skills… There are certain skills they must possess.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Attitudes… There are specific beliefs they have about themselves and the world around them.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS This class is a bit different than ones we have presented in the past as we will be using “you” as the case study to look at each of the 20 factors. As you look at yourself, it will give you an clearer understanding of the factor and be able to determine how it applies to your student.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Also, given the size of the class and the room size, it would be very hard to have you interact and move about the room. We are committed to getting a larger facility next year.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Also, how you can incorporate them into your existing lessons: -Explain the characteristic -Provide examples of the characteristic -Having your students experience the characteristic -Demonstrate the characteristic -Model the characteristic

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The 20 characteristics are: 1.Understanding how you learn 2.Persistence 3.Organization 4.Study skills 5.Learning partners 6.Learning situations 7.Reflection 8.Problem solving 9.Creativity

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 10.Critiquing skills 11.Time management 12.Self-regulating 13.Goal setting 14.Planning skills 15.Objectivity 16.Self-motivate 17.Knowing resources 18.Quality products

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 19.Prioritizing 20.Strengths and weaknesses You probably noticed that some of the characteristics are similar. That is not by accident and that will make more sense in question #2 in the Portfolio.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS There is not an expectation that you will teach all 20 to your students. What we want you to think about is how can I help my students get better in each one of them. Meet them where they are and work to take them where they need to be to succeed in life.

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PORTFOLIO

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Turn to page #2 in your Portfolios.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS We are asking you to assess 10 of the 20 characteristics related to your students this coming school year. Depending upon the age, maturity and subject you are teaching, pick the 10 that the most applicable to your student population.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS When we said analysis, we want you to look at your students collectively and determine if they possess this characteristic. We are asking for your observations here. NO STUDENT EVIDENCE!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Similar to last week’s class…when school starts, start to look for how your students do in each of the 20 characteristics. That will give you your baseline and determine which of the 20 they need the most to succeed.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Let’s use “persistence” as an example. When school starts, look for the following behaviors on part of your students.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Do they give up easily on tasks? Do they come to you for help without trying to figure things out themselves? Do they do a good job until the material gets difficult? Do they quit if they don’t like the material? Do they seek out other people to help them?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Three before me!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Riddle: What runs but never walks, has a bed but never sleeps and has a mouth but never eats? What am I ?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS As a group, you fit in the same categories as your students. 1.Some of you didn’t even try…you hate riddles. Think of your students who immediately give up because they hate…math, writing, science, group work, etc.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 2. Some of you put a small bit of thought into it…nothing came to mind, so you quit. The same as your students.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 3. Some of you are good at riddles and love the challenge. You might have figured it out or if you didn’t, you don’t want me to tell you the answer.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS What responsible learners do is stick with it. Just because they don’t like it or it is hard, they don’t quit…they persist!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS What is also important and what we will go over in this class, is that they have strategies. They know how to attack a problem.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Think back to your class last year. How were they related to persistence?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The goal with this year’s class is to help them become more persistent.

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Persistence is the most important characteristic that any individual can possess. It will make up for almost any deficit.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Actions… -Talk about it in your class -Create a culture where you don’t quit until you get the answer -Model…what are you doing that is hard and you want to quit -Posters -Speakers -Videos -Reward it

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Turn to page #7 in your Portfolios.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS A.We are asking you to identify 3 of the characteristics that you will be incorporating into lesson. B.Describe the changes you made in the lesson C.Criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of the changes you made.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS D.Collection of two pieces of student evidence that reflect the overall impact the changes made in student performance and behavior. Also fill in the captions. E.A detailed evaluation of the actions…did they work, not work, work with some students and not others…make sure you refer to the two pieces of student evidence to support your conclusions.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS The ones that you analyze and find are the most difficult for your students are the ones you should be taking action on. When we ask you for 3 actions…if you use similar actions it might be easier…. Goal setting/planning skills Reflection/critiquing skills Learning situations/learning partners Time management/organization

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS So as we go over each characteristic, we will also give you ideas of actions you can take to incorporate it into your lesson. Whatever idea we present, we want you to think about how you could use that action in your classroom.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Just like we talked about last week, think of the concept behind the action, not just the action itself

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REFLECTION

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS On one of the white 3x5 cards, give yourself a ranking for how effective teacher you were last year: 1…low, 10 high for how effect of a teacher you were last year.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS This is a horrible question… Too broad, no focus, the answer provides no useable information about what you should or shouldn’t do this coming year.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS On the back of the card, come up with 3 questions that would help you reflect upon how you did last year in the classroom.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Teaching is a very complex art, not a science. You can break your year down related to: -Classroom management -Instructional success -Parent communication or involvement -Challenging lower or higher end students

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Also, you have to factor in the students you had last year. Given the challenging nature of the group of students you had, you might have done a great job of classroom management.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Think of it as a coach of sport’s team. The best job of coaching they might have ever done was with a team that finished.500. The talent on your team, injuries you might have had, the schedule you had, etc.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Reflection provides “self-knowledge.” There is a saying that the quality of your life is based upon the quality of questions you ask in your life. Do you ask good questions in your life?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS In relationships… After a fight. What were we fighting about? Have we fought about that before? How often? How do our fights start? Patterns…issues, times, etc.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS I would encourage you to answer these questions before you go back to school this fall? 1.What did I do well last year? 2.What do I need go improve upon from my performance last year? 3.What did I learn about my students last year? 4.What did I learn about my colleagues last year?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS 5. What did I learn about my administration last year? 6. What did I learn about myself last year? 7. What do I need to do more of this coming year? 8. What do I need to do less of this coming year? 9. What do I need to change?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Answering those questions honestly will improve your teaching more than any “PD” class or classes you could take. That’s not saying we don’t want you here, but just being real!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS As you access your students, look for… -Did they reflect up0n their actions -When you passed back papers, did they look at the grade/score and not what they got right or wrong. -When you ask them about patterns of behavior…they can’t identify any -When you ask them what they need to do more or less of in the future, they are at a loss to come up with an answer.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Actions to teach your students to be reflective… 1.Providing them a template. Questions What did I do well in this lesson? What do I need to work on based upon my performance in this lesson? What did I learn about myself in this lesson?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Did I work well with my partner or group? I have the hardest time concentrating when…? I work best with… Have them come up with their own questions. Give them time to ask these questions…

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Bottom line…reflection is important. This young lady should have reflected more…

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LEARNING PARTNERS

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS At a faculty meeting, your Principal says that they are going to break you into groups and have what recommendations about next year’s schedule. 1.Are there certain staff members you don’t want to be paired with? 2.Are there certain staff members you do want to be paired with?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Understand that feeling…. That is the same feeling your students have every time you say you are going to break the class up into groups.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Who in your life wants to make you a better man or woman? I challenge you tonight to tell that individual, either in person, call, text or , but simply say… In a class I took today, they posed the question, “Who in your life makes you a better person and I thought of you.”

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Tell me how good you would feel if you received that message… Maybe some of you will!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Remember, just as you have other faculty members you don’t want to work with, your students have other class members they don’t want to work with. The reality…you have to work with people you may not like in life!

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS As you start the year and see what groups or combinations of students work and don’t work…that is your analysis.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Actions… -Talk about it…tell them what it means to be a good group member or partner -Have the students identify who they think they work best with -Have the students identify who they don’t work best with -Talk about how you deal with it when you are put in groups you don’t like.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS -Strategies -Focus on your common goal -Share and ask them to share about working together -Be mindful of your words -Never pass an opportunity to be silent -Slow down…think before you speak -Try to see things from the other person’s perspective

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS -Focus on what you can contribute to the group -Follow through…be clear on what you will do and do it. As Yoda said..

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KNOWING RESOURCES

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS In today’s world, all the information is out there. The skill comes in being able to find it. Everything that we are teaching you is out there…this is not new information we are generating.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS How good are you at accessing information? What search engines do you use? You want to fly from here to Denver on June 30 th, coming back July 7 th. Where do you go to find the cheapest fare?

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS This is one of the characteristics that is very different depending on the age level of the student. It really doesn’t apply to Kindergarten students for example.

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Assess… -How good are your students at accessing information on their own…grade level makes a huge difference in this area! -Can they identify where they can look to find the information they need -Do they just come up and ask you -Do they have the resources available to them at home…Have and Have Not’s

RESPONSIBLE LEARNERS Actions… -Talk about it -Show them the resources available to them at school -Talk about resources they might have at home -Resource at the public library -Teach them how to “search” -Model it

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