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"If teachers don't have enough time to ask, answer, reflect on, and revise their thoughts about the questions above, then we shouldn't be filling their time with things other people get paid to do, like writing curriculum, writing fancy-schmancy benchmark tests, looking at data that's not useful on the individual student level, or discussing which minutes of the day the bathrooms will be open to students." So many things going on in this article...Personally, I found this statement to be the main standout. I agree with this completely - instruction comes first and all the rest is secondary. If you do a great job with instruction, many of the other time eaters/wasters should fall into place and take care of themselves naturally.

"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.

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

This is a list of teachers, coaches, and educators involved in the Math Twitter Blogosphere. The MTBOS is an extremely active and rich community of individuals looking to improve and refine their own math instruction. This document contains an excellent collection of blogs and twitter handles worth sharing with your math teachers.

"Google News is already an awesome tool for finding resources for current events around the world. But if you know where to look, Google News is also great for finding old newspapers for use in your instruction."

"For the non-innovators, everything gets in the way.  But for the general innovators, the main barriers are learning challenges and contracting constraints.  The big finding is that for the novel innovators, there are no external barriers." I like this article a lot and I think I will use it in a faculty meeting. Ask the teachers to create a list of barriers to good instruction. After they come up with a ton of stuff, have them read the article for shock value. Then, discuss.

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.

Digital History is a database of primary sources from America's past. The website contains images, videos, and written word that are easily searchable by era. In addition, there are pre-made lesson plans and activities that could be used or modified in order to meet your specific instructional goals.

Many administrators want teachers to engage students in the learning - as such student engagement is pretty vague. Although this document is dated 1999, the indicators have value. Seems like a good place to start.

a great resource for math assessment (both formative and summative)

Free professional publication resources here to inform practice.

Look here for Virginia links to literacy resources.

an emerging resource from one of the leading experts on math education, Jo Boaler, professor at Stanford University. If we want change in terms of math achievement in education, this is a great place to start.