Group items tagged

Here is the list that I ended with.  Even though it is numbered, I now see that other arrangements are at least as appropriate as this.
Permission to Identify and Describe a Problem
I added permission here because several times during the day people described environments that were unwilling to admit problems or listen to those who suggested any course other than "business as usual."
Permission to Solve the Problem
This one might actually be tougher to allow than it seems.  Having worked in state government, I know how risky it is to do anything that jeopardizes your reputation - or that of your boss.  In some environments, it is your job to make your boss look good.
This one might better be labeled, "Permission to take a Chance."
Willingness to Let Go
I suspect that many worthwhile innovations fail, because they are simply mounted on top of existing practices, rather than transforming existing practices.  This is illustrated by the three challenges, made by American education reformers, to the Finnish education model (see Finnish Miracles and American Myths).  The U.S. education reform movement seems unwilling to consider letting go of government testing, school competition, and accountability.
Awareness of Other Boxes
This is a bit of a twist from my usual reference to "outside the box" thinking.  It was actually sparked by a previous conversation with the Director of Applications Development at a large school district I recently worked in.  He told me that what he looks for in prospective hires for his programming staff is "creativity."  He went on to say that the best part of his education was all of the history, literature, science, etc. that he took.
I think that innovation does not necessarily come from outside the box, but from having access to other boxes that rearrange our perspectives and enable us to come at a problem from a different angle.
Engineer a New Way
Thi

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 help but think of the CFG work that I did with my Principal Cert. cohort. It also has me thinking of the powerful possibilities for members of the #CSPMT program and the work we are beginning to engage in.

*This* is the piece about what it means to make change from within the system.

"The best approach is to learn the work by doing the work and having someone that you can share and reflect with. I think teachers respond well to the immediacy and collegiality of this approach."

This is how smart educators use Pinterest

"...fourth in a series of posts from PBL World, a global gathering of educators interested in project-based learning."

I heard him speak at a Brain conference earlier this year, and he got a standing ovation from the 1000's of educators, school admins and school psych's attending.

I get fired up when I read articles like this...they validated my belief that our focus as educators should be to teach our students how to learn rather than to fill them with information. jf

"The researchers' conclusion was that, in the context of strange toys of unknown function, prior explanation does, indeed, inhibit exploration and discovery." I'm looking forward to talking about this on Saturday. Is it appropriate sometimes to limit exploration & discovery? Or is exploration & discovery the default method of a critical skills classroom?

Interested in your discussion results, Tom. My gut feeling is that pure discovery learning is inefficient, can promote frustration which can lead to loss of interest, and possible misconceptions. Isn't coaching and guided discovery a way of teaching the process of problem solving?

The study found that schools in which educators were "highly engaged" in professional learning had a 19 percent gain in student math scores and a 15 percent gain in reading scores. Schools in the same districts without the professional development saw a 4 percent increase in math and a 2.5 percent increase in reading.

By Linda Darling-Hammond and Beverly Falk As the internationally benchmarked Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, are adopted in states across the country, educators are seeking ways to support an increasingly diverse student population to meet these more demanding expectations. The likelihood that students will achieve the aims of the standards will be substantially shaped by how well teachers teach these challenging academic skills in ways that support a wide range of learners.

Supervising professional and support staff for a Comprehensive PreK through 8th grade elementary school. Must be a dynamic educational leader with a proven knowledge of curriculum, teaching methods and assessment. Candidate should be astute, creative individual, open to new ideas, capable of analyzing data and recommending changes. The district is currently involved in a review and revision of our curriculum, the development of formative assessments and a district-wide adoption of the Antioch University Critical Skills program.

"How do we create functioning, collaborative groups?  So I did a little thinking about the pieces of the puzzle the I consider when to facilitate effective collaboration and searched for some reputable sources for more ideas."

Crosswalk b/n NH Frameworks and CCSS

Interesting take on building learning communities

"...researchers and educators ... want to know how kids learn by tinkering - fooling around with something until one understands how it works. They want to know what happens cognitively - how this learning process helps form habits of mind, builds character and how it affects the individual."

"Powerful learning begins to manifest when students take responsibility and ownership for their learning - when they become co-creators of their learning experience, rather than their education being something that is done to them. True student empowerment and engagement begins when we cross the threshold of co-creation."

Embedding technology into our classrooms should begin with the question "How do we enable students to use technology as part of the learning process...rather than use it as part of our teaching process?"