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School Transformation Through Arts Integration at Bates Middle School

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Constance Steinkuehler on Interest-Driven Learning (Big Thinkers Series)

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Get support and guidance from change makers who are organizing and implementing real improvements to our educational system.

How Coaching Can Impact Teachers, Principals, and Students

Elena AguilarMarch 25, 2013

The following is an excerpt from my new book, The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation. It offers a coaching framework and dozens of tools which can used by a range of educators. The following is from chapter one.

What Can Coaching Do for a School?

There's generally an agreement that educators need more knowledge, skills, practice, and support after they enter the profession. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), calculates that it takes ten thousand hours of deliberate practice -- practice that promotes continuous improvement -- to master a complex skill. This translates into about seven years for those working in schools. The majority of teachers and principals want professional development; they want to improve their craft, be more effective, implement new skills, and see students learn more.

Ten Tips for Becoming a Connected Educator

Elana LeoniMarch 21, 2013

Tags Media Literacy, Professional Development, Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development

ASCD's annual conference (see #ASCD13 on Twitter) recently came to a close, and one of the main themes that kept surfacing was the need for more "connected educators." At this conference, there were definitely some great "firsts." The general session kicked off with a keynote from Freeman A. Hrabowski III, who tweeted his first tweet; an impromptu #edcampRogue sprouted up from in-attendance edcampers; and author and poet Maya Angelou was even tweeting at age 85!

Engaging Teachers in Math

José VilsonMarch 21, 2013

Tags Best Practices, Professional Development, Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development, Math

I used to like Robert Marzano's ideas. Now, I couldn't possibly disagree with him more.

Climate Control: Six Ways to Improve Your School Environment

Dr. Allen MendlerMarch 14, 2013

Tags Best Practices, Leadership, , Teacher Burnout, Teacher Development

Spring vacation is just around the corner, and the dreaded state tests are inching ever closer. It is a time of year when you may be running out of ideas, patience and energy, and so is everyone around you (or so it seems). You have gone through three different behavior plans, but Madison is still acting out, and Sam continues to come late despite an untold number of phone calls home, detentions, planning sessions and positive reinforcement programs. The faculty room is rife with a combination of boring tasteless food, stale conversation and annoying complaints about you-name-it. You try to remind yourself that "no news is good news" because, although you are working your butt off, rarely if ever does anyone seem to notice.

The Hidden Lessons from Newtown: A Teaching Opportunity

Mark PhillipsMarch 13, 2013

Tags Current Events, Media Literacy, Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

Three tragic shootings: Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012; Century's Cinemark 16 Theater, Aurora, Colorado, July 20, 2012; Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, April 20, 1999. These traumatic events generated highly emotional responses all across our country. In each case, the mass media provided significant misinformation that both fueled the emotionality and interfered with an effective analysis of the causes.

Effective Strategies for School Transformation: Our Beliefs

Elena AguilarMarch 11, 2013

Tags Classroom Management

My book, The Art of Coaching: Effective Strategies for School Transformation, was released this week. It offers a coaching framework and dozens of tools which can used by a range of educators. The excerpted section below is relevant to all who work in schools as we can all refine our understanding about where beliefs come from and how we can shift them. The following excerpt comes from chapter three, titled, "Which Beliefs Help a Coach be Effective?"

Five Resources for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Matt DavisFebruary 26, 2013

Tags Current Events, Open Education Resources, Parental Involvement, Teacher Development

For many educators, spring conferences are coming up soon -- if they haven’t already -- and it can be a stressful time of the school year. With summer on the horizon, spring conferences sometimes get squeezed into the end-of-year schedule. To help parents and educators prepare for parent-teacher conferences, we've rounded up a variety of Web resources.

Report from Educon 2.5: Empathy, Relationships and Entrepreneurship

Mary Beth HertzFebruary 19, 2013

Tags Education Reform, Leadership, Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development, All Grades

Last month, I attended the unique and energizing conference, Educon, held annually at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Over the weekend of January 25th, innovative minds in education from all over the US and Canada converged on SLA to discuss emerging trends in education, share big ideas, grapple with issues and come up with solutions. The themes permeating this year's conference were Empathy, Relationships and Entrepreneurship.

Novum Trivium: Teaching Our Children How to Spin, Unspin and Decide What to Spin

Jeremy ShermanFebruary 12, 2013

Tags Curriculum, Education Reform, Leadership, High (9-12), English Language Arts

It's five minutes before the bell. My psychology students are reaching for their smartphones after our mini-field trip to the main campus library for an introduction to online reference materials.

"Wait," I say. "Before you go, I have a short question to leave you with."

The students sigh but smile, setting down their phones.

"What's left?" I ask, pausing for effect. "What is left?" They wait for me to continue. "Online, you've now got instant access to what everyone everywhere knows and thinks. In the past, to know anything you would have had to spend hours finding and memorizing it. Now it's right there on your smartphones. So what's left? If everyone has access to all this information, what is school for, and how could it possibly give you any kind of edge? What's the future of education?"

EduCon: Not Your Typical "Sit and Git" Conference

Adam ProvostFebruary 6, 2013

Tags New Teachers, Professional Development, Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development

I pulled up a chair next to a woman at the EduCon conference at the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia this last Saturday. After some brief introductions I learned her heavy Southern accent hailed from Arkansas, that she was shocked by how cold it was, and that it was her first time attending the conference. I asked her how she liked EduCon so far. "I love it," she said. "It's not your typical 'sit and git' type conference."

That's a great summary, indeed.