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Jason Heiser

Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas: The Reflective Principal: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part IV) - 4 views

peterpappas.blogs.com/...cipal-taxonomy-reflection.html

learningstyles

shared by Jason Heiser on 08 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Jason Heiser on 12 Jan 10
     
    The Reflective Principal: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part IV) Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Principals (and instructional leaders) are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. Self-assessment is clouded by the need to meet competing demands from multiple stakeholders. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach. It's posted in four installments: 1. A Taxonomy of Reflection 2. The Reflective Student 3. The Reflective Teacher 4. The Reflective Principal It's very much a work in progress, and I invite your comments and suggestions. I'm especially interested in whether you think the parallel construction to Bloom holds up through each of the three examples - student, teacher, and principal. I think we have something to learn from each perspective. 4. The Reflective Principal Each level of reflection is structured to parallel Bloom's taxonomy. (See installment 1 for more on the model) Assume that a principal (or instructional leader) looked back on an initiative (or program, decision, project, etc) they have just implemented. What sample questions might they ask themselves as they move from lower to higher order reflection? (Note: I'm not suggesting that all questions are asked after every initiative - feel free to pick a few that work for you.) Bloom's Remembering : What did I do? Principal Reflection: What role did I play in implementing this program? What role did others play? What steps did I take? Is the program now operational and being implemented? Was it completed on time? Are assessment measures in place? Bloom's Understanding: What was
Mardy McGaw

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:21st Century Skills: The Challenge... - 1 views

www.ascd.org/...lls@_The_Challenges_Ahead.aspx

shared by Mardy McGaw on 07 Sep 09 - Cached
  • But in fact, the skills students need in the 21st century are not new.
  • What's actually new is the extent to which changes in our economy and the world mean that collective and individual success depends on having such skills.
  • This distinction between "skills that are novel" and "skills that must be taught more intentionally and effectively" ought to lead policymakers to different education reforms than those they are now considering. If these skills were indeed new, then perhaps we would need a radical overhaul of how we think about content and curriculum. But if the issue is, instead, that schools must be more deliberate about teaching critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving to all students, then the remedies are more obvious, although still intensely challenging.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • To complicate the challenge, some of the rhetoric we have heard surrounding this movement suggests that with so much new knowledge being created, content no longer matters; that ways of knowing information are now much more important than information itself. Such notions contradict what we know about teaching and learning and raise concerns that the 21st century skills movement will end up being a weak intervention for the very students—low-income students and students of color—who most need powerful schools as a matter of social equity.
  • What will it take to ensure that the idea of "21st century skills"—or more precisely, the effort to ensure that all students, rather than just a privileged few, have access to a rich education that intentionally helps them learn these skills—is successful in improving schools? That effort requires three primary components. First, educators and policymakers must ensure that the instructional program is complete and that content is not shortchanged for an ephemeral pursuit of skills. Second, states, school districts, and schools need to revamp how they think about human capital in education—in particular how teachers are trained. Finally, we need new assessments that can accurately measure richer learning and more complex tasks.
  • Why would misunderstanding the relationship of skills and knowledge lead to trouble? If you believe that skills and knowledge are separate, you are likely to draw two incorrect conclusions. First, because content is readily available in many locations but thinking skills reside in the learner's brain, it would seem clear that if we must choose between them, skills are essential, whereas content is merely desirable. Second, if skills are independent of content, we could reasonably conclude that we can develop these skills through the use of any content. For example, if students can learn how to think critically about science in the context of any scientific material, a teacher should select content that will engage students (for instance, the chemistry of candy), even if that content is not central to the field. But all content is not equally important to mathematics, or to science, or to literature. To think critically, students need the knowledge that is central to the domain.
  • Because of these challenges, devising a 21st century skills curriculum requires more than paying lip service to content knowledge.
  • Advocates of 21st century skills favor student-centered methods—for example, problem-based learning and project-based learning—that allow students to collaborate, work on authentic problems, and engage with the community. These approaches are widely acclaimed and can be found in any pedagogical methods textbook; teachers know about them and believe they're effective. And yet, teachers don't use them. Recent data show that most instructional time is composed of seatwork and whole-class instruction led by the teacher (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Even when class sizes are reduced, teachers do not change their teaching strategies or use these student-centered methods (Shapson, Wright, Eason, & Fitzgerald, 1980). Again, these are not new issues. John Goodlad (1984) reported the same finding in his landmark study published more than 20 years ago.
  • Why don't teachers use the methods that they believe are most effective? Even advocates of student-centered methods acknowledge that these methods pose classroom management problems for teachers. When students collaborate, one expects a certain amount of hubbub in the room, which could devolve into chaos in less-than-expert hands. These methods also demand that teachers be knowledgeable about a broad range of topics and are prepared to make in-the-moment decisions as the lesson plan progresses. Anyone who has watched a highly effective teacher lead a class by simultaneously engaging with content, classroom management, and the ongoing monitoring of student progress knows how intense and demanding this work is. It's a constant juggling act that involves keeping many balls in the air.
  • Most teachers don't need to be persuaded that project-based learning is a good idea—they already believe that. What teachers need is much more robust training and support than they receive today, including specific lesson plans that deal with the high cognitive demands and potential classroom management problems of using student-centered methods.
  • Without better curriculum, better teaching, and better tests, the emphasis on "21st century skills" will be a superficial one that will sacrifice long-term gains for the appearance of short-term progress.
  • The debate is not about content versus skills. There is no responsible constituency arguing against ensuring that students learn how to think in school. Rather, the issue is how to meet the challenges of delivering content and skills in a rich way that genuinely improves outcomes for students.
    • Mardy McGaw
      Mardy McGaw on 20 Oct 09
       
      "ensuring that students learn how to think" You would think that this is the essence of education but this is not always asked of students. Memorize, Report and Present but how often do students think and comment on their learning?
  • practice means that you try to improve by noticing what you are doing wrong and formulating strategies to do better. Practice also requires feedback, usually from someone more skilled than you are.
    • Mardy McGaw
      Mardy McGaw on 20 Oct 09
       
      Students need to be taught how to work as part of a group. The need to see mistakes and be given a chance to improve on them. Someone who already knows how to work as a team player is the best coach/teacher.
  • anonymous on 07 Sep 09
     
    A very interesting article. Lots of good discussion points.
Michelle Krill

Becta Government & partners - Research - Reports and publications - Evidence on the imp... - 0 views

partners.becta.org.uk/index.php

reseearch edtech systemic shift transformation emature

shared by Michelle Krill on 17 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 17 Sep 09
     
    Overall there is a strong body of evidence linking the use of technology to improvements in learning and outcomes for learners. The relationship is not a simple one. Time taken to embed the use of technology, school-level planning and learner competency and focus of use, and link to models of learning are all important in mediating the impact of technology on outcomes. Schools that take a systematic and planned approach to using technology to support learning achieve better outcomes with technology than other schools. These 'e-mature' schools have a well-developed vision for learning and lead and manage their use of technology in support of this.
Michelle Krill

WebTools4u2use - Webtools4U2Use - 0 views

webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Webtools4U2Use

web2.0 library web2tools hotlist workshop library2.0

shared by Michelle Krill on 16 May 09 - No Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 16 May 09
     
    The purpose of this website is to provide a place for K-12 school library media specialists to learn a little more about web tools that can be used to improve and enhance school library media programs and services, to see examples of how they can be used, and to share success stories and creative ideas about how to use and integrate them. Hundreds of free and inexpensive web tools are available for school library media specialists to use that can make us more productive, valued, and, perhaps, more competitive.
Michelle Krill

Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow - 0 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...testtoday.htm

kohn NCLB standards critical

shared by Michelle Krill on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • But the word reform is particularly slippery and tendentious.
  • But the word reform is particularly slippery and tendentious.
  • But the word reform is particularly slippery and tendentious.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But the word reform is particularly slippery and tendentious.
  • The clarity of language be damned: They come to bury a given institution rather than to improve it, but they describe their mission as “reform.”
  • It’s a very clever gambit, you have to admit. Either you’re in favor of privatization or else you are inexplicably satisfied with mediocrity.
  • there’s plenty of room for dissatisfaction with the current state of our schools. An awful lot is wrong with them: the way conformity is valued over curiosity and enforced with rewards and punishments, the way children are compelled to compete against one another, the way curriculum so often privileges skills over meaning, the way students are prevented from designing their own learning, the way instruction and assessment are increasingly standardized, the way different avenues of study are rarely integrated, the way educators are systematically deskilled .
  • To that extent, even if privatization worked exactly the way it was supposed to, we shouldn’t expect any of the defects I’ve just listed to be corrected.
  • Making schools resemble businesses often results in a kind of pedagogy that’s not merely conservative but reactionary, turning back the clock on the few changes that have managed to infiltrate and improve classrooms.
  • ut an attack on schooling as we know it is generally grounded in politics rather than pedagogy, and is most energetically advanced by those who despise not just public schools but all public institutions.
  • Michelle Krill on 28 Aug 09
     
    Using Accountability to "Reform" Public Schools to Death
anonymous

Emotion and Hope: Constructive Concepts for Complex Times - 33 views

www.michaelfullan.ca/...12_99.htm

technology change

shared by anonymous on 23 Jan 11 - Cached
  • Technology and the Problem of Change
  • The more powerful technology becomes, the more indispensable good teachers are.
  • In brief, research shows that schools that only restructure (change the curriculum, add new roles, reorganize) make no difference in teaching and learning. However, schools that reculture (as well as restructure) do make a difference if they (a) focus on student learning; (b) link knowledge of student learning to changes in instructional practices; and (c) work together to assess teachers and school leadership to make improvement.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Assessment literacy is the capacity to examine student work and student performance data and make critical sense of this information; and to develop instructional and school improvement plans to make the kinds of changes to get better results — doing all of this on a continuous basis. Technology, of course, (as in the above examples) is absolutely crucial to this entire process.
  • A third change learning is that teachers and schools are inundated with a continuous torrent of fragmented and unconnected policies, innovations and other demands.
  • piecemeal reform (se
  • Innovations in technology so far have been part of the problem not the solution
  • First, the combination of teacher learning through assisted professional development, organizational learning through the development of collaborative cultures, and program coherence are essential. No one or two of these will make an impact. Second, these changes in combination are exceedingly deep and complex to achieve.
  • anonymous on 23 Jan 11
     
    Interesting read
  • Virginia Glatzer on 23 Jan 11
     
    Amazing how this article is from 1999, goes hand-in-hand with CFF and still we question how teachers, students, and technology work together!
Michelle Krill

ASCD Express 7.01 - Establishing a Context for Coaching - 7 views

www.ascd.org/...701-markholt-abstract.aspx

coaching ascd

shared by Michelle Krill on 13 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 13 Oct 11
     
    Coaching without a context bars schools and districts from experiencing their full potential for instructional improvement. Successful coaching initiatives clearly articulate the roles and expectations of coaching, the expertise coaches need, how coaching relates to the overall shared vision of a school or district, and the fact that professional inquiry is valued and generative across all job levels....
Michelle Krill

School 2.0 - Bandwidth Planner - 0 views

etoolkit.org/...about

bandwidth budget tech_leaders

shared by Michelle Krill on 17 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 17 Sep 08
     
    The Bandwidth Planner is intended to help school principals and district CTOs plan their bandwidth needs, demystify bandwidth for nontechnical educators, and bridge the knowledge gap between educators and technologists to improve strategic technology planning. More specifically, the planner:
Ty Yost

Pascack Valley Regional High School District | Educational Technology - 0 views

www.pascack.k12.nj.us/702341114175031/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=52684&702Nav=|&NodeID=438

1to1

shared by Ty Yost on 28 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Ty Yost on 28 Apr 09
     
    Welcome to a very exciting time in the history of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District. With our focus continually trained on the improvement of student achievement, the district is embarking on a project that will change the way the education process takes place.
anonymous

More Schools Embrace the iPad as a Learning Tool - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...05tablets.html

ipads

shared by anonymous on 07 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • teach Kafka in multimedia, history through “Jeopardy”-like games and math with step-by-step animation of complex problems.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      Finally! We couldn't do that before. And we all KNOW the higher order thinking that goges on in Jeopardy games. Ugh!
  • The iPads cost $750 apiece
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      $750 EACH? They couldn't get a laptop for that? One that could do all that this ipad can do AND MORE??
  • Educators, for instance, are still divided over whether initiatives to give every student a laptop have made a difference academically.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      And the reason is that we buy toys and only allow our students to do what they always did before, yet we expect different results. Notice what they say these kids will use these ipads for. Revolutionary? Hardly. Sound education? Not even close.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • “IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      Exactly! When they see that they can't add apps or use it as a personal learning deice (locked down, it's still learning that's direted by the teacher and not by the student) the novelty will wear off VERY quickly.
  • $56,250 for the initial 75
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      How many regular laptops could they have bought for that amount? Machines that can do all the ipad can do AND MORE!
  • 32-gigabyte, with case and stylus
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      They need 32 gig? I'll be willing to be they don't fill HALF of that. NO music. NO photos. Just apps? This decision was made by someone who thought more is better. Oh, and.. stylus? HUH?
  • play math games, study world maps and read “Winnie the Pooh.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      Did you hear me screaming on this one? OH BOY! They can read Winnie the Pooh! And finally study world maps. And THEN what?
  • “I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector,
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      And we know how much the overhead projector raises the level of Bloom's and fosters student-centered environments. It allows the TEACHERS to do things. Not the students.
  • The New York City public schools have ordered more than 2,000 iPads, for $1.3 million
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHUUUUUGGGGHGHHHHHH!!!
  • More than 200 Chicago public schools applied for 23 district-financed iPad grants totaling $450,000. The Virginia Department of Education is overseeing a $150,000 iPad initiative
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Jan 11
       
      Economic recession? WHAT economic recession? Oh my. I hope that folks revisit these 'investments' in two years. There will be NO improvement and they will again blame the technology instead of the fact that it was the WRONG technology!
  • “If there isn’t an app that does something I need, there will be sooner or later,”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 08 Jan 11
       
      Yes, but students won't be able to install it.
Michelle Krill

Publications: SRN LEADS - 0 views

www.srnleads.org/...nsdc.html

PD report workshop adultlearning staffdevelopment coaching

shared by Michelle Krill on 18 Feb 09 - Cached
  • Research shows that professional learning can have a powerful effect on teacher skills and knowledge and on student learning. To be effective, however, it must be sustained, focused on important content, and embedded in the work of collaborative professional learning teams that support ongoing improvements in teachers’ practice and student achievement.
  • the type of support and on-the-job training most teachers receive is episodic, often fragmented, and disconnected from real problems of practice.
  • Most states and districts are still not providing the kind of professional learning that research suggests improves teaching practice and student outcomes,”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Workshop overload. Research shows that professional development should not be approached in isolation as the traditional “flavor of the month” or one-shot workshop but go hand-in-hand with school improvement efforts. The report finds that teachers still take a heavy dose of workshops and do not receive effective learning opportunities in many areas in which they want help.
  • But fewer than half found the professional development they received in other areas, such as classroom management, to be of much value, despite the fact that they want more support in this area.
  • Michelle Krill on 18 Feb 09
     
    Nation Making Progress in Ensuring More Teachers Have Deep Content Knowledge and Mentoring But U.S. Teacher Development Lacks Intensity, Follow-up, & Usefulness
Darcy Goshorn

Critical Thinking Tool Kit for Faculty - 4 views

libraries.wichita.edu/...criticalthinking

business criticalthinking hots course critical thinking thinking faculty

shared by Darcy Goshorn on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • Darcy Goshorn on 28 May 13
     
    "This guide provides information and resources available to faculty to help improve the critical thinking and information literacy skills of students. This page was created specifically for the Barton School of Business, but many of the links are applicable to all disciplines."
Michelle Krill

Foundation for Critical Thinking: Books, Conferences and Academic Resources for Educato... - 0 views

www.criticalthinking.org

shared by Michelle Krill on 13 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 13 Sep 09
     
    The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking aim to improve education in colleges, universities and primary through secondary schools. We present publications, conferences, workshops and professional development programs, emphasizing instructional strategies, Socratic questioning, critical reading and writing, higher order thinking, assessment, research, quality enhancement, and competency standards.
Michelle Krill

NHSCEightElements7-25-08.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

www.betterhighschools.org/...NHSCEightElements7-25-08.pdf

highschool reform

shared by Michelle Krill on 10 Jun 09 - No Cached
  • Michelle Krill on 10 Jun 09
     
    Thanks to Joanne Romano.
  • Michelle Krill on 10 Jun 09
     
    Summary of ideas related to improving instruction in high school.
Kathe Santillo

The Foundation for Critical Thinking - 0 views

www.criticalthinking.org/index.cfm

CFFButler Higher_Order_Thinking

shared by Kathe Santillo on 01 May 09 - Cached
  • Kathe Santillo on 01 May 09
     
    The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking aim to improve instruction in primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities
Sue Sheffer

Pre-Grade Your Paper - 9 views

www.paperrater.com/about

shared by Sue Sheffer on 03 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Sue Sheffer on 03 Mar 10
     
    PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing.
Donald Burkins

YouTube - periodicvideos's Channel - 3 views

www.youtube.com/...periodicvideos

chemistry periodicvideos periodictable education YouTube science

shared by Donald Burkins on 30 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Donald Burkins on 30 Dec 09
     
    The Periodic Table of Videos is a collaboration between the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry and video journalist Brady Haran. We initially made videos about all 118 elements. We're now updating and improving those videos - but also making regular films about other aspects of chemistry and chemistry in the news! In 2010 we will be starting an extra series about molecules. For more information you can visit our main website at http://www.periodicvideos.com/
Vicki Treadway

iPad school: New media is altering teaching style, creates digital students - CSMonitor... - 2 views

www.csmonitor.com/...2

shared by Vicki Treadway on 04 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • “No matter if it’s the newest iPad, a new interactive whiteboard, or if every student has their own computer, we still need to invest in the people who are going to be using that technology,” Doering said. School districts are “not going to see great improvements until we invest in our people.”
    • Vicki Treadway
      Vicki Treadway on 04 Dec 12
       
      Sounds familiar, right? This is what CFF was all about.
Sue Miller

The-Rise-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf - 9 views

www.apexlearning.com/...e-of-K-12-Blended-Learning.pdf

blended_learning online_learning 21stcenturylearning

shared by Sue Miller on 19 May 11 - No Cached
  • Sue Miller on 19 May 11
     
    from Michael Horn's Horn's Innosight Institute and The Charter School Growth Fund.
  • Sue Miller on 19 May 11
     
    "The paper profiles 40 influential blended learning organizations that are among the earliest pioneers of this fast-growing sector-including several Apex Learning high school district partners such as Chicago's VOISE Academy (pg 150) and Wichita Public (pg 157). Also documented is the effectiveness achieved by these organizations in reducing costs and improving academic performance with high quality, personalized instruction through online learning in brick-and-mortar classrooms."
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