It was the third day of kindergarten, and there I was standing amidst twenty-one four- and five-year-olds; showing my students how to “mingle,” a type of standing turn and talk. The children were so eager to share any morsel about their lives during those first
Contributed by Susan Creighton In my blog post, “Using Formative Assessment to Create Active Learners,” I listed five key practices that teachers can use to help students learn to make use of their own formative assessment data. Read Practice 1 and Practice 2. Here, I discuss
This post was originally published on Finding Common Ground. So many standards, so little time… How can classroom teachers be expected to teach, assess, re-teach, and reassess student understanding of each and every standard in a grade level or course within a limited number of school days
How many content-area teachers have groaned under their breath (or quite audibly) when they’ve been told by a smiling consultant, “Every teacher is a teacher of reading
It sounds like a club. The Connected Educators. Perhaps they may even sound like a group of educators who meet at the Hall of Justice, slap on capes and go to fight some sort of injustice in the world. Ok, so I’m showing my age
This post was originally published on Finding Common Ground. In a partnership…students work alongside teachers to own their learning and reach worthy goals. Is that really possible? It all depends on us. Students come equipped to discover, explore, and with innate talents for learning, and it’s our
A previous blog, “Using Formative Assessment to Create Active Learners,” listed five key practices that teachers can use to help students learn to make use of their own formative assessment data. Here, I’ll discuss the second of those practices: Revisiting learning targets together throughout a lesson. To
Vocabulary and comprehension are soul mates! They go together like cheese and crackers, bread and jam, friendship and trust. The more words students have the better they can read and comprehend. With a wealth of words, students can write and be creative and innovative problem solvers. We’ve
Did you ever wonder it takes to really ace a standardized test? Well, I did too. So for the past six years, I spent hours observing student behavior, both before and during a standardized test. I then interviewed those test-takers who were able to stay
Every superintendent faces the challenge of how to work effectively with a school board and individual school board members. To meet this challenge you must develop and strengthen a wide array of important and often complex skills. Begin by becoming familiar with the state laws