Future of History / History and Spoken Poetry
by Sarah Cooper · Published 10/22/2017 · Last modified 11/24/2019
In a recent post, Sarah Cooper wrote about her fears surrounding a new current-events project – her 8th graders creating spoken poetry videos on issues of interest to them. Here she reviews the experience and its power to create community as it engaged her students.
In Disrupting Thinking, Kylene Beers and Robert Probst argue that educators must help students become empowered readers who read out of personal desire, not just for school work. The authors’ well supported argument uses a “Book-Head-Heart” framework, says Kevin Hodgson.
With slanted news, social media and “reality” TV ceaselessly attracting the attention of young people, literacy consultant Frank W. Baker underscores the importance of Media Literacy Week, urging all educators to teach students how to analyze media “as text.”
Don’t Suspend Me! can be used to ramp up school and district discussions about discipline policies. Principals, discipline teams, and individual teachers whose schools don’t have access to onsite PBIS training might adapt the book’s suggestions, says Mary L. Thompson.
Educators talk about giving students “voice, choice and agency,” says NBCT Rita Platt, but how does that actually happen in a practical, curriculum-friendly way? Platt believes the secret is teaching students to set goals. Learn about her 5-step process (tools included).
The framework Jennifer Abrams develops in Hard Conversations Unpacked focuses on professional growth, and ultimately on positive outcomes for student learning. Principal Mike Janatovich will never again attempt a challenging conversation without this guidance.
Digital Citizenship / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 10/10/2017 · Last modified 11/13/2019
By expanding our focus in school from digital citizenship (safety) to digital leadership (effective voice), teacher and author Jennifer Casa-Todd says educators can help students learn to harness social media in powerful and meaningful ways, for the common good.
As new teachers develop routines for their classrooms, Class Tech Tips founder Monica Burns says it’s important to plan how they will check for understanding each day to gather information and inform future instruction. She shares three simple class assessment tools.
Shirley McPhillips’ non-traditional book about teaching poetry is both insightful and fun to read, says retired principal and former California senior poet laureate Mary Langer Thompson. She predicts teachers will not be able to read for long without writing poetry themselves.
In the 2nd edition of Joyful Learning, Alice Udvari-Solner and Paula Kluth provide a great resource to promote teacher collaboration and move inclusion classrooms beyond the superficial and toward more meaningful engagement of every student, says Erin Corrigan-Smith.
