Chapter 9- Now What?: Meeting the Challenge of Implementation

Wow! We have concluded the book this week. I have really enjoyed this book, it surpassed my expectations and provided me with a large toolkit of engagement strategies. I am positive this is a resource I will keep on my bookshelves and continue to refer to year after year.  Although I may have been silent as the study facilitator, your posts have been a great supplement to the book and I have gained even more from reading your posts. Thank you for your commitment and inspiration these past months. 

For this last post take the next few weeks to reflect on everything you have gained from reading this book. Look back through old posts that you may have missed.

Before September 30^th respond to the topics below:

·         Choose one strategy you plan to implement this year. What will it be, and how are you going to ensure you follow through?

·         What are your new engagement goals for the remainder of the school year?

·         How has this book helped you become a better teacher?

·         A challenge- Share something you have learned with the rest of your staff, either by email, at a staff meeting, or just in the hallways. Pay it forward.

I will send you an email with your PGP totals once the study concludes. I will mail you a copy of your official PGP certificate.

As a side note, I have really enjoyed this online platform doing a book study. I would like to continue to offer these kinds of professional development opportunities to the entire district. What do you think? Would you join me if we did another book study? Send me a private email and if there is enough interest I will propose the idea to Dr. Irwin. This would be a great way to earn PGP's and learn together while studying the same book district-wide.

Thank you again,

Jessica Hollingsworth 

Chapter 8- How to Automate Engagement

"Automating engagement will make your job easier. It will help you make better use of your limited instructional time, ensure students are continually engaged, and reduce stress. The need for automation is simple. But, automation requires a bit more energy up front to get the payoff later on."

These statements taken from the beginning of Chapter 8 stress the importance of automating engagement in your classroom, but as mentioned, easier said than done. The author offered us strategies in this chapter to help us simplify our engagment processes in our classroom. In these final two chapters Jensen is going to help us put it all together.

Choose two of the topics below to respond to:

1. Rituals- Do you have any rituals in your classroom? Why do you do them and what responses do you get from the students?

2. Leadership and Teamwork- What types of things do you do in your class to foster leadership and teamwork? What works and what doesn't?

3- Curriculum- Are there any units from year to year you find your students really getting into? Do you have any ideas for this school year you want to try to spice up old lesson plans?

4- Technology- I think since we are from mostly Bon Air and Boulevard this comes easy for us....but just for fun, name some favorite tools or sites you use and how integrating technology using that tool enhances your lesson plan or engages your students. It can be a teacher tool or student tool.

Chapter 7- Engage for Energy and Focus

This chapter gave us some insight on influencing student learning and behavior through movement, exercise, and music.

What are the biggest challenges you face when it comes to eliciting appropriate levels of energy and focus from your students?

What are the biggest challenges you find when it comes to eliciting appropriate levels of energy and focus?

What is your preffered method of "out of their seat" movement? What about "at their seat" movement? Does anyone have suggestions how to use movement and integrate curriculum simultaneously?

Do you have any favorite songs, artists, cd's, Pandora stations that your students enjoy?

Don't forget the IDOE book study is starting next week. You can earn 10 PGPs and a chance to win $1,000 for PD for your building. The book we will be studying is Matt Miller's Ditch That Textbook Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom.  Let me know if you would like to sign up and I can get you a book at a discounted price. There will be six of us from Bon Air participating and we would love to have more people join us!

Chapter 6- Engage for Deep Understanding

Building knowledge through labeling is a strategy we see used frequeently in our primary years classrooms. How did you feel about the strategy to label properties? Where could that fit within the context of your day?

Looking ahead at your week at a glance lesson plans, where could you add in one of the strategies suggested in this chapter?

Learning transfer is by far the more advanced and most difficult strategy to use in this chapter. What suggestions do you have for the group based on your past experiences?

We are past the halfway point in our study together. Don't forget to go back and read the rich discussions that are contininuing on past threads. Next week we will be reading Chapter 7-Engage for Energy and Focus.

If you have enjoyed this type of study and you are interested in learning more through online book studies I suggest you join the IDOE eLearning Book Study group with me! This is where I was inspired to do this book study using this platform instead of Canvas or meeting in-person to talk. I feel like the discussion goes more in-depth when you have time to reflect and respond at your own pace. The conversations are also archived, unlike an in-person study, where you can go back at any time and read others responses.

The next book study for the IDOE starts September 7th and we are reading Ditch That Textbook:Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom by Matt Miller. I heard Matt speak at InSai one year in just a quick 45 min breakout session before he became a nationally known speaker. He kept me so engaged and bursting with ideas I couldn't keep up on my note-taking, seriously I had to put down my computer and just listen. :-) You earn PGPs and have the chance to win $1,000 for PD for your building. Email me and I can get you signed up. :-)

Chapter 5- Engage for Motivation and Effort

What's the current climate in your classroom this year? Do your students appear motivated? After reading this chapter, how will you start to address this? What strategies stood out to you and what strategies of your own have you found successful? Over time you will find ways to motivate the majority of your class. This would be a great group to seek input from when you have those few kiddos that still don't respond to strategies you use to increase motivation.

The author referenced the work of Carol Dweck, author of Mindset (2006), and the concept of learned and growth mind-sets. The subtle conversations we have with students, that last mere seconds, hold such power in the type of mind-set we want to promote with our students. What are your thoughts on this section of the chapter?

Great conversations thus far everyone. I am happy to see some new names popping up in the comments!  If you missed a discussion week you may go back to that conversation, read, reflect, and make your post. You will still get credit for posting that week even if it is posted out of sequence.

For next week, read Chapter 6- Engage for Deep Understanding.

Chapter 4- Engage to Build Cognitive Capacity

I hope everyone had a successful return to work this past week!

Again, I want to thank you for your patience. As it was explained to me, during the account roll-over a "switch" was inadvertently hit that blocked these types of sites for staff. All fixed now, and if you see Justin Johnson from IT give him a big high five for finding a solution to the problem!

This week we are reading Chapte FOUR- Building Cognitive Capacity.

This chapter discussed different elements of cognition and intelligence and five actions to help strengthen these skills. What were your thoughts when the author mentioned Buschkuehl & Jaegii's statement that these skills are not fixed but malleable? Do you feel as though you have time in your classroom where you can help students strengthen these skills or do you feel a bigger pressure to focus more on standards and curriculum?

Let's have a friendly debate. If you could only pick one action step to work on this semester, which one is most important to improve with your students? Which one makes the biggest difference later in adult life? What influenced your decision?

• attention skills
• problem solving and critical thinking
• working memory
• processing speed
• self-control

Chapter 3- Engage for A Positive Climate

What a great chapter to read heading into our 2015-2016 school year! This chapter provided us with action steps to create a positive class climate. Let's reflect on some of the action steps Jensen provided.

 Reflect on the standards YOU have for the students in your classroom from year to year. Are they high enough? Could you raise them? Are your students aware of your goals for them? Do your students have their own goals? What is your battle cry?

 What are the typical mind-body states you see in your classroom? What solutions do you plan on trying this year to shift those states from negative to positive? Is there something that already works for you in your classroom that you could share with the group?

 What do you do to build the "family" atmosphere in your class. (We might want to remind each other what grade levels we teach here for a point of reference) Jensen had great ideas, but as elementary teachers we have great strategies we can share for this!

 Don't forget next week we will have an "off" week. There will not be a new discussion post. We want everyone to focus on the first week back to school. A new topic will be posted Monday, August 10th for Chapter 4- Engage to Build Cognitive Capacity.

Chapter 2- The Rules of Engagement

This chapter introduces the core of Jensen's second book and the focus of our study, student engagement. As chapters progress, we will dive deeper into engagement strategies for positive climate, cognitive capacity, motivation, understanding, and focus. These five rules of engagement will lay the foundation for strategies studied later in this book.

Reflect on the five rules and solutions offered for each. Is there a solution you have tried that succeeded? Any you have tried that failed?

Share a consistent challenge you have in your classroom. Select one solution offered in this chapter and make it a goal to try this year. State your intentions in this blog as your commitment to that goal.

(Next week: Read Chapter 3-Engage for Positive Climate)

Note- We will have a break in the book study during the week of August 3-9th to allow everyone to focus on the first week back to school.

Chapter 1- The Seven Engagement Factors

This week the author introduced the seven engagement factors.  Which of these seven factors have you recognized in your classroom or school? What strategies have you used to address them? Are there any you feel are impossible to overcome?

(Next week: Read Chapter 2- The Rules of Engagement)

Note- Please look back at the blog once you have submitted your post, make sure it appears as the most frequent comment at the bottom of the page. Some participants have reported their post needed to be submitted twice. To avoid having to type twice, make sure you sign in to the blog first using your Google Account. If you are still using Internet Explorer you will probably run in to issues on this website.

Thanks to those who have already replied to Week 1. Your experiences have been heartbreaking yet inspiring to continue to make a difference in our students' lives. Looking forward to the more discussion as we push forward.

Welcome and Introductions

Welcome to the online book study for Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen. A new prompt will be posted every week based on your readings, which will typically be one chapter per week. There will be a few weeks at the end allotted for final reflections and goals. To ensure the best possible experience please follow the instructions below.

1. Log in to your Google Account prior to posting so your username appears by your comments.
2. Follow this site by email by clicking the link on the right, this will email you when posts and/or comments are made.
3. Respond to every prompt by commenting (look for the pencil icon below.)
4. Reply to two participants responses.

For our first week's discussion we will be reading the preface and introduction. Then introduce yourself, your position, and your school. After reading the author's struggles, reflect on a situation you have had in your classroom with a student that had similar struggles. Without mentioning their last name (first names or initials are fine), share those struggles with us. Collecting these stories from students in our district will help define our purpose as Kokomo teachers and the children we service daily.

(For next week read Chapter 1-The Seven Engagement Factors.)