My first In-service day

Well, after a week of observations, I have now officially become one of the teachers at Cowanesque Valley high school, and the first thing on my agenda is.......In-service training.

For those of you that might not be familiar with the In-service system, its a day where students have off school, and teachers report in. While a teacher is at school on one of these days, they can work on a variety of different subjects that need attention, and, usually a few meetings will be held, to help with certain content areas or to develop a skill. While I did not have the chance to go to the google doc workshop, I did go with the rest of the teachers to our training on collins writing, and the five types that fall under this category.

Our trainer Todd going over the types of
collin's writing.

A little background on collins writing. When using the collin's system, their are five levels of writing. With each level, there is more of a push for deeper levels of thinking. For example on level 1, students are not graded on their writing assignments, and the questions that are asked of them, are basic (For instance, what are two distinct characteristics of a cow). These questions are designed to get the student's thinking and encourage a growth mindset. Many of use would look at these Type 1 questions, and would use them as bell ringer questions. While this is a good way to start, its also important to utilize these through out a lesson, as too continually push students to connect prior knowledge with the information being presented to them.

In higher levels, like Type 3 and 4, students answers are graded and instead of just looking for content, students and teachers are also setting goals in different areas that they want improved (grammar skills, capitalization, spelling, etc.) these are to be included on all papers and questions, as to keep students on track, and to work almost like a smart goal.

Type 5 is the highest level. At this point students should be excelling in the areas that needed improved, and the papers that they are turning in should be of "publishable" caliber (they should be error free). Todd told us that while lower levels can be incorporated in almost any class, it takes a lot of devotion and time to get to a level 5, and only teachers planning on utilizing the entire process should use this method.

Honestly, this was a good in-service to start with, alot of the teachers I talked to said they enjoyed working with Todd (our presenter) and that he always tried to make the in-service training's more enjoyable and rewarding. I also got a lot out of this seminar, and if anyone who reads this has any questions or would like any of the paperwork I received, I'd be happy to send it to you. Feel free to email me at hcp5016@psu.edu for more information. Again, this was great information to get even if you're not planning on using the entire 5 level system. Even Types 1-3 have great information to bring better questioning skills to your classroom.

Now if you will excuse me, I have classes to teach!!!!!