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Interesting and short bit of writing that hits on my personal beliefs about where the majority of transformational focus should be...simply supporting good teaching.

"Education reform needs a face lift -- one that includes higher standards for entry into the profession and mentor teachers assisting those needing to improve."

Agree about the necessity to pursue improved educational outcomes, yet as with other professions (i.e. doctors & lawyers) 50% finish in the lower half of their class. As with all things educational funding is the sacred cow and asking for higher standards of entry, while a worthy goal, would ultimately fall on the sword of budgets.

Articles like this are interesting. But, they are powerful when we take a critical look at own practices and really evaluate if our classroom actions match the work we promote and speak so highly of in the teachers' lounge.

Becoming a master teacher takes continuous effort.1) Understand Your Reasons for Teaching2) Cultivate Ethical Behavior in Your Students and Yourself3) Pool Both Patience and Perseverance4) Design Curriculum That Works5) Perfect Instructional Practices and Assessment Skills6) Connect Positively to the Whole-School Culture

The Institute on Thailand and its Cultures is a study abroad program for Vermont educators and teachers in Thailand. The program, which includes three instate planning session and three weeks overseas, provides participants with the opportunity to study various aspects of Thai culture such as economic development, education, and women's social status, and minority cultures in Thailand.

In my humble opinion, the best way to think out of the box is to actually get out of the box. What a better way to do that than something like this?

"People spend about 2500 days of their life in school, time enough to develop an opinion about what was good and bad about their experience. We all know someone who is more than happy to share their stories and subsequent expertise in all things educational; teachers often complain that, almost alone among professionals, they are sitting targets for unsolicited advice on how to do their job."

Great resource on creativity, innovation, and change. Has implications for working with students, professional development, program design and implementation, and more.

Page 10 "Planning for Innovation" could be helpful to the 2012 Fellows.Tables 3 and 4 are great ways to assess the environment for change in any of our schools when "I" is replaced with "we" or "our school".

Leveraging Technology For professional learning, teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Wednesday, May 9th Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH

"True innovative people have a certain drive and energy about them that you like to be around. They are always full of ideas and looking for ways to improve things. Keep in mind that they aren't born as black belts in these mental traits…they've developed them over time."

Great pieces to reflect on for personal professional development over the summer.

The Rural Trust's Global Teacher Fellowship program will be awarding up to 25 fellowships in 2014 to support the professional and personal development of rural teachers. The awards (up to $5,000 for individual teachers and $10,000 for a team of two or more teachers) support teachers' participation in self-designed summer learning experiences and a two-day place-based learning institute in the fall following their summer experience. This fellowship is a stand-alone grant not meant to supplement other grant funds for larger projects. Teachers are encouraged to center their learning in an international travel and study experience, out of which they develop interdisciplinary, place-based learning curricula aligned with their specific state and local content standards.

There are a number of Rowland fellows that might be able to use this to supplement / expand their existing work.

The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) promotes the use of dialogue, deliberation, and other innovative group processes to help people come together across differences to tackle our most challenging problems. Great resources to use in classrooms for democratic and deliberative dialogue.

Hi Mary, you might be interested in the National School Reform Faculty. Professionally it is a great resource, but I have used many of the protocols in my classroom. They are great for opening up dialogs and giving students a voice in the classroom. National School Reform Faculty

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

"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