The Time Traveler

"Education is not the filling of a pot, but the lighting of a fire."

--W.B. Yeats

7th Grade Texas History at Hays Middle School is really embracing the "Professional Learning" aspect of their Professional Learning Community (PLC) by engaging in a book study. They are digging into the work of Teaching Social Studies to ELLs by Tina Beene to collaborate on effective instructional strategies to support their emergent bilingual students. If you would like to learn more about this book study, please check out our Social Studies website. Way to go Hays!

We have a great team for World Geography at PHS, and this year we made a point to clearly define roles. Our team is made up of coaches or teachers who have more than one prep, so sharing the load is a necessity. When assigning roles, and keeping the purpose of PLC front of mind, one role that we felt was important was having someone who is constantly checking our UFD.

This way we can make sure any changes or additions can be caught before they fall through the cracks. Our UFD checker, Coach Hutti, gets ahead to find each TEKS and Essential Standard in our lessons, and when we PLC, they relay any issues they find or help to keep our conversations focused on UFD related items.

Between those conversations, and the diligent notes that Coach Lenard keeps during our PLC, we have already seen the benefits of having someone dedicated to our UFD. Because of the nature of our course, we have opportunities to spiral back to TEKS that need interventions based on our data and our PLC setup/roles. -- Jakeob Garner, PHS World Geography Team Leader

Meaningful conversation can make learning more personal, immediate, and emotional.

During meaningful conversations, students are forced to be accountable for their positions, to listen, to analyze opposing perspectives, and to adapt their thinking on the fly. All can benefit from scaffolding so that students are given different levels of support.

The following activities are great way for students to interact with both primary and secondary source materials. The activities give students the opportunity to clarify their thinking and generate original ideas in the form of poetry.

This month's article is titled "Five ways to Develop Critical Thinking Skills." After reading the article, you can then participate in a conversation with other social studies educators through the padlet. Please be sure to login with Google on the padlet so we can give you credit! Participation is optional, and we would love to hear your thoughts. You will earn an hour of exchange credit by participating, and be entered into a drawing for a Sonic drink of your choice!

Please register at this link. The padlet must be completed by Tuesday, September 27th to receive credit.

We are excited to learn with you and from you! Please let us know if you have any questions!

For more Professional Development Opportunities, please check out our website. Click Here.

If you need ANYTHING, please do not hesitate to reach out! We are here to support YOU!