252 Search Results for ""what works""

• Unmuted: The Importance of Stu Unmuted: The Importance of Student Feedback

  • From: Mindy_Keller-Kyriakides
  • Description:

    Unmuted: Using Student Feedback to Create an Effective Secondary Learning Environment

    Join us for a Webinar on June 25     Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/580671226   By the time they reach high school, teenagers know the business of school and teaching. They know what works and what doesn’t work, how to get under a teacher's skin, and how to avoid doing anything. Seriously capitalizing on their input is at the core of how to reach them and increase their willingness to learn. If teachers provide students with a strong foundation of trust and rapport, student feedback can function as a powerful metacognitive dialogue, a constant flow of “what are we learning” and “how are we learning it?” When taken to the next level, it also entails much higher thinking processes such as: How well is the teacher teaching it to me? The aim of this session is to provide educators with the means to garner student feedback purposefully and effectively. Participants will: • Discuss how criticism can strengthen their teaching practice. • Hear, firsthand from former students, how a teacher who seeks and uses student feedback impacts students and their learning environment. • Work through potential scenarios, brainstorming ideas that they can immediately use in the classroom. • Be provided with a handout that includes helpful links and student feedback tools. Target Audience: This webinar is designed for new and veteran secondary teachers, but may also be applicable for instructors of teacher preparation courses.   About the Presenters: National Board Certified Mindy Kyriakides is fifteen-year veteran of the classroom in both online and traditional environments.  She, along with her former students, authored Transparent Teaching of Adolescents: Creating the Ideal Class for Students and Teachers (2012, Rowman & Littlefield Education), a conversation about best practices for high school teachers. She also runs an education blog for secondary teachers. Her fellow presenters for this session are former students and co-authors.   Title: Unmuted: Using Student Feedback to Create an Effective Secondary Learning Environment Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Time: 8:00 PM - 9:15 PM EDT   After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

  • 9 hours ago
  • Views: 7
  • Not yet rated

• Is Common Core Evil? Is Common Core Evil?

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    I have seen a blaze of anti-Common Core sentiment sweep through certain states. These groups that are protesting the Common Core are counting on you not doing your own research and thinking about the Common Core in-depth. There are several FALSE claims you will hear in relation to Common Core that you need to think about. You can verify this at www.corestandards.org.

    First, the Common Core is not a national curriculum. The full name of Common Core is “Common Core State Standards” (aka CCSS) meaning they are benchmarks we want our children to achieve, but how to achieve them is left up to individual states and local communities. Many, many companies are competing for schools’ dollars by offering diverse and varied curricula if schools don’t want to write their own. The feds are not driving Common Core for implementation or for assessment.

    Second, the Common Core does not dumb down the curriculum (the same people claiming we are dumbing down the curriculum also gripe that we are introducing difficult concepts too early—which is it?). On average, we see rigorous standards applied 1 year earlier than we were applying them under the Missouri Grade Level Expectations. Missouri has consistently had the 2^nd and 3^rd most rigorous state achievement test (MAP) in the nation and now we see an even more rigorous test coming next year. In fact, we just piloted the Common Core assessment in the district and students and teacher alike commented on how much harder the test was than the MAP. One question I saw was substantially different than the MAP test. On MAP, a kid would be asked a math problem and then given a set of choices: A, B, C, or D. On the Common Core test, I saw a 5^th grader answering questions that went something like this, “Suzy was given the following math problem.” A word problem followed. “Suzy read the problem, formed a plan to answer the problem with six steps.” A numbered list of 6 steps followed. “Suzy got the following answer which was wrong. Find which step in Suzy’s method was wrong, explain why, and correct her answer.” Folks, a kid has to think a lot deeper to answer that type of questions than a multiple-guess test.

    Third, there is a lot of other mumbo-jumbo being tossed around, but opponents keep piling up argument after argument against it until you aren’t even sure what they are referring to anymore. The argument expands to gripe about socialism, anti-Christian movements, abortion, tracking, cost, and I don’t know what else. But those things are other policy and legislative concerns that activists are lumping in with Common Core because they don’t understand it.

    In a nutshell, here is a Common Core kindergarten standard:

    RF.K.2(a): Recognize and produce rhyming words. The standard then recommends “Halfway Down” by A. A. Milne and “Singing Time” by Rose Fyleman although districts can use “Mary had a Little Lamb”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, or any other district approved literature. The concept can be further developed through artwork, song, science, math, and vocabulary. The curriculum is developed at the local level while the assessment will be used to determine if a student can indeed recognize and produce a rhyming word.

    Let’s try another one in 3^rd grade:

    RI.3.9: Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic. The standard recommends “Sarah, Plain and Tall” and “The Storm” although districts can choose any literature they want to have students compare and contrast. By the way, this is something we were trained heavily in during my doctoral program in order to conduct academic research…and here it is in 3^rd grade Common Core!

    5^th grade:

    L.5.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. Exemplar texts include “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “The Little Prince.” Informational texts include, “Who is Neil Armstrong?” and “Women Explorers of North and South America.”  If we don’t like any of those, we can choose any literature we want.

    Can you feel Obama’s fingertips reaching for your children’s minds yet?  If you are confused where the socialist agenda is, I’m with you. But then again, no one has shown you what the real standards look like. Any standard can be written to reflect local control, with local lessons, local activities, and local formative assessments. The board will approve any curriculum that is generated by our own local teachers and reviewed by our own local administrators, myself included.

    Finally, there are some real nice components of Common Core that I want to point out:

    Reading is broken down into Literature, Informational Texts, and Foundational Skills. Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language are strands of the standards. Reading and writing aren’t just isolated to classic works, but standards are given for reading to be taught in Social Studies classes, science, and other technical subjects.

    Here is an example of the “Integration of Knowledge and Ideas” in grades 9 and 10. Standard RI.9-10.9: Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts. These are four powerful, patriotic, truly American pieces of history that our kids should be grappling with. The teacher moves from the “sage on the stage” lecturing about what these pieces mean to the “guide on the side” helping students hold democratic readings and discussions about what these authors may have intended and what they were dealing with from a historical context. Students must “delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.”

    The Common Core State Standards are designed to provide a framework of standards that are Internationally Benchmarked, rigorous, and broad enough to allow states and local boards of education create a locally controlled curriculum designed to meet the needs of local children. Go to www.corestandards.org and read through the standards to see for yourself. Nothing is perfect. Education is a practice. Common Core is another step forward in that practice. It isn’t evil, destructive, or anti-American. It is an opportunity for people with an axe to grind to use it as political smoke and mirrors to advance their own agenda. Don’t let the smoke get in your eyes.

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 61
  • Not yet rated

• Complexity: Unpredictability Complexity: Unpredictability

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    When analyzing their school’s organizational context, principals cannot underestimate the unpredictability of the long-term future of the system. Marginalized populations within the school act as a recessive system undermining the efforts of the dominant, legitimate system. The future of the school emerges from interactions within and between the recessive and the dominant systems. A new paradigm that recognizes and makes meaning of the dynamic, nonlinear versus linear nature of the processes and interactions of these two subsystems would help protect principals from unreasonable long-term planning, unproductive and unmanaged conflict, innovative but misguided agents, and wasted time due to superficial work and restructuring efforts not based on emergence (Bower, 2006; Stacey, 1996).

    The dominant paradigm rosily sees success in stability, predictability, and carefully strategic plans (Stacey, 1996). “Predictions are nice, if you can make them. But the essence of science lies in explanation, laying bare the fundamental mechanisms of nature” (Waldrop, 1992, p. 39). Educational complexity is not different. Researchers have to look at explaining how education works with the knowledge that it may not result in predictability since education is emergent based on too many factors to mathematically analyze.

    History and past pedagogy is important to creating effective high-performing, high-poverty schools (HP2S), but vast changes in the sociocultural capital available to students in this decade make research of previous decades null or irrelevant. Even within the same time period, findings in one context will not be generalizable to another setting. Failing schools that are trying to transform cannot hope to perfectly implement what other successful schools have accomplished because of the unpredictability of complex systems (Barr & Parrett, 2007; Berliner, 2002; Brady, retrieved October 22, 2007; Church, 2005).

    Strategic planning in complex environments results in rigid processes such as goal setting and action plans that restrict emergence. Educational institutions should allow for a more flexible process that takes into account causal relationships (Gilstrap, 2005). Small fluctuations would have a harder time permeating multiple boundaries within similar structures across a flattened hierarchy. This redundancy provides stability, robustness, and resilience against small environmental fluctuations (Stacey, 1996).

  • Blog post
  • 1 week ago
  • Views: 50

• 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.

     

     

  • Blog post
  • 2 weeks ago
  • Views: 111
  • Not yet rated

• Strengthening Curriculum and I Strengthening Curriculum and Instruction in a 21st century world

  • From: Elliott_Seif
  • Description:

    This commentary examines criteria for selecting effective curricula and instructional models in a 21^st century world, and also provides eight examples of relatively unknown yet powerful curricula-instructional programs that should be considered for adoption.

     

    In the same way that it is hard to build a building without an architectural blueprint, so too it is hard for a teacher to be effective without strong curricula-instructional frameworks. Curricula/instructional frameworks lay out the goals, methods, strategies, approaches, assessments, and resources needed for successful teaching and learning. The better the framework, the more likely will be the sturdiness of the foundation and the effectiveness of instruction. The more that curricular-instructional models available to teachers are consistent with the goals and practices of the teacher and school, and the needs of students, the more likely it is that teaching will have good results.

     

    Just imagine how an architectural blueprint influences and affects the construction of a building. Building construction based on a poor design may make it difficult to walk from one part of the building to another, make communication among building occupants difficult, make furniture arrangements impossible, make lighting too dark or too light, make the building safe or unsafe. In the same vein, a poorly designed curriculum may lead to too many unclear, vague goals that do not match student needs, include too much to teach, limit “deeper understanding” of a subject, teach the wrong skills, provide few connections between its different parts, have little meaning for learners, foster passive learning, and make alignment of content among teachers and grade levels difficult. When teachers work from poorly designed curricula and instructional frameworks, they have to work very hard to redo the curricular and instructional practices encouraged by these frameworks, and many times powerful learning is difficult if not impossible to create within the given framework.

     

    What are the components of successful curriculum/instructional frameworks for teaching in a 21^st century world? Some framework characteristics might include:

    • Meaningful, worthwhile core goals focused around essential questions, big ideas, understandings and key 21^st century skills;
    • An emphasis on developing student understanding, concepts, and content relationships and connections over time;
    • A focus on important skills, attitudes and values, such as positive attitudes towards learning, the importance of effort, research and study skills, openness to new thoughts and ideas, scientific experimentation, curiosity, self-reflection, thoughtfulness, creativity, application and transfer, multiple forms of communication, and conflict resolution/collaboration;
    • The use of multiple types of readings and resources that foster the development of literacy skills and can be integrated into instruction;
    • “Deeper” learning instructional strategies that go well beyond coverage and superficial textbook learning, “drill down” to promote understanding and thoughtfulness, encourage effective writing and discussion, and promote student interest, motivation, inquiry, research, and active engagement;
    • Multiple types of both formative and summative assessments, including authentic performance tasks, teacher observations, self-reflections, writing of all types, and on-going feedback strategies designed to improve student work;
    • A framework organization that is clear and coherent;
    • Appropriate and realistic use of technology as a helpful tool for reaching goals;
    • Realistic learning time frames that distinguish between core and supplemental learning;
    • Support and enrichment activities;
    • Alignment among goals, materials, strategies, and assessments;
    • Links with goals, curricula and instructional approaches across grade levels and subjects.

     

    Teachers, schools and districts need to regularly review their curricular programs in order to update them and create programs more attuned to this new age that we live in. Ultimately, this will make a huge difference for children in this new age.

     

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

     

    The following curricula and instructional models exemplify powerful “21^st century” program elements built around many or most these criteria. You are probably unfamiliar with most or all of them. They, and programs like them, should become familiar to educators and achieve greater use throughout the educational community.

    NOTE: Many of their descriptions are adapted from the program’s website.

     

    1. LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

     

    SERP-Word Generation for the Middle School

    SERP - Word Generation is a research-based, highly motivating “vocabulary” development program for middle school students designed to teach words through language arts, math, science, and social studies classes. The program consists of weekly units, each of which introduces 5 high-utility target words through brief passages describing controversies currently under debate in this country. The paragraphs are intended to help students join ongoing "national conversations" by sparking active examination and discussion of contemporary issues. The target words are relevant to a range of settings and subject areas. The cross-content focus on a small number of words each week will enable students to understand the variety of ways in which words are related, and the multiple exposures to words will provide ample opportunities for deeper understanding.

    The Word Generation program is designed to build academic vocabulary, i.e., words that students are likely to encounter in textbooks and on tests, but not in spoken language. Interpret, prohibit, vary, function, and hypothesis are examples. Academic vocabulary includes words that refer to thinking and communicating, like infer and deny, and words that are common across subjects, but hold different meaning depending on the subject, like element and factor. Both types of academic vocabulary are likely to cause problems with comprehension unless students have been taught how to deal with them.

     

    For more information, go to: http://wg.serpmedia.org

    For information about other SERP programs in development, go to: http://www.serpinstitute.org/2013/

     

    Other literacy development programs you might want to examine:

    Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) http://www.cliontheweb.org

    Reading and Writing Workshop: http://readingandwritingproject.com/about/overview.html

    100 Book Challenge: http://www.americanreading.com/products/100bc/

    Touchstones discussion Project: http://www.touchstones.org

    Jr Great Books Program:  

    http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/junior/

    Educurious http://educurious.org

     

    2. CREATIVE THINKING

     

    Design Thinking

    Design Thinking is a structured approach to generate and develop new ways to solve difficult problems and challenges. Design Thinking starts with a challenge, and then works through a series of steps to help find creative solutions to the challenge, such as empathy, interpretation, brainstorming and choosing alternatives, building models, and planning for implementation. The process can be used to help solve school challenges or world-wide challenges. It includes learning additional skills such as finding reliable information, developing surveys and questionnaires, and building interview skills. It can be adapted to be used with students at all ages.

     

    Other creative thinking programs you might want to explore:

    Creative Problem Solving: http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org

    The Future Problem Solving Program: http://www.fpspi.org

     

    3. POSITIVE ATTITUDES, VALUES, AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

     

    Champions of Caring: Journey of a Champion Middle and High School Programs

    The Journey of a Champion Middle Grades curriculum is a year-long course of study divided into 4 modules. It promotes academic excellence, character development, service-learning and citizenship. The curriculum is a catalyst for encouraging caring, thoughtfulness and good judgment through service and civic participation.  Students gain civic engagement skills as they design community and school service projects. Civic skills developed include: 


    • Designing and implementing community interviews and surveys
    • Service-learning/community project development and assessment
    • Self-reflection
    • Public speaking
    • Persuasive writing skills
    • Conflict resolution and problem solving
    • Leadership and team building
    • Professional etiquette and work readiness
    • Building a personal portfolio

     

    The Journey of a Champion High School Program is a character education and service-learning curriculum for students in grades 9-12. Through this program, students learn how to act as responsible, caring and involved citizens who respect themselves and others and succeed academically.

    Journey of a Champion invites students to learn about and reflect on the challenges they and their contemporaries face. It places those challenges in a historical context and leads students to develop strategies and skills that will help them confront those challenges. The journey "destination" is students creating and planning sustainable service and civic participation. The curriculum affects positive change in students by:


    • Developing character through community involvement
    • Engaging students in active learning that demonstrates the relevance and importance of academic work for their life experiences and career choices
    • Increasing awareness of past and current social issues
    • Broadening and deepening perspectives of diversity issues, causes and solutions to conflicts, respect for self and others in their communities
    • Enhancing critical thinking skills, with particular emphasis on conflict resolution, decision-making, and problem solving.

     

    For more information, go to: http://www.championsofcaring.org

     

    Other programs to look at:

    Second Step: http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step.aspx

     

    4. ECONOMICS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

     

    Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

    Entrepreneurship education is a tool that can equip young people to not only start businesses and create jobs, but also to be opportunity-focused, flexible employees ready to fill existing jobs.

    NFTE fosters the creation of entrepreneurship skills, businesses and the development of an adaptable, driven and opportunity-focused workforce that ultimately promotes economic stability.  External research has shown that NFTE graduates start and maintain businesses at substantially higher rates than their peers. Other research findings indicate that students develop:

    • Increased interest in attending college
    • Greater occupational aspirations
    • Improved scores in independent reading

     

    Working with schools in low-income communities where at least 50% of the students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch, NFTE targets young people who are at risk of dropping out of school, and helps them graduate with their own personal plans for success. The program, Highly Academic, is a semester or year-long class with a NFTE-certified teacher who guides students through one of the curricula: Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future  or Exploring Careers for the 21st Century. Lessons include the concepts of competitive advantage, ownership, opportunity recognition, marketing, finance, and product development - and all tie back to core math and literacy skills. Lessons include field trips, games and experiential activities. Classes regularly have guest speakers. Students are paired with coaches who help students work on their business plans, and business plan competitions are judges by local entrepreneurs and business people.

     

    Each young person who takes a NFTE class works toward completing a business plan, then goes on to present and defend it in a classroom competition. The winners of these competitions go on to compete in citywide or regional competitions, with the hopes of reaching our annual national competition.

     

    For more information, go to: http://www.nfte.com

     

    Other Economic-Entrepreneurial Programs:

    General information about entrepreneurial education programs can be found at: http://www.entre-ed.org

    Information about Economic and Financial Education resources can be found at: http://www.councilforeconed.org

     

    5. INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE

     

    Full Options Science System (FOSS)

    Science is an active enterprise, made active by our human capacity to think and “search for the truth”. Scientists value open communication, investigation, and good evidence for drawing conclusions. Scientific knowledge advances when scientists observe objects and events, think about how they relate to what is known, test their ideas in logical ways, and generate explanations that integrate the new information into the established order. Thus the scientific enterprise is both what we know (content) and how we come to know it (process). The best way for students to appreciate the scientific enterprise, learn important scientific concepts, and develop the ability to think critically is to actively construct ideas through their own inquiries, investigations, and analyses.

     

    The FOSS program was created to engage students in these processes as they explore the natural world. FOSS program materials are designed to meet the challenge of providing meaningful science education for all students in diverse American classrooms and to prepare them for life in the 21st century. Development of the FOSS program was, and continues to be, guided by advances in the understanding of how youngsters think and learn.

     

    FOSS K–6 is a complete program consisting of 26 modules for self-contained elementary classrooms. The components exclusive to K–6 are

    • Teacher guides for K–6
    • Equipment kits for K–6
    • Teacher preparation videos for K–6
    • FOSS Science Stories and Spanish Editions

     

    FOSS Middle School components consist of nine units for students and their teachers in departmental science grades 6–8. Each unit requires 9–12 weeks to teach. The Middle School program includes the following five interconnected components:

    • Teacher guides for middle school courses
    • Equipment kits for middle school courses
    • Lab Notebooks for students
    • Resources books for students
    • CD-ROM for middle school courses.

     

    Two components that apply to both FOSS K–6 and FOSS Middle School are the FOSS Assessment System and FOSSweb.com.

     

    For more information, go to: http://www.fossweb.com

     

    Other programs to consider:

    Active Physics: (high school): http://its-about-time.com/htmls/ap.html

    GEMS (K-8):

    http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/programs_for_schools/programs/gems

     

    6. CONCEPTUALLY-ORIENTED MATHEMATICS

     

    Cognitively Guided Instruction

    Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a professional development program that increases teachers’ understanding of the knowledge that students bring to the math learning process and how they can connect that knowledge with formal concepts and operations. The program is based on the premise that children throughout the elementary grades are capable of learning powerful unifying ideas of mathematics that are the foundation of both arithmetic and algebra. Learning and articulating these ideas enhance children's understanding of arithmetic and provide a foundation for extending their knowledge of arithmetic to the learning of algebra.



     

    CGI is guided by two major ideas. The first is that children bring an intuitive knowledge of mathematics to school with them and that this knowledge should serve as the basis for developing formal mathematics instruction. This idea leads to an emphasis on working with the processes that students use to solve problems. The second key idea is that math instruction should be based on the relationship between computational skills and problem solving, which leads to an emphasis on problem solving in the classroom instead of the repetition of number facts, such as practicing the rules of addition and subtraction.

     

    With the CGI approach, teachers focus on what students know and help them build future understanding based on present knowledge. The program aims to improve children's mathematical skills by increasing teachers' knowledge of students' thinking, by changing teachers' beliefs regarding how children learn, and by ultimately changing teaching practice. In 1996, CGI was extended into the upper elementary school levels to assist first through sixth grade teachers in integrating the major principles of algebra into arithmetic instruction.

     

    There is no set curriculum. Teachers use the CGI framework with existing curriculum materials, or they use CGI principles to help develop their own math curriculum.

     

    For more information, go to: http://www.promisingpractices.net/program.asp?programid=114#programinfo

     

    Other math programs that might be considered:

    Project Seed: http://projectseed.org

    Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP)(High School): http://mathimp.org/general_info/intro.html

     

    7. SOCIAL STUDIES/CIVICS PROGRAMS

     

    Social Studies School Service

    Social Studies School Service offers teachers, K-12, a variety of alternative and unique materials, programs, and curricula for social studies at all levels. The materials have been developed for the many aspects of social studies – government, history, geography, and civics – and often are interdisciplinary, incorporate conceptual understanding, develop research skills, big ideas and essential questions, and use data-based test questions (DBQ’s), performance tasks, and multiple readings. Catalogues of available materials are frequently sent out and shared.

     

    For further information, go to: www.socialstudies.com

     

    Other social studies/civics programs to consider:

    Teacher’s Curriculum Institute social studies programs: www.teachtci.com

    Center for Civic Education: http://new.civiced.org

    Zinn Education: http://zinnedproject.org                                            

    A History of US: http://www.joyhakim.com/works.htm

    The Choices Program (Middle and High School): http://www.choices.edu

     

    8. STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, MATHEMATICS) PROGRAMS

     

    Engineering is Elementary

    EIE consists currently of twenty STEM units designed for the elementary grades. Each EIE unit ties in with an elementary science topic and is meant to be taught either concurrently or after students learn the appropriate science content in life science, earth and space science and physical science areas. Each unit has five “lessons” (lessons can be more than one day).

    The units attempt to combine learning in a science area with engineering concepts. Engineering projects integrate other disciplines. Engaging students in hands-on, real-world engineering experiences can enliven math and science and other content areas. Engineering projects can motivate students to learn math and science concepts by illustrating relevant applications. They foster problem-solving skills, including problem formulation, iteration, testing of alternative solutions, and evaluation of data to guide decisions.

    Learning about engineering increases students' awareness of and access to scientific and technical careers. The number of American citizens pursuing engineering is decreasing. Early introduction to engineering can encourage many capable students, especially girls and minorities, to consider it as a career and enroll in the necessary science and math courses in high school.

     

    For more information, go to: http://www.eie.org/

     

    Other STEM examples:

    Engineer Your World: http://www.engineeryourworld.org (high school)

    Project Lead the Way: http://www.pltw.org (high school)

     

     

    Some Final Thoughts

     

    Every school and district should have some mechanism to help staff members regularly review the many available potential curriculum and instructional programs and approaches, and to select those that provide students with opportunities based on the criteria suggested at the beginning of this commentary, such as focused, meaningful goals; targeted key skills, attitudes and values; multiple formative and summative assessment options; a focus on deeper learning; and active student engagement and inquiry.[i]

     

    The programs listed above are only some examples of the many powerful curricula and instructional options that are often neglected and put into place too infrequently in schools and classrooms.[ii] Many others that meet the criteria cited above and match 21^st century goals should be considered. Through continual review and renewal, every District should move towards having a set of powerful curricula and instructional programs, tied to appropriate staff development training, that help prepare students to live in a 21^st century world.

     

    We also now have the technology to develop curriculum review websites, comparable to Amazon’s book service and reviews or TripAdvisor’s travel site that rates hotels and bed and breakfasts in all parts of the world.  The website should include a comprehensive set of curriculum programs, all reviewed by experts and rated by users. Such a site would provide educators with data that would be helpful in a curriculum review and renewal process.

     

    
    

    ---

    [i] For additional information about curriculum renewal criteria and strategies, go to www.era3learning.org, then to resources, then to curriculum renewal, and then to the article by Elliott Seif, Reconfiguring Learning Through Curriculum Renewal (unpublished).

    [ii] For more information about curriculum selection criteria and additional alternative curricular and instructional programs in many subject areas, go to: www.era3learning.org, then to the resource page, then to the meaningful curriculum section.

  • Blog post
  • 2 weeks ago
  • Views: 280

• Pedagogy vs. Andragogy Pedagogy vs. Andragogy

  • From: Tom_Whitby
  • Description:

     

    Over this last year I have been fortunate to have been sent to many education conferences on behalf of SmartBrief in pursuit of content and guest bloggers forSmartBlog on Education. It is a dream job for a retired educator and an education blogger. The intent is to always keep the educator’s voice on SmartBlog authentic and relevant. In that capacity, I have attended and conducted a multitude of workshops on various education topics. Since I am no longer in the classroom, and have no need to apply what I learn about current teaching methods in a classroom setting, I often attend these workshops as an observer, or even a critical observer in some cases.

    In conference after conference, and workshop after workshop I have observed successes and failures in the methods employed by presenters to get their material across to their audiences. Of course my biggest criticism is that too many presenters view the people in the room as audiences, and themselves as some sort of entertainer. Of course a successful presenter is part entertainer, as is any teacher, but more importantly, he or she is there at a conference workshop to educate educators and that is a primary goal. For that goal to be met presenters might be better served thinking of the people in the room as learners, and employ their best skills as an educator. In fairness to most presenters, the best do just that.

    Much can be learned as an educator by watching what works with a bunch of teacher/learners. Of course there are some who would argue that these are adult learners and shouldn’t be compared to kids. I used to think that as well, but I am not as sure, after all that I have observed.

    I found one of the best explanations of adult learning in this article: “Adult Learning Theory and Principles” from The Clinical Educator’s Resource Kit. 

    According to the article Malcolm Knowles an American practitioner and theorist of adult education, defined andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn”.

    Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning as:

    • Adults are internally motivated and self-directed
    • Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences
    • Adults are goal oriented
    • Adults are relevancy oriented
    • Adults are practical
    • Adult learners like to be respected

    After considering these principles and observing many of them first hand at these professional conferences, I started to wonder if the reason why these same principles do not apply to kids, at least on the secondary level, is because we prohibit them from happening in our education system. Do we limit our students learning by blocking access to the very things that motivate us as adults to learn?

    Can Students be self-motivated and self-directed? As adults some might say we are “pursuing our bliss” therefore, we are self-motivated and self-directed. Are our students bereft of bliss, or are we blocking out their bliss?

    At the more successful conferences providing adult learning environments I have observed many things that aided the learning of adults. The best conferences provided Internet access for all. This enabled adults to use varied and sundry laptops and mobile devices. I still revel at the memory of a room full of learners listening to Chris Lehmann at the Educon Conference as he placed notes on a white board. When he was finished with his illustrated point in the conversation, 40 adults stood up and took a picture of the whiteboard with their mobile devices (mostly cellphones) for later reference. Student classrooms might have over 40 students in them but how many are allowed to take pictures of the teachers’ notes?

    Of course the resounding positive comments from any of these learning environments is that there is a love of the conversation, as opposed to the lecture. That is common at Educon and it is the mainstay of the most successful Edcamps. Of course that conversation method is not the focus of teaching kids. Most educators focus on direct instruction and lecture as the mainstay for their lessons.

    Then there is the cry from a multitude of adult conference learners that they hold teacher-presenters in the highest regard, because they are authentic. They have been in the classroom, and have paid their dues, so to speak. When real classroom teachers talk about education, it is relevant and real. This is a common sentiment among adult conference learners. I guess that relevance is important to the adult learner. When it comes to the kid learners are they even given a smattering of relevance or are we steeped in curriculum some of which may have been around since the mid 1900’s?

    Of course the biggest outcry from adult learners at conferences comes when they are subjected to PowerPoint presentations that are text-ladened and read to the learners word for word by the presenter. This is the most egregious of mistakes and often the initiator of an exodus by the adult learners from the room. What alternative do kid learners have given the same set of circumstances?

    Maybe as adult learners we need to take a look in the mirror before we resume our role as teachers for kids. In the final analysis, I do not think that there are differences in the way we learn as adults, or kids, but rather the differences lie in the opportunities afforded to learn. If we respected kids more as learners, they might be more self-directed and motivated in their learning. If they are allowed to participate in their learning, they might take more ownership. What learner wants to own something that is not in his, or her interest to own? If we can understand better how we learn best, maybe we can alter how we teach to be the best.

  • Blog post
  • 3 weeks ago
  • Views: 70

• Teaching for Transfer: What's Teaching for Transfer: What's Missing?

  • From: Nicole_Zuerblis
  • Description:

     

    Nicole Zuerblis

    As an Elementary Reading Specialist and Coach, I often hear, “He seems to get it when he works with me, but he doesn’t do it on the test.” These are good teachers, and they know how to model strategy use while thinking aloud and offer guided practice in small groups. They’re very familiar with the “I do, we do, you do” pattern, but for some students, the “you do” doesn’t come as easily. What’s missing?

    We need to go beyond modeling. We need to make the connection that may be implicit to so many, explicit for others. Too often, we assume that students know that transfer is the goal of learning. Even when we set a specific purpose for each lesson and communicate our objective to students, it may not include the language of transfer. For example, a fifth grade teacher’s math lesson objective may be, “Students will use problem solving strategies to solve multi-step word problems.” Over several days, the teacher instructs students on problem solving strategies and gives them plenty of examples of problems with different numbers and guided practice in applying the strategies. The teacher’s feedback is positive, helping a few students find an error in a step or two within particular problems. For the most part, they’ve “got it.” Most can even recall the steps on their own. A few have only missteps with calculations.

    Then comes the test. There are several different types of problems, and some are not recognizable to students; more has changed than the numbers. Students find they can’t just plug in a strategy and solve. How do they know which strategy to use?

    During guided practice, did the teacher require students to analyze problems? Did they understand how to determine which strategy is best to use? As teachers, we need to use explicit language that transfer is always our goal for learning. A more explicit lesson objective would be, “Students will analyze word problems to determine appropriate problem solving strategies and solve problems requiring multiple steps.” This changes everything. From a student’s perspective, he’s got to figure out which strategies to use when. From a teacher’s perspective, this explicit goal reminds her that she’s got to model, instruct, and guide her students on how to determine appropriate strategy use. The goal is not to use this strategy to solve this problem; the goal is determine which strategies can be useful in solving future problems.

    It’s our job to make that transfer explicit. This is true in math, as well as in reading and content areas. We need to use explicit language. I recently chatted with a group of kindergarten students just learning to read, beaming with pride as they successfully read a third book in a series with a lovable dinosaur as the main character. I asked them if reading these books would help them read another. Owen quickly responded, “No, that’s a totally different book.” I pointed out that not only did the new book have the same characters; it also had some of the same words that they’d recognized in the first few books. “Well, those words, I would know,” Owen admitted. But what would he do when he got to a word he didn’t know? “Oh, I would just tap and slide.” (That’s our phrase for sounding out parts of a word.) “Oh, then I could read it!” This was an “aha” moment for Owen and for me. I had assumed his success in recognizing sight words and sounding out unfamiliar words would transfer to each book he read. In fact, he did seem to transfer to each new book so far.

    But what happens when the books don’t contain the same characters? What if the print looks totally different or there are more words on each page? It’s my job to teach for transfer. I can’t only give Owen guided practice in texts that fit the same pattern; I’ve got to guide him through analyzing all kinds of texts, teaching new strategies and reminding him of the bank of strategies he owns, and help him choose.

    Reflect on your own teaching. Do you use language that shows students that transfer is the true goal of learning? Try it. Set the stage for “aha” moments for you and your students.

  • Blog post
  • 1 month ago
  • Views: 218
  • Not yet rated

• Thirteen Ways to Build Positiv Thirteen Ways to Build Positive Learning Attitudes: a Key to Successful Teaching

  • From: Elliott_Seif
  • Description:

    NOTE: I recently posted a commentary on ASCD Edge (co-authored with Jay McTighe) identifying ten research-based beliefs about teaching and learning and their implications. #7 was:

    Attitudes and values mediate learning by filtering experiences and perceptions. Therefore, teachers should understand how student attitudes and values influence learning and help students build positive attitudes towards learning.

    This commentary elaborates on that belief, suggests its importance, and describes more ways to implement it.

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

     In America, especially during the progressive education era and the “open education” years, building positive attitudes towards learning, motivating students, creating interest in learning, making learning relevant, and yes, even promoting the joy of learning were important aspects of educational planning, development and practice. The belief during these time periods was that building curiosity, expanding student interests, and making learning relevant and interesting would promote active student inquiry, build on a natural human inclination to learn, and help create an educational environment in which students would WANT to learn.

     

    Unfortunately, this emphasis has been mostly lost, even negated, in the push for teaching “the basics”, often through worksheets and drills, and then with the more recent focus on passing high risk standardized tests, teaching skill based reading and math, and cutting back on “frills”, such as the arts and social studies. Today, it is hard to find schools where curiosity, interest in learning, being motivated to learn, and making learning joyful are as important as doing well on standardized tests, taking four years of English, or passing AP courses. These goals are also missing from any meaningful discussion about what we want to accomplish with our students, what we will assess, and what kind of learner we want to graduate.

     

    Yet, if we really want to encourage students to learn, grow, succeed and achieve in a 21^st century world, if we truly want them to be lifelong learners in a world of rapid change, social media, access to technology, and transformative job development, we will need to create a new and different kind of approach, one that puts curiosity, motivation, interest, and joy back into the learning equation. What primarily distinguishes our country from the rest of the world, what makes us unique, is not how well we take tests, but the unusual amount of curiosity, individual talent, creativity, ingenuity, and interest in learning and growing that comes from so many Americans and is developed in so many different ways. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were unusual not only because of their drive, but also because they were curious about how things worked and how they were able to learn about things they were passionately interested in. Bill Gates became interested in computers in part because the opportunity to work with computers was presented to him in high school outside of his regular courses. Steve Jobs created the diverse calligraphies found on the Apple computer because he took a calligraphy course that interested him after he had left the formal college world. Their natural leadership inclinations happened because they were curious about and interested in computers, and because they knew that, in order to keep pace with others, they needed to grow, adapt and change.

     

    Unfortunately, due to the pressures to do well on standardized tests, to time spent on practicing for these tests, to the need to “get through” multiple topics required by coverage based standards, to the emphasis on getting more students to take AP courses, and so on, millions of children are lacking the kinds of positive learning experiences that support lifelong learning, increase curiosity, build individual talent, and make learning interesting, rewarding and just plain fun!

     

    How do we promote a focus on developing the positive learning attitudes and values identified in this commentary? A good place for an individual teacher or a faculty to start is to first examine and explore the following questions: What motivated you in school? What did you enjoy doing? What interested you? What types of activities piqued your curiosity? Spurred you to continue learning and growing? My guess is that many teachers would say that they enjoyed learning because they were good and successful at it! They were rewarded for what they did. They did well on tests. They were encouraged to build on their strengths. They liked hands on activities and projects. They were given choices. Few would say that they enjoyed being reminded of their failures, that they liked taking multiple-choice tests or doing worksheets, that they liked reading textbooks, that they found enjoyment in doing an activity that they didn’t understand or was so far above their abilities that they had no chance at success. Most probably had mentors and supporters in times of difficulty. Most had at least a few teachers who encouraged them who were good at explaining difficult concepts or who helped them “learn how to learn”. The list of answers might be expanded through reading articles and books on how to build curiosity, motivation, individual talents, and interest in learning.

     

    Once a list of answers is developed, then the following questions might be examined: What am I/are we currently doing that builds curiosity, interest, relevance, enjoyment, and the kinds of “learning to learn” skills and competencies that our students will need in the future? How do I/we implement and expand programs, approaches and activities in schools and classrooms that motivate and interest students in learning and create enjoyment?

     

    Based on my own informal research and discussions of this topic with teachers and others, here are thirteen suggestions as food for thought: 

    1. Reduce the emphasis on traditional testing as the key assessment tool, and focus on more “natural” and diverse assessment approaches such as essays and papers, reflective journals, oral presentations, and other demonstrations of their learning
    2. Create the expectation that effort makes a difference in learning. Help students understand that when someone works hard, they are more likely to succeed. Give students more opportunities to put effort into areas that interest them and that they enjoy.
    3. Include narratives on report cards that focus on individual strengths and interests.
    4. Where possible, instead of or in addition to reading textbooks, find and have students read and choose books that are interesting to them, that open them up to the world around them, that make them think!
    5. Focus primarily on student strengths and student success. For each student, consider “the glass as half full” rather than “the glass as half empty”. Encourage students as much as possible. Understand that not all students will be strong in all areas, and that it is important to help each student find his or her strengths and interests and to build on them. Also, see “failure” as an opportunity for student growth. Make it clear to students that not doing well is a cause for looking inside yourself to see how you can do something better (and that you will do the same). Give students more specific feedback, along with opportunities to redo their work and improve it. Provide mentors and tutors and other help and support for students who need it.
    6. Be willing to “slow down the learning process”. Focus learning on what you think is important. Figure out ways to teach an idea differently, and work on something for a longer period than you normally do if your students are not “getting it”. Figure out alternative ways to teach something if your approach isn’t working.
    7. Focus a good deal of your teaching on “learning how to learn” skill development. Read up on how to teach study skills, learning to learn skills, research skills, inquiry skills. Make sure that your students grow both in terms of content they learn and the “learning to learn” skills they need to develop in order to learn well in the future.
    8. Make “asking questions” central to your teaching and to your learning environment and school culture. Write course descriptions around key questions. Use essential questions to focus units, or have students develop essential questions as the focus for learning. As you teach, encourage students to ask clarifying and elaborative questions. Make it clear to students that no question is too small or too silly. Build open time for students to ask questions on the topics they are studying. Use “wait time” when you are asking for questions. Teach students study strategies such as SQ3R[i] that encourage students to turn statements (such as text headings) into questions., 
    9. Give students more choices and options – in the classroom, by offering many electives, through multiple extra-curricular options. Choices/options should give students opportunities to develop and expand their interests, see connections and relevance in what they are learning, and expand their talents.
    10. Use inquiry strategies, research skill building activities, interactive learning and projects as critical parts of teaching. Incorporate more interest based projects into your curriculum.
    11. Where possible, make learning experiences more “authentic”. For example, consider how learning about the American Revolution might be tied to a current event happening in the world. Visit the area surrounding the school to demonstrate how math might be used for everyday activity. Through surveys, encourage students to provide feedback on whether they feel that their learning is interesting, motivating, and relevant, and whether they are being encouraged to develop their talents and interests. Conduct student surveys to determine what types of school and classroom activities are most motivating and interesting. Create activities and experiences that enable students to get outside the school and learn from the outside world and perform community service.
    12. Create more ways to integrate learning across the curriculum and consider ways to redesign the curriculum. Use themes to create more interdisciplinary units. Connect separate subject areas, such as by teaching American history and literature in tandem so that history topics and specific literature that touch on similar time periods or themes are taught at the same time. When redesigning or renewing the curriculum, examine whether curriculum materials or programs have a significant component built around developing curiosity, motivation, relevance and interest.
    13. See yourself as helping students build “pathways to adult success”. How can your subject, your grade level, your school contribute to making these pathways smoother? How can you provide students with a concrete understanding of their future options? Can you take field trips to different places of business? Colleges and universities? Bring in speakers?

     

    In sum, a focus on how to create positive attitudes such as curiosity, interest, motivation and relevance leads to a very different way of thinking about school and classroom missions, outcomes, the learning environment, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. For example, instead of a focus on standardized tests passed by everyone, a portfolio assessment approach helps students focus on their individual strengths and reflect on what they have learned. Teachers concentrate on building student strengths rather than dwelling on their failures. Students are provided with opportunities to improve their work before they are graded. More choices and options are given to students in the form of classroom choices, electives, and enrichment activities. Some learning, such as research projects, is built around student interests. Many types of questions become more central to the learning experience. “Learning to learn” skills become a critical part of the classroom experience. There are more opportunities for students to make connections to the outside world in order to raise expectations and build motivation.

     

    These ideas are just some of the starting points for your own discussion on how to develop positive attitudes towards learning and build the individual curiosity, skills, talents, and interests that will propel our students towards a better life, towards continued learning, and towards “pathways to student success” in a 21^st century world. While this way of thinking might lead to a wide variety of suggestions and ideas, please remember: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

     

     

    
    

    ---

    [i] SQ3R is a study guide model that is focused around:

    Surveying what you are reading;

    Questions: Turn chapter and section headings, titles, subheadings into questions;

    Read for the answers to each question;

    Recite your answers after each section – orally ask yourself the questions and summarize your answers;

    Review what you have learned.

     

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

    Elliott Seif is a long time educator, teacher, college professor, curriculum director, ASCD author and Understanding by Design trainer. If you are interested in examining additional and related teaching and learning topics in order to help to prepare students to live in a 21^st century world, go to his website at:  www.era3learning.org

     

     

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 month ago
  • Views: 451

• Complexity: Sociocultural Capi Complexity: Sociocultural Capital

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    Attention to sociocultural capital in High-Performing High-Poverty Schools (HP2S) helps teachers understand where marginalized students are coming from. Teachers who share a sociocultural identity with students in the school may increase achievement in marginalized students (Chu Clewell & Campbell, 2007). Regardless of the focus on AYP in reading and math, ultimately, education is “the process of cultural transmission” (Rury, 2005, p. 10). The cultural resources imparted to students become capital “when they function as a ‘social relation of power’ by becoming objects of struggle as valued resources” (Swartz, 1997, p. 43). Cultural capital has a positive effect on all educational outcomes (Dumais, 2005). Acting as a resource for social power is why sociocultural capital is hoarded from marginalized groups by the dominant class. The power connected to cultural capital is a valuable resource “intersect[ing] with all aspects of cultural life” (p. 286). Bourdieu’s studies into capital have led him to believe that schools act as the main gatekeepers to capital giving the dominant class access to status, privilege, and symbolic power. “Schools offer the primary institutional setting for the production, transmission, and accumulation of various forms of cultural capital” (Swartz, 1997, p. 189) making restriction to capital through education a likely abuse by the privileged who already control education policy and practice (Nesbit, 2006). Even some reformers intent on social justice follow the dominant class way of thinking, valuing the expertise of professionals and managers over the working class, which presumes that “knowledge deficits” in the working class may be overcome through greater effort to move closer to dominant ideology (Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2005).

    A long-term view of student success by educators recognizes that students are not blank slates waiting to be filled, but “are the products of many years of complex interactions with their family of origin and cultural, social, political, and educational environments” (Kuh et al., 2007, p. 5). The combined SES of students in the school along with differences in sociocultural capital is an important factor in student performance. The resulting push for accountability has narrowed education’s view of what schools should be doing down to reading, math, and science (Henig et al., 1999; Kuh et al., 2007; Rury, 2005).

    Schools are middle class institutions where teachers have high levels of middle class sociocultural capital and reward students who have it, but may consciously or subconsciously discriminate against students who do not. When teacher and student capital is congruent, the performance of marginalized students is more likely to benefit. Popular society and specialists transmit values about the best way to raise children which is generally followed by middle class society aligning them with the beliefs of educational institutions. Working class parents are slower to change child-rearing practices to dominant practice keeping them out of sync with the school’s perception of the ideal home environment influencing teacher perception of the child and the child’s home life (Dumais, 2005; Lareau, 2003; Nesbit, 2006; Chu Clewell & Campbell, 2007).

    The test scores of marginalized students would currently be lower if schools had not already been making progress at reducing the disadvantages of family educational background and SES previous to the passage of NCLB (Henig et al., 1999). Educational leaders, principals in particular, use an understanding of “cultural, social, and the promise of economic capital” to bring competing groups and individuals together to find common goals and shift marginalized interests to the center by “mutual choice” (Watkins & Tisdell, 2006, p. 156). Schools tap into a sense of agency in communities to bring about mutual choice to move toward federal goals, otherwise mandates like NCLB will ultimately get nowhere (Cohen & Ball, 1999, p. 23). Different forms of capital, but sociocultural capital in particular, can operate as lenses principals use to view particular educational contexts. A lens of the middle-class, white norm limits a school’s responsiveness to cultural capital possessed by students (Machtinger, 2007; Swartz, 1997).

    Learning capacity is equivalent to intellectual capital (Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2005). All forms of capital are resources “that can be drawn on for social advancement” (Rury, 2005, p. 13). Bourdieu, one of the world experts on capital, believes there are four basic types of capital: economic, cultural, social, and symbolic with economic capital being the most important form in the United States followed by cultural (Swartz, 1997). While school cannot provide students with economic capital, schools can help students develop the other types of capital. Incongruence between the amount and type of capital students possess and the forms of capital valued in the school community can cause problems for the student (Kennedy et al., 2006).

    Cultural capital has been defined in numerous ways. Church (2005) quotes Nieto’s definition of culture as

    the ever-changing values, traditions, social and political relationships, and worldview created, shared, and transformed by a group of people bound together by a combination of factors that include a common history, geographic location, language, social class, and religion…Culture is dynamic; multi-faceted; embedded in context, influenced by social, economic, and political factors; created and socially constructed; learned; and dialectical (p. 48).

    Or in other words: highly complex. Cultural capital comes in an objectified form such as works of art, an embodied form based in an appreciation and understanding of objectified cultural capital, and institutionalized form found in educational credits and degrees. Cultural capital is a resource used to gain or maintain power and privilege. Based on the assumption that certain attitudes, behaviors, and values are more admired and rewarded in society than others, dominant forms of cultural capital give students who possess them an advantage over marginalized students (Dumais, 2005; Rury, 2005).

    Cultural capital, within the school setting, is the embodiment of the previous experience and learning of a community of people and influences how students accumulate, exchange, and utilize resources they gain from the school. Culture can be verbal facility, general cultural awareness, aesthetic preferences, scientific knowledge, and educational credentials and becomes a power source. Objectified cultural capital such as books, art, scientific instruments, and other tools require cultural abilities to use which can impact student engagement and parent involvement (Cohen & Ball, 1999; Stacey, 1996; Swartz, 1997). Parent access to the educational setting is also mediated by their personal experiences with school and other education-related institutions. In theU.S., where the dominant culture is not as strong as in other countries, cultural capital benefits both students from privileged backgrounds and all students who possess it allowing for “cultural mobility”. As cultural capital is distributed unevenly by society, schools make important decisions based on capital they have or capital they are trying to get which can be attributed to school failure as opposed to the limitations of individuals (Dumais, 2005; Lee & Bowen, 2006; Nasir & Hand, 2006; Schaughency & Ervin, 2006).

    Coleman expands cultural and human capital theories into social capital which is a “community-based support-system network” that is context specific and has the two common elements of social structures and facilitation of individual and group actions within those structures. Social capital is a network of individual human capital. This view seems too limiting to the richness of cultural capital as described by Bourdieu (Musial, 1999). Social capital is the benefit derived from social networks and organizations including relationships within family and community that generates trust and schema to increase the capacity for collaboration (Dumais, 2005; Farmer-Hinton & Adams, 2006; Lee & Bowen, 2006; Rury, 2005; Zacharakis & Flora, 2005).  Agents in the form of individuals and class will “struggle for social distinction” in a form of self-organization (Swartz, 1997). In this light, capital seems destined to be reproduced as “the quality of education children receive is directly related in part to the ability of parents to generate social capital” (Noguera, 2004, p. 2155).

    Obviously, the forms of cultural, social, human, and economic capital are often interrelated. Cultural capital intersects with social capital to give agents more influence. This intersection means agency cannot be separated from the social and cultural contexts within the global environment in which it occurs. While social capital can be a means to a desirable end, the dominant class will most often prevail as they possess more capital (Lattuca, 2002; Lee & Bowen, 2006; Watkins & Tisdell, 2006).

    More simply, “culture can be thought of as a set of behavioral characteristics or traits that are typical of a social group” (Rury, 2005, p. 9). The social setting is an organization of networks between social positions where dominant and marginalized groups compete for control of resources. Capital is specific to setting and does not exist without it. The education system reproduces social inequity where the possession of cultural capital leads to academic success. The most valuable form of capital in school is cultural capital congruent with capital valued within that particular school’s social setting (Dumais, 2005).

    Whereas the social-constructivist perspective makes a distinction between the individual cognitive activities and the environment in which the individual is present, the socio-cultural perspective regards the individual as being part of that environment. Accordingly, learning cannot be understood as a process that is solely in the mind of the learner…Knowledge, according to this perspective, is constructed in settings of joint activity…Learning is a process of participating in cultural practices, a process that structures and shapes cognitive activity (De Laat & Lally, 2003, p. 14).

    Nasir and Hand (2006) explain this complex interaction of social and cultural capital within specific environments as proof that educators need to attend to fostering agency in students’ focus on local problems. The number of students bringing middle class capital with them to school is decreasing and the number of students bringing sociocultural capital from the lower classes is increasing. “As in any demographic switch, the prevailing rules and policies eventually give way to the group with the largest numbers” (Payne, 2001, p. 79).

    Engrained dispositions from previous experience can sub- or un-consciously limit student success. Called “habitus”, these dispositions provide the opportunity to mitigate cultural predispositions by structuring school situations and interactions with positive models and diversity-oriented experiences (Kuh et al., 2007). However, the concept of habitus does not account for the complexity and variety of hopes and dreams of different groups. Humanity is too varied and complex to be perfectly categorized into any model, but habitus does give a vocabulary to talk about how dominant and marginalized groups may be socialized starting at a young age. “Habitus…privileges the basic idea that action is governed by a ‘practical sense’ of how to move in the social world. Culture is a practical tool used for getting along in the social world” (Swartz, 1997, p. 115). Habitus is a collection of cultural habits.

    Field is the social setting organized around types and combinations of capital which habitus operates. Schools act as a field for the competitive investment, exchange, and accumulation of various forms of capital (Swartz, 1997). Struggling within a local environment, schools should reflect the shifting community field. “Education clearly affects the course of social development, and schools reflect the influence of their immediate social context” (Rury, 2005, p. 1).

    Schools are viewed as vehicles for individual social and economic mobility. The education field itself provides mobility of cultural capital for low SES/marginalized groups and is often one of few examples children and community members have of mobility and opportunity. This perception itself may create the reproduction of limited mobility in marginalized groups. In truth, some schools value cultural knowledge while others are more forgiving (Dumais, 2005; Henig et al., 1999; Johnson et al., 2000).

    Empowerment of marginalized communities is collective, not individual. In order to realize change in the face of limited resources, communities rely on social capital for strength and agency. For school communities, this means that improved engagement can have profound consequences in improving achievement, agency, and equality (Schutz, 2006). Communalism helps build and accrue capital, generates “positive emotional energy”, and “may enhance motivation and engagement” (Seiler & Elmesky, 2007, p. 393). The social capital web is comprised of household, neighborhood, and school (Musial, 1999). But “working class peoples’ indigenous learning capacities…have been denied, suppressed, degraded or diverted within most capitalist schooling” (Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2005, p. 111). Overcoming cultural and historical differences “concerns activity and access to tools and mediated learning” (Portes, 2005, p. 176). Literacy, numeracy, and student well-being are practiced fluidly and dynamically across boundaries in social contexts. These pathways between family and community “need to be understood in out-of-home learning communities so that pedagogies, including assessment practices and the pedagogy of relationships can address the complexities related to children’s different life chances and ways of learning” (Kennedy et al., 2006, p. 16).

    “Biological models of deficiency [such as the Bell curve have been] replaced by cultural deficit models” (Nasir & Hand, 2006, p. 451). Private and charter schools can stick to a particular ideology that does not have to concern itself with discipline, ideology, and related social problems. These schools are successful because the students who attend them possess congruent sociocultural capital. The success of private and parochial schools suggests these schools acting as self-organizing units self-organize around the sociocultural capital available within and surround them as opposed to the capital they possess being superior (Bower, 2006; Portes, 2005; Walk, 1998). Capacity becomes a non-issue in middle class schools because the ingredients for success already reside in the boundaries and pathways established within the school community.

  • Blog post
  • 1 month ago
  • Views: 232

• Share And Share Alike! Share And Share Alike!

  • From: Tom_Whitby
  • Description:

    I recently bumped into a friend at an education Conference. This friend is what I consider a thought leader in education. He is a well-known speaker and author and a person who many educators deservingly look up to for both guidance and wisdom. I thought that I would take advantage of the encounter by asking for a guest post for SmartBlog on Education, an education blog with which I am associated. He must have been having a bad day based on his response.

    “I am tired of teaching everyone”, he said.

    Knowing how much this person always offers to all who listen, this reaction was out of character and a clear indication of a frustrating day. Sharing is a learned behavior. It is not a behavior common to everyone. It can be easily abused and discouraged. If a person shares and gets the feeling that his or her sharing is not appreciated or under-valued, that spigot of sharing may quickly be turned off.

    My teaching career started about two days after the last Dinosaur died in the eyes of many. Back in the day there was not a great deal of sharing. People would share advice very quickly, but lessons were kept under lock and key of the filing cabinet. It was at the end of the year if one was lucky enough to know a retiring teacher that the sharing took place. If someone from your department were retiring, on the last day of their service there would be a gathering in their room. The File cabinet would be opened and the sharing would begin. Files, annotated books, tests, lessons, worksheets, overheads, and dittoes would all be bestowed onto the junior members of the department. The senior members actually got the empty file cabinets. The senior members of the department always had the largest collection of file cabinets.

    That was then and this is now! Sharing has become part of the culture of teaching. It is the currency of social media. We can’t be just takers. If we are using social media to gain information, we should have an obligation to provide information as well. It does not have to be original. It can be something that we learned from others. In Twitter terms that would be a ReTweet or an RT. Never assume people know what you know. Always share information at all levels of expertise. Social Media has people from all levels participating in the exchange of ideas.

    Every person has a different level of understanding and participation in social media. Some folks read more blog posts than others. Not everyone reads the same Blogs. If you find a good post share it. There are hundreds of thousands of educators on social media. Most Blogs do not have those numbers reading their posts each day. A good post needs to be shared. “A rising tide raises all boats.” The more we share, the better off our profession will be.

    Also keep in mind that everyone has a different Personal Learning Network. No two people are following the exact same list of people on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook. If you see something of value, share it. Others may not have seen it. Even if they did, your emphasis on it may cause them to view it differently. Never underestimate your influence on others.

    Education is about the free exchange of ideas. The exchange part is where the sharing comes in. Without sharing, there is no exchange. At one time content was a commodity that was doled out for a price by institutions that housed the texts that contained the content. That is no longer the case. A combination of content on the Internet as well as the advance of social media and it is a whole new paradigm. Of course this only works if exchanges of information takes place.

    If we are to benefit from the Internet as a profession or a society we need to feel an obligation to be more than takers. We need to be makers and exchangers as well. We need to keep the exchange alive by not counting on the few, but by involving the many. We need to believe in the premise of Share and Share alike.

    I am still waiting for that guest post that I requested.

  • Blog post
  • 1 month ago
  • Views: 201

• It’s not alchemy—it’s Resonant It’s not alchemy—it’s Resonant Leadership

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    When we think of effective leadership, the kind that yields results, many of us immediately conjure up the image of a sort of alchemist—or as the authors of Resonant Leadership put it, a “lone star,” that goes around sprinkling “magical pixie dust” and producing miracles. Real leadership, however, has little to do with alchemy. And if you buy Richard Boyatzis’s and Annie McKee’s argument about leadership—or what they would call resonant leadership—it also has less to do with managing others than it does with learning how to manage oneself.
    
    

    Boyatzis and McKee describe resonant leaders as those who:
    
    

    • Have emotional intelligence and are in tune with those around them
    • Share several self-competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management
    • Manage others’ emotions and know how to build strong, trusting relationships
    • Act with mental clarity—not impulse
    • Know that emotions are contagious
    • Know that leading by fear is myopic: it works in the short run, but always backfires down the road
    • Inspire others around them to adopt a unified vision and move towards it
      
      

    Now that we’ve defined it, how in the world do aspiring leaders learn to become resonant leaders?
    
    

    Manage power stress
    Being a leader can be a lonely business. Decisions are not only high stakes, but rarely clear cut, communication is complicated and relationships…even more complicated. Managing this stress, or what Boyatzis and McKee call power stress, day in and day out is a challenge. Sadly, many of us become its fatal victims.
    
    

    To avoid dissonance, leaders must make a conscious effort to look inward, which means that they should set aside time every day to write, reflect and attend to the body. Remember, resonance is “holistic.”
    
    

    Remember what the body knows
    You may be familiar with the classic Dr. Albert Mehabrian study that suggests humans can intuitively read—with nearly 100 percent accuracy—each other’s underlying emotions and motives simply by observing body language.
    
    

    We’re not always conscious of the emotions we convey, but you can guarantee that the receivers are. Our colleagues and teachers watch us; they know when we are frustrated, discouraged, and defensive; they feel it—and it can quickly become contagious. Similarly, when we’re excited, motivated and energetic, our colleagues can’t help but feel it and want to be around it.
    
    

    Resonance is a way of life, not just an abstract goal
    Walk around your school. What do you see? What do you feel? Now ask yourself whether or not what you saw and felt reflects the values and mission of the school. Are people demonstrating obvious, tangible care and concern for one another? Boyatzis and McKee put it aptly: “Resonance is a way of life, not just an abstract goal.” If you buy this, you should see evidence of a shared vision in hundreds of ways, both small and large, all beautifully scattered around your school.
    
    

    Take time to reflect and write every day
    Making time to turn inward seems challenging, but try carving out a space (start with a half hour at the least) in your schedule every day so that you can reflect. To get you started, we thought we’d share a short exercise we came across in another book by Boyatzis and McKee.

    Part I: Begin by thinking of the people who have helped you most in your life and career, the people about whom you’d say, “Without this person, I could not have accomplished or achieved as much as I have. Without this person, I would not be the person I am today.”
    
    

    • Now write their names. Next to each name, describe moments you remember with them that had a lasting impact on you. What did they say or do? How did you feel at the time? What did you learn from them and from these experiences?
    • Avoid the temptation to just think about it; the exercise will be much more effective if you write down your answers.
      
      

    Part II: Now think of the people who tried to help, manage, or coach you to better performance over the last two years. Recall your performance reviews; what kind of feedback did you receive—and how was the feedback conveyed?
    
    

    • Write their names and what each person said or did with you. What did you learn from them?
      
      

    Part III: Answer the following questions:
    
    

    • What feelings did Part 1 of the exercise evoke in you?
    • What feelings did Part 2 evoke?
    • Once you’ve finished, compare and contrast the people and situations in each part
    • What do these memories make you want to do today?
      
      

    If you completed the exercise, we have a strong suspicion that it was more pleasant to complete Part I than it was to complete Part II. Why? Because you are remembering the people who inspired you, who believed in you and showed compassion when others didn’t.
    
    

    On the other hand, in Part II, you were asked to write about the people who (most likely) focused on your weaknesses, who may have put you on the defense.
    
    

    It’s our hope that these two exercises helped create an understanding of how others have helped you learn and grow. We thought this might provide insights into how you developed important changes, and how you might help others do the same.
    
    

    Image: The Alchemist by Signiert Öl auf Holz
    (This work is in the public domain in the European Union and non-EU countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years or less).

     

                                   

  • Blog post
  • 1 month ago
  • Views: 449

• PD: Will It Float? PD: Will It Float?

  • From: Tom_Whitby
  • Description:

    I have long been a David Letterman fan on any of the shows he has hosted. Over the years one of my favorite Letterman bits has been when he and Paul Shaffer would discuss the possible ability of a specific item to float in water. After their predictions the item would be tossed into a giant, transparent vat of water to determine who was correct. The results were apparent and immediate.

     

    Professional Development has long been an element in American education. At one time things changed slowly so that the need for development seemed less a concern. The country’s shift to being a technology-driven society has increased the rate of change, forcing a need for a more rapid rate of absorption of developments for people in all jobs and professions, but especially education.

    The difficulty in education is its goal; it is not just to educate kids about their past and how it relates to the present, but also what to expect in the future. Of course we have no idea what the future holds, because the present is moving so quickly. Consider for a moment the effect of Smartphones and iPads on our culture. iPad technology is but three years old and has had a profound effect on those places that have embraced it. Smartphones have been around a little longer and have taken longer to be accepted by educators, but they are creeping successfully into the system after changing forever how the country communicates and accesses information. All of the technology and its effects have had a great influence on how kids learn and are motivated to learn, as well as what it is they are learning for. In many cases teachers have no idea what they are preparing their students for because their students’ future will be different from our present, and light years from our past. These are all reasons for educators to be relevant in terms of what is needed to teach as well as how to teach today.

    The question is: does the system address the need for relevance in education? Many systems require teachers to acquire a specific number of PD hours over a period of time by selecting and taking courses or workshops on topics pertaining to education. These choices are left to the individual teacher to select and obtain. Of course some obvious questions pop up here. If the teacher is not comfortable with technology will technology be part of that teacher’s training. If a teacher has not kept up with current trends and research in education, how will he/she make choices that will best benefit his/her students? Is the teacher versed well enough in technology to relate to the technological changes that effect our population? It always comes down to relevance. Is the teacher able to make relevant decisions based on experience in a technologically driven culture?

    Rather than try to hold millions of teachers accountable for these questions, a better method might be to look to the districts and the education leaders. Are they maintaining relevance? Are they providing professional development to their staffs to maintain relevance?  Are they supporting teachers with time to collaborate in order to incorporate what they should be doing. Have they gotten beyond the keynote lecture and hourly workshops once, or twice a year as their total commitment to teacher training?

    Most educators consider Professional Development a key component to what they need to be an effective teacher. Most Administrators point to Professional Development as a key component to what their teachers need to be effective teachers. Most districts point to Professional Development as the key component to what their district needs to be an effective district. Yet after all of this, TEST Preparation and not Teacher Preparation is still the priority in American education.

    Professional Development must be part of a teacher’s workweek. It must be prioritized, paid for, and most importantly PROVIDED. We should not expect anyone to take an uncomfortable path down into unfamiliar territory without some sort of guidance or leadership. It cannot be left up to people who may not know what it is that they do not know to decide on what they need to be effective.

    A lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client, and physician heal thy self are commonly understood. Maybe we need a phrase for educators trying to educate themselves? The system of PD in most American schools has become another victim of a fast paced technology driven culture. It no longer works as it did. If we do not change and adapt to meet the changes in our culture, we will surely be irrelevant as an institution. Now here is my question: PD in its present form; Will it Float?

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 177

• 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
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 267

• Busting the Myth: To be Effect Busting the Myth: To be Effective, Teachers Must Work Tirelessly.

  • From: Mindy_Keller-Kyriakides
  • Description:

    In his blog post on The Qualities of an Effective Teacher: No. 4—An Effective Teacher is Tireless, Jake Hollingsworth argues that “good” teachers understand that they will work long hours and have no care for the fact that students neither realize or appreciate the number of those hours.

    I respectfully disagree.

    First, there is a distinction to be made between “good” and “effective.” Good implies a quality that is desirable by another whereas effective implies a quality of successful implementation. One of the worst adjectives that can be attributed to a teacher is good because it perpetuates this strange morality of martyrdom in teacher identity: that he/she can only be good if he/she works tirelessly, the unappreciated, selfless educator.
    The image conveyed by Mr. Hollingsworth is that of a teacher sitting at a desk (at home and/or at work), with a computer and stacks of papers. It is a tiring image, and one becomes weary in just looking at it.  Why set this image up in front of new teachers? They will think that this is the way it should be, and that unless they are doing so, then they are not “good.” 
    It’s simply not true. 
    Effective teachers spend their planning time wisely and purposefully, and they DO care what their students think about the presentation of lessons and assessments. We can spin our wheels for days on a particular unit, and it will fall flat in presentation. It just won’t “jive.” On the other hand, an afterthought of a lesson, which took moments to plan, will garner an enthusiastic response. 
    The difference really lies in how the teacher spends his or her planning time in reaction to what has occurred in the class.  Ascribing to the definition above, the “good” teacher will simply pick up and do the same thing again, using the same approach on the next unit, spending the same amount of ineffectual time.  However, effective teachers will not spend the next number of hours planning in the same way. He or she will reflect, first, so that the same problem/issue won’t happen again in another unit. 
    The effective teacher also asks students what they think, and by doing so, will find the first of many time-savers. For example, as opposed to agonizing for hours over a rubric for a project, effective teachers will work alongside students in determining a rubric of expectations. Generally, what they’ll find is that a student-created rubric is far more rigorous than what they would have created. Further, students who have created it will strive more diligently to meet those expectations. 
    Thus, a good deal of an effective teacher's time is in thought, not in doing something tirelessly.
    I will concede that the motivation for preparation should NOT be to gain appreciation from students. (I write about teaching as a thankless job at length in a previous blog post.) However, effective teachers will “see” appreciation of students in the form of engaged interest, interactive discussion, and the dawning of understanding. If we do not see any of those, then we cannot say we are effective. 
    Truly effective teachers might spend a large chunk of time planning a large unit, the first time. However, following their reflection on the reception of the lesson and garnering student feedback, the next time will be much more fluid and purposeful, lessening the time but increasing the impact. Additionally, effective teachers do not always start from scratch; they collaborate with others to save time  and share with others to improve practice.
    Truly effective teachers are not hinged to any desk for a ridiculous number of hours every day. If you’re doing that, stop. If you find yourself grading papers endlessly, STOP. Talk to your mentor or talk to someone who just seems to “have it all together.” That person will have valuable information as to how to work not only effectively, but realistically.
    Effective teachers do not seek to reach an idealized "tirelessness." Rather, they seek and find efficiency.
    Mindy and some of her former students recently published Transparent Teaching of Adolescents, a discussion of effective teaching strategies for high school. Join the conversation!  

    Mirror Site: Joyful Collapse.

    

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 811

• 5 Reading Strategies you can s 5 Reading Strategies you can share with your students' parents

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    At school, our students are faced with—let’s be honest now—agonizingly dull reading comprehension passages. Then, when they are done, students are asked comprehension questions (equally dull) about that passage. While we can’t control the content in these tests or the fact that students have to take them, you can find a way to help struggling readers relax, learn to love reading, and stop associating reading with the tests they face at school. Teachers can do a lot to make this happen, but we certainly can’t do it all, so we thought we were overdue to offer a few reading strategies to share with your students’ parents.
    
    

    5 Reading Strategies you can share with your students' parents
    
    

    Use a hands-off approach

    Have you ever had a conversation with someone who had a habit of interrupting, correcting or attempting to finish sentences for you? You didn’t appreciate it very much, did you? If it bothers you, chances are that beginning readers aren’t going to appreciate it either. Instead of interrupting or correcting, give this a try:
    
    

    When the reader comes across a tricky word, don’t force them to stumble through it; instead, s/he should just say “blank” and continue on with the passage. Worry about that word later.
    
    

    Allow the reader to choose or abandon a book
    We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Allow the child to choose the books she reads at home—and don’t force her to struggle through something that is either too challenging or does not suit her interests. To struggle is to learn, but remember that you are teaching the child to love reading.
    
    

    If the child is unsure of how to find books that suit her interests and reading level, stop by Book Wink, a website that uses podcasts and 3-minute video book talks to introduce students to books they’ll love. Each video book talk is about a different topic, and additional “read-alikes” can be found on the website. In addition to this, users can browse Book Wink’s database where they can search for books by grade, subject, author, or title.
    
    

    Show a bit of empathy—even if you never struggled with reading
    I remember catching my junior high math teacher after class one afternoon and asking her if she ever struggled with algebra. “Nope, I always loved it” was her response and five seconds later, the conversation was over. You see, I was looking for empathy and support from my teacher. While I anticipated that she had always excelled in math, I was hoping that she would at least admit to me that she empathized with what it meant to struggle with something.
    
    

    Reading isn’t easy, even for adults. Try reading Finnegan’s Wake or Derrida and you’ll get a sense of what your students go through. We’ve all encountered texts that make us feel inferior. Likewise, we’ve all experienced what Kumar Sathy calls the “passive eye shift”: Your eyes scan the pages and take in the words, but your brain is on another continent, planet or universe! Keep this in mind and go easy on beginning readers.
    
    

    Make read-alouds fun for you and the child
    In her cornerstone text for teaching reading, The Art of Teaching Reading, Lucy McCormick Calkins says there are “only a handful of things” that everyone agrees are essential for teaching reading: “Perhaps the most important of these is the fact that children need to listen to the best…literature read aloud to them.” We’ve made it a habit to read aloud to younger students, but when they get older, for one reason or another, we tend to think that they’ve outgrown this. But good writing is meant to be read aloud.
    
    

    There’s a story about a rather well-known poet, John Keats, who was given a new translation of Homer’s great works by a friend of his, Charles Cowden Clarke. That evening, Keats and Clarke sat up until daylight reading to one another and “shouting with delight as some passage of especial energy struck [their] imagination.” If a grown man like Keats did it, so can you.
    
    

    Try out three of Esmé Raji Codell’s tips for reading aloud to children
    
    

    • Love the book yourself before you read it to the children: Read the book completely before you introduce it. Familiarity with the text will help you read with more enthusiasm; it will also help you stay faithful to the text when you are in front of a tough audience because you know that the text is “worthy” in the end
    • Choose books that are best when read aloud: Although you can technically read any book aloud, some are better than others. Try something funny, scary, or something that concludes with a twist
    • Be versatile in your approach: Read to them, but make sure that the child has the same text so s/he can follow along with you. Then alternate: You read a page, she reads a page; you read a paragraph, she reads a paragraph
      
      
      To complement the activities you may have planned for National Reading Month in March, we’ve put together a new guide, Writing Reinvented.Inside you’ll find:
      
      
      • Strategies for writing a thesis statement
      • Strategies to help your students defeat writer’s block
      • An engaging way to teach grammar…without actually teaching grammar
      • “Flash Fiction”: An assignment that challenges students to write a story in six words
        
        

      You can download our free guide here or by clicking on the button below
      
      
      

      

    

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 325
  • Not yet rated

• L2L News: March 2013 L2L News: March 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

    • We 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.
       
    • Submit a proposal for ASCD’s 2014 Annual Conference. ASCD is accepting proposals for 2014 Annual Conference presentations until May 15.
       
    • Nominate 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 

    Attending ASCD Annual Conference?

    We hope to see you in Chicago this weekend at ASCD’s 2013 Annual Conference: Our Story, Our Time, Our Future. Here are a few tips as you head out for St. Patrick’s Day weekend:

    • Download the ASCD Conference app. Search “ASCD” in your mobile app store or go to www.ascd.org/ascd13app. Plan your sessions, access social media activity, get up-to-the-minute news on ASCD Annual Conference, and more.
       
    • If applicable, read the First Timer’s Guide on ASCD Inservice.
       
    • Read Getting Your Game Plan Together for #ASCD13 on ASCD Inservice.
       
    • Follow the #ASCD13 hashtag on Twitter to connect with other attendees. Consider attending the Tweetup on March 16 as well.

     

    Can’t make it to Chicago? Attend the ASCD Virtual Conference instead!

     

    Join the ASCD Forum Conversation

    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 (March 3-16) is:

    Educator Evaluation Systems: What research and evidence support the validity of existing evaluation systems?

    Upcoming themes include:

    • 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. We invite educators to join the conversation by blogging on the ASCD EDge®social network, commenting on other blog posts, taking a survey, and attending 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.

     

    Newest Policy Points Highlights Teacher Evaluation

    ASCD’s newest issue of Policy Points (PDF) spotlights the association’s original 50-state analysis of educator evaluation systems as outlined in states’ NCLB waiver applications and other resources; it features a series of maps for easy comparison of key evaluation system components across the states. The resource provides graphic depictions of the frequency of state teacher evaluations, the rating levels used by states to rate teacher performance, and the extent to which states use student learning data in teacher evaluations.  

     

    Save the Date! ASCD Whole Child Virtual Conference: Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture

    May 2–10, 2013

    How can schools implement and sustain a whole child approach to education? ASCD invites you to participate in the free, online Whole Child Virtual Conference from May 2–10, 2013.

    You will

    ·         Hear from renowned speakers, including Pasi Sahlberg, Michael Fullan, and Andy Hargreaves.

    ·         Learn from educators, authors, and experts who have successfully implemented a whole child approach in schools around the world.

    ·         Discover the steps taken by ASCD’s Vision in Action award-winning schools and Whole Child Network schools to implement comprehensive, sustainable school improvement and provide for long-term student success.

    ·         Discuss how you can bring a whole child approach into your schools.

    Twenty sessions will be broadcast live over five days, May 6–10, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, with additional sessions on May 2 and 3 for Australasian and European audiences.

    No matter where your school falls on the whole child continuum, be it the early implementation stage or well beyond, the Whole Child Virtual Conference provides a forum and tools for school sites and districts that are working toward sustainability and changing school cultures to serve the whole child.

    Register Now! Go to www.ascd.org/wcvirtualconference

     

    Throughout March at wholechildeducation.org: Reducing Barriers and Expanding Opportunities

    Addressing students' needs levels the playing field. Or rather, addressing students' needs is only leveling the playing field. If a child is hungry, then schools can address the need by providing breakfast, lunch, and assistance as needed. The same applies if the child is unwell. Many schools have made great strides in addressing students' needs, but some schools have gone further. They have taken an issue that was initially a need and used it to enhance and improve what the school offers.

    Join us throughout March as we look at schools that have taken a deficit and turned it into an asset. Some schools have used connections formed into and across the community to enhance and build on what they first envisaged. Other schools are forming alliances to improve a specific situation and have then used those same alliances to improve the entire school. How has your school or community taken a challenge and turned it into a win?

    Check out 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.

    We are taping this month’s Whole Child Podcast in front of a live audience at ASCD’s 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, on Saturday, March 16, in Chicago, Ill. Joining hosts Sean Slade and Donna Snyder of ASCD’s Whole Child Programs team will be representatives from the winning school of the 2013 Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award as they discuss this month's topic and what works in today's schools. The podcast will be available for download on Monday, March 18.

     

    ASCD Leaders in Action: News from the ASCD Leader Community

     

    New Jersey ASCD 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 fifth post of the series, New Jersey ASCD Executive Director Marie Adair writes about the challenges and successes that New Jersey has had with CCSS implementation.

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

     

    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:

    Be Prepared: The ASCD Forum Discusses Educator Preparation Programs

    Use Emotional Intelligence as an Effectiveness Tool and Both Sides of the Scale by Professional Interest Community Facilitator Mamzelle Adolphine

    The Road to Principalship and Beyond by 2012 Emerging Leader Dawn Imada Chan

    Making Teacher Observation Matter by Virginia ASCD Executive Director Laurie McCullough

    Conversation is also taking place in the ASCD Forum group on ASCD EDge, and the #ASCDForum hashtag on Twitter. You are also invited to join us for a live face-to-face session at Annual Conference that will also stream live via Virtual Conference. For more information, go to www.ascd.org/ascdforum.

     

    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 to 2:30 p.m.!

     

    Welcome to the new Common Core Professional Interest Community

    We are pleased to announce the newest ASCD Professional Interest Community: Common Core in the Classroom facilitated by Suzy Brooks of Massachusetts ASCD! The group will share ideas and resources for implementing the Common Core State Standards in instruction. Please join the group on ASCD EDge.

    Congratulations to Matthew Cotton

    2012 ASCD Emerging Leader Matthew Cotton has been selected to serve as a reviewer for the music standards by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). Matthew was identified from among hundreds of applicants and nominees nationwide as an expert in an area of music education who can contribute to this process. Congratulations to Matthew on this exciting achievement!

     

    Check Out These Great Pieces by ASCD Leaders

    • ASCD Express: Three Strategies for Encouraging and Developing Student Voice by ASCD Leader Dawn Imada Chan, and cross-posted to the Whole Child Blog.
       
    • Whole Child Blog: Our Children Are Counting On Us by ASCD Board of Directors Member and former OYEA Winner Marc Cohen
       
    • ASCD Inservice: Eight Questions for Emerging Leader Kim Glenn
       
    • Get to the Core Webinar Series:Implementing the Common Core: Transform Principals into Instructional Leaders with 2012 Emerging Leader Michael DeCaprio(this webinar was recorded March 6, and will be archived soon)
       
    • Whole Child Blog: Safer, Not Safe by 2012 Emerging Leader Jason Ellingson
       
    • Lab Out Loud: STEM in Primary Classrooms by 2011 Emerging Leader Doug Paulson
       
    • Washington ASCD’s Spring issue of Curriculum in Context: A Systematic Approach to Implementing Innovation (p. 25) by 2011 Emerging Leader Hannah Gbenro

     

    Something to Talk About

    Most recent blog posts on ASCD EDge®

    Mostclicked stories from ASCD SmartBrief

     

    Association News

    • ASCD Continues Expansion of Award-Winning Professional Development Offering with New PD In Focus Videos and PD Online Courses—ASCD announces the release of two new PD In Focus® videos and three new PD Online® courses. These new resources address a variety of topics important to educators today, including instructional leadership, formative assessment, and Common Core State Standards implementation. Read the full press release.
      
      
    • ASCD Makes Professional Development E-books Available Through International Retailer Kobo—ASCD is pleased to announce that its e-books are now available through Kobo, a global leader in e-reading. More than 80 of ASCD’s professional development e-books are now available at www.kobo.com to educators in 200 countries, and counting. Read the full press release.
      
      
    • ASCD Introduces New Conference App, Offers Support for First-Time Attendees—Attendees at ASCD's 2013 Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, held March 16–18, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill., will be able to improve their conference and professional development experience by downloading a new ASCD app that puts important conference information at their fingertips. Read the full press release.

     

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 494
  • Not yet rated

• What The iPad's Popularity Say What The iPad's Popularity Says About Education

  • From: Terrell_Heick
  • Description:

    

     

    by Terry Heick, TeachThought.com

    Whether you find the iPad’s success energizing, interesting, or repulsive (we’ve seen all three reactions recently across our social media channels), there’s no denying its presence. The little glass rectangle from Cupertino has left a lot of change in its wake. Education is operated by human beings (for now), and sometimes human nature takes over, looking for a fix, solution, or magic bullet to a problem that’s enormously complex. In talking with TeachThought recently, Grant Wiggins explained, “I’m old enough to recall when Xerox machines, TV, film strips, VCRs, VideoDiscs and such were all going to revolutionize education.”

    So maybe it’s not crazy that there is an under-current of arguments against iPad integration, and at times these arguments can be compelling.

    Some see it as an expensive toy that has little place in a tax-funded, government-subsidized industry that’s seeing a loss of teacher positions and extra-curricular funding. Point taken.

    There is also the charge of elitism. This one is a bit more curious, but has some ground. For learners without technology access in their homes–whether that be hardware, software, bandwidth, or all three–insisting on the iPad as a wonder-device can at least smell like elitism. And this can be exacerbated by the otherwise noble intent to bring students “into the light,” which can seem condescending and even clueless to communities dealing with much bigger problems than 1:1 integration. Is it the job of schools to assimilate or educate? And can their be one without the other?

    And there’s more.

    The elephant in the room of education is not a lack of compelling technology application, increasingly stifling district mandates, or even a lack of funding, but the chronic under-performance of pockets of socioeconomic “titles.” In this way, little has changed from the conditions which (foolishly) encouraged American politicians to authorize NCLB. And in this context, the iPad–and even BYOD movements–can seem downright crude. How the iPad solves–or even doesn’t worsen–this issue is also unclear.

    And there’s the it’s a distraction argument that can surface when technology of any kind is brought up, given in a distinctly get off my lawn tone. Moving students towards proficiency across dozens of standards in little short bursts of learning opportunity is challenging enough. To add the iPad as yet another “critical” piece to an already jumbled puzzle seems curious to many, making it hard to see how even the most talented tablet is worth the effort.

    So if it’s expensive, crude, and distracting, why is it so popular?

    And better yet, what does that popularity say about education?

    1. Education is desperate for change
    For a variety of reasons–fatigue from testing, well-intentioned and self-administered pressure, or the constant churn of otherwise good ideas that simply didn’t produce test-measured learning results–education is not just ready for a change, but hungry and desperate for it, from administrators to business leaders, parents to most importantly students. And the iPad is among the most kind-spirited changes in decades.

    2. Social Media-based PLNs are highly-functional PD systems
    Using iPad is easy. Letting students use them to complete tasks is also easy. Planning for, launching, and maintaining iPads in a high-functioning learning environment is not easy, and that is the task of hundreds of thousands of teachers globally–teachers already pushed to the brink with paperwork and minutiae. So how do they figure it out? Some of it is trial and error, but the power of informal professional development is immense. PLN are changing what educators expect from education.

    3. Textbooks aren’t working
    While textbooks are all too often demonized, that doesn’t mean they were doing their jobs (however you might define that). If they were working, the iPads could be brought in as research tools, second screens or in some ancillary capacity. But they aren’t, so they weren’t.
    
    

    4. Teachers are willing to give up control
    The idea that teachers hold on to power in the classroom for the sake of ego is inaccurate. While that can happen, most clamp on with their pedagogical grip of death because they’re scared what will happen to learning results if they do. Placing an iPad into the lap of every learner (or even every fifth learner) is nothing if not a sign that teachers are not just willing to give up control of pace and access, but are eager for that kind of shift.

    5. Digital media is more compelling than physical media
    This one is simple, and a bit obvious, but true. While education has historically been centered around books and essays, digital media is simply more compelling, consumable, and connected. That’s not a judgment that it’s any more potent in producing learning results (another topic for another day), but it’s difficult to argue that it’s infinitely more compelling to most learners.

    7. Data is important
    Gamified apps like the Khan Academy provide data that, while perhaps not as clear as they might be, is still authentic and often user-accessible. While assessments that produce data are still expensive and crude (the latter issue something testing consortiums are working to address), data itself matters. And iPads–as well as Android tablets, Google Chromebooks, and Android smartphones–are able to provide it–often in ways students can understand.

    8. There is more money–or at least financial flexibility–than there seems to be
    Schools are broke, yet iPads are finding their ways into schools globally. No matter how broke a school, district, or community seems, consumerism finds a way.

    9. Educators are consumers too
    District folks and classroom teachers are human beings, after all. With Apple’s incredible marketing efforts that create angst-inducing must-have groans from otherwise sane adults, it’s not surprising that this effect reaches through the walls of classrooms as well.

    
    

    10. Education is ready to personalize
    What started out as an effort by educators like Carol Ann Tomlinson to differentiate, has turned into an all-out effort to mobilize and personalize learning: just right, just in time, just for me. The iPad isn’t just a tool to personalize–it’s a giant bullhorn that shouts angrily when things aren’t personalized. (What has the iPad done to education? Great question.)

    11. Outcomes-Based learning is flawed
    Outcomes-based learning is the practice of deciding ahead of time what will be learned, then alternating between teaching and assessment until mastery has been proven, or it’s time to move on to another standard. This has been the de-facto model in most first-world formal learning institutions since nearly the beginning, and tremendous resources–billions of dollars–have been poured into a system trying to make it work. But it doesn’t work, and we keep shifting blame and finding “solutions” (like the iPad), playing an expensive game of whack-a-mole to try to correct something that’s broken by design. We can and should measure learning and use data to improve, but the data that says OBL works just isn’t there.

    12. Education entrepreneurship is blossoming
    The iPad itself is just an actuator–and intermediary between user and content. Giants like Google and start-ups likeLearnist, Evernote and EdShelf are contributing to the iPad’s stunning success, perhaps more so than Apple itself. Without this kind of ecology, the iPad may have suffered the same fate as film, computer labs, graphing calculators, and other technology trends that were thought to be innovators, but soon lost steam.

    Conclusion

    The iPad’s success in education is far more complex than the above factors, a kind of perfect storm of consumer popularity, parched classrooms, and burgeoning edu-ecology. If the iPad is viewed as a savior for education, education will be left disappointed.

    Again.

    But its considerable success is indicative of important conditions–a kind of “data” that would not otherwise be as visible. Many educators see it as invaluable. Right or wrong, that kind of assessment is worth understanding.

    It will be interesting to see what the classroom landscape looks like 12 years from now, when today’s kindergartners are graduating high school–if we will again be arguing the role of technology, perhaps smart augmented reality systems, or the relationship between assessment data, school-to-school/peer-to-peer learning and student privacy, all the while swearing that this time, without a doubt, education is going to be better.

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 326

• Common Core = Common Sense Common Core = Common Sense

  • From: Thomas_Martellone
  • Description:

     

    Common Core = Common Sense

    
    

    As many of us have seen, the predominant literature in many educational publications recently has been about the Common Core, and most specifically, around ELA and non- fiction texts.  As I prepare to enter my 20^th year in education, I am astounded by the groups which continue to promote the “pendulum effect” for our teachers.  Those would be the extremists that cry, “All reading in the Common Core era must be non-fiction, no more fictional texts”. 

    
    

    I wonder if some of us have lost the good judgment which led us to be educators to begin with.  Do we really think that the Common Core is advocating for not engaging in fictional texts with students?  Will our students get the education they deserve when we make radical departures from what we know best meets student needs?

    
    

    As a young educator and teacher, I read the book, Touch Magic by Jane Yolen.  In her book, Jane wrote a collection of essays about how important traditional and imaginative stories are for children, and why.  I will never forget how I felt when I put that book down after reading it.  I was sad at that time, thinking about the loss of mythological knowledge our children were suffering from, specifically at the hands of missed curricular opportunities.  When I say missed curricular opportunities, I mean the absence of coordinated curriculum which would ensure that our students got a well-rounded education. Curricular opportunities where robust teaching would provide them the opportunity to engage in a variety of texts that would not only satisfy their curiosity about how the world works in non-fiction texts, but those lessons learned about how the world works in myths, folk-tales, fairy tales, and fables. If you were a student that was lucky enough to have a teacher that provided both non-fiction texts and fictional texts, it was like winning the educational lottery.

    
    

     

    I was delighted many years later as an administrator to see the implementation of Common Core standards as a way to ensure that children had consistent, predictable experiences in English Language Arts that would provide them a strong foundation in both reading and writing.  I continue to be excited about those opportunities, yet, I am concerned about the extremists that whisper in the ear of teachers, harkening them to listen to their slanted views of the Common Core and what that means for our children. 

    
    

    Have we lost the common sense and good judgment that is needed to provide students with a well-rounded education?  The Common Core does not say that students should be denied fictional literature.  The underlying premise of the Common Core standards in reading is that students are well rounded and exposed to a variety of literature that will lead to their success.  That success lies in teachers and administrators using good judgment and reasonable interpretation of the Common Core standards for reading.  Our work should not be about the OR, meaning non-fiction OR fiction, but rather the AND, quality fiction AND non-fiction texts, coupled with great teaching about how to navigate and interpret those texts.  And dare I say, shouldn’t we also provide students the opportunity to read books for enjoyment.  Shouldn’t we allow them to read about insects, and space exploration, and also about the Fox and the Crow, and Little Red Riding Hood?

    
    

    Isn’t there room to help students learn how to navigate texts that are rich in information, and also those that provide other information, such as the importance of listening to one’s parents, or lessons learned by venturing out too far in the world, or learning a morale when faced with a dilemma?

    
    

    In her book Touch Magic, Jane Yolen noted that;

     “One of the basic functions of myth and folk literature is to provide a landscape of allusion. With the first story a child hears, he or she takes a step toward perceiving a new environment, one that is filled with quests and questers, fated heroes and fetid monsters, intrepid heroines and trepid helpers, even incompetent oafs who achieve competence and wholeness by going out and trying.”   

     

    For those people perpetuating the pendulum swing once more in a totally opposite direction from what is intended by the Common Core, I hope they regain their “common sense” around what the Common Core can do for our children, and what we owe our children through good teaching, the use of common sense, and what will provide them with a well-rounded, rich experience with both non-fiction and fiction texts. 

    
    

    Our children will only get the education they need and deserve when the adults teaching them realize the value of balance, patience, and common sense. 

     

    Thomas Martellone, Ed.S
    Principal 

     

    Artwork taken from Snow White and Red Riding Hood, Trina Schart Hyman

  • Blog post
  • 2 months ago
  • Views: 262

• Burying the Book Report: 5 Mor Burying the Book Report: 5 More Book Report Alternatives

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    We’ve all been assigned our fair share of book reports in our day. We may have even assigned one or two of them ourselves. Love ‘em or leave ‘em, we’re not looking to debate the merits (or follies) of the assignment here. What we will say is that there are only so many book reports one teacher can take in a lifetime! And our gut tells us that students would eagerly echo this sentiment.
    
    

    In the past, we’ve offered a couple of book report alternatives—having your students use Animoto to create a book trailer, for example, or having them create a text-inspired Podcast. But Elena Aguilar’s article has given us a few more ideas. We’ve selected five of our favorites from her list, but we’d encourage you to read the entire article on Edutopia.
    
    

    Burying the Book Report: 5 Book Report Alternatives
    
    

    An Alternative Ending
    We’re film nerds and as such, we’re always thrilled when DVD releases include deleted scenes and alternative endings. More often than not, it is immediately clear why the director left out a scene or went with one ending over another; nonetheless, we still enjoy the alternatives because they offer viewers insight into the filmmaker’s editing and reimagining process.
    
    

    How about having your students come up with their own “deleted scenes” or an alternative ending to a book? This is an exciting challenge that will allow them to deviate from the script and build on the author’s style. Creating an alternative ending also pushes them to demonstrate an understanding of characters and plot.
    
    

    A Sequel
    Sequels rarely live up to their counterparts, but it does happen. The Godfather II, The Dark Knight, anyone? Having your students write a few pages, a short chapter or a summary of their sequel is challenging for several reasons: First and foremost, it’s always hard to top the original; second, it has to make sense and there must be a continuity of some elements of theme and plot; and last, it requires lots of creativity.
    
    

    Letter to the Author
    If a book really moved a student, s/he might be interested in writing a letter to the author. It's not uncommon for authors to respond—and that's a thrilling experience for a kid. This kind of assignment helps you assess how a student connected with a book and responded to it.
    
    

    Review for Peers
    This is one of our favorites because it actually gives students the opportunity to see their writing transcend the classroom. After they read a book, have them post a review on Amazon.com. This is a way for students to practice persuasive writing. It’s also gives them the opportunity to share their opinions and critical insights with other readers and critics.
    
    

    A New Cover
    The artists in your class will love exploring texts in a medium they are comfortable with. Maybe they are skilled Photoshop users, painters or sketch artists. The tool they use to create their cover matters very little as long as their cover works in a rhetorical way: We all tend to judge books by their covers, so how can students communicate their thoughts and feelings about a book through an image? How can they entice potential readers that the text is worthy of a read?
    
    

    If you're looking for a few more book report alternatives, check out two of our blogs: "Looking for book report alternatives? Try podcasting apps instead!" and "Burying the Book Report: Using Book Trailers in the Classroom."

    

  • Blog post
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 139
  • Not yet rated

• 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
  • 3 months ago
  • Views: 782