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Test prep site

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What's the Story? The Vermont Young People Social Action Team

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Hussein Amuri, Winooski High School Blog Lucy Andrus, Stowe Middle School Blog Melaina Bassette, Mount St. Joseph Academy Blog Ella Beerworth, Charlotte Central School Blog K...

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Collaborative Learning Groups (CLG) will provide focused opportunities for practitioners to collaborate. These groups will address key components of Proficiency-Based Learning, including instructional practices, flexible pathways, and local comprehensive assessment systems.  CLG will be created for principals, curriculum directors and instructional coaches. Topics of CLG discussion will be designed around the unique needs of each group.  CLG groups will meet in-person three times from January-June 2017, and online between meetings. The CLG will serve as a professional learning community to support the individual and collective efforts of schools and districts to implement PBL with fidelity.

While two CLGs have been established in the Burlington area and in the southwest area of the state, we are looking to establish up to four additional groups. Once those groups have been established in the new year, we will post meeting dates and registration information here. If your school or district wants to participate in any of these groups, please contact Carisa Corrow and Michael Brownstein.

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Collaborative Learning Groups (CLG) will provide focused opportunities for practitioners to collaborate. These groups will address key components of Proficiency-Based Learning, including instructional practices, flexible pathways, and local comprehensive assessment systems.  CLG will be created for principals, curriculum directors and instructional coaches. Topics of CLG discussion will be designed around the unique needs of each group.

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Behavior solutions

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Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS): A Review of Research Findings in Families, Schools, and Treatment Facilities

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Where Would You Like To Choose Love Today? - Choose Love Movement

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Teaching people everywhere to choose love. The Choose Love Movement is teaching children and adults around the world how to change an angry thought to a loving one, and live a life filled with "Courage + Gratitude + Forgiveness + Compassion-in-Action." 1 MILLION PEOPLE 1 Countries 1 Schools 1 MILLION PEOPLE 1 Countries 1 Schools ...

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Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement

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Become an innovative leader with new R&D strategies for improving classrooms, schools and educational systems.

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Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

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Editor's note: The Carnegie Foundation is partnering with the University of Michigan School of Education on a series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, designed to help teachers, teacher leaders, and school officials improve learning outcomes for all students. Over the next few months, we'll be posting blogs that highlight key lessons, and we'll hear what teachers and administrators say they're learning from the courses. A version of this blog post, written by Donald J. Peurach, Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation in the School of Education University of Michigan and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, appeared in Education Week on January 23, 2017.

Educational leaders in the U.S. and around the world are being pressed to transform their organizations to support ambitious instruction in classrooms.

The hallmark of ambitious instruction is teaching and learning that moves beyond the straightforward communication of facts and skills to instruction that has teachers and students making meaning of rich academic content, co-engaging in authentic practical and intellectual puzzles, and creating new knowledge and capabilities in themselves and others.

In the U.S. and abroad, this type of ambitious instruction sits at the very center of policy-driven educational improvement efforts, with schools and systems pressed to engage students in deeper learning and the development of 21st century skills.

Many efforts to lead this type of change do not focus on the core work of teaching and learning, but instead, on restructuring the school-level and system-level resources and incentives that surround teaching and learning. For example, leaders often focus on such matters as establishing performance standards and accountability systems, cultivating norms of responsibility and improvement, creating or acquiring curriculum frameworks and resources, and/or establishing assessment and data systems.

A problem, however, is that this "educational surround" is often constructed absent deep knowledge of precisely what is being asked anew of teachers and students in classrooms. As a consequence, these efforts are often weakly coordinated with the work of teachers and students, and have little effect on their day-to-day interactions.

Our aim is to develop leaders' capabilities to collaborate in thinking, reasoning, and strategizing about the meaning and pursuit of ambitious instruction in classrooms.

An alternative approach - one responsive to the push for deeper learning and 21 st century skills - would begin with a careful examination of the work of ambitious instruction. With that as its beginning point and nucleus, the approach would move outward: to a careful examination of systems thinking as an approach to building coordinated, school-level and system-level supports for ambitious instruction; and, from there, to a careful examination of the diverse, distributed leadership teams needed to develop and leverage those supports.

I have been collaborating with colleagues in the University of Michigan's School of Education and Ross School of Business to develop a massive open online course that moves aspiring and practicing educational leaders through precisely this progression. In this course, Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning, our aim is to develop leaders' capabilities to collaborate in thinking, reasoning, and strategizing about the meaning and pursuit of ambitious instruction in classrooms.

Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning launched this week with more than 6,000 students from around the world, including the United States, India, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. It is the gateway to a new, five-course MicroMasters in Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement developed in collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The MicroMasters will take learners even further, into:

Research and case studies on innovative, large scale learning systems.

Principles and practices of improvement science as advanced by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Formal methods for applying improvement science to different categories of educational problems.

Through this structure, the MicroMasters will support a diverse array of learners seeking the knowledge and capabilities needed to respond to new needs, opportunities, and pressures to advance more ambitious instruction in classrooms, at a large scale.

More importantly, the MicroMasters will welcome this diverse array of learners into a new community of educational leaders committed to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students in the US and around the world.

Registration in ongoing for Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning and the entire five-course MicroMasters in Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement. The courses are free, but charge a fee for students seeking to earn a MicroMasters credential.

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Online Course Builds a Base of Leaders in Support of Ambitious Instruction | Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

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Editor's note: The Carnegie Foundation is partnering with the University of Michigan School of Education on a series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, designed to help teachers, teacher leaders, and school officials improve learning outcomes for all students.

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From Rick for Teacher Eval. templates

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Ribas, who is a consultant and has served as a school principal, outlines a system for attending to the educational, legal, public relations, and social-emotional (ELSP) dimensions of evaluating and supervising the entire teaching staff of a school district. He identifies the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective supervisor, examines the r.

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From Rick-Induction Programs. Rate our school

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I get to experiment with some effective leadership strategies now as I am early in my administrative career and currently second in command. The implementation of other effective leadership strategies will have to wait until I have my own building. Although we wear many "hats" as administrators the following, the as I have named them, are those which I feel encompass all the aspects of effective principal leaders:

Commitment-modeling the desire to never stop learning is what enables us to be catalysts of change. In addition, building trusting relationships and showing that being a leader is to demonstrate action rather than to maintain a title such as principal. Relationships provide the vehicle that will lead your staff to fulfill your mission, vision, and school goals.

Communication-we've all heard it's important to communicate early and often, which is unquestionably true, but we also need to be exceptional listeners by being available and upholding ethical integrity and trustworthiness. Being open, promoting self-reflection, providing specific feedback, and celebrating with your staff are equally important aspects of effective leadership communication.

Collaboration-creating and being an ACTIVE member of the community of professional learning and collaboration is crucial. Involving staff in decision-making processes will only strengthen the relationships you have developed. In addition, this will help empower staff which leads to higher morale.

. See my next blog post, Meaningful Walkthrough Observations, for more on coaching.Coaching is an integral part of instructional leadership and building teacher growth capacity. In order to be effective in this area, principals must be visible in classrooms daily. For using walkthrough observations as a coaching tool, I recommend reading and implementing practices found in Carolyn Downing's book The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through

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Core Four: Effective Leadership - The Principal Leader

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Effective leadership: Although we wear many "hats" as administrators the following, the Core Four as I have named them, are those which I feel encompass all the aspects of effective principal leaders. The core four are as follows: commitment, communication, collaboration, coaching.

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Steps of Walkthrough Observations

Meaningful walkthrough observations are the difference between a checklist of compliance (audit) and the opportunity for a coaching partnership. In my last post, the Core Four: Effective Leadership, coaching was defined in the fourth C. I referred to Carolyn Downey's book, The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through . I want to spend just a few minutes specifically discussing chapter two, Conducting the Walk-Through Observation and chapter three, Moving Staff to Reflective Inquiry .

In chapter two, Downey talks about five steps of the walkthrough observation process. Downey recommends memorizing the five steps and not documenting anything (unless simply using a 3 x 5 index card). However, I personally prefer to use the form I have created for the time-being; at least until I get the hang of it a bit more. I do, however, do my best to document several specifics after leaving the classroom (in the hallway) rather than doing so while still in the classroom.

I use this collection of meaningful walkthrough observation forms as "informal" observations since walkthroughs are not required in the state of Indiana. The school district I work for has an expectation that at least one walkthrough per semester is conducted. With that being said, I strongly recommend conducting regular three-minute walk-throughs for instructional coaching purposes. You are more than welcome to use my walkthrough form by downloading it here. I have prepared the template so that you are able to type or handwrite your observations. Also included is an overview of Downey's five steps of the classroom observation walkthrough process.

Importance of Reflective Inquiry

Downey also uses a variety of inquiry strategies, in chapter three, such as reflective questioning. She more or less refers to reflective questioning as the avenue for effective dialogue (reflective conversations-page 75) between a principal and teacher. After reading her book while completing my master's degree, I landed my first administrative position and was determined to incorporate this important practice.

Currently, as an assistant principal, I have developed the habit of including a reflective question at the end of every formal walkthrough or observation I complete via the district online platform. Below is a FREE reflective questioning "cheat sheet" I have put together that has helped me develop questions using Downey's structure. The keys to remember are reflective questions should include all five elements and questions do not always turn into reflective conversations so do not force it upon a teacher. Click here to download your copy of the "cheat sheet" now.

Purposes of Walkthrough Observations

When I am not conducting a formal walk-through, I use the form I shared with you in the above link. After I complete these forms I insert them in the appropriate teacher's (informal) file folder in my office. Completing these forms and reviewing them (with and/or without teachers) has the potential to offer several coaching opportunities. Although coaching is my primary purpose for saving forms for every teacher, they have also helped in determining where areas of strength lie throughout the building. In addition, they can be a powerful resource in showing patterns of (documented) weaknesses and/or areas of concern. Lastly, professional development needs are almost always revealed when frequent and informal observations are conducted. Instead of randomly selecting staff professional development opportunities, using the above methods will provide an intentional way to pinpoint specific areas of focus.

Implementing two of Downey's practices, three-minute walkthroughs, and reflective questioning will assist in paving the way to the Core Four: Effective Leadership. Most importantly, effective leadership coupled with teachers implementing self-reflective practice has proven to have had a major impact on student achievement!

What are you waiting for? Click below to buy the book. If you have already read Carolyn Downey's first book, click the second link to purchase Advancing the Three-Minute Walk-Through: Mastering Reflective Practice. ( LINKS BELOW TEMPORARILY BROKEN)
The Three Minute Classroom Walk-Through Advancing the Three Minute Walk-Through

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Meaningful Walkthrough Observations - The Principal Leader

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Meaningful walkthrough observations are the difference between a checklist of compliance (audit) and the opportunity for a coaching partnership. In my last post, the Core Four: Effective Leadership, coaching was defined in the fourth C. I referred to Carolyn Downey's book, The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through .