I just love these Math screencasts that they are doing in North Rockland Central School District in New York with Craig Mantin. So many things they are doing there are exciting!
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
An interesting article that examines the recent events of Rhode Island school district firing teachers and how effective that really is. Teachers need parents support.
“We have quite a distance to stretch in assessment,” adds Moran, although her district recently installed an instructional system from Schoolnet that provides rubrics for more open-ended tasks and allows teachers to score them accordingly.
I wonder how many districts know exactly what they want out of their assessments, and how many have a good general idea, but then have their notions blown away when looking at all of the assessment tools available today.
POWER ON TEXAS is a collaboration between TEA and AMS Pictures to highlight teachers effectively using technology to transform student achievement across the state and share these examples with other educational stakeholders. POWER ON TEXAS shows how districts overcame barriers associated with technology transformation, professional development surrounding training, administrative support, best practices with technology transformation and project-based learning as well as rural implications with technology.
JOIN THE POWER ON TEXAS REVOLUTION AND SEE HOW TEXAS SCHOOLS ARE POWERING ON TO INNOVATIVE 21ST CENTURY TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES.
What it is: TerraClues for Schools is an easy to use tool where teachers can create interactive "scavenger hunts" with Google maps. Teachers can access hundreds of already made TerraClues to use in conjunction with curriculum or create their own TerraClues to fit their classroom needs. Teachers can also create private classrooms where they assign students to specific hunts. TerraClues hunts can also be shared with other teachers in your school, district, or anywhere in the world. This is a fun way to learn about using maps, curriculum content, and how to navigate the Internet. This site encourages students to learn and implement problem solving skills and learn about different cultures around the world. The Google Maps can be viewed as street maps, satellite maps, or hybrid.
In this Schools that Work story, we profiled a rural school district in Northwest Georgia using their resources carefully to replicated successful Project-Based Learning.
Joy Resmovits
Aug. 5, 2011
""We have become increasingly concerned with the proposed contract," Michael Mulgrew and Richard Iannuzzi, who respectively head New York City's and the state's teachers' unions, wrote in the note.
The letter is addressed to New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, state Commissioner of Education John King, Jr., and copied to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
"It is especially troubling that Wireless Generation will be tasked with creating a centralized student database for personal information even as its parent company, News Corporation, stands accused of engaging in illegal news gathering tactics, including the hacking of private voicemail accounts," the letter reads.
Murdoch acquired 90 percent of Wireless Generation for about $360 million last November. At the time of the acquisition, Murdoch said he saw K-12 education as a "$500 billion sector." Murdoch's first general move in the education sector had come just a few weeks earlier, when he tapped Joel Klein, then the chancellor of New York City's schools, to lead his education ventures.
The Wireless Generation contracts were approved while Klein still ran the district, leading to speculation about the chancellor's intentions."
When it comes to showing results, he said, “We better put up or shut up.”
Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals. They say the technology advocates have it backward when they press to upgrade first and ask questions later.
there is no good way to quantify those achievements — putting them in a tough spot with voters deciding whether to bankroll this approach again
“We’ve jumped on bandwagons for different eras without knowing fully what we’re doing. This might just be the new bandwagon,” he said. “I hope not.”
$46.3 million for laptops, classroom projectors, networking gear and other technology for teachers and administrators.
If we know something works
it is hard to separate the effect of the laptops from the effect of the teacher training
“Test scores are the same, but look at all the other things students are doing: learning to use the Internet to research, learning to organize their work, learning to use professional writing tools, learning to collaborate with others.”
Good teachers, he said, can make good use of computers, while bad teachers won’t, and they and their students could wind up becoming distracted by the technology.
“It’s not the stuff that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.”
Like teaching powerpoint is "rethinking education". Right.
“There is a connection between the physical hand on the paper and the words on the page,” she said. “It’s intimate.”
“They’re inundated with 24/7 media, so they expect it,”
The 30 students in the classroom held wireless clickers into which they punched their answers. Seconds later, a pie chart appeared on the screen: 23 percent answered “True,” 70 percent “False,” and 6 percent didn’t know.
rofessor Cuban at Stanford argues that keeping children engaged requires an environment of constant novelty, which cannot be sustained.
engagement is a “fluffy
term” that can slide past critical analysis.
that computers can distract and not instruct.
guide on the side.
Professor Cuban at Stanford
But she loves the fact that her two children, a fourth-grader and first-grader, are learning technology, including PowerPoint
The high-level analyses that sum up these various studies, not surprisingly, give researchers pause about whether big investments in technology make sense.
Mr. Share bases his buying decisions on two main factors: what his teachers tell him they need, and his experience. For instance, he said he resisted getting the interactive whiteboards sold as Smart Boards until, one day in 2008, he saw a teacher trying to mimic the product with a jury-rigged projector setup.
“It was an ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said, leading him to buy Smart Boards, made by a company called Smart Technologies.
This is big business.
“Do we really need technology to learn?” she said. “It’s a very valid time to ask the question, right before this goes on the ballot.”
SCHOOL CHOICE is a controversial public education reform -- but not as controversial as it should be. Support for choice remains strong in the face of mounting evidence that long-standing controversies are being decided in favor of the critics of choice. Our study of the choice program in the Boulder Valley School District adds to the growing body of research documenting serious flaws in the theory, procedures, and outcomes of school choice.
Advocates of school choice contend that competition gives parents a voice and the power to vote with their feet. Schools that consistently perform poorly will lose "clients" and be forced to go "out of business," resulting in overall improvement in both achievement and parental satisfaction. Advocates of choice also contend that school choice can better accommodate a diversity of student interests and needs than the "one-size-fits-all" approach they ascribe to traditional public schools. Finally, they contend that school choice can reduce inequities. School choice is really nothing new, according to them, for parents have long chosen schools by choosing their place of residence.
From the Committee on Education and Labor here in the US. Mark your calendars! This is June 16 at 10 am EDT.
"WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 16 to examine how technology and innovative education tools are transforming and improving education in America.
Immediately following the hearing, members of the media are invited to attend an education technology demonstration where they can have hands-on experience using cutting-edge education technology products.
WHAT: Hearing on "The Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools"
WHO: Jennifer Bergland, chief technology officer, Bryan Independent School District, Bryan, TX
Aneesh Chopra, chief technology officer, White House Office for Science and Technology
Dr. Wayne Hartschuh, executive director, Delaware Center for Educational Technology, Dover, DE
Scott Kinney, vice president, Discovery Education, Silver Spring, MD
John McAuliffe, general manager, Educate Online Learning, LLC, Baltimore, MD
Lisa Short, science teacher, Gaithersburg Middle School, Montgomery County Public Schools, Gaithersburg, MD
Abel Real, student, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
WHEN: Tuesday, June 16, 2009
10:00 a.m., EDT
WHERE: House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
**Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website. You can access the webcast when the hearing begins at 10:00 am EDT from http://edlabor.house.gov**"
Discover ideas for instruction that innovative districts have developed to better leverage the increasing number of laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and smart phones that students carry. This webinar explores the latest findings from Speak Up surveys given to K-12 students, teachers and administrators regarding their views on mobile devices within instruction.
Though the economy may be on the road to recovery, public school funding is not. Across the nation, schools are being asked to make do with less money in an effort to control school district debt caused by funding cuts at both the state and national levels. School funding and its issues have been heard at the polls as voters must decide whether or not to approve tax increases or changes in distribution of tax revenues in order to help stem the tide of massive budget cuts. In Ohio this past spring nearly 44% of the tax issues on the ballots were for schools. School funding issues are a major concern for administrators and educators.
CDW classroom analysis reports finds that students still use technology more outside of class than in class. Only 39% of students say their high school is meeting their technology expectations. It is sad that 73% of faculty say digital content is ESSENTIAL for the 21st-century classroom but only 11% of districts are using it.
Myth #4 States cannot implement the Common Core standards in the current budget climate.
Myth #5 The Common Core State Standards will transform schools.
Standards are not curriculum: standards spell out what students should know and be able to do at the end of a year; curriculum defines the specific course of study—the scope and sequence—that will enable students to meet standards.
States are building the assessments, and once the assessments are in place, they will be administered and operated by states. They are not federal tests.
In preparation for adoption of the Common Core standards, several states conducted analyses that found considerable alignment between them and their current standards
Pennsylvania has same findinggs in its analysis of alignment of PA academic standards - closely aligned, ELA more than Math.
And officials in 76 percent of districts in Common Core states said in a survey released in September 2011 by the Center on Education Policy that inadequate funds for implementation was a major challenge.
But to have an effect on the day-to-day interaction between students and teachers, and thus improve learning, states and districts will have to implement the standards. That will require changes in curricula and assessments to align with the standards, professional development to ensure that teachers know what they are expected to teach, and ultimately, changes in teacher education so that all teachers have the capability to teach all students to the standards. The standards are only the first step on the road to higher levels of learning.
What I've encountered most in dealing with colleagues is the fear and the notion that this is just another five to ten year fad in education. It is important first to help others understand CCSS are not a quick-fix or an answer. In some ways, CCSS take us back to what good teaching looks.
Ultimately, aside from the budgetary concerns with implementation, perhaps the other greatest struggle here will be the state-level assessment of the CCSS. In order for states to get it right, there needs to adequate time devoted to determining adequate assessment, not drill-and-kill. Broad, interconnected, higher-order thinking cannot be bubbled-in. Period.