Comment on a Session

I enjoy participating in the updates each year. It was great connecting with all the SIM PDers out there.  

During this conference, the Mashburn Center for Learning through UCA provided a variety of sessions and invited many local stakeholders who had implemented SIM in their schools or districts to share their experiences. We provided virtual as well as face to face sessions and invited district leaders to come and learn more about SIM. Jocelyn helped co-facilitate the conference. 

Informative keynote by Dr. Don Deshler and Jocelyn Washburn: "Evidence-Based Practices" to "Practice-Based Evidence"-An Important Change-in-Focus. 
It is interesting to see how SIM includes many of he High Level Practices.  It is important to see the emphasis turn to the practitioners.  Just as fidelity of implementation has always been the key to student success implementing SIM, the fidelity of teachers using the High-Leverage Practices is essential for change and student growth.

"Evidence-Based Practices" to "Practice-Based Evidence" - An Important Change in Focus 
Dr. Don Deshler & Jocelyn Washburn
This was a refreshing look at how we can use practice to inform future theory instead of only looking at theory to practice. This gives teachers a seat at the research table to help inform the future and bridge the gap that sometimes appears between theory and practice. 

This session was extremely valuable to the entire group because Xtreme Reading is a fairly new initiative for Arkansas folks. 

Great session from Jim Knight on creating an instructional playbook.  As a school district, we need to create an instructional playbook that lists a table of contents, one page descriptions for all of the strategies listed in the table of contents, and then to create a checklist to ensure that those "plays" are being implemented with fidelity. 

Our group took HLP#7 and did a Decomposition Diagram to make connections to SIM. We had great discussions of what is always present, sometimes present and never present.  We had lots of connections to the social skills that SIM offers.  

SIM Content Enhancement Routines are wonderful support for the top part of Scarborough's Rope (RISE Arkansas).
I enjoyed the conversations with other educators about the connections of all of our learning.

This has been an excellent conference.  I want to comment on a couple of sessions held during this conference:

Kaleidoscope SIM Overview
I learned about Xtreme Reading from this activity and how it fits into the SIM umbrella.  I also was able to enjoy a brief survey of what others in the state are involved in.  It is always great to learn from others.
Creating an Instructional Playbook
I am excited to buy Jim Knight's book and use the information contained therein to clean up my planning act as a coach and as a professional developer.  I do believe this will be a great asses in my planning process and in sharing information with other educators.

I appreciate the information on Coaching Ideas, specifically the two day coaching piece. Day One is Planning with the teacher and setting goals around the teacher's wishes; and Day Two in the classroom with the teacher either observing or modeling--all with a debrief session. This work also correlates with Jim Knight's work on The Impact Cycle.