Energize Your Middle School Leadership - PART 1

 Written by DMS Principal Leona Hoth

Energize Your Middle School Leadership—March 10th and 11th
(click here for conference information and handouts)

What a great conference!  I attended sessions on data, advisory, transitions (4th to 5th grade), student engagement, and mental health (our anonymous safe school site was a hit with the entire session’s participants). I’m eager to share some tidbits from each session, but first I want to share some expressions and tips that were shared from the AMLE presenters…some are too fun!

• Middle school teachers should always wear red shoes because we are on fire! (all the AMLE presenters wore red tennis shoes).
• Cognitive Crock Pot—expression used when we want our students to think on something for an extended amount of time…put it in the crock pot.
• Raise the Praise--time for celebration!
• Show and Spark—middle school show and tell
• Volunteer/Voluntold—Voluntold was used when no one would volunteer (guess middle school adults can be like middle school kids when it comes to being first to talk).
• Speed Learning--Post a question on the board…students find someone to share their answer with.
• DARTS--Directed Activities Related to Texts:  DARTS are activities that are designed to challenge pupils to engage with texts. They ask them to read closely and to interpret the information carefully.  They can often go beyond the comprehension question, which can sometimes only ask pupils to move information, rather than to understand it.  
• Smile Box--found on a teacher’s website (might be something to add to each grade level Symbaloo page??).  Smile Box is used to celebrate something related to that grade level…doesn’t have to relate to test grades/test scores, etc.  I really like this idea!
• THIEVES: A Strategy for Previewing Textbooks

Hope there’s something here that you can use in your classroom or discuss with your team.  Holler if you’d like more info on any of the above…Stay tuned for more…Leona

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