Educational Resources & Tech Tools 09/14/2016

• The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues

  "In This Issue: 1. “Noise” in decision-making 2. Are classroom observations accurate measures of teachers’ work? 3. A different way of thinking about differentiation 4. A professor changes his mind about cold-calling 5. Close reading of challenging texts in middle school 6. Good news about the rich-poor gap in kindergarten entry skills 7. On-the-spot assessment tools 8. Short items: The Kappan poll"

  tags: bias decision making evaluation teacher evaluation differentiation self-efficacy independence cold calling classroom management exit ticket formative assessment

  • professionals often make decisions that deviate significantly from those of their peers, from their own prior decisions, and from rules that they themselves claim to follow… Where there is judgment, there is noise – and usually more of it than you think.”
  • In a school, if a principal consistently gives harsher punishments to boys than girls for the same infractions, that is bias, but if she often gives harsher punishments to students just before lunchtime, that’s noise.]

  • A noise audit works best when respected team members create a scenario that is realistic, the people involved buy into the process, and everyone is willing to accept unpleasant results and act on them.

     

  • The challenge, say the authors, is designing classroom observations that provide valid data on what’s happening day to day in classrooms, make meaningful distinctions among teachers, provide teachers with useful feedback, and support helpful, high-quality professional development.

  • To accomplish these important goals, several challenges need to be addressed:

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Quality assurance of supervisors’ observation and coaching skills;

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Achieving a reasonable degree of inter-rater reliability among supervisors;

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->A rubric with research-based criteria for classroom instruction;

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->The conceptual difficulty of capturing complex classroom dynamics in a rating instrument;

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Getting an accurate sampling of each teacher’s work;

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Giving fair evaluations to teachers working with different types of students

  • Addressing the tendency of principals to “go easy” on some teachers to keep the peace and/or avoid the hard work of following up on critical evaluations (are outside observers and/or multiple observers necessary to get truly objective data on teachers?).

     

  • I would suggest two more questions: First, are classroom visits announced or unannounced? If researchers don’t gather data on this, they are missing an important variable in the reliability of teacher assessment – teachers are likely to put on an especially good lesson when they know they’re being observed. Second, are teacher-evaluation rubrics used to score individual classroom visits, which is conceptually very difficult, or as end-of-year summations of multiple classroom visits with feedback conversations through the year?
  • Tomlinson and other proponents suggest that teachers differentiate by content (what is taught), process (how it’s taught), and product (how students are asked to demonstrate their learning).

  • students learn better, they said, when the work is at the right level of difficulty, personally relevant, and appropriately engaging.

     

  • trying to assess a teacher’s work asking, Is it differentiated? runs the risk of missing the forest for the trees. Better, says Marshall, to ask two broader questions (tip of the hat to Rick DuFour):

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->What are students supposed to be learning?

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Are all students mastering it?

     

  • Good lesson plans build in multiple entry points, using the principles of Universal Design for Learning to make learning accessible to as many students as possible, and have clear goals; thoughtful task analysis; chunked learning; teaching methods appropriate to the content; links to students’ interests and experiences; checks for understanding; and accommodations for students with special needs.
  • a major factor in student success is a set of in-the-moment moves that effective teachers have always used, among them effective classroom management; knowing students well; being culturally sensitive; making the subject matter exciting; making it relevant; making it clear; taking advantage of visuals and props; involving students and getting them involved with each other; having a sense of humor; and nimbly using teachable moments.” But equally important is checking for understanding – dry-erase boards, clickers, probing questions, looking over students’ shoulders – and using students’ responses to continuously fine-tune teaching.
  • Timely follow-up with these students is crucial – pullout, small-group after-school help, tutoring, Saturday school, and other venues to help them catch up.
  • Among the most important life skills that students should take away from their K-12 years,” says Marshall, “is the ability to self-assess, know their strengths and weaknesses, deal with difficulty and failure, and build a growth mindset. Student self-efficacy and independence should be prime considerations in planning, lesson execution, and follow-up so that students move through the grades becoming increasingly motivated, confident, and autonomous learners prepared to succeed in the wider world.”
  • cold-calling actually increases students’ voluntary participation. “Cold-calling encourages students to prepare more and to participate more frequently,” said one researcher. “The more they prepare, and the more frequently they participate, the more comfortable they become when participating.”
  • If we don’t encourage students to come out of their shells for fear of putting them on the spot, we may be doing them a disservice… You’re curious about their views and their understanding of the issues being discussed. What they think is important – both to their own learning and to that of their peers.”
  • Drawing on two decades of data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, the authors found that between 1998 and 2010, the reading readiness gap closed by 16 percent and the math gap by 10 percent. The black-white and the Hispanic-white gaps also narrowed by about 15 percent.
  • the gaps closed because of rapid progress by low-income children, not declines in the readiness of high-income children, and the gains persisted at least through fourth grade.

  • What brought about the early reading and math gains? The authors believe several factors contributed:

     

    • The availability of high-quality, publicly funded preschool programs – the percent of U.S. 4-year-olds enrolled in state-funded preschools has increased from 14 to 29 percent from 2000.

     

    • The fact that more families are investing in books and other reading matter for children, as well as Internet access and computer games focused on reading and math skills.

     

    • More parents are spending quality time with children, taking them to local libraries, and engaging in learning activities at home.

     

• How Listening and Sharing Help Shape Collaborative Learning Experiences | MindShift | KQED News

  This excerpt provides ideas about how and why collaborative learning work.

  tags: collaboration Listening Learning Reflection sharing joint attention small group work group work

  • when students collaborate on class assignments, they learn the material better (we provide examples below). Ideally, small group work can yield both better abilities to cooperate and better learning of the content.
  • listening and sharing as cooperative techniques can alleviate frustration and, more importantly, allow group learning to surpass what would be possible by a single student (Slavin, 1995).
  • Visual attention provides an index of what people are thinking about.

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

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 09/08/2016

• 50 Questions To Promote Metacognition In Students

  This list of questions can be used for PBL, class discussions or for reflection processes.

  tags: metacognition critical_thinking Reflection PBL project based learning discussion

• Know Students Better: 15 Tools for Formative Assessment — Learning in Hand

  As you scroll down, you'll see lots of different tech tools for formative assessments. Many can do the same thing. A few to note would be Nearpod, Seesaw and Kahoot.

  tags: formative assessment exit ticket differentiation tech tools tech integration

• 50 Funny "Would You Rather" Questions for Students

  These could be used as ice-breaker questions with students or faculty.

  tags: new teacher first day of school firstday bts icebreakers

• Listening to Students | Edutopia

  This list of questions could be used to open the school year to learn more about your students.

  tags: bts new teacher first day of school firstday studentvoice

• 40 Reflection Questions

  tags: PBL Reflection project based learning

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

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 09/07/2016

• The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues

  • In This Issue:

     

    1. The gracious leader

     

    2. Life lessons

     

    3. Building relationships in the opening days of school

     

    4. Smiling before Thanksgiving

     

    5. Cultural factors in the education of Chinese-American students

     

    6. Helping college students deal with first-year self-doubts

     

    7. Short item: A teacher’s video

  • “Sooner or later life teaches you that you’re not the center of the universe, nor quite as talented or good as you thought. It teaches you to care less about what others think and, less self-conscious, to get out of your own way.”

     

                David Brooks (see item #1)

  • We need to let them see us sweat and smile way before Thanksgiving. Students know we’re not robots, so let’s not try to act like them.”
  • “Experience, or what we call experience, is not the inventory of our pains, but rather the learned sympathy towards the pain of others.”
  • If you interpret your life as a battlefield then you will want to maintain control at all times… If you treat the world as a friendly and hopeful place, as a web of relationships, you’ll look for the good news in people and not the bad. You’ll be willing to relinquish control, and in surrender you’ll actually gain more strength as people trust in your candor and come alongside.
  • Don’t hold back; change demands full-on commitment.
  • When life issues an invitation, accept it.
  • Value a little compulsion.
  • Understand how the human mind works. “Our brains are designed to create, not to hold onto, content,”
  • Expect the unexpected. “And when that unexpected thing is not to your liking but you cannot change it, make peace with it,”
  • Practice the art of under-reacting. “A Zen perspective helps balance the bad and the best,”
  • Stop. Worrying. Now.
  • Always carry a sense of humor.
  • Do it while you can.
  • Consider the opportunities you will one day kick yourself for missing.
  • When young, people are prone to avoid risks and potential failures in the belief that they will rue any bad outcomes… It is helpful for younger adults to deploy the mental capacity to travel in time… Consider the experiences that the older you will likely regret not having had.”
  • Take the long view. “Our identity in the present is shaped in part by our view of the person we hope to become,”
  • don’t sell yourself short… Expect failure, learn from it, smile at it – and move forward anyway.”
  • Feeling uncomfortable is not a reason to reject an opportunity. It’s a reason to embrace it.”
  • A]ll of us feel honored when others whom we respect think our names are worth remembering. In that simple act, we make a connection.”
  • Make sure students feel safe and know they belong. “Once students feel sure these needs are met, they’ll dive into learning,”
  • when students say they don’t know, trying this line: “Pretend that you did know the answer – what words would come out of your mouth?”
  • Be yourself. “Students detest duplicity in their teachers,”
  • Wormeli suggests asking parents at the beginning of the year, “In a million words or less, tell me about your child.”
  • A related strategy is asking students, “Write a letter from your parent to the teacher describing you.”
  • ask students to write on a card everything that helps them learn –

  • -   <!--[endif]-->Sit at students’ desks and see the classroom from their point of view;

     

  • -   <!--[endif]-->Attend to students’ essential human needs – hydration, movement, nutrition, light, fresh air, sightlines, tools;

     

• The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues

  "In This Issue: 1. True grit 2. Successfully educating boys: what works 3. Teacher-student mediation in action 4. How to work with an opinionated colleague (who is wrong) 5. Should schools continue to teach cursive handwriting? 6. Do students’ appearance and grooming affect achievement? 7. Key elements of an effective open house 8. I wish my teacher knew…"

  tags: BTSN boys new ideas instructional coaching dress code mediation difficult conversations grit character

  • 1. True grit

     

    2. Successfully educating boys: what works

     

    3. Teacher-student mediation in action

     

    4. How to work with an opinionated colleague (who is wrong)

     

    5. Should schools continue to teach cursive handwriting?

     

    6. Do students’ appearance and grooming affect achievement?

     

    7. Key elements of an effective open house

     

    8. I wish my teacher knew…

  • A lot of what we take to be toughness of the past was really just callousness.
  • There was a greater tendency in years gone by to wall off emotions, to put on a thick skin – for some men to be stone-like and uncommunicative and for some women to be brittle, brassy, and untouchable. And then many people turned to alcohol to help them feel anything at all.”
  • A more helpful way to think of toughness is resilience, says Brooks. “The people we admire for being resilient are not hard; they are ardent. They have a fervent commitment to some cause, some ideal, or some relationship. That higher yearning enables them to withstand setbacks, pain, and betrayal.
  • If people today are less tough or resilient, Brooks concludes, it may be because they lack purpose. “If you really want people to be tough,” he says, “make them idealistic for some cause, make them tender for some other person, make them committed to some worldview that puts today’s temporary pain in the context of a larger hope
  • “In every school I have visited, social competition and hierarchy, bullying and maltreatment, peer policing, and the marginalization of less-preferred types of boys characterize cultures that even wonderfully committed faculty and staff cannot control.”
  • These teachers report that, “contrary to the stereotypes of young men as diffident, disruptive, or dangerous, most boys care deeply about being successful and simply long for instructors… capable of connecting personally with them and believing in them, even when they may not believe in themselves and struggle with behavior, effort, or attention problems… Relationship is the very medium through which successful teaching and learning is performed with boys.”
  • strategies that build connections with boys.
  • Demonstrate mastery of subject matter.
  • Maintain high standards.
  • Respond to a student’s personal interest or talent.
  • Share a common interest.
  • <!--[endif]-->Acknowledge a common characteristic.
  • Accommodate a measure of opposition.
  • Be willing to reveal vulnerability.
  • “Mediation provides teacher and student with ways to listen and understand each other’s perspectives, restore goodwill, and develop positive plans to move forward,” she says. “The process boosts social, problem-solving and communication skills – all of which are important for students’ resourcefulness should problems arise in the future.”

  • the characteristics of an ideal academic team:

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->There is frequent, easy communication.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Assessment is an integral part of the culture.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Changes are identified and readily implemented.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->New ideas are frequently discussed.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Limitations in professional knowledge and skills are recognized and addressed.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Professional development is seen as essential and it happens regularly.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Improvement is continuous.

  • Don’t just tell them they’re wrong.
  • Evidence alone won’t work.
  • People with incorrect beliefs can become even more entrenched when presented with facts that contradict their beliefs. To change people, you have to reach their hearts, and you can do that only by building relationships.
  • Listen
  • If you want to effectively address forces that resist positive change, you need to genuinely listen first.”
  • Be indirect. Use suggestive rather than declarative language. Let your colleagues come to their own conclusion and, better yet, think it’s their own idea.
  • Have one-to-one conversations.
  • Identify your allies.
  • Change should be collective.
  • Identify the mission.
  • Choose your battles.
  • Focus on your personal goals.
  • Be patient, hopeful, and persistent.
  • If change happens, expect things to get worse before they get better.
  • “Research suggests that individuals are prone to automatically make assessments about the competence and social status of others based on features of their physical appearance. These features may include facial cues, ethnicity, clothes, and body language… [I]ndividuals are likely to base their impression of others on limited information and then fill in the rest accordingly.”
  • “Children described by teachers more negatively in terms of their appearance had worse academic adjustment… Students described by teachers as appearing poorly dressed, tired, sleepy, or hungry were rated by teachers as being less competent academically, less engaged, and as having a poorer relationship with these teachers.
  • “These results suggest that some students may be experiencing difficulties in school because they appear inadequately physically prepared for the classroom,”
  • As a staff, if we said, ‘Here’s our first chance to engage parents,’ then surely open houses… would be a much warmer, much more collaborative event and linked to learning.”

  • Consider having a general orientation for parents before the beginning of school – more of a mini-fair, with fun activities and a chance to get to know school staff. This is distinct from the open house in mid-September, which is more academically focused.

     

    <!-- [if !supportLists]-->-   <!--[endif]-->Encourage teachers to make a positive phone call to each family early in the year so that calls on behavior problems are not the first time parents hear from the school.

  •   <!--[endif]-->Give parents and guardians name tags and a chance to socialize with family members of other students.
  • Have students be leaders of the open house at the classroom level: students prepare a PowerPoint presentation on what they are learning and what the plan is going forward.
  • Include actual learning activities for parents.
  • The bottom line: family members should leave the open house excited about the school year, clear about three or four things their child will know by the end of the year, and feeling part of a team that will help students accomplish those key learnings.

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

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 09/03/2016

• openMaterials

  More advanced maker ideas to use in the classroom.

  tags: diy makered science making opensource

• NOVA: Making Stuff Collection | Classroom Resources | PBS LearningMedia

  This is a strong list of science maker projects for use in grades 6-12 and sometimes even younger.

  tags: nova making earth science science physical science makered

• Making Stuff Safer Project Guide | Science | Document | PBS LearningMedia

  Design challenge: Build an earthquake proof structure.

  tags: earth science mathematics math geometry

• Recent | Make It @ Your Library

  Different project ideas for having kids make with their hands. Teachers would need to build extension activities off of these models in order to challenge some learners. They would also need to tie the projects into their lessons.

  tags: maker makered STEAM

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

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 09/02/2016

• This Is How to Use Twitter to Search for Educational Content ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

  Several tips on how to make the most of Twitter for education.

  tags: twitter pln

• LET IT RiPPLE | Character Day

  Character Day is Sept 22 and it's a movement to get all types of people thinking more deeply about character. Lots of short movies on this site explore different facets of character.

  tags: character character education

• Delivering on the promise of STEAM — The Learner's Way

  How do you create an authentic STEAM project?

  tags: STEAM project based learning pbl technology engineering science maker

  • STEAM projects, like all good inquiry learning, need to be driven by excellent, open ended questions.
  • Questions that require the learner to think like a scientist as they interpret the world, make observations and conduct experiments. Where the relationships between numbers, quantities and shapes are explored with the mindset of a mathematician. Questions in which an artistic response demands more thought than ‘what colour shall I paint the wheels’ and where the intersection of engineering and technology brings new ways of doing things. Good STEAM projects will demand learning contexts that generate novel solutions made possible only through the collaboration of each discipline and whenever possible should be driven by the questions students discover.
  • Engineering is also the field least present in traditional school models and as such may be that field which brings the others together as it has less to lose and most to gain in such a recombination of disciplines.
  • If STEAM is dominated by Engineering problems where are the opportunities for science to be the servant of art, or for technology to be the doorway to new scientific discoveries.

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