Portfolio+2009-2010

Professional Portfolio 2009-2010 Molly O. Smith //Talents Program Teacher// I. Goals & Student Work Forms

Charlotte and I focused on two goals this year, as outlined in these two documents:



In conjunction with the second goal, here is the link to our Talents Program wiki:

Talents Program Wiki

Here you will find the student work forms to accompany the two lessons that you observed:





In conjunction with both lessons, here is the link to the student work wiki where we post plans, ideas and final products:

Think Lab wiki

II. Professional Development

Conferences I attended the annual **NEC/GT** (New England Conference on the Gifted and Talented) in New Hampshire this year and, as usual, returned energized and spilling over with ideas! I learned about some wonderful new tools, such as Moodle, which allows you to design on-line courses for your students, and Lure of the Labrynth, which is a math based Internet game that challenges kids to problem solve their way through various levels of tasks in order to save some stolen pets. I was so excited about the opportunity to create an on-line course for my students that I rushed to Mike to get his thoughts about it. Considering that I only get to see my kids once a week, I thought the creation of a virtual unit of study would be a wonderful way to extend our connection time throughout the week. Mike showed me how to do the same thing using Google websites, and I did it with some of my 8th graders this year (see section VI below). I also attended a fantastic workshop called //Bloom's: It's as easy as Pi//. I walked away with two ideas: a lesson I could use to get staff members more comfortable with Bloom's Taxonomy and a lesson I could use with my kids to teach them both the taxonomy itself and how to use it as a tool for measuring mastery. Back at school, I have used the staff lesson both at YES at a faculty inservice workshop and at HMS with the Math Learning Area. I also used the student lesson with my sixth graders. I plan to expand the student lesson to use with all of my students next year and to find more opportunities to use the staff lesson with colleagues as we focus more on differentiation. I also attended a session at this conference on how to provide an environment in an elementary school that supports enrichment for everyone. One element involved writing individual GT plans for kids, much like a PLP. The philosophy behind it matches that of our Talents Program and the template provided looks useful and very effective in meeting the needs of gifted learners. I shared this idea with both Charlotte and Judy on my return and would love to see us implement something similar in Yarmouth eventually.

I also attend the annual MEGAT (Maine Educators of the Gifted and Talented) Conference with Charlotte. One experience I also look forward to at this conference is the chance to learn from colleauges across the state. One break-out session that I found particularly applicable to our model in Yarmouth was about developing a successful consultation model program. Although we offer both consultation and direct services in Yarmouth, I left with many practical ideas to apply. For example, one of the facilitators has developed modified lessons and activities to accompany each EveryDay Math unit of study in her elementary school to meet the needs of advanced learners. This allows her to work with classroom teachers to accomodate students in need of curriculum compacting. Rachel Clark and I have contacted this facilitator to collaborate with her in an effort to apply some of the same strategies and materials here in Yarmouth. I am very eager to work with classroom teachers to encourage more preassessing and differentiation in the form of compacting, so this would be a wonderful resource! The two facilitators also shared some communication tools they use to stay connected with staff. The tools are quick and creative ways to share tips, teaching strategies and resources. I'd like to implement one or more of these tools next year as one way of supporting differentiation.

The last conference I attended this year was also a very productive collaboration experience with Linda Cote. She is on the board of educators and other professionals who organize an annual conference for health educators in the state of Maine. This year's conference theme was differentiation (at Linda's suggestion) and she asked me to plan a workshop to present with her. Linda and I did some work last summer to further differentiate some units of study she teaches in her health curriculum. We expanded on this work in our workshop by sharing differntiated units and lessons in the context of a larger discussion about differentiation. We developed a fun and engaging session to get teachers talking about differentiation as a practical philosophy and to give them real ideas and strategies to implement right away in their classrooms, such as these versatile cubes: Just to give you a taste of the tone of our workshop, I'll tell you that it started off with Linda wearing a sandwich board describing the elements of differentiation and me singing a song about the benefits of differentiation - we were a hit! The experience energized me and gave me ideas about professional development I could offer to our staff around differentiation. I'd love to utilize more faculty meetings and inservice days to collaborate and learn from each other as a means of developing and nurturing our environment of differentiation in Yarmouth.

YES Inservice - Empowering all Thinkers Speaking of taking advantage of Inservice time to collaborate and learn from each other, I ran a session on differentiation at YES this winter. It included the staff lesson on Bloom's taxonomy that I got from the NEC/GT conference, a look at what we're already doing to differentiate for various learners, a brainstorming session about what we'd like to do to expand our ability to differentiate and a critical look at student work to drive identification of student needs. Take a closer look at the session I lead here: NOTE: See link to complimentary website which I created for this workshop at the bottom of the next section.

Collaborations with Colleagues //Literature Circles in Second Grade -// Can a group of seven year olds learn to analyze and discuss literature in a thoughtful manner much like an adult reading group? Absolutely! Carli Page-Redmann and I collaborated to teach her class of second graders how to really sink your teeth into a piece of literature and how to communicate your thoughts to others. We used modified versions of Harvey Daniel's Literature Circle job sheets to guide students through a piece of literature and then modeled the discussion structure for them. Here are two of the job sheets we used:

//Third Grade Mysteries - Writing a mystery doesn't have to be a mystery!// Everyone gets hooked when enticed by a good mystery and that's exactly what Ashley Tucker and I were counting on! We collaborated this fall to create a mystery unit for her third graders to teach them how to enjoy, solve and write mysteries and we had a blast! Take a look at the outline of our unit here: Third Grade Mysteries I kicked off the unit by rushing into the class to reveal that I had received an anonymous letter requesting my help finding a thief. Read the first letter here: What followed was a weekly session of brainstorming, hypothesizing and investigating to solve the local mystery. We wrote back to the anonymous letter writer each week with ideas and suggestions and we received a letter back each week in return (I ended up crafting nine sets of letters for this mystery - it was so much fun!). As we worked through the mystery (based in Yarmouth, of course!), we discussed the elements of a mystery. Ashley worked with her class in between my sessions to help develop characters, plan a storyline and conduct writer's workshop. Each student ended up with an original mystery AND the class successfully solved the mystery of the letters!

//Inventive Thinking in Fourth Grade// - Ideas, ideas, ideas - they're everywhere and all they need is a little TLC to grow into something magnificent! Nancy March and I collaborated to teach her class various ways to brainstorm ideas and then lead them through lessons on idea organization and using brainstorm as a writing tool. We established effective brainstorming guidelines and watched the kids take off! They applied their brainstorming skills to a fiction writing unit to generate plot ideas, character descriptions, story maps and spicy, descriptive language. I had the opportunity to coteach with Nancy and then to meet with students in small groups as well as one-on-one to work on their stories. The results were definitely inventive!

I learned a lot from these experiences because they showed me that even with my tight schedule, I can make room to coteach. This really excites me because I want to do more coteaching, modeling and collaboration with teachers to support differentiation in the years to come. I think this type of work is really what is going to make a difference to kids of all strengths and needs because they spend the most time with their classroom teachers. And differentiation is particularly vital for gifted learners so they have just as many opportunities to learn new things as their peers. It is just as essential for teachers because it keeps teaching fresh and interesting. I also learned that I need to be realistic about the schedule and only take on one or two extensive collaborations at once to make sure I'm not spreading myself too thin. Along those lines, I was inspired to create a collaborative website through our Yarmouth Domain for YES and HMS staff to share ideas and resources from any place at any time. I have shared the sight with others and hope to get people using it next year in conjunction with our Authentic Research Course. See the sight here:

[|Empowering all Thinkers]

Yarmouth Technology Course - Learning & Teaching with Technology Last summer as well as this fall, I was an active participant in the Yarmouth Technology Course and had an amazing experience! The instructors were so adept at differentiating to meet the needs of the variety of learners that I was able to tailor the entire course to meet my needs. I learned about an array of new digital tools, I was given quality time to explore them and then to brainstorm ways to apply them to my own teaching to increase my students' engagement. I was so excited by all of the new tools and opportunities that I was presented with that I had trouble at first deciding on what project I wanted to develop! I soon settled on a project in collaboration with the Yarmouth Historical Society to give interested 8th graders the opportunity to research an aspect of local history and create a walking tours of our town. The idea grew from a meeting I had with the 8th grade team at the end of last year. I wanted to find out what lessons or units of study Charlotte and I could offer differentiated enrichment in. The 8th grade teachers lamented the limited time they have to teach the extensive list of Social Studies topics, especially local history. They mentioned that the Historical Society has approached them in the past offering a partnership to do a long-term project with the 8th graders, but the teachers could never commit the time necessary. So I sent a survey out to the 8th graders to guage interest and found a few kids who were really excited about the opportunity to learn more about the people and events of Yarmouth. Read about our project here: Local History Project I have been working with four students all year to research an area of interest in Yarmouth's history. We go to the historical society about once a month or so to dig through books and other artifacts - we even got a tour of the back room that's packed with hidden goodies! Each student will design a tour of the town based on their research focus. Once our research is done, we'll use photos and audio recordings of the kids' voices to create podcasts that people can use on an ipod to explore Yarmouth. We plan to meet during the summer and to continue our work together next year. We have been using this website to house some of our communication and information: [|Local History Site] We have conducted research that we will put onto the site over the next few months as well. I look forward to seeing the girls' final products!

I also look forward to participating in the technology course again this summer to shape a whole new project for my students!



III. Feedback Collecting Feedback - Student and Parent Surveys Overall reflections : When I designed these //Parent Surveys//, I was under the impression that we had to use the prescribed questions used in the past. So I stuck with those and added two of my own at the end. Now I realize that I can really tailor the survey to fit the kind of feedback I'm looking for, so next year I will expand some questions, modify some and replace others. I really got the chance to personalize the //Student Survey//, which I think is much closer to the kind of modifications I'd like to make to my //Parent Survey// for next year. Plus, I went electronic this year and used Google forms for all surveys, which I really like. Not only does it save on paper, but the kids are more motivated to respond AND I got a higher response rate from the parents as well.

[|HMS Parent Survey] [|HMS Student Survey]

My reflections on the Parent Survey: - It was really important to me to see the comment about my connections between math and the real world: "Love your creative ideas about how to use math to do really fun things in the real world." This is a constant goal that I strive for, so it's nice to see that's coming through to the kids and their parents. - I am also pleased to see comments about the respectful and comfortable working environment because I think that is an essential setting for learning - I appreciated the fact that in one family, both parents responded separately to my survey - it's helpful to get as much insight into each student as possible. - "loved the open house" - yahoo! Charlotte and I were pleased to hear that one! We really hoped it would help us in our attempts to make the program more transparent and to make connections with our students' parents. - "he seems to be very academically engaged this year" - said about a student who is both accelerated in math this year and is in Think Lab - both for the first time. I am pleased that the work we did last year to get a handle on this students' academic needs is paying off in motivation, interest and appropriate academic fit. - ten parents gave a positive response to my question inquiring if they'd like access to articles and links about GT kids on our GT wiki, so that encourages me to post some great resources! - The comment about the exclusivity of our program really caught my eye. It tell me two things: 1. We need to continue in our efforts to get out the word about what the Talents Program really strives to do: to offer and encourage enrichment for all students; 2. We as a program and we as a staff need to bolster our efforts to embrace the true philosophy of differentiation and make specific strides towards becoming a truly differentiated learning community. - The question about prompt teacher contact home elicited two 3's and 7 NA or not sure responses - this tells me that I need to step up the amount of communication I send home throughout the year! I think the Open House was a great start and then we established email lists to contact parents, but I have not used that much in the past few months. I sent out a winter newsletter, but need to send out my second newsletter ASAP. Next year, I would like to use email more frequently to let parents know what we're up to. I wait until too much time has passed, so there's so much to share that it seems overwhelming! A quick message once a month would be a good way to cutting that into manageable bites. - The response from the 8th grade parent is a downfall of communication on my part because I do not have an 8th grade Think Lab this year. I support the teachers and kids directly in the classrooms this year. I sent home a letter at the beginning of the year explaining that, but I can see that I've made two mistakes. I didn't follow that up with any other communication and I accidentally sent the survey to some 8th grade parents.

My reflections on the Student Survey: - The questions Charlotte and I designed resulted in much more useful information than those on the Parent Survey because they were open-ended and program specific. - All of the kids are engaged in Think Lab and they all identified it as challenging, both of which are the most important foci of our pull-out groups, so that made me pleased to read. Now I need to tease apart the real causes of this engagement and challenge so I can utilize them when supporting classroom teachers in their efforts to differentiate for these kids on a daily basis. - Only about half of the kids identified connections between what we do in Think Lab and what they do in their regular math classrooms, which tells me that I need to make the connections more transparent. I need to make a conversation about these types of connections a part of every unit, perhaps in the form of an exit slip at first, followed by a discussion. - Some of my students had valuable suggestions and observations about what we learn and explore together and I was excited to see the list of things they still want to learn! This list will drive our plans for next year.

IV. Units of Study

==== Design Unit - 6th grade: Design Challenge - Think Lab Wiki Math is Everywhere Unit - 7th grade: Math Around Us - Think Lab Wiki ====  V. Observations & Evaluations

VI. Differentiation - how else do I contribute to our learning community?

As I learn more about the needs of our students and teachers at HMS and YES, I find new ways to meet those needs. This is my ongoing professional development in differentiation! Here is some of the work I've done this year:


 * I created an ImagiNATION log to pass between a precocious 3rd grader and myself so we could share wonderings, questions and ideas about the world. His mother articulated a need for some small outlet for his constant flow of ideas and thoughts, so the log was born! We are having so much fun responding to each others' musings!
 * As you know, this is the second year I have facilitated the HMS Science Club, which provides monthly sessions lead by retired scientists exploring topics like sound, adhesives, buoyancy, heat insulation, whales and motor construction. I serve as the liason for the Maine School Science Volunteers group and organize all of the logistics. I think this club offers an amazing opportunity to kids who are passionate about science.
 * At YES, I also have the opportunity to spread the joy of science through a series of 6 sessions throughout the year with all five second grade classes. We explore the garden, practice observation and recording skills, ask questions and use our imaginations to invent things, like a new plant for the garden! I offer hands-on, open-ended activities to engage all learners and have a blast doing it! This year, I collaborated with Mary Pat Bowen to offer an additional opportunity to her second graders. Interested kids met with me for about four sessions once a week to explore a science topic of interest, which they shared with their peers - an introduction to research that allowed me to use the SUPER 3 format with the kids. Check it out here: [|SUPER 3]
 * At HMS, I continued to offer math enrichment in the form of Discovery Math and challenge Skills sheets to fifth graders and challenge math problems for grades 6-8. I also facilitated the state wide math and engineering competition, MMSETS. Unfortunately, the program disolved mid-year, so I continued on my own here at HMS. Jenny and I just enjoyed a celebratory breakfast with the participants this week!
 * At YES, I started a Writing Club this year for interested third and fourth graders. We met twice a month before or after school and immersed ourselves in word games and fun writing challenges. One week, we wrote recipes for unusual things, like a recipe for the worst day ever! Another club was spent writing short stories from different perspectives, like a bug or a table. This club offered enrichment and collaboration opportunities to interested writers in much the same way that Charlotte's Writing Club does here at HMS.
 * In the 8th grade this year, I swapped my think lab for in class support and shared my time between the two honors math classes. Mid-year, I began using that time to pre-asses and compact the 8th grade curriculum for three students who needed a faster pace as well as new material. It soon became clear that these students would be more appropriately placed in 10th grade honors math next year rather than 9th grade honors math. I got permission to compact the 9th grade curriculum for them as well as the rest of the 8th grade curriculum for the rest of this year. I developed a website (based on the Moodle idea I got at the NEC/GT conference) so I could create lessons for them to do on the days I worked at YES. You can see the site here:[| Explorations of Math] We will just be able to wrap up the final exam review next week and take the final next Wednesday to get the girls prepared for proper placement next year. It has been quite a challenge reteaching myself all of that material without any books or materials (only tests and a few worksheets from the 9th grade teachers), but I know it is the right thing for these girls - they are hungry for a challenge!
 * Along similiar lines, I facilitated the acceleration of three students in math this year. Two started out in 9th grade honors math and quickly discovered the mismatch, so we worked with the 9th grade teachers to assess their knowledge and move them up to 10th grade honors math. The third student started out in 8th grade math and wanted to move up to 9th grade honors math. I followed our acceleration criteria and tested him on all of the 8th grade material, then collaborated with Steve to help fill in his few gaps so he could move up to 9th grade honors math. This process has offered me new opportunities to work with the high school math staff and has prompted many questions about placement for the next handful of advanced math students headed for the high school. The dialogue will continue!