People sometimes ask me why it is that I give away the stuff I create. Well, I do it because its all about Karma. Helping other teachers helps students become better scientists or even informed citizens. That's a great reason because these kids are inheriting the world one day and I will probably be in a nursing home or hospital and I will be relying on their knowledge... Seems a bit far fetched and corny, but its the whole think globally act locally or big idea scenario that I envision. I also think in terms of, well if I share my stuff, other teachers will want to share with me too and then I can share with all of you here. I like that idea a lot and have found that also works and I make lots of science friends that way.
I also like it when organizations and businesses share with others. I LOVE give-aways! At our Science dinners we have huge give-aways to teachers. Vendors have been very generous with our local STAT organization and have allowed us to help many teachers with educational resources for their classrooms. One of my favorite organizations that usually is really good about giving away cool stuff for teachers and administrators is Lead4ward!
Who is Lead4ward?
Lead4ward is a consulting group that helps districts in Texas conquer the STAAR exam. I love that! I also love that when I go to any of their trainings they have down to earth trainers that try to break down TEA information into every day language that any joe can understand. If you ever have a chance to go to a Lead4ward training, I highly recommend them, they are awesome! You will actually have a chance to see a Lead4ward training if you are attending miniCAST because they are giving two sessions on Sept 27th so try them out, their sessions are in the band room in the morning after the keynote.
STAAR Resources and the Snapshot
Lead4ward is especially good at graphic organizers and chunking information into easy to understand ideas. So on their website, for absolutely GRATIS there is a section called STAAR Resources. There is a plethora of resources under that link ranging from vocabulary lists to test accomodations but I am going to list some of my favorites. When you click on the STAAR Resources tab you can find free downloadable color organizers of the Texas Standards called snapshots. Snapshots let you know your standards at a glance, tell you which ones are readiness and supporting or process and also organizes the standards by objectives. They even have snapshots for non tested grades so if you teach science in 3rd grade or 6th grade and wondered what would be considered readiness or supporting, their snapshot gives you a good idea of what that would be. Snapshots are colorful and a great thing to print and have handy especially when other places, like Region 4, charge money for their black and white TEKS charts. Nothing against Region 4, but free is better than $.
Scaffolds
Lead4ward also has another free document called "Scaffolds" Scaffolds are cool because they show the vertical alignment of a standard. What is a vertical alignment? Well say your kids at your school are having problems with standard 5.5A and this has been a problem for a long time. The scaffold document allows you to track the history of that standard, in other words, 5.5A didnt just show up on the 5th grade standards, there are similar standards that build up to that standard in 4th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade all the way to kinder. If you have testing data from different grade levels you can track the data and see where the break down of the concept is occurring. Or, you can just use the vertical alignment to help tell the other teachers in the school to work especially hard on their particular piece. Sometimes there is a blame game that goes on in schools "3rd grade didn't teach this concept so that's why my kids have gap!" A vertical alignment scaffold also helps you to realize what is in your lane and if your grade level was suppose to introduce a concept. Sometimes its not another grade levels fault because the concept is just barely being introduced. I have seen many a teacher eat crow after complaining about a grade level only to find out that the concept began with them. ( I have a thing for underdogs and people who get picked on.) Anyway scaffolds are great tools to get a better understanding of your TEKS.
THE REAL REASON FOR THIS POST...
But today my friends I am overjoyed to announce that Lead4ward has released my favorite freebie from their website and that is the "RELEASE TEST"! They take the release exams from TEA and organize them into a document that lists the questions by standard instead of by number so that you can see how a standard got tested! Not only are they listing the questions from the 2014 release, they also included the 2013 questions as well, all in one document! That's right, just like Margaret Kilgo, but instead of paying 200 bucks to get a history of the testing, Lead4ward posts this stuff for free! Can you believe it? I love it. These guys are definitely earning Karma points or points toward heaven, or whatever you believe in. So go to their website and start downloading your free STAAR resources today! What are you waiting for, go on, download them :)
Lead4ward: http://lead4ward.com/resources/