My school’s Head has encouraged all of us to make use of the question formulation technique and really encouraged our students and ourselves to ask good questions. In our social studies classes our students learn to ask questions about history and society. Our science lessons prompt questions about worms, stars, lactose and our diet. I’ve […]
The Challenge of Exiting International Teaching In 2008, my wife and I were ready for a new experience. We had been living in a vibrant neighborhood in Chicago, and while we weren’t rolling in dough, we both were making enough to enjoy our child-free twenties. However, we also both felt a bit stuck. I’d been […]
Most educators might agree that opportunities to connect with students are the real gold, the real richness of the work. Not just being witness to those amazing light bulb moments, which are also pretty powerful, like my friend and colleague, Dan Kerr, just wrote about, but participating in that moment directly, helping to manufacture the opportunity […]
As Rick Stiggins writes in his 2008 Assessment Manifesto, “to support learning, assessments must move beyond merely informing the instructional decisions of teachers and school leaders to informing decisions made by students, too.” Providing formative feedback, allowing for, creating, and supporting the necessary accommodations and modifications, and including students in the process of defining how their […]
I’ve been hung up on an idea. I’m hoping to see how we support teacher’s professional growth at our school change. I’m driven to see them creating and maintaining a professional eportfolio of their work. I see that eportfolio functioning as evidence of achieving their professional goals for evaluation and supervision, but more importantly as evidence of […]
The funny thing about momentum is that it works in the opposite way, too. Objects at rest, etc. So much has happened since the beginning of this school year, it’s hard to know where to begin. So why not start at the beginning. New Teacher Orientation This year was my first real opportunity to […]
Day 2 of our Collaborative Learning Plan, which, if you didn’t attend the AASSA Looking for Learning pre-conference would be Day 1, but anyway.. (here’s a look at my Day 1, pre-conference reflection) I just couldn’t keep up. I had committed myself to read and respond to all of our team’s reflections and as many […]
Wrapping up the first day of our Collaborative Learning Plan. Here are some quick thoughts. It’s taken quite a bit of my attention to follow the group attending the conference today. Not sure if it is realistic for other teachers at AC to do the same while they are in the middle of their […]
I’m so excited to see how this project goes. Our school is preparing for a group of teachers to head off on a learning expedition. They’re off to Lima to participate in the AASSA Educators Conference 2016, Looking for Learning. I’m staying here. My goal next week is to help be the conduit for which […]
Though it’s been a few weeks since our workshop with Silvia Tolisano, the ideas she shared are still ringing in my ears. While I felt I had an understanding of many of the things she discussed, I realize now how much I didn’t yet understand, and how her framing of a number of ideas clarified a […]