8 Things to Look For in Today’s Classroom As I think that leaders should be able to describe what they are looking for in schools I have thought of eight things that I really want to see in today’s classroom. I really believe that classrooms need to be learner focused. This is not simply that students are creating but that they are also having opportunities to follow their interests and explore passions.1 The teacher should embody learning as well. Will Richardson recently wrote this in a comment on one of my recent posts on what teachers need to be like in our current day and the focus that needs to be on learning: …we need teachers who are masters at developing kids as learners who are adept at sense making around their own goals. Teachers who are focused on helping students develop the dispositions and literacies required to succeed regardless of subject or content or curriculumThis moment is all about learners having an amazing new freedom to learn, not teachers having an amazing new freedom to teach. 1. What I have missed?
Reframing and Refining the Worksheet Worksheets matter! I know we hear a lot of talking points that tell us to get rid of them, but I think it's much more complicated than that. That call for "no more worksheets" comes from a place where that is all there is. A recent visit to a PBL school jumpstarted my brain on this issue. Worksheets That Model a Career Tool Students consistently worked on a piece of paper shown below. As we design worksheets, let's consider making them look like the real-world work that students are doing -- or could be doing. Worksheet used at ACE Leadership Academy Credit: Andrew Miller Other Tips for Worksheets Include the Driving Question Where Students Can See It Like changing the look of the worksheet, this piece may seem too simple to make a real change. Rubric and Reflection Remember that a rubric can actually be just another quality indicator. Scaffolding the Levels of Questions
4 Ways to Increase Student Attention in the Age of Distraction MIT professor Sherry Turkle tells a story of teaching a class on memoir, during which students talked openly about the intimate details of their lives, meanwhile their classmates texted under their desks. “We were losing the sense of this class as a conversation, and that is the value of what we’re there to do together,” she remembers. Turkle, author of Alone Together, is not alone in her concern about where technology has the potential to take the classroom—and society—should we let it. On this blog, I’ve written about how when left to their own devices (quite literally), some students will check their phones excessively during class (18 times in 50 minutes, for example), but I’ve also written about how and why professors should teach with the very technologies that are distracting their students, like smartphones, Facebook and Twitter. Technology: An Attention Thief Technology, of course, is the future. In June, a Newsweek piece, “Is the Web Driving Us Mad?” #2: Do what’s always worked
Manager or Leader: Which Are You? There has always been an on-going debate on the differences between a leader and a manager. Many have asserted that leaders have followers, while managers have subordinates. Reading numerous articles on management and leadership styles had revealed to me several core differences between the two which would have probably resulted in such a portrayal. (Image Source: whatedsaid) That said, I’ve come to believe that such differences exist on a continuum, where on one extreme you can be a great manager and on the other extreme, you can be considered a true blue leader. Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle as both manager and leader, depending on the circumstances we face. 1. Leaders are more concerned about the direction or the overall strategy of the organization and then giving their followers the freedom to plan the details and meet goals and objectives. It may be appropriate to say that leaders think big while managers are more task-oriented. 2. 3. 4. Hit the brakes! 5. 6. 7. 8.
Curriculum21 School Choice: The Good, the Bad, and the Untested | Education on GOOD Schools, like politics, are a seriously local issue today. At first glance, school choice initiatives in communities around the country—which determine how children choose and are assigned to schools—seem like part of a monolithic national movement called school choice. On closer inspection, however, they display tremendous diversity, for good and for bad. This was not always so: Neighborhood schooling was once the American norm for assigning children to elementary schools. It was seen as the modern, progressive way to provide universal, free, accessible, efficient and equal schooling to all children. By the second half of the 20th century, however, the idea of universal provision of infrastructure—including schools, electricity and telephone wires—was under attack by many as inefficient, unequal and constraining. As a result, there's no single school choice paradigm. The entire genre, by the way, is untested. But we are learning a few things. Illustration by Fatim Hana
Elizabeth English: Why So Many Schools Remain Penitentiaries of Boredom "It's harder to change a school than it is to move a graveyard." Or, as it's also been said, "It's harder to change a history course than it is to change history." I think we can all agree that our schools should be among our most dynamic and innovative institutions; but despite the endless talk about school reform, they remain among our most ossified. Take a look at the typical American classroom, public or independent, urban or suburban, and what you will see looks very much like the classrooms of the 19th century. And it's not just the structure of schools that is chained to the past. Authentic learning at its core is about doing, creating, constructing. Teachers no longer need to be the "black box" in which information is stored. Our schools and teaching have to be worthy of a student's attention. Yes, you need knowledge of the periodic table to do chemistry, but you don't need to memorize it if it's on your desktop -- electronic or otherwise.
Online Student Communication Guidelines To be effective, an online classroom must be a safe space where students feel their voices will be respected, supported and heard. Establishing clear guidelines for online interactions is a critical step in creating an online forum that will be successful long-term. A stronger in-class community will form as a result of establishing and maintaining a safe space in your online site. Strategies for Creating and Maintaining a Safe Space: Use each other’s names. Examples of Strong Sentence Starters: Rebecca’s comment made me think about…. Although Zach made a strong point that__________, I think…. I had not thought about Leigh’s point that…. I respectfully disagree with Lawrence’s assertion…. I really appreciate Deborah’s insight into…. Thank you, Manuel, for sharing…. Great point, Angela! Even though Katie’s point is valid, I tend to…. Building on Dustin’s statement that…. In contrast to Michelle’s point…. Brady highlighted some key ideas when he said… Caitlin, can you clarify your statement that…?
The Most Comma Mistakes Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing. As I noted in my earlier article, rules and conventions about when to use and not to use commas are legion. But certain errors keep popping up. Identification Crisis If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. I went to see the movie, “Midnight in Paris” with my friend, Jessie. Comma after “movie,” comma after “friend” and, sometimes, comma after “Paris” as well. I went to see the movie “Midnight in Paris” with my friend Jessie. If that seems wrong or weird or anything short of clearly right, bear with me a minute and take a look at another correct sentence: I went to see Woody Allen’s latest movie, “Midnight in Paris,” with my oldest friend, Jessie. You need a comma after “movie” because this and only this is Mr. The syntactical situation I’m talking about is identifier-name. Grammatically, there are various ways of describing what’s going on. A Bronx plumber, Stanley Ianella, bought the winning lottery ticket. And even Or
Embedded Inquiry You know how when you have an epiphany and then wonder how you could have ever not known that thing you just realized? That happened to me today while I was speaking with Chris Pedersen, a colleague at Rockridge. He had just told me about his lesson when it hit me: embedded inquiry – that’s what works. Dylan Wiliam published a book recently called Embedded Formative Assessment. Let’s review: Inquiry means to ask questions and investigate those questions. All of this good stuff happened in Chris’ Social Studies 8 class today. “I just suddenly decided what I wanted the year to be about and telling them the answer would have been boring,” he told me. In Math 8, Kelly Spearman and Daphne Lambie’s students were outside using their phones to take pictures in response to the questions, “Where do I see math?” These are two examples in a wealth of inquiry-minded work happening in my colleagues’ classrooms every single day.
Why Teaching Helps Students Learn More Deeply Teaching Strategies Tulane Public Relations/Flickr Learning, and thinking, are deeply social activities. This is not the traditional view (Rodin’s iconic sculpture, “The Thinker,” is conspicuously alone in his chin-on-fist musings), but it’s the view that is emerging out of several decades of social science research. Our minds often work best in interaction with other people’s minds, and there are particular kinds of relationships that are especially good at evoking our intelligence. One is the master-apprentice relationship. “Student teachers score higher on tests than pupils who are learning only for their own sake.” Students enlisted to tutor others, these researchers have found, work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately and apply it more effectively. Educators are experimenting with ways to apply this model to academic subjects. Feedback from the teachable agents further enhances the tutors’ learning. Related
Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education? | Students on GOOD Over the past few years teachers have borne the brunt of the blame for the challenges facing the nation's public schools. But in a scathing op-ed in Salt Lake City's Deseret News, Teresa Talbot, a veteran of Utah's public schools who's about to enter her 25th year in the classroom, claims "the main problem with our education system today is not what is taught, where it is taught, by whom it is taught or how it is taught." Instead, says Talbot, the issue is students who refuse to put in the work required to earn a good grade. As evidence, Talbot cites several examples of teachers having to scale back assignments or needing to give students time in class to complete work they didn't finish at home. Talbot's own math students balked at doing multiple step problems. Talbot's op-ed isn't the first time a teacher's frustrations about unmotivated students have sparked debate. The hand-wringing over lazy students isn't confined to K-12 education, either. Photo via (cc) Flickr user Slongood
Believing in Students: The Power to Make a Difference After a morning Discipline With Dignity training, the high school principal and I walked to the cafeteria to eat lunch. He said, "I love your session, but it's not practical." I responded with my view that it was practical because it works -- but it’s just not easy. He pointed to a girl sitting alone at a table and said, "Do you think it would work with her?” She looked like she was a character from the Mad Max movies. She had just been released from federal prison. So he again asked what I would do. I said, "I'm someone writing a book on teenage violence, and I think you know better about it than me. Her answer is one that I will never forget and has been one of the constants in my work ever since. Because she's stupid. Then she started crying. I ain't going to college and I ain't getting a job. Later I put her name, Roxanne, in my book and tried to find her to give her a copy, but nobody knew where she was or how to find her. Sometime later, I traveled the country doing trainings. 1.
Why "20% Time" is Good for Schools Have you ever met an adult who doesn't really love what they do, but just goes through the motions in their job and everyday life? Have you spoken with men and women who constantly complain, showing no visible passion for anything in the world? I'm sure that, like me, you have met those people. I've also seen the making of these adults in schools across our country: students who are consistently being "prepared" for the next test, assessment, or grade level . . . only to find out after graduation that they don't really know what they are passionate about. Enter 20% time. What 20% time allows students to do is pick their own project and learning outcomes, while still hitting all the standards and skills for their grade level. With 20% time, we can solve one society’s biggest problems by giving students a purpose for learning and a conduit for their passions and interests. Students It starts with the students. Teachers We've got a tough but extremely rewarding job. Parents Administrators