http://edge.ascd.org/service/getFeed.kickAction?quantity=25 New blogs from Robert_Ryshke on ASCD EDge Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:34:45 GMT Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:34:45 GMT website@ascd.org (ascdAdmin) website@ascd.org (ascdAdmin) KickApps Feed Builder 2012-03-26T11:34:45Z 5 http://edge.ascd.org/service/searchEverything.kickAction?as=127586&sortType=recent&tags=null 0 http://edge.ascd.org/_Day-2-Sunday-at-ASCD/blog/5902169/127586.html Well, I thought I would start my morning out thinking about whether I could do a strand throughout the day on project-based learning.  Through my work at the Center for Teaching, we are bringing the Buck Institute to Drew Charter School from May 30-June 1 to participate in their 3-day training session on PBL.  Drew, a K-8 charter school, is going to make a commitment to implementation of project-based learning.  As their new high school, Drew Senior Academy, will be founded under a PBL model, we want to be sure students have a good grounding in the process during their middle school years.   My first session began with Andrew Miller (Edutopia blog and Miller on Twitter), an educational consultant based out of Seattle, WA.  Andrew works with the Buck Institute and Edutopia, writing, blogging, and leading workshops on PBL.  His session, Project-Based Learning Online: Aligning the Essential Outcomes, was well delivered and very informative.  Andrew took us through the PBL framework (The Cycle of Inquiry in PBL).  He focused a fair amount of attention on how he implements PBL online.  In the context of his presentation, he pointed out that a great deal of online learning is really just another way of delivering content in a tedious way, but just with technology.  His feeling is that if online learning is going to transform how we teach, he needs to be more rigorous in offering the learner a new way to interact with ideas.  He clearly believes that PBL can deliver an online learning experience that is more interesting and able to engage the learner.  Andrew connected well with his audience and left us with many PBL resouces and ideas for consideration.   I then made my way through the long and never-ending corridor to the general session withl Dr. Atul Gawande who would speak to us about how to move our work from being good to great.  Dr. Atul is a surgeon, writer, educator, and coach to many.  He has recently written a NY Times Bestseller, The Checklist Manifesto, an exploration for how to innovate practices in medicine and hospital to improve surgical procedures and patient safety.  Dr. Gawande did an amazing job of hooking his audience into a series of stories that portrayed his vision for how professionals, like doctors and educators, could move their practice from being good to being great.  He sees many similarities between doctors and educators, our challenges and opportunities to impact the lives of people through our practice.  Through a story about a cystic fibrosis patient and his doctor, he talked about how the personal connection between doctor and patient was the way this doctor helped his patient take control of his disease.  Looking at great athletes, artists and musicians, he noticed that many of them have coaches throughout their careers, even the very best.  When you're immersed in your work, it is hard to see yourself and evaluate your performance.  A coach can help them see their mistakes and give them suggestions for how to improve next time.  Sean Foley is helping Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers of all time, redefine his golf game.  Dr. Gawande has taken on a coach to help him see how to improve his surgical techniques and practice.  His point is that all doctors and educators could benefit from having a coach, investing in someone who could help move our work from good to great.  Finally, he promoted three values that he believes people who want to improve their performance must have: humility, discipline, and the ability to work collaboratively with others.  He inspired us all and received a standing ovation.  See my Storify summary of Twitter feeds during the talk.   In my third session, I wanted to hear from Carol Ann Tomlinson on the differences between learning styles and learning profile.  With all the chatter about how educators are misusing the concept of learning styles in their work with students, I wanted to understand this more.  There seems to be no better person to tell is how it is than Carol Ann Tomlinson.  Dr. Tomlinson is an excellent presenter.  She approaches a talk in a highly organized, interesting, and thought-provoking manner.  This was no exception.  We learned that there is a difference between learning styles and learning profile.  Learning style is just 1/4 of the learning profile umbrella.  The other three components within the learning profile umbrella are gender, culture, and intelligence preference.  She demonstrated how the research was very clear that a child's learning profile is something real and worthy of understanding.  There is little debate about the impact of gender, culture, and intelligence preference on a child's way of knowing.  The research is a little more fuzzy on the impact of learning style.  Much of the criticism comes from psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists who believe that educators have misused many of the tools that are linked to the learning style movement.  Dr. Tomlnson presented a very clear and balanced view of the criticism, its flaws and merits.  She left us with a good understanding that we (educators) need to do a better job of using the learning styles tools more carefully when trying to understand our learners.  In conclusion, she showed a slide of the SHOULD DOs and SHOULDN'T DOs and explained it from a personal perspective. It worked as a technique.  See my Storify summary of her talk.   Finally, I went to a session with Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey called, The Purposeful Classroom.  They have co-authored a book with the same title that was published by ASCD.  It was a very engaging presentation on why we have to build lessons that are purposeful, that engage the learner, and that help the learner understand the goals we hope to accomplish.  They showed some interesting videos of students who were asked by their principal what they were learning today.  There were a group of students who could not articulate what they were learning or why they were learning it.  While another group of students were capable of sharing their ideas.  The authors believe that when students are engaged in purposeful activities that have meaning, and activites and assignments are clearly linked to the purpose, then educators can reliably check for understanding and determine whether their learning goals were understood.  Otherwise, we cannot be sure that students are learning or that they care about their learning.  I found their ideas to be worthy of implementation.  Probably a good book for educators to read and reflect on.   It was a very productive day at ASCD 2012.    Well, I thought I would start my morning out thinking about whether I could do a strand throughout the day on project-based learning.  Through my work at the Center for Teaching, we are bringing the Buck Institute to Drew Charter School from May 30-June 1 to participate in their 3-day training session on PBL.  Drew, a K-8 charter school, is going to make a commitment to implementation of project-based learning.  As their new high school, Drew Senior Academy, will be founded under a PBL model, we want to be sure students have a good grounding in the process during their middle school years.   My first session began with Andrew Miller (Edutopia blog and Miller on Twitter), an educational consultant based out of Seattle, WA.  Andrew works with the Buck Institute and Edutopia, writing, blogging, and leading workshops on PBL.  His session, Project-Based Learning Online: Aligning the Essential Outcomes, was well delivered and very informative.  Andrew took us through the PBL framework (The Cycle of Inquiry in PBL).  He focused a fair amount of attention on how he implements PBL online.  In the context of his presentation, he pointed out that a great deal of online learning is really just another way of delivering content in a tedious way, but just with technology.  His feeling is that if online learning is going to transform how we teach, he needs to be more rigorous in offering the learner a new way to interact with ideas.  He clearly believes that PBL can deliver an online learning experience that is more interesting and able to engage the learner.  Andrew connected well with his audience and left us with many PBL resouces and ideas for consideration.   I then made my way through the long and never-ending corridor to the general session withl Dr. Atul Gawande who would speak to us about how to move our work from being good to great.  Dr. Atul is a surgeon, writer, educator, and coach to many.  He has recently written a NY Times Bestseller, The Checklist Manifesto, an exploration for how to innovate practices in medicine and hospital to improve surgical procedures and patient safety.  Dr. Gawande did an amazing job of hooking his audience into a series of stories that portrayed his vision for how professionals, like doctors and educators, could move their practice from being good to being great.  He sees many similarities between doctors and educators, our challenges and opportunities to impact the lives of people through our practice.  Through a story about a cystic fibrosis patient and his doctor, he talked about how the personal connection between doctor and patient was the way this doctor helped his patient take control of his disease.  Looking at great athletes, artists and musicians, he noticed that many of them have coaches throughout their careers, even the very best.  When you're immersed in your work, it is hard to see yourself and evaluate your performance.  A coach can help them see their mistakes and give them suggestions for how to improve next time.  Sean Foley is helping Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers of all time, redefine his golf game.  Dr. Gawande has taken on a coach to help him see how to improve his surgical techniques and practice.  His point is that all doctors and educators could benefit from having a coach, investing in someone who could help move our work from good to great.  Finally, he promoted three values that he believes people who want to improve their performance must have: humility, discipline, and the ability to work collaboratively with others.  He inspired us all and received a standing ovation.  See my Storify summary of Twitter feeds during the talk.   In my third session, I wanted to hear from Carol Ann Tomlinson on the differences between learning styles and learning profile.  With all the chatter about how educators are misusing the concept of learning styles in their work with students, I wanted to understand this more.  There seems to be no better person to tell is how it is than Carol Ann Tomlinson.  Dr. Tomlinson is an excellent presenter.  She approaches a talk in a highly organized, interesting, and thought-provoking manner.  This was no exception.  We learned that there is a difference between learning styles and learning profile.  Learning style is just 1/4 of the learning profile umbrella.  The other three components within the learning profile umbrella are gender, culture, and intelligence preference.  She demonstrated how the research was very clear that a child's learning profile is something real and worthy of understanding.  There is little debate about the impact of gender, culture, and intelligence preference on a child's way of knowing.  The research is a little more fuzzy on the impact of learning style.  Much of the criticism comes from psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists who believe that educators have misused many of the tools that are linked to the learning style movement.  Dr. Tomlnson presented a very clear and balanced view of the criticism, its flaws and merits.  She left us with a good understanding that we (educators) need to do a better job of using the learning styles tools more carefully when trying to understand our learners.  In conclusion, she showed a slide of the SHOULD DOs and SHOULDN'T DOs and explained it from a personal perspective. It worked as a technique.  See my Storify summary of her talk.   Finally, I went to a session with Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey called, The Purposeful Classroom.  They have co-authored a book with the same title that was published by ASCD.  It was a very engaging presentation on why we have to build lessons that are purposeful, that engage the learner, and that help the learner understand the goals we hope to accomplish.  They showed some interesting videos of students who were asked by their principal what they were learning today.  There were a group of students who could not articulate what they were learning or why they were learning it.  While another group of students were capable of sharing their ideas.  The authors believe that when students are engaged in purposeful activities that have meaning, and activites and assignments are clearly linked to the purpose, then educators can reliably check for understanding and determine whether their learning goals were understood.  Otherwise, we cannot be sure that students are learning or that they care about their learning.  I found their ideas to be worthy of implementation.  Probably a good book for educators to read and reflect on.   It was a very productive day at ASCD 2012.    Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:34:45 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Day-2-Sunday-at-ASCD/blog/5902169/127586.html Robert_Ryshke 2012-03-26T11:34:45Z Blogs ASCD EDge Well, I thought I would start my morning out thinking about whether I could do a strand throughout the day on project-based learning.  Through my work at the Center for Teaching, we are bringing the Buck Institute to Drew Charter School from May 30-June 1 to participate in their 3-day training session on PBL.  Drew, a K-8 charter school, is going to make a commitment to implementation of project-based learning.  As their new high school, Drew Senior Academy, will be founded under a PBL model, we want to be sure students have a good grounding in the process during their middle school years.   My first session began with Andrew Miller (Edutopia blog and Miller on Twitter), an educational consultant based out of Seattle, WA.  Andrew works with the Buck Institute and Edutopia, writing, blogging, and leading workshops on PBL.  His session, Project-Based Learning Online: Aligning the Essential Outcomes, was well delivered and very informative.  Andrew took us through the PBL framework (The Cycle of Inquiry in PBL).  He focused a fair amount of attention on how he implements PBL online.  In the context of his presentation, he pointed out that a great deal of online learning is really just another way of delivering content in a tedious way, but just with technology.  His feeling is that if online learning is going to transform how we teach, he needs to be more rigorous in offering the learner a new way to interact with ideas.  He clearly believes that PBL can deliver an online learning experience that is more interesting and able to engage the learner.  Andrew connected well with his audience and left us with many PBL resouces and ideas for consideration.   I then made my way through the long and never-ending corridor to the general session withl Dr. Atul Gawande who would speak to us about how to move our work from being good to great.  Dr. Atul is a surgeon, writer, educator, and coach to many.  He has recently written a NY Times Bestseller, The Checklist Manifesto, an exploration for how to innovate practices in medicine and hospital to improve surgical procedures and patient safety.  Dr. Gawande did an amazing job of hooking his audience into a series of stories that portrayed his vision for how professionals, like doctors and educators, could move their practice from being good to being great.  He sees many similarities between doctors and educators, our challenges and opportunities to impact the lives of people through our practice.  Through a story about a cystic fibrosis patient and his doctor, he talked about how the personal connection between doctor and patient was the way this doctor helped his patient take control of his disease.  Looking at great athletes, artists and musicians, he noticed that many of them have coaches throughout their careers, even the very best.  When you're immersed in your work, it is hard to see yourself and evaluate your performance.  A coach can help them see their mistakes and give them suggestions for how to improve next time.  Sean Foley is helping Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers of all time, redefine his golf game.  Dr. Gawande has taken on a coach to help him see how to improve his surgical techniques and practice.  His point is that all doctors and educators could benefit from having a coach, investing in someone who could help move our work from good to great.  Finally, he promoted three values that he believes people who want to improve their performance must have: humility, discipline, and the ability to work collaboratively with others.  He inspired us all and received a standing ovation.  See my Storify summary of Twitter feeds during the talk.   In my third session, I wanted to hear from Carol Ann Tomlinson on the differences between learning styles and learning profile.  With all the chatter about how educators are misusing the concept of learning styles in their work with students, I wanted to understand this more.  There seems to be no better person to tell is how it is than Carol Ann Tomlinson.  Dr. Tomlinson is an excellent presenter.  She approaches a talk in a highly organized, interesting, and thought-provoking manner.  This was no exception.  We learned that there is a difference between learning styles and learning profile.  Learning style is just 1/4 of the learning profile umbrella.  The other three components within the learning profile umbrella are gender, culture, and intelligence preference.  She demonstrated how the research was very clear that a child's learning profile is something real and worthy of understanding.  There is little debate about the impact of gender, culture, and intelligence preference on a child's way of knowing.  The research is a little more fuzzy on the impact of learning style.  Much of the criticism comes from psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists who believe that educators have misused many of the tools that are linked to the learning style movement.  Dr. Tomlnson presented a very clear and balanced view of the criticism, its flaws and merits.  She left us with a good understanding that we (educators) need to do a better job of using the learning styles tools more carefully when trying to understand our learners.  In conclusion, she showed a slide of the SHOULD DOs and SHOULDN'T DOs and explained it from a personal perspective. It worked as a technique.  See my Storify summary of her talk.   Finally, I went to a session with Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey called, The Purposeful Classroom.  They have co-authored a book with the same title that was published by ASCD.  It was a very engaging presentation on why we have to build lessons that are purposeful, that engage the learner, and that help the learner understand the goals we hope to accomplish.  They showed some interesting videos of students who were asked by their principal what they were learning today.  There were a group of students who could not articulate what they were learning or why they were learning it.  While another group of students were capable of sharing their ideas.  The authors believe that when students are engaged in purposeful activities that have meaning, and activites and assignments are clearly linked to the purpose, then educators can reliably check for understanding and determine whether their learning goals were understood.  Otherwise, we cannot be sure that students are learning or that they care about their learning.  I found their ideas to be worthy of implementation.  Probably a good book for educators to read and reflect on.   It was a very productive day at ASCD 2012.    blogs nonadult false Day 2, Sunday at ASCD text blog blogs 911 1 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19670003&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_11504469_127586_19670003_ap_160X120.jpg false United States GA Atlanta 0 Blogs 0 5902169 19670003 ASCD EDge Member 365 http://edge.ascd.org/_Saturday-at-ASCD/blog/5900051/127586.html Day 1 at ASCD's Annual Conference was definitely productive.  While it is impossible to get a full flavor of what's happening, following Twitter feeds was definitely one way to stay connected.  Kudos to ASCD for making an excellent WiFi signal available throughout the conference.  i was able to connect to many other workshops by following the Twitter feeds.   The workshops I attended were generally of very high quality.  I started out in the first workshop slot with Allizon Zmuda who talked about Developing K-12 Longitudinal Rubrics to Measure 21st Century Skills.  She did an excellent job of sharing her work with school districts on incorporating 21st Century skills into the design of K-12 curriculum, assessment and instruction.  The majority of her time with us was sharing rubrics that schools have designed for measuring how well these skills are being taught and incorporated.  A variety of school districts are working with her to implement these strategies.   The second experience that day was trying to keep pace with Reed Timmer's energy as he took us on a wild ride through Tornado Alley.  Reed, one of the meteorologists involved in Discovery Channel's program Storm Chasers, did a fabulous job of showing us the science, technology, and engineering involved in tracking tornados.  Reed doesn't just track them, he gets inside them to collect invaluable data about a tornado's character.  It seems personal for him.  He is one a mission to understand tornados at their very core.  I also thought he did a great job of connecting his work to STEM education in schools.  He was one of those science, math nerds who loved project-oriented learning in thes disciplines.  He was an active member of his school's Science Olympiad club.  It was certainly captivating to get inside these tornados and hear their roar.    The next workshop experience I had was Upgrading Your Professional Development: Using Digital 2.0 Tools to Enhance your Training.  The workshop was delivered by Ann Johnson from Curriculum Designers.  While this session referenced a number of tools that were not familiar to me, Mentimeter and Bubbl, I was not as impressed with the outcomes from this workshop.  it was very rushed.  We didn't delve into any depth using any one tool, nor did we discuss the implications of using these tools with students or how to actually integrate them into the classroom (classroom examples).   The 3:00 pm workshop session was with Agnes Matheson (Twitter) from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA.  Agnes worked with the group on how to maximize learning time in the classroom using brain-based strategies and knowledge of primacy-recency.  She is a Spanish teacher at The Westminster Schools who works closely with faculty on implicating teaching strategies into their language classrooms, especially the use of a language lab as a learning tool.  Using the primacy-recency model, Agnes conducted action research with her classrooms, as part of her involvement in the Faculty Cohort Program through the Center for Teaching.  Her research resulted in reconfiguration of how she structured the use of classroom time.  She finds that she makes much better use of time.  In addition, she shared many of the strategies she uses during "down time" to engage the learner.    In the 5:00 pm slot, I attended a workshop by James Stronge and Leslie Grant on the similarities and differences between "high-quality teachers" in China and the United States.  There workshop was entitled, What Makes Great Teachers Great: Lessons from National Award Winning Teachers.  While there were many parts of their presentation that I found interesting, I found they were stretching their conclusions which were based on a small set of data.  There were only about 12 teachers from China and 12 from the United States in their pool.  I did find some of the comparisons they made between the culture of education in China and United States fascinating.  They are writing a book on the research they are doing so maybe they will be able to fill out their data set by then. All-in-all a good day at ASCD 2012.   Day 1 at ASCD's Annual Conference was definitely productive.  While it is impossible to get a full flavor of what's happening, following Twitter feeds was definitely one way to stay connected.  Kudos to ASCD for making an excellent WiFi signal available throughout the conference.  i was able to connect to many other workshops by following the Twitter feeds.   The workshops I attended were generally of very high quality.  I started out in the first workshop slot with Allizon Zmuda who talked about Developing K-12 Longitudinal Rubrics to Measure 21st Century Skills.  She did an excellent job of sharing her work with school districts on incorporating 21st Century skills into the design of K-12 curriculum, assessment and instruction.  The majority of her time with us was sharing rubrics that schools have designed for measuring how well these skills are being taught and incorporated.  A variety of school districts are working with her to implement these strategies.   The second experience that day was trying to keep pace with Reed Timmer's energy as he took us on a wild ride through Tornado Alley.  Reed, one of the meteorologists involved in Discovery Channel's program Storm Chasers, did a fabulous job of showing us the science, technology, and engineering involved in tracking tornados.  Reed doesn't just track them, he gets inside them to collect invaluable data about a tornado's character.  It seems personal for him.  He is one a mission to understand tornados at their very core.  I also thought he did a great job of connecting his work to STEM education in schools.  He was one of those science, math nerds who loved project-oriented learning in thes disciplines.  He was an active member of his school's Science Olympiad club.  It was certainly captivating to get inside these tornados and hear their roar.    The next workshop experience I had was Upgrading Your Professional Development: Using Digital 2.0 Tools to Enhance your Training.  The workshop was delivered by Ann Johnson from Curriculum Designers.  While this session referenced a number of tools that were not familiar to me, Mentimeter and Bubbl, I was not as impressed with the outcomes from this workshop.  it was very rushed.  We didn't delve into any depth using any one tool, nor did we discuss the implications of using these tools with students or how to actually integrate them into the classroom (classroom examples).   The 3:00 pm workshop session was with Agnes Matheson (Twitter) from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA.  Agnes worked with the group on how to maximize learning time in the classroom using brain-based strategies and knowledge of primacy-recency.  She is a Spanish teacher at The Westminster Schools who works closely with faculty on implicating teaching strategies into their language classrooms, especially the use of a language lab as a learning tool.  Using the primacy-recency model, Agnes conducted action research with her classrooms, as part of her involvement in the Faculty Cohort Program through the Center for Teaching.  Her research resulted in reconfiguration of how she structured the use of classroom time.  She finds that she makes much better use of time.  In addition, she shared many of the strategies she uses during "down time" to engage the learner.    In the 5:00 pm slot, I attended a workshop by James Stronge and Leslie Grant on the similarities and differences between "high-quality teachers" in China and the United States.  There workshop was entitled, What Makes Great Teachers Great: Lessons from National Award Winning Teachers.  While there were many parts of their presentation that I found interesting, I found they were stretching their conclusions which were based on a small set of data.  There were only about 12 teachers from China and 12 from the United States in their pool.  I did find some of the comparisons they made between the culture of education in China and United States fascinating.  They are writing a book on the research they are doing so maybe they will be able to fill out their data set by then. All-in-all a good day at ASCD 2012.   Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:39:28 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Saturday-at-ASCD/blog/5900051/127586.html Robert_Ryshke 2012-03-26T01:39:28Z Blogs ASCD EDge Day 1 at ASCD's Annual Conference was definitely productive.  While it is impossible to get a full flavor of what's happening, following Twitter feeds was definitely one way to stay connected.  Kudos to ASCD for making an excellent WiFi signal available throughout the conference.  i was able to connect to many other workshops by following the Twitter feeds.   The workshops I attended were generally of very high quality.  I started out in the first workshop slot with Allizon Zmuda who talked about Developing K-12 Longitudinal Rubrics to Measure 21st Century Skills.  She did an excellent job of sharing her work with school districts on incorporating 21st Century skills into the design of K-12 curriculum, assessment and instruction.  The majority of her time with us was sharing rubrics that schools have designed for measuring how well these skills are being taught and incorporated.  A variety of school districts are working with her to implement these strategies.   The second experience that day was trying to keep pace with Reed Timmer's energy as he took us on a wild ride through Tornado Alley.  Reed, one of the meteorologists involved in Discovery Channel's program Storm Chasers, did a fabulous job of showing us the science, technology, and engineering involved in tracking tornados.  Reed doesn't just track them, he gets inside them to collect invaluable data about a tornado's character.  It seems personal for him.  He is one a mission to understand tornados at their very core.  I also thought he did a great job of connecting his work to STEM education in schools.  He was one of those science, math nerds who loved project-oriented learning in thes disciplines.  He was an active member of his school's Science Olympiad club.  It was certainly captivating to get inside these tornados and hear their roar.    The next workshop experience I had was Upgrading Your Professional Development: Using Digital 2.0 Tools to Enhance your Training.  The workshop was delivered by Ann Johnson from Curriculum Designers.  While this session referenced a number of tools that were not familiar to me, Mentimeter and Bubbl, I was not as impressed with the outcomes from this workshop.  it was very rushed.  We didn't delve into any depth using any one tool, nor did we discuss the implications of using these tools with students or how to actually integrate them into the classroom (classroom examples).   The 3:00 pm workshop session was with Agnes Matheson (Twitter) from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA.  Agnes worked with the group on how to maximize learning time in the classroom using brain-based strategies and knowledge of primacy-recency.  She is a Spanish teacher at The Westminster Schools who works closely with faculty on implicating teaching strategies into their language classrooms, especially the use of a language lab as a learning tool.  Using the primacy-recency model, Agnes conducted action research with her classrooms, as part of her involvement in the Faculty Cohort Program through the Center for Teaching.  Her research resulted in reconfiguration of how she structured the use of classroom time.  She finds that she makes much better use of time.  In addition, she shared many of the strategies she uses during "down time" to engage the learner.    In the 5:00 pm slot, I attended a workshop by James Stronge and Leslie Grant on the similarities and differences between "high-quality teachers" in China and the United States.  There workshop was entitled, What Makes Great Teachers Great: Lessons from National Award Winning Teachers.  While there were many parts of their presentation that I found interesting, I found they were stretching their conclusions which were based on a small set of data.  There were only about 12 teachers from China and 12 from the United States in their pool.  I did find some of the comparisons they made between the culture of education in China and United States fascinating.  They are writing a book on the research they are doing so maybe they will be able to fill out their data set by then. All-in-all a good day at ASCD 2012.   2012, ascd, blogs nonadult false Saturday at ASCD text blog 2012,ascd,blogs 510 1 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19670003&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_11504469_127586_19670003_ap_160X120.jpg false United States GA Atlanta 0 Blogs 0 5900051 19670003 ASCD EDge Member 365 http://edge.ascd.org/_Evaluating-Professional-Development/blog/5892757/127586.html Just attended the 1-day pre-conference with Thomas Guskey, Evaluating Professional Development.  He was working through the strategies that educators and administrators need to use to effectively evaluate professional development.  He went through each of the 10 components of professional development (see the list below).  For each one, he told stories about the "best" and the "worst."  What does the research show?  From his presentation, he had us reflect on what makes for effective professional development?  program topic  program planning  program participants  program leadership  group size  program training  length of training  types of activities  extent and complexity of change  follow-up & improvements He also went through his five levels for evaluating whether professional development is effective.  The five levels are: Level 1: What are participants reactions to the experience? Level 2: What is it that participants learned from the experience? Level 3: What is the capacity for the organization (school) to support & change as a response to the professional development their faculty experience? Level 4: What is the capacity of the faculty to use the new knowledge & skills they gained from the professional development? Level 5: What are the student learning outcomes we would expect to see as a result of the learning and implementation that faculty experience from the professional development?   His research would indicate that most professional development is evaluated and tracked fairly well in Levels 1 and 2 and less well in Levels 3-5, especially Levels 4 and 5. He pointed out that most professional development is ineffective not because teachers reactions are negative or they didn't learn much from the professional development experience, but because their schools (structure and administration) are not set up to support faculty implementation of what they learned from their experiences.  Schools are institutions that do not respond well or quickly to change or innovation.  It is a very slow process in more schools or school districts.  As a result, faculty become disillusioned with regard to how slow their schools respond and support their efforts to implement change in the classroom.  Guskey shared an example that comes from his work on effective grading practices.  Many participants who come to hear him speak on why schools need to change how they grade student performance leave informed and energized by what the research tells us about how ineffective our grading practices in schools are.  Any yet, when they return to their schools, their administration is generally unwilling to consider what the research says and look at changes in practice. I thought Guskey did a good job today of laying out a framework for how organizations like the Center for Teaching can more effectively evaluate whether the professiona development we offer is meaningful for teachers, will help them change their practice, and will have an impact on improving the learning environment for students.     Just attended the 1-day pre-conference with Thomas Guskey, Evaluating Professional Development.  He was working through the strategies that educators and administrators need to use to effectively evaluate professional development.  He went through each of the 10 components of professional development (see the list below).  For each one, he told stories about the "best" and the "worst."  What does the research show?  From his presentation, he had us reflect on what makes for effective professional development?  program topic  program planning  program participants  program leadership  group size  program training  length of training  types of activities  extent and complexity of change  follow-up & improvements He also went through his five levels for evaluating whether professional development is effective.  The five levels are: Level 1: What are participants reactions to the experience? Level 2: What is it that participants learned from the experience? Level 3: What is the capacity for the organization (school) to support & change as a response to the professional development their faculty experience? Level 4: What is the capacity of the faculty to use the new knowledge & skills they gained from the professional development? Level 5: What are the student learning outcomes we would expect to see as a result of the learning and implementation that faculty experience from the professional development?   His research would indicate that most professional development is evaluated and tracked fairly well in Levels 1 and 2 and less well in Levels 3-5, especially Levels 4 and 5. He pointed out that most professional development is ineffective not because teachers reactions are negative or they didn't learn much from the professional development experience, but because their schools (structure and administration) are not set up to support faculty implementation of what they learned from their experiences.  Schools are institutions that do not respond well or quickly to change or innovation.  It is a very slow process in more schools or school districts.  As a result, faculty become disillusioned with regard to how slow their schools respond and support their efforts to implement change in the classroom.  Guskey shared an example that comes from his work on effective grading practices.  Many participants who come to hear him speak on why schools need to change how they grade student performance leave informed and energized by what the research tells us about how ineffective our grading practices in schools are.  Any yet, when they return to their schools, their administration is generally unwilling to consider what the research says and look at changes in practice. I thought Guskey did a good job today of laying out a framework for how organizations like the Center for Teaching can more effectively evaluate whether the professiona development we offer is meaningful for teachers, will help them change their practice, and will have an impact on improving the learning environment for students.     Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:10:58 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Evaluating-Professional-Development/blog/5892757/127586.html Robert_Ryshke 2012-03-23T20:10:58Z ASCD EDge Just attended the 1-day pre-conference with Thomas Guskey, Evaluating Professional Development.  He was working through the strategies that educators and administrators need to use to effectively evaluate professional development.  He went through each of the 10 components of professional development (see the list below).  For each one, he told stories about the "best" and the "worst."  What does the research show?  From his presentation, he had us reflect on what makes for effective professional development?  program topic  program planning  program participants  program leadership  group size  program training  length of training  types of activities  extent and complexity of change  follow-up & improvements He also went through his five levels for evaluating whether professional development is effective.  The five levels are: Level 1: What are participants reactions to the experience? Level 2: What is it that participants learned from the experience? Level 3: What is the capacity for the organization (school) to support & change as a response to the professional development their faculty experience? Level 4: What is the capacity of the faculty to use the new knowledge & skills they gained from the professional development? Level 5: What are the student learning outcomes we would expect to see as a result of the learning and implementation that faculty experience from the professional development?   His research would indicate that most professional development is evaluated and tracked fairly well in Levels 1 and 2 and less well in Levels 3-5, especially Levels 4 and 5. He pointed out that most professional development is ineffective not because teachers reactions are negative or they didn't learn much from the professional development experience, but because their schools (structure and administration) are not set up to support faculty implementation of what they learned from their experiences.  Schools are institutions that do not respond well or quickly to change or innovation.  It is a very slow process in more schools or school districts.  As a result, faculty become disillusioned with regard to how slow their schools respond and support their efforts to implement change in the classroom.  Guskey shared an example that comes from his work on effective grading practices.  Many participants who come to hear him speak on why schools need to change how they grade student performance leave informed and energized by what the research tells us about how ineffective our grading practices in schools are.  Any yet, when they return to their schools, their administration is generally unwilling to consider what the research says and look at changes in practice. I thought Guskey did a good job today of laying out a framework for how organizations like the Center for Teaching can more effectively evaluate whether the professiona development we offer is meaningful for teachers, will help them change their practice, and will have an impact on improving the learning environment for students.     development, professional nonadult false Evaluating Professional Development text blog development,professional 363 0 0.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19670003&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_11504469_127586_19670003_ap_160X120.jpg false United States GA Atlanta 0 0 5892757 19670003 ASCD EDge Member 365 http://edge.ascd.org/_Can-Failure-be-Part-of-the-Learning-Experience-in-School/blog/3496090/127586.html Not everyone who is accomplished got there with success in everything they touched.  Generally, those who we look up to or who have managed to make something of their talent were faced with numerous obstacles.  Their ultimate success was built upon working harder than others to overcome adversity. Of course, maybe they were lucky.  Next time you're not feeling good about yourself because of "failures" in school or a career, here are fifty people to keep in mind that have experienced failure before they realized success.  In addition, there are links to two more entries that address the question: Is success in school a good measure of success in life? Fifty people who struggled through school before they found how to use a talent to achieve a measure of success. Fifteen successful entreprenuers who did not attend college. Are grades in school a predictor of success. Check out the website for Institute for Brillant Failures.  This site is devoted to shifting our frame of reference as to how we think about failure.  Aren't failures just the seeds for future success, maybe?  Check out the 22 unsuccessful attempts of the Scout Rocket Program by NASA. After reading the blog post on It's About Learning entitled, Interesting Follow up on Summa Cum Laude, I started thinking about awards, honor rolls, grades, and success in school.  In school and society this topic has the potential of generating lively conversation, but also a polarizing one.  We value the awards we give out for achievement whether in school, on college or professional athletic fields, in theatre and film, or in music to name just a few.  At the time I was reading the blog post, the Academy Awards were also on the air.  Award ceremonies draw large audiences that pick their favorites, cheering loudly on the sidelines.  There are "winners" and "losers."  When I watch an awards ceremony of any type, I usually leave very unsatisfied and wonder why.  One reason that comes to mind is that I empathize with the losers, who far out number the winners.  The losers are left with all kinds of unanswered questions. We probably can't imagine running an awards ceremony where everyone gets an award.  It would seem to defeat the purpose.  It is very hard for us to conceive of a community of people not giving out awards to those who "achieve at the highest level." In school, awards and honors in the academic arena are given out to students who score the highest on time-bound tests and quizzes.  The assumption is that students who score the highest understand the material the best and are the most successful learners.  You might hear a faculty member say, "They have mastered the content."  But is that completely true!  Are we being honest with ourselves when we equate mastery and understanding with "good grades" in school?  Is using grades as a measure of success the most valid and effective way for us to give students feedback on the path towards understanding?  Sure students who have "good grades" have done well, but isn't it a limited measure of successful learning.  I can certainly image a "B" student who has a deeper understanding and more intense curiosity for a subject, topic, or idea than a student who received an "A."  In very specific terms, what does the A measure and is there any correlation of the A to success?  On a related topic involved scores as a measure of success, ABC News' ran a website article, Do SAT Scores Really Predict Success in College, in which the author concludes that the evidence shows a relatively weak correlation between the two.  In fact, success in secondary school or college is a fairly complext phenomenon that cannot be reduced to one variable.  The author writes: The analogy between soccer and scholastics is not perfect, of course, but the point remains. Like the soccer "SAT," the scholastic SAT provides incomplete, but useful information to students and colleges. A rough measure of intellectual preparedness, the SAT shouldn't be made into a fetish, but neither should it be ignored. Without it, colleges would undoubtedly place more emphasis on high school grades and extracurricular activities, measures that also have serious shortcomings — grade inflation and meaningless resume-puffing being the main ones. So where does this leave us.  Well, for me this conversation started in a very compelling way on Bo Adam's blog post on It's About Learning.  I would very much encourage educators to read his post and the many comments he received from parents.  There is a rich conversation that begins to inform this question: Are grades a good (honest, fair, and valid) measure of what it means to be a successful student?  Are awards linked to grades a motivator or a demoralizer to the general student body?  What messages are sent to students when they have not won the prize?  Does the culture of grading and awards diminish the tendency for students to take risks in a very public learning environment?  I think these are very interesting questions. Most importantly, how can we help students see their failures as opportunities for future successes?  How can we help them engage and learn from failure?  For me, failure is not the F that comes with no work.  Failure is the C+ student who works hard to understand and has a good foundation but sees him or herself as "stupid."  We have to change this quality of our schools.    Not everyone who is accomplished got there with success in everything they touched.  Generally, those who we look up to or who have managed to make something of their talent were faced with numerous obstacles.  Their ultimate success was built upon working harder than others to overcome adversity. Of course, maybe they were lucky.  Next time you're not feeling good about yourself because of "failures" in school or a career, here are fifty people to keep in mind that have experienced failure before they realized success.  In addition, there are links to two more entries that address the question: Is success in school a good measure of success in life? Fifty people who struggled through school before they found how to use a talent to achieve a measure of success. Fifteen successful entreprenuers who did not attend college. Are grades in school a predictor of success. Check out the website for Institute for Brillant Failures.  This site is devoted to shifting our frame of reference as to how we think about failure.  Aren't failures just the seeds for future success, maybe?  Check out the 22 unsuccessful attempts of the Scout Rocket Program by NASA. After reading the blog post on It's About Learning entitled, Interesting Follow up on Summa Cum Laude, I started thinking about awards, honor rolls, grades, and success in school.  In school and society this topic has the potential of generating lively conversation, but also a polarizing one.  We value the awards we give out for achievement whether in school, on college or professional athletic fields, in theatre and film, or in music to name just a few.  At the time I was reading the blog post, the Academy Awards were also on the air.  Award ceremonies draw large audiences that pick their favorites, cheering loudly on the sidelines.  There are "winners" and "losers."  When I watch an awards ceremony of any type, I usually leave very unsatisfied and wonder why.  One reason that comes to mind is that I empathize with the losers, who far out number the winners.  The losers are left with all kinds of unanswered questions. We probably can't imagine running an awards ceremony where everyone gets an award.  It would seem to defeat the purpose.  It is very hard for us to conceive of a community of people not giving out awards to those who "achieve at the highest level." In school, awards and honors in the academic arena are given out to students who score the highest on time-bound tests and quizzes.  The assumption is that students who score the highest understand the material the best and are the most successful learners.  You might hear a faculty member say, "They have mastered the content."  But is that completely true!  Are we being honest with ourselves when we equate mastery and understanding with "good grades" in school?  Is using grades as a measure of success the most valid and effective way for us to give students feedback on the path towards understanding?  Sure students who have "good grades" have done well, but isn't it a limited measure of successful learning.  I can certainly image a "B" student who has a deeper understanding and more intense curiosity for a subject, topic, or idea than a student who received an "A."  In very specific terms, what does the A measure and is there any correlation of the A to success?  On a related topic involved scores as a measure of success, ABC News' ran a website article, Do SAT Scores Really Predict Success in College, in which the author concludes that the evidence shows a relatively weak correlation between the two.  In fact, success in secondary school or college is a fairly complext phenomenon that cannot be reduced to one variable.  The author writes: The analogy between soccer and scholastics is not perfect, of course, but the point remains. Like the soccer "SAT," the scholastic SAT provides incomplete, but useful information to students and colleges. A rough measure of intellectual preparedness, the SAT shouldn't be made into a fetish, but neither should it be ignored. Without it, colleges would undoubtedly place more emphasis on high school grades and extracurricular activities, measures that also have serious shortcomings — grade inflation and meaningless resume-puffing being the main ones. So where does this leave us.  Well, for me this conversation started in a very compelling way on Bo Adam's blog post on It's About Learning.  I would very much encourage educators to read his post and the many comments he received from parents.  There is a rich conversation that begins to inform this question: Are grades a good (honest, fair, and valid) measure of what it means to be a successful student?  Are awards linked to grades a motivator or a demoralizer to the general student body?  What messages are sent to students when they have not won the prize?  Does the culture of grading and awards diminish the tendency for students to take risks in a very public learning environment?  I think these are very interesting questions. Most importantly, how can we help students see their failures as opportunities for future successes?  How can we help them engage and learn from failure?  For me, failure is not the F that comes with no work.  Failure is the C+ student who works hard to understand and has a good foundation but sees him or herself as "stupid."  We have to change this quality of our schools.    Sat, 23 Apr 2011 11:16:04 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Can-Failure-be-Part-of-the-Learning-Experience-in-School/blog/3496090/127586.html Robert_Ryshke 2011-04-23T11:16:04Z ASCD EDge Not everyone who is accomplished got there with success in everything they touched.  Generally, those who we look up to or who have managed to make something of their talent were faced with numerous obstacles.  Their ultimate success was built upon working harder than others to overcome adversity. Of course, maybe they were lucky.  Next time you're not feeling good about yourself because of "failures" in school or a career, here are fifty people to keep in mind that have experienced failure before they realized success.  In addition, there are links to two more entries that address the question: Is success in school a good measure of success in life? Fifty people who struggled through school before they found how to use a talent to achieve a measure of success. Fifteen successful entreprenuers who did not attend college. Are grades in school a predictor of success. Check out the website for Institute for Brillant Failures.  This site is devoted to shifting our frame of reference as to how we think about failure.  Aren't failures just the seeds for future success, maybe?  Check out the 22 unsuccessful attempts of the Scout Rocket Program by NASA. After reading the blog post on It's About Learning entitled, Interesting Follow up on Summa Cum Laude, I started thinking about awards, honor rolls, grades, and success in school.  In school and society this topic has the potential of generating lively conversation, but also a polarizing one.  We value the awards we give out for achievement whether in school, on college or professional athletic fields, in theatre and film, or in music to name just a few.  At the time I was reading the blog post, the Academy Awards were also on the air.  Award ceremonies draw large audiences that pick their favorites, cheering loudly on the sidelines.  There are "winners" and "losers."  When I watch an awards ceremony of any type, I usually leave very unsatisfied and wonder why.  One reason that comes to mind is that I empathize with the losers, who far out number the winners.  The losers are left with all kinds of unanswered questions. We probably can't imagine running an awards ceremony where everyone gets an award.  It would seem to defeat the purpose.  It is very hard for us to conceive of a community of people not giving out awards to those who "achieve at the highest level." In school, awards and honors in the academic arena are given out to students who score the highest on time-bound tests and quizzes.  The assumption is that students who score the highest understand the material the best and are the most successful learners.  You might hear a faculty member say, "They have mastered the content."  But is that completely true!  Are we being honest with ourselves when we equate mastery and understanding with "good grades" in school?  Is using grades as a measure of success the most valid and effective way for us to give students feedback on the path towards understanding?  Sure students who have "good grades" have done well, but isn't it a limited measure of successful learning.  I can certainly image a "B" student who has a deeper understanding and more intense curiosity for a subject, topic, or idea than a student who received an "A."  In very specific terms, what does the A measure and is there any correlation of the A to success?  On a related topic involved scores as a measure of success, ABC News' ran a website article, Do SAT Scores Really Predict Success in College, in which the author concludes that the evidence shows a relatively weak correlation between the two.  In fact, success in secondary school or college is a fairly complext phenomenon that cannot be reduced to one variable.  The author writes: The analogy between soccer and scholastics is not perfect, of course, but the point remains. Like the soccer "SAT," the scholastic SAT provides incomplete, but useful information to students and colleges. A rough measure of intellectual preparedness, the SAT shouldn't be made into a fetish, but neither should it be ignored. Without it, colleges would undoubtedly place more emphasis on high school grades and extracurricular activities, measures that also have serious shortcomings — grade inflation and meaningless resume-puffing being the main ones. So where does this leave us.  Well, for me this conversation started in a very compelling way on Bo Adam's blog post on It's About Learning.  I would very much encourage educators to read his post and the many comments he received from parents.  There is a rich conversation that begins to inform this question: Are grades a good (honest, fair, and valid) measure of what it means to be a successful student?  Are awards linked to grades a motivator or a demoralizer to the general student body?  What messages are sent to students when they have not won the prize?  Does the culture of grading and awards diminish the tendency for students to take risks in a very public learning environment?  I think these are very interesting questions. Most importantly, how can we help students see their failures as opportunities for future successes?  How can we help them engage and learn from failure?  For me, failure is not the F that comes with no work.  Failure is the C+ student who works hard to understand and has a good foundation but sees him or herself as "stupid."  We have to change this quality of our schools.    nonadult false Can Failure be Part of the Learning Experience in School? text blog 1707 20 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19670003&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_11504469_127586_19670003_ap_160X120.jpg false United States GA Atlanta 1 1 3496090 19670003 ASCD EDge Member 365 http://edge.ascd.org/_CFT-Cohort-Meeting/blog/3274530/127586.html Currently sitting in a CFT Faculty Cohort meeting.  The group just viewed Jill Bolton Taylor's TED Talk on recovering from a stroke.  Here is the link to the TED Talk.  http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html Powerful discussion occured after watching the video.  What is the significance of her story to us as educators?  How do you persevere and recover from a stroke?  The message is that it is important to have people around you who love you and will care for you, speak on your behalf.  Don't we as teachers need to care and love our students, speak on their behalf to make the learning environment rich for them.  Getting more in touch with the right brain vs. the left brain.  Powerful messages about the recovery potential of the human brain.  These are important stories to listen to and learn from.  Listen to JBT's story and see what you think. Bob Ryshke Currently sitting in a CFT Faculty Cohort meeting.  The group just viewed Jill Bolton Taylor's TED Talk on recovering from a stroke.  Here is the link to the TED Talk.  http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html Powerful discussion occured after watching the video.  What is the significance of her story to us as educators?  How do you persevere and recover from a stroke?  The message is that it is important to have people around you who love you and will care for you, speak on your behalf.  Don't we as teachers need to care and love our students, speak on their behalf to make the learning environment rich for them.  Getting more in touch with the right brain vs. the left brain.  Powerful messages about the recovery potential of the human brain.  These are important stories to listen to and learn from.  Listen to JBT's story and see what you think. Bob Ryshke Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:56:31 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_CFT-Cohort-Meeting/blog/3274530/127586.html Robert_Ryshke 2011-01-25T15:56:31Z ASCD EDge Currently sitting in a CFT Faculty Cohort meeting.  The group just viewed Jill Bolton Taylor's TED Talk on recovering from a stroke.  Here is the link to the TED Talk.  http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html Powerful discussion occured after watching the video.  What is the significance of her story to us as educators?  How do you persevere and recover from a stroke?  The message is that it is important to have people around you who love you and will care for you, speak on your behalf.  Don't we as teachers need to care and love our students, speak on their behalf to make the learning environment rich for them.  Getting more in touch with the right brain vs. the left brain.  Powerful messages about the recovery potential of the human brain.  These are important stories to listen to and learn from.  Listen to JBT's story and see what you think. Bob Ryshke nonadult false CFT Cohort Meeting text blog 464 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=19670003&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_11504469_127586_19670003_ap_160X120.jpg false United States GA Atlanta 0 0 3274530 19670003 ASCD EDge Member 365