February, 2022

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Leading With a Swiss Army Knife Approach

A Principal's Reflections

How would one define great leadership? What are the characteristics of influential leaders? Each of these questions leads to various responses. I am sure that each of you reading this post can develop a quick list of critical characteristics or behaviors that one must utilize to help move people to where they need to be to improve culture and performance.

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What Role Does Empathy Play In Learning?

TeachThought

The relationship between learning goals & empathy may be unclear. What and why we choose to study are deeply human pursuits. The post What Role Does Empathy Play In Learning? appeared first on TeachThought.

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Why All Math Students Need Growth Mindsets

My AP Life

School leader DeAnna Miller remembers the geometry class of her teens as an unwelcoming place with low expectations for most students. She agrees with Stanford’s Jo Boaler that math can be a more vital and engaging subject when teachers help students adopt growth mindsets. The post Why All Math Students Need Growth Mindsets first appeared on MiddleWeb.

Teaching 244
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Playlists vs. Choice Boards: What is the difference?

Catlin Tucker

This week, I received a comment to my blog asking: What do you feel is the biggest difference between playlists and choice boards? Would you say a playlist is more data-driven and a choice board gives more variety in learning modalities? These are great questions! I have heard teachers use these terms interchangeably, yet there is a distinct difference between these the playlist model and choice boards.

Teaching 218
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PROOF POINTS: Researchers blast data analysis for teachers to help students 

The Hechinger Report

T he numbers were supposed to shed light on what was happening in public schools. That was the idea behind the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It mandated that every third through eighth grade student had to take an annual test to see who was performing at grade level. In the years after the law went into effect, the testing and data industries flourished, selling school districts interim assessments to track student progress throughout the year along with flashy data dashboards that translate

Research 145
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Satellite Broadband Is Expanding. Can That Reduce the Digital Divide?

ED Surge

A satellite launch expected later this year could expand the availability of high speed internet for the nation’s students. The launch of ViaSat-3, a trio of ultra high capacity GEO satellites, is part of ViaSat's ambition to create a global network of high-capacity internet. Each of the satellites will offer more than one terabyte per second of total network output, a thousand times the capacity of the company's first generation satellites, which the company says will allow educators and studen

K-12 145
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Don’t Use a Lot Where a Little Will Do

A Principal's Reflections

The title of this post is a well-known proverb that carries a great deal of weight during times of adversity, struggle, or uncertainty. I don’t know of a single person who really wants to take on more work, especially during a pandemic. Pie in the sky strategies, fluffy concepts that are dead on arrival because they ignore critical context or lengthy books with little tangible examples do little to alleviate stress.

Pedagogy 533

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Culturally Responsive Education: Evidence to Influence Practice

Digital Promise

“The educators who had the greatest impact on me as a youth recognized my personhood by actively developing a relationship with me, challenged their explicit and implicit biases in visible ways, and valued multiple perspectives within their classroom.” – Maima Chea Simmons, Black Girls’ Literacies. Culturally responsive education is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Cultures 134
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Quick thoughts on vertical discussions

Dangerously Irrelevant

A school leader in one of my Facebook groups asked if anyone had a discussion guide for the next time their teachers held vertical discussions across grade levels. Here was my response: I’ve done this with schools before. Not exactly sure what the desired outcome of your conversations is, but I’ve seen really powerful discussion arise from the simple questions of “ What do you expect students to know and be able to do by the end of their school year with you?

Teaching 123
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The new homeschoolers: More diverse, very committed

The Hechinger Report

In the 1970s and 80s, groups of primarily white, Christian fundamentalists drove a surge in the number of home-schooling families around the country. As they pulled their children out of public schools, they also worked to dismantle state and local regulatory hurdles that kept kids in brick-and-mortar institutions. By 1994, over 90 percent of families who home-schooled were white.

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Colleges Can Make Calculus a Gateway — Not a Gatekeeper — to STEM Fields

ED Surge

With science and technology jobs expected to grow twice as fast as other occupations over the next decade amid rapidly shifting demographics , creating a robust and diverse pipeline into STEM fields is essential to ensuring U.S. competitiveness and working toward racial equity. But neither will happen unless we address the fundamental gatekeeper to all STEM fields: undergraduate calculus.

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The Role of a Leader in Building Capacity

A Principal's Reflections

When it comes to leadership, there is no one right way or quick fix. Just like with learning, it's a process, not an event. Another given is that no matter where your practice lies, or that of your staff, there are always areas to improve. Herein is why I stated the following in Disruptive Thinking : Chase growth, not perfection. While honesty and vulnerability are necessities to get the ball rolling, action must follow to advance practice.

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Facing the Great Resignation? Support Instructional Coaches

Education Elements

A recent Forbes article said, “If the big challenge of 2021 was to get children back into the classroom, the challenge for 2022 is to keep teachers there.” With statistics showing a 66% rise in school-based departures and schools across the country scrambling to fill teacher and substitute shortages each week — all while working to bounce back from the pandemic — the need to support our teaching staff has never been greater.

Teaching 100
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Digital Promise Releases Report on Value of Research in Edtech Design

Digital Promise

In an industry that values innovation, cutting-edge design, and lightning response to changing market needs, how can edtech products demonstrate their effectiveness? Typically, efficacy studies serve as a metric for understanding the value of a learning tool. While efficacy studies play an important role in determining product quality, they require a tremendous amount of time and resources.

EdTech 109
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Slide – Content Coverage 01

Dangerously Irrelevant

Covering content and preparing students for life success are not the same thing. . Download this file. See also my other slides. Related Posts. Can’t we do better than the evolutionary filmstrip? [SLIDE]. We’ve got no time, no time… [SLIDE]. Higher-level thinkers don’t just magically emerge from low-level thinking spaces [SLIDE]. Are they learning or just parroting?

Teaching 110
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Largely unseen and unsupported, huge numbers of student fathers are quitting college

The Hechinger Report

While his wife was in labor in the hospital with their third child, Joshua Castillo was in the waiting room completing a computer science final and two quizzes. This story also appeared in The Guardian. By then he was accustomed to juggling the demands of fatherhood with the unyielding deadlines and expectations of college, where he is studying computer science while working full time and helping raise his kids — a responsibility for which he said he doesn’t get much sympathy from faculty.

Tutoring 139
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Can Third Graders Learn Data Science? These Researchers Say Yes

ED Surge

Tell me about your dog. What type is it? What color is it? How much does it weigh? If you’ve got a cat, same questions apply. What’s the dog-to-cat ratio in your classroom (or office or home)? If you’re able to answer these, that’s how you teach data science to third graders—taking what seem like complex or abstract concepts and applying them to tangible elements in students’ lives.

Research 141
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Strength in Vulnerability

A Principal's Reflections

“ Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences.” - Brené Brown Change is hard. It is even more challenging to sustain. While there are many obstacles to individual or system growth, fear and comfort tend to lead the pack. Both work to stymie a desire to improve for different reasons. Often, we are afraid of taking risks or embracing new ideas because they might not work out, resulting in a decrease in performance, outcomes, or morale.

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Resources for Teachers and Instructional Coaches – February 2022

Edthena

It’s been a short but eventful month, and we’ve curated this month’s top resources for teachers and instructional coaches. This edition of noted and notable content for educators includes effective communication for ‘managing up’, trends in professional learning needs, and a roundup of coverage for our new AI Coach platform. Here are our top picks for the Feb. 2022 reads you shouldn’t miss.

K-12 98
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Personalizing within the Curriculum: High Quality Instructional Materials as a Lever for Student-Centered Learning

Education Elements

Over the last 10 years, we have seen a significant shift in how educators access and leverage instructional materials to guide instruction. As many states adopted new, more rigorous standards, curriculum providers rushed to create materials that would prepare students for college and career and state assessments. Though it took time, the current market for high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) is strong and presents states, districts, and educators with a different set of challenges.

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ISTE Certification 02

Dangerously Irrelevant

[ Sharing my ISTE Certification journey… ]. ISTE Certification has kept me busy! Despite my familiarity with all of the ISTE Standards, I have found that I am thinking much more deeply about the ISTE Standards for Educators as I go through this process with my cohort (which I appreciate)… One of our activities asked us to reflect on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines.

Archiving 106
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College students to administrators: Let’s talk about mental health

The Hechinger Report

MEQUON, Wis. — With the pandemic dragging on, the string of setbacks that recently hit Lucas Regnier, a sophomore at Concordia University Wisconsin, has become oddly routine. This story also appeared in The Washington Post. A wrestler and physical education major, he suffered a concussion and a sprained ACL. Then, he and half his team got Covid, forcing him to isolate in the basement of his girlfriend’s parents’ home nearby, disrupting his academics and prized time training with teammates.

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To Truly Measure Student Growth, Learning Experiences Must Be Personalized

ED Surge

As schools become more focused on continuous improvement and the development of growth mindsets, educators continue to evaluate how they can assess their students' learning to better inform instructional practices. This is foundational to both teachers and their administrators. How can we personalize things that have historically been standardized to see if they meet every individual learner’s needs?

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What We Learned from the Edcamp Design for Learning Series

Digital Promise

The post What We Learned from the Edcamp Design for Learning Series appeared first on Digital Promise.

Research 105
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Can the AI Coach Platform Really Help Teachers with Coaching Cycles? Yes (Plus Some More Info)

Edthena

So you’ve heard about the AI Coach by Edthena, and now you want to know more. How can the AI Coach platform guide teachers through coaching cycles, and what exactly is AI again? These are great questions since there aren’t many examples of artificial intelligence related to teachers’ professional learning. Not to worry. This post will help you understand how the AI Coach platform supports educators in their coaching cycle and self-reflection process for improved teaching.

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Halftime for your Strategic Plan

Education Elements

This upcoming Sunday, many Americans will extend the yearly tradition of watching the last two NFL teams compete for the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy. As a loyal Philadelphia Eagles fan myself, I am not too interested in the game this year, since it features the LA Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. What I am excited about most is the halftime show - this year featuring Dr.

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When Fears Rush In: How can we help our children to overcome fears in times of crisis?

Pedagogy and Formation

When fears rush in, how can we support our children? In light of the crisis in Ukraine, while nations seek to push back an international bully, parents across all nations will wonder, how can we encourage and reassure our children? As children see and hear newsflashes that adults seem very interested in, what might they be thinking. And if they ask questions about the situation in Ukraine, what might we say?

Library 52
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More students are dropping out of college during Covid — and it could get worse

The Hechinger Report

College took a back seat the moment Izzy B. called the suicide hotline. This story also appeared in The Guardian. Izzy, 18, had spent her senior year of high school online. Then she’d gone straight to online summer school at a local community college near Denver. When in-person classes there started this past fall, she was glad to be back in the classroom and finally experiencing some real college life.

Sociology 123
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How Digital Calendar Management Empowers Professors and Students

ED Surge

With COVID-19 still very much a factor on college campuses, virtual office hours have become an increasingly critical aspect of the education that students are receiving in this hybrid world. Virtual office hours have become an increasingly critical aspect of the education that students are receiving in this hybrid world. UNC’s Learning Center states the case plainly for its students : “Attending office hours, whether in person or online, can give you [the student] valuable time to better unders

Pedagogy 122
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Craft Your Teaching Resume – in 8 Simple Steps

Letters and Ink Blog

Whether you’re about to start hunting for our very first teaching job or you’re seeking out greener pastures, it can be frustrating and anxiety- inducing when it comes time to create or write your resume. Luckily, I have moved around a lot in my career ( inside and out of education), so I’ve been around the block a few times! Let me help you craft a teaching resume that is polished, professional, unique, AND gets you that interview!

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How Edtech for Teachers Helps Collaboration and Professional Learning

Edthena

There are plenty of reasons and ways to use edtech with students in the classroom, but what about edtech for teachers? Our recent chat with Monica Burns reminded us not to forget about teachers using technology for themselves. The author of Ed Tech Essentials and founder of Class Tech Tips encourages educators to use tech tools for their own professional learning.

EdTech 97
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The Importance of the DEI Survey

Education Elements

In late May of 2020, as our country battled the coronavirus, the murder of George Floyd sent shockwaves through many communities, across the United States. In fact, his murder galvanized millions of Americans to examine structural and institutional inequities particularly for Black Americans, but also across race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status – a renewed focus not seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

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What is Women’s History Month?

Rockin Resources - Social Studies

In addition to Women’s History Month, International Women’s Day takes place each year on March 8. This holiday has been celebrated since March 8, 1911 and honors the social and political successes of women. Several countries around the world celebrate the holiday every year. In 1975, the United Nations also began to observe and sponsor. The post What is Women’s History Month?

History 52
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How the pandemic is affecting babies’ brains

The Hechinger Report

Research is emerging that some babies are developing differently than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic — not because of exposure to Covid itself, but likely because of stress and social isolation. Children born during the pandemic have reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to those born pre-pandemic, according to a study at Brown University that is awaiting peer-review and publication.

Library 120
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Restorative Justice Does More Than Solve Conflict. It Helps Build Classroom Community.

ED Surge

It’s a dry, hot day in south Phoenix, but my dimly lit classroom is cool and comfortable. Quick footsteps approach outside the door and two-dozen 8- and 9-year-olds return from recess, sweating and smiling. They calmly walk to their desks while a children’s mindful breathing video plays on the whiteboard. Some students quietly grab their water bottles and head out to fill them up, and others sit on the carpet and stretch.

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Building Community through Inquiry

C3 Teachers

As I recently waited to pick up my child from school, I noticed a plaque that said the school was built in 1939 as part of the New Deal Works Progress Administration. I had walked by this sign several times and never noticed. Putting on my teacher hat, I thought about the many questions this plaque could stimulate – What was the Works Progress Administration?

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Building Teacher Leadership Pathways Through Video (Learning Forward)

Edthena

Thinking about how to support teacher leadership in your school? You’ll want to hear from Suzanne McGahey and Valerie Minor from the Keller Independent School District (TX). The two school leaders presented at the Learning Forward 2021 Annual Conference in Dec. 2021 and shared how they use video to build teacher leadership pathways. Watch the full presentation above, and read on for highlights, including how video helped set the stage for goal setting and reflection.