What Does a Grade Mean? Hacking Assessment Shifts the Conversation
By Starr Sackstein
When it comes time to set goals with students, inevitably, there are several whose highest aspiration is to achieve an A in all of their classes because this is what the system and their parents have impressed upon them for years.
They don’t have a plan except to do all...
What Gen X Leaders Need to Know About Gen Y Teachers
By Lisa Parry, M.Ed.
As a Gen Xer leader—born in 1972 and serving as an educator since 1994—I remember my family’s first desktop computer and bag phone. Each were expensive, complicated, daunting behemoths.
My parents introduced these alien devices to my brother and me...
HALT! Four Ways to Curb Unexpected Student Behaviors
By Lisa Parry, M.Ed.
As educators, we would certainly rather invest a chip in staving off unexpected behaviors than a chunk to clean up the aftermath of an unfortunate episode. (Note: “Unexpected behavior” is a behavior deemed unusual in a particular context. For example, hollering...
Make a Difference for Non-Readers—Without Adding to Your Work Load!
Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.r
Those Kids (You Know the Ones I Mean)
If you teach high school, you have students who either try to disappear into the back or who think they are The Fonz reincarnated. Almost certainly, the dark secret they desperately try to hide is that they can't read.
They...
Engaging Students With Inexpensive Supplies
By Casey Ewy
So many times, as an educator, I get caught up in the "big wow" of a lesson. I plan for days to develop an amazing hook, a captivating activity, and an engaging way to assess progress. I find myself overwhelmed, burned out, and exhausted by the day-to-day wow-ness of it all.
Don't...
Dear Educators, How Deeply Are We Listening?
By Sarah Strong
The Difficulties We Face
The challenges at our school echo throughout my Twitter feed and through my many conversations with educator friends who are expressing a new depth of hurt and challenge this year about our student communities.
It's gotten me thinking about how we listen...
Radical Professional Development for Cultural Change
By Darcy Bakkegard
No doubt you’ve seen the headlines: record highs of the number of teachers leaving the profession, record lows in job satisfaction, and sky-high stress. As COVID fades (fingers crossed), the effects on teaching and learning keep stacking up.
Administrators at all levels...
From a Deficit Model to a Human-Centered Approach
By Dr. Byron McClure
Despite our roles in the field of education, we have all been misled, leading us to focus on the wrong things for way too long. It's not our fault. We shouldn't blame any one person, group, or philosophy.
The truth is that if you are a teacher, school administrator,...
Facilitate An Effective Co-Teaching Relationship
By Erica Terry
Blindsided.
That’s exactly how I felt when I received my schedule two days before school started. After a glance, I quickly realized that as the new educator on the block, my administrator had assigned me to co-teach four periods of ninth-grade Biology—with three...
The Secret to Creating Good Student Learning Habits
By Elizabeth Jorgensen
Can I tell you a secret? I hate grades.
I don’t like judging my students or ranking them. I don’t like placing value on them or on their work. And I’ve found that if I place judgment on progress, students stop trying.
While my colleagues...
