Dan Jonker

Superintendent of Allendale Public Schools.

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

@BrentHadden Congrats Dr. Hadden!

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Encourage the building of family literacy by having parents read the same books their children are reading. Provide conversational prompts about the reading. Offer suggestions of additional literature that challenges and interests the student. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Parents are a critical part of the team in building literacy skills. We need to be intentional about honoring parents as children's first teachers and encouraging them to build their child's self-efficacy as a reader and writer. What can we co-teach to build skills? #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

One thing I would like to work on over the summer is to develop a series of reflective questions to help teachers demystify the literacy instructional process into key chunks for easier implementation of the Literacy Essentials. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

A great way for teachers to stay connected and learn over the summer is through Twitter book studies. Pick a book, schedule the chat leader for each week, and spend a half-hour or more in chatting about questions, understandings and reflections. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Administrators and teachers can know and be able to apply the Literacy Essentials by planning their PLC time to focus on one essential per month. Viewing, discussing, implementing, and reflecting from week to week on improved practice! #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

When I do classroom walk-throughs, I am looking at what the students are doing. Is the work meaningful and challenging to them? Do they understand what to do and how to accomplish the work? Is the teacher using differentiated mini-lessons to build knowledge and skill? #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

The leader can encourage shared leadership by honoring the ideas of colleagues and giving them the time and resources to carry out well-thought out improvements in the instructional process. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Effective leadership characteristics I have experienced are when the leader takes the time to have in-depth conversations about teaching and learning, provides the resources to do the work, and makes the effort to simplify and focus the work. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

At this time of year, you can engage and motivate your students in literacy by celebrating their learning growth, offering more opportunities for choice in reading, and enabling them to share their reading and writing portfolio in multiple media to multiple audiences. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

A principal can emphasize the importance of literacy with the staff by maintaining a laser focus on literacy in school improvement goals and professional development offerings; and insuring that all staff and the building schedule are supporting literacy learning. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Q5
It is important to use this "Spring Break" to push the reset button--re-balancing your life. The work will always be there, so take this break to recharge your battery. Take care of yourself by exercising more, eating healthy, and focusing on what makes you happy. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Q3
One of the best ways to monitor a school goal is through Time Activity Logs. Spending 20-30 minutes in individual classrooms logging the activities of students and staff give a clear picture of implementation of specific school goals. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Q2
One of my "aha" moments this year has been how critical it is to hire the right people, onboard those people, and continuously support those people to be the best professionals they can be in support of our children. We should never take our staff for granted. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Q1
Planning with the end in mind involves having a clear understanding of what the adult behaviors would look like and what the student actions and performance should look like if you have achieved your goal. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

If a teacher has just learned about the Literacy Essentials, I would encourage that person to schedule time to go through the modules to understand the research and see examples of best practices in action. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

Our current focus to improve literacy is to maintain fidelity in guided reading instruction and insure that we have flexible groupings for targeted mini-lessons to address individual students' literacy needs. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

We are using curriculum-based assessments and AIMSweb assessments to monitor weekly progress of our students. We then meet on Friday afternoons with an early release to review data and determine next steps for reteaching as needed. #HILchat

[Hilary Meulenberg @HMeulenberg]

A1 You know what is most important the minute you walk in the classroom. A literacy rich classroom radiates ownership of the students. Rich with student print, evidence of learning with anchor charts, graffiti walls with quotes, & abundant books. #HILchat

[Dan Jonker @dljonker]

In order to foster a literacy rich environment, we need a plethora of books and other print materials in a variety of genres and interest areas culturally relevant to our student population. We need to insure that these resources are easily accessible for our children. #HILchat