Term 1 Week 3: Teacher Expectations & Student Engagement

 

Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teaching

Jackson, Robyn R. (2009). Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Principle 1: Start where your students are

Principle 2: Know where your students are going 

Principle 3: Expect your students to get there

(Chapter 3 – pp. 77-101)

• It is important to have high expectations for our students. Expectations are different from standards. The standard is the bar and the expectation is our belief about whether students will ever reach the bar. 
• Expectations are based on our beliefs and values. We can only have high expectations of our students if we believe it is possible to help our students and if we believe that it is important to do so. 
• We also need to examine our expectations of ourselves. If we believe that we can reach a student we do everything that we can to ensure that the student is successful. However, if we tell ourselves that there is no way to help a student, we stop trying. If we are not confident in our ability to help students, we lower our expectations to goals that we feel we can comfortably achieve. 
• It can be disheartening when students arrive in our classes without the basic skills that they need to succeed but instead of focusing on what the students can’t do, develop ways that you can teach them the skills they need as well as get through the curriculum.

 Try this idea:                                              

1. Use these three questions (Dufour, Eaker & Dufour, 2005) to develop a plan you can use to be successful with your students. 1. What is it I want students to learn? 2. How will I know when they have learned it? 3. How will I respond when a student experiences difficulty learning?

 Adopt faith in yourself and the importance of your work

• We need to give ourselves time to periodically reflect on our practice and remind ourselves why we went into teaching and what we see as our fundamental role in our students’ lives. We must also be alert for times when our practice contradicts our values (Are we modelling the behaviour that we expect from students? Do we plan lessons that we know won’t challenge our students enough because challenging then more will take more work? …)

Try this idea:                                                  

1. Insist that students complete every assignment. If you really believe that the assignment was worth setting then it is worth completing. The consequence for not completing work or not completing it well should be that students have to spend more time getting it right. Do not offer the students the reprieve of a poor grade. Build time into the school day(during lunch, interval etc.) to work with students who do not complete their work and do not let students get away with sloppy or shoddy work. 

 Confront the Facts of Your Reality 

• Teachers do not and cannot have all the answers. We need to be reflective about our own strengths and limitations as a teacher; talk to our students and try to understand their perspectives; examine student data to look for patterns and trends and be open to more than one interpretation without placing blame on our students or ourselves. 
• There are four important questions to ask:

1. What are my current skills and teaching strategies? 
2. What are the requirements and the constraints on the teaching task at hand?
3. Are my current skills and strategies sufficient for the teaching task at hand?
4. If not, what can I do about it?  

Remember that expectations have more to do with us than with our students.

Professional Readings

Asking for help isn't easy for some students Chicago Tribune

Research from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that students' ability to speak up for themselves and seek help from a teacher often varies by socioeconomic status. Researchers tracked 60 students from 3^rd through 5^th grade beginning in 2008. Jessica McCrory Calarco, lead researcher, visited students' homes, interviewed their parents, and grouped them as middle class (at least one parent had a college degree and a professional career) and working class (most parents graduated high school and worked in service jobs). While observing students in class every week, she discovered that middle-class students already knew how to ask questions and therefore spent less time waiting for help, while many working-class students had to learn those skills from their teachers and peers. Calarco believes this insight has implications beyond one assignment. "We tend to assume that once you put kids in school, what they get there will help them overcome any differences they bring with them. But what this shows is...children have a meaningful impact on the way schooling is happening and what they are able to get out of it," she said.  

Empathy, Personalization, and High Standards

High school social studies teacher Rich McKinney left instructional spoon-feeding behind after he learned how students could use empathy to more deeply connect with and understand the lives of those they read about.

Make Standards Engaging Bryan Goodwin

Bryan Goodwin's article addresses student motivation and what teachers and schools can do to improve it. One study that Goodwin cites shows that extrinsic rewards like money have no positive effect on student motivation and can even diminish their intrinsic motivation, making activities less enjoyable. In another study, for example, researchers rewarded young children for drawing pictures, but then the children became less likely to spend their free time drawing. Another study found that students develop their talents over the long haul when they are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated----combining enjoyment of their studies with "serious goal-directness." Goodwin concludes that to achieve that combination, teachers can create lessons that are balanced between structure and autonomy but still communicate clear expectations for their students. Teachers can also model passion by showing students that their subject (e.g., mathematics, English, art) is worthy of a long-term pursuit.

Helping Children with Learning Disabilities Understand What They Read

Read more for information about how to use visual organizers, hooks such as hand gestures, and mnemonics to help your students with homework.

Term 1 Week 1: The Beginning of the Year - setting up for learning

The Beginning of the Year - setting up for learning

Hi everyone

I hope you all feel refreshed after the holidays and are as excited about 2012 as I am. Over the holidays I read a book that I think all teachers should read called Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teaching by Robyn R. Jackson. The content ties in really well with what we talked about yesterday - encouraging and guiding students to manage their own learning and lives much more effectively.

For the first seven weeks of the year I will summarise one chapter per week and then if you want more information you can refer to the book - which you can borrow from me.

Jackson, Robyn R. (2009). Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Summary

This book encourages and guides teachers in adopting eight mastery principles:

1.       Start where your students are

2.       Know where your students are going

3.       Expect your students to get to their goal

4.       Support students along the way

5.       Use feedback to help both yourself and your students to improve

6.       Focus on quality rather than quantity

7.       Never work harder than your students

The book outlines each principle in more detail and explains how you can better practise the principle with your own classes.

Website for more information: www.masterteachermindset.com

So this week the focus is Start where your students are

Principle 1: Start where your students are

(Chapter 1 – pp. 27-53)

·                Getting to know you activities may be useful but they are not sufficient to really understand who students are.

·                Knowing your students means recognising what currency (behaviours that students use to acquire understanding and skills) they have and value and using this to help them acquire the understanding and skills that lead to high achievement (including both content and procedural understanding).

·                There is often a disconnect between student currencies and our expectations. We should reshape our approach to teaching so that we capitalise on what students bring with them to the classroom. To do this we should first examine our own beliefs about what is acceptable in the classroom, what makes a “good student”, and what constitutes learning.

Try this idea: (pp. 33-34)                       

Choose one class that you teach.

1.       Create a T Chart.

2.       On one side list the behaviours and characteristics of your ideal student. This list will help you to see what currencies you value.

3.       Place a star next to each characteristic that is necessary in order for the student to master the learning objectives of your subject.

4.       On the other side, list the characteristics, behaviours and values of the students in your class.

5.       Compare your lists to see what currencies your students are spending and what currencies you value.

·         What are the similarities?

·         What are the differences?

·         How many of the starred characteristics do your students already have?

·         What can you do to help your students acquire the characteristics that they need that they don’t have already?

·                In his book Beyond the Big Test (2004) Dr William Sedlacek argues that student mastery of eight non-cognitive characteristics and skills are more likely to predict academic success than other measures of intelligence. These characteristics are:

1.       Positive self-concept

2.       Realistic self-appraisal

3.       Successful navigation of the system (e.g. how to access resources and how to use these resources to achieve goals)

4.       Preference for long term goals

5.       Availability of a strong support person

6.       Leadership experience

7.       Community involvement

8.       Knowledge acquired in and about a field of study

These characteristics align with the Values and Key Competencies of The NZC (2007). Values: Excellence; Innovation, inquiry and curiosity; Diversity; Equity; Community and participation; Integrity.

Key Competencies: Thinking, Relating to Others, Using Language, Symbols and Texts, Managing Self, Participating and Contributing.

Try these ideas: (pp. 36-37)

1.       Which of these non-cognitive characteristics do your students already have? Discuss the characteristics with your students and help them to see which they already have and how these characteristics will help them do well in your class. Look for ways to help your students develop the characteristics in which they are not strong while doing the normal work in your classroom.

2.       Enable students to share their own stories not only to learn more about them but also to make the curriculum more relevant. When giving an example in class, ask students if they have had a similar experience. When teaching a new concept, ask students to explain how the concept may be relevant to their community and own lives

3.       Early in the year ask students to identify at least three areas in which they consider themselves to be experts. Compile a list of classroom experts. During the year use student expertise to add to what you are teaching.

4.       Model for students different thinking processes used in completing a complex task. Ask students to come up with alternative ways to complete the same task using their own individual learning style and needs.

·                What can we do about students who have positive characteristics but refuse to use them in our classes? We need to make sure that students believe that what we are teaching them is relevant and worth the effort. We can do this by creating a classroom community of learners (use co-operative learning strategies to do this) and helping students connect what they value to classroom learning (differentiation strategies are useful to use for this).

·                Unfortunately not all students are motivated by the appeal of good grades so we should also aim to reward students in a way that is consistent with what they value.

Term 3 Week 6: Literacy and revision.

What's on this week and next

• 1st - 30th September - Save our Sight Month
• Thursday 8th September - International Literacy Day -this year's focus is literacy for peace.
• 11th -18th September - Conservation Week - "We Love You New Zealand"
• 11th -18th September - NZ Frog Week

Literacy Resources:
This Canadian website (Literacy Gains) has a section which provides subject-specific literacy examples and resources. For example in the Language/English section there is a unit which teaches students about metacognition and how it is useful before, during and after reading. There are resources for:

• The Arts
• Business Studies
• Career Studies and Cooperative Education
• Classical and International Languages
• Computer Studies
• French
• Geography
• Health and Physical Education
• History
• Language / English
• Library
• Mathematics
• Religious and Family Life Education
• Science and Technology / Science
• Technological Education

General Strategies
Teach Like a Champion - Technique Seven: The Four M's. Teaching objectives need to be Manageable, Measureable, Made first and Most important.

As senior exams are coming up here is another handy revision strategy: Text rendering- This strategy enables students to collaboratively construct meaning, clarify, and expand their thinking about a text or document.

Term 3 Week 3: Thinking

What's on:

Friday 19th August - World Humanitarian Day - This year’s campaign "People Helping People" is about inspiring the spirit of aid work in everyone.
The actionaid website explains what "World Humanitarian Day" celebrates

Professional Reading:

This opinion piece by a teacher in Los Angeles suggests that governments must be prepared to put enough funding into ensuring a positive future for young people for teachers to be able to do their job effectively.
Extraordinary isn't enough: Yes, we need to get rid of bad teachers. But we can't demand that teachers be excellent in conditions that preclude excellence.

Thinking and Problem Solving - Readings and Strategies
Understanding How the Brain Thinks - Former neurologist and teacher Judy Willis presents a 5-part series on how young brains develop neurologically; she also offers some research-based classroom strategies to teach critical thinking and other 21st century skills.
Understanding How the Brain Thinks (Part 1 of 5)
The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning (Part 2 of 5)

I will post the rest of the readings as they become available. She seems to be doing one a month.


General Strategy:
Teach Like a Champion — Technique Number Four: Format Matters. High expectations also means only accepting students answers in complete sentence with good grammar.

Term 2 Week 8 - Literacy

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 29th  June - Free teacher preview to AQUA, Ak Museum at 4:30-7 pm.
True to the spirit of Cirque du Soleil's thrilling creations, AQUA is a multisensory adventure for the whole family. AQUA uses massive 360° projections, interactive digital screens, music and visual effects to draw visitors into the experience and tell the story of water. Carry your own water drop and interact with the digital screens - with a wave of a hand, you can create a stormy sea! Experience the magic of AQUA.

Free teacher preview to AQUA at Ak Museum at 4:30-7 pm on Wed Jun 29, Jul 7 or 13. Email ksargent@aucklandmusuem.com  to book your place for a preview.

Professional Readings
What characterises good teaching and good teachers? Here are two articles which explore this concept:

• A characterisation of teaching from Graeme Aitken (University of Auckland)
• New York Times article “Building a better teacher”. This article takes an in-depth look at the question, What makes a good teacher?

Literacy Resource/ Strategy:

There is a great website called “Teaching That Makes Sense” which is the brainchild of educator Steve Peha. He provides amazing resources for reading, writing and thinking for teachers to use across the curriculum. I have used some of the ideas myself and this booklet entitled - Learning Across the Curriculum: Reading, Writing and Thinking Skill Strategies for student success – gives teachers many easy to use strategies to improve reading, writing and thinking in their curriculum area. A copy of the contents page is below.

Term 2 Week 5 - differentiation

Upcoming Events

• Samoan Language Week runs from 1 – 7th June and the Human Rights Commission has details in both Samoan and English, scroll down the page for the English text.
• Matariki is on the 4th June
• World Environment Day and Arbor Day are on 5th June
• World Oceans Day is on 8th June
  

Professional Reading
The Flexible Teacher - Leila Christenbury: Good teaching comes not from following a recipe, but from consistently putting student needs first.

The Overpressured Student - Richard Weissbourd: What school can do to curb destructive forms of academic pressure.


Differentiation Strategies
Objectives That Students Understand - Robert J. Marzano: Even seemingly straightforward classroom strategies like providing students with instructional objectives can be executed more or less effectively.

Giving students choices is a great way to differentiate for student needs and interests. This wiki has choice board templates that you can use or adapt to create resources for the topics that you teach.

Term 2 Week 3: A little bit on understanding, thinking & creativity

Upcoming Events:
22 May - International Day for Biological Diversity - Theme for 2011: Forest Biodiversity

Professional Reading:
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?
The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there.
This blog post is also interesting - What is understanding?

Good teachers may not fit the mold
Research suggests that good teachers possess a few simple, quantifiable attributes.

Thinking/ Creative Strategy:

Using nonlinguistic representation
Is a picture really worth a thousand words? According to brain researcher John Medina (Brain Rules, 2008), when we receive information orally, we only remember about 10 percent of the content three days later. However, when that information is paired with a picture, we're likely to remember 65 percent of the content.

In Classroom Instruction that Works, McREL applied this research and found that when used correctly, nonlinguistic representations (e.g., graphic organizers, mindmaps, mental pictures, and manipulatives) can have a powerful, positive effect on student learning. So the next time you introduce a new concept in your classroom, remember to pair it with a "picture" to improve retention. This is where tools such as Hyerle Thinking Maps, picture dictations etc. come in to play.

Thinking on the Spot (from the Auckland SCT wiki)- use this powerpoint to encourage students to think quickly. Adapt it to suit your curriculum area and it could be used as a quick, fun plenary, especially for afternoon classes.

Term 1 Week 11 - e-learning & lots of readings

Upcoming Events:

14 Apr - Pink Shirt Day (bullying)

18 April - Earth day

2-8 May Global Action Week 2011: Yes She Can! Global Action Week (GAW) will take place from 2-8 May 2011, under the theme of "Women and Girls' Education". With the slogan, "It's a Right, Make it Right: Education for Girls and Women Now!" and sub-slogan "Yes She Can", the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), as main organizer, has announced that GAW 2011's main activity will revolve around "story telling", also referred to as "The Big Story". The main activity aims to link the local group and school work with the national and global events. With only 5 years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve all Education for All goals, the GCE reminds the international community once again, their task of being the 'voice for the voiceless' by increasing the frequency of their demands from governments to live up to their commitments in education. The international community is encouraged to involve policy makers and politicians to address problems that hinder girls' access to school and to provide women, regardless of age, the basic skills training needed.

For more information, download:

• Global Action Week Planning Pack


• Global Action Week Resource Pack

Professional Reading:

This week I have tried to come up with a few readings/ viewings that may interest you over the holidays. Some are to do with this week’s theme – e-learning – others are of general interest.

Articles from Educational Leadership Magazine: Teaching Screenagers (February 2011):

• Teaching the iGeneration - Larry D. Rosen - How to use students' immersion in technology to enrich their learning.


• Publishers, Participants All - Will Richardson - Building an online presence is a literacy for our times.


• Too Dumb for Complex Texts? - Mark Bauerlein - How online reading discourages students from grappling with difficult content.


• How I Became a Convert to Online Learning - Nick Kremer - The benefits of online learning, from a former skeptic.


• Research Says… / One-to-One Laptop Programs Are No Silver Bullet - Bryan Goodwin - One-to-one initiatives engender enthusiasm but have mixed results.


• The Art & Science of Teaching / Making the Most of Instructional Rounds - Robert J. Marzano - Observing fellow teachers' instruction increases energy for change.


• Digitally Speaking / Good Teaching Trumps Good Tools - William M. Ferriter - The key is choosing tools that align with the skills you're trying to teach.


• Principal Connection / Taming the To-Do List - Joanne Rooney - Are there solutions for pervasive busyness?

I have a subscription to Educational Leadership magazine so if any of the following articles sound like something you would like to read, let me know and I will make a copy for you.

• Using Websites Wisely - Julie Coiro and Jay Fogleman - A look at instructional websites you will want to use with your students.


• Adventures with Cell Phones - Liz Kolb - Why it's time to stop banning cell phones and start integrating them into learning.


• What Screenagers Say About … - Pete Davidson, Alison Enzinna, Casey Gannon, Samoris Hall, Corinne Hayward, Ogechi Irondi, Ashley Magnifico, Terence Perry and Michael Virag - … multitasking, PowerPoint, the downside of technology, and more.


• High-Tech Cruelty - Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin - What can prevent bullying inside and outside of school?


• Let's Hear It For … - Matt Federoff, Troy Hicks, Anthony Mangiacapre, Erin Reilly, Ryan Imbriale, Eric Sheninger, Dan Meyer and Eric Langhorst - … all the devices technology leaders wish they had had when they were students.


• A Technology Plan That Works - Amy Overbay, Melinda Mollette and Ellen S. Vasu - Technology plans must be about people, not technology.


• Making the Most of Your Class Website - Lemoyne S. Dunn - How to extend learning with your own class website.


• The Need for Computer Science - Jane Margolis, Joanna Goode and David Bernier - High school computer science classes can propel students into promising careers.


• How PowerPoint Is Killing Education - Marc Isseks - Can we dodge those bullets—and use PowerPoint more effectively?

Articles from Educational Leadership Magazine: What students need to learn (March 2011):

• The Humanities: Why Such a Hard Sell? - David J. Ferrero - The economic aims of education should not obscure the personal and civic purposes of schooling.


• A Diploma Worth Having - Grant Wiggins - Why we should abolish lock-step requirements and establish a forward-looking, client-centered curriculum.


• Knowing Your Learning Target - Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long - No matter what we want students to learn, not much will happen until they know what to aim for.


• Research Says… / High-Stakes Testing Narrows the Curriculum - Jane L. David - The content of tests becomes the learning goal for students.


• Art and Science of Teaching / Relating to Students: It's What You Do That Counts - Robert J. Marzano - Teachers' actions—not their feelings—influence students' perception that their teachers care.


• Digitally Speaking / Becoming Digitally Resilient - William M. Ferriter - Tools that disappear, blocked websites, failing services—getting used to unpredictability is part of the job.


• Among Colleagues / How Can We Promote Teacher Collaboration? - Question by Andre Potvin. Responses in print and online by Amy Lockhart, Patsy Pouiller, Kimberly Kappler Hewitt, Doreen Knuth, and Misty M. LaCour


• Teaching Science Literacy - Maria Grant and Diane Lapp - How to foster a complex understanding of compelling everyday science.


• Staying Civil - Wayne Journell - Political tolerance can be taught—but only if supported through practice.


• More Than Meets the Eye - Bonnie B. Rushlow - A good visual arts program is the hub of a top-notch school.

Articles that I can copy for you if you let me know:

• What Students Really Need to Learn - Lynne Munson - Concentrating on content is common practice in most high-achieving countries.


• Building on the Common Core - David T. Conley - The Common Core State Standards offer an opportunity to shift away from shallow test prep to a focus on complex cognitive skills.


• Ethics: From Thought to Action - Robert J. Sternberg - Ethical action is a 21st century skill deserving of a place in schools.


• What At-Risk Readers Need - Richard L. Allington - We know that high-quality instruction is the key: Why aren't we opening the door?


• Worthy Texts: Who Decides? - Barry Gilmore - Standards have a blind spot if they deemphasize students' role in choosing what they want to read.


• Let Strategies Serve Literature - Diana Senechal - When literature is subordinated to strategies, students lose the meaning of the reading experience.


• Making STEM Real - Gary Hoachlander and Dave Yanofsky - Promising programs break down the isolation of science and math by connecting core academics with challenging professional and technical fields.


• In Defense of Mathematical Foundations - W. Stephen Wilson - To succeed at college-level math, facility with basic arithmetic algorithms is essential.


• Lessons That Connect - Young Imm Kang Song - Korean youngsters combine arts education, character education, environmental education, geography, and more.

Frank Baker: Media Literacy Webinar Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills All Students Need Recorded February 9, 2011 Most of our students are media-savvy, but most are not media literate. Students today tend to believe everything they see, read, and hear, especially if it originates on a screen. Media literacy, among other things, involves using media and popular culture to engage students in critical thinking and viewing, while at the same time meeting teaching standards.

About the Presenter: Frank Baker is an education consultant who shares his expertise on media literacy with educators around the world. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Education Week. He is a contributing author to the ASCD book Curriculum 21: Essential Education for A Changing World (2010), and he served on the National Council of Teachers of English Commission on Media from 2005–08.

What the U.S. can learn from the world's most successful education reform efforts

(A report from McGraw-Hill Research Foundation.) The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation released a report comparing the Program of International Assessment (PISA) test results of 74 education systems around the world and found five things the U.S. could learn from high-performing countries. The top-scoring countries included Finland and Singapore in science, Korea and Finland in reading, and Singapore and Korea in mathematics. On average, American students placed 15th in reading, 19th in science, and 27th in mathematics. The report says the U.S. would do well to consider the following: adopting common academic standards (an effort currently underway), developing better tests for teachers to diagnose students day-to-day learning needs; and training school leaders more effectively. The top recommendation was, "Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession." Andreas Schleicher, one of the report authors, says that top-scoring countries recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring, and take steps to raise respect for the profession. "Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation," Schleicher says. "Teaching education programs in the United States must become more selective and more rigorous."

How does a school system with poor performance become good? And how does one with good performance become excellent? From McKinsey and Company (USA).

Our latest education report is the follow-up to the 2007 publication "How the world's best performing school systems come out on top," in which we examined the common attributes of high-performing school systems.

We compiled what we believe is the most comprehensive analysis of global school system reform ever assembled. This report identifies the reform elements that are replicable for school systems everywhere as well as what it really takes to achieve significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes.

In this new report, "How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better," we analyzed 20 systems from around the world, all with improving but differing levels of performance, examining how each has achieved significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes, as measured by international and national assessments. Based on more than 200 interviews with system stakeholders and analysis of some 600 interventions carried out by these systems, this report identifies the reform elements that are replicable for school systems elsewhere as they move from poor to fair to good to great to excellent performance.

The systems we studied were Armenia, Aspire (a U.S. charter school system), Boston (Massachusetts), Chile, England, Ghana, Hong Kong, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Long Beach (California), Madhya Pradesh (India), Minas Gerais (Brazil), Ontario (Canada), Poland, Saxony (Germany), Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, and Western Cape (South Africa).

Webinar: How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better Held Monday, November 29, 2010 This webinar summarises the research which led to the report.

e-learning strategies/ tools:

• Choose 1 out! – A new developing thinking tool. From the developer: It is an interactive PowerPoint activity similar to the famous Odd One Out, but much richer in its developing thinking potential, I believe. The idea is that the children can choose three images out of 16, so they have a choice and it is not the teacher who has chosen for three images for them! Also, before they choose their three images there are four possible pop-up questions that help them choose according to some criteria (e.g. Choose three images that make you feel safe!…) at the bottom right corner there is an ActiveX Control text box that allows the learners to write the image they think is the odd one out of the three they chose and to explain why they chose it! I believe this resource is quite useful to develop thinking in learners from any Key Stage and in any subject, but have a go yourself. You can download the Physics example I created and the template to make your own activities.


• Digi Advisors Offer Online Snacks - Online Snacks are a new initiative designed to provide teachers with the opportunity to develop e-learning skills aligned to their teaching and learning needs. All sessions are FREE and are facilitated by Digi Advisors - Rochelle Jensen and Suzie Vesper Each online snack takes approximately 40 minutes and are run using Elluminate, Adobe Connect or Skype. Snack dates and times are negotiated on request. Some snack ideas have been formulated but these can be personalised to meet your needs. Online Snacks are designed to complement existing professional learning programmes. Read more and register here: http://digistore.wikispaces.com/Online+Snacks or contact Rocky or Suzie for more details rjensen@waikato.ac.nz suzie.vesper@core-ed.ac.nz

General Resources

• Animals is a very handy template for creating word Sudoku activities - teacher just follows the instructions given to customise the resource for his/her own set of vocabulary. Sent by Carol Young - Facilitator in Quality Teaching


• http://secondary.tki.org.nz/ is the new Secondary Portal containing latest news items, secondary essentials, key resources, transitions and pathways, and a media gallery of videos with a secondary focus.

Term 1 Week 9 - differentiation, critical friends & some resources for research

Professional Reading "Critical Friends" by Deborah Bambino Although this article is from 2002, it explores ideas which are still relevant to teachers, especially the professional support we can get from each other. This article explores the notion that by providing structures for effective feedback and strong support, Critical Friends Groups help teachers improve instruction and student learning.

Differentiation Strategy

"Establishing classroom routines that suppport the differentiated classroom" by Jennifer G. Beasley This presentation covers:

• What do students need?


• How can teachers and students work together to meet those needs?

including, tips and ideas on how to create classrooms that support flexible teaching and learning. I especially like the idea of using coloured cups for managing groups.

General Resources - focus research skills/ information literacy skills Many of us are focusing on the explicit teaching of information skills and using the i-lit model with our students. These resources will help with this process.

• i-lit wiki - this wiki was set up as a place to store online and hardcopy resources for each of the stages in the i-lit model: reflecting, defining, retrieving, processing, creating and communicating.


• online research tutorial - When students hear the word 'research' they might think of work that is done in a lab or out in the field. Research also includes the process of gathering, analyzing and communicating information.


• online websearching tutorial - An online tutorial which helps students to be more successful with their internet searches.


• online plagiarism tutorial - what plagiarism is and how to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone's work.


• online tutorial on finding credible sources - shows students how to evaluate information with a critical eye; use criteria to determine credible web sources; spot other reliable sources they can use.

Term 4 Week 9 - last PD Bite of the year ...

Something to share with your students:

Friday 10th December is Human Rights Day. The theme is human rights defenders who act to end discrimination. Human rights defenders acting against discrimination, often in the face of great personal risk to both themselves and their families, are being recognized and acclaimed on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2010.
Human rights defenders speak out against abuse and violations including discrimination, exclusion, oppression and violence. They advocate justice and seek to protect the victims of human rights violations. They demand accountability of perpetrators and transparency in government action. In so doing, they are often putting at risk their own safety, and that of their families. Check out the United Nations website for more information. These information notes have further detail.

For you mountain lovers out there Saturday 11th December is International Mountain Day. International Mountain Day is an opportunity to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build partnerships that will bring positive change to the world’s mountains and highlands. For more information check out the website.

Professional Reading
A blog post from Bruce Hammonds' blog "Leading and Learning". The post is titled "Who am I?" and provides lots of reflective material for us about whether or not the classroom experiences that we provide for our students contribute to their development of a positive sense of self. Holiday reading perhaps? I am going to keep this idea of ensuring that students develop a positive sense of themselves as learners in mind as I begin planning for the classes that I will teach in 2011.

Term 4 Week 4 - eday & online learning

eDay 2010 is tomorrow (Sat 6 Nov). For the uninitiated, this provides an easy and environmentally sound way for households and schools to dispose of old computers and mobile phones. Close to 40 drop-off locations have already been confirmed and as many as 50 sites are expected to participate! Check out www.eday.org.nz for information about eday and venues in your area.

K12 online conference - "Cultivating the future"
Although the conference is finished you can still access the keynotes and other presentations.
K12 Online is for educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This year’s conference began with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 11, 2010. The following two weeks, October 18 and October 25, forty presentations were posted online for us to view, download, and discuss.

Check out the link here to see the schedule for links to presentations:
http://wiki.k12onlineconference.org/home/for-participants/2010-schedule

Of particular note, is the presentation by NZ’s own Allanah King which looks at ‘A Week in the Classroom 2010’. Check out the presentation here: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=606

Other interesting topics include: ‘Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know’ and ‘The Classroom Social Network’ – lots to check out!


Professional Readings

• How significant a role does critical thinking play in your school?
• NZCER 2010 Primary & Intermediate Schools National Survey: A snapshot of overall patterns and findings related to National Standards

Term 4 Week 3 - how to keep up to date with e-learning tools & building on excellence in our school system

The post today shares some websites which help us keep up to date with new online tools for teaching and learning and also provides a link to a document about how to make our school system even better.

These two sites are ones which I know staff are already using but have absolutely up-to-date information about new web tools and how to use them:
edutecher
This site's most recent links include:
Docs Teach - an amazing Web Tool that aims to make History come to Life. Each of the several activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Teachers simply find and insert primary sources into a customizable and very slick template in order to customize the activity to fit their unique students.
YouTube Instant is a super quick way to search through videos on YouTube. Using the Google Instant idea and turning your search terms into instant playlists, this is a very easy way (and cleaner than YouTube) to find and create playlists to share with colleagues or students. Teachers can choose tags that are student-safe and get a slick looking playlist with a nice interface that is easy to share or embed.

free tech for teachers
This blog's most recent post introduces - Twiducate - Social Networking for Schools
Twiducate is a free platform for creating your own micro social network in a Twitter-like format. Twiducate allows you to create a private network for posting assignments and messages to your students or other people you invite into your network. As the creator of your network you create and administer the accounts of the students in your network. Students in your network can reply to your messages and to the messages of other students.

The following websites aim to quickly teach teachers how to use these online tools:
Learn it in 5 is a library of how-to videos, produced by technology teachers, for the purpose of helping teachers and students create classroom strategies for today's 21st century's digital classroom. These step-by-step how-to videos walk teachers through Web 2.0 technology, demonstrating how to use Web 2.0 applications like blogs, social networks, podcasts, interactive videos, wikis, slidesharing and much more.
How 2 do it - A wiki which has a similar focus.

Professional Reading
This paper "Building on excellence: How to make a great schooling system even better" was presented at the PPTA annual conference 2010.

Introduction: A favoured theme of successive governments has been the need to improve the achievement of New Zealand students, especially those in the lowest 20 per cent of achievement. Attention is often drawn to an apparent wide disparity between the highest and the lowest achievers in New Zealand, and it is common for politicians to blame schools and teachers for that disparity. It is rare to hear politicians affirm New Zealand teachers for the excellent achievement of the majority of our students.

This paper challenges the validity of government claims about low achievement and inequity, and suggests that the government goal that all students be able to experience success at Level 2 NCEA, while a laudable aspiration, is not achievable in a low-trust environment where teachers and schools are facing cuts across a whole range of support services, in tandem with a burgeoning workload.

The paper then tackles the vital question of what is needed, and what is not needed, if secondary schools are to make significant improvements to levels of student achievement in New Zealand.

Term 3 Week 8 - bits and pieces

Professional Reading: Hard to reach students
"The long Game"- An article by Paul Dix about a sustained approach to improve the behaviour of students who are difficult to engage in learning. This article discusses the organisation of teaching spaces to create positive behaviour patterns in the classroom.

Professional Reading: using visual tools to focus dialogue
"I Hear What you Say" gives striking insight into the way conversations - particularly those we term "difficult conversations" are actually two monologues happening at the same time. The article gives ideas on how to make the most of conversations with students and colleagues.
It comes from a site called http://www.modellearning.com/ which has a number of resources based on visual graphic tools.

Professional Reading: blog posts about National Standards, John Hattie and Anne Tolley
These blogs are worth a read as a critique of what is going on in education at the moment and serve as a contrast to what is in the mainstream media.
Leading and learning
Networkonnet

e-learning ideas: the PODs are coming
A slideshow about the use of PODs (personally owned devices) as learning tools.

The POD's are Coming

View more presentations from David Truss.

e-learning ideas: tagxedo (thanks to PC for this idea)
Did you like wordle? If so, you'll love tagxedo (tag cloud with styles).
Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. A video of how to use tagxedo:

Term 3 Week 5 - "Ease the Load"

This week's PD Bite is a site with videos aimed at helping teachers manage their work load. There are real-life examples (from the UK) of how to manage your workload efficiently and productively, while improving your work/life balance. There are 27 videos so hopefully everyone will find one that suits their needs. The web page is TeachersTV: Ease the load.

The research I am doing for my university paper highlights that changes in education and other work pressures which overwhelm teachers are an issue in The USA and Great Britain, as well as Australia and New Zealand. So we are not alone...

Term 2 Week 10 - A Vision for the Teaching Profession

I forgot to add a link to my last post. Read Anne Tolley's press release about the Workforce Advisory Group's report on teacher education. At the bottom of the page is a link to the report and discussion document... Both make interesting reading.

PD Bite - Term 1 Week 2

Professional Reading

What makes a good teacher?
For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.
by Amanda Ripley