Professional Learning Teams
Learn about how teachers use professional learning communities to share their expertise and improve their teaching skills
Professional Development
Opinion
Get the Most Out of Conference Learning
Beginning this weekend, more than 3,000 attendees will gather in Dallas for five days of networking, inquiry, problem solving, and paradigm shifting. Stephanie Hirsh shares several suggestions for getting the most out of this or any conference learning experience.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
The Digital Buzz: Using Twitter to Shape Your School Culture
In this week's Digital Buzz, we explore how to leverage social media, specifically Twitter, to amplify your school's voice. Today we are joined by Jason Markey, principal of East Leyden High School, and two of his amazing students, Ariana and Kristina. Together, they share the story of how their school created their own Twitter "brand" - a hashtag and a Twitter handle... both run by students! Watch the interview below and follow both #LeydenPride and @LeydenPride to see how student voices can shape your positive school culture!
Professional Development
Opinion
Creating a Culture of Innovation
How do you support teacher growth and thus student growth when it comes to technology? How do you convince a tech-resistant staff to adopt new devices or pedagogies? How do you create and sustain a culture of innovation? While there isn't a single answer to any of these questions, here are six strategies I've found successful so far.
Professional Development
Opinion
The Digital Buzz: Get Connected on EduHangout
Welcome to the second The Digital Buzz! This is a series featuring inspiring educators and powerful learning tools from around the world. In this post, we are getting to know Brent Catlett and his amazing creation, EduHangout.org. Check out the video below and read my interview with Brent to learn how you can use this simple yet powerful website to get connected with other classrooms and teachers... a perfect companion to keep you going as Connected Educator Month comes to a close!
Professional Development
Opinion
The Big Aha: Conditions for Effective Professional Learning
A recent discussion with the Standards Board Committee in Ohio led to a big "aha" moment linking the seven Standards for Professional Learning with the conditions necessary for effective professional learning.
Professional Development
Opinion
Connected Educators Month is Almost Here! Connect Early, Connect Often...
Have you heard?
October is Connected Educators Month!
Are you ready? Are you participating? Do you know what it is? What's a Connected Educator? OK, let's slow down and start from the beginning.
Professional Development
Teachers' Data Use Becoming PD Emphasis
A recent report by the New America Foundation looks at federally funded professional development programs in Oregon and Delaware that aim to train teachers on using data to improve their instruction.
Professional Development
Formative Assessment-Friendly Scheduling
The Oregonian provides a glimpse into a school district that has instituted a late-start for students on Wednesday mornings so that teachers can get together for mandatory data-team meetings.
Classroom Technology
Educators Making Summer Connections
The U.S. Department of Education has declared that August is Connected Educator Month, a "celebration," as the website says, that is part of the Office of Educational Technology's Connected Educators initiative to support online professional learning. During the next four weeks, the department will bring together 100 education organizations to highlight professional online communities and networks of relevance to educators, the goal being to "broaden and deepen educator participation in online communities" and allow for more teacher collaboration, according to a department press release. The Connected Educator Month website provides a listing of the events offered this month, including webinars, forums, workshops, book clubs, and contests.
Professional Development
Novel Teacher-Retention Idea: Let Them Leave (for a While, Anyway)
In a Huffington Post column, Boston teacher Lillie Marshall says that taking a year-long leave of absence after her fifth year in teaching gave her the "renewed vigor and resources" she needed to continue in the profession and, not coincidentally, made her a much better educator. She extrapolates:
Curriculum
Ed. Scholars: Common Core Presents Crucial Moment for Teacher Collaboration
On the Atlantic's National blog, University of Michigan education professors Jeffrey Mirel and Simona Goldin express optimism that the current movement towards a common curriculum could boost what they consider woeful levels of teacher collaboration in U.S. schools:
Special Report
Virtual PD Creates Connections
This special report, another installment in Education Week's series on virtual education, examines how K-12 professional development is taking a more digital and freewheeling approach to educator training.
School & District Management
Do Schools Need 'Pit Crews' Rather Than 'Cowboys'?
Last month, the surgeon-writer Atul Gawande gave a much talked-about commencement address at the Harvard Medical School entitled "Cowboys and Pit Crews." Gawande's argument, in essence, is that doctors' conception of their work needs to undergo a major paradigm shift. As members of an elite, specialized profession, they have traditionally prized—and clung to—ideals of independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency. But, Gawande contends, medical knowledge and processes have become so complex (and so prone to error and inefficiency) that doctors must begin to think more about how they can operate within effective treatment systems or teams. "We train, hire, and pay doctors to be cowboys," he says. "But it's pit crews people need."
Professional Development
PLCs for Analyzing Student Work
Live from the Learning Forward annual conference in Atlanta.
I sat in on a couple intimate morning sessions - quite a difference from the enormous several-hundred-person breakfast and keynote this morning.