"Empowering questions can help coaches identify a teacher's agenda - what is important to the teacher. Empowering questions reveal a teacher's value system and help the coach understand what makes the teacher tick. Coaches develop credibility when their feedback continually relates to what an individual teacher values. "
"Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling"
""Action research is the process through which teachers collaborate in evaluating their practice jointly; raise awareness of their personal theory; articulate a shared conception of values; try out new strategies to render the values expressed in their practice more consistent with the educational values they espouse; record their work in a form which is readily available to and understandable by other teachers; and thus develop a shared theory of teaching by researching practice." - John Elliott"
The School 2.0 eToolkit is designed to help schools, districts, and communities develop a common education vision and explore how that vision can be supported by technology.
"he old-fashioned view of leadership is that leaders are marked out for leadership from early on in their lives, and that if you're not a born leader, there's little that you can do to become one.
That's not the way we see it now. The modern view is that through patience, persistence and hard work, you can be a truly effective leader, just as long as you make the effort needed.
The articles in this section (which are drawn from our How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You course) help you develop your leadership skills so that you, too, can become an exceptional leader."
UDL Spotlight aims to
* Recognize and celebrate implementations of UDL features -whether or not they are called by the UDL name
* Educate web visitors about UDL by making explicit connections between the featured work and the UDL Guidelines-Version 1.0
* Stimulate conversation* about what constitutes "best practices."
* Foster new UDL-based relationships, partnerships, and innovations
Each featured Spotlight illustrates some of the CAST UDL Guidelines. Taken as a group, the Spotlights build a vision for a future of learning environments that are truly universal.
These days, we are demanding more of students than the acquisition of facts: We want them to ask questions, find information, and use that information effectively. We want them to learn how to learn.
CAST has drawn on the neuroscience of learning and the study of media to develop the concept of Universal Design for Learning. The central practical premise of UDL is that a curriculum should include alternatives to make it accessible and appropriate for individuals with different backgrounds, learning styles, abilities, and disabilities in widely varied learning contexts.
UDL provides a framework that helps teachers differentiate their instruction through carefully articulated goals and individualized materials, methods, and assessments.
"WizFolio is a web based reference manager for researchers and scientists to efficiently manage their research and academic papers. An intelligent locate PDF engine easily retrieves PDFs from more than 500 top open access journals. The performance can be enhanced by linking the engine to your library resources.
Cite as you write your scholarly work is easy when you can manage bibliography and organize references with a powerful citation tool. You can format bibliography and customize the citation style on-the-fly."
For the first time, Rhode Island has a statewide curriculum in reading, writing and math — a consistent, uniform learning plan for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.
Unlike a traditional curriculum that serves as a blueprint for what is taught in the classroom and can require certain textbooks, Rhode Island’s plan is more flexible and acts as a guide for teachers.
In the end, the General Assembly passed a law in 2004 that called for a statewide curriculum, but left the decision to use it up to individual districts.
Peer Review Undergoing Revitalization
An old concept that calls for teachers to assess their own is gaining traction as evaluation comes under the spotlight.
"Based on current research on teacher efficacy and best practices, the plans have been designed to facilitate both school planning and district level planning. Each plan includes detailed, user-friendly guidance to help professional development committee members, administrators, teachers and other members of the school community understand the elements of high quality professional development. "