How do we give students the key to success in school? In every aspect of assessment, teachers engage and empower them by offering opportunities for student voice, choice, self-assessment and self-reporting, writes ASCD bestselling author and school leader Myron Dueck.
Watching her teenager struggle through a day of virtual learning, teacher Dina Strasser is trying to not lose what we’ve learned about supporting kids and parents through the pandemic challenges, retaining the patience and concern so needed to buoy our school communities.
Amid all the other challenges of pandemic education, principal Rita Platt has noticed an uptick in communication breakdowns between teachers and parents this year. Platt relates several stories that prompted her to share some parent/teacher do’s and don’ts with staff.
Showcasing Robyn R. Jackson’s Buildership Model of leadership, AP DeAnna Miller describes how leaders can move beyond “showing the way” to including teachers in a process that will transform not only our staff and schools but also our way of thinking. DeAnna is ready to start!
Peg Grafwallner’s Ready to Learn is packed with ah-ha moments and resources to help any teacher up their game using FRAME: Focus, Reach, Ask, Model, and Encourage. Rita Platt feels the common sense approach to framing lessons will build student buy-in and deepen learning.
Reflective and restorative practices are not new, writes middle school administrator Sara Johnson, but the pandemic has created an even greater need to view discipline as a tool to guide and support the social-emotional learning of tweens and teens. Here’s how Sara does it.
In Active Literacy Across the Curriculum Heidi Hayes Jacobs focuses on the crucial function of literacy in all learning regardless of age or content area. 7th grade teacher Theresa Wood says Jacobs knows what works and shows how to move forward without losing what we value.
Alex Valencic began his career sending work home with his students without much thought. Over the years he came to question the need for homework at all – until parents rebelled. Then he invented the Homework Menu. And embraced the D.E.L.I.B.E.R.A.T.E ideas of Erik Youngman.
Principal and NBCT Rita Platt shares advice for a paradigm shift away from obsessive coverage of content and toward deep and differentiated learning for students who have lived through the months of pandemic schooling. Three questions help us understand what’s essential.
When his two middle schoolers wondered about a tree house, principal Matt Renwick’s bright idea was to engage them in an at-home Genius Hour project. His three take-aways from the experience can help us understand the teacher’s role in creative learning and risk-taking.
