Marysville and Memories

Marysville teachers taking part in the yarn web activity

I was invited to Marysville USD 364 to speak and learn with the educators there. They were so GREAT - dancing and singing with the music that I played - participating in all the crazy activities that I threw at them - and even tolerated my bad jokes! They really treated me well and I even had a reserved parking place there which made me feel way more important than I am!
The whole day was a great trip down memory lane for me. I played many basketball games in the Marysville gym (I graduated from Belleville High) and coached many games there (when I taught/coached in Concordia).

Kathleen Stump - a rockin' music teacher!

After a snowy drive back to Belleville to eat lunch with my parents (who treated me like a Queen), I dropped in to visit my old elementary school. The principal there was my middle school principal (only we called it junior high school) growing up. I saw art work hanging in the hallway and signs for Jump Rope for Heart (a program my mom started years ago!). My purpose of visiting the school was to see my former music teacher, Kathleen Stump. She is amazing and has helped me and my family on countless projects - including my TOY gifts in Dallas. It was obvious watching her that her students love her as much as I do! I didn't think anyone would believe me how "bad" the weather was, so I took a picture while driving...in retrospect, not the smartest thing I have done.


Next stop - Concordia High School to see my beloved friend, Tami Peltier. She has this wonderful art room - aka The Castle. As an extra bonus, teaching right next to her was David Gieber who I taught math and coached with! We had a great time catching up, talking education, family, and retelling old stories. It is wonderful to have a history with people, buildings, and towns. I have learned that the world of education is very small. Almost everywhere I go there is someone who knows someone who knows me. I LOVE THAT!

David Gieber, myself, and Tami Peltier

IRONIC!

The Buhler Representatives (my friends!) getting recognized - cool banner!

I was at the KSDC Conference again today. There were a couple of highlights for me...one was seeing my district, Buhler USD 313, receive the Systemic Learning Award. My district leaders and staff have worked hard at implementing and embedding Professional Learning Communities into our "way we do business." It was great for the district and our leaders to get that recognition. I heard all kinds of research about how time for PD (Professional Development) increases student achievement and how China, Finland, and Japan spend more time on PD and teacher collaboration than the US and their students are reaping the benefits. Staying up on current research, learning new methods of teaching, and time for networking is IMPORTANT - yes, even in education! Seriously - would you go to a doctor that said they hadn't kept up on current research or didn't attend continuing education courses? Why would we think it appropriate to send our children (our FUTURE) to teachers who don't? That is exactly what is happening across the state. In the times of budget cuts, even my own district (the one that just got recognized) has frozen all PD for the rest of the year. It is often the first "cut" districts will make.

Dr. DeBacker sharing great stories, data, and relevant legislation

So...this brings me to the second highlight of the day: hearing Dr. Diane DeBacker, Deputy Commissioner of Education for Kansas, speak. Dr. DeBacker is a great speaker and her passion for putting kids first came through loud and clear! She shared with us the Senate has a bill being proposed (Senate Bill 130-see section h) provides the school term to start no sooner than the day after Labor Day and must end before Memorial Day and PROHIBITS STAFF DEVELOPMENT OR INSERVICE DURING REGULAR SCHOOL TIME! When do legislators think educators should collaborate, study student learning and effective teaching strategies? I urge you to write, email, or call your Senator and discuss with them the importance of protecting PD!

USD 232 De Soto Visit

1st Graders putting on a program- just for us!

Wow! We have had a 'whirl-wind' of activities this month. Today's visit (February 9, 2009) completes our fifth district visit out of eight.

We visited Jennifer Hartman's district; De Soto; on Monday, February 9, 2009. Jennifer picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and we traveled to her building, Clear Creek Elementary, where we visited with Dr. Sharon Zoellner; Superintendent, and Alvie Carter; PR Director, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with our new friends. Later we had the privilege to visit with the Clear Creek Principal; Mike Stithem and their building instructional coach Carrie Handy on several topics including;
1)The Basic School: A Community for Learning by Ernest L. Boyer
2)PLC (Professional Learning Communities)
3)MTSS (Multi Tiered System of Support) and
4)the Learning Coach model for their district.
We hurried down to the gym to watch Jennifer's first graders present their Kansas Day program for us. The program was around the book; S is for Sunflower; A Kansas Alphabet by Devin Scillian. Jennifer divided the book into student speaking parts and added music to accompany the book. HOW CUTE!

Then we were off to the fifth grade music class. Jennifer is trained in ORFF, as well as other music teachers in her district. The students demonstrated several musical numbers on the drums and the xylophones. According to the ORFF philosophy; musical numbers are first learned orally, before they are put to music. What a talented group of musicians! The students then took us on a quick tour of their building. (left: 5th graders drumming it out)

The next stop on our district tour was at Monticello Trails Middle School. Again we were welcomed by a wonderful group of five 8th grade student ambassadors and their building counselor; Dave Anderson. A quick building tour, and question answer session with the ambassadors was followed by a UNIQUE opportunity to have lunch with Mr. Keil Hileman (2004 KTOY) who teaches an elective class called; Museum Connections, in his museum/classroom. All I can say is you have to see it to believe it! Oh to be a student again!

After lunch we walked to Mill Valley High School, and visited with Joe Novak; Principal, and sat in on a science lab with Eric Thomas; teacher, as well as USD 232 Secondary nominee for 2009 KTOY.

We then had the unique privilege to listen to Cheryn Swanson of Monticello Historical Society tell us some brief history about a one room school house, that sits on district property. Boy, it would have been chilly to have been in attendance on a day like today!

A look into our educational history - a one room school house.

Finally, we were able to visit with Linda McPherson; USD 232 KTOY coordinator.

WHAT a DAY! WHAT a GREAT DISTRICT!
Posted by: Cindy Venard

The HOW and The WHY

Dr. Robert Marzano with his biggest fan (me!)

If you have heard me speak this year, more than likely I have quoted Dr. Robert Marzano's research on effective teachers and effective schools. I love his research because it supports my long held belief that "the teacher" is the most important factor in student learning. Today I was privileged to hear him speak in Wichita at the KSDC Conference and even got to have my picture taken with him AND talked to him for a few minutes. I had to confess that I have been shamelessly quoting his research at every event that I attend. He is amazingly gracious, personable, approachable - all the things you would expect from a caring educator. He shared research on effective instructors, his philosophy on grading, outcomes and the art and science of teaching. So today I learned more about the HOW of teaching. If you have not read his books, I urge you to do so. Classroom Instruction that Works was one of the first books that I read when I committed myself to improving my instruction for student learning.




(below: John Knapp and right: Holly Kimble)

So now this brings me to the WHY. Holly Kimble, Sam Neill, and John Knapp (my amazing colleagues at Buhler High) were presenting on 21st Century Skills in Communication Arts. I love supporting and learning from people you know and care about...but here is the cool part - they brought along about 10 students. And not just ANY students, but some of MY students (yes they are students of John's, Holly's and Sam's too) but when I see them, they are MINE. It has been too long since I have seen my students and I missed them so much. I wanted to just sit and listen to what they are doing, about homecoming this week, about what their senior project is going to be about, and how school is going. Although I have been enjoying meeting people and learning from great educators, I MISS MY STUDENTS! I was surprised by the amount of emotion seeing them brought on...yes, I cried a little. I will be back soon with them but right now 2 weeks seems like a long time.

More Learning!

Ken Willard and I doing the radio show - FUN!

The past few days have been a little stressful, but am starting to get in a groove with it all!! I spent Wednesday morning learning from and sharing with some of the Washington School District, USD 108. We were focusing on instructional strategies and I left with some great new ideas on how to teach math - including a clever way of remembering divisor and dividend. I really enjoyed this professional group of educators and left energized.
Thursday was spent in Parsons with the Parson High School faculty whom are in their first year of Professional Learning Communities. They are doing some really creative things in Parsons and each teacher is on two teams: one is by grade level and one is by subject. I was intrigued by this model as it is something new for me. We focused on the importance of building relationships and a collaborative culture as I think it is the engine that drives high expectations. Every time I talk about PLC's, it is hard to remember that my building has been doing them for 11 years. Becoming a team doesn't happen overnight that is for sure but Parsons is light years ahead of where we were in year one. They are a committed group of educators with great leadership.
Friday morning I did my first (and hopefully not last) radio show on KWBW 1450 in Hutchinson. I was nervous as a "frog on a freeway!" (that is a Dale Dennis quote). However, Ken Willard and Rob Dreher made me feel so at home. I was amazed how FAAASST 30 minutes can go. I stayed up late the past couple nights preparing for it and hope I represented the education profession and all the great educators in the state well. It was fun getting talk about my passion and sharing about the KTOY program. If you missed the show, check it out by clicking here and then finding my name! OR you can click on the podcast on the right side of this page thanks to Rosemary Miller (our amazing technology integration specialist).
Next week, the Team will be visiting DeSoto Monday and speaking to the State Board of Education on Tuesday.

The FabulousGardner-Edgerton Visit

The drum line and Channel 4 Fox News awaits our arrival

The KTOY 2009 Team was treated to the red carpet treatment in Gardner. We started out the visit by being driven to Gardner by High School Principal, Tim Brady and our host, Walt Cochran. We arrived at the District Office and were greeted with a breakfast with Administrators and City Officials. We were then whisked away to Madison Elementary school where we toured and had the added bonus of seeing Walt's children in action. Pioneer Ridge Middle School was our next stop with wonderful student tour guides showing us the highlights of their school. The team was treated to lunch at a local restaurant, Austin's. Our next stop was Walt's beloved Gardner-Edgerton High School where we were welcomed with a drum line outside and the Jazz Band inside (check us out dancing in the picture). Quite the impressive display of talent complete with a news team from Fox 4. Our time at GEHS was spent with time learning about the Freshman Academy and other key programs. We were honored to have GEHS students as our tour guides and enjoyed visiting the classrooms. Marilyn Fox especially enjoyed the chemistry lesson about Moles! The highlight was visiting with high school students that are interested in becoming teachers. Our day ended with the 8 of us running around downtown Gardner getting "freebies" from the generous local merchants. What a time we had. WE LOVE GARDNER-EDGERTON!!

The KTOY Team and our wonderful escorts

Posted by: Marilyn Fox, Manhattan

Paola Visit

Mary Bradshaw shooting the ball into the moving robot.

On Tuesday, the KTOY Team visited USD 368, Paola. This district has some very innovative programs they shared with us. One of my favorites was the Watch D.O.G.S. program they have at Sunflower Elementary. It stands for Dads Of Great Students, which is a program of the National Center for Fathering. This is a great opportunity for Dads to get involved with the elementary school and is a win-win for everyone involved. The school gets an extra set of eyes, a positive male role model - the Dad (or grandfather, uncle, etc) gets a glimpse of their child's everyday world. They had 300 Dads sign up their first year. IMPRESSIVE!

Another program at Paola was the FIRST Robotics Team. They demonstrated their current robot they are working on to the team...we have seen quite a few Robotics Teams on our visit and I really think we will be seeing more of these Teams across the state. It is a true application of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) along with the writing aspect as they do have to present some research and the process of building. The program at Paola starts in Hillsdale Elementary school with Lego NXT and continues at the Paola Middle School with the Lego Mindstorm program. The students did an excellent job presenting to us how they get their "mission," the building process, and finally, an example of their hard work. Having two boys at home and a small fortune invested in Legos, I think every school should offer this! It is great problem-solving and very hands-on learning. After witnessing the dedication of students at all levels, it was not a surprise to learn of their national success in FIRST.

Mary Bradshaw, Cindy Venard, and Marilyn Fox learning how to stack cups.

The Team had a blast learning how to use SMART Boards and stack cups at Cottonwood Elementary. Check us out "learning" in the picture! We also got to visit our very own, Julie Miller's, garden. Even though it is winter, you can tell the love and energy that went into creating a place for students to grow and nourish plants.

The theme all the way through Paola was RELEVANCE. Their curriculum across all grade levels is being made relevant through the projects and community involvement. Even our food was made by the Culinary Arts program. Shandi Andres shared the program she has built with the courses in Culinary Arts. I could see this expanding every year with the popularity of Food Network and let's face it...who doesn't like to eat?? The students at Paola are definitely getting an exposure to education that they will be able to transfer to life "after high school."

The Team pictured in Julie Miller's garden