Education in the News

In early September the Star Advertiser's front page headline read, "Teacher Dropouts!" and highlighted the problem of teacher attrition.  Read the article here:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100907_teacher_dropouts.html

Nationally, Oprah has recently highlighted the film, "Waiting for Superman" a documentary that has won awards and highlights the problems in America's School System on her show.  For more information about the movie try these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_%22Superman%22

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/

It's a tough time to be a teacher.  Issues with funding, pressures from Federal Mandates, new standards, new report cards, and tough socio-econmic times make for stressful days for new teachers, veteran teachers, administrators, and students.   With the upcoming elections and Hawaii's RTT award education is sure to remain in the news.

Edited to add:

12 hours after I posted this post, the Staradvertiser ran an article about Teach for America:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100927_Teacher_corps_reaps_results.html

Fill Your Bucket!

Mentors,

As the 1st quarter nears its end remember to take time for yourselves and to remind your new teachers to do so as well.  At our first Mentor Forum JM shared the book "How full is your bucket" and you learned about bucket filling with "Drops" and bucket dipping.  Make sure that your bucket and your Mentee's buckets are being filled because you don't want to end up like Poor Liza!

There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza...


While you're watching look for the Coaching strategies (or lack there of) that Liza uses on Henry.  How would you have "coached" Henry through his problem?

Hope this brings a smile to your faces!!!!!

Prezi!

Do you Prezi?  I am trying to!  I was tasked to transform a Power Point Presentation into a Prezi Presentation.  This is my work in progress.  I can feel that I am getting a little obsessed.
http://prezi.com/i_rykgl3v4gf/kahikukala/
Like I said, it's in progress.  I haven't loaded all the slides and I am still trying to figure out how to load videos.  Only three slides are linked but I think you can see how Prezis kinda pull you in.
I intend to get this baby done by next week so check back again soon!!

September has been a "full" month for us.  We planned for a New Mentor Training, a Mentor Forum, scheduled numerous New Teacher Orientations at the various school sites, helped schools get their teachers "HQ," moved for renovations, and also began working with our New Teachers.  We also planned a presentation for the Central District Principals.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to share our Program with them this month.  If you're interested here's all that we had to share with them...

Whoops, having problems loading the video.  Will try again tomorrow.  :)

9.14.2010 Mentor Forum

Mahalo to Radford Highschool for their hospitality and hosting school year 2010-2011's First Mentor Forum.  Fabulous venue for fun and learning.

Our day started with the Moanalua Community School for Adults sharing information about PLATO Learning's Praxis Prep Courses.  For just $50 dollars per course a semester teachers can get online praxis prep.  Please contact the Moanalua Community School for Adults for more information.  You can also check out this link from PLATO:

plato educator solutions

Next, our PRO awarded our special mentors, honoring our new Mentors and our most Veteran Mentor JS with the highly limited and sough after Kahikuala Tshirt!!!  He also shared some updates regarding personnel and highly qualified.  A lot of information was shared regarding some of the trials and tribulations our schools and new teachers are encountering.  It helped us all gain a perspective about what some of our teachers are experiencing outside of classroom teaching.

New Mentors Recevied a Limited-Edtion Kahikukala Crunch Bar

JS, our Most-Veteran Mentor Received a  Kahikukala Tshirt.

JM presented next sharing the various Mentor Tools we'll be utilizing:  Mentor Log, Contact Form, and the Collaborative Log.

Next, SB shared more info about NHQ and shared the NHQ form to help document a teacher's progress with their PDPs.

Sample Monitoring Log for School Designees

Mentors then took a break to participate in the Kahikukala 1st Annual Project Runway Teacher Challenge!  Mentors worked in teams to create a new outfit for Ms Viola Swamp.  After outfits were completed there was a walk off to crown the Champ.  While all participants were AMAZING strutting their stuff, KK won the challenge!!!!

Next it was time to work on Relationships.  JM shared books based on How Full is Your Bucket by T. Rath.  Mentors thought about bucket filling and dipping relating to themselves and their new teachers and brainstormed ways to keep their New Teachers buckets filled.

How Full is Your Bucket

Some of our Mentors' Amazing Work!

Since the Mentors now had a chance to bond it was time to get to the Rigor.  AP and SB then presented about the Hawaii Teacher Standards and the Standards Self-Assessment Protocol that we'd all be trying this year.  Mentors, please remember to give it a go with your New Teachers after Relationship Building and bring an anonymous copy of the action plan to our next meeting in December.

We ended the day with FP presenting on Mentor Conversations, focusing on:  Pausing, Paraphrasing and Probing.  Mentors practiced these three concepts with one another so that they could in turn coach their new teachers.

All in all it was a great day!!!!!

Incredible Mentors in Central District!

Today was our first Mentor Forum for school year 2010-2011.  It was held at Radford Highschool and about 40 amazingly committed and energetic teachers took time out of their busy schedules to attend.  Mahalo to all of you who made today a day filled with fun, learning, and collegiality.  Kahikukala will be posting more information about today's Forum after a little bit of rest time.  Watch this space for a new post SOON!!!

Cognitive Coaching

We decided as a staff to attend Cognitive Coaching training together and just finished the first two days of an eight-day training.  Aside from giving us more time to bond and get to know one another, the experience is helping our team build common language and experiences that will help us build the Central District Mentoring Program.  Our amazing trainer, Sue Presel, is pushing us to learn and grow as Mentors/Coaches and also providing us with great modeling for our own sessions of training Mentors/Coaches.  Another fabulous perk has been networking with other mentors and coaches, some of which are from our own complex!!!!

  

The last two days have really stretched my learning by making me think, re-think, reflect, and make connections with past experiences.  It has also helped me clarify my beliefs about learning--which has been very refreshing and invigorating--even LIBERATING!  I am thoroughly looking forward to our next two training days with Sue and am eagerly anticipating "practicing" honing skills such as:  rapport, paraphrasing, and planning conferences over the next month.

If you'd like more information about Cognitive Coaching please visit this website:

http://www.cognitivecoaching.com/