Mueller Charter School Blog

“Mr. Quinlan!!!!  How come we don’t have a boys basketball team?  We had one last year, how come not this year?”  The answer in my head is different than the one I actually tell the swarm of 7th and 8th grade boys who are playing a game of 3 on 3 at lunch.  My answer is a simple one.  ”You guys need a coach.”  What I am actually thinking is that you need to look around and see how many more opportunities our young men have to perform in athletics and I quickly see that at this age the explanation would be lost on them.

There are many reasons why I continue to coach the Lady Mustangs, something that I have looked forward to doing every season for the past 9 years.  I love to see them improve.  I love to see them develop a love for basketball.  I love to hear about when they make the freshman, junior varsity or varsity basketball teams at their high schools.  But these are not the only reasons.  Some of the other reasons I truly enjoy working with these young ladies will not even be realized until 8, 9, or 10 years down the road.

Reason #1

High school girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.

Reason #2

Girls who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self esteem and lower levels of depression.

Reason #3

Sport are where boys have traditionally learned about teamwork, goal-setting, the pursuit of excellence in performance and other achievement-oriented behaviors — critical skills necessary for success in the workplace.  In an economic environment where the quality of our children’s lives will be dependent on two-income families, our girls cannot be less prepared for the highly competitive workplace than our sons.  It is no accident that 80% of the female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified themselves as former “tomboys” - having played sports.

Reason #4

Girls need encouragement and inspirational role models.

This reason became evident this week when during the heartache of the 7th and 8th girls being left out of the basketball playoffs one of the 7th grade girls said she felt really bad for one of the 8th grade girls.  She went on to say that this young lady has been a role model for her ever since she first stepped foot on our campus and that she realizes this 8th grader puts her heart and soul into basketball and school.

Final Thoughts

Many people think that girls are not as interested in sport as boys.  Research shows that boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 9 are equally interested in sports participation.  However, by the age of 14, girls drop out of sports at a rate that is six times greater than boys.  Girls do not receive the same positive reinforcement about their sports participation.  Boys receive balls, gloves and sports equipment by the age of two.  They see their images on television as sportsmen, they see their photos in the sports section and know from their parents and friends that they are expected to play sports.

Even though our girls are not as likely to be discouraged from playing sports as they were 10 years ago, they simply aren’t encouraged to the same extent as boys.  As a result, they enter organized sports two years later than little boys and are therefore less likely to have the skills necessary for early success experiences. 

We must do a better job of supporting our girls’ sports participation.  We must find books about girls in sports, give gifts of sports equipment and sports lessons.  We need to take our girls to see women playing sports so they grow up appreciating and respecting the sports skills of women and so our daughters see images of themselves excelling in sports.  It’s no accident that girls’ sports participation in sports increases significantly following the Olympic Games, one of the few times that coverage of women’s sports is equal to that of men’s sports.  Role models drive youth demand for sports.

Are you looking for a place to collaborate with other teachers, bounce ideas off of each other, share effective strategies, pose questions, or visit classrooms to get inspired to try something new?  Then Literacy Teams is the place for you!

Today, we had our last literacy team get-together for this school year.  Our literacy teams have met together each month since September to discuss whatever instructional approach needed discussing…. differentiated learning centers, strategies for English Learners, math vocabulary, school wide implementation of the Write Institute, classroom libraries, alternatives to worksheets, guided groups and lit circles.

With only 5 weeks left until CST, we generated questions such as:  does every teacher, working with your students, know who your “target students” are, how are we communicating with parents the importance of the next five weeks and how are we helping them work with their child at home, what tools are we using to focus on specific testing skills (learning ladder), how are we exposing students to the test taking strategies, and how are we using charter helpers and charter support teachers to help better prepare our students during these 5 critical weeks?  It is this time together with colleagues and friends that keep us reflecting and developing to become better teachers!

Your Lit Team C,

Maureen DeLuca, Carolyn Ortiz, Cindy Estrada, Gina Drew, Kim Lohse, and Aimee Cisneros

It’s the simple things in life that bring the most joy to our 6th graders.  As many of you know, we are at 6th grade camp this week and enjoying every minute at Fox Outdoor School.  Nature is our classroom; whether it’s on a hike learning about symbiotic relationships, swimming in a pond fully clothed, slipping on rocks, climbing boulders, or just making new friends, our students are learning, living and loving this amazing experience. 

Your friends,

Aimee and Gina

I started using this new strategy in my classroom called Think Logs and it has evolved into an effective teaching tool.  It has probably been the most influential change I have made all year, yet it was simple and didn’t involve much effort.  I wanted to share it here, and hopefully you can use it in your classrooms.

How Do You Do It? 

• First I reflect on the big ideas of my learning objective.  I ask myself why this learning objective is important?  Next week my class is learning about measurement in math so my big idea is: “We use measurement to understand the world around us.” This big idea will give me a road map for how the Think Log should progress. 
• I write the title on easel paper.  Next week my Think Log title would be: Think Log: Measurement.
• I have my students sit in whole group format with their think/pair/share buddies on the carpet.  Then I tell them to talk to their partners about a topic or I ask them a question.  I might say, “tell your partner everything you know about measurement?” Or, “why is it important to measure things?”
• I let them talk for as long as they stay focused, then I call on people to respond out to the group.  As they respond I record their answers with their names on the think log.  I usually have to scaffold their comments for this part, because some of them come up with some random comments, but others are dead on. 
• After maybe 3-5 people share, if they haven’t gotten the big ideas, and they usually don’t in first grade, I explicitly tell them in 3-5 sentences.  This is why we are learning about measurement and this is what you need to know about measurement.  I also might talk about measuring your feet when you go to the shoe store, or something else that the students could relate to.  
• Everyday that I teach measurement, I repeat this process, continually having the students talk to each other about measurement and adding on their comments.  I usually add their comments in a different color for everyday.

We are learning about interpersonal conflict in my room right now.  Here is an example of a Think Log that we did. 

This strategy is effective because:

• The research says that we learn and create new knowledge off of what we already know.  It is important to give students an opportunity to talk about what we already know to engage their future learning. 
• As the students share out the teacher can identify misconceptions that the students might have about the subject.
• It serves as a pre-assessment, but the questions are broad enough so that the teacher gets a more informed idea of what they students may already know.
• Corresponds with the guided release model of “explaining” key concepts in a 10 minute lesson, but incorporates the key factor of student dialogue. 
•  Through daily dialogue about one concept, students can share ideas, refine ideas, come to new understandings, and can ask questions for clarification.
• Having students consistently talk about what they are learning is important because learning is social before anything else.
•  The questions are open ended enough so that the students can connect themselves (their lives and experiences) to the curriculum, which in turn encourages student engagement and interest.  

I use this strategy for almost every subject and for anything new I am teaching.  If you want to see more examples of Think Logs, come check out my room—they are all over the walls.  

Posted by Heather Naddour

“hey medina its macias how many pages do we have to read for honor student?

“hey in the guide it says which one means level but In the dictionary all three are the answers …..Idk”

“hey medina…..im sorry I didn’t go to school today…. but what was the homework…il find a way to give it to u 2morow.”

“Hey can u tell me wat the best source of formatting and citations of a research paper is???”

“Medina its cc. Wel im goin to skul but only for da pic cuz im super sick. So do u knw wen wer guna tak the pics cuz my mom is goin to pic me up after them?”

After a night of many text messages from my 7^th and 8^th graders I had an epiphany:  My students bleed technology.  From cell phones to Mp3 players, from email to text messages, from Wikipedia to Wikispaces, my students know about and experience technology on a daily basis.  In fact, my epiphany simply led to some positive changes in the middle school curriculum.  We all created Wikispaces and this is still an exciting process that invites innovation and creativity as it relates to homework, studying for tests, and creating new projects.  In addition, my 8^th graders have started blogging on a blog site called teachmedina.edublogs.org.  This site was specifically designed to be a place for students to publish work as well as an opportunity to share thoughts, views, and perspectives about literature, philosophy, and life in general.  Both wikispaces and blogging have opened a new door in student engagement and have been positive forces in my class.  I look forward to learning a lot more  about implementing technology into my pedagogy, and sharing with my students that learning is not solely about a classroom with 4 walls, textbooks, and a teacher. For more information about wikispaces or blogging, just talk to one of our lovely 8^th graders.  I am sure they will be happy to “bleed a little technology” for you.   

–Posted by Ricky Medina