Educational Resources & Tech Tools 10/12/2016

• The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues

  • In This Issue:

     

      1. The impact of a major incentive-pay program

     

      2. Does more experience continue to make teachers better?

     

      3. A new way of understanding flaws in our thinking

     

      4. Mastering the social-emotional side of school leadership

     

      5. Should we ban laptops from classrooms?

     

      6. Getting students reading and responding at four levels of rigor

     

      7. Mock trials in a New York City classroom

     

      8. Making museum visits an integral part of a creative curriculum

     

      9. Mindfulness in schools

     

    10. Short items: (a) Student shadowing; (b) Inspiring apps; (c) World War II activities

  • “We notice flaws in others more easily than flaws in ourselves.”

     

  • “I view the presence of distracted students on laptops in the classroom just as I view cheating – as a problem that can help us take a closer look at our teaching and make better decisions about it.”
  • incentivizing teachers through such a model is not effective.”
  • it’s impossible to tease out the role of financial incentives from the impact of professional development, mentoring, and other initiatives taking place in the schools.

  • <!--[endif]-->There was widespread confusion about the complexities of the incentive system and extremely uneven implementation of the program in different schools due to ineffective explanations to teachers, uneven support, and high turnover in leaders and teachers.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Some of the master and mentor teachers were not well received by their colleagues, either because of a non-transparent selection process or because they were not credible instructionally.

  • For teachers, the incentives weren’t large enough to incentivize improvement or even to stay in their schools. Many teachers remained for only a few years and then went on to better-paying jobs in other schools
  • “principals consistently said that money did not motivate them to work harder in a high-needs school or to change their practices to raise student achievement and that they therefore found the idea of pay for performance problematic.” As for classroom teachers, the authors found: “While payouts were appreciated, there were other priorities and values that motivated teachers to perfect their craft including commitments to teaching, and ongoing institutional supports.”

  • Teaching experience is positively associated with student achievement gains throughout a teacher’s career.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->As teachers gain experience, their students do better on standardized tests and also on other measures of success, including attendance.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Gains in effectiveness are most rapid at the beginning of teachers’ careers, but effectiveness continues to improve significantly into the second and often the third decade of classroom work.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->More-experienced teachers also contribute to improving student results for their colleagues and school.

  • Teachers’ effectiveness increases more rapidly when they are well prepared up front, carefully selected, teach in a supportive and collegial working environment, and receive intensive mentoring and helpful supervision and evaluation.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Teachers’ effectiveness also improves more rapidly when teachers accumulate experience in the same grade level, subject, or district.

     

  • Create conditions of strong collegial relationships and professional working conditions.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Maximize the time teachers spend at one grade level or subject area.

     

• Do schools share too much with parents? - CNN.com

  Do SMS systems like Whipple Hill help or hurt students as they try to become responsible individuals?

  tags: parents sms parent-teacher

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