LWISD Bullfrog Bulletin
Leadership Newsletter November 6, 2015
Inspiring and Empowering Every Student, Every Day!
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Ten Thousand Hours
“The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. ‘The emerging picture is that . . . ten thousands of hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything’ . . . It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery. . . This is true even of people we think of as prodigies. Mozart for example. . . . ‘By the standards of mature composers, Mozart’s early works are not outstanding . . . Many of Wolfgang’s childhood compositions, such as the first seven of his concertos for piano and orchestra, are largely arrangements of works by other composers. Of those concertos that only contain music original to Mozart, the earliest that is now regarded as a masterwork was not composed until he was twenty-one: by that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years. . . Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good. . . The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that’s the wrong lesson. . . . If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success—the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history—with a society that provides opportunities for all.” - -Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Good Teaching Today and Tomorrow
Good Teaching in Yesterday’s Classroom
· Rows—Students sit at desks in rows.
· Quiet—Classroom is a “no talking allowed” zone.
· Teacher Teaches—Teacher is at the front of the room doing all of the talking (Teacher is working harder than the students).
· Students Listening—Students listen quietly.
· Isolation—Students do their work quietly and do not interact with other students.
· Questions—Teachers ask questions about facts requiring rote memory with little problem solving or higher-level thinking.
· One Size Fits All—All students receive the same instructional experiences, no differentiation.
· Teacher Exhaustion—Due to being on stage all day, teachers are tired!
Good Teaching in Today’s Classroom
· Groups—Students commonly sit and work in groups/pairs.
· Classroom May Not Be Quiet—The classroom is not always quiet when learning is happening.
· Teacher Facilitates—The teacher facilitates learning by setting the stage for learning and then supervising student learning during class.
· Student Involvement—Students are active recipients.
· Collaboration—Both teachers and students are expected to work in teams.
· Questions—The teacher asks open-ended questions that require the student to synthesize information before answering.
· Differentiation—Individualized instruction is administered to students based on their individual needs.
· Student Exhaustion—Students leave the classroom exhausted from learning.
Adapted from “Good Teaching in Today’s Classroom” by Wayne Marshall
Videos to Watch:
Articles to Read:
Twitter for Professional Development
Upcoming Events:
November 9th and November 11th Guided Reading Training
November 10, 12--CBA Creation
November 12th-- Social Studies 8, US History, Reading 7, 8, English 1 and 2
November 13th--Data Conference for Principals
November 16th Board Meeting
November 16th
New teachers will ask questions of a panel of LWISD teachers.