Coaches' Corner

Over the past month, the TCSC staff have been hard at work developing learning outcomes, discussing specific goals and strategies in PLCs, and keeping up with the day to day demands of teaching. Teaching and learning is at the heart of everything we do here at Tipton Community Schools. Effective lesson design and delivery is a critical element to that teaching and learning process. Our instructional leadership team put together a model for effective instruction to provide teachers a guide to consider while planning and teaching their lessons. These are key elements that can be found in any effective lesson. Starting with establishing clear learning outcomes to providing meaningful feedback to our students. What we want our students to know or do, and how will we know when they have learned it are essential questions we as educators must ask ourselves before every lesson.

Consider which of these are your strengths: how can you model for colleagues? Which elements offer opportunities for you to grow? Seek out support from our coaches and colleagues to learn how to increase student engagement and achievement. Remember, we are working together for student success!

This month has been a busy, yet exciting month for me as the elementary’s instructional coach. I have been inundated with requests from teachers who are ready to try new things or who are really interested in collaborating. I have been modeling, co-teaching, co-planning, and brainstorming with so many of you. These are truly the highlights of my days!!

One of the many successful collaborations I have had this month was with Cheri Leffler. Cheri wanted to try math stations with her students. She and I looked at the standards she was planning to cover on the day of my visit, and we also looked at some previously covered high-priority standards. Keeping the clear learning outcomes in mind, we developed four standards-based stations. Cheri worked with students addressing questions from the lesson at one station while the rest of the students worked independently at three other stations. The students remained engaged and enthusiastic throughout the entire hour. The kids enjoyed their time, had an opportunity to work in a small group with their teacher and receive immediate feedback, and they also had the opportunity to practice and review previously taught skills.

TMS teachers have been working hard in their Professional Learning Communities. In these times together once a week, teachers examine data, identify barriers to student learning, discuss possible solutions, and select a strategy to apply to this problem. As teachers apply that strategy in their classroom, the PLC monitors progress.

The sixth grade PLC focused on improving the transition time between passing periods and the beginning of class. Teachers established a baseline by recording how many students were off task or disruptive during that transition period. Next, they discussed strategies. Several teachers had used Bell Work in their classrooms but had discontinued that strategy for various reasons. So the team discussed ways to improve upon Bell Work and use it as a strategy for smoother start-of-class transitions.

It was noted that Bell Work needed to meet these requirements: no device needed, no grade required, and no new instructions from day to day.

The team decided to give students a planning sheet at the beginning of each school day. In each of their core classes, students begin the class period by taking out their planning sheet and writing down the “Learning Goal” and “Homework” posted at the front of the room. Students keep planning sheets in their folders until the end of the week when their Success Lab teacher checks them. Teachers continued using this strategy and revisited their baseline data, noting that there was a marked decrease in the number of students disrupting the start of class with off task behavior.

PLC leader and 6th grade English teacher Abby Speck reflected on her team’s work on this goal.

"As a team we are seeing improvement in the transition from hallway to class. We have seen fluctuation in the completion of the bellwork from week to week; however, overall, it has still significantly improved this transition that used to be such a struggle for our kiddos. The majority of kids have a better idea of what to expect in class, and the students who are not doing the bellwork are also not being disruptive because most of the students around them are too busy completing the bellwork to pay attention to their antics. The questions of 'Are we doing anything in class today?' and 'Do we have homework?' are old news with this new procedure!"

The High School November shout out goes to Ethan Worthington. I've had the opportunity to watch the students in US History and in the AP Microeconomics class and was very impressed with what they are doing. As I stood in the classroom before the bell, I heard him in the hallway asking students individually about assignments, about upcoming deadlines, encouraging them to talk to other teachers and giving advice on how to approach that task. The students walked in and started working; they knew how to read the board, gather materials and get started on their bell work.

Mr. Worthington had the students use whiteboards to respond to open-ended questions and to show their understanding through the lessons. During checks for understanding, he would ask the students to reflect on and share what they found difficult. He was using real-world connections and situations to keep the students engaged and help activate background knowledge. Ethan has been implementing some elements of the effective lesson plan template to maximize student learning. Wow, Ethan! Way to knock it out of the park!

Curious what testing windows will look like across the district? Add the 2021-2022 TCSC Assessment Calendar to help plan around these instructional interruptions.