# data[].attributes.body
If you liked anything that you saw today, feel free to use in your own classroom. Questions? Email me at: Roni.Tarver@birdvilleschools.net

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
January 7, 2019

I don't even recognize myself anymore. I used to be one of those teachers that just kind of survived the year. What I lacked in creativity in planning I made up for in the building of student relationships, and I was fine with that. Now, I am turning everything upside down in my classroom and constantly changing things to meet the needs of my students. As overwhelming as that sounds (and it is), I am having more fun in my classroom than I ever would have imagined. I have decided to start writing about the things that I love and the things that need to change.

To give you a little background on what I do, I have to tell you where I started. In 2010, I began my first year of teaching at Richland High School as an Agriscience Teacher, teaching Advanced Animal Science, Metal Fabrication (Welding), Horticulture, and Wildlife Management. Yes, you read that right, I started my first year of teaching with 4 preps. And I was tasked with starting an FFA program at my school as well as a brand new livestock team in the next few years. To say that I survived my first year would be kind. As the years unfolded and my livestock team grew, I found myself spending a lot of time away from school with judging teams and stock shows, which required many sub plans. When you are absent as much as I was, you are really needing the students to teach themselves in a number of lessons if you want your classroom to continue to flow in your absence. I had started flipping/blending my classroom then, but didn't really know what it was called. I was doing it at it's most basic form, right down to giving the students most of the resources to complete the tasks. When I got back to school, we could keep moving because the students had kept up the pace while I was out. I realized very quickly that we could continue working like this while I was in the classroom as well, which would allow me plenty of time to talk to students individually. I spent 5 years teaching agriculture, and decided to slow down and find another niche when I became pregnant with my daughter. I love the barn, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time away from her. At the suggestion of my CTE department head, I sat down and met with the principal at a local middle school. They were looking for a replacement for a class called College and Careers. Our school district had very recently started this class in response to Texas House Bill 5, legislature that required every 8th grader to leave middle school with a 4 year plan, endorsement (like a high school major), and a set freshman schedule. You only needed a CTE certification, and that made it an easy transfer, although I was a little nervous about going from high school students to 8th graders. I said I would never teach middle school. Now I find myself 4 years in to it and can't imagine ever going back to high school. It's funny how things work out.

Flashforward to the end of last year, and I found myself invited to be a part of a blended learning team on my campus. I had been using Canvas Learning Management System for a couple years (it is a GAME CHANGER if you haven't used it) and so I was an easy fit. Our school's technology specialist started working pretty closely with us about what blended learning meant. At the beginning of this school year, I spent some time reading EMPOWER by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani (also a GAME CHANGER if you are wanting to get into the "blended game"). Between our tech specialist and this book, encouragement from admin and close teacher friends, I made a massive overhaul of my operating procedures. In the past, I frontloaded every assignment to Canvas so that I could discuss the TEKS, have conversations to encourage knowledge transfer, and then turn the students loose to work at their own pace. This has been one of the most critical components of my class in my opinion-working at your own pace- as forces the students to be the captain of their own ship. But then I read EMPOWER and realized very quickly that I was only preparing them for the water. I was only teaching timing. I wasn't teaching them to create, to lead, or to be the inventors they need to be to be successful in this century. So what kind of classroom set up is required to give kids the best chance at being inventors? You have to give them the control. Yes, you read that right. You let them be the ones to tell you how they want to learn and what they want to learn. Now, this concept was pretty scary at first because as I said before, I had already completely created my class in Canvas. It was all planned and used before. Literally just sitting there ready to use. And after all of that, I was going to change everything.

It all started with the idea of having "Business Meeting Mondays" with the students. We would meet and discuss what the students could expect for the week. That led to the idea of having the students run the meetings. We elected officers, set up meeting norms, and begin "Exec Team" meetings on Fridays to get the leaders ready to conduct meetings. I was very grateful for my years of experience working with student leaders through the FFA, as it gave me a diving board from which to reflect. With the FFA meetings, we had some things that were routine, and then the officers could add their own spin on the agenda. Once I figured out how I wanted to run the meetings, I had to decide what the agenda and week would entail. One of the key components of the book that I had read had said that empowered learners have the opportunity to "own the process". So I took things one step further and I decided to break the class down to its most basic building blocks and let the students create everything. I took a look at the TEKS for my class, and was able to break them up into 3 different six weeks. There was a fourth set of TEKS that were completely addressed through the act of planning and working through the business meetings, which was really cool. Basically, the long and the short of it are that the class executives are given the TEKS in their planning meetings. As an exec team, they break them down into what we call their "kid-friendly standards." Then, the students bring the standards to their class period or "office branch" and help the students then come up with the essential questions that match those standards. I post all the questions that the students create so that they can collaborate between different branches to choose the questions that are the most relevant to their interests. Every six weeks of the semester, class has a different theme. The first six weeks, the students use the questions to create a project with an advertising theme. The second six weeks, the students create a project with a financial theme. The third six weeks, the students will invent their own careers and participate in a "Career Shark Tank" where teachers and admin come in and interview the students about their inventions. I have lovingly named this curriculum "The Office: North Ridge Edition."

I have had the opportunity to present the curriculum to other educators and admin on two separate occasions and so far the feedback has been positive. I have tried to be incredibly transparent about the pitfalls of this process so that I can make effective changes. Because we started a few weeks into the school year, I didn't start it from the very beginning which affected the momentum. Most of my classes have totally loved "the office" while one of the classes didn't engage as much as I had hoped they would. The ultimate struggle in that class was that nobody wanted to be in charge of the group. I made a small leadership committee of the students that wanted to be a part of the process, and they pulled the weight which didn't seem fair; but it is what it is. The classes that had strong executive teams got a lot more out of the process, and those classes re-elected their leaders because they were fair and helpful to everyone. One of my executive teams even volunteered to show up on a Saturday morning to help me present at a digital learning conference because they believe that much in what we are doing. The same group of officers went around to every student on days that I was absent to make sure that everyone knew what part of the projects should be completed upon my return. For the very first time in my career, I feel like an innovator. This blog will hopefully be a beautiful networking opportunity for me to collaborate with other educators and make my "office" even better. Next Monday, I will start a new semester with new 8th graders and I cannot wait to see how they respond. Stay tuned!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
January 7, 2019 I don't even recognize myself anymore. I used to be one of those teachers that just kind of survived the year. What I lacked in creativity in planning I made up for in the building of student relationships, and I was fine with that.

# data[].attributes.body
My 5th Period Branch of Executives showed up at 8 AM on a Saturday to share their love of The Office.  Students presented the concepts on how the office is managed, and then took teachers through the process of creating their own essential questions for the meeting.

# data[].attributes.body
I made a “cheat sheet” for my friends at work with all of the things I would want to know starting out in Canvas.  I hope this is helpful!

# data[].attributes.body
The coolest thing about using the Canvas app with my iPad Pro is being able to handwrite notes on students’ assignments.  I was a little hesitant to fully dive into canvas at first because I love the personal element of handwriting notes and corrections.  You do not have to have either of these Apple products to make comments on students’ assignments, Canvas on the computer allows for pre-formatted markups.

# data[].attributes.body
With the second set of TEKS, two of my girls created a news broadcast.

# data[].attributes.body
One of my students made a really funny video about what he wants for his future. See attached!

# data[].attributes.body
One of the beautiful things about working at North Ridge Middle School is that the core teachers use so many different types of apps to share information with our students. This exposes them to so many things beyond the "slide show." See how Jacob presented his career information and linked other websites to his s'more by clicking on the link below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
French Horn Player - By: Jacob Metz by JACOB METZ | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

# data[].attributes.headline
"Delivering" the Essential Questions in a meaningful way

# data[].attributes.subject
"Delivering" the Essential Questions in a meaningful way

# data[].attributes.body
One of my precious students created a blog over what it is like to be a Labor and Delivery Nurse. See the photos of her beautiful blog here!

# data[].attributes.body
Watch the clip below to hear what the "employees" think about working in The Office"

# data[].attributes.body
Employees in our office take a pre-assessment at the beginning of the first 6 weeks in Xello, our schedule- planning software. It will create a profile for them that breaks down their learning styles, personalities, and career matches. It guides our learning for the entire semester.

# data[].attributes.body
A way that I like to communicate with my employees is by posting data in the hallway outside of our office. There, students can see the current elected "office execs" and the breakdown of their career assessments they have completed. Currently, I have their career clusters, skills and personality data posted.

# data[].attributes.body
For every class period, the students create their own Essential Questions to address their mastery of the TEKS, or our core standards. I collect the list of the questions that the classes, or "branches," create and then share all of them with the entire office. Students can then pick and choose the questions that they want to use for their office projects.

# data[].attributes.body
I created a module that houses all of our project documents so that the students can access those at any time.

# data[].attributes.body
The first 6 weeks period we will be operating in an "Advertising and Marketing" office.

The second 6 weeks period we will be a "Finance Firm."

The third 6 weeks we will be operating in an "Entrepreneurial" office, and the students will invent their own careers and present them to the "Career Sharks."

# data[].attributes.body
A key component of the Career and Technology department is our support of the core curriculum.  We have been tasked with a literary focus this year in our classrooms across the district, so I am asking my "employees" to incorporate news articles into their projects.  They must choose an article related to the theme of their Essential Questions and use the article as a means of persuasion in their advertising projects

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Content and assessment platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

# data[].attributes.body
I keep a running list of things that need to be compiled and submitted for each project. Surprisingly, freedom to create is a scary concept to the students and having some written "guardrails" for the journey gives them some additional support.

# data[].attributes.body
Every Monday, elected student executives run our  'business meetings.'  Students go over norms every week and then explain the TEKS to the office.  Students then create a list of Essential Questions for each TEKS standard.  The attached video is the beginning of one of our class meetings.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the first set of TEKS that we discussed revolved around students' "Career Matchmaker" results. This student wants to be an architect, so he answered his essential questions on the beams, and then built a structure with them to advertise his career choice.

# data[].attributes.body
Attached are the daily operational procedures of how our office works.