Group items tagged

Events & trainers for training in School Transformation, PLCs, Common Assessments, SMART Goals, RTI, etc.

Really a great post by Vermont Superintendent Dan French. In this he talks about educators from across districts and beyond "utilizing the collective wisdom of their peers." He sees a potential providing an opportunity for educators where "Curriculum development and professional development are 'open sourced' with best practices being identified, implemented, and evaluated much more quickly across a group of schools since teachers are no longer working in isolation within their own schools or districts." I can't imagine that there isn't a person among us that wouldn't agree with the concepts he puts forward here. I think we as a group already have the pieces in place to implement what he proposes. If we were to come together as a true PLC I think that we could not only greatly help with transformation in our individual schools, but could have a profound and powerful impact on education across Vermont.

Sharing, and sharing online specifically, is not in addition to the work of being an educator. It is the work." Ewan Mcintosh

"For those who share this common commitment (and really, who among us does not?),there is, I am arguing, a moral responsibility, a strong one, to share our educational initiatives and innovations: to summarize them, share their key elements, show examples of them in practice, and, at best, reflect upon their successes and lack thereof."

"This is also an essential element of educational leadership. Leadership is showing the way to others and making it easier for them to follow, it is empowering others to benefit from your example, take inspiration, and improve upon your advances- to stand on your shoulders."

Here's a brief description of a 3-credit UVM course to be offered this summer with links to the 2nd Annual Rowland Conference on School Transformation. This intensive, one-week institute will bring together leaders of school transformation in Vermont schools and connect current transformation initiatives from around the state with the latest research. You can choose the time and location by enrolling at UVM's Summer U here (choose EDLP from the drop-down menu): http://learn.uvm.edu/courselistsummer/index.php EDLP 380 (61346) Jun. 18-22 at Rutland H.S. with Adam Rosenberg EDLP 380 (61348) Jul. 30-Aug.3 at UVM with Mike Martin

Research by Richard Light, the author and Harvard University scholar, and others indicates that when students are asked to write for one another, they write more effectively. This is perhaps counterintuitive. Wouldn't students do their best work for those grading their work? But students aren't eager to be seen as poor writers by their peers, so they step up their game when writing for other students. Also, they know that their peers don't understand the course content as well as their instructors do, so they tend to provide better explanations when writing for peers.

PLCs, Common Core, Next Gen and Problem Based Instruction and Paula Denton.

Grants to individuals fund participation in high-quality professional development experiences, such as summer institutes or action research; Grants to groups fund collegial study, including study groups, action research, lesson study, or mentoring experiences for faculty or staff new to an assignment.

Could be a nice additional source of funding to support existing projects.

Great resource. Teachers at Harwood Union Middle High School applied for a Learning & Leadership Grant to explore iPad apps in a fairly informal PLC-type setting and received $5,000 to support their work. It helps that the application for the grant was fairly easy to complete.

"In isolation neither the research nor the teacher seems to have much of a chance for sustained discovery, growth, and positive change." (p. 39) "Faculty members are changing how they teach and making informed choices when it comes to teaching strategies. They feel empowered and are encouraged to take risks, are fostering collaborations in their teaching and are talking about teaching. For some, the change in how they teach has been radical. For others, the change has been small but still noticeable." (p. 42) And to what do the conveners attribute this success? "We saw that we are learners together in this learning community and we are our own best resource: Our collective knowledge is an invaluable asset." (p. 43) Retrieved from: http://www.cs.kent.edu/~volkert/science-learning/files/sirum-madigan.pdf

As educators do we model those "best practices" for learning which we expect from our students? How do we... "Engage ... in active learning experiences; Set high, meaningful expectations; Provide, receive, and use regular, timely, and specific feedback; Become aware of values, beliefs, preconceptions; unlearn if necessary; Recognize and stretch ... styles and developmental levels; Seek and present real-world applications; Understand and value criteria and methods for (our own) assessment; Create opportunities for (peer to peer) interactions; ...; Promote (peer) involvement through engaged time and quality effort" Retrieved from: http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/cii/resources/outcomes/best_practices.asp