Lindbergh High School Learns

A quick walk through the halls of Lindbergh High School highlights the innovation mindset that has infused energy into teaching and learning.  Whether it's project/problem-based learning (PBL) models of instruction or grading based on standards, the high school continues to reinvent learning for the 21st Century.  

Students demonstrate their understanding of yeast by designing a game for their peers.  Besides being fun, it also affords them problem-solving skills.  This isn't their first game - using peer feedback from their last design, they work to improve both the content and application of skills. 

Ever hear of ZipGrade?  It's an app that allows you to scan student assessments and get itemized data analysis to inform your instruction.  And, it's only $6.99/year.

In combination with multiple choice responses for ZipGrade, assessments add higher level application skills in a written format.

Math Notebooking:  Students reference both their class notes and use foldables to ensure understanding in their application of skills.

Students learn about efficiency as they experiment with ramp angles and collect data.

When the data doesn't add up, students question their procedure and readjust to ensure accuracy...all on their own!

A Day in the Life of PLCs

After spending a day in various grade-level content PLCs, the impact of this collaborative work is evident.  The strongest PLCs are cyclical, ensuring a backward design process that starts with standards and assessments and uses data to make adjustments for future learning.  PLCs can easily become joint planning, but if you find your PLC spending more time planning lessons than evaluating assessments, aligning standards, and evaluating student learning progress, your PLC needs a shift.

Check out some of these practical resources used in Lindbergh PLCs:

With each unit, students identify their understanding of the objectives.  They often start at "no idea" and continue to track their learning as it progresses.  But, what if they start the unit at "got it"?

The assessment is directly aligned to the learning goals so that students can explicitly see the connection.

Teachers track success toward the goals.  This data collection targets universal deficits and informs reteaching needs for individual students as well as the class as a whole.

When working with Galileo data, it's helpful to put standards into student-friendly terms when tracking growth.  Identifying what's been taught and what hasn't reduces student frustration if they feel they must have mastered every standard - this is especially important early in the year when they may see many unfamiliar skills.

Data is most valuable when students engage with it.  Teachers conference with individual students to garner input for further instructional support.

It may not be directly correlated to PLCs, yet this anchor chart reminds students of their expectations during math workshop.

Classroom Sneak Peak 10.20.16

Check out what's happening in some of our elementary and middle schools...

Students work toward their "goals," identifying their personal fitness focus for the year.

6th graders determine how salt impacts the consistency of gummy bears...and what that tells them about their own bodies.

Conjugating verbs in Spanish has never been so fun...a little competition requires students to build their automaticity.

Working as a team, each student must still demonstrate their knowledge of the French cardinal numbers using Quizlet.

Ground rules...literally...students can't forget their expectations when they step on them everyday.

Visual reminders reinforce character education throughout the school.

Students understand the purpose behind their collaborative work and how to do it well.

Math talk in action!

Sharing ideas and asking questions about solving problems.

Students support one another, having rich math conversations, but are still accountable for practicing independently.

The power of small group instruction:  everyone's engaged and working at the level appropriate for them.

Sharing topics for how-to papers ensures everyone has a topic and gets them thinking about what they will write.

October is Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge where students engineer these recycled materials into something with a purpose.  These gentlemen were proud of their Eiffel Tower game (they even let me play).

LHS Students Learn about College and Careers

Lindbergh High School hosted a college and career fair for the entire student body last Friday, October 14. Students were able to select three sessions with speakers that fit their interests, as well as spend a full session in the college fair, which had representatives from 25 post-secondary schools. More than 40 professionals volunteered their time to talk to our students about their careers.

From four-year universities to culinary and cosmetology schools, the college fair had something for everyone!

Professionals from healthcare, IT, hospitality, business, engineering, and many other fields spoke to and answered questions from LHS students.

Students were asked to write on chalkboards what they want to be when they grow up. Look at our ambitious students! Our future is in good hands!

21st Century Faculty Meetings

In 1998, when I first began teaching, communication between principals and teachers was limited to faculty meetings, but just as learning has evolved since then, so have communication methods.  Faculty meetings should no longer be a sit and get of information.  If it can be shared in an email, then valuable collaborative time, such as faculty meetings, should be spent on collaborative learning.

Studying 3.2 as a building PGP

 Through the year, the faculty will study A Mindset for Learning to support their work.

Time to read and time to discuss

 In small group discussion, teachers shared the need to ensure college and career readiness (even at the kindergarten level!) through such skills as persistence and empathy.  As teachers, we give students purposeful opportunities to learn these skills; they're embedded in the content we teach.

By using faculty meetings to further conversations about teaching and learning, we add to the learning climate of our schools and model the collaborative skills students will need to be successful in the world that lies before them.