It's Not Easy Being Tween / Multicultural Learning
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 11/20/2016 · Last modified 11/04/2024
Few things are more important to Cheryl Mizerny than creating a classroom environment that honors all of her multicultural students. She looks at beliefs, the visual environment, instructional materials, and teaching choices for ways to support everyone’s learning.
In a newly revised edition of Performance Tasks and Rubrics for Upper Elementary Mathematics, Charlotte Danielson and Joshua Dragoon show that developing performance tasks and using scoring rubrics are integrally linked. Math lead teacher Barb Rock says it’s an ideal PD tool for schools and systems.
STEM By Design / STEM Teacher Development
by Anne Jolly · Published 11/13/2016 · Last modified 11/23/2019
Anne Jolly deeply believes that well-informed and skilled teacher leaders are the most valuable assets we have at all levels. In the STEM education arena, teacher leaders are particularly crucial. How to provide leadership? She fills in the picture.
Students who write in class every day become more skillful at expressing what they feel and what they are learning, says NBCT Mary Tedrow. Using prompts that connect content and personal experience helps students “write their way to an understanding of curricula.”
Russell Quaglia advocates for “principal voice” using a creative Three L’s framework, surfacing our awareness of things that we know are good leadership practices. Former principal Rick Jetter finds Quaglia’s tips and take-aways thoughtful and easy to implement.
During her 27 months teaching English in a Macedonian village school, Peace Corps volunteer Jordan Lucas learned a lot about the relationship between culture and learning – insights that will help her be a better language educator. It all began with a kombi ride.
The Flexible Classroom / Vocabulary / Vocabulary
by Amber Chandler · Published 11/06/2016 · Last modified 11/28/2019
Instead of just saying “study your vocabulary,” Amber Chandler is trying out Quizlet Live, an online team-based game that has students begging for more. She says the easy tech tool promotes collaborative competition, meets SEL needs, and requires little extra work.
Arguing that grades not only limit learning but can actually interfere with it, Starr Sackstein makes the case in “Hacking Assessment” for going gradeless and shows how it can be part of a traditional grading school. Teacher Marek Dzianott agrees it works well with PBL.
Are today’s students impatient to solve problems without enough thought? Curtis Chandler recalls Ms. Porcupine’s 6th-grade brain stretchers that required him to slow down and think methodically. He shares one about castles and crocodiles and has tips on creating more.
Author and veteran teacher educator Ann Weber outlines 3 key supervisory steps – preparation, coaching and evaluation – that can help cooperating teachers shine in their advisory roles and assure new teachers are ready to launch their careers in the middle grades.
