Aggressive Monitoring: Analyzing and Responding to Real-Time Classroom Data
Aggressive monitoring is giving targeted, concise feedback to every student during every round of practice.
What Is Instructional Leadership and Why Is It So Important?
A clearly defined understanding of instructional leadership is imperative if that leadership is to be effective.
7 Hats Principals Must Be Prepared to Wear
School leadership is a multifaceted calling whether you are a coaching, managing, staying accountable, communicating, serving, or working with a team. Ultimately, your goal is to create a safe and effective learning environment, no matter what hats you have to wear to reach that goal.
10 Ways to Communicate About Your School
Of the responsibilities school leaders manage, each requires communicating in some capacity. Whether it is parent relations, teacher observations/evaluations, student relations, staff leadership, community involvement, networking or even doing state reports–all require engaging others, showing appreciation, working as a team, celebrating successes, or giving helpful feedback. And people appreciate it.
Asking Better Questions: 6 Ways to Improve Classroom Discussions
Although many of us don’t realize it until we step foot into our own classrooms, we quickly learn that facilitating a lively, but controlled, classroom discussion is truly an art form. While most of us understand the value of a good question, we may not necessarily know how to make questions engaging or relevant to our students!
In their book Asking Better Questions, Norah Morgan and Juliana Saxton offer some helpful tips that should not only help you become a better facilitator, but teach you to ask thought-provoking questions that:
In their book Asking Better Questions, Norah Morgan and Juliana Saxton offer some helpful tips that should not only help you become a better facilitator, but teach you to ask thought-provoking questions that:
- Draw upon students’ previous knowledge
- Test their comprehension
- Push students to problem solve
- Encourage analysis
- Invite creativity
- Promote evaluation
Texas Middle School Nearly Doubles Instruction Time for Core Subjects
A new class schedule for Commerce Middle School is opening the door for teachers to have nearly double the in class time with students in the core subjects of math, science English and social studies. Currently, students go to class for 45 minutes for each core subject. Under the new schedule, the class times for core subjects move up to 85 minutes.
Visionary leaders shouldn't work alone
To lead with vision requires a clarity of purpose but also a willingness to draw others into your vision, writes Joel Garfinkle. Smart leaders identify potential allies and make them partners in promoting their vision, Garfinkle explains. "When you develop your top talent, you are putting in place a solid succession plan, thus assuring that your future leaders will be ready when they are needed," he writes.
The School Principle as a Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning
Wallace Foundation
Includes: A Profile in Leadership: Dewey Hensley
Includes: A Profile in Leadership: Dewey Hensley
Why educational leaders must also be change leaders
Educational leaders must be able to balance tradition with changes that can improve learning and teaching practices, K-12 leadership experts Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers suggest in this blog post. They urge administrators to be change leaders and establish new traditions that teach more than just the facts. "Our most important job right now is to manage the raising of standards and educational rigor while protecting the space and attention given to the social emotional aspects of learning," they write.
Leaders should get used to being under a magnifying glass
When you're the head of an organization, people hang on to your every word, overanalyze the clothes you wear and critique the shade of your lipstick, says Karen Abramson, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. "I'd say something offhand and people would act on it. So I learned I'd better be really careful about what I say, because everybody's paying attention to every little word," she says.
A Day in a Mastery-Centered Classroom
After eight years of teaching high school science, I turned my classroom upside down. Over the years, I'd put together a real-world applied curriculum and made progress toward inquiry-based teaching, but I felt like my classroom was still far short of what it could be.
Kindergarten classes should focus on more advanced content, less on basics, research shows
Kindergarten classes should focus less on learning ABCs and 123s and more on how to use them, new research into early childhood education shows.
What's the difference between project-, problem-based learning?
There are many different approaches of learning -- everything from case-based learning to zombie-based learning, according to John Larmer, editor-in-chief at the Buck Institute for Education. In this blog post, Larmer explores different teaching strategies and differentiates between two PBLs -- project-based learning and problem-based learning, which he describes as two sides of the same coin to engage and teach students.
Factors Influencing the Effective Use of Technology for Teaching and Learning
Why are some schools effectively using technology for teaching and learning while others are not?
Interactive Word Walls Transforming Content Vocabulary Instruction
Words are the foundation of knowledge. They are the powerful tools used to express ideas, communicate with others, access prior knowledge, and learn new concepts. Multi sensory interactive word walls provide an overview of each lesson, and, upon completion, an overview of each unit.
Student Centered Classroom Future Ready
Strategic plan from Decatur ISD.
Ready, Set, Science
Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument