Teacher Resources

Animas High School Professional Development 2013

Professional Development Funding Application
See the above document for the application to get money for PD!  Please email completed applications to Jake Lauer.

AHS PD Day Schedule:  11/12/13
See the Google Doc linked above for our PD schedule.  You can also use this document to schedule meetings during open time.

Consultancy Group Revamp!

• New Schedule!  See linked document for details on which groups meet when.
• Consultancy Groups 2013-2014  This document tells you who is in your grade for mixed subject consultancy groups.

PD Day #3:  Seminar Texts and Strategic Planning

• Seminar Texts:  The texts linked below are the central texts for our staff discussions about homework and PBL.  Please have them read BEFORE our PD Day on 11/12!
• The Trouble With Homework
• What Is PBL?

• Strategic Planning:  The document linked here is our guiding document for giving input into AHS's Strategic Plan for the next five year.  Please read over it carefully, and put some thought into the guiding questions.  We'll be revising the plan in consultancy group on 11/12, and then merging them into one document at the end of the day.

PD Day #2:  Workshop Materials

• Thinking Like Historians:  The materials linked below provide a powerpoint with general guidelines and resources for teaching your students to think like historians!  
• Thinking Like Historians PPT
• Gulf of Tonkin Think Aloud
• Historical Thinking Skills Handout
• Gulf of Tonkin Historical Thinking Notes

• Google Sites and Your DP:  The handout linked here provides a simple step-by-step guide to using Google Sites as a resource for your students.

• Math History

PD Day #1:  Workshop Materials

• Critique:  This powerpoint gives an outline of general approaches to critique, different examples of types of critiques, and resources you can use to develop your own critique protocols.

• Letters of Recommendation:  The Google Docs folder that's linked here gives you guidelines for writing letters of recommendation and a number of sample letters.  If you want additional sample letters of rec, talk to the College Counseling Department!

Animas High School Teacher Orientation 2013

Student Orientation: 9th Grade Resources
See below for resources and handouts for the 9th grade Habits Project.

• Habits Mini-Project
• Habits Handout

New Teacher Orientation
This linked powerpoint presentation is the outline of what new teachers did in their 2nd day.  It includes the 4 core design principles of AHS, as well as critique strategies and the basics of project planning.  Handouts and texts are linked below.

• Beautiful Work
• Group Grades Are Pointless
• Framework for a Strong Project
• Project Revision Graphic Organizer

AHS Professional Development Plan

The powerpoint linked above outlines the AHS PD plan for 2013-2014.  Specific documents are linked below

• Consultancy Groups 2013-2014
• Protocols

Colorado Charter School Conference 2011
Engaging Student Experiences:  Public Exhibition of Student Work
In this short presentation, I discuss some of the reasons why we do the work to put on public exhibitions of student work.  The power point linked above gives some of the reasoning for these exhibitions and some tips and tricks to help teachers tackle an exhibition without going totally insane.

Effective Use of Formative Feedback
How do we use our feedback on student writing to drive instruction?  In this short presentation, I discussed how teachers can use the Lindemann model of feedback to make teacher feedback on writing more likely to be used, rather than scanned and discarded.  Please see the handouts linked below for more details!

Teaching Through Comments Instructions
Example Feedback


NCSS Conference 2011
Why People Kill:  Differentiating the Social Psychology of Genocide

Below you will find links to all of the resources presented  in this conference session.  I have much more available on the genocide project.  If you are interested in more resources related to the larger genocide project, please email me at lori.teacher@gmail.com, and I would be happy to send you more!


PowerPoint Presentation
This presentation outlines the basic structure and focus of the genocide project, and gives a brief overview of the differentiation strategy used for the social psychology of genocide.

Genocide Project Objectives
This link will take you to a differentiated rubric of learning objectives for the genocide project.

Activity Handouts
These handouts provide the instructions for differentiated activities around the social psychology concepts studied, and the final assessment.

1. Social Psychology: Learning the Content and Application/Extension 
2. Social Psychology: Optional Extension Activities
3. Social Psychology Final Assessment

Social Psychology Texts Used

1. The Lucifer Effect (Phillip Zimbardo).  Page numbers used are on the activity handouts.  I suggest buying a few copies of this text, or creating a class reader with the relevant sections.
2. Situation vs. Disposition:  Lecture Notes
3. Conformity: The Asch Experiment
4. Obedience: If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would You?  Probably.
5. Bystander: 
• 38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police
• Outside of a Small Circle of Friends Lyrics
• Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life
6. Resistance to Evil: Reversing the Process of Good People Turning Evil
7. Optional Extensions: 
• Stanford Prison Experiment Website
• Cartoons of Abu Ghraib: Cartoon 1, Cartoon 2, Cartoon 3, Cartoon 4

Social Psychology Video and Audio Files Used
All videos provide links as well as the uploaded version, as the uploads are sometimes glitchy.

Conformity: The Asch Experiment

Obedience: Milgram Part 1 (link will take you to the full 45 minute)

Obedience: Milgram Part 2

Obedience: Milgram Part 3

Bystander: Outside of a Small Circle of Friends

Extension: Zimbardo on why ordinary people do evil...or do good.

Mountain Middle School Teacher Training 2010


General Resources:

1. High Tech Middle Teacher Websites: A great place to go to find projects other middle school teachers are doing.  Click on the faculty names and then on the black DP button.
2. Okay Dave: A graduate student digital portfolio with a variety of intriguing (and potentially adaptable) projects.  Show just how far PBL can go!
3. Project Library: A comprehensive project library from Buck Institute of Education.  Searchable by subject and grade level, lots of great projects and ideas.
4. UnBoxed: High Tech High journal.  Lots of project overviews and reflections by PBL teachers.  All issues are available in digital format.

Math/Science Resources:

1. Opening Up To Math:  A fantastic article by a middle school math teacher, discussing the use of open-ended problems in math.  Includes many links to helpful resources and articles. 
2. Judo Math: Another article by a middle school math teacher that outlines a new approach to teaching math.  Includes a full curriculum layout for 8th grade.
3. Patient Problem Solving: Ted Talk on patient problem solving in math, and how to develop students' mathematical problem solving abilities.
4. Science Friction
5. Graph It Design
6. Pinhole Photography
7. Geometric Murals

Humanities Resources:

1. The Lost Postcards
2. A Hero In My Eyes
3. Short Stories and Art
4. Illuminated Journals

Spanish Resources:

1. Cuentos Infantiles
2. Los Maestros Creativos
3. Bilingual Spoken Word

Digital Arts Resources:

1. Picasso and Cubism
2. Hispanic Inspired Self Portraits
3. Graphic Novel Project
4. Digital Storytelling

Integrated Project Resources:

1. Physics Superheros (physics/humanities)
2. Writing on the Walls: Grafitti (art/humanities)
3. Urban Ecology (math/science/humanities)
4. Children's Astronomy Books (math/science/humanities)
5. Ancient Sailing and Seafarers (math/science/humanities)
6. Cultural Encounters (spanish/humanities)
7. Resilience Cafe (art/humanities)