M A T A N Z A S H I G H S C H O O L

Captain’s BlogDecember 3, 2012

Happy Birthday!Gustavo Guzman 12/3David Pandich 12/7

Education is a succession of eye-openers each involving the repudiation of some previously held belief. George Bernard Shaw

FCEA and Matanzas SGA invite you to a

Walk-a-thon to Benefit

Mrs. JoAnn Nahirny Matanzas Teacher and FCEA Building Rep Friday, December 7th from 2:30pm to 5:30pm

at the Matanzas High School track Donate money and come walk the track!

Students, teachers, staff, and community members are welcome and encouraged to participate!

Live Music! Refreshments also available! ALL proceeds go to benefit Mrs. Nahirny in her

ongoing battle to beat cancer!

COME OUT AND HELP SUPPORT ONE OF OUR OWN!

Journey for Nahirny

Giovanni Gonzalez was just awarded the Daughter's of the American Revolution

(DAR) Citizenship Award.

Don’t forget to turn in your Good News

for the Blog!

N E W S Y O U C A N U S EJeb Bush, with cash and clout, pushes contentious school reforms

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush soared to rock star status in the education world on

the strength of a chart. A simple graph, it tracked fourth-grade reading scores.

Trio of teachers headed for state House

This month, west-central Florida voters sent a trio of newcomers to Tallahassee. They all

knocked off entrenched incumbents. They're all Democrats. And they're all public school

teachers. Two of the three rookie legislators will juggle day-to-day classroom

responsibilities with their Capitol duties.

Volusia schools adjusting new rating system for teachers

Volusia County School Superintendent Margaret Smith applied the brakes Wednesday on

part of a new evaluation system that had lowered the performance ratings of more than

100 Volusia teachers based on state test scores, sometimes from students they never

taught.

January 11th & 18th 9:00 – 3:30

Bradford County School Board, Board Room

501 W. Washington Street Starke, FL 32191

Please go to the NEFEC Website Trainings/Events to register.

http://www.nefec.org/events/

For additional information you may contact Sandy Lewis 386-329-4885 or lewisk@nefec.org

Creating  Reflective  Practitioners  through  Clinical  Observation  and  Mentoring

NEFEC  Clinical  Educator  Training  

Training Topics:

Roles and Responsibilities of Mentors

Diagnosis of Professional Performance

Conferring with Professionals

Diagnosis of Student Performance

IPDP Plans

This training is provided for teachers with 3 years or more classroom experience to certify as a supervisor of interns and a mentor for the beginning teacher’s program, and struggling teacher support.

North  East  Florida  Educational  Consortium

The benefits of teaching students about effortEffort empowers learning, writes Kevin D. Washburn, executive director of Clerestory Learning. In this blog post, he suggests teachers emphasize effort in the classroom by avoiding the oversimplification of historic and scientific achievements by including stories about struggle and success. He also suggests showing the relationship between effort and results, and separating "strategy from individual worth." SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Education (11/21)

Teachers transform smartphones into learning toolsTeachers should integrate smartphones into daily classroom instruction, suggests teacher Jennifer Carey. In this blog post, Carey writes about how her students used smartphones to complete in-class polls, as e-readers for books and handouts, to complete research and to conduct Google searches. "If teachers actually direct how students will use their cellphones in class as learning tools, we can minimize their role as a distractive presence," she writes. Powerful Learning Practice (11/21)

Top five news stories selected by ASCD SmartBrief readers in the past week.■ Are common core math standards too demanding? (The Atlantic online)■ How educators can prevent student cheating (The Huffington Post)■ Can homework help students on standardized tests? (The Huffington

Post)■ How to help students learn to write through practice (Education Week

Teacher)■ Free apps give teachers tools to record student behavior (School

Library Journal)

Homelessness(Awareness(Event(Saturday,)December)8th)))from)10)am)to)1)pm))

)Indian)Trails)Middle)School ))5505)North)Belle)Terre)Parkway,)Palm)Coast,)FL)

•  Collec2ng(food(and(blankets(for(people(and(pets(

–  Grace(Community(Ministries(

–  Second(Chance(Rescue(

•  Low(Cost(Vaccina2on(Clinic(for(pets(

provided(by(CCFAW(

•  Pet(Adop2ons(F(Second(Chance(Rescue(

(secondFchanceFrescue.org)(

•  Music(played(and(artwork(displayed(

((by(ITMS(Students(

•  Bring(your(camera(and(take(a(picture(

with(Santa(Claus(

•  Monetary(dona2ons(accepted(

Humane) EducaHon) Program) Service) Learning) Students)are) hosHng) this) event) to) bring) awareness) to) the)homelessness)of)both)people)and)pets)in)Flagler)County.)

Some  Holiday  Cheer!Saturday  November  17,  2012  the  MHS  compeEEve  cheer  team  traveled  to  the  Orange  County  ConvenEon  Center  in  Orlando  hoping  to  secure  their  6th  consecuEve  bid  to  the  UCA  NaEonal  Cheerleading  Championship  in  February.    Due  to  recent  injuries  some  last  minute  changes  had  to  be  made  to  the  rouEne  and  the  16-­‐team  members  that  took  the  mat  Saturday  had  only  pracEced  together  for  2  weeks.    There  were  several  teams  in  the  division  that  had  won  FHSAA  state  Etles  in  the  past  two  years.    Every  team  had  at  least  one  fall  and  a#er  all  teams  had  competed  we  knew  it  would  be  close  and  it  was  a  preIy  level  field.    We  placed  second  only  1.33  points  behind  the  winner,  West  Nassau.    We  were  the  only  2  teams  to  receive  bids  to  naEonals.

Le#  to  right  front  row:  Erika  Galarza,  Kristen  Hutson,  Kendall  Garcia,  Alejandra  Grau,  Alexa  Miller,  Lauren  Supino,  Kaitlyn  Del  CasEllo,  Maria  Gillin

Back  row:  Courtney  Davis,  Cashmeir  LiIles,  Madison  Kenton,  Taylor  Garmen,  Breanna  Genis,  Erin  McManus,  Bobbianne  Jones,  Bradley  Parks,  Kaylyn  PiIs,  Ashley  Helmer,  Erika  Dixon,  Morgan  Valintek

Metacogni*ve  Strategies  are  necessary  for  teaching  in  the  21st  Century.

Robert  Marzano  (2000)  was  a  leader  in  the  establishment  of  the  MetacogniEve  Classroom  Environment.    MetacogniEon  is  simply  thinking  about  thinking,  knowing  what  we  already  know,  and  knowing  what  we  do  not  know.

To  implement  the  metacogniEve  strategies,  teachers  must:1. Connect  new  informaEon  to  prior  knowledge.2. Select  thinking  strategies  deliberately  (model  this  as  a  teacher).3. Plan,  monitor,  and  evaluate  thinking  processes  (Dirkes,  1985).

If  you  have  not  created  this  environment  in  your  classroom,  here  are  some  key  steps  to  doing  so  (Blakey  &  Spence,  2012:  ERIC  via  educaEon.com):1. Plan  with  teachers,  media  specialists,  and  students2. Teachers  already  do  this  in  private,  so  apply  your  own  knowledge  to  deliberately  model  

metacogniEve  behavior  to  allow  students  to  become  aware  of  their  own  thinking  skills.3. Prepare  more  lessons/acEviEes  which  require  problem  solving  and  research  so  

students  can  focus  on  how  tasks  are  accomplished.4. Seing  goals  for  the  "thinking  process"  and  content  so  students  can  discover  the  

understanding  and  transfer  the  "thinking  process"  into  deeper  learning.For  more  informaEon,  please  visit  this  website:hIp://www.educaEon.com/reference/arEcle/Ref_Dev_MetacogniEon/