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This technique of "frontloading" with vocabulary prior to teaching the content that uses it is interesting, and I'm sure that it makes more sense in an English or World Languages course.

In the pedagogy for my subject (math), I've learned the effectiveness of "experience before content," in which students have the chance to work on problems-based lessons, and discover new ideas and the need for notation. We then add academic language to these discoveries by giving the notation and vocabulary that surfaces from the problem. The issue I find with presenting new vocabulary without any context is that, to the students, there is no meaning to the terms without having developed the brand new ideas through experience, as opposed to direct instruction.

However, it's worth trying something like "Pile of Words" in the future.

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The program that is offered at the high school in the video sounds similar to a program we have at Piner HS, called "Upward Bound." This program takes a small subset of students who have applied. They have a special class in the schedule dedicated to this program, and eventually, that can take college classes at SSU while still in high school. We also have an "Early College Magnet" program, which is not as hard to get into, and which allows students to eventually take courses at the SRJC while still in high school.

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Tara Falkenberg - What is College and Career Readiness? 

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Tara Falkenberg - What is College and Career Readiness? 

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The video provides an insightful overview of the efforts implemented by the Denver Public Schools to prepare students for the challenges of college, career, and life. The focus on a comprehensive approach, starting from early childhood development and extending to high school, showcases a commitment to ensuring that students are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to succeed in their future endeavors.

Overall, the video highlights the significance of an inclusive and proactive educational approach that not only focuses on academic excellence but also nurtures students' personal growth and development. By integrating practical experiences, mentorship, and community engagement, Denver is striving to ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed and thrive in their educational and professional pursuits. This approach aligns with educational philosophies that emphasize holistic development and the importance of providing students with the necessary tools and resources to succeed in the 21st-century workforce.

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The "pile of words" strategy outlined in the article presents an innovative and engaging approach to fostering deeper engagement with vocabulary at the beginning of a unit, text, or project. It effectively encourages student-centered learning, collaborative discussion, critical thinking, and active engagement with new terms and concepts. The strategy's step-by-step process enables students to not only familiarize themselves with new vocabulary but also to categorize and contextualize the words, leading to a deeper understanding of the material to be covered.

Overall, the "pile of words" strategy appears to be a valuable resource for teachers seeking to enhance their students' vocabulary acquisition and deepen their understanding of key concepts in various subject areas. Its focus on student-centered learning, collaboration, and critical thinking aligns well with modern educational approaches that emphasize active engagement and deeper learning.

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Tara Falkenberg - College & Career Corner

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Tara Falkenberg - College & Career Corner

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Materials needed to create a college and career-focused location in the classroom:

1. Bulletin board or large corkboard

2. Pushpins or thumbtacks

3. Colored construction paper or bulletin board borders for decoration

4. Markers, pens, and other writing materials for labeling and creating displays

5. Printed inspirational quotes or posters related to college and careers

6. Flyers or brochures from local colleges, universities, and trade schools

7. Informational materials about various career paths and opportunities

8. Student-made posters or projects related to future career aspirations

9. Small shelves or containers for displaying relevant books, magazines, or pamphlets about different professions and higher education options

10. A laptop or tablet for students to access online resources and conduct research on colleges and careers

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This article highlights a compelling narrative about the importance of incorporating authentic and complex problem-solving experiences into the education system, to foster not only academic success but also prepare students for the real-world challenges they will face in their careers. It emphasizes the significance of skills such as persistence, interdisciplinary thinking, and the ability to collaborate effectively as key components of college and career readiness.

One of the most significant takeaways from the article is the idea that traditional metrics of success, such as standardized testing and good grades, do not fully prepare students for the challenges they will encounter outside the classroom. Instead, engaging students in real-world problems that require them to apply critical thinking, research, and collaborative skills is instrumental in developing their abilities to navigate complex issues later in life. This approach seems to be more aligned with the demands of modern workplaces and society.

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Listen to Despertando on Spotify. ¿Qué pasaría si dedicas 5 minutos al despertar para ponerle una intención y un propósito a tu día? Despertando es un podcast de 5 minutos producido por Dudas Media y creado por Se Regalan Dudas que te acompaña todas tus mañanas para ponerle una intención a tu día, para conectar con tu cuerpo, mente y corazón y empezar tu día presente y consciente.Síguenos en @despertandodurmiendo y en Youtube de Despertando + Durmiendo.

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College and career readiness is one of the most powerful motivating factors that I have seen in my classroom. For the purposes of teacher clarity, My lessons always have not just the learning objectives --what they are learning-- but also the purpose for learning   --why they are learning it--.
I find that more often than not, connecting this skill or knowledge to their progress towards a high school diploma, higher education, and/or a profession of choice, is the most effective way to motivate students.
This approach also suits my philosophical position on education: that it is one of the most powerful professions to partake in if you want to help shape the future of our world and society. By arming students with the right knowledge and skills, we prepare them to live in the real world and to contribute to society as productive and resilient citizens.

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CTE STANDARDS + LESSON PLAN:

CTE  Standards for Career Ready Practice:

2. Communicate clearly, effectively, and with reason.
Career-ready individuals communicate thoughts, ideas, and action plans with clarity, using written, verbal, electronic, and/or visual methods. They are skilled at interacting with others: they are active listeners who speak clearly and with purpose, and they are comfortable with terminology that is common to workplace
environments. Career-ready individuals consider the audience for their communication and prepare accordingly to ensure the desired outcome.

3. Develop an education and career plan aligned with personal goals.
Career-ready individuals take personal ownership of their educational and career goals and manage their individual plan to attain these goals. They recognize the value of each step in the educational and experiential process, and they understand that nearly all career paths require ongoing education and experience to adapt to practices, procedures, and expectations of an ever-changing work environment. They seek counselors, mentors, and other experts to assist in the planning and execution of education and career plans.

Learning objective: Students state their professional and financial goals for adulthood and outline the requirements they need to meet, and steps they need to take, in order to achieve those goals.

Purpose of the objective: Students explain their future goals to their Pen Pals, and the steps they will need to take to achieve those goals, as well as asking for the same information from their Pen Pals. Some questions that they could ask of their Pen Pals might include: "How much does it cost to rent a house in Úbeda, Jaén? How does that compare to the national average for Spain?" or "What requirements do you have to meet in order to become a ________ in Andalucía?". This objective first requires students to research and investigate the academic, professional, and financial requirements for their goals, which is a skill that plenty of people have to use if they decide to move to a new area or pursue a new job position.

MAJOR POINTS:
Response to Director Massi Statement

I could not agree more with Director Massi's statement, apart from the fact that  I oppose the term "soft skill" to refer to social-emotional and executive functioning skills. I believe these sets of skills are JUST AS important as the academic knowledge and technical skills required for our chosen professions,  if not MORE IMPORTANT, because they ALSO extend beyond the professional, into the personal life of every person. Happy citizens are more productive employees.
Because these skills affect every person's employability, I have incorporated the following into my teaching practice:

In my classroom this year, we spent the first week getting to know one another and learning how to talk with table partners/ peers. The next 2 + 1/2 weeks we spent reviewing rules, expectations, procedures, student responsibilities, and consequences, as well as learning about growth vs fixed mindset, practicing academic discussion, and participating in collaborative project-based learning.  So by the end of the first month, we still had not gotten to the subject curriculum, but reminders of the rules will be needed less frequently throughout the year, because we have established that strong foundation of community norms and relationship.

Another change to my disciplinary process this year is to focus on logical consequences and multiple intervention steps before resorting to removal from the classroom, and referrals. This approach requires the student and I to work together, have restorative conversations, involve family, school counselors/ admin/ staff, establishing a plan together and revisiting each part of the plan if there is little or no student progress.  The entire restorative and intervention/reflection-based disciplinary process is not only more effective at resolving conflict and solving problems, it also provides teacher/adult models of mediation, self-discipline/regulation, and executive functioning skills for students.

I also mentioned in my reflection from last week's class that one of the "soft skills" I am trying to hold my students to account for is their attire, and how their dress at school relates to real-world scenarios, especially their own personal and professional lives. Because every able citizen will have to attend Jury Duty at some point or another, I usually cite to students our local courthouse rules on attire, especially the line that says "This rule does not limit the power of any judicial officer to further prescribe appropriate attire in the courtroom." Then I explain that I am the judicial officer of this classroom, and I have prescribed that in addition to the schoolwide ban on the use of hoods indoors, baseball caps are inappropriate attire and shall not be worn in my classroom, either.

One last strategy is focused on executive organizational skills, and I would describe most of my students as "emerging" in their progress in that skill set. We have implemented 3 ring binders with 5 divider tabs, individual cubby slots for student materials, table-partner pencil boxes for classroom materials, a detailed assignment list for each unit accompanied by an in-depth grade-check form, which students update together regularly and keep in their binders at all times. For certain students who struggle with time management or are forgetful, I have begun suggesting solutions such as settings reminders and alerts on their phones or chromebooks, using sticky notes, writing themselves emails, creating checklists and folders in their google drives, etc.

QUESTIONS

Answered: How can I align CTE standards with my WL curriculum standards?

New: I would like to see a unit pacing guide for a core subject class that incorporates college and career readiness standards into the daily lessons, even if in small ways. only.

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I think I will be addressing Standard for Career Ready Practice #4

4. Apply technology to enhance productivity. Career-ready individuals find and maximize the productive value of existing and new technology to accomplish workplace tasks and solve workplace problems. They are flexible and adaptive in acquiring and using new technology. They understand the inherent risks—personal and organizational—of technology applications, and they take actions to prevent or mitigate these risks.

Students will receive some support in how to utilize the functions capabilities in Google spreadsheets. They will use this technology to generate data for a linear model, and data that follows an exponential model (application to pathogens and corporation net profits). They will use this data to create and format a graph. They will then investigate and compare/contrast this method to graphing with Desmos Graphing calculator.

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I fully agree with Director Massi's quote. Last year, I struggled significantly with engaging my students' "soft skills." Like Erica, I think I took this for granted in myself. Specifically, collaboration and group problem-solving skills are vital in an optimal math classroom. It is possible that last year students were still becoming socially re-adjusted in the post-pandemic world. Regardless, I put collaboration skills at the forefront early this school year, and a large part of students grade is essentially based on my observations of their collaboration skills in class. Some of the things on my current rubric are directly connected to Massi's statement: "responsibility-taking, integrity, self-management, effort, respect for other’s differences, teamwork." Once students can do these skills, which are not to be taken for granted, it opens up all kinds of opportunities for their learning in the classroom -- and for their lives outside of school.

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Padlet: Why is College and Career Readiness Important to every middle and high school student

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Padlet: Why is College and Career Readiness Important to every middle and high school student

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College and career readiness is important because it helps students see the many possibilities for life beyond high school, and how their learning connects to "real life." Instead of the reality of this future beyond high school looming in background, if we confront the topic, students might not feel as much anxiety about "figuring it all out" in their last year or two. Helping them discover their interests is a large part of this.

To me, becoming proficient in embedding CTE methods in my teaching means that I am giving students opportunities to choose how to apply and investigate math ideas. Additionally, I hope to get better at sending the message that it is ok to seek out pathways besides 4-year college and university degrees through my actions and curriculum.

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When looking at the CTE Standards #10 caught my eye, "demonstrate creativity and innovation". The project that this made me think of was our "egg drop" project, where students create a device to help successfully land an egg from a high elevation. We will be dropping an egg from a second story balcony. The students will need to create a device to increase air resistance and or soften the collision. They will need to use creativity and innovation to successfully complete the assignment. 

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When looking at the CTE Standards #10 caught my eye, "demonstrate creativity and innovation". The project that this made me think of was our "egg drop" project, where students create a device to help successfully land an egg from a high elevation. We will be dropping an egg from a second story balcony. The students will need to create a device to increase air resistance and or soften the collision. They will need to use creativity and innovation to successfully complete the assignment. 

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Asynchronous Class work and reflection. 

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Asynchronous Class work and reflection. 

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CTE Alignment- I tech a CTE elective about digital media and design along with my math courses. I just recently had an idea about using math vocabulary and having my math students design something that represents a vocabulary word to be printed on either a mug, t-shirt, or metal plate. I think this would align with TPE 11 because they are applying knowledge and skills.

Major Points- My first teaching job was a CTE computer science class. I definitely agree because in CTE courses the goal is for them to get enough skills in an industry to either go straight into the industry or the more likely option of finishing up a certification for that industry. The more the class is like the actual industry work the better because the studnets will already know about the environment and the rules related to the industry. They will also be more likely to go into a program to get certified in the industry if they know what the work is actually going to be like. The social skill, team work, and responsibility aspects are very important for CTE and college readiness. It is very unlikely that you will work in complete isolation and you will definitely have deadlines that need to be met. I think the idea of making a classroom function more like the real world in the sense that the students learn to work together and be personally responsible for their time spent learning. In the school that I work at now we have a credit system that is based on in class hours. This works exactly like an hourly wage in the form of credit. If students are late to class by more than a few minutes then in addition to marking them tardy they lose half of their credit for the day. Likewise if they are not paying attention or doing the assigned work then they will lose half or the whole class worth of credit depending on the situation. I think that this covers most of the key points fairly well because the students have a direct incentive for paying attention and doing their work.

Questions- A question I usually have about project based inquiry is how to start and that was answered with the myriad of promtsbin the slide deck. A question I still have how do I keep the project focused and productive for specific math topics?

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I agree with the statement that college and career readiness is a developmental process that involves not only academic skills but also personal and social skills. This holistic approach to education is crucial for preparing K-12 students for success in both the classroom and the workplace. The Big Picture Learning model I work under, provides one example of how this concept is put into practice. Students are taught how to manage their time, set goals, and make a sustained effort toward achieving those goals. Also, BPL schools recognize that academic and personal/social skills are interconnected. We try to create a learning environment where students not only excel academically but also develop emotionally and socially. Kevin Fleming's work on the importance of connecting education to real-world experiences aligns with the Big Picture Learning model. Fleming's "Success in the New Economy" emphasizes the need for students to understand the relevance of their education to future careers, which is a core principle of Big Picture Learning. Emmanuel Felton's article, "When Social and Emotional Learning Is Key to College Success," reinforces the idea that social and emotional skills are critical for college success. It emphasizes the importance of skills like self-regulation, relationship-building, and resilience, which are fostered in Big Picture Learning schools through their holistic approach. Thus, college and career readiness goes way beyond academics, encompassing personal and social skills that are essential for success in both education and the workforce.

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The CTE Anchor Standard 5, which focuses on problem solving and critical thinking, aligns with the Life Science's project my students will do on Cellular Structure and Function. The project options listed in the description require students to conduct research to gain a deep understanding of cellular structure and function. Students will need to gather and synthesize information from various sources to accurately represent organelles, the cell cycle, or cellular division. The project promotes research, critical thinking, problem-solving, and the synthesis of information from various sources. It encourages students to take ownership of their learning, ask questions, and use digital media to enhance their presentations while demonstrating their understanding of cellular biology concepts all of which aligns well with CTE Anchor Standard 5.

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Discussion Comment - Director Massi quote

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Discussion Comment - Director Massi quote

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The skills that Massi is referring to: responsibility-taking, dependability, punctuality, integrity, self-management, effort, respect for other’s differences, and the ability to work effectively as a team member are life skills that I took for granted that I somehow ended up with them.  As I’ve grown as an adult and had multiple careers, I see that these skills are not innate, and I struggle to understand how to instill them into our students and help develop them.

I agree that in order to be successful in life, you need more than just academics.  The social emotional learning needs to come before much of the  academics.  Without it, there is no math teaching happening in my classroom.  - Erica

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I'm going to do a culinary based math lesson and start by having my students cook pancakes on day 1, and then we'll calculate how much money it costs to make them and therefore, how much money should we charge if we were going to sell pancakes at brunch to students and try to make money.  This aligns with the Standards for Career Ready Practice:

5. Utilize critical thinking to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Career-ready individuals recognize problems in the workplace, understand the nature of the problems, and devise effective plans to solve the problems. They thoughtfully investigate the root cause of a problem prior to introducing solutions. They carefully consider options to solve a problem and, once agreed upon, follow through to ensure the problem is resolved.
- Erica

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Discussion Comment - Director Massi quote

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Discussion Comment - Director Massi quote

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I think the skills that Director Massi lists are absolutely relevant to the classroom, the workplace, and just life in general. If students lack these skills, no amount of ELA, math, or science is going to carry them through life. Several of these skills can be developed just by holding students accountable for their decisions, and the consequences of those decisions. Others require a more concerted effort to teach, model, and practice.

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(I think this is where we are supposed to put this... but I'm really not certain. Is the "padlet discussion" different from "on the padlet"?)
In reviewing the standards for career ready practice, I selected #2 "Communicate clearly, effectively, and with reason" as my standard to align with an existing lesson in my class.  We use the CER (claim-evidence-reasoning) format on a regular basis to answer both informative and argumentative prompts.  Teaching students to provide both evidence and reasoning to support a claim, directly aligns with this CTE standard about communication. -Alison Plant

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College and career readiness is important to me because I lacked this support growing up and going through school. I was the first one in my family to go to college. Football is really what drove me there. I always had a huge motivation to be successfully and switch the script for my family. I am sure the school had college and career supports. They did if I remember correctly. I had friends applying to schools and I didn't think about it because I knew I was going to the JC to play football and go to school. I want to be a huge support for my students that were in my position. I want them to know every avenue they have, and all the information they need to make an educated choice.

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4 Skills & 4 Steps to a Successful Career

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College and Career Readiness is important because it prepares our students to succeed at whatever they choose as their next steps. If our students graduate from high school and don't have the skills necessary for the next stage of their lives, then what and why are we even teaching them to begin with, if not to prepare them for what comes next.

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Why is college and career readiness important?

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Why is college and career readiness important?

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College and career readiness is crucial for middle and high school students as it provides them with the tools and skills needed for future success, personal growth, and economic stability. It prepares them for diverse opportunities, setting them up to plan and prepare for their life outside of high school. - Tara

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College and career readiness is important because it's part of forward thinking and preparing for your future. There are so many opportunities out there that students may not be aware of so the more we can connect them with resources and help them network with people the more they are going to be open to what is possible.

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For high school students college and careers are right around the corner so it makes sense that they should start focusing on that aspect of life. For middle schoolers it is really just planting a seed in their minds about the eventual need for such things.