112 Search Results for ""time management""

• 5 tips for a successful end-of 5 tips for a successful end-of-year transition

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    For many students, beginning a new school year can be a great source of anxiety. Thanks to a successful end-of-year transition though, one that you can begin right now, a new teacher and classroom can be an exciting event—not one that causes insecurity or dread. To help your students make a successful transition into the next academic year, we’re offering five simple activities you can put into practice right away.
    
    

    5 tips for a successful end-of-year transition
    
    

    The relationship doesn’t end with the academic year
    You don’t have to cry like my second grade teacher did on the last day of school, but do let your students know that you valued your time with them. Also, let them know that the relationship doesn’t have to end with the academic school year. They may be moving rooms and working with new teachers, but let them know that they are always welcome to say hello, stop by after school or interact with your new students on your classroom blog.
    
    

    Ask their new teacher to visit your room
    Arrange a time for the new teacher to visit your classroom so that s/he can interact with the students. If you’re looking for a list of tried-and-true icebreaker activities, you can find them here. 
    
    

    Meet the new teacher’s current class
    One way to ease your students’ fears about their transition is by having them each interview one student in their new teacher’s current class. They might ask questions like:
    
    

    • What’s it like having Mr. X for a teacher?
    • Did Mrs. M assign a lot of homework?
    • What was your favorite memory this year in Mr. X’s class?
    • What should I know before starting the new school year?
      
      

     Once they conduct the interview, have your students share their findings with the class.
    
    

    Visit the new classroom
    Arrange a time for your students to check out their new digs. It’s always easier to walk into an unfamiliar place when you know where to go and what your surroundings look like. Ask the new teacher to give them a tour and, if you can, try scheduling a follow-up visit.
    
    

    To help prepare your students for the upcoming summer, check out two of our recent blogs, 10 Summer Reading Activities for Struggling Readers and 10 things parents can say to struggling readers.

     

                                                                  

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• L2L News: May 2013 L2L News: May 2013

  • From: Meg_Simpson
  • Description:

    ASCD Leader to Leader (L2L) News is a monthly e-mail newsletter for ASCD constituent group leaders that builds capacity to better serve members, provides opportunities to promote and advocate for ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative, and engages groups through sharing and learning about best practices. To submit a news item for the L2L newsletter, send an e-mail to constituentservices@ascd.org.

     

    Your To-Do List: Action Items for ASCD Leaders

    • Attend today’s Whole Child Virtual Conference Session “Grit: Multiple Intelligences and Instructional Technology in the Classroom” at 4:00 p.m. eastern with Walter McKenzie and Professional Interest Community Facilitator Tom Hoerr. Register now.
      View and register for the other Whole Child Virtual Conference sessions.
      
      
    • Apply for the 2013–14 Nominations Committee. ASCD is seeking ASCD leaders who are interested in serving on the 2013–14 ASCD Nominations Committee. More information, including the committee’s charge, qualifications for service, and time commitment, is available at www.ascd.org/nominations. ASCD will accept applications until May 31.
       
    •  Submit a proposal for ASCD’s 2014 Annual Conference. ASCD is accepting proposals for 2014 Annual Conference presentations until May 15.

     

    Newest Policy Points Revisits A Nation at Risk

    ASCD’s newest Policy Points (PDF) takes a closer look at A Nation at Risk, the 1983 report on the state of U.S. education that launched a spirited and ongoing debate about the quality of our public schools. This issue of Policy Points examines the specific recommendations of the report, the accuracy of its dire prediction about “a rising tide of mediocrity” undermining the nation’s well-being, and the evolving school reform debate the report kick-started three decades ago.

     

    Throughout May on www.wholechildeducation.org: The New Poverty

    In today’s global economic state, many families and children face reduced circumstances. These “poor kids” don’t fit the traditional stereotypes—two-thirds live in families in which at least one adult works and the percentage of poor students in many rural districts equals that in inner-city districts. In the United States, the economic downturn has dramatically changed the landscape, and districts that were previously vibrant are now dealing with unemployment, underemployment, and more transient families.

    Join us as we share what new—and old—solutions we are using to support learning and ensure that each child, whatever her circumstances, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

    Download the Whole Child Podcast for a discussion on the current economic downturn; its result that many families and children face reduced circumstances; and implications for schools, many of which have seen drastic changes in the populations they serve and their communities. Guests include Deborah Wortham, superintendent of the School District of the City of York, Pa., and former assistant superintendent for high schools and director of professional development for Baltimore City (Md.) Public Schools; Felicia DeHaney, president and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute; William Parrett, director of the Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies and professor of education at Boise State University;  and Kathleen Budge, coordinator of the Leadership Development Program  and associate professor in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Department at Boise State University. Parrett and Budge are also coauthors of the 2012 ASCD book Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools.

    Throughout the month, read the Whole Child Blog and tell us what has worked in your school and with your students. E-mail us and share resources, research, and examples.

     

    ASCD Leader Voices

    • Outstanding Young Educator Award (OYEA) cadre members PJ Caposey and Brian Nichols were featured in EdWeek’s Classroom Q&A series with Larry Ferlazzo. Read their thoughts about ways to observe teachers without demoralizing them.
      
      
    • Read ASCD Emerging Leader Ember Conley’sWhole Child Blog post about “Promising Whole Child Practices in Arizona”
       
    • Read ASCD Emerging Leader Daniel Smith’sWhole Child Blog post, “Who is Today’s Principal?”
       
    • Check out OYEA winner and ASCD Board Member Marc Cohen’s Whole Child Blog post, “Our Expectations Are (and Should Be) High”
       
    • 2013 OYEA Winner Joshua Garcia has a blog series on ASCD EDge called WILL (What I Learned Lately). Read his #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 posts.
       
    • ASCDEmerging Leader Kevin Goddard, also known as “the Goddblogger,” has written great posts over the last few weeks on ASCD EDge: “Complicated vs. Complex,” “Systems Theory,” “Reductionism,” “Chaos vs. Complexity, ” and“Capacity Building.”
    • Read ASCD Emerging Leader Nicole Zuerblis’ ASCD EDge blog post: “Everything But the Kitchen Sink?”

     

    Arkansas Governor Signs Whole Child Legislation

    Arkansas Governor Michael Beebe signed a new bill into law that promotes a whole child approach to educating the state’s children. The legislation (PDF) establishes a Whole Child Whole Community recognition program and aims to measure the comprehensive well-being of children and how well stakeholders are meeting their needs according to the five whole child tenets and their indicators as identified by ASCD.

    The recognition program will acknowledge and highlight the work of Arkansas educators, parents, community members, and policymakers who support the whole child. The legislation also indicates that one purpose of the recognition program is to help spur systemic collaboration and coordination within and beyond schoolhouse doors and to promote a shift from narrowly defined student achievement and traditional education reform to broader, more comprehensive efforts that recognize the crucial out-of-school factors that influence teaching and learning. A diverse state working group will work over the course of a year to recommend a framework and process for recognizing exemplary whole child and whole community successes.

    Congratulations to Arkansas ASCD, which played a crucial role in supporting the bill’s development and introduction!

     

    Rhode Island Passes Whole Child Resolution

    The Rhode Island General Assembly passed a joint resolution (PDF) supporting a whole child approach to education that ensures each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

    The resolution affirms that to educate Rhode Island’s children effectively, the state must pay attention to factors within and beyond its school buildings as well as integrate efforts among schools, families, and communities. In addition, the resolution expresses the assembly’s intent to model whole child concepts in its own work and to join with other stakeholders who support the whole child.

    Congratulations to Rhode Island ASCD(RIASCD), which worked hard to have this joint resolution introduced into the Rhode Island legislature!

    To help the state fulfill its commitment to whole child education, ASCD and RIASCD offered some initial steps (PDF)—organized by the five whole child tenets—for educators, parents and community members, and policymakers to take. RIASCD also highlighted some of ASCD’s free resources to help the state put its whole child vision into action. 

     

    South Carolina ASCD Featured in ASCD Inservice Blog Series

    Weasked some of our affiliate leaders to tell us how the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been going in their home states.In the seventh post of the series, South Carolina ASCD leader Josh Patterson writes about the challenges and successes that South Carolina has had with CCSS implementation.

    Previous Posts:Tennessee ASCD, New Jersey ASCD,Alabama ASCD, Arkansas ASCD, New Hampshire ASCD, and Florida ASCD

     

    The Effective Principal

    What we see through our research, reading, and conversations with principals and school staff is that to see what an effective principal is, don’t look at the person; look at the effects of her leadership on student achievement, school culture and climate, teacher effectiveness and satisfaction, and community relationships. As the wearers of many hats, principals are crucial to implementing meaningful and lasting school change. Read more on the Whole Child Blog.

    In April, we looked at what qualities principals in today’s (and tomorrow’s) schools need to fulfill their roles as visionary, instructional, influential, and learning leaders. Listen to the Whole Child Podcast with guests Donna Snyder, manager of Whole Child Programs at ASCD; Kevin Enerson, principal of Le Sueur-Henderson High School in Minnesota (an ASCD Whole Child Network school); and Jessica Bohn, an ASCD Emerging Leader and principal of Gibsonville Elementary School in North Carolina.

    Also this month on the Whole Child Podcast, we talked with educators from Oregon’s Milwaukie High School (winner of the 2013 Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award) about how they meet student and staff needs, taking challenges and turning them into opportunities for all. Guests include principal Mark Pinder, assistant principal for curriculum Michael Ralls, assistant principal for student management Tim Taylor, dean of students Donnie Siel, and teacher leader David Adams.

    Have you signed up to receive the Whole Child Newsletter? Read the latest newsletter and visit the archive for more strategies, resources, and tools you can use to help ensure that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

      

    Something to Talk About

    ·         Most recent blog posts on ASCD EDge®

    ·         Mostclicked stories from ASCD SmartBrief

     

    Association News

    Killeen Independent School District Deepens Professional Development Partnership with ASCD—Killeen Independent School District (ISD)—whose more than 6,100 staff members serve approximately 42,000 students—is deepening its relationship with ASCD to meet its professional development goals. Read the full press release.

    ASCD Publishes Leadership Guide on Transforming Any Teacher into a Master—ASCD is pleased to announce the release of Never Underestimate Your Teachers: Instructional Leadership for Excellence in Every Classroom by best-selling education author, renowned educator, and professional development expert Robyn R. Jackson.
    Never Underestimate Your Teachers offers school leaders a new model for understanding great teaching as a combination of skill and will, and it's the first book of its kind to support leaders as they facilitate teacher growth in both areas through differentiated leadership. Jackson shows readers how to design and deliver targeted professional development to help each teacher realize his or her potential and achieve great results for the benefit of every student. Read the full press release.

    New ASCD Common Core Academy Supports School Leadership Teams Across the United States—ASCD is bringing its inaugural ASCD Common Core Leadership Team Academy to Chicago August 5–8, 2013. This intensive four-day professional leadership experience offers groups of administrators, teacher leaders, and nonprofit and higher education partners an accelerated plan for putting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into routine practice. Read the full press release.

    ASCD Summer Reading List Identifies 10 Books That Can Transform Teaching and Learning—In the spirit of promoting year-round professional development, ASCD has assembled a diverse list of books essential to educators who seek to improve their practice over the summer months. These books—organized by how they help educators transform teaching and learning—offer readers the opportunity to dive deep into the hottest topics in education, including using data to focus improvement, project-based learning, child development, and neurodiversity. All books are currently available in paperback and e-book formats. Read the full press release.

    Arkansas Governor Beebe Signs Education Reform Law Supporting the Whole Child—Arkansas Governor Michael Beebe has signed a new bill into law that promotes a well-rounded whole child approach to educating the state’s children.“An Act to Establish the Whole Child– Whole Community Recognition Program; and for Other Purposes” (Senate Bill 1051[PDF]) outlines a plan for the Arkansas education system that ensures Arkansas students receive a whole child education. Read the full press release.

    New ASCD Staff Expand Association’s Ability to Design, Deliver, and Evaluate Professional Development Resources—ASCD welcomes three new staff members to the association’s Program Development Work Group. Dr. Andrea Muse has accepted the position of director of research and program evaluation, Jen Thompson will serve as director of program management and process improvement, and Elizabeth Thurman has joined ASCD as director of customer engagement and product support. The additions of Muse, Thompson, and Thurman expand ASCD’s capability to design, deliver, and evaluate the crucial professional development resources today’s educators need to learn, teach, and lead. Read the full press release.

     

     

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• Five Strategies of High Perfor Five Strategies of High Performing School Teams

  • From: Steven_Weber
  • Description:

     

    A high performance team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are equally committed to a common purpose, goals, and working approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.  Members of the team are deeply committed to one another’s personal growth and success (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). 

     

    As I observe classrooms and visit schools, I am always looking for high performing teams. I am impressed by a fourth grade teacher who can differentiate, analyze assessment data, lead professional development, teach students to think outside the box, and integrate technology on a daily basis. However, I am in awe of high performing teams. In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, Maxwell (2001) wrote, “Communication increases commitment and connection; they in turn fuel action. If you want your team to perform at the highest level, the people on it need to be able to talk and to listen to one another” (p. 197). Does your professional learning team communicate on a regular basis?  Do you plan to meet daily, weekly, or monthly? How often do you need to meet in order to make certain all students learn the essential learning outcomes?

     

    High performing teams use the following strategies to take students to the next level:

     

     

    Team Norms

     

    Team norms are the foundation of a high performing team. Some teams feel like they can operate without norms, but conflict or a dysfunctional team member highlight the purpose of norms. When teams operate with norms, each member of the team understands how to communicate, how shared decisions will be handled, when to arrive for meetings, and how to professionally disagree. I have observed teams that developed norms five years ago, but they fail to revisit the team norms. When a new teacher moves from a different grade level or from another school district, it is difficult for the teacher to participate as a team member because the team norms are akin to living and working in a different country or culture. Solution Tree has developed a free online resource which supports the development of team norms titled, Developing Norms.

     

     

    Team Goals

     

    A precursor to improvement is a clear understanding of the goal. Educators often enter a new nine weeks and don’t pause to reflect on the current reality (i.e., Where are we? Where are we going? How will we get there?). If six eighth grade science teachers each develop their own goals and learning outcomes, is it likely that students will end up at the same place when they enter ninth grade science? Blanchard (2007) contends, “Goal setting is the single most powerful motivational tool in a leader’s toolkit” (p. 150). A school without clearly defined goals is like a ship without a rudder; it lacks direction and a slight wind could easily blow it off course (Wiles, 2009).

     

    Teams set goals, companies strive to meet sales or production goals, and successful individuals monitor their diet, finances, time management, life-long learning, leadership growth, and other established goals. If school teams are aiming for student achievement, then they must become crystal clear on how to help each member of their school district meet the goal. DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker (2008) wrote, “One of the most pressing questions a school must consider as it attempts to build the collaborative culture of a PLC is not, ‘Do we collaborate?’ but rather, ‘What do we collaborate about?’” (p. 28). A lack of clarity on intended results is a barrier to growth and continuous improvement in schools.

     

    
    Small Wins

     

    One strategy that is overlooked in schools is the power of small wins. When I memorized 1 x 1 through 12 x 12, my second grade teacher gave me a poster autographed by a Razorback basketball player (talk about a small win)! Memorizing my multiplication facts did not make me a mathematician, but my teacher took time to recognize the small win each time a new student reached the goal. When I played high school basketball, the coach would require each member of the team to make ten free throws before we left practice. This was a small win and it was psychological. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle wrote, “Perhaps most important, the “small-win” approach is aligned with the way your brain is built to learn: chunk by chunk, connection by connection, rep by rep. As John Wooden said, “Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts” (April, 2012).

     

    School teams are implementing common formative assessments, the Common Core State Standards, technology integration, reading programs, literacy across the curriculum, character education programs, state initiatives, and more! Most teachers understand the importance of celebrating a small win with students. We need to use this same strategy when we work with our colleagues. Small wins are identified and celebrated by high performing school teams!

      

     

    Weekly Meetings

     

    Meetings have become a burden to teachers. If a school still operates where each teacher believes, “These are my students and those are your students....” – Then, it will be difficult for teachers to see why they need to meet as a team. High performing teacher teams realize, “These are our students and this is our community.” High performing teams have a meeting agenda, clear meeting outcomes, and action items. If team members are arriving at each meeting asking what are we going to discuss today, then it won’t be a very good use of time.

     

    Some of the best ideas at my elementary school come from team meetings. A collaborative team of teacher leaders, motivated by preparing all students for the next level, is a powerful force to reckon with. This is the scene that every taxpayer should demand from a public school. Schmoker (2005) wrote, “It starts with a group of teachers who meet regularly as a team to identify essential learning, develop common formative assessments, analyze current levels of achievement, set achievement goals, share strategies, and then create lessons to improve upon those levels.” That is the kind of school I want to send my children to.

     

     

    Essential Learning Outcomes

     

    Effective teams develop and agree to provide all students with essential learning outcomes. In the absence of learning outcomes, students receive a disjointed curriculum experience. Why do some teams skip this step if it is such an important part of teaching and learning? From my observations, developing essential learning outcomes involves trust, conflict, debate, time, and the ability to come to consensus. If teams lack trust or don’t schedule a weekly meeting, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to identify essential learning outcomes. Swan (2010) wrote, "Learning outcomes refer to the skills, knowledge, and attributes students should have upon completion of a particular course or program of study."

     

    Wiggins and McTighe (2005), wrote, “In the absence of a learning plan with clear goals, how likely is it that students will develop shared understandings on which future lessons might build” (p. 21)?  If teachers claim to operate as a professional learning team, but they lack clearly defined learning outcomes, then students will experience a disjointed curriculum. If goal-setting is important in athletics and on business teams, then professional learning teams must take time to see how the absence of essential learning outcomes can interfere with the team’s common purpose. Does your team have essential learning outcomes for each nine weeks or semester?

     

     

    Conclusion
    

     

    Sports fans love to analyze the greatest teams of all time. The New York Yankees have won more World Series than any team in baseball (27). UCLA men’s basketball team has won more NCAA National Championships than any other college basketball team in history (11). Ten of those championships were won under legendary coach John Wooden. The Pittsburgh Steelers have won more Super Bowls than any other NFL team (6). What makes a great team? Great teams are made of great individuals. Mark Sanborn outlines the “4 C’s of a Great Team Member (1:44).”

     

    If you entered the field of education to make a difference, ask how your individual strengths can benefit the entire team. Michael Fisher (2010) wrote, "If your schools/districts are made up primarily of those with an ‘island mentality,’ then they need to join the continent.” High performing teams are needed in our schools. Students deserve our best and we can work more efficiently if we turn our school teams into high performing teams.

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• Neurodiversity Neurodiversity

  • From: Elizabeth_Fenimore
  • Description:

    I actually referenced Armstong's article from the October 2012 Educational Leadership in a research paper I wrote regarding helping this student.  I am eager to purchase his book!  He has a lot of great ideas that will help me.  I have devleoped a new plan of action as a result of my recent research and hope to finish out the year on a positive note! 

     

    As far as classroom management, that has not been an issue for me in the past.  I started out the year usin

  • 2 months ago
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  • Forum: Classroom M...

• Complexity: Capacity Building Complexity: Capacity Building

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    Capacity building is one of the buzz phrases in education due to the complex nature of how society defines student success: “academic achievement; engagement in educationally purposeful activities; satisfaction; acquisition of desired knowledge, skills, and competencies; persistence; and attainment of educational objectives” (Kuh et al., 2007, p. 10). Capacity building within schools could not focus on only one aspect of development within the school because a single group within the school community could not possess all of the capacity necessary to fuel student success. Research indicates that capacity building increases student achievement (Cooter, 2003). All educators in effective schools take responsibility for improvement and professional capacity (Eaker, DuFour & DuFour, 2002; Chu Clewell & Campbell, 2007). Capacity builds as schools focus on learning and getting resources into classrooms to directly benefit students (Machtinger, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 1998).

    Many authors have tried to articulate a definition of capacity. Ervin, Schaughency, Goodman, McGlinchy, and Matthews (2006) simply define capacity as skills, know-how, and available resources. Gewertz (2007) describes capacity as “building the school’s and community partners’ skills to improve, securing the resources to do it” (no page #). Fullan (2006) focuses on marginalized students when he articulates that

    capacity building involves any policy, strategy, or other action undertaken that enhances the gap of student learning for all students. Usually it consists of the development of three components in concert: new knowledge and competencies, new and enhanced resources, and new and deeper motivation and commitment to improve things…all played out collectively (p. 28).

    Knowledgeable education leaders understand that capacity building relies on the mission and vision of the local context which probably does not include academic achievement as primary to the futures of marginalized students (Schutz, 2006). Low performing schools do not have the capacity to turn themselves around in academic achievement when principals and communities are simply trying to survive concentrated poverty, low expectations, weak courses, burnt out teachers, run down facilities, overcrowding, and poor student behavior (U.S. Department of Education, 1998).

    Narrowly focusing expectations of schools in the form of AYP for all students as measured by one unattainable and not always relevant standard, when schools were on the brink of realizing the importance of participation by marginalized populations and opening up the possibility of class mobility of these populations, deflected attention away from what should be the true purposes of education (Noddings, 2006). By focusing attention on education’s inability to teach 100% of children to read and calculate on grade level in grade three through eight and the resulting distrust and dissatisfaction of the school community, schools have an even harder time building the capacity necessary to reach a critical mass in affecting true educational reform to create a truly powerful school-community coalition that could realize greater economic support for low SES schools, more democratic decision-making within low SES communities, and ultimately, better informed and equipped citizens of the future from all classes that might disrupt the status quo of the dominant class (Noguera, 2004). Low SES schools that were led by forward thinking and steadfast administrators continued this course of building the capacity of the school community to ensure truly unlimited opportunity for their student populations where the resources were available to students to be successful academically, socially, and culturally (Nesbit, 2006).

    The problem for meaningful and sustainable school reform is not attributable to a lack of energy, ideas, or a willingness to change in education. Fads, competing priorities, and unreasonable mandates deluge leaders immobilizing efforts to sustain and expand promising initiatives (Henig et al., 1999). As funding resources shrink, efficiency and capacity building become more and more important (Kezar, 2006). Teaching specific practices to families over making the effort to build capacity may result in advantages in certain times and places, but a “right way” approach causes action to lose its distinctive character providing the advantage (Lareau, 2000). “We need to reframe our entire reform strategy so that it focuses relentlessly and deeply on capacity building and accountability—a difficult but…doable high-yield strategy” (Fullan, 2006, p. 28).

    Capacity building is closely related to organizational learning. Knowledge and understanding moves from tacit to explicit back to tacit. “Teacher change, like most human change, must emanate from within” (Bonner, 2006, p. 41). Education becomes more than parents deferring to teacher professional judgment and only being involved to the extent that teachers value (Henig et al., 1999). By understanding capacity, the “lonely teacher… reaches out to and joins the community and family [as] school is a network with permeable boundaries connecting it to the other institutions comprising society” (Musial, 1999, p. 120), instead of “erect[ing] barriers with one hand while reaching out with the other” (Schutz, 2006, p. 726). Often, in unsuccessful schools, agents simply “do not know how to improve it, or they do not believe it can be improved” (Fullan, 2006, p. 60) when collective efficacy holds the potential for a better future (DuFour & Eaker, 1998). Authoritative leadership is not sustainable; but collective, collaborative, distributed leadership can build capacity and commitment to changing school culture in marginalized communities successfully through cooperating and competition, boundary conversations, dialogue, and productive conflict (Barr & Parrett, 2007; Copland, 2003; Patterson & Rolheiser, 2004; Stacey, 1996).

    As part of capacity building, principals actively build leadership capacity in others by “broad-based, skillful participation; a shared vision; established norms of inquiry and collaboration; reflective practice; and improving student achievement” (Lambert, 2003, Chapter 1, p. 1; Copland, 2003) and by developing learning communities where staff growth expands their capacity to provide for students (Eaker, et al., 2002). School reform rooted in the efforts of individuals and dependent on individual academic success cannot be sustained and will fail; working class learning is determined by the cultural context in systems dependent on sociocultural capital as opposed to individual capacity (Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2005; Musial, 1999). If capacity relies only on relationships or only on structure, capacity will be too soft or too rigid. Capacity is essential. “Because social systems are uncertain by their very nature, schools are fragile places (Lambert, 2003, Chapter 10, p. 1).

                Many factors interact to determine educational capacity (O’Day et al., 1995). Yet, education experts agree, capacity building “must become a core feature of all improvement strategies” (Fullan, 2006, p. 104). Education has progressed to the point where discussion about capacity involves lists whose discussion centers around lines of responsibility versus lines of authority. These discussions describe capacity as built through clear accountability, relevant data available for analysis and application, and high expectations for staff with support of professional development (Walk, 1998). O’Day and colleagues (1995) feel “interdependence of organization and individual capacity” contributes to an understanding of instructional capacity (no page #). These authors list the five dimensions of organizational capacity as vision and leadership, collective commitment and cultural norms, knowledge or access to knowledge, organizational structures and management, and resources.

                McREL (Dean et al., 2005, p. 5) defines capacity in three ways:

    • Leadership capacity: knowledge and skills to fulfill or support leadership responsibilities associated with high levels of student achievement, manage implications of change, establish and maintain a purposeful community, and determine a focus for improvement efforts
    • School capacity: collective ability to address the school-level, teacher-level, and student-level factors that are associated with high levels of student achievement and the ability to maintain a purposeful community
    • Teacher capacity: individual teacher’s ability to help all students succeed, contribute to school-level efforts, and address the teacher-level and student-level factors that are associated with high levels of student achievement

    Complex descriptions alluding to practices evident in High-Performing High-Poverty Schools (HP2S) get past the tendency to create lists and begin to open the door to envisioning improving instructional capacity in schools as an interaction of multiple elements to “produce worthwhile and substantial learning” (Cohen & Ball, 1999). Capacity building efforts result in “adoption, sustainability, and evolution of innovation” to allow HP2S to emerge (Schaughency & Ervin, 2006, p. 162).

     

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• Whac-A-Mole Leadership Whac-A-Mole Leadership

  • From: Steven_Weber
  • Description:

    One of my favorite arcade games is Whac-A-Mole.  When you drop your token in the machine, you have a limited amount of time to ‘whac’ as many moles as you can.  In the beginning of the game, one or two moles pop their heads up and it is fairly easy to hit each one.  About twenty seconds into the game, the moles start popping up three at a time and when you smash a mole with the mallet it may pop up again.

     

    Whac-A-Mole is similar to the daily routine of a principal.  From the time you arrive at school in the morning until late in the evening, moles pop up.  Your job is to address each mole and to prioritize which one is most important.  In this article, I am going to describe the ‘Six Moles’ a principal must address in order to be a good leader.

     

    Six Moles A Principal Must Address

     

    Family Concerns

    Principals receive phone calls, emails, and face-to-face messages from families.  If you work in the car rider line at an elementary school, a parent or grandparent may share a concern with you as they drop their child off at school.  When you check your email, you may have an email from multiple families with a concern about something that happened the day before.  There are times when a family member has a concern about something that is a district level concern, but it is the principal’s job to advocate for families and contact the central office or assist the family in navigating communication with the central office.  Families are not ‘moles’, but concerns pop up frequently and the principal cannot ignore family concerns.  It is not wise to ‘whac’ a family member, but the concern must be addressed.

     

    Instructional Rounds

    A principal wears several hats and the instructional leadership hat is critical to the success of the school.  If a principal is focused on email, returning phone calls, developing professional development, and attending meetings, he or she will not be able to focus on the main thing.  When a principal visits classrooms for formal or informal observations, it helps him or her get a pulse for student achievement and curriculum implementation.  A principal should be a coach, cheerleader, critical friend, and more!  If a principal does not visit classrooms on a regular basis, then the school will not continue to grow.  Instructional rounds cannot be something that a principal does when the ‘mole’ pops up.  This important leadership role must be part of the principal’s regular schedule.

     

    Student Discipline

    Student Discipline pops up unexpectedly.  There may be a student issue on the bus ride to school.  Students may have a dispute on the playground.  A student may break a school rule on the way to the next class.  Handling student discipline is one of the main roles of principal leadership.  Teachers and staff assist with student discipline, but when this ‘mole’ pops its head up, the principal cannot ignore it and move to the next three moles that pop up.  Some of you reading this article may be thinking, “If student discipline is a mole, then ‘whac’ it.”  You cannot use a hammer to hit every problem.  When you use the Whac-A-Mole approach to student discipline it means you handle the problems as they arise, rather than waiting for more problems to pop up.

     

    Email

    One of the most challenging ‘moles’ for a principal is email.  If you sit at your desk from 8:00 am – Noon, you will see multiple moles pop up on your screen.  More building principals are carrying a personal or school assigned smart phone on their hip.  At one point, it was easy to avoid email because you could walk away from the computer.  Principals have the ability to check email in the hallway, in meetings, while they are off campus, at home, and any time day or night.  If principals focus on each email as it pops up then they will get distracted and miss out on other important leadership duties.  Email is a great analogy to the game Whac-A-Mole.  When you reply to email it continues to pop up.  Time management is important and Whac-A-Mole Leadership involves more than whacking each email, hoping to bop all of the ‘email moles.’

     

    Professional Development

    Leading professional development is important.  When a school staff stops learning, they stop growing.  It is easy for principals to spend several hours developing a video, presentation, or hands-on learning activity.  Quality professional development requires planning, learning goals, and materials.  Principals are wise to develop a teacher leadership team who can assist with professional development.  This will allow the principal to have a role in leading professional development, without having to plan the entire session. This year, our school has conducted professional development on the Six Instructional Shifts (Common Core State Standards), Technology Integration, Literacy, and School Safety.  If the principal ignores professional development, then it may not happen.  However, a building principal cannot sit in the office and develop every PD, while ignoring other ‘moles’ throughout the school.

     

    Communication

    Communication is an important responsibility and it cannot be ignored.  Principals need to communicate through the school website, email, newsletters, video, blogs, face-to-face meetings, PTA meetings, Coffee Hour, phone calls, and informal meetings in the parking lot.  Principals need to be intentional about communication.  Principals need to communicate with classroom teachers through classroom observations, email, blog, faculty meetings, notes, and informal meetings.  A principal could spend his or her entire day developing communication documents or preparing a speech for the next meeting.  It is important to see communication as a mole that you ‘whac’, but also as something you plan for.  If you are not communicating and marketing the great things about your school, then who is marketing your school?  You cannot afford to let the ‘communication mole’ pop its head up too many times.

     

    Conclusion

    Whac-A-Mole Leadership is a humorous way to describe the day of a principal.  We can all laugh and relate to the moles that pop up throughout the day.  You can probably describe several more moles that principals must address if you reflect on your past week.  “Leaders are usually distinguished by their ability to think big. But when their focus shifts, they suddenly start thinking small. They micro manage, they get caught up in details better left to others, and they become consumed with the trivial and unimportant. And to make matters worse, this tendency can be exacerbated by an inclination toward perfectionism” (Sanborn, M.).  If the goal of leadership becomes whacking the next mole, we may miss the most important things.  Stephen Covey shared the Leadership Matrix (as shared by Michael Hyatt, Intentional Leadership).  Principals must ask, “Is this mole important and urgent?” or “Is this mole urgent, but not important?”  As the moles pop up at your school, I wish you the best.  Keep whacking moles, but make certain you are focused on the right mole.

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 912

• A Few Reasons Why You Need to A Few Reasons Why You Need to Be Giving Kids an Allowance

  • From: Clay_Piggy
  • Description:

    For most people, deciding to give a child an allowance can be a tough decision. There are arguments that an allowance is a great learning tool for children, but there are also those who feel an allowance will teach a kid to feel privileged over their peers. If you have children who are too young to work, then this decision will come into play. Actually, if you want to teach your children financial literacy, then an allowance is very helpful. Here is what you need to know about the value of an allowance for young children.

    Teaching Them Financial Literacy Early

    It is never too early to teach kids about finances and to ensure they are financially literate at a young age. All too often, parents never instill any information about money to their children. The kids grow up with very little concept of how money works and how to manage it wisely. The result of this can be detrimental when the child gets older and actually needs to budget their money and expenses. By giving your kids an allowance at a young age, you can help them learn basic math and financial literacy well before they actually need it.

    Showing Kids to Be Self-Assured

    Some parents have found a way to use an allowance for positive reinforcement. Your child needs to learn self-confidence, and you can try this simple trick with your kids. It is guaranteed to help them learn to be more self-assured.

    • Create an allowance jar and keep it in a prominent place.
    • Fill the jar with ones based on a set weekly allowance.
    • Make it clear that every time your child says “I can’t” they will lose a dollar from the jar.
    • Stick with the plan. This will teach kids to make an effort instead of immediately thinking they cannot do something.
    • At the end of the week, give them the money out of the jar.

    Essentially, this is a type of positive reinforcement in two different manners. You are teaching your kids to not be dependent on you for everything. In addition, you are gaining the other benefits of providing a child with an allowance.

    A Great Way to Teach Life Lessons

    Children need to learn what it means to actually earn their money and buy things they want. You can use an allowance to help them learn this very important life lesson. Here is what you will need to do:

    • Schedule certain chores that are your child’s responsibility. Make sure they know what chores they must complete and when.
    • Let them know that if they complete all of their chores, they will receive their allowance.
    • When your child wants something, like a new toy or a book, have them pay for the new item from their own allowance.

    When kids have to work for the things that they want, they will have a much greater appreciation for the value of money. While you definitely should to provide your children with everything they need, and some of their wants of course, you should allow them to use their own money toward some things.

    An allowance can actually be a very important learning tool for kids who are too young to work. While an allowance that is too high could cause some problems, creating a set amount that will give your kids some money each week can be a powerful tool. You can teach your children to be independent and self-assured. You can teach your kids how to manage their money. Finally, you can teach your kids what it means to earn their own money.

    About Clay Piggy:

    Clay Piggy is a virtual world gaming environment which teaches children basic money management skills and the concept of Earning, Spending, Saving, Investing and Giving in a fun and social way. Clay Piggy users choose their avatars by selecting and customizing their characters. Users earn virtual money by working at a job. Users also learn concept of credit score, different kinds of bank accounts, deposit money in bank, write checks and use debit / credit cards.

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 325

• Come on now, help a substitute Come on now, help a substitute teacher out!

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    We were looking over our blog index and noticed that, to date, we’ve tagged 48 blogs with “classroom management”; that doesn’t even take into account the 25 or so blogs that have been tagged similarly. We admit it, we felt that we might have been on the verge of exhausting all things classroom management, but then we found Farley’s blog, Oh, Boy 4^th Grade.
    
    

    This blog is just as much for you as it is for the substitute teachers who take over when you attend a conference, nurse your cold, or insert reason for absence here. 
    
    

    What do I do?
    Using a dry erase marker, Farley suggests writing each student a note directly on the desktop (it should come right off, but if not, an anti-bacterial wipe will work).
    
    

    Do you have a particularly “active” student who needs a personalized reminder? How about a classroom leader, someone the rest of your students respect and listen to? Do you need to remind one or two students to take something home to their parents? 
    
    

    You don’t have to labor over the process and you don’t have to write a message to each student, but if you can find the time, it couldn’t hurt. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your students are going to be “great helpers” or “awesome assistants” when substitute teachers take over, but it does remind them of your expectations and encourages them to make decisions that will make your return a jovial one.
    
    
    

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
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• Curriculum Impossible: Upgradi Curriculum Impossible: Upgrading

  • From: Michael_Fisher
  • Description:

     
    

    I’m a big fan of the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible.” The show features a struggling restaurant on the verge of going out of business and host Robert Irvine makes over the restaurant in hopes of saving it. I’ve watched several episodes of the show, and the structure is one that is applicable to upgrading curriculum work.

    1. What’s working? What’s not working? — Identify what you do well and should continue doing and then identify areas that need improvement.
    2. Prioritize improvements — Of the areas that need improvement, which ones need to happen sooner than later?
    3. Secondary considerations — Do those improvements have peripheral considerations that will impact the intended need? (For instance, if you decide that you want to upgrade a writing moment using a blog, how much teaching time will you need to devote to learning how to blog and use the tool?)
    4. Gather a team — For the needed improvements, who do you need on your team? Technology integrator? Other content areas? Those that think differently from you? Collaboration is key to effective upgrades.
    5. Budget time — Time is always a thorny issue. You need time for planning, implementation, and reflection.
    6. Budget resources — Use what you have. Leverage what you need from your team. Look for opportunities in places you haven’t looked before, such as Donorschoose.org or GrantWrangler.com.
    7. Ask the customer… the students – One of the missing pieces in Curriculum Design today is real input from the primary targets: the kids. I recently saw a tweet where a member of my network wrote that he supplied the students with an objective, then invited their opinions about how to reach it. Viable ideas were added to the plan.
    8. Implement — Unveil the upgrade and put it into place.
    9. Reflect and revise — What worked and what didn’t? What moves us forward and what holds us back?
    10. How do you sustain it? — Sustain your work by not letting it be an all-or-nothing “eggs in one basket” event. Get into the groove of continuous upgrades — one step, one unit, even one lesson, at a time.

    Additionally, this might be a novel way to approach upgrading other areas in a school, such as behavior/student management, interventions for students, modern methodologies, professional development and more. Anyone who reads me regularly knows that I like a good metaphor, and if a Food Network show can be involved — all the better!

    On the show, Irvine returns to the restaurant several weeks later to see how things are going (hence No. 9 and No. 10 above). Upgrading your curriculum doesn’t have to be an impossible task, though with all of the current nationwide changes it may feel insurmountable. The steps here are not meant to be a menu, though. I’ve written it as a linear process. One thing leads to the next, one step at a time. Find a way to do one step at a time. Slow and steady wins the race.

    Previously blogged on SmartBlogs in Education

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
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• 36 Things A 21st Century Teach 36 Things A 21st Century Teacher Should Be Able To Do

  • From: Terrell_Heick
  • Description:

    

    36 Things Every 21^st Century Teacher Should Be Able To Do

    by TeachThought.com

    1. Select the right platform to communicate.

    Whether you choose a text message, email, social media message, Skype session, or a Google+ Hangouts depends on who you need to communicate with and why—purpose and audience. So whether you’re sending an email to a parent when a phone call is necessary, or responding in a closed Google+ circle,choosing the right platform is everything.

    2. Send large files.

    Email won’t always work. You can use Evernote or dropbox; yousendit or SugarSync; a blog or a YouTube channel. Whatever you’re sending, a teacher in 2013 should be able to get it there quickly, and with minimal hassle from the recipient.

    3. Take a screenshot on PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

    Hit the Print Screen button near your number pad on a keyboard on Windows. Push down volume rocker and power buttons simultaneously on iOS and Android devices. Command-Shift-3 on Mac OSX.

    4. Appreciate memes.

    Know what it means to be Rick Roll’d, the difference between a fail and an epic fail, why Steve is a scumbag, and who sad Keannu is. You may not care, but your students do. Even if you choose not to speak their language and instead prefer the king’s tongue, you can at least understand what they’re saying, lol.

    5. Explain how and why to use technology to those who don’t use it.

    Not everyone loves technology. Not only is it not necessary for learning, it’s not even the most important part of learning (how did Socrates every get along without twitter?) That being said, it can indeed transform learning given the right instructional design and learning model. Communicating this to others that may not use it is increasingly important as a network building strategy and as a tool to be used locally to change culture.

    An RT as an olive branch.

    6. Use digital media in light of privacy, copyright, and other legal issues.

    Terms of Use, copyrights, spam, phishing, age requirements–the whole ever-evolving and hopelessly complex shebang. You may never master this, but don’t teach in the dark.

    7. Communicate clearly.

    Tone is lost when you type. Know this and pre-emptively address is with clarity, choosing the right platform to communicate, and even smiley faces if you have to.

    8. Search for, install, organize, use, and delete apps.

    This is dead-simple, but you never know.

    9. How to create, open, use, and share a variety of filetypes.

    What are the benefits of a PDF over a .doc file? When should you send a .wav file and when you should send an .mp3? How about a .jpg versus a png?

    10. Help students share files.

    Students need help “turning in” digital work. Digital portfolios help, as can blogs and social media platforms. Learning management systems can too. Whatever you use, help them figure it out.

    11. Subscribe to and manage YouTube channels, podcasts, learnist and pinterest boards, and other dynamic sources of digital media.

    Self explanatory, yes?

    12. Create and maintain digital portfolios.

    Of your own work, and for your students. The tools, habits, and strategies to do it well are accessible to anyone in the 21st century. You know, especially if you follow any blogs that cover this kind of thing.

    13. Blog.

    That doesn’t mean you have to blog, but blogging is the among the best ways for students to survey, combine, and share digital media. You may not have the energy—or desire—to blog, but to effectively teach your students, you should know the basics.

    14. Share learning data with students.

    Sharing is easy. Sharing visual and digestible data not so much. More on this one below on #34.

    15. Support students in managing their online “brand.”

    And this starts with what you model–your visible social media profiles, Google search results for your name. That means a professional image, and no cliché quote from Ghandi in 24 point yellow font.

    16. Manage your own social media and internet use.

    It’s a tool, not an end. Self-manage accordingly.

    17. Plan around a lack of technology elegantly.

    Not all students have access. Do all that you can to give students that lack it a similar experience.

    18. Delineate the difference between academics and entrepreneurial learning for students.

    And in a way that doesn’t completely undercut academic learning, but rather contextualizes it.

    

    19. Troubleshoot stuff that breaks.

    Be MacGyver with a keyboard. If the Wi-Fi signal drops, the app freezes, or the password just won’t take, have a plan.

    20. Skim and process large quantities of information.

    Otherwise you’ll drown in the very thinking and resource stream you’re trying to benefit from. A powerful combination to use here? An RSS reader like Google Reader connected to GetPocket.

    21. Use the cloud to your advantage.

    Offline access. Automatic syncing. Push notifications on apps. Writing and composition. Use the cloud.

    22. Model digital citizenship.

    To model it, we have to agree on what it means. We’ll talk more about this one soon, but for now, these resources should help.

    23. Casually name-drop reddit.

    Reddit is a downright cultish community of active and intelligent forum users that are addicted to socializing everything. And it’s awesome. If you don’t use it, try to mention it here and there as if you do (#streetcred), and when students ask just smile and nod your head a lot.

    24. Support students in finding their own voice.

    It’s not as simple as “band, books, or cheerleading” anymore. With visibility comes nuance. Now we have facebook groups of cheerleaders who are left-handed and prefer Fiji water over Dasani 50,000 members strong. Luckily, technology can step in and help–drawing, music, acting, writing, a charismatic YouTube channel; it’s now unnecessary for any student to be anonymous and isolated.

    25. Research effectively.

    And then model that effective research for students constantly in highly visible ways.

    25. Use formal or informal learning management systems.

    Whether you use a formal LMS, or just setup a Google+ Circle or community, either can help frame your curriculum for students and parents.

    26. Leverage the relationship between physical and digital media.

    What is the relationship between the app, the YouTube channel, the podcast, the play, and the poem? This is something you need to figure out–especially the English-Language Arts/Literature teachers among you.

    27. Highlight the limits of technology.

    If we don’t understand both the micro and macro impact of technology–the good and the bad–we’re doomed as a species to be completely overran by it. Sounds dramatic, but it just might be true.

    28. Connect students with communities using project-based learning.

    This can be one of the most powerful things you do, as it moves the learning from sterile classrooms to authentic audiences.

    29. Model the value of questions over answers.

    This shift changes the whole tone of the learning process.

    30. Understand how play leads to learning.

    Play is not a whimsical recreation, but a zen-like cognitive resonance that rips learning out of the hands of well-meaning adults and seeks to self-direct children through experiment, fail, and try again.

    31. Use Game-Based Learning effectively.

    That doesn’t mean to just play video games, or make students play them then ask them awkward questions about their experience, but to understand how video games support both academic and authentic learning.

    32. Curate functionally.

    What to save and how to save it? Great questions. And what kind of process do you have to keep from  hoarding digital resources and actually use all the crap you save? An even better one.

    33. Record, process, mash, publish, and distribute digital media.

    Digital media is likely the future of learning. So, begin the transition.

    34. Visualize learning data for students.

    This is different than just sharing an alphanumeric digit–this is about knowledge, progress, and the right data and the right time that is packaged in a highly-digestible way.

    35. Connect with other educators both in person and online.

    Don’t be a twitter diva; don’t be a Luddite. Find a blend.

    36. Personalize learning.

    To genuinely and fully personalize learning for all of your students in a typical K-20 public school or university is impossible (unless we have different definitions of personalized learning).

    And that’s why this is last.

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 1065

• Use Emotional Intelligence as Use Emotional Intelligence as an Effectiveness Tool

  • From: Mamzelle_Adolphine
  • Description:

    This post is a part of the ASCD Forum conversation “how do we define and measure teacher and principal effectiveness?” To learn more about the ASCD Forum, go to www.ascd.org/ascdforum.

    Scenario:  the principal hires a consultant to observe teachers.  The consultant observes one teacher and reports to the principal.  Dissatisfied with the consultant's findings, the principal storms into the teacher's classroom and yells at her while informing her that she is displeased with the consultant’s report. The teacher learns for the first time that she has not met expectations for the past four months.  The teacher is in tears.  Knowledge of the incident spreads throughout the school.  

    Could the principal have handled the situation differently?  Daniel Goleman’s framework for Emotional Intelligence (EI) is instructive in this regard.  (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, to control and to evaluate one’s emotions.  Goleman's framework consists of five elements, which when employed, can result in more effective leadership and a higher level of managerial prowess.  The five elements are:

    1.     1.  self-awareness - being aware of your emotion

    2.     2.  self- regulation - controlling emotions and impulses

    3.     3.  motivation - reason for acting in a particular way/willingness to do something

    4.     4.  empathy - understanding others emotions

    5.     5.  social skills - how one communicates with others 

    Here is how these elements might play out with regard to the scenario described above.

    First, the principal embraces how she feels when she receives the consultant's feedback (self-awareness).  Pausing to acknowledge her feelings helps restrain the desire to rush immediately to speak to the teacher (self-regulation). 

    Next comes self-questioning; what gave rise to the feelings?  Given that the principal knew of the teacher's poor performance months before receiving the consultant's report, are the feelings more a result of guilt from not intervening to assist the teacher earlier than of discontent with the teacher's performance, or due to another matter that is unrelated to the teacher?  Why the teacher was not given help the first time the principal realized that her performance was poor?  What can be done to prevent this from happening again (motivation)? Such questioning moves the principal to examine her managerial and leadership practices.  

    The final step is damage control.  Keeping in mind that the entire school is now aware of the incident and that such knowledge can affect morale, what can the principal do to counter this possibility?  Having done her introspection the principal can now have an honest conversation with the teacher.  One in which she (a) acknowledges her shortcomings in terms of  lack of support and the manner in which she conveyed her views about the teacher’s performance (b) states her willingness to hear about and from the teacher regarding her performance and (c) conveys in a positive, non-threatening manner what she expects from the teacher (empathy and social skills).

    Of course, putting the “self” on the spot in this way is not easy to do but doing so promotes an enduring self-development.  However, using EI to ensure effective leadership and management, is highly dependent on whether the principal views her role as that of a sole proprietor, or, as a member of a cooperative.  If it is the latter, then EI would be embraced.

    Source:

    Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence:  Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books: New York.

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 537
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• Surprising Facts about Financi Surprising Facts about Financial Literacy in the US

  • From: Clay_Piggy
  • Description:

    Do you want to hear something rather alarming and more than a little scary? According to a report completed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about financial literacy in America, the people of our country are in a really dangerous boat. A direct quote from the SEC report stated that “American investors lack essential knowledge of the most rudimentary financial concepts.” (http://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2012/917-financial-literacy-study-part1.pdf)  What does this mean? It means that the modern American has little to no idea of how to create a comfortable financial situation for their retirement years, and the problem is only getting worse.

    This is not the only scary news. The following facts about financial literacy in the US may open your eyes to a big problem that could even be affecting your own household. Below are some facts to consider.

    Many Americans Just Do Not Know

    When the survey was taken, many of the questions had to do with retirement, stocks, and bonds. Essentially, the study questions were to show whether or not Americans knew how to invest their money in order to save for retirement. The scary part is the vast majority of people answered these investment related questions with one choice: “do not know.” This was not just seen sometimes, but for many questions, it was the majority answer. Americans just do not know how to use investment options for their retirement savings.

    Life Questions

    Another study was completed by a prominent life insurance company, and it showed results that back up the SEC study. Perhaps the most alarming part of this study is that it was given in the form of a quiz and the majority of Americans straight out failed the quiz. The test was not especially in-depth, but instead focused on defining terms related to finance and retirement, and more than 60% of those who took the quiz failed.

    High School Blues

    The problem of financial illiteracy is growing with the younger generations as well. A study of high school seniors showed just this. One study, which was performed by the MoneyTrack Company, showed that less than 40% of high school seniors knew how to accurately define the term, “pension” which is one of the most basic financial retirement terms out there.

    Retirement Fears

    An article by financial experts, John Reeves and Ilan Moscovitz about financial literacy in America indicates that “75% of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts.” (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/09/05/19-alarming-things-we-learned-about-financial-lit.aspx). This is not even enough money to live off of for a year. This indicates very clearly the problem of financial literacy in America. Too many people have no idea how to save money and become financially stable, and it is beginning to take a bigger and bigger toll on the citizens of the US.

    What does this mean for you? If you have not taken the time to learn about your own finances, investments, and retirement planning, then consider these facts a wakeup call. You certainly do not want to find yourself near retirement age with no money to live off of. Additionally, it means you need to change how you are teaching your children about finances. The only way we can ensure that future generations have stronger financial literacy is to start teaching about finances even when kids are at a young age.

    There are many ways you can teach your kids about finances even if they are young, and the more you get them involved now, the fewer problems they will have in the future. Do not let your own kids to be one of the survey facts above or they could end up with big financial problems in the future.

    About Clay Piggy:

    Clay Piggy is a virtual world gaming environment which teaches children basic money management skills and the concept of Earning, Spending, Saving, Investing and Giving in a fun and social way. Clay Piggy users choose their avatars by selecting and customizing their characters. Users earn virtual money by working at a job. Users also learn concept of credit score, different kinds of bank accounts, deposit money in bank, write checks and use debit / credit cards.

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
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• Going Paperless: Podcasting yo Going Paperless: Podcasting your Student Progress Reports

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    As you know, students aren’t always the most reliable couriers. Sometimes “Friday” folders come back with a parent’s signature, sometimes not. Sometimes the progress reports were delivered; sometimes they were insert excuse here. On the whole, folders are a useful organizational tool; they’re also nice for strengthening lines of communication between you and parents. But we happen to think there’s a more efficient way to keep parents up to date on their child’s progress—one that might actually cut down on your paperwork and guarantee that your messages will be delivered.
    
    

    Using Voxie Pro to Record Student Progress Reports
    In lieu of a weekly evaluation or progress note for every student, what if you were to spend a measly $4.99 on Voxie Pro (bottle rocket), an app that allows you to record CD-quality audio files to your phone and email them directly to parents?
    
    

    Your messages can be as long as you need, but 60 to 90 seconds should be more than enough time for you to:
    
    

    • State the student’s name along with the date
    • Briefly describe student progress, both socially and academically, over the last week
    • Offer suggestions for how the student can improve
    • Ask parents questions about the student and request that they call or email you answers
      
      

    What’s wrong with handwritten progress reports?
    Besides the fact that they’re so commonly “lost or eaten” by insert animal/person/thing here, there’s also the fact that many teachers have resorted to turning evaluations into vague checklists they can work through quickly.
    
    

    But can we really boil our students’ progress, both socially and academically, down to “Outstanding,” “Satisfactory,” or “Needs Improvement?” We think not. On top of this, checklists offer little opportunity to share your personality or offer substantive feedback. Podcasting gives parents the opportunity to actually hear you. In fact, they can even create their own podcasts and email them back to you.
    
    

    Podcasting your students’ progress reports is only one way to “digitally enhance” communication between you and your students’ parents. If you’re looking for other ideas, you might check out one of our recent blogs, 5 More Indispensable Classroom Management Apps. Pay specific attention to an app called Remind 101. We think you’ll find it useful.
    
    

     

                              

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
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• 5 qualities of an effective te 5 qualities of an effective teacher—according to those who hired them

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    It’s only February, but we’ve got springtime on the brain—and so does an army of portfolio-toting teachers who are looking for new opportunities and “teacherless” classrooms. If you’re wondering what to expect during your interview or what qualities principals are looking for in an effective teacher, you’re in luck: We’ve boiled down five qualities that real-life principals listed as their "must-haves" when hiring effective teachers at all levels.

    5 qualities of an effective teacher—according to those who hired them

    1. Passion. Surprised? Probably not. "Passion" or "enthusiasm" is repeated over and over by those who understand what it takes to really be successful in this profession. Depending on where you teach, and what level/subject is your forte, you might come in contact with hundreds of students a day and thousands over the course of a career. You can’t fake passion—and if you don’t have passion for your students and your subject matter, you’re going to have a tough time convincing administrators that you have what it takes to be an effective teacher.
       
       
    2. Je ne se quoi. Teachers have to possess that "special something”—or as the French say, "I don't know what." We all know it when we meet people who have it. It's a little extra heart spark that burns inside them and draws people to them. That "special something" helps teachers relate with a diverse student population at a non-verbal level and lets students know they are valued, understood, and seen as individuals with their own unique needs. Teachers who have that je ne se quoi are beloved by their students, regardless of whether or not their students love the subject matter.
       
       
    3. A Plan. There is a good chance your interview will include a question like, "So, describe what we'll encounter when we walk in during the middle of a class period?" or "What is your classroom management plan?" The answer to these questions indicates whether a teacher is organized, has time management skills, has experience and/or is intuitive to the needs of the students. The most effective teachers know that plans change at a moment’s notice, but still—an overarching purpose is always better than a foundation shaped like a big question mark.
       
       
    4. Loves to learn. The best students have an innate curiosity that can't be squelched. Likewise, the most effective teachers share this trait. An effective teacher never stops learning. Whether it’s the simple things, like what works and what doesn't, or the hard things, like what the heck is quantum physics all about anyway? Teachers who are excited about learning will have a much better time inspiring the same excitement in their students. Plus, administration can rest assured the teacher will keep abreast of the rapidly changing technological realm.
       
       
    5. A sense of humor. If you don't have a good sense of humor, we wish you the best of luck and hope you can find one. There are hard days ahead; if you don’t learn to laugh at the struggles and yourself, it isn’t going to take long for you to burn out.  Miserable teachers are never effective—they’re also the easiest targets for “challenging” students.   

    There are very few careers that allow us the opportunity to touch lives on a daily basis. Teaching is definitely one of them. So make sure your "Teaching Bag o' Tricks" is loaded with the five qualities listed above and you will have a great shot at becoming an effective teacher.

                                                                    

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 840

• L2L News: February 2013 L2L News: February 2013

  • From: Meg_Simpson
  • Description:

     ASCD Leader to Leader (L2L) News is a monthly e-mail newsletter for ASCD constituent group leaders that builds capacity to better serve members, provides opportunities to promote and advocate for ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative, and engages groups through sharing and learning about best practices. To submit a news item for the L2L newsletter, send an e-mail to constituentservices@ascd.org.

    Your To-Do List: Action Items for ASCD Leaders

    • üWe are seeking blog post writers for the ASCD Forum. How do you think teacher and principal effectiveness should be defined and measured? Constituent Services is seeking ASCD leaders who are interested in writing blog posts aligned with a series of themes on the topic of educator effectiveness. To learn more, e-mail Meg Simpson at constituentservices@ascd.org.
    • üRegister now for ASCD’s Annual Conference.ASCD President Debra Hill invites you to the 2013 Annual Conference & Exhibit Show in her hometown of Chicago, Ill., March 16–18.
    • üSubmit a proposal for ASCD’s 2014 Annual Conference. ASCD is now accepting proposals for 2014 Annual Conference presentations until May 15.
    • üNominate a colleague for the ASCD Emerging Leaders program. ASCD is accepting nominations and applications for the Emerging Leaders program until April 1. For more information, go to www.ascd.org/emergingleaders.

     

    The ASCD Forum Has Begun

    For the first time, ASCD is hosting a forum to focus on a topic of importance to educators across the globe. Nations, states, and provinces all around the world are grappling with the issue of educator effectiveness. ASCD invites all educators to make their voices heard in an ongoing discussion of the question, “How do we define and measure teacher and principal effectiveness?” The current discussion theme is:

            Educator Preparation (February 3–16): What is the role and responsibility of educator preparation programs to foster and sustain effectiveness?

    Upcoming themes include:

    •  Educator Evaluation Purpose (February 17 – March 2): What is the purpose of educator evaluation systems?
    • Educator Evaluation Systems (March 3 – 16):  What research and evidence support the validity of existing evaluation systems?
    • Multiple Measures (March 17 – 30): What measures do we use and how do we weight them to measure educator effectiveness?
    • Conclusion:How do we define and measure teacher effectiveness? (March 31 – April 6)
    • Conclusion: How do we define and measure principal effectiveness? (April 7 – 12)

          The ASCD Forum concludes April 12. To join the conversation, educators are invited to blog on ASCD EDge®social network, comment on other blog posts, take a survey, and attend a live session at ASCD Annual Conference. Results from the ASCD Forum conversations will inform the ASCD Board of Directors’ position development process. To learn more about the ASCD Forum, join the ASCD Forum group on ASCD EDge or contact constituentservices@ascd.org.

     

    ASCD Releases 2013 Legislative Agenda

    ASCD’s 2013 Legislative Agenda (PDF) urges Congress to immediately reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and replace it with a comprehensive rewrite that fixes the current law’s flaws; aligns with and supports current state and local initiatives; and guides revisions to other federal programs, such as special education and career and technical education.

    The legislative agenda, developed by ASCD members and recently released at ASCD’s Leadership Institute for Legislative Advocacy (LILA) in Washington, D.C., offers three key policy recommendations to Congress as part of any ESEA reauthorization. Together, the recommendations advance the goal of educating students who are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, and who graduate ready for the demands of college, careers, and citizenship.

    • Support meaningful accountability systems that determine student proficiency, school quality, and educator effectiveness by tracking student growth, differentiating among performance levels, and using multiple evaluation measures beyond standardized test scores. 
    • Promote comprehensive improvement strategies that engage all stakeholders and are grounded in a whole child approach to education. Interventions for those who do not meet expectations need to be commensurate with their level of performance. Meanwhile, districts and schools that consistently perform well or demonstrate growth should receive rewards and incentives, including the flexible use of federal funds.
    • Help educators support students through adequate and effective preparation and ongoing professional development. In addition, teacher and administrator evaluations must drive high-quality professional development opportunities that build district and school capacity; enhance classroom management, planning, and preparation; and address effective instructional practices and subject-area content consistent with standards that prepare students for college and careers.

    As part of LILA, ASCD educator advocates from across the country discussed these recommendations with their federal lawmakers on Capitol Hill. We ask you to build on their work by sharing the 2013 Legislative Agenda (PDF) with your colleagues and elected officials.

     

    Alabama Featured in ASCD Inservice Blog Series

    ASCD asked some of our affiliate leaders to tell us how the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been going in their home states.  In the fourth post of the series, Alabama ASCD Executive Director Jane Cobia writes about the challenges and successes that Alabama has had with CCSS implementation.

    Previous Posts:

    • Arkansas ASCD
    • New Hampshire ASCD
    • Florida ASCD 

     

    ASCD Leaders to Ignite ASCD Annual Conference

    With the tagline “Enlighten us, but make it quick,” Ignite presentations are a fast-paced, breathtaking, and inspiring way to share stories. Each presentation is 20 slides long, and each slide automatically advances every 15 seconds; this format keeps the presentations moving quickly. The following ASCD leaders will present their Whole Child stories in Ignite session format at ASCD Conference on Saturday, March 16:

    • 2011 Emerging Leader Kimberly White Glenn
    • 2010 Emerging Leader and Maryland ASCD President-Elect David Stovenour
    • Western Kentucky University Student Chapter Leaders Rachel Glass and Kateiri Kintz with Student Chapter Faculty Advisor Rebecca Stobaugh
    • 2011 Emerging Leader Doug Paulson
    • 2012 Emerging Leader Jessica Bohn
    • Assessment for Learning Professional Interest Community Facilitator Michael Rulon
    • ASCD Board of Directors Member Gabriel Rshaid
    • OYEA Honoree and 2010 Emerging Leader Dallas Dance
    • 2012 Emerging Leader Ember Conley
    • 2010 Emerging Leader and Florida ASCD Board Member Jason Flom

          Please join us for an exciting Saturday afternoon session from 1:00–2:30 p.m.!

     

    Join the ASCD Forum Conversation

    The ASCD Forum has begun, and you’re invited to be a part of it! Check out these ASCD EDge posts on teacher and principal effectiveness:

    • Welcome to the ASCD Forum (Includes guidelines on how to participate)
    • How Do We Give Students Equitable Access to Effective Teachers and Principals?
    • Mosaic of Effectiveness by Jason Flom, 2010 ASCD Emerging Leader and Florida ASCD Board Member
    • Access and Equity by Michael DeCaprio, 2012 ASCD Emerging Leader
    • Reflecting on the Value I Add  by Brooke Eisenbach
    • Take the ASCD Forum Access and Equity Survey
    • Resources for Access and Equity
    • Keepin’ It Real: Preparation Pathways that Work, by Fred Ende, 2012 ASCD Emerging Leader
    • What is the role and responsibility of educator preparation programs to foster and sustain effectiveness? By Suzann Girtz, 2011 ASCD Emerging Leader
    • Reflecting on Teacher Preparation Programs by Dawn Imada Chan, 2012 ASCD Emerging Leader

    Conversation is also taking place in the ASCD Forum group on ASCD EDge, and the #ASCDForum hashtag on Twitter. Join us! For more information, go to www.ascd.org/ascdforum.

     

    Throughout February at wholechildeducation.org: Safe Schools

    Safety is and always will be a fundamental concern for schools. Students who aren’t or don’t feel safe at school cannot learn, and schools must ensure that their environments are both secure and supportive. The current debate on school safety brings with it a renewed interest in addressing safety, school climate, and mental health concerns at schools and promises to improve school policy and practice.

    Yet while the current debate has engaged the nation in community-wide discussions, it also has the potential to overlook the voice of educators. Join us throughout February as we look at what educators (teachers, administrators, and counselors) believe is crucial to making our schools safe—not just physically safe, but safe places to teach and learn. What can educators do to implement and reinforce the conditions for learning where students are physically and emotionally safe; learn to manage their emotions and relationships positively; and are connected to the school, community, and caring adults?

    Download the Whole Child Podcast, check out the Whole Child Blog, and tell us what has worked in your school and with your students. E-mail us to share resources, research, and examples.

      

    Opportunity to Learn, Teach, and Lead

    What does it mean to be a teacher, a learner, and a leader in today’s schools and classrooms? What do we need to be effective? How will the current standards movement affect us, as professionals, and our students? How do we find the answers to these questions? Read more on the Whole Child Blog.

    In December and January, we looked at what we can do to implement the Common Core standards within a whole child approach. Listen to the Whole Child Podcast with guests Arnold Fege, president of Public Advocacy for Kids; Craig Mertler, professor and dean of the Ross College of Education at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.; and David Griffith, director of public policy at ASCD, who leads the development and implementation of ASCD’s legislative agenda (PDF) as well as ASCD’s efforts to influence education decision making at the local, state, and federal levels.

    Have you signed up to receive the Whole Child Newsletter? Read January’s newsletter and visit the archive for more strategies, resources, and tools you can use to help ensure that each child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

     

    The Time Is Now: Make the Case for Educating the Whole Child

    Whether you are a parent, educator, or community member, you can help turn political rhetoric about “investing in the future of our children” into reality. Updated with crucial research and real-world examples of education policies and practices that ensure students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, Making the Case for Educating the Whole Child (PDF) is a free advocacy tool that you can use as you work with policymakers, the media, and other groups. You can also add your local statistics and success stories so that decision makers in your community understand the difference a whole child education can make. Learn more.

     

    Something to Talk About

    ·         Most recent blog posts on ASCD EDge®

    ·         Most-clicked stories from ASCD SmartBrief

     

    Association News

    ·         Results-Only Learning the Subject of Pioneering Educator Mark Barnes’s New ASCD Book—ASCD is pleased to announce the release of Role Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom by Mark Barnes, 20-year classroom teacher and creator of the Results Only Learning Environment (ROLE). In this groundbreaking book, Barnes walks middle and high school teachers through the fundamentals of a ROLE. Results-only learning eliminates traditional practices—homework, worksheets, tests, and even grades—and replaces them with student-driven, yearlong projects that enable students to sharpen and expand their skills. Read the full press release.

    ·         Pinellas County Schools and ASCD Partner to Support Common Core Implementation—The award-winning Pinellas County Schools (PCS) has chosen ASCD as its newest professional development partner. The seventh largest school system in Florida, PCS serves 104,000 preK–12th grade students in more than 145 schools. Read the full press release.

    ·         ASCD Releases 2013 Legislative Agenda—ASCD released its 2013 legislative agenda (PDF). Developed by the association’s Legislative Committee, which is a diverse cross-section of ASCD members representing the entire spectrum of K–12 education, the 2013 ASCD Legislative Agenda outlines the association’s federal public policy priorities for the year. The key priority for ASCD and its members in 2013 is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Read the full press release.

    ·         ASCD Introduces the New PD QuickKit—ASCD introduces the new PD QuickKit® digital packs. PD QuickKits are a cost-effective, powerful new professional development option that combines engaging multimedia resources focused on the most important issues in education today. Read the full press release.

     

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
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• Where Are the Education Leader Where Are the Education Leaders?

  • From: Tom_Whitby
  • Description:

    I read a post recently talking about education leaders coming from teachers. That, in my experience, is a very difficult transition for really dedicated classroom teachers to make. They are too often consumed with doing what is needed to be a great classroom teacher. Even when professional education organizations recruit leaders for their own organizations on the state, or national levels, teachers from their ranks often cannot get enough release time from their individual schools to serve in the high-time-demanding positions required to move up the ladder of leadership in those organizations. Often times, administrators, or education consultants move into these organizational leadership positions.

    I am not saying that Administrators are poor leaders, or bad people. I am pointing out that they have a unique perspective and often one not close to that of a classroom teacher. YES, there are exceptions, and every administrator reading this post probably sees himself, or herself as such an exception. The point here however is that, in many instances, the further away from a classroom that an Education leader gets, the less the leadership becomes about education and the more it is affected by other influences.

    It is understandable how this change in perspective happens. Moving from the decisions about learning to the decisions about building management, staff management, budget management, public relations, labor relations, teacher observations, schedule maintenance, community relations, Board meetings, and political considerations as a focus to lead a school or district is a shift from learning considerations being the focus. Such is the stuff of administration, and understandably there is little time left for much else. It is no wonder that the average career lifespan in a district of an administrator is less than three years. Of course administrators leaving buildings and districts after such short periods of time complicates things even more in a negative way for a variety of reasons, but that requires another post.

    Next, we need to consider the influence of technology on our leaders. Data is King. Administrative decisions can now be more easily made and numbers can be tallied in the blink of an eye. We can call it researched-based decision-making, because we have the ability to easily quantify things. We have the all-powerful numbers. The question facing our leaders would be what things to quantify. Do we have the right numbers answering the right questions? What should we be assessing and how do we do it? Does assessment always require testing?

    Who gets to make up the questions becomes key. Our politicians are concerned with elections and they will be driven by whatever the popular sentiment is, whether or not it is based in fact, or if it has an impact on learning. Our business leaders will be driven by whatever is profit bearing, whether or not has any bearing on learning. Then we have the media leaders who are driven by both the leaders of politics, as well as the leaders of business, and of course popular sentiment will drive the entire bus with all on board.

    There are many things that are wrong with our education system, which cries out for leadership and change. Of course the greatest negative influences on education, which are often overlooked, come from the outside. Issues like poverty, security, safety, nutrition, health, and family support are some of these issues. That is all further complicated by political interference, as well as a mythology built around learning, motivation, and real assessment of learning. How are these measured? How will any core curriculum or standardization change these factors of influence? Non-educators claiming enough knowledge about education constantly legislate, and mandate many things that prove to educators to be counter productive to learning. Why is this met with such little resistance from educators? A better question might be why have educators been quiet about their objections?

    Why were educators removed from the national discussion on education? How did education leaders allow this to happen? Who stood up for education?

    Ask educators today where they stand on standardized testing and compare that answer to the national agenda. I believe they will be diametrically opposing positions. Who are the education leaders that allowed this to get so far from where we should be going? I wish I could point to the leaders standing up for education. I wish we could point to specific people directing the reform movement beyond just Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and Michael Bloomberg. Those are the voices that have a platform, but how many have an education portfolio of experience?

    I know the standout leaders of connected educators who speak out on many issues. I know Keynote speakers and education authors at National and statewide Education Conferences who regularly express many of the same the same concerns. They all seem to be cheerleaders for the cause of education, but have not found a way to lead educators. Is it the lack of leaders or the lack of access to a medium to get the message out?“Why is this post filled with so many unanswered questions?” is a question that a leader should answer. Who steps up for education? Where are our leaders? What medium do we use for the educator’s voice? Politicians, business people and media people always have access to media and the public audience. Educators after being demoralized in too many cases are limited and seem to be far less inclined to speak out about needed reforms in education.  But then again, even if politicians, business people and media folks were to manage their own industries and get out of education, who will step up to fill the void? Who are the real educators who will lead the real reform for education?

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 312

• Avoiding Teacher Burnout: 5 Mo Avoiding Teacher Burnout: 5 More Stress Management Tips

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

     

     

    You spend a great deal of your life thinking about your students, don’t you? You tinker with your lesson plans; you scrap them; you reinvent them again and again, trying to find the best way to engage every student because you know that “teach to the top” is not a viable option. Then the weekend comes around and you spend much of your time “off,” well, on—because you’re responding to student papers and preparing for the next week. And this doesn’t even take into account all the other life duties you’ve signed on to.

     

    If this doesn’t fit your profile, we’d like to know your secret to success. But our instinct tells us that many teachers, particularly those who are new to the profession, often feel that they’re hanging on by a thread. We don’t want you to become a statistic*, so we’re offering 5 more tips to help you avoid teacher burnout.

     

    Avoiding Teacher Burnout: 5 More Stress Management Tips
    

     

    Make the 15-minute habit a habit
    Like most, we had a penchant for the snooze button—until it dawned on us that those 15 minutes of “rest” were always squandered once we got out of bed anyway. Think about the last time you slept in. Were you more rested when you got up? Probably not. More than likely you were more stressed out because you had to make up for those 15 minutes by cutting corners.

     

    Stop hitting snooze and always give yourself 15 extra minutes on top of what it takes you to get ready. Try it. Once you get to class, you’ll find that your mind isn’t racing and your thoughts aren’t being crowded out with the noise of the morning.

     

    Set your goals and reevaluate your commitments in relation to them
    Many of us have a hard time saying no because, let’s face it, more responsibilities often lead to more opportunities. But are those opportunities high impact? Are they the opportunities we really want? Or are they the opportunities we’ve aimlessly pursued or felt guilty saying no to?

     

    Before you say yes to the next offer, put down your goals in writing. What’s important to you? What do you truly want to achieve? Do you want your weekends free? Do you want to spend more time with your family? Do you want to go to Europe? Now consider whether or not this new opportunity will help you realize these goals.

     

    Take 10-15 minutes a day to deal with the dreaded deeds
    We’ve all got a list of dreaded deeds that hang off in the periphery of our day. Failing to deal with them simply imbues them with more power than they’d have if we simply chipped away at them for a measly 10 or 15 minutes a day.
    
    
    Come on now, it's only 20-25% of an entire hour. You can handle that. Set a timer if that helps. You may surprise yourself by becoming so absorbed you end up completing the task sooner than you anticipated. If you don't finish, you'll be making good headway. Your mind can rest easy knowing you'll continue taking care of the DD for 10-15 more manageable minutes tomorrow, which further reduces your stress. It isn’t particularly profound, but it’s true.

     

    Can't find a mentor? Hit the Internet
    Platforms like Edmodo, Schoology, ASCD Edge and Classroom 2.0 can connect you with hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of educators in a few short clicks. Maybe you’re looking for a safe environment where you can garner advice, curriculum ideas or lesson plans…these are the places to go if you can’t find someone in your school or district as a mentor.

     

    Your school may have limited funding. Your colleagues and your principal may seem more like nebulous objects than mentors, but the fact of matter is that there’s a boundless, borderless global community of educators at your fingertips. You may not have met them yet, but they’re there for you.
    
    
    Go Home
    We stole this one from Andrew Miller. There’s always more to do, right? There are meetings, tutoring sessions, grading…but it can wait—all of it. Set boundaries; set aside a specific time every day to do something that nurtures you physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, etc. Go home! Revere this time like you would any after-school tutoring session or faculty meeting. The world and all its ungraded papers can wait—at least for one hour. 

     

     *15 percent of teachers leave the profession and another 14 percent change schools after their first year, often as the result of feeling overwhelmed, ineffective, and unsupported.

     

    Ingersoll, R. M., & Smith, T. M. (2003). The wrong solution to the teacher shortage. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 30–33.
    
    
    * Case studies have observed novice teachers struggling "just trying to come up with enough curriculum" and often spending 10 to 12 hours a day juggling lesson planning, grading, and the myriad demands of paperwork, committees, and extracurricular assignments.
    
    
    Fry, S. W. (2007). First-year teachers and induction support: Ups, downs, and in-betweens. The Qualitative Report, 12(2), 216–237.

     

    If you're looking for more career and curriculum-enhancing ideas, check out some of our most resources by downloading our Best of 2012 guide!

     

     

    
  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
  • Views: 1937

• What is the role and responsib What is the role and responsibility of educator preparation programs to foster and sustain effectiveness?

  • From: Suzann_Girtz
  • Description:

     
    This post is a part of the ASCD Forum conversation “how do we define and measure teacher and principal effectiveness?” To learn more about the ASCD Forum, go to www.ascd.org/ascdforum, or join the ASCD Forum group on ASCD EDge.

    
    

    What is the role and responsibility of educator preparation programs to foster and sustain effectiveness?

    
    

    This question was posed by the ASCD to elicit blog posts as part of a series.  It was just one in a string of questions about teacher effectiveness and the evaluation of such.  So, I acknowledge that the issue is much greater than this one question and I hope all educators will see that preparatory programs play a substantial role in defining the reputation of the profession.  This is an important question – whether you are a preservice or inservice educator.

     

    Presumably, the word “effectiveness” typically alludes to the capacity of a teacher to influence his/her students’ achievement.  While there is currently no direct measure of such effectiveness, a picture can be painted from at least three types of measures:  (1) classroom observations, (2) student perception surveys and (3) student achievement gains (MET study, 2012, http://www.metproject.org/).  So how do teacher preparation programs develop candidates that can perform well across those measures?

     

    I began by asking preservice teacher candidates the same title question.  Their responses are below the dotted line.  A repeated theme across their answers was, “Get us out in the field.”  Teacher candidates understand that the value of what they learn in the University classroom multiplies upon application to the field classroom.  It becomes real.  It becomes relevant.   Having a strong connection to the field cannot be underestimated in terms of its importance to teacher education programs, and should be central to their development.

     

    I agree and want people to consider an additional way to connect higher education to the field that has not yet developed. Allow me to follow the thread of reasoning begun with the question regarding effectiveness.  Presumably, to increase anything – its helpful if that thing is measurable so that we are aware of impacts.  So effectiveness can be connected directly to evaluation, and it does seem that good teaching can be “measured”, according to the MET study.  Those tangible measurables, the complicated pieces of a complex undertaking, get publicized in simplistic ways which are then consumed by a public that opines about the reputation of the profession. That is the thread that I want to pull, all the while acknowledging that none of this is as simple as is presented in this short piece.

     

    Currently there is no consistent standard to become a practicing teacher.  Therefore, it is difficult to see if effectiveness is fostered except for within small communities of learners – which has its own value to be sure.  However, as a profession, teachers have no single bar via evaluation to demonstrate effectiveness.  Is it any wonder then that local opinions of the profession (“Oh, our teachers are great.  We love them!”) vary so widely with national opinion (“Our schools are just not effective.”)?  Might it be that simply having a consistent minimum description of a beginning-beginner teacher would impact public opinion?  Not only would it give the public something to hold on to rather than a different set of measures for every community, but it would also show a consistent standard for entry into the profession, much like the bar exam for lawyers.  (Shortly after I penned this, NPR aired a segment that relates to that very notion, available at http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170579245/union-backs-bar-exam-for-teachers.)  However, the education profession might then have the additional opportunity to develop support for sustained growth in the profession as teachers went out into the field if this baseline informed ongoing professional development.  We could use its power for good – at the same time influencing the perception of the profession, entering the public policy conversation, and reclaiming our standing as a profession built on a body of researched-based best practices, not a cookbook set of skills.

     

    The pieces are already being built.  (I thought it was interesting that the NRP piece did not mention that.)  The Teacher Performance Assessment, known as the edTPA (https://www.edtpa.com/) for preservice teachers, is well into field-testing and currently used by over 20 states.  Washington inservice teachers are working with the Teacher-Evaluation Pilot, or TPEP (http://tpep-wa.org/).  There is overlap between the efforts, to be sure – but connections, ties that might strengthen the reputation of the profession as the evaluations roll out and impact public opinion, are not yet intentional, standardized, or formalized within the state.

     

    But Washington is an “accelerated” state for these efforts, one of the first to tie such evaluations as the edTPA to consequential policy required by every teacher certification program, and the TPEP into all schools.  As both systems, higher education and P-12 move forward with these efforts, what is their responsibility to each other?  Acknowledging that mutuality is certainly a facet of the answer to:

    What is the role and responsibility of educator preparation programs to foster and sustain effectiveness?

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Second and third-year undergraduate teacher candidates’ responses are found below:

    
    It is my belief that an education preparation program must expose their students to as much field experience as possible. This is vital. They must have active learning as opposed to learning from textbooks and lectures. Students in this program must also be exposed to effective teaching materials as well as resources to expand on this. In addition they must be familiar with the teaching materials and absolutely should use them before using them in their own classroom. In addition, the program should also make certain their students know teaching is an on-going learning experience which will never be perfected, but should be something to work towards. - Erin Loe

    
    In order to make effective teachers an education preparation program is responsible for preparing educators in 4 different ways. First by giving the tools and practice necessary for educators to plan their classes, for instance practice creating lesson and unit plans and developing a curriculum for their respective content areas. Second, by helping the future educators to develop their assessments in a way that will benefit their students learning the most, learning to use differentiation appropriately in a classroom. Thirdly, by learning how to apply findings from the assessments in the classroom in order to make sure that the subject matter is being understood by the students. Finally, being able to use these skills in a classroom with real students and get the students engaged in the lesson being taught and making it relevant to their students’ lives. - Zach O’Neill

    
    Teacher education programs must keep candidates informed on current issues in education. Since the teaching profession is constantly changing with new curriculum, technology, assessments, and legislation, candidates need to be aware of what is happening and adapt to these changes. Though it is crucial to teach candidates about these issues in class, the best way for them to learn is through experience. Candidates should have many different field experiences and service learning projects in the schools. Field experience is the best education for an aspiring teacher because it shows what lesson planning, teaching strategies, and the state standards look like in the real world. It also gives candidates the opportunity to decide if teaching is truly their calling in life. - Celeste Flock

    
    I believe that teacher preparation programs are responsible for providing aspiring teachers with the most advanced ways promote interest and determination in young minds. It is not just about creating that desire for learning on average, but rather that we learn how to inspire that love of education in students that are more difficult to teach. The role of the program is to give potential teachers experience working with English language learners, students with learning disabilities, and gifted students so that when they become teachers they know how to teach those learners in a way that will positively impact their lives. - Taylor Petersen

    
    I believe that teacher preparation programs need to inspire future teachers to acquire the tools they need in order for their students to be inspired and then be encouraged to engage in higher level thinking and inquiry. Preparation programs should instruct future teachers to focus on celebrating the students’ strengths. I believe that if a student can learn to recognize and value their own strengths along with their peers strengths, they will develop a passion for learning that will be forever instilled in them. Along with the passion aspect, I also believe preparations programs need to have a focus on the ever-changing curriculum and other legislation issues. Future teachers need to learn not to take everything for face value but learn to dig deeper in all categories that are involved. - Alexandra Tallas

    
    Part of the field experience aspect of teacher preparation must also involve reflection. Teacher candidates need to know how to reflect on their own work and methods. They must be open to constructive criticism and able to gauge their own effectiveness. Teacher preparation must involve preparation in teacher collaboration so candidates know the importance of cooperating with colleagues and seeking support. It is inevitable that teachers will have diverse classrooms with English language learners and students at a variety of ability levels, so candidates must be prepared to teach to all students. - Ellen Chirhart

    
    Another important responsibility teacher preparation programs have is to not emphasize one subject area, especially for elementary level candidates. Literacy, Math, Science, History, and the Arts are all important in their own unique ways and it does more harm than good when one is considered more important than the others. - Sari Hertel

    
    The role of educator preparation programs are to help teachers better facilitate learning to students by helping teachers be better prepared through assessment of students. For example, assessing the knowledge of students in order to understand the emphasis needed on a particular lesson. This may be a test in the beginning of the semester that measures each student’s knowledge a future lesson that will happen. When a majority of the class shows they understand a certain standard, less time should be spent on that standard and focus more on the standards that students are not as knowledgeable on. However, an educator must also recognize that a majority of the class is not the whole class, nor a minority of the class is the whole class. This means that even though there may be a majority or a minority of people who may understand (or not understand) a standard, there are still students who can demonstrate those standards. A class with a majority not meeting the standards through assessment may have students who do meet those standards, while there may be a majority of students who may understand a standard when a few students don’t. Basically, educator preparation programs help us recognize how to meet everyone’s needs, and not just the majority’s needs. - Gene Dawydiak

    
    The most important thing to me is experience.  Getting out into the classroom and getting that real experience.  Reflecting on those experiences is important as well, because that really makes you think about what you’re doing and how to improve yourself.  Reading and researching teaching strategies and methods is vital, but getting out into the field and practicing it is the most crucial. - Tom D’Aboy

    
    I agree with Tom. We can all sit in a classroom and be taught about appropriate teaching methods, assessment tools, differentiation, etc. but the real learning comes from the classroom. Working with students hands on, practicing teaching lessons, seeing first hand what works and does not work in the classroom. It allows you to see first hand what works, what doesn’t work, and helps new teachers learn how to deal with those issues before they are on their own. People always say that practice makes perfect and teaching is the same way. - Anna Demarinis

    
    Researching and learning different teaching methods as well as rules and regulations is extremely important.  However, I think that the most important part of the teacher education program is taking all these ideas into the classroom and seeing for oneself what works and what doesn’t.  Engaging in and reflecting on real life experience allows us, as future teachers, to mature, grow, and learn. - Jayson Orth

    
    I believe that it is the program’s responsibility to give its students as much experience as possible. It is easy to read from a textbook and take notes about classroom management, assessment, etc., but what is learned in class does not take importance until it is implemented. I learn from experience. When I am in the classroom setting, I learn about my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. Therefore, it is the role and responsibility of the teaching program to place students in the classroom environment and reflect on their experience. Also, have an advisor oversee students in the schools in order to give constructive criticism to see what they need to improve on and what they are succeeded in. It is important for students in an education program to gain comfortableness in the school setting before they have a classroom of their own.  - Christy Clenin

    
    It’s nice to know strategies of teaching and classroom management so that you have some clue what to do when you actually end up in the classroom. But by far the most valuable thing is having experience with real students in a real classroom. Theories of learning are forgettable until you actually apply and experience them. The most effective way to prepare educators is to have them simultaneously work in the classroom while they learn about theories, regulations, strategies, etc. that go along with what they’re doing in the classroom. This serves for a memorable cross traffic between the two environments where future educators can apply their experience to the class and apply what they learn in class to their own teaching.  - Clara Shands

     

     

     

     

     

    

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
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• Disciplining with Dignity: 5 C Disciplining with Dignity: 5 Classroom Management Tips

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    In one of her recent articles published in Education Weekly, Tracey Garrett describes a hypothetical interview scenario between a recent graduate pursuing a 4^th grade teaching position and the principal. Inevitably, classroom management came up. “How will you manage your classroom?” the principal asked. The teacher’s response: “I’ve developed a point system that rewards good behavior with tickets. At the end of the week, these tickets are placed into a raffle for a chance to win prizes.” This is a common response and a common classroom management system, but it is one that Garrett, not to mention a slew of other well-respected behavior-management experts like Richard L. Curwin and Allen and Brian Mendler, take issue with.
    
    

    In his book, Discipline with Dignity, Curwin refers to a study conducted by Tyre, Scelfo and Kantrowitz who found that children expect to nag their parents nine times before getting what they want. “If you do such and such, I’ll give you such and such” has become something of a cultural attitude—one that many teachers unintentionally reinforce “through the proliferation of reward and bribe systems in which stickers, stars, and points become substitutes for doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do,” argues Curwin.
    
    

    This is not to say that extrinsic or reward-based systems should be blacklisted entirely, but we echo Curvin’s belief that “they should not be the foundation of a teacher’s classroom management plan.” If not rewards, then what should be the crux of a teacher’s classroom management system?
    
    

    Disciplining with Dignity: 5 Classroom Management Tips

    
    Engage Students in a How-Can-I-Help-You? Approach
    When your students aren’t focusing on what they are reading or when they submit careless work it is bothersome—but many of us are bothered for the wrong reasons. We’re bothered because we’ve taken it personally; we’re bothered because WE wouldn’t have done it that way.
    
    

    When you engage your students in a how-can-I-help-you approach, your frustration manifests through care and respect. Next time your student disrupts class or fails to turn in assignments, catch the student on the way to lunch and say, “Hey, I’m worried about X. Am I seeing this correctly? I want to do everything I can to help you. Do you have any ideas?”
    
    

    Ask Your Students What They Expect of You
    Generally speaking, we spend a lot of time telling our students what we expect of them and very little asking them what they expect of us. What if that changed?
    
    

    Here’s an idea we borrowed from Angela Bunyi, a teacher who, as she puts it, “puts herself into the mix.” If you take a look at the picture to the left, you’ll notice a list of expectations she has for her students. But on the right column, she has asked students to make a list of their expectations for her. It bothers her students that she has a habit of checking her email and talking loudly to other teachers, so they’ve asked her to change her behavior—and she gladly obliges.
    
    

    Try Using Incident Reports
    This is another idea we snagged from Mrs. Bunyi. Do your students love telling you about how student X is bothering student Y? Do they do this during transition times or when you are in the middle of something important? Because you care about your students (and their safety), more than likely it’s your instinct to drop everything and investigate what’s really going on.

     

    So that you can give each “incident” the attention it deserves, have your students fill out an incident report where they provide dates, witnesses, the location of the incident, what they did, and how they believe the situation should be handled.
    
    

    Playtime Isn’t Just for Kids
    When it's your turn for recess duty, consider participating in a game rather than standing on the sidelines. If you're teaching at the secondary level, try running to grab a ball that has been thrown out of bounds on the lunchtime basketball courts, or visit a colleague's P.E. class during your prep. Playing with students is a great way to honor them and nurture relationships with them.
    
    

    The playground is also a perfect location to have a conversation with that student you read about in Jane’s incident report. Don’t take recess away from students who have misbehaved; use the change of scenery to your advantage. It’s much easier to talk to a student about what was going on inside the classroom when you are outside of it. 
    
    

    Create Partnerships with Parents
    Often the first time we speak to a parent is when we are at our wits end with their son or daughter. Not the best way to initiate a relationship, is it? If you’ve developed a relationship with parents and shown them that you truly care about their child, chances are that you’re going to have more buy-in when you need their help.
    
    

    Why not give them a call when their child does something well, just to let them know? Or why not move your classroom parties to the evening hour, but keep the time brief to honor parents’ schedules? Or here’s another idea: Send home regular invitations for parents to come in as “guest readers” or classroom assistants.
    
    

     

                              

  • Blog post
  • 4 months ago
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• My First University Observatio My First University Observation

  • From: Trevor_Fritz
  • Description:

     

    After almost 2 weeks of observing and helping out in class, it was time for me to take over for a day for my Indiana University observation. My teacher had a substitute for the day; therefore it was all on me to come up with a lesson plan. I knew it had to be successful because not only did I have to show my University observer that I could teach, but it was my first time solely taking charge of the classroom.  The subject of the class is Civics and with Martin Luther King Day 2 days prior and also Obama's Inauguration, I felt that this would tie into our unit on voting and civil rights.  I was almost surprised how comfortable I felt walking in and commanding the students' attention. I think that they were even surprised by the confidence I showed. It started off rocky as I fumbled around with the projector setup and my laptop, but I kept my composure and continued questioning them on the bell ringer. The lesson was based around a few primary documents from Malcolm X and MLK.  I tried to make some connections between the students’ daily lives and their unwillingness to vote in elections and how hard these men fought for these rights. After recapping the lesson I thought it went awesome (for my first time), but the list of improvements was endless.  After class I spoke with my University Observer and she had some great recommendations for me in terms of classroom management and changes in the lesson.  She also had many positives for me as well. I listed both recommendations and positives I received below:

    Recommendations:

    - Make more connections to the students’ daily lives

    - Give them more time on assignments

    - SLOW DOWN and do not rush

     

    Positives:

    - Confidence and commanding in tone of voice

    - Various innovative activities (texting poll, KWL, online T Chart, etc.)

    - Use of primary sources

     

  • Blog post
  • 5 months ago
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