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Creating a Culture of Family Engagement Educational researchers and policymakers have come to realize that family engagement should be a primary rather than peripheral part of teaching and learning. As the spotlight has shifted to the role that families can play in education, many schools are scrambling to identify a starting point for how to invite families into student learning. This article shares useful practices to build a culture of collaborative family engagement. | Three Surprises in the World’s Top Education Systems Lucy Crehan, a former science teacher from London, embarked on what she calls her “personal educational odyssey”, a two-year itinerary covering two provinces in Canada, Finland, Japan, Shanghai, China, and Singapore. Diverse in location, these countries are all consistently high in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings. Crehan shares several surprises relating to pedagogy, professionalism, and underlying philosophies found in these top-performing systems. | Transforming High Schools: 8 Strategies for EdLeaders Transforming high schools is enormously challenging. Tom VanderArk writes "We’ve been involved with about 800 improvement attempts over the last 20 years. We’ve observed that the most successful efforts start with community conversations about the goals of a high school education.” In this article he shares 8 strategies for EdLeaders to transform high schools for 21st Century learning. |
Creating a Culture of Family Engagement
Educational researchers and policymakers have come to realize that family engagement should be a primary rather than peripheral part of teaching and learning. As the spotlight has shifted to the role that families can play in education, many schools are scrambling to identify a starting point for how to invite families into student learning. This article shares useful practices to build a culture of collaborative family engagement.
Three Surprises in the World’s Top Education Systems
Lucy Crehan, a former science teacher from London, embarked on what she calls her “personal educational odyssey”, a two-year itinerary covering two provinces in Canada, Finland, Japan, Shanghai, China, and Singapore. Diverse in location, these countries are all consistently high in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings. Crehan shares several surprises relating to pedagogy, professionalism, and underlying philosophies found in these top-performing systems.
Transforming High Schools: 8 Strategies for EdLeaders
Transforming high schools is enormously challenging. Tom VanderArk writes "We’ve been involved with about 800 improvement attempts over the last 20 years. We’ve observed that the most successful efforts start with community conversations about the goals of a high school education.” In this article he shares 8 strategies for EdLeaders to transform high schools for 21st Century learning.
TEACHERS: Getting Comfortable With Saying No
Learning to say no is tough. It can mean you’ll be seen as not a team player, as not wanting to do “what’s right for kids” (my favorite education guilt trip), or as not being “one of the guys” (always an odd one for the many women in education). Here’s advice from an instructional coach on how to turn down a new responsibility at work it necessary.
TEACHERS: What Teachers Should Know About ADHD & ASD
TEACHERS: Setting Students With ADHD Up for Success
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that students who have been diagnosed with ADHD make up 11% of the student population (2011). In this article a special education teacher and tutor who coaches struggling students (many with ADHD), shares several classroom strategies to be effective. Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder benefit from these easy-to-implement strategies—and so do their peers
TEACHERS: Crafting Feedback That Leads to Learning
Correcting every misspelling, grammatical flaw, and error in students’ work, sends students the message that teachers care more about pointing out flaws than helping them improve. Here are some key ways to offer feedback—the kind that students find helpful for improving their learning.
TEACHERS: Dig into Fascinating Writing Prompts.
Need some new ideas to get students thinking — and then writing? Write About (writeabout.com) has a treasure trove of creative, thought-provoking writing prompts at www.writeabout.com/ideas.
TEACHERS: 15 Things Students Really Want From Teachers
At a time when technology and innovations have really taken charge, there exists a gap in communication between students and teachers. This article is a list of 15 things they want from their teachers. For parents this could be a source of understanding their kids better. As students, this serves as a voice of their expectations.
TEACHERS: Exit Celebrating: 8 Epic Ideas for Ending the School Year
The end of the school year should be a time of review, reflection, and celebration. Give your students a year-end send-off that celebrates their learning. Ideas in this article include Top 10 lists, party-themed exams, symbolic toasts, and heartfelt letters. Plan now but don’t pack up too soon!
PARENTS: It’s time to Land that Helicopter. Hovering isn’t Helping Your Kids
Parents struggle with how much freedom to give their children. What is hindering them? Neuroscientists and social scientists are only beginning to understand how the 24/7 news cycle does odd things to parenting brains. And there’s also the stress that carrying computers in their pockets all day brings to parents in small and big ways. But without enough freedom to make mistakes, children won’t gain the resiliency they’ll need.
PARENTS: Teaching Kids to Parent Themselves
Do you want your children to become responsible adults? Then here's an important first step – and it might surprise you: teach them to parent themselves. Listen here.
LEADERS: Visiting Schools: Transformative Professional Learning
School visits can be life changing, giving guests a chance to experience the culture and context in a way that the best video can’t convey. In the first minute of a visit, the sights, sounds and interactions give visitors a pretty good indication of the school culture. If you visit schools with other people and build in some time for reflection, you’ll see a school from several perspectives and learn even more. Consider making school visits a powerful part of the professional learning plan for your teachers.
LEADERS: Archived Visible Learning Webinar with John Hattie
According to John Hattie's Visible Learning research, one of the biggest influences on student achievement is how teachers think. In this free Corwin webinar, Hattie discusses his 10 mindframes and shares how to unlock the attributes that accelerate student learning. Watch it now!
LEADERS: TeacherCast Podcast with Robyn Jackson
In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, ASCD author Robyn Jackson discusses her book: Never Underestimate Your Teachers: Instructional Leadership for Excellence in Every Classroom. Topics discussed include: Robyn's experiences seeing teachers be underestimated in their jobs and the impact of that on their craft, the feedback mistakes leaders often make, how to give effective feedback and tools for finding the strengths in teachers.
LEADERS: Where EdTech and Its Investors Miss The Mark
In three years as an investor at Reach Capital, an edtech venture fund, Jim Lobdell watched public, private and philanthropic dollars pour into school operations, adaptive software, data analytics, teacher development, and teacher tools in worthy attempts to improve education. In this article he argues that most entrepreneurs and funders overlook the thing that matters most—equipping teachers with the recipes and ingredients, in the form of quality curriculum that will engage and motivate students.
Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D.
Becoming Brilliant is a book written primarily for parents, but the research and analysis is extremely beneficial for educators as well. The authors speak to the 6 C’s that they believe are essential for success in the 21st century—collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence. They provide in-depth analysis and background research for each of the six categories and summarize this analysis in A Report Card for the 21st Century.
Learner-Centered Innovation by Dr. Katie Martin
Learner-Centered Innovation is about the schools and educators around the country that are walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to rethinking how we ought to “do school.” Dr. Martin has been a part of the movement for over a decade, and pools her experiences, as well as the collective experiences of those in these schools, and synthesizes what it means to truly be learner-centered. In the book, there are detailed processes for how one might start this work, as well as real-school examples to highlight successes.
Center for Christian Urban Educators
The Center for Christian Urban Educators seeks to encourage, equip, and empower Christian educators as they impact the lives of the children entrusted to their educational care.
