Teaching & Learning

"Where do I even begin? I am so grateful for this opportunity. Not only did I have the chance to better myself as an educator and jump on the PLC train to success, but I got to know so many of you! Although I am newer to the district and not knowing many of you, I felt so welcome. I can say I am leaving Tucson with so much information to share with my colleagues, but I am also leaving with new resources and friendships in all of you. Have an Amazing summer and GO Cruisers!"

The MagicSchool AI conference teachers had a remarkable two-day professional development to explore how artificial intelligence makes their work more efficient and significantly moves students learning. Read below what teachers are saying about their work together at the conference.

• You can keep going beyond the basic answers and tools to find unique, in-depth activities.
• The variety of tools and ways to use it.
• Magic School is awesome and its capabilities seem endless. I have learned so much and am very excited to use Magic School in the coming school year! Thank you for this excellent learning opportunity to enhance the learning for our students!
• There are so many things you can do with MagicSchool. I love all the choices and ways that the program makes a teachers need easy to meet in such a quick way : )
• The days were unlike what we normally see in PD.  Things we can actually use right away!

GAME CHANGING!   Best PD that has been presented in 4 years ~ this was actually something EXTREMELY useful and I can take it right into my classroom and start using it in August!  It is so nice getting PD that is useful.  Thank you for all of this!

• I am fairly proficient at Magic School but was still able to walk away with new ideas in using Magic School. The format of this PD was extremely useful as we were introduced to a feature and then given time to play around and then share out what we created.  It was a great way to see how Magic School can be used for all different grade levels and subjects!
• I am grateful for the schedule, learn - do - break, learn -do - break.  I am also grateful for the positive energy, the fun prizes (just to make it light hearted and fun) the snacks, the atmosphere was perfect, made me wanna come back on day 2!!
• The AI conference was teacher- centered.  Platforms were demonstrated then there were opportunities for personal application.   So often workshops and conferences are geared towards "core" subjects so it was very applicable to my own content!  This was a much appreciated surprise!
• Great information about Magic School and how to use this great resource. This conference was very we do, you do. I could have used more instruction and less you do time.
• I enjoyed this professional development because MagicSchool was modeled and I had many opportunities for guided practice. I wish that this PD took place prior to the MagicSchool gifted training. I liked the flow of the schedule (i.e. "mini" sessions w/ frequent practice and built-in breaks). Most of all, I loved the passion and energy of the presenters. Their excitement is contagious :)

Magic school is an awesome tool that can make your life so much simpler while allowing your lessons to be more engaging.

• Magic school has a TON of things to use esp from the student side that i never would have figured out on my own
• Spend 15 minutes to play around! It will save you hours.
• The hands on experience and learning together was so helpful and fun! I was able to collaborate with colleagues in my building and already start creating tools for students to use when we start school in August.......also thankful for sour cream this year! :)
• The days went by SO fast! By organizing the PD into easy-to-digest chunks, the days flew by and felt highly engaging. We learned something, took a break to play around with it, shared our thoughts and ideas, took restroom/snack breaks, and then focused for a few more minutes on the next fun tool. I would do this over and over again!
• Student tools are very useful and not a way for students to cheat on assignments. The teacher can limit and control everything and as much as we tried to break it, MagicSchool didn't break or fall for student shenanigans.
• I enjoy these optional summer PD days. I feel like MagicSchoolAI is pretty intuitive. I learned quite a bit about utilizing this resource. I felt the student tools (something I had never looked at prior) was extremely informative. I feel especially the Character Chatbot was interesting.

This was valuable training and practice with Magic School AI. It was eye opening and thought provoking hearing the many ways staff was interacting and creating resources with Magic School AI. Magic School AI is a game changer for planning and curricular decision-making.

• These two days were extremely helpful and informative when it comes to using MagicSchoolAI. The short segments were engaging and helpful and the presenters did a great job of showing how the tools work while keeping it interesting. I have been really excited about using MagicSchoolAI, but was a little overwhelmed about all the different tools. After this conference, I feel so much more confident about using MagicSchoolAI because it really helped me to focus in on the tools I would use the most.
• These 2 day ateliers are a gigantic help for teachers in the classrooms: it provides more resources, more space, more strategies, and the best part being cutting the time spent on any lesson.in half.
• Very informative and excellent hands on approach to the learning
• That magic school AI is useful, but you need to review it for accuracy
• These 2 days were well worth the time not only for the information that was gained that can be used in the classroom but the learning environment was laid back and enjoyable.  Being able to get credit and a stipend made me feel my time was appreciated.

If you're afraid of using AI (like me) because you think it takes away creativity or makes teaching robotic or is unethical, then this training would likely change your mind. It did change my mind. I will likely use magic school daily or at least weekly for lesson planning and it has so many uses.

• The resources and amount of time saved. Plus fresh, up to date ideas.
• This class was very beneficial as a teacher. It will allow me to take ideas and create a lesson and/or project. I truly believe it will save time when creating engaging activities.
• This was very informative.  I never thought I would be a fan of AI but I was wrong. This will be helpful in many ways.   Added plus, great food!
• There are two main points I want to highlight here. The teacher tools save so, so much, time; even if you are just searching for resources, not you can save that time by briefly describing what you want, and you get it.  I am talking about the accumulation of hours and upon hours by the time you get to the end of the school year.  My second point, is the the student tools give the students so many engaging and interesting tools that is really does help teachers stretch themselves a little or a lot less.

All the options and things you can do to make their life as a teacher easier!  

There seemed to be a confident and extremely purposeful feeling during state testing this year. We saw students taking advantage of their entire testing time to make sure they could completely show off what they learned from their teachers.That sort of commitment to performance isn't random; their teachers and building administrators motivated that serious work from the students. 

On this year's math, science, and social studies Ohio State Tests, students outperformed last year's district testers on 12 of 13 tests with three double-digit percentage-point gains. That's tremendous. Teachers are working together with teachers from the same grade level at other buildings to ensure consistent, common curricula and grade-level rigor that really challenges students. Groveport Madison teachers are getting the job done. The building principals and the Groveport community must be proud of our teachers.

English Language Arts Ohio State Test results are expected to be released soon.

Our current state report card is the best Groveport Madison performance in the twenty-one year history of the Ohio State Report Cards. In the following video Mike and Carole Morbitzer walk you through the report card results while helping you navigate it for yourself:  

https://youtu.be/7Rpfl96-5YA

We're visiting every classroom in the district. Recently we've begun working with principals and assistant principals on a strategy to get them into classrooms more often so they can be more aware of great things that are happening and how to work with all teachers to help students learn. The 5X5 strategy has the principal going into at least five classrooms for five minutes each at least two days a week to identify what glows and where we can grow. Assistant principals go into five classrooms for five minutes each at least once a week. In all, the building principal teams should visit fifteen classes a week. The principal will share the glows and grows with the building teachers without using teacher names. 

To begin the process, we will do the first round of 5X5s with the principal teams. Then we will continue the classroom visits. We have used the 5X5s to visit over one-hundred classrooms.. 

Field trips have not been eliminated. As we continually focus on learning, we're constantly trying to maximize our students' time with their teachers. Most of the time we need to ensure that we keep students and their teachers engaged in the classroom. Ensuring classroom learning with our teachers is vital to student success. Occasionally, though, there are worthwhile off-campus experiences that are aligned with classroom learning and can extend students' understanding of their teachers' instruction. 

So how do we review possible field trips before approving them? We consider the following when reviewing field trip requests:

1. Are the field trip activities aligned with Ohio Learning Standards?
2. Will the field trip improve student learning and achievement?
3. Are the field trip activities and learning opportunities consistent among all district building with the same grade-levels?
4. Will the field trip interrupt state testing or occur during the preparation for state tests?
5. When a teacher is on a field trip with students, is there a significant negative impact on other students and classes that usually depend on the teacher each day?

Expanding EL service to help high school students graduate. We recently needed to take a fresh, practical look at how we distribute our EL staff. In particular, we needed to address urgent credit deficiencies and state competency requirements among EL students at the high school. Without reworking our EL staffing to bolster our high school service, high school EL students would have overwhelming challenges to earning a high school diploma. We could not ignore how difficult it is to learn high school subject content when language is such a tremendous barrier to overcome. Without addressing the issue, the reality is that most GMHS EL students would be at-risk of not graduating high school. Our current EL structure at the high school has EL teachers both going into classes to support students and teaching classes devoted to English Learners.

We're moving gifted services back to neighborhood schools. For several years K-8 gifted services have been delivered at Sedalia Elementary and Middle School North only. Students in other Groveport elementaries and middle schools whose families wanted gifted services for their gifted-identified children were transported by bus from their neighborhoods to the Sedalia or North buildings. 

This year we are providing gifted service training to all district teachers so students can remain at their neighborhood schools to receive gifted services. Students who want to remain at Sedalia and North can continue there this year.