SHARK SIGHTINGS @Monomoy RHS

MRHS Shark Sightings Post #13 12.20.16

A New Instructional Model Keeps At-Risk Kids Engaged

I thought this article written by Dr. Kadhir Rajagopal, California State Teacher of the Year in 2011, offered strategies that worked for his most challenging students in urban schools. In Dr. Rajagopal's bio it states "his experience has been helping urban students with a history of failure, indifference to 6 F's on a report card, lack of parental support, and low skill level rise to consistent success." I believe that every school, including our own, has students that may have a history of failure, or a mindset of defeat. Although MRHS is not an urban school, new ideas and strategies that successfully motivate struggling learners to succeed should be examined and considered. It is also important that we focus on lifting ALL our students. Dr. Rajagopal argues against lengthy lectures and offers alternative teaching strategies through use of the CREATE model, including methods to persuade students to stay for lunch or after school to make up work - a useful concept if we adopt the Jawsome Hour pilot. I hope you enjoy this article and take away a strategy or two that you may add to your teaching toolbox.

2017 ANNUAL CAPE COD TIMES STUDENT CONTEST

Contest Details Click HERE

Do you want to get your students excited about a writing assignment? Are you looking for a unique art and creativity project?

Welcome to Classroom Times 2017, an annual student contest sponsored by the Cape Cod Times! Classroom Times provides a unique opportunity to have your students in grades 4-12 win recognition and cash for their essays, photos and artwork.

Let's have MRHS well represented here!

The building will be closed December 26, 2016 & be open Tuesday 12.27 through Friday 12.30.16 from 8am to 3:30pm should you need access. The building will be closed 1.2.17 and will reopen for school on 1.3.17

11 Common Gmail Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

BetterCloud Monitor | Even if you use Gmail every day, you might not be using it as efficiently as you could be. Here are 11 common mistakes that people make, as well as how to avoid them so that you can be more productive in Gmail.

3 Ways to Make Your Google Docs Look More Professional

BetterCloud Monitor | We’ve all seen the differences between Google Docs that were clearly slapped together and those that look polished and professional. Here are three tips make sure your Docs fall into the second category.

Work Faster in Google Docs with These 10 Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

BetterCloud Monitor | One of the best ways to speed up your productivity is to use keyboard shortcuts. Here are ten useful shortcuts for common tasks in Google Docs.

STATE ED BOARD REVISITING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

By Katie Lannan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DEC. 19, 2016.....As Massachusetts overhauls its standardized student assessment program, the state education commissioner is proposing new methods of testing high schoolers, including the eventual addition of history and social science tests as a graduation requirement.

Commissioner Mitchell Chester plans to present to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday a series of policy recommendations focused on MCAS tests for high school students, including potential changes in what students are tested on and when.

After the board voted Nov. 15 to develop a new standardized test -- combining elements of the existing Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and the consortium-developed PARCC exam -- students in grades three through eight will begin taking the new "next-generation" MCAS next spring.

In order to graduate, Massachusetts students must pass their 10th grade MCAS exams in math, English and science, a system Chester said should remain in place for "the near future."

In a memo to the board, Chester acknowledged a "growing recognition that those tenth grade standards are insufficient to ensure that our graduates are well prepared for success after high school," but said it would be "too disruptive" to move competency determinations to the 11th or 12th grades.

Chester hopes to convene a stakeholder workgroup to explore assessments for high school juniors and seniors.

"There is a need for us to do a better job at assessing students' readiness for success after high school, whether in higher education, the workforce, the military or other endeavors. But the multiple paths that graduates pursue make it particularly challenging to assess preparation and readiness," Chester wrote in his memo. "The student applying to UMass-Lowell to study bioengineering and the student graduating from a vocational culinary arts program and looking for a job in the hospitality industry have very different needs and expectations. We're also cognizant of the many other scheduled activities in high school, and we've heard loudly and clearly from our stakeholders that we need to minimize additional time lost to standardized testing."

With "considerable interest" in an effort to update the state's history and social science standards underway, Chester suggested amending the board's regulations to include exams in those subjects as part of the competency determination required for a diploma. He said that if the department is granted the funding to develop and give new tests, they could become a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2023.

He also recommended eliminating high school chemistry and technology/engineering tests, which he said were taken by only 5 percent of students last year while the "overwhelming majority" took biology and introductory physics tests to fulfill their science requirements.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to begin discussing Chester's recommendations at aTuesday meeting, and return to the issue in January when its members meet jointly with the Board of Higher Education.

Last year, after the decision to develop a new MCAS test, Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago said the move would "drive more rigorous instruction, allow us to address persistent 'readiness gaps' in high school and most importantly, provide a pathway into entry level credit-bearing college coursework for high school graduates."

END
12/19/2016

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