December, 2009

1. The Arizona Department of Education has requested I develop a course for principals for this coming February. It is a work in progress, but I believe it will be very helpful for educators, especially those who have been through prior LtoJ seminars. It is entitled, "Building the School of Your Dreams." Here is the blurb:

Dr. Lee Jenkins: Creating the School of Your Dreams

February 4th-5th, July 22nd-23rd, 2010

This seminar is designed to offer practical solutions for the pressures and responsibilities of principals.

For Registration click here

2. In the LtoJ 2-day seminars participants are asked to estimate how many hours a week they spend scoring student work and then on a 1-10 scale state how much they believe students learn from this time. Recently I have been having a participant calculate Pearson Correlation Coefficient (in Excel) from this data. Not surprisingly, the correlation is between -.1 and .2 showing that teachers consistently do not believe the time is well spent. Someday I would love to have an audience of teachers who conduct item analysis on a regular basis and calculate the correlation between time spent on item analysis and how much teachers believe students learn. (A correlation of .3 shows a little correlation, .7 is high and .9 is very high).
3. Tamara Ruhnke wrote me stating,
I teach in a fifth grade classroom in Fairbury, Nebraska. A co-worker, Cyndi Shinn, recently shared with me a website that she has been using to practice L to J Words. I went to the site and typed in my L to J words -- dividing them into their different categories. My students have access to this website both at home and at school. In one week their overall fifth grade percentage correct went from 35% to 47% and they received their "All Time High." We were so excited!!!! Here is a link to my part of the website. http://quizlet.com/user/truhnke/

4. I have re-worked the blank graphs provided in my seminars. They are attached. They are designed for 5,6,8,10,12, 16, 20 or 24 questions and all are for 28 school weeks.

5. Attached is a powerpoint presentation of quotes from A Conspiracy of Fools. It is the Enron story. Readers will find a lot of interesting tidbits as education is forever challenged to be more "businesslike."

6. To all reading this have a wonderful Christmas and may 2010 be the best year ever.
7. All prior newsletters and attachments are posted on the LtoJ Consulting web site, http://www.ltojconsulting.com/. If you change e-mail addresses, please go the web site and sign up as if a new recipient of the newsletter. Please include name, e-mail address and state, if USA, and country if outside of the US.

Lee Jenkins, Lee@LtoJConsulting.com

By Kate Burke
STAFF WRITER
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:19 AM CST

UTICA -- A lot of good things start with L: love, light, life.

In the classroom, starting with "L" is all right, but "J" is the place to end up.

At Centennial High School, English teachers Amy Hottovy and Stephanie Vorderstrasse are taking their classes "from L to J."

The L to J process is a learning method developed by Dr. Lee Jenkins, a longtime educator currently in Arizona. L to J contends that in a classroom where learning standards are high, testing early in the school year should result in an "L" shape when student knowledge is charted. On the graph, the Y axis is the number of students; the X axis is how much they know.

Above is the beginning of a newspaper article from York, NE that is very well written. For the complete article, click here