Is it ever possible to do everything needed to be a consistently effective teacher? Look over Barbara Blackburn’s strategies to develop circumstances where you can thrive: avoid perfectionism, try incremental change, peruse helpful time management resources, and more.
To move beyond the usual data reports that crowd admin inboxes, Ronald Williamson and Barbara Blackburn recommend shadow studies that gather insights into how students experience daily school life in and out of class. Learn how it’s done and why it’s worth the time.
Authors Barbara Blackburn and Abbigail Armstrong give teachers a practical yet powerful classroom instructional tool for bringing rigor to Grades 6-12 math and science classrooms. Science educator Jennifer Sexton shares favorite strategies that will improve her practice.
Good questioning helps students build understanding, but poor questioning can deter students from learning. How can you create great questions? Teaching expert and author Barbara Blackburn shares four strategies to involve students daily in effective class discussions.
Rather than approaching differentiation as “making it easier” for some, Barbara Blackburn suggests a strategy that assures lessons will be rigorous while also giving struggling students the supports they need. Her example involves an informational reading lesson.
Rigor in the RTI and MTSS Classroom is a practical, research-based approach to the “what” and “how” involved in helping struggling students succeed. Erin Corrigan-Smith notes the authors’ assurance that educators have the knowledge and power to make change happen.
School leaders have likely dealt with someone who didn’t support a proposed change. But principals need to assure that schools provide students with quality education, a process often requiring change. Ronald Williamson and Barbara Blackburn show how to build support.
Prior to teaching your lessons, it’s important to gauge where students are in their knowledge of the topic. Instructional expert Barbara Blackburn suggests trying student-friendly strategies for pre-assessment – quick teacher-directed options or focused formal pre-tests.
To help students with special needs succeed, Blackburn and Witzel explain how rigor, RTI and MTSS can go hand in hand. The authors detail how RTI’s tiered interventions work with MTSS’s focus on core instruction for all students, writes doctoral student Bryndle Bottoms.
Understanding all aspects of a student’s learning “portrait” is critical for us to ensure their success. Although we typically look at areas like readiness or ability, notes teaching expert Barbara Blackburn, we also need to consider culture, Maslow’s hierarchy, and SEL.
