What Conversations Can Capture
When educators talk about formative assessment, student conversations are often left out of the conversation. This needs to change. You can lead the way.
Using Google Hangouts to Support Professional Learning
Whether you are a teacher, administrator or external partner supporting schools, you can use Hangouts to collaborate beyond school walls. Here are five powerful ways to use hangouts, and tips for getting started.
Five Ways to Build Administrator Buy-In for Teacher Inquiry
Mention peer observation inquiry (OI) in education circles, and one of the first questions is always, “How do you build teacher buy-in?” It’s a critical question. Teacher leaders, however, ask another important question: “How do you build administrator buy-in and support for peer observation inquiry?” Here are five tips to help teacher leaders engage administrators in supporting effective, job-embedded professional learning.
Kindergarten Teachers Collaborate to Innovate with Technology
At George I. Sanchez Community School, a Title I school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Title I Kindergarten students are actively using technology to collaborate, create and communicate in ways that deepen content learning. It didn’t start this way. Learn how teachers collaborated to transform their teaching.
Albuquerque Teacher Leaders Open Doors to Observation Inquiry
“Instead of brushfires for excellence, we need infernos of excellence. Our project will do this.” In a packed hotel conference room in Albuquerque, New Mexico, teacher leader Maureen Torrez, NBCT, describes the observation inquiry pilot project she and her team of National Board Certified Teachers are leading to deepen how teachers and students learn in Albuquerque public schools.
Seven Ways to Raise Expectations for All Students
We need every teacher to believe in the full potential of every kid. Most of us share this belief, in theory. In practice, things get a little more complicated. It’s easy, for example, in a school where most students underperform, to adjust our expectations of what is possible to fit what we see. It is much more challenging to hold a vision that extends beyond the status quo, and help kids grow into that vision.
Here seven powerful practices you can use in your school to raise expectations for all students, especially ELLs, students of color, students living in poverty, or any students who are not yet thriving.
Four Sentences Educators Must Stop Saying About Students
The language we use to talk about students matters. It reflects and shapes our perceptions, and most importantly, our expectations for student success.
In your school, make a courageous commitment to shift all staff conversations about kids and their families from a deficit mindset, which views diversity as a problem kids bear, to an asset mindset: one which truly values students and their communities for the diversity they bring. Begin by reframing these four sentences.
Using Twitter to Enhance Professional Learning
This is the third blog in a series on using Twitter for professional learning. In Part I we explored the question “Should Twitter replace professional development?” In Part II we delved into the pros and cons of Twitter for professional growth. Now let’s get specific about how to leverage Twitter to enhance school and district-level professional learning.
The Pros and Cons of Twitter for Professional Learning
In part I of this three-part blog series, I challenged the notion that Twitter should replace professional development. A total replacement would be tragic, but using Twitter to enhance professional learning has serious potential.
Should Twitter Replace Professional Development?
There is buzz online about Twitter replacing professional development. Is it a good idea, or problematic to focus all professional learning time on hashtags and tweets? Join us in exploring this provocative question.
