Group items tagged

"So, what's a leader and the school to do? How do we create "checks" to serve as guideposts toward success?  One potential way may be a novel idea in education.  Use teachers and educators that have experienced success in building instructional capacity to be "scouts" for other teachers and schools that are building capacity in a meaningful way.  What I mean by 'scouts' is that these individuals would be charged with working next to teachers and school leaders to develop and refine instructional capacity, but when "it" shows itself in the form of meaningful and intentional classroom instruction or PLCs that really improve student performance, the 'scouts' chronicle this story.  The 'scouts' dual responsibility is to not only share in the building of the capacity, but to also spread the good news when it's been accomplished. In doing so, the profession of teaching and learning, can begin to articulate and share in these guideposts toward meaningful capacity.  What's missing in this dynamic are the 'scouts' that are embedded in several classrooms, schools and districts simultaneously and use this experience to improve the work simultaneously.  What's crucial about this approach is that it isn't 'helicoptered in' and is never something done 'to' teachers.  The work of the 'scout' is to find, develop, and refine great teaching and learning and use this as a way to scale up the work so that more and more students can have access to highly effective teaching and learning. " This article, specifically this annotated section, really spoke to me and made me think about what the two main initiatives of our department - Henrico 21 and Reflective Friends, should look like. It shouldn't be something that is "helicoptered in" or "done to teachers," but instead should be about developing, refining, promoting, and sharing good teaching.

Kagan Structures are instructional strategies designed to promote cooperation and communication in the classroom, boost students' confidence and retain their interest in classroom interaction. The Structures work in all teaching contexts-regardless of subject, age group, and number of students in class.

Kagan Structures are instructional strategies designed to promote cooperation and communication in the classroom, boost students' confidence and retain their interest in classroom interaction. The Structures work in all teaching contexts-regardless of subject, age group, and number of students in class.

""I think competitive character people don't want to be manipulated constantly to do what one individual wants them to do," Popovich said, "It's a great feeling when players get together and do things as a group. Whatever can be done to empower those people."" Applications for classroom and for our job as ITRTs. ...and I just love Popovich.

How Wikipedia works. Could be useful for classroom research assignments.

"While preparing for the upcoming school year, Twisted Sister's epic protest song began playing as I read the Declaration of Independence. Obviously my mind drifted to imagined Thomas Jefferson and John Adams letting their hair down and dancing around the streets of Philadelphia during a break from drafting the epic document. I realized then that I serendipitously uncovered something that I could use in the classroom - pairing music to primary documents to demonstrate understanding!" Taylor - I read this and immediately thought of you. Assignment for student - Remix the text of a primary document or famous historical speech with a song or multiple songs that add to the theme of the document/speech. Example included in the post.

This is a pretty powerful Ignite Talk. Might be a good resource to get teachers pumped up for the year.

I saw this Dan Meyer TED Talk on re imagining Math through problem solving. I like how he takes a problem from the textbook and makes it more rigorous. "Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. In his talk, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think. (Filmed at TEDxNYED.)"

This framework helps was created to help drive instructional practice. Specifically, collaborative group work, writing to learn, literacy groups, questioning, scaffolding, and classroom talk.

"A good lecture is not merely a piece of writing read aloud. It is a performance art in which the sound of the lecturer's voice, his body-language, and the visual materials used are part of the performance." Interesting take on lecture. Could be a good read for teachers who consider themselves to be story-tellers and not necessarily lecturers. I agree that there is a time and a place for lecture in most subjects, but most of the "lectures" that I see (and plenty that I gave when I was in the classroom) don't follow these particular pieces of advice.

"Can we use primary sources and technology to promote civic engagement? Richard Hartshorne and Scott Waring of University of Central Florida say yes. They shared a great set of resources to help you structure your use of technology in the classroom.  They didn't really share specific examples about civic engagement activities with these tools - mostly a review of the different tools - but they do have one lesson idea online." Various thoughts on how to use technology in a history classroom.

Guidelines for Groupwork. Provides an interesting list of group roles that could be adapted for classroom use.

"When we sit down to try thinking up new ideas, it doesn't feel like we're connecting things. It feels like a strain-like you're trying to create something out of nothing. But the truth is, ideas really do come from connections." Intereresting article that can be applied to the way teachers plan AND the experiences that students have in the classroom.

"We are math teachers who share what we've learned, cause we don't want our classes to suck the energy from students. Professional development among friends, not just colleagues. Fun! Immediately useful! Interesting!" The Conference Tab on this page contains video archives of previous meetings. Some of the previous meetings include tips and tricks for using Mathalicious and Desmos in your classroom.

"This could be an interesting tool for creative writing prompts and/or vocabulary work. Here are a couple thoughts on how you could use Endless Interestingness in the classroom: Challenge the students to find a "string" of 5-10 photos in a row and connect those images by writing a creative story that incorporates the subjects, themes, moods, etc. of those photos. Provide the students with a vocabulary word. Have the students go to the website and choose one photo that best represents that word. Students could explain and justify their choice to the rest of the class. A Padlet wall would be a great tool for this assignment, so that all students could quickly share their work and view their classmates' ideas."

"To solve engineering problems, you use your brain. Solving classroom problems uses your whole being." Nice article to share with teachers when everyone needs a bit of a boost. May share once we return from break.

"In short, I'm constantly nudging students to think more deeply, but I never really challenge the dogmas of the Church of the Right Answer. I'm a good, rule-abiding cop, in a city where the rules are sometimes grossly unfair. That doesn't always satisfy me. Some days I don't want to nibble at the edges. I crave a more radical assault: a reformation, a new religion. Some days, I want a Church of Learning." For use in a faculty meeting/at a PD. This would be a great activity for IB schools when discussing how best to implement/discuss IB grades. - In HCPS/at Moody do we "worship" at the Church of the Right answer or the Church of Learning? What structures are in place at the school/county level that helped you generate your answer? - Are Moody's students and parents more likely to "worship" at the Church of the Right answer of the Church of learning? What evidence do you see to support you opinion? - What structures can we implement in individual classrooms/at a school level in order to preach the Church of Learning vs. The church of the Right answer.

"This resonates strongly. I shared a lesson with fellow teachers, and realized I had no good way to communicate what actually made the lesson powerful, and how charging in with the usual assumptions of being the explainer in chief could totally ruin it." Couldn't say it any better than this...Personally, this is one of the reasons I've tried to get video of classroom action and student reflections over the past several years for H21. We can write all we want about what makes a lesson powerful, but it's much more obvious and useful when we see it/hear it ourselves.

For math people, this guy is very solid on how you develop the patterns of thought and understanding.