Dyslexia Quick Facts

This is a great page with "fact sheets" for many topics dealing with dyslexia.

                 IDA Fact Sheets

      Alabama's Dyslexia Resource Guide

Protected Instructional Time

The staff at Parish Elementary make certain that their young readers get focused and uninterrupted time to learn every day!

Data Walls

                            Why Use Data Walls?    

           They are a visual display of progress.
         They are a powerful way to show change over time.
          They are a non- threatening form of accountability.
          They are an interactive way to track data.

New eLearning Courses

These eLearning courses are a great way to get your CEUs without traveling or searching for a substitute. Sign up with a co-worker or two to increase the learning and to add some fun! Click on the link below to view the brochure.The brochure can also be found on ALEX.

                                     CCRS eLearning Courses

Seeing rows of school supplies at the local store, my favorite store crowded with kids trying on shoes and pictures of " First Day of (insert grade level) "on Facebook are just a few tell-tale signs that a new school year has arrived. This is an exciting time of year for everyone. We see our co-workers for the first time since May and catch up on all the summer happenings. We meet new co-workers and maybe take a freshly minted teacher under our wing and show them the ropes, you know things like how to fix the copier that always jams, where the caffeine is kept and the ins and outs of lunch and bus duty.  As educators we have chosen to celebrate the first days of school for many more years than most. Enjoy this time. It is a gift that only those of us in education get to enjoy.
     Your ARI Regional Support Team is excited too! We get to see the coaches and teachers that inspire us, amaze us and encourage us with their hard work, ingenuity and willingness to dig in and make change possible. We look forward to working with you again this year and we welcome all of our new colleagues too. Remember, help is always just a call, text or email away. Have a great year!
ARI Region 1 Support Staff
Susan Thornton, Robin Tingle, Tonya Moore and Jina Smith

Region 1 Coaches get a "Hi" from Diane Sweeney

Learning with Diane Sweeney

ARI Regional Staff spent two days with Diane Sweeney, the author of Student Centered Coaching. We are so blessed to round out our year learning together!

Learning with Insight

Teachers at Red Bay Elementary and High School spent two days exploring the Alabama Insight Tool. Through exploration, collaboration and support from Region 1 ARI staff, these innovated educators took existing lessons and units and updated them using ideas from Insight. If you have not explored this great resource, take a few minutes and see what it has to offer. It is easy to navigate and is a terrific source of rigorous and standards based classroom lessons.

                      Alabama Insight Tool

Student Engagement

Picture middle school students leaning forward in their seats, discussing the learning of the day, and committed to achieving the daily outcome.  Imagine an early childhood classroom with young learners answering questions, talking with their fellow classmates, and the productive hum of learning. What can bring this to life in your classroom? Planning and practicing strategies that promote student engagement. Below is a link to a fantastic article that focuses on many aspects of student engagement. It is a great read with some new information on how to think about, plan for, and facilitate best practices for student engagement.

Closing the Engagement Gap

Many teachers are discovering the power of using a close-read process for helping students dig deeper into text. This is a great article investigating the use of the close-read process in elementary classrooms.

Close Reading in Elementary Schools- Fisher & Frey

Productive Struggle

As we work to increase the rigor in our classrooms, we will see students struggle and work harder than they have in the past. The most effective teachers recognize when the struggle to learn is increasing student knowledge and when the struggle has reached frustration level. The ultimate goal is to allow students to do the " hard work" while providing the just right level of support.

New Bethel Elementary School

 Colbert County 

Tonya Moore (ARI Regional  Staff) and Heather Collum(ARI Building Coach)

The faculty at New Bethel Elementary worked together to create a unit dealing with the continents that was based on CCRS standards and centered around the book Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. The students had a wonderful day and worked on grade level standards at the same time. This is a great example of collaboration!

Vocabulary Instruction

Popcorn and a Movie

Educators spend lots of time searching for the just right video to inspire their teaching. Let ARI Region 1 Support Staff do the searching for you. Sit back and watch some great videos on vocabulary instruction. Thanks again to Susan Thornton for sharing her video collection with us!

Kick Me: Making Vocabulary Interactive- Grade 7

Vocabulary Paint Chips- Grades 9-12

College Talk: Improving Students' Vocabulary-Grade 2

Literacy in Science: Word Clouds- Grades 6-12

Building Science Vocabulary- All Grades

Extending Understanding: Vocabulary Development

Text Complexity

                         
CCRS Anchor Standard 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

How can we be sure that the text and the tasks we are assigning to students will help move them toward this standard? Educators should evaluate texts using these three criteria, as well as scaffolds and extensions for meeting the needs of all learners.

CCRS Quarterly Meeting #3
UNA Regional In-service Center	February 10, 2015
Jasper/ Bevill State Campus	February 13, 2015

Popcorn and a Movie for Professional Development

Round up your favorite snack and watch these great videos on formative assessment. Thank you Susan Thornton for creating this informative and timely resource for us!

Rick Stiggins- Assessments of Learning and for Learning

Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment

Understanding Formative Assessment

I like this clip because it has students talking about formative assessment.

The Formative Classroom

Good clip from a teacher's point of view.

Fist to Five Formative Assessment

ARI Coaching Module

This is a link to view and print the Professional Learning Module for Coaching.

ARI Coaching Module

This is an excellent article with great insights from a classroom teacher and useful tips for purposeful planning.Read the entire article at:

The 8 Minutes That Matter Most

What a blessing to spend last week with these future educators. Best of luck as you start your first week of internship. 
ARI Team Region 1

 

We had a great day with these future teachers today at UNA. These soon to be teachers are very bright and motivated. What a blessing to be allowed to work with them this week!