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videos from Leaving to Learn on student engagement and expectations

"To keep students in school and engaged as productive learners through to graduation, schools must provide many experiences in which all students do some of their learning outside school. All students need to leave school-frequently, regularly, and, of course, temporarily-to stay in school and persist in their learning. To accomplish this, schools must take down the walls that separate the learning that students do, and could do, in school from the learning they do, and could do, outside. This site is dedicated to exploring and deepening the learning opportunities that young people can have for learning out in the real world and aligning that learning with significant learning outcomes for which they receive academic and graduation credit."

Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. An extensive and adaptable collection of practices, Visible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand, to cultivate students' thinking skills and dispositions, and, on the other, to deepen content learning. By thinking dispositions, we mean curiosity, concern for truth and understanding, a creative mindset, not just being skilled but also alert to thinking and learning opportunities and eager to take them

Most of us are in groups all the time. But are these groups learning groups? When does a group become a learning group? Can a group construct its own way of learning? Can documenting children's learning lead to new ways of learning? These are some of the questions addressed in the research project, Making Learning Visible (MLV). MLV draws attention to the power of the group as a learning environment and documentation as a way to see and shape how and what children are learning. MLV is based on collaborative research conducted by Project Zero researchers with teachers from the Municipal Preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and preschool through high school teachers and teacher educators in Massachusetts.

The Richard J. Murphy School serves children in grades kindergarten through eighth grade.  The school is located in the Dorchester section of Boston and serves a large diverse student population.  The Murphy is recognized as one of the top elementary schools in the city of Boston

A Boston Public School, serving children K1 - Grade 5, and their families. Haley Pilot School Core Values~       Engagement: For every student to be motivated to learn through memorable experiences and connections to community.       Community:  For every student and their family to be understood, respected and engaged.      Equity:  For our instruction to be inclusive yet different based on students' individual strengths and needs.

from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform

" EXPLORE RESOURCES FOR REINVENTING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING"

"When engaged in project-based, collaborative learning, I think the three most important phrases to remember are: improvise, learn the hard way, and don't regret."

Collection of article from Jay McTighe and associates

"Of course, if instructional coaching is going to be effective, coaches need to partner with teachers to provide the supports that empower teachers to implement new practices in a way that gets results.  But we make a big mistake, I think, if we assume this means that teachers must mindlessly follow a script."

"GoClass is a free iPad application for creating short lessons and delivering them to your students. The lessons can include annotated images, free hand sketches, text, and video. GoClass gives teachers tools for creating class rosters that they can use to keep track of which students are using the lessons when."

Critique of Value-Added

"It gives me hope for quality classroom instruction in elementary mathematics. Be sure to notice the transition to a new task at the 4-minute mark, and how the teacher deals with the struggle that occurs at the 6-minute mark. Also please look in the kids' eyes. Watch their body language and their waving hands. Watch them think. Kids are practicing facts in this classroom. The teacher is providing instruction. Contrast with this (which is not a joke). You can flip this latter instructional sequence because it involves telling and choral response."

"WritePad is an advanced notetaker app that lets you to take notes in your own handwriting, which is immediately converted to the digital text using PhatWare's state-of-the-art handwriting recognition software. You can also use simple gestures to select text, cut, copy, paste, and insert special characters. "

"Below is a list of webinars on a variety of AT and access topics. Click on the webinar title to read more and register. You can also browse over 30 archived ATC webinars or search all archived webinars by topic, age range, technology, etc."

"ZoomIt is a screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstration"

"One-Click Sharing Click the button above and start sharing your screen in under 5 seconds (Java required to share). Allow people to see your computer screens without needing to set up an account."

Yet studies of principal behavior in schools makes clear that spending time in classrooms to observe, monitor, and evaluate classroom lessons do not necessarily lead to better teaching or higher student achievement on standardized tests. Where there is a correlation between principals' influence on teachers and student performance, it occurs when principals create and sustain an academic ethos in the school, organize instruction across the school, and align school lessons to district standards and standardized test items. There is hardly any positive association between principals walking in and out of classrooms a half-dozen times a day and conferring briefly with teaches about those five-minute visits.The reality of daily principal actions conflicts with the theory.