Coding to Write: A Hands-On Introduction to Scratch

http://scratch.mit.edu

Coding has risen in popular culture--it's everywhere!

http://scratch.mit.edu/hoc

"You don't create community. You create environments in which community can grow and flourish."

My resource: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/14606621

ScratchEd

Hacking the Storybook: A Print Circuitry Workshop

David Cole, CV2
Jen Dick, NEXMAP
Paul Oh, NWP
Jie Qi, MIT Media Lab

New online resource for Connected Learning:
blog.nwp.org/educatorinnovator/webinars

Background:
Dandelion Painting

www.crowdsupply.com/chibitronics/circuit-stickers
nexmap.org
technolojie.com

Grant Writing 101

Notes from a National Writing Project Annual Meeting Session (B12)
~Lynne Anderson-Inman, Oregon WP at University of Oregon

The funding is out there. The problem is having the time and the skills to write the proposal.

The Five Major Parts to a Grant Proposal:
1. Significance (May call it: Purpose, Need, Problem, Importance, Outcomes, Expected Impact, etc.)
-They are wanting to know: Why is this important?
-This is the MOST important part of the grant

2. Background (May call it: Content, Evidence, Research synthesis)
-Find out the context in which you are working. Is it a research project? Is it a professional development project and you've previously done similar things?

3. Plan of Work (Goals, Objectives, Activities, intervention, evaluation, measures, etc.)
-What are you going to do? What materials are you going to use?

4. Resources (Personnel, Collaborators, institutional support, matching funds, grant history, experience, etc.)
-Assure them that if they give you money, you will do a good job.

5. Budget
-How much money do you need?
-How are you going to spend it?

-----------

1. Significance = Persuasive Essay
Goal is to persuade reviewers your idea should be funded

• Create awareness of a problem you intend to solve
• Take a position on how to solve it (thesis)
• Present arguments for your position
• Use evidence to support your arguments
• Counter the arguments of opposing positions (Draw attention to how other people have approached this problem but has been inadequate or inappropriate)
• Link your position/solution to your proposal

*Some problems are more compelling than others!

Don't do this:

-Our school is poor and needs money for computers. (Frankly, they don't care.)

Instead:

-Our students need 1:1 computer access to learn 21st century literacy skills. (That's something you can sell!)

Don't:

Teachers need more professional development in writing.

Do:

Students' writing scores in our district have not improved in five years.

Don't:

The number of English Learners is increasing every year.

Do:

Graduation rate for English learners is far below that of non-ELs.

Our turn: Write a problem you intend to solve.

*Using visuals can also be highly beneficial!

2. Background = Classification Essay

Goal is to provide reviewers with context for the proposal. Classification essay breaks complex subject into manageable parts.

• Review existing knowledge or classroom practice
• Organize existing knowledge into categories
• Communicate the classification scheme
• Present the evidence by category
• Show how your proposal builds on this knowledge 

*Numbers are good! It provides a sense of authority on the content.

Example: Research Review:

Organize research by categories

-Related research has examine three major interventions...

-Existing research has revealed three major influencing variables...

-Work to date has addressed the needs of three different student populations...

3. Plan of Work = Technical Writing

Goal is to convince reviewers you can do this work.

• Emphasis is on objectives and activities
• Be specific: strategies, techniques, tools
• Make an outline of information needed
• Use language that is clear and concise
• Go from whole to part
• make effective use of lists
• Explain all acronyms
• Use charts, graphs, and tables

4. Resources = Expository Writing

Goal is to provide information about your site's capacity.

• Break section into topics or subsections
• Provide overview statement

Finding Funders

Federal (www.grants.gov is great for finding grant competitions)

-US Department of Education

-National Science Foundation

Institute for Education Sciences http://ies.ed.gov/funding

National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/funding

National Endowment for the Humanities http://www.neh.gov/grants

Cognitive Coaching: Day 2

[Notes from a Cognitive Coaching training at the OAISD]

What is Cognitive Coaching?

• directed by the coachee
• neutral
• about self-directed learning
• a skillful application of tools for planning, reflecting, and problem-resolving
• developing and building internal resources
• mediating thinking

Coaching Cycle

1. Planning Conversation

2. Event (observation)

3. Reflecting Conversation

The Planning Conversation

1. Clarify goals
2. Specify success indicators (plan for collecting evidence)
3. Anticipate approaches, strategies, decisions and how to monitor them
4. Establish personal learning focus and processes for self-assessment
5. Reflect on the coaching process and explore refinements

Remember it:

Where will you go?
How will you know?
How will it flow?

How will you grow?

How will this help you know?

*Try to make coaching your default. Occasionally you may need to slip into the role of collaborating or consulting, but then try to get right back into coaching mode.

Listening Set-Asides

• Autobiographical
• "Me too!" Listening (That reminds me of a story of something that happened to me. It becomes about you instead of the coachee.)
• Inquisitive
• Giving all the juicy details (You don't need to know all of the juicy details when you are coaching. It becomes about your interests)
• Solution
• Wanting to fix the problem

*When you are coaching someone with a different style than you, you need to adjust your style to match the coachee's.

TOOLS:

Paraphrasing (The premier tool in Cognitive Coaching)

*When done correctly, it feels seamless. It isn't "parrot-phrasing."

• Attend fully
• Listen with the intention to understand
• Capture the essence of the message
• Reflect the essence of voice, tone, and gesture
• Make the paraphrase shorter than the original statement
• Paraphrase before asking a question
• Use the pronoun "you" instead of "I"

Levels of Paraphrasing

1.  Acknowledge and Clarify

• "You're thinking that..."
• "So you're wondering if..."
• "You're frustrated because..."
• "You're hoping that..."
• "You're concerned about..."

2. Summarize and Organize

• "So, there are three issues."
• "So, you have closure on ___, and you're ready to move on to ___."
• "First you're going to ___, then you will ___."
• "On the one hand..., and on the other hand..."

3. Shift Level of Abstraction

• Up: Values, beliefs, identity, assumptions, goals, concept label
• "So, it's important to you that..."
• "So, a belief you hold is..."
• "So, you're a person who..."
• "An assumption you're operating from is..."
• Down: Example and non-example
• "So an example of what you're talking about is..."
• "So this is not about..."

Pausing and Wait Time
Wait Time #1: After asking a question
Wait Time #2: After the person answers (Signifies that you value what was said)
Wait Time #3: Before responding (Gives you time to craft paraphrase/question)

Wait Time and Eye Movement:
How do you know when the person is done thinking? Watch the eyes! They will tell you how they are thinking!

Cognitive Coaching: Day 1

[Notes from a Cognitive Coaching training at the OAISD]

Bottom Line: Working with individuals and giving them tools to help them increase their performance and resourcefulness.

Book: Cognitive Coaching: A Foundation for Renaissance Schools by ArthurL. Costa

Outcomes of Training:

• Understanding of the essence of Cognitive Coaching
• Increased consciousness and craftsmanship in applying interpersonal communication skills to develop trust and rapport
• Understanding of the power of a structured professional conversation
• Understanding Cognitive Coaching as one of the four support functions (Coaching, Collaborating, Consulting, Evaluating)

Declarative knowledge = knowledge that is stored inside your head 

Procedural knowledge = demonstrating what you know

(Ex: Parallel parking: Declarative knowledge is knowing how to do it, Procedural knowledge is showing how you can do it)

Model

List what you observe about: •      The interaction •      The coach's behavior •      The coachee's thinking

My Notes from the Demonstration  Coach: -repeated what she heard -What does success look like? -repeated what she heard success looks like -What might be the strategies? -repeated -What might you need to pay attention with yourself to make this happen? -repeated -How has thinking changed?

As a group, what did we notice?

• Listening intently
• Restated what was said
• Didn't offer advice
• Conversation was structured, but adaptive
• Restating message/Asking question pattern
• Affirmations
• Rephrasing caused deeper thought
• Acknowledgement of emotion
• Paraphrasing used terms that weren't directly stated
• Questions created a sense of beginning and end
• Reflective question at the end

*This is cognitive coaching!

*Cognitive coaching isn't to be used when you already know where you want your students to go.
*It is used to produce self-directed people with cognitive capacity for excellence

A Metaphor for Coaching (pg. 16)

Taking a valued person from where he/she is to where he/she wants to go.

Propositions of Cognitive Coaching

• All behavior is produced by thought and perception.
• Teaching is constant decision-making (400-1,000 decisions a day)
• To learn something new involves engagement and alteration in thought
• Will need to engage with prior experiences
• Humans continue to grow cognitively
• Growth mindset

Cognitive Coaching Process

• Coaching Strategies
• Internal Thinking Process
• Observable Behaviors
• Enhanced Performance

What drives the thinking of a Cognitive Coach?

• Help develop Self-Directness
• Self-managing (ex: setting goals)
• Self-monitoring (ex: adjusting goals)
• Self-modifying (ex: plotting success to future goals)
• Help build cognitive capacity
• What to focus on
• When to focus
• In what ways to focus
• Considering people as individuals and members of a community
• Holonomy (The study of the interactive parts of a whole)
• We exist as individuals, but we belong to many different groups

How did you know how to do that? (Great question for fostering self-directedness)

Holonomy and the Five States of Mind:

• Efficacy
• Teachers who believe they can teach every child
• Teachers who are willing to put in the work to make it happen
• Flexibility
• Teacher that has options
• Can acknowledge and respect and empathize with diverse perspectives
• Won't just stay on one path
• Interdependence
• Understanding relationships are incredibly important 
• (Team work, PLC, grade level work, etc.)
• Consciousness
• Awareness of your thoughts, feelings, viewpoints, behaviors
• Aware of the effects your thoughts, feelings, viewpoints, and behaviors have on others
• Need a
• Craftsmanship
• Precision in your work
• When you are highly craftsmanlike, you know with laser-focus what your goals are

Holonomous People

What is it like when a person draws on the states of mind to become more holonomous?

Efficacy without consciousness = arrogance

Goal of Cognitive Coaching Training

Develop an identity and capacity as a mediator of thinking.

A mediator is one who extends invitations, not mandates.

A mediator is one who is NOT a solver of another's problems.

A mediator is one who shines a spotlight of awareness upon data in the environment and interacts to support self-directed learning.

Trust

When trust exists in a relationship, I (see/hear/feel/do)...

Consider the factors that promote trust...

	Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement by Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider
	Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools by Megan Tschannen-Moran

Three kinds of trust:

• Organic trust
• We often have that with our kids. We just have a built-in trust.
• Contractual trust
• Ex: Mortgage 
• Relational trust
• Teacher-Student, Adminstrator-Teacher, etc.

Rapport
Trust = deeper connection
Rapport = more surface level
Both are related to personal connections

Mirror Neurons: Monkey See-Monkey Do

Tie us to other people's actions as well as feelings.
Mirror Neuron system is the most basic system that causes connection.

Book:

• Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others by Marco Iacoboni

Elements of Rapport: (All can be conciously applied in order to develop rapport)

• Posture
• Gesture
• Tonality
• Language
• Breathing

When to Consciously Apply Rapport:

• Anticipate tension
• Think about the room setup. Could you have a round table?
• Tension emerges
• Think about physical location- Is something between you (desk, table)
• Maybe even start mirroring body language
• Make sure body language conveys, "I care about this."

Layers of Coaching	Layers of Self
Information you will volunteer	Information you will volunteer
Information you will provide if asked	Information you will provide if asked
	Information that is intimate
	Private self
	Unknown self

Four Support Functions

• Coaching
• transform effectiveness of decision-making, mental models, thoughts, and perceptions
• habituate reflection
• Collaborating
• form ideas, approaches, solutions, and focus for inquiry
• Consulting
• Curriculum policies, procedures, technical support
• Evaluating
• Conforming to a set of standards

When offering support to someone, make sure Cognitive Coaching is the default support.  Make sure you don't slip into the consulting role and fix the problem for the person. First, start with questioning. ("So you're not sure how you want to...; What might be some of the things you've considered?")