Thursday, October 30, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/31/2014

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/30/2014

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/25/2014

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/23/2014

  • Trust and relationships among all constituents build strong schools.

    tags: Leadership education reform character PD

    • Enduring achievement gains require not only applying content and concepts worth knowing, but also ensuring that learning is occurring in a healthy, thriving culture as well
    • Is the principal visible in classrooms and noticing and commenting on teachers' and students' strengths?
    • And—not to be minimized—are teachers and students enjoying instruction and learning?
    • Joy in learning is essential to a healthy and productive school culture; fear and joy cannot coexist.
    • People who are anxious with worry, concerned for their safety, or treated disrespectfully do not take risks or work well with others, nor do they perform their best work.
    • Successful principals and other education leaders deliberately model and take trust-building steps with and for their school communities every day.
    • They listen without judgment, are open to divergent viewpoints, communicate clearly and respectfully, and are humble in their actions and demeanor.
    • They celebrate teachers' strengths before evaluating them. They give feedback that is useful and actionable.
    • A caring, well-organized, and well-managed environment helps promote a sense of well-being and optimism
    • Research has clearly shown that teachers become more effective, efficient, and joyful when they have time to plan, observe, problem-solve, coach, and learn together.
    • Successful principals foster a collaborative atmosphere by creating time for classroom teachers and specialists to
    • The most effective principals and education leaders also take their own professional learning seriously and become highly knowledgeable so they can ably guide and coach teachers.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/22/2014

  • tags: conferences parent-teacher

    • Whatever support you ask from a parent needs to be something that is within her sphere of influence.
    • Always convey a growth mindset. All behaviors can change given the right conditions. If you want to see changes and have concerns about a student, be prepared to offer specific, actionable solutions
    • If this is the first time you're sitting down with parents, it's a great opportunity to hear their perspective on their child's school experience so far, on what their child likes to do outside of school, on the questions and concerns they have about their child, and so on.
    • Don't underestimate the power of the positive, and lead with it.
    • Be specific in the positive data you share -- tell an anecdote or show a piece of work.
  • "New ways to think about how people learn."

    tags: habitsofmind habits learning habits of mind

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/21/2014

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Build Your Own PLN

I'll be presenting at the Fall CUE Conference in Napa this weekend.  The session is titled "Build Your Own PLN...Right Now!" My goal is to help educators find new ways to receive a steady drip of resources without becoming overwhelmed.  Check out the slides here.



Sunday, October 12, 2014

Teaching Teachers

This past week, I set out to lead 11 of our middle school faculty through an afternoon of professional development.  For me, it's always a little intimidating to stand in front of a group of teachers and teach them about teaching tools.  Nevertheless, I surveyed the teachers before our session to get a sense of what they wanted to learn more about.  I LOVE using the scale tool on Google Forms.

I had the teachers rate each topic and then I averaged their scores, and also looked at the mode, to see that I had selected the right sessions for our faculty.

In the end, I chose to offer three half hour sessions on five topics (yes, I repeated a topic.) Here is what happened.  The teachers became so invested in their learning that most of them stayed with one topic the entire time.  Who was I to say, "stop your learning and move on to something else?" Below I offer up the topics and tools our teachers explored.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/09/2014

  • STEM resource for inspiration, design, building and testing machines. This section is the FAQ, check out the rest of the site.

    tags: STEAM STEM science math

  • tags: grading feedback assessment teaching

    • Rubrics aren't just about summative feedback, "Here's how you did," they are also a sort of preemptive feedback, "Here's what you need to do."
    • allow a student to choose the section or numbers they feel best represent their comprehension
    • Rotate groups of students that get more percentage of your attention.
    • Teach the students to give the first wave of feedback to each other.
    • Carol Jago reminds us that it's the students job to correct their errors. In fact, it would be even more powerful for them to identify the errors in the first place using hints provided by you
    • Develop a key of symbols that you can use in the margins instead of writing in sentences or bullets.
    • This will require students to translate as well, which embeds the lesson even further.
    • Sometimes, assignments will take a huge leap in quality when students think someone other than their own teacher is seeing them.
    • Keep the final grade of an assignment as a carrot dangling until the feedback is read, attempted, and proven. Make them solve some of the problems in the assignment based on your feedback, and trade their solutions for access to their score.
    • You conference; they write.
    • Stagger due dates for your classes.
    • Ask them what worked and what didn't. Model your own comfort at criticism and they will work harder at their own.
  • tags: edtech technology PD

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Monday, October 6, 2014