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Blogs on Teacher Leadership

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

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One Week Later: Healing Sandy Hook
David MarkusDecember 21, 2012
Tags Current Events, Mental Health, National, Teacher Development

It has been one week. The surreal string of heart-wrenching funeral services is winding down. The Sandy Hook children who survived have been placed in another school, and they will return in January. There is the facade of movement and activity in Newtown, Connecticut, but down deep, there is deep-seated grief and the inextinguishable memories of the 26 wonderful human beings gone too soon. It will be a long while before the families and educators will feel anything close to right again. But there are ways we can help and hasten the day when it hurts a little less.

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Student Research: The Right Information at the Right Time
Terry HeickDecember 19, 2012
Tags Classroom Technology, Media Literacy, Technology Integration, Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

Google puts a universe of information at the end of any Internet connection.

This is both true and unhelpful. It offers up the universe, but no one needs the universe -- they need the right information, and they need it at the right time.

A fact. A concept. An image. A resource. Maybe a new perspective.

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The Fiscal Cliff: Why You Should Care and What You Can Do
Anne OBrienDecember 17, 2012
Tags Current Events

It is easy to ignore the noise from Washington, DC, about the upcoming fiscal cliff. The tone from the Capitol hardly seems changed from the pre-election rhetoric that made many of us tune out what politicians have to say.

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What Can School Teams Learn from Geese?
Elena AguilarDecember 13, 2012
Tags Leadership, Professional Development

My last two posts have been reflections on what I've learned this fall about the role that teams can play in transforming schools. The final installment in this series is not original -- I didn't come up with these ideas -- but just in case you haven't come across "Lessons We Learn from Geese," I wanted to share these. There are many versions of this all over the Internet, all of which say, "Author unknown." Here's a version I like.

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Winter Reading: What's on Your Bedside Table?
Elena AguilarDecember 11, 2012
Tags Literacy, Teacher Development, English Language Arts

I gestured to the stack of books next to my bed and said to my nine-year-old son, "Those are the books I'm going to read this winter break!"

"All of them!?" he exclaimed. "I don't think you can read all of those."

He might be right. I've gathered nine books, over 3500 pages of text, that I'm hoping to devour starting this weekend when my break begins. After a year and a half of almost exclusively reading education-related books, I'm craving stories and beautifully crafted sentences . . . and plot and character and action and historical fiction and science fiction . . . and that almost trace-like state that we enter when we're consumed by a novel.

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Common Core Big Idea 5: Consider Meaningful Assessment
Jay McTigheDecember 7, 2012
Tags Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Education Reform

Editor's note: This is the fifth post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.

A prevalent misconception about standards in general is that they simply specify learning goals to be achieved. A more complete and accurate conception, in line with the colloquial meaning of the term, recognizes that standards also refer to the desired qualities of student work and the degree of rigor that must be assessed and achieved.

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Common Core Big Idea 4: Map Backward From Intended Results
Jay McTigheDecember 6, 2012
Tags Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Education Reform, Teacher Development

Editor's note: This is the fourth post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

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Common Core Big Idea 3: Standards Must Be Unpacked
Jay McTigheDecember 5, 2012
Tags Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Education Reform, Teacher Development

Editor's note: This is the third post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

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Common Core Big Idea Series 2: The Standards Are Not Curriculum
Jay McTigheDecember 4, 2012
Tags Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Education Reform, Teacher Development

Editor's note: This is the second post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

The Introduction to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics makes a noteworthy point: “These Standards do not dictate curriculum or teaching methods.” (p 5). A similar point is offered by the ELA Standards:

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Common Core Big Idea Series 1: A New Blueprint
Jay McTigheDecember 4, 2012
Tags Common Core Standards, Curriculum, Education Reform, Teacher Development

Editor's note: This is the first post in a five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

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