Weekly Coaching Communication
Make it a great day -- every day!
12-16 September 2016
On the Standards Front . . .
Continuing with last week's idea of teaching for mastery, I hope that you will take 10 minutes out of your schedule and watch Sal Khan's TEDTalk about mastery in education. His practical application makes sense and supports our need for using data and for personalized learning through standards with a growth mindset.
Sal Khan: Let's teach for mastery -- not test scores Filmed November 2015 at TED Talks Live
Quick Clicks
Website & Tech (Tools to Use or Peruse)
Google Classroom helps teachers save time, keep classes organized, and improve communication with students.
Classroom is a new tool in Google Apps for Education that helps teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and easily communicate with their classes. Classroom helps students organize their work in Google Drive, complete and turn it in, and communicate directly with their teachers and peers. Create and collect assignments: Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly. They can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback to individual students. Improve class communications: Teachers can make announcements, ask questions and comment with students in real time—improving communication inside and outside of class. Stay organized: Classroom automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students can easily see what’s due on their Assignments page. Learn more about our privacy policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
Suggested Reading
Dr. Thomas Guskey is editor to this 2009 publication of Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading.
Implement standards-based grading practices that accurately and equitably report student achievement!
Standards-based education poses a variety of challenges for grading and reporting practices. This edited volume examines critical issues in standards-based grading and provides specific suggestions for improving policies and practices at the school and classroom levels. The chapters:
- Describe traditional school practices that inhibit the implementation of standards-based grading
- Address how teachers can assign fair and accurate grades to English language learners and students with special needs
- Examine legal issues related to grading
- Discuss why report card grades and large-scale assessment scores may vary
- Offer communication strategies with parents
Trending Tweets
Marzano's 9 Effective Instructional Strategies (by @tysonkimberly & @MarzanoResearch) #edchat #education #edtech
- RETWEETS 44
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Quotation of the Week . . .
*My question is, in our world today, can you be an effective learner without using standards-based learning? We constantly talk about preparing kids for their future but I am concerned that some of them are not even prepared for their world right now. Gerald Aungst pushes this thinking when he talks about other professions moving forward with standards-based learning, but educators seeming to have the option to opt out of implementing this:
Do we have the right to say, “I don’t do that”? Perhaps if it were only an individual decision. But educators have accepted responsibility for the growth of the students in their care, and choosing to avoid standards-based learning for themselves leaves their students with no choice.
"Moving Forward" is one of my go-to growth-mindset phrases for the year. Whether it be at a snail's pace or charging ahead, as teachers, it is my hope that you will continue to move forward, as well. Although not all of us have embraced the use of technology in classrooms, we have become more adept with its uses and purposes. My use of Couros' blog excerpt is in hopes that SBL will soon become more accepted and practiced, just as technology has. Whether we welcome it or accept the fact that we have to work within the parameters of standards, continue to move forward -- continue to read and research to see how standards can be what is best for kids.
*The replacement of the word technology is only for the use of this excerpt and in no way intended to be cited in Gerald Aungst's work or as a permanent replacement in George Couros' blog post.
Coaching Schedule -- see Google Calendar for specific "Busy" times **schedule subject to change**
Monday, 12 September
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
- 1:30-3:00PM Meeting w/ Mrs. McNeil & Laura Johnson GWAEA Literacy Consultant @MS
Tuesday, 13 September
- LCI Training: Steve Ventura @GWAEA
Wednesday, 14 September
- 7:45 AM Meeting (ART ROOM) -- SBL Alignment Protocol
- 12:30-1:30 Libolt/Pope Weekly Meeting
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Thursday, 15 September
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Friday, 16 September
- Libolt @ 6th grade campout
- Serve Teachers & Students
- 12:00 IC Team Meeting @ High School
ARCHIVE LINKS
Click on the link to access 2015-16 prior weekly communications.
Pope's IC Weekly Communication Archive & Index 2016-17
Click on the link to access prior weekly communications.
IC/Principal Weekly Meeting Notes
Click on the link to view the Friday notes.
Contact Information
Center Point - Urbana CSD
Email: epopenhagen@cpuschools.org
Phone: 319-849-1102+91015
Twitter: @Epopenhagen