What are your challenges with classroom management, student discipline problems? Excellent videos on positive classroom videos are Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Fred Jones’ concepts and practices shown in part in his video on “Back Talk” and… Read More
Today at a Brown University conference with such legendary education giants as Nancy Sizer and Debbie Meier of Central Park East high school, NY, Debbie told us she learned from her school’s reunion that her now 40-year-old “kids” have retained… Read More
Why is Curriculum Crucial? by Kay Scheidler November 1, 2018… Read More
Make it easier on yourself to read students’ writing, by looking at what the needs are, and developing focus mini-lessons, peer edit guides targeted to needs, and the best possible rubric to guide writing. Providing exemplars of specific… Read More
I hear frequently from teachers, and find myself, that there’s one (or more) “loud and proud” voice on their faculty who easily shuts down conversation, progress. Others fear to take on this lone or group “naysayer.” One school curriculum… Read More
I hear frequently of the challenges of assisting Special Education students and English Language Learner students in the regular education classroom. I had one magnificent district EL teacher in a couple of face to face teacher graduate courses… Read More
A principal in my current course on “Creating a Professional Learning Community” reminds me that in working to implement effective Professional Learning Communities in the full school, that in having discussions with his school leadership team and literacy and math… Read More
In a current course I’m teaching, a fifth grade math teacher reminds me that differentiating isn’t all that simple. He has students who don’t know the second or third grade level of number and operations. He uses small… Read More
A Professional Learning Community is: A PLC is working with others for success! A Professional Learning Community works with a common vision and sharp focus and with leadership that listens and steers the work effectively for all. A… Read More
In past years, structured formulaic writing ruled. Starting in primary grades, students were taught a formula for writing. Now students are asked to learn the writing process of first brainstorming to generate ideas, drafting to get ideas out on… Read More
For a true Professional Learning Community, this is more than teachers just meeting and talking. A true, effective PLC follows: Consensus: Works from consensus, which is almost all in the group agreeing on goal and protocol Protocols: Establishes… Read More
The main Reading Standards tested this spring continue to be the main standards tested in the past: Close reading: Checking back in the reading passage to see what the text exactly states, or that could be inferred from… Read More
The main big changes in this year’s 2019 Massachusetts ELA test are: “Text-based writing” is extending a reading passage by writing an Argument, Essay, or Narrative piece. Any of these three writing types will be tested this year…. Read More