I had an amazing day yesterday. We hosted a workshop for 54 people from all schools in the district and the Achievement Team (if you have a problem, if no one else can help, maybe you should call…). It’s very challenging to plan a meaningful day for these folks, because they represent our best and [...]
Thank you, Liann, for posting a link to this blog from EdWeek on yammer. It’s a little dry, I admit, and not as charming as my own humble offerings. However, it does reinforce points that I think we’ve been talking about, but compiling them in a handy-dandy list of pointers to follow in order to [...]
At the October AP meeting at Stuart, I asked those present to pair up and visit classrooms, and come back and talk about what they were looking for. Here’s a sampling of what was said:
Objective on the board
Clarity of Target
Student engagement
Time-on-task
Student interaction with other students
Student interaction with the teacher
Supports for L2 and struggling students
SERVE – [...]
Dear Elizabeth,
Thanks for commenting on my posting on Confidence–I am so glad that Facebook has made us intellectual neighbors again, even though we live in different countries. I enjoy reading about your life these days, and freely confess to being envious often of the life you live.
In my current position, where I have the opportunity [...]
Today is a professional development day in 27J, and I’m not there, which is not ideal. However, the Drop-out Prevention Summit is scheduled on the same day, so that’s where I am right now, and writing this because I can make so many connections between what’s being said and other things that loom large in [...]
OK, I hate to be a name-dropper BUT… I had a little e-mail exchange with Rick Stiggins the other day. I wrote to ask him about what he says in his presentations with regard to the role of experiencing success in building successful, motivated students. He is particularly eloquent on that topic. He pointed me [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot about why Overland Trail’s professional development was so good. Here’s my list:
It built on what they’ve already done. Last year they worked on clarity of target, and providing feedback is crucial in moving students closer to the target.
It was really well planned. A lot of thought, a lot of time, [...]
I visited four schools on Friday, and enjoyed myself very much. I’m sorry only that I couldn’t visit every school.
I started the day at North, which is in a good place, having improved greatly in their growth scores and made AYP. They are working on consolidating all their good work, and I really wanted to [...]
Motivation occupies much of my thoughts. I mean motivation as a topic, not my own personal motivation, which is boundless, in case you were wondering.
I find this topic fascinating, because motivation is powerfully linked to classroom formative assessment. And yet, many teachers’ beliefs about motivation are contrary to the relationship as I understand it to work. [...]
Have you missed me? It’s been a little busy, but even so I’m embarrassed that it’s been a month since I added anything to this blog. It’s not like I haven’t been working. In fact, you can view one fruit of my labor: the Global End Academic Monitoring Report. This will tell you a great [...]
