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Teaching quality has been defined as "instruction that enables a wide range of students to learn" (Darling-Hammond, 2012), and it is the strongest school-related factor that can improve student learning and achievement (Hanushek, 2011; Nye, Konstantopoulos, and Hedges, 2004; Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain, 2005). Knowing this, what is the best way to foster and provide ongoing support for good teaching practices? While every school is unique, research has identified several elements that can almost universally increase the chances for successful teacher development and create a powerful and positive school community.

"students turn to when tasked with an assignment. Whether it's for research, real-time results, or just a little digital exploration … it's important they know how to properly Google." Here are some helpful lessons to do that

"Research has shown that teaching quality is the strongest school-related factor that can improve student learning and achievement. In order to cultivate high-quality teaching, support for ongoing professional learning in schools is essential. " Five articles, including a comprehensive bibliography with links to all the studies and reports cited in these pages.  1. How effective leadership supports prof. learning 2. Key components for productive PD programs 3. PLC's 4. Recommendations for evidence-based programs

Does your research teaching embrace the 21st century learner? This blog post has great information/lessons on strategies for helping students curate (finding/evaluating/managing) information.

Produced by Sweetsearch & clear steps to research

Among the findings: New teachers aren't more likely than veteran teachers to use technology. This raises some important questions how well teacher preparation programs are training pre-teachers how to integrate technology or if they're simply entering school environments where they're not encouraged to do so.

This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2010) identifies interdisciplinary teams as one of these organizational features and reminds us that these teams need "daily or regular common planning time" so they "can plan ways to integrate the curriculum, analyze assessment data, examine student work, discuss current research, and reflect on the effectiveness of instructional approaches being used" (p. 32). Teachers also use common planning time to address management issues related to individual student and parent concerns, the day-to-day management of the team, and scheduling of activities. 

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Julie Greller, on A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet, shares 83 places to find primary sources. I would work to make available resources like this for student research.

Interesting article about a two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining how students view and use their campus libraries. The goal was to generate data that, rather than being statistically significant yet shallow, would provide deep, subjective accounts of what students, librarians and professors think of the library and each other at those five institutions. The resulting papers are scheduled to be published by the American Library Association this fall, under the title: "Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know." One thing the librarians now know is that their students' research habits are worse than they thought.

Wonderful reflective expression on ETMOOC using adjectives and research that connects with each. Certainly supports the learning environment and outcomes so many of us have experienced. 

Theories and Models of Learning for Educational Research and Practice. This knowledge base features learning theories that address how people learn. 

"ThinkB4U offers interactive videos to educate viewers about things like protecting online reputations, avoiding scams, research and critical thinking, and responsible text messaging."

For those wanting to know more about the theory of Connectivism, this is a good academic introduction with research citations.

I like how the site has a set of short videos demonstrating each "teacher move" to support learning using "Accountable I think these would be helpful in training/professional development, as well. The fact that these "moves" were observed in effective classrooms (i.e. research-based) is good to know.

Thomas Guskey, noted researcher/writer on grading/grade reporting, uploaded his presentation and some of his writing for a conference. Great topic for us to review as we look at the role of grading/grade reporting in teaching/learning and the CCSS.

Alice Keeler, MS. Ed/Google Certified teacher/researcher & part of my PLN, provides a clear explanation of Playsheets (Gamification activities like Quia) to foster learning and formative assessment.

Especially with the CCSS, teachers/admin. need to take a look at how grading reflects assessment practices. What do the grades you give really REFLECT about what students CAN DO and know? The table comes from the work of Tom Guskey, a college professor who has done extensive research and writing on grading. (see http://goo.gl/DAHyH)

"21 Digital Tools to Build Vocabulary" - vocabulary literacy researcher/writer Kimberly Tyson shares some excellent tools for building vocabulary, which she sees as one of the most important activities teachers should get right. She shares the important role vocabulary plays in the CCSS. See some of her other blog posts.

Citelighter is an easy-to-use academic research tool that utilizes a community of students to help you find valuable content, automatically cite sources, and provide an organizational framework for writing your papers.