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Questions like these can set the stage for productive project remodeling. You might want to tackle a remodel on your own this summer or, better yet, team up with colleagues. With deliberate adjustments in your project plan, you can iterate on your design and guide students toward even better outcomes next time around.

Newcomers to PBL aren't the only ones who invest in project remodeling. Veteran PBL teachers often challenge themselves and their students to take bigger risks, think more critically, and learn more deeply in their next projects. Here are two resources to inspire you as you tackle project remodeling this summer.

Artful Teaching

Raleigh Werberger is no newcomer to PBL. Currently dean of students at Darrow School in New York, he designed successful interdisciplinary projects as a high school teacher in Hawaii. (Read his blog post, "Using Entrepreneurship to Transform Student Work," about a previous project.)

That doesn't mean he has all the answers about how to create experiences that put students in the driver's seat of their own learning. His PBL reflections caused him to ask tough questions: What's the right line between teacher direction and student freedom? Is it OK for students to swerve toward new questions -- unanticipated by the teacher -- that grab their curiosity? How open is too open?

In true PBL style, Werberger designed a project to help him discover the answers with his students. He and his ninth-grade students at Darrow School spent an entire school year on an interdisciplinary project about fast food. They didn't just study fast food as a way to understand global economics, agricultural practices, marketing, or health. They recreated their own version of the McDonald's Happy Meal by hand-raising livestock, growing crops, making paper for packaging, and serving lunch to a community gathering while curating the whole learning experience with an artist's sensibility.

Werberger has documented the project in a provocative book, From Project-Based Learning to Artistic Thinking: Lessons Learned from Creating an Un-Happy Meal.

To be honest, few teachers -- or schools -- are going to be in a position to tackle such an ambitious, immersive, open-ended project. But the questions Werberger explores, and the documentation he shares -- from his own journal and his students' blogs -- are worth careful consideration by anyone interested in maximizing the opportunities of PBL and its close cousin, design thinking.

Teachers wondering how to facilitate student-driven learning will find a good role model. For example, Werberger writes, "I cast myself as a learner first, and we all worked together on the problem of how not just to make this food, but how to give it meaning, and then how to tell you about it."

A key design decision was to have students approach the project as artists. Werberger didn't want to treat art as an add-on to the project, but rather to have students "consider art as a form of thinking. Artists ask, 'How does this affect me? How can I explain what I see to others?' The work that is created is an attempt to explore these questions, not to answer them."

Although the Un-Happy Meal Project takes open-ended learning to an extreme, students are not just set adrift. From project launch to their final exhibition, we can see the teacher artfully guiding and scaffolding the learning experience. Werberger describes in detail how he built a classroom culture of peer critique. He shares the prompts he used to get students to assess their own growth. Even when students are working on disparate tasks, they move to familiar rhythms because of established classroom routines. As he explains:

This formula -- the introduction of a thinking routine to stimulate observations and questions at the beginning of each new topic, the formulation of an inquiry-based investigation from those observations and questions, and the subsequent rounds of writing, critique, and rewriting -- essentially became the working formula for the rest of the school year.

Teachers diving into project remodeling would be wise to consider Werberger's questions for thinking about final products: Will students love what they have created? Where will this go when it's done? Will it make the world a better or more beautiful place?

Most Likely to Inspire

Since its release last year, the documentary Most Likely to Succeed has been provoking conversations across the country about project-based learning and the Deeper Learning movement. The film looks broadly at the problems facing American education, then offers High Tech High in San Diego, California, and its wall-to-wall use of PBL for instruction as a promising solution.

Writer-director Greg Whiteley doesn't sugarcoat the PBL experience. We hear from doubting parents and watch a student struggling to be a productive team member. We also get to see experienced PBL teachers in action, nudging their students out of passivity and into real-world problem solving. Many communities are combining movie nights with facilitated discussions to engage the public in thinking about education change.

As a resource to help with your own project remodeling, think about the teaching and learning strategies you notice in the film, such as Socratic seminars, authentic deadlines, and an emphasis on public exhibitions. Do you see ideas you might want to borrow to improve your next project?

Finally, if you want to know more about the Deeper Learning Network (of which High Tech High is a member), take a look at a recent research summary, Deeper Learning: Improving Student Outcomes for College, Career, and Civic Life (PDF).

Among the Deeper Learning questions to consider: How will your next project help students learn to think more analytically and creatively to design solutions to complex problems? How might you remodel a project to help students get better at monitoring and directing their own learning?

Please share your project remodeling ideas in the comments.

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Summer Is Prime Time for PBL Remodeling | Edutopia

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Questions like these can set the stage for productive project remodeling. You might want to tackle a remodel on your own this summer or, better yet, team up with colleagues. With deliberate adjustments in your project plan, you can iterate on your design and guide students toward even better outcomes next time around.

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A few years into my teaching career, a colleague attended training at Phillips Exeter Academy on the Harkness method, in which classroom learning takes place as students and teacher sit in a circle or oval for discussions and all students must contribute. Afterward, she enthusiastically shared what she had learned about facilitating effective student-led discussions.

Until then I had been running discussions in the familiar way: pitch a question to the class, ask students to raise their hands, and try to be equitable when selecting volunteers to answer. The idea of giving students more ownership over what we discussed-from the questions themselves to possible answers-seemed like an exciting opportunity for us to learn together.

With practice, my students and I found success with the Harkness method. I also tried Socratic seminar and other approaches that emphasize student inquiry and collaboration. After years of experimentation with student-led discussions, I've honed three approaches that have made almost all conversations in my classroom both complex and enlightening. They start with students arriving to class having read a shared text.

3 Keys to Effective Student-Led Discussions

1. Make a case: At the beginning of class, share a single, open-ended question about the text. It should be an essential question-one that will elicit varied or even polarized responses. Have multiple copies of documents related to that question (literary criticism, encyclopedia entries, op-eds, news articles, etc.) and multiple dictionaries on a table for students to use-I recommend saying nothing about these and seeing what happens.

Instruct your students to work together to consider the question from multiple angles before ultimately voting to come up with an answer the majority feels good about.

This is a timed discussion, with the length determined by you. It may need to extend beyond a 50-minute class period, and could last up to 100 minutes. Remind students that they need to self-regulate-they should participate as close to equally as possible.

Don't participate, but after the discussion you should facilitate a short (10 minutes or less) reflection. Ask your students: What worked and what didn't? What could be done to make the discussion better next time?

2. Use genuine questions: Ask students to take 10 minutes to silently type or write at least one genuine question-a real, honest question about the text, as opposed to a discussion question that sounds like one a teacher would ask-about what they read the night before. With genuine questions you get a sense of what students want to know more about, what they're struggling with, and whether or not they're comprehending the text.

Once students finish writing, ask them to read the questions aloud, one at a time. Write the questions on the board for all to see. Then ask the class to thoroughly discuss as many of the questions as possible; transition from one question to another when the class agrees it's time to move on. You should participate but not lead. Multiple class periods might be needed to address all the questions.

3. Share a question, passage, or pattern: This technique, used for online discussions, was inspired by the "One Question One Comment" activity in Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading. After students finish reading an assigned text, they post one of the following on the class website: a genuine question about what they read and a short attempt to answer it, a passage that resonated with them and a short explanation of why, or a pattern they identified with a short explanation of what that pattern implies about the whole text.

If students choose to share a passage, have them point to a specific quotation they find interesting. By articulating why they like it, they notice exactly what it is about the language that moves them. Choosing a pattern enables students to find meaning in repetition-I have them search for repeated words, images, descriptions, or ideas. When they explain the pattern's implications, they usually begin to identify themes in the text. It's a concrete path to the abstract.

After posting a question, passage, or pattern, students should thoughtfully respond to the posts of two other students. At the beginning of class the next day, give your class 5-10 minutes to review what was posted online, and then have each student share either one lingering question or a new idea that came from a classmate. In my class, these comments serve as the basis for our discussion that day.

These approaches have helped my students see how questions are more interesting and often more important than answers. They begin to think more critically about every aspect of what they're reading, from writing style to authorial intent. They feel more ownership over ideas learned in class because they arrived at them, and in turn they become even more curious.

Student-led discussions take time and a teacher who's willing to step back a little. The results are worth it-when my students are empowered, my classroom transforms into an intellectual playground.

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Effective Student-Led Discussions | Edutopia

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A few years into my teaching career, a colleague attended training at Phillips Exeter Academy on the Harkness method, in which classroom learning takes place as students and teacher sit in a circle or oval for discussions and all students must contribute. Afterward, she enthusiastically shared what she had learned about facilitating effective student-led discussions.

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Four minutes later, those who remained saw the landing of two of the booster rockets. We all laughed with joy at the amazing, synchronized vertical double landing.

One student said, "They scienced the crap out of that."

Another replied, "Actually, they engineered the crap out of that."

My students had been paying attention. I beamed, wondering if my day could get any better.

Science and Engineering: Questions and Answers

It's said that science asks questions (the scientific method) and engineering solves problems (the engineering design process). In order to have a truly inquiry-based science classroom, there must be both questions and answers. They may not all be the right questions and answers, but coming up with them takes students to true science literacy.

But we can't simply tell our students to solve a problem-we must give them a structured process to do so.

The first time I encountered the Next Generation Science Standards, I was at a district-wide science staff development. Many teachers looked at the new standards and gasped.

"Wait. What? You want me to teach engineering? But I don't have an engineering degree! I can't even assemble Ikea furniture!"

Fair enough. The younger teachers were especially spooked. These were committed, hard-working teachers who wanted to do the best they could, and they felt unprepared for the new standards.

I knew, as a science teacher, mentor, and curriculum writer, that I needed to learn the NGSS Engineering Practices inside and out. I started with the common foundation that can be adapted for grades from kindergarten to 12th: the engineering design process. (KQED created a beautiful graphic to explain the process.)

I created a worksheet that I use for project-based learning, but it can be used in any problem-solving situation.

Steps of the Engineering Design Process

Define the problem: Scientists use the scientific method to make testable explanations and predictions. Engineers define a specific need. This may be stated as: Who needs what because why? Once a problem is identified, it needs to be researched: Is this really a problem that needs solving? Is there already a good solution? What have others done in the past?

Identify constraints: Students can be as specific or as general as they need to be in identifying constraints like time, budget, materials, and criteria for success.

This step is sometimes not seen in the engineering design process, but it's important to be realistic about time and materials. For example, we can't simply say we're going to solve the problem of how to make our car go faster if we don't have access to fuel, tools, and engine parts. We may need to just wake up earlier and start our journey sooner-in that case we haven't made our car go faster, but we have solved the problem of getting to where we need to be on time.

This is a silly example, but it shows that identifying what we have to work with is crucial.

Brainstorm multiple solutions: This step is preferably done in groups because groups generate a larger number of ideas, but it can be done by individual students. Either way, they can't rest with a single solution at this stage-this is the time for wild ideas, creativity, and building on other people's ideas.

Select the most promising solution: Students should now review their possible solutions and identify the best one, keeping the constraints in mind. They should be able to say why their choice is best.

Prototype the chosen solution: This makes the idea come to life. Keeping the original problem in mind, have students push themselves to make the best prototype possible.

Test and evaluate the prototype: At this point, students begin to answer these questions: Does it work? Does it solve the problem? They should collect data and analyze: Does it work some of the time? All of the time? Why or why not?

Iterate to improve the prototype: This is redesign time.

Communicate the solution: Students report on whether they met with success or failure.

The engineering design process worksheet can be used for project-based learning, self-designed science inquiries-it can even be used in culinary class to find the best recipe for mac and cheese. Students will gain a strong foundation in engineering at its most practical.

It doesn't matter if a student grows up to command a Mars mission or never takes another science class. We must make our children science and engineering literate. They'll have to make good choices about what to buy, how to vote, what kinds of food to eat. Being science and engineering literate helps students know the real from the fake. It helps make them good critical thinkers and problem solvers. It gives them a sense of wonder at the world around them. It empowers them.

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Guiding Students to Science Literacy | Edutopia

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Four minutes later, those who remained saw the landing of two of the booster rockets. We all laughed with joy at the amazing, synchronized vertical double landing. One student said, "They scienced the crap out of that." Another replied, "Actually, they engineered the crap out of that." My students had been paying attention.

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Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The power of passion and perseverance

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Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success.

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Taji Allen-Sanchez, a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher at San Francisco's Aptos Middle School, is one of a growing number of teachers who believe that traditional methods of teaching aren't preparing students for life beyond school. Lectures and direct instruction can be used to convey information to students, but they don't enhance skills like teamwork, problem solving, and curiosity that employers are increasingly looking for.

"If you just give students answers, they're not going to understand [the science]," he explains. "Really, any kid can memorize information, but can they apply it to an actual real-world application?"

A 2013 survey of over 700 business leaders bears out Allen-Sanchez's point: Half of the respondents reported that many job applicants who were technically proficient lacked the communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills necessary to do the jobs they applied for. Far too many college graduates touted high grades and test scores, but lacked key skills to be successful in the workplace.

"It's not a matter of technical skill," explained one employer in the survey, "but of knowing how to think."

New Research Shows the Power of PBL

In an attempt to foster those necessary skills, Allen-Sanchez uses a combination of project-based learning (PBL) and performance assessments to encourage his students to gain a deeper understanding of science. The curriculum he uses came out of a Stanford project looking at how PBL, paired with performance assessments, can boost student learning. The results so far have been promising: The three-year project revealed significant growth in state standardized English language arts (ELA) and math tests for students in the program. Significantly, teachers also reported seeing higher rates of participation and engagement for their students.

The program's focus on academic discourse was especially helpful for English language learners, who outperformed their peers on the state's measure of language proficiency.

Research shows that by organizing learning around meaningful goals, PBL can be an effective way to cultivate a "need to know" attitude in students-students are motivated to deepen their understanding in order to solve a problem that is meaningful to them. Concepts are better understood when students see a need for their use because that need encourages them to apply what they're learning to relevant situations, leading to a better sense of understanding.

In schools participating in the study, students took an active role in their classrooms, asking questions, solving problems, conducting experiments, and participating in group discussions. The students felt that their assignments were more interesting, challenging, worthwhile, and enjoyable than did students in classrooms with a traditional science curriculum. Researchers also observed higher rates of students staying on task and paying close attention to the teacher and their peers.

Redefining How Students Learn

Project-based learning can be a catalyst for transforming science learning, helping students move from asking "what?" to also asking "why?" and "how?" In a traditional classroom, students often focus on memorizing facts to pass a test. At Aptos Middle School and other schools across San Francisco, PBL is being used to encourage scientific inquiry, putting students in the shoes of scientists applying authentic reasoning practices-such as experimentation and trial and error-in the classroom. While students still learn facts, they also learn to apply those facts in open-ended projects that they help design.

This transformation is driven by the 5E model, which eschews a traditional "scope and sequence" approach in which students progress along a fixed path of concepts and skills throughout the school year. Instead, instruction is organized around five phases:

Engage: Students' interest is piqued with novel ideas.

Explore: Hands-on activities deepen understanding.

Explain: Students describe ideas in their own words.

Elaborate: Ideas are applied to a broader context.

Evaluate: Students provide a rich picture of their understanding.

Allen-Sanchez explains that this model "really pushes kids to take an experience, really get immersed in it, learn about it through articles, and conversation, and discussion, and then get into more of it through the Elaborate by pushing what they already know to give more answers."

Students in Allen-Sanchez's science classes do more than just recite correct answers-they develop projects that utilize the 5Es. For example, students may work in groups to solve real-life engineering challenges such as working with a restaurant to design an energy-efficient kitchen. These students learn STEM concepts like the impact that windows and doorways have on thermal insulation, and they apply those concepts in complex situations: working with clients, managing projects, and executing the design cycle of prototyping, testing, and revising solutions to solve problems.

"We knew that we wanted to create a science environment in our classrooms that would disrupt the way that it had become: a course in which facts were learned and memorized," said Jim Ryan, the former STEM executive director for the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

Student Group Work

Despite the importance of team problem-solving in today's workplaces, only 8 percent of students could meet the demands of a highly collaborative environment, while 28 percent would struggle because they have only basic levels of important skills. Schools largely aren't addressing this skills mismatch-highlighting the need for more opportunities for students to work together to solve the complex problems that do foster the necessary skills.

At the beginning of every school year, teachers in SFUSD emphasize the need for students to work together, not just to complete challenging projects but also to help change beliefs and stereotypes about science identity.

"We recognize that students walk in the door of this classroom with issues of status behind them, that they recognize themselves as being a science person or a non-science person," said Ryan. "It's through student discourse and group work that they will start to dispel those beliefs about not only themselves but about their peers, and recognize that each of those students is bringing an aspect of smarts into the problem that they're trying to solve around science."

Throughout the year, teachers use group work to address the myth that scientists work in isolation. For Eric Lewis, the district's science content specialist, science "requires lots of people with lots of different specializations to work together to explain an idea and to come up with solutions for the big problems that we have today."

Teachers as Designers

To improve student learning, start with teachers-that's the philosophy driving project-based learning in SFUSD. In a landmark study, John Hattie found that teachers account for 30 percent of the variance in student achievement, beating other factors like quality of curriculum, class size, and school funding. So after Stanford developed the new science curriculum (which can be downloaded for free), SFUSD educators worked with the researchers to improve it, playing a key role as co-designers.

"In developing this curriculum, it was absolutely critical that it was a true partnership. One, not only between Stanford and San Francisco, but between teachers, designers, administrators, etc.," said Nicole Holthuis, a Stanford researcher and one of the creators of the curriculum. Teachers took the curriculum into their classrooms to test out and then gave each other feedback on what worked and what didn't.

The partnership seems to be effective: Lewis says that with the 5E model and PBL, "We're seeing more students getting their hands wet. We're seeing more students contribute ideas. We're seeing more students participate in many different ways."

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Boosting Student Engagement Through Project-Based Learning

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Taji Allen-Sanchez, a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher at San Francisco's Aptos Middle School, is one of a growing number of teachers who believe that traditional methods of teaching aren't preparing students for life beyond school.

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"I think grades oftentimes become an indicator of 'completion' and not necessarily a movement toward proficiency of content standards," Jennie Frederiksen wrote on Facebook. "Teaching is hard work. Let's have grades that reflect actual learning."

But others feel differently. A no-zero grading policy allows students to do minimal work and still pass, pushes students forward who haven't mastered the content, and doesn't teach students the real-life consequences of not meeting their responsibilities, according to many of the 300 members of the Edutopia audience who reacted to our Facebook post " Is Our Grading System Fair? "

"We are creating a generation of entitled people who are hitting the colleges and the job market with major holes in their abilities to survive," wrote Tom Bannan on Facebook, reflecting on the lack of forgiveness for poor or unfinished work in real-life work environments. And the actual cause of failing grades isn't tough grading systems or pitiless educators, according to many who joined the Facebook thread. "Zeros don't create holes," said Lara Morales. "Kids choosing not to do their work creates holes."

Giving Students a Second Chance

For many in favor of a no-zero grading policy, it comes down to equity. Many educators argue that home-life factors create barriers to student learning, that low grades encourage struggling students to give up, and that teachers who can't get their kids to comply use grades to punish rather than to assess knowledge.

There are a wide variety of home-life factors-like learning disabilities, learning English as a second language, or working a job to support their families-that impact students' abilities to succeed academically, teachers noted. If a student misses a major assignment or assessment due to a home-life situation and receives a zero, that's much more difficult to come back from academically than a 50.

"I work with students that don't always know where they are sleeping or whether they will be eating when they go home," says Polly Pennington Wilson. "Sometimes there are outside factors that affect student success. Grades run second to those concerns."

But the equity argument was just one dimension of the criticism leveled at zeros. A significant number of teachers simply considered it draconian arithmetic-a grading strategy that, once triggered, torpedoed any record of progress and learning across the remainder of the grading period.

"If you are using a 100 point system, 0's are unfair," said Edutopia audience member Stephan Currence. "Which student has demonstrated greater mastery: student A: 100, 100, 100, 100, 0, or student B: 75, 80, 90, 80, 90? Mathematically, it is student B with an 83 average, but student A has clearly demonstrated greater mastery." Even demonstrating consistent mastery for months can be undone by a single zero, in other words, and for many teachers that feels unjust.

Still, some educators assume that giving very low grades-zeros, in some cases-communicates to students that they need to work harder. That's not how students see it, explains Sarah Duncan, the co-director of the University of Chicago's Network for College Success, an organization that works with high schools to improve grades and graduation rates for entering freshman.

"Instead of working harder, the vast majority of students who get an F tend to withdraw, try less, and come to school less because they're taking an F for what it actually stands for: failure," said Duncan, refuting the argument that zeros create greater accountability in students. "They interpret an F as 'You do not belong in this environment.'"

The research tends to corroborate that perspective: According to a 2014 literature review that explored the history of grading spanning almost 200 years, grades increase anxiety and decrease the interest in learning for students who struggle.

Finally, a few teachers worried that no-tolerance grading policies are often used as a classroom management strategy-and they're the wrong tool for the job. "I feel like teachers are not being equipped with the tools to address behavior so they are using grades as a way to try to get kids to comply," said Currence. "This does not help the child, or parent, understand where they are in terms of learning and what is necessary academically to succeed."

Just Passing Through

Several of the educators participating in the conversation had direct experience with no-zero policies, however, and felt that in practice they simply didn't work well.

"[Our 50 policy] had unintended consequences that undermined instruction. Many students learned to subvert the system and would do nothing two quarters [of the] year, collect their 50s, and do well during the next two quarters and on the final," said Rachel Kent of her school's adoption of the policy. "In essence, they were smart kids who didn't want to do the work (or didn't want to come to school) and knew they could take half of a year off and still pass."

The same logic drove Leominster Public Schools in Massachusetts to rescind their no-zero grading policy. "We really felt that after years of doing it that way, kids just weren't learning to be responsible," said Sky View Middle School Principal Tim Blake, as reported by the Sentinel & Enterprise News.

While teachers who spoke in favor of zeros recognized that the grade can dampen enthusiasm for learning, they suggested that no-zero approaches had a similar effect-with potential long-term consequences for students.

According to these educators, a no-zero grading standard allows students who haven't mastered the content to slip by, and then move on to increasingly harder subjects, the next grade level, or even to college completely unprepared, putting students in a hole they might never climb out of.

"Why boost a kid's GPA when they clearly don't know the subject and lack determination?" said Alo Torres. "If they aren't ready for the next grade, let them fail. It isn't a punishment. On the contrary. It is help. It is making sure a child will be successful by not just passing them along before they are ready."

According to Christina Arenas, a community college professor, high school students are often shocked when they get Ds and don't move on or coast through. "If your boss gives you a deadline and you miss it, what happens?" asks Arenas. "At some point, our job as educators has to be to prepare them for the real world."

Maybe It's Not a Zero-Sum Game

Given the complex range of factors to consider, perhaps both strict pro-zero and no-zero strategies are too inflexible. Giving students productive feedback requires nuance-all children are different.

Already, there is evidence that teachers are starting to find their way back toward the middle. According to our audience, some educators in schools with a no-zero policy give a slightly higher grade to students who put in effort. Teachers with more flexibility say they give slightly lower scores to students who don't try at all. Others put students' original scores on their papers, but mark 50 percent in their gradebook so students and their caregivers know the grade that reflects their actual understanding.

To help him remember the reason behind every 50, Jimmy Araujo, a high school biology teacher, uses place markers in his gradebook to note distinctions in student performance.

"NM stands for non-mastery. AB for absent. NHI for not handed in regarding homework assignments. DNA for did not attempt," Araujo wrote on Facebook. "These allow me to communicate to students and parents better to distinguish where the student needs help."

Overall, according to the experts, neither no-zero nor zero policies are silver bullets. Grading is more about the feedback provided and expectations set by the teacher to contextualize the grade.

"If you hand me an essay that's really lousy, do I say 'F, do better next time,' or do I say 'I'm not going to grade this. I expect a much higher quality of work from you. I wrote comments on it. Come to my room at lunchtime, and we're going to work on it together, and then I need you to turn it in next week,'" Duncan said.

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Do No-Zero Policies Help or Hurt Students? | Edutopia

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"I think grades oftentimes become an indicator of 'completion' and not necessarily a movement toward proficiency of content standards," Jennie Frederiksen wrote on Facebook. "Teaching is hard work. Let's have grades that reflect actual learning." But others feel differently.

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This year I embarked on an adventure: implementing project-based learning (PBL) during a middle school chemistry unit. It was intimidating at first, but I my experience convinced me that PBL can be successfully implemented in nearly any classroom.

My eighth grade class designed a chemistry museum-a series of displays that demonstrated what they had learned. They created a human timeline, dressing up as figures from the history of chemistry; built models of atoms and created demonstrations of reactions; and even produced a periodic table made entirely of cupcakes. On the day of the museum, they acted as tour guides for other classes, taking their peers through the displays and explaining the chemistry.

My students designed every inch of the museum themselves. I built tasks that took them through what they needed to know, but they chose what to display. I answered questions and moderated a few group arguments, and then got out of their way. The entire project took us around two months, and I didn't stand in front of the room lecturing for a single day of that.

And my students came to understand chemistry at a level that I had never seen from previous classes because they found all of the answers to their questions on their own.

Yes, PBL can be daunting. But even if you're not ready to fully take the plunge into PBL, there are a few easy ways to try out some of the ideas without completely changing the way you teach.

Dipping Your Toe in the PBL Water

First, integrate student choice into your classroom. With teacher support, students can learn to make good choices for themselves. I allowed students to make small choices as well as big ones. For example, when they needed to practice new types of problems, I provided three or four practice options that would help them improve their skills and allowed them to pick which one they wished to complete-a small, low-risk choice for me. And I began to see a huge increase in homework completion and critical thinking.

I also allowed them to make bigger choices. They decided which stations they would have in their museum based on the standards they needed to cover-and they came up with ideas that were better than the ones I would have provided. Plus, they learned how to make decisions together as a group. By the end of the unit, they were leading their own class discussions, voting on what they wanted to do, and assigning roles to each other.

They got all the tasks done, and they took ownership of the tasks because they were the ones who wanted to do them. There wasn't any whining or blaming the teacher when they fell short-they worked through their problems because it was, really and truly, their project.

Second, don't focus on grades. The reason the chemistry museum worked was because my students were motivated by a meaningful project. The grades followed naturally-the more they cared about the project, the better their grades got. In the museum, they were sharing their learning with the entire school. They made sure they knew what they were doing so that they could tell other students about chemistry.

If you aren't ready to pull the entire school into your project, there are lots of ways to make a project meaningful. Invite a guest to watch your students share their work, or have them create a public product such as a website or display for your school. Give them a reason to complete the work besides getting a good grade.

Finally, give your students space to fail safely. The day our museum opened was a stressful one for us. To start, my students forgot the eggs they needed for their periodic table cupcakes. I could have driven to the store and solved the problem for them, but I was dedicated to the idea that it was their museum, so I stepped back and let them figure it out. They realized that another teacher bakes in her class often and were able to borrow a few eggs.

When they hit a wall, I gave suggestions and gently assisted them with ideas, but I didn't decide for them. For example, they wanted to do some demonstration experiments for museum visitors. Two of the experiments they planned didn't work correctly. One was supposed to make an ice-like product and the other was a simple baking soda volcano. They started panicking, so I asked them what had gone wrong and what they would do to fix the experiments-and what backup plan would work if they couldn't fix them.

For the first experiment, they realized that they needed more of one ingredient and were able to get it working. The baking soda volcano never did work-they think it was because the baking soda was out of date-so they replaced it with a similar one that they had ingredients for.

They learned how to solve a problem without a grown-up stepping in and fixing it for them, and isn't that what school is all about?

Project-based learning and student choice are scary, but the results make trying these strategies worthwhile. Some degree of student choice, meaningful stakes, and opportunities to fail safely will create more student buy-in, as well as an educational environment in which students can excel.

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This year I embarked on an adventure: implementing project-based learning (PBL) during a middle school chemistry unit. It was intimidating at first, but I my experience convinced me that PBL can be successfully implemented in nearly any classroom. My eighth grade class designed a chemistry museum-a series of displays that demonstrated what they had learned.

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I remember how, as a new teacher, I would attend a professional development and feel inundated with new strategies. (I wanted to get back to the classroom and try them all!) After the magic of that day wore off, I reflected on the many strategies and would often think, "Lots of great stuff, but I'm not sure it's worth the time it would take to implement it all."

We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity. So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do.

What Research Says

This leads me to educational researcher John Hattie, who wrote Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Through his research, one of his goals is to aid teachers in seeing and better understanding learning through the eyes of their students.

Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of K-12 children. His findings linked student outcomes to several highly effective classroom practices. Here I'd like to highlight five of those practices:
1. Teacher Clarity
When a teacher begins a new unit of study or project with students, she clarifies the purpose and learning goals, and provides explicit criteria on how students can be successful. It's ideal to also present models or examples to students so they can see what the end product looks like.
2. Classroom Discussion
Teachers need to frequently step offstage and facilitate entire class discussion. This allows students to learn from each other. It's also a great opportunity for teachers to formatively assess (through observation) how well students are grasping new content and concepts.
3. Feedback
How do learners know they are moving forward without steady, consistent feedback? They often won't. Along with individual feedback (written or verbal), teachers need to provide whole-group feedback on patterns they see in the collective class' growth and areas of need. Students also need to be given opportunities to provide feedback to the teacher so that she can adjust the learning process, materials, and instruction accordingly.
4. Formative Assessments
In order to provide students with effective and accurate feedback, teachers need to assess frequently and routinely where students are in relation to the unit of study's learning goals or end product (summative assessment). Hattie recommends that teachers spend the same amount of time on formative evaluation as they do on summative assessment.
5. Metacognitive Strategies
Students are given opportunities to plan and organize, monitor their own work, direct their own learning, and to self-reflect along the way. When we provide students with time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. And research shows that metacognition can be taught.

Collaborating with Colleagues

Great teachers are earnest learners. Spend some time with a colleague, or two or three, and talk about what each of these research-based, best classroom practices looks like in the classroom. Discuss each one in the context of your unique learning environment: who your students are, what they need, what they already know, etc.

How do you already bring these five classroom practices alive in your classroom? Please share in the comments section below.

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5 Highly Effective Teaching Practices | Edutopia

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We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity. So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do.

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In the quickly evolving workplace and at a time when graduates are competing for jobs and careers with others around the world, the capacity to change rapidly and apply new skills is paramount. Bottom line: Learning how to learn is a game changer in the global knowledge economy, and it's never too early to teach students how to begin to learn more independently.

Cultivating Independent Learners

Inspire student motivation for learning: Motivation to learn is key to success in school, after graduation in the global job market, and for life in a world of constant changes in technology.

Use the power of your relationship with students to show a passion for learning. When you embody passion for learning, your students are more likely to have a powerful, positive emotional connection to learning that will inspire their motivation to continue to learn. With teachers who release their passion for learning, students across all grades are free to learn new ways of learning with motivation and joy. Over time, expect self-motivation rather than compliance.

Guide students to imagine how they will feel when they learn something new. Allow volunteers to describe their feelings after they learned something. When appropriate, ask students to visualize what a finished project will look like.

Encourage students to tell a friend their learning goal and get their support. This allows students to verbalize their goal, which will help them internalize it. Students of all ages are inherently social, and getting support from a peer can be very motivating.

Coach students to set goals and develop a plan for learning: Support students in developing their own learning goals that are realistic yet challenging. Often the most motivating goals are those that allow us to use our personal strengths. Yet students often have goals set for them based on a one-size-fits-all curriculum or on their personal learning deficits-think individualized education program-which can be discouraging.

If you have students who currently lack motivation to learn, consider helping them to develop learning goals based on their personal learning strengths. For example, a personalized goal for some learners might be to design movement breaks for the class. Another student might set a goal to complete his or her appreciation or gratitude journal with photographs or illustrations. For another student, Pinterest offers ideas that might aid them in becoming curious about new topics to learn about. Teachers can support students in becoming aware of their strengths and figuring out how to set personal goals.

Teach students how to best structure their independent learning time. Our brains did not evolve to do several hours of physics without a break. We encourage students to plan a shift in focus after every 20 minutes of independent study. At least every hour or so, they should get up and move. When learning new material, they should utilize different locations. For example, we use an outside patio table, a particularly comfortable chair, an inside office desk, and different local cafes as places to work. Because memory for locations is powerful, using several locations for learning aids memory.

Encourage students to become self-disciplined learners. Support them in making a commitment to themselves to get started on achieving their goals. Assist them in affirming their commitment to organize themselves, manage their focus over time, and limit time-wasting distractions. Help students learn to consistently define themselves as people who commit to and achieve their goals. It will probably be necessary to remind them time and again that along the learning pathway, successful people forgive themselves when they make mistakes and then continue on.

Teach students to self-assess: Ask students to write a letter to a student who will be in the class the next year. Upon completion of a project, unit, or chapter, ask students to summarize what they have learned and tell the future student how they have overcome any learning challenges. This strategy provides an opportunity for student reflection on virtually any topic.

Have students pair up and take turns sharing what they have learned. This activity-we call it "brain buddies"-gives students opportunities to learn from each other. For example, each partner may remember different aspects of a lesson. And they may have different points of view, so when they share, each partner can learn to better understand a variety of perspectives.

As your students practice independent learning, encourage them to notice changes. For example, when we asked students to discuss changes in achievement, one student said, "Now I get assignments turned in on time, and my grades have improved." Another said, "I enjoy school now because I know how to make better grades." Over time, statements like these become a part of students' positive identity for school success.

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Guiding Students to Be Independent Learners | Edutopia

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In the quickly evolving workplace and at a time when graduates are competing for jobs and careers with others around the world, the capacity to change rapidly and apply new skills is paramount. Bottom line: Learning how to learn is a game changer in the global knowledge economy, and it's never too early to teach students how to begin to learn more independently.

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Several elements of this strategy make it a powerful way to end the school year with a positive experience, often much needed after testing is over and as a busy year comes to an end. With prompted recall, each student can remember learning events that mean the most to them. Year-end mapping utilizes the power of positive teacher-student relationships as well as personalized learning, summarizing, group learning, and organizing information graphically.

Creating the Presentations

The following steps can be used to create a visual representation of key content studied over the year, which can become a catalyst for celebrating learning successes:

1. As the end of the year approaches, tell your students they'll be using graphic organizers to create a large map of what they've learned about the content you've taught.

2. Guide students in groups of four to work on specific parts of the curriculum, using prompted recall to help them remember important learning events, knowledge, and skills learned during the year.

3. Assemble a giant map-a collection of the group maps-ideally on a large wall space of the classroom.

4. Ask each student in turn to present one part of the map. These short presentations could include materials that helped them learn, such as books, drawings, pictures, notes, articles, or other meaningful artifacts.

5. Rehearse the presentations.

6. Invite groups of students who may be in your class next year to come to the presentations and be taught by your current class.

What Students-and Teachers-Get From Year Maps

The year mapping strategy gives teachers a way to relate to individual students around their successful learning-and to revisit some of their own favorite lessons and interactions with students over the past year. It gives students a chance to create fascinating graphic organizers that help them arrange evidence of their year of learning with visual appeal.

The strategy also provides motivation for students to summarize key experiences and knowledge learned throughout the year. Summarizing is a useful learning strategy, as it requires more than retelling. When students summarize, they analyze knowledge, determine key elements, and translate a lot of information into a brief and coherent presentation. For ideas on how to help students to summarize key elements of their year of learning, check out this valuable resource.

Working in groups often provides an emotional hook that makes the learning experience more meaningful and memorable for students. Group work makes it possible for all students to play a part in making the year-end maps, as individual memories may vary dramatically from student to student. Working together, students can rely on others to remember aspects of the year that may not have been so memorable for them. They in turn remember elements of the curriculum that others may have forgotten.

Questions you can ask your students who are moving up to the next grade include: What were some key things you learned this year? How does this activity make you feel as we pull our giant map together and reflect on what we've learned?

At the end of the presentation to students who will be moving up to the grade level you teach, a good question might be: What are you most excited about learning next year?

This strategy can be adapted in a variety of ways. For example, it can be extended to more classrooms across participating grade levels. Some schools have used this strategy to celebrate learning school-wide. Year-end mapping can be successfully paired with other tools we have developed, such as success files -repeatedly updated collections that provide evidence to help students internalize and remember their learning successes.

The power of year mapping is in how it helps both students and teachers internalize learning and celebrate it. Feel free to change the way you use our approach so that it works best for you and your students at this special time of the year.

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A Powerful Way to End the School Year | Edutopia

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Several elements of this strategy make it a powerful way to end the school year with a positive experience, often much needed after testing is over and as a busy year comes to an end. With prompted recall, each student can remember learning events that mean the most to them.

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The Value of Differentiation

We got the ball rolling with a straightforward question: "Why is differentiation important?" (Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.)

Arizona educator Oran Tkatchov suggested that differentiation is the "closest thing we have to a silver bullet in education"-strong words considering the regular stream of new educational initiatives that overpromise and underdeliver. His rationale? "Each kid is unique, so why would we think a factory model approach to learning would work? We need to differentiate to meet the different needs."

Tkatchov's fellow chat participants agreed that differentiation enables them to redesign the one-size-fits-all paradigm, creating new pathways for student success. "Students arrive at the learning at different times with different levels of mastery," noted David Buck, a professor at Howard Community College in Maryland.

A commitment to supporting diverse learners can lead to a more equitable classroom-as Mrs. Ackerman, a Kansas fifth-grade teacher, said, "'All means all' is our district motto. Every child needs access to the curriculum, wherever they are at."

In addition to reaching more students, differentiation can lead to deeper learning for individual students. North Carolina assistant principal Justin Marckel wrote that providing different access points to learning "stretches a student's depth of knowledge on a concept or skill." Liz Fiore, a teacher in Smithtown, New York, agreed: Differentiation "provides layers of learning."

Robert Ward, an English language arts teacher in Los Angeles, pointed to another benefit, noting that differentiation "proves to kids that their teacher is on their side-emotionally and academically."

Evidence of Student Learning

If teachers want to differentiate instruction, they need to use formative assessments to learn about students' interests and to check for understanding.

For many teachers, personal relationships are the key to understanding what motivates students. Eastern Carolina University professor Todd Finley advocates for one-on-one conferences: "I think that's where the most fulfilling instructional moments come from. It only takes a minute to learn tons about an individual student just by being curious about who they are."

Michigan educator Mike Petty gives his students "short, open-ended reflections after learning activities" as a way to gauge students' understanding: "Reflection questions are formative assessment for me, but if done right, they are self-assessment for the student." Petty's point about student self-assessment was echoed by Buck: "Using reflection activities is a great way for students to express where they are on the learning path. Metacognition is such an essential part of assessment. Students own their learning."

Student Voice and Choice

Formative assessments enable educators to differentiate instruction by boosting student voice and choice, which encourages students to own their learning, in our chat participants' view. Courtney DeLeon, a physics teacher in Texas, wrote that careful preparation helps her reach a diverse group of students: "You don't change the bar of rigor, but how they reach it is always negotiable. I have multiple items prepared, so if it's not working I can offer a different way-or better yet my students ask if they can choose a different way."

Several participants echoed this idea. Concordia Language Villages group director Mark Chen said, "With learning objectives in mind, I design two or three assessments and students pick one." And Johnna Coleman, a teacher in training in Wisconsin, noted that "giving students choices can be as simple as allowing them alternate seating, and as complex as giving them different options of ways to assess their knowledge instead of a standard test."

Teachers also shared discipline-specific strategies for promoting student choice. Kaitlyn Watson, a middle school English language arts teacher in North Carolina, has students build their own vocabulary lists from the context of their reading instead of generating whole-class lists for them, and then "they break down context clues and work toward their own applications of the words."

Nebraska science teacher Shawn Gray uses a tiered practice: "I allow students to choose working on a few challenging examples right away or working through a scaffolded approach." And music teacher Zherin Literte helps her students challenge themselves by allowing them to choose a song to work on-"they can also select instruments (real or software) as well as the arrangement difficulty level."

Monitoring Student Progress

While it can feel overwhelming to engage students with different needs and interests, create multiple pathways to learning, and monitor students' progress, technology can ease the burden.

Valerie Tilton, a high school instructional coach in Florida, shared her favorite apps to assess students, including Socrative, ThingLink, Google for Education, Nearpod, and Quizlet: "So many fantastic tech tools at our disposal-who said assessment has to be boring or nerve-wracking?" Melissa Asztalos, a seventh-grade science teacher in New York, agreed: "All my formative assessments are digital. Immediate results = immediate feedback and response. I can speed up or slow down my pacing according to the feedback. Reteaching can happen while it is fresh."

Monitoring students' progress as they work independently is also easier these days. Vermont educator Alex Shevrin has her students use shared docs as they write research papers. Their back-and-forth discussions in the files enable her to see exactly where students are with their writing-"it was formative conversation in the comments all semester long!"

Still, technology is not a panacea. University of Northern Colorado professor Matthew Farber cautioned that "technology can collect and aggregate some data. But open-ended assessments like reflections still should be the priority."

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Sharing Tweets on Differentiation | Edutopia

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We got the ball rolling with a straightforward question: "Why is differentiation important?" (Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.) Arizona educator Oran Tkatchov suggested that differentiation is the "closest thing we have to a silver bullet in education"-strong words considering the regular stream of new educational initiatives that overpromise and underdeliver.

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All children are innately curious. Yet that shared drive to understand and shape the world hasn't translated to equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The science and engineering workforce in the United States is still overwhelmingly male, despite the fact that women now earn more than half of all undergraduate degrees.

The way you teach and talk about STEM has a profound impact on your students. These 8 tips are proven to spark (and sustain) girls' interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

1. Emphasize all the creative parts of engineering.

"Creative, artistic students are often not interested in engineering because they think there's just one answer," says John Devitry, a Research Fellow at the Center of Space Engineering-Utah State University. But true innovation comes from unexpected combinations, so rather than emphasizing the linear and analytical side of engineering, talk about the importance of experimentation. Give students multiple opportunities to engage their artistic skills. Engineering is just as much about creative problem solving and artistic design as it is analytical skills, so actively encourage them to do both.

2. Ask your students what they're interested in, and then do it.

Stephanie Greer, DREAM Lab® coordinator at The Baldwin School, a PK-12 girls' school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, gives her students an interest inventory each year, and uses student passions to generate excitement about new skills. "When introducing them to the idea of designing a website or an app, I include their interests in my pitch: Maybe you're really fanatic about gymnastics. You love animals and want to help people understand how to best care for them. Using their own words creates buy-in," Greer says. Plus incorporating student interests keeps them engaged with the material and sparks interest.

Rachel Auslander, founder of Coder Gals, recommends Made with Code to stimulate girls' interest in coding. The free website, "has a lot of different projects that relate to a lot of different interests," Auslander says, including music, robotics, fashion and pop culture.

3. Help your student discover the power of visual-spatial skills.

Certain skills are necessary in STEM careers-and one of these, Devitry says, is the ability to envision and mentally manipulate shapes in space. You can help your students build their visual-spatial skills with GearUp, a free program that uses 3D computer aided design and creative challenges to build student capacity. No expertise is required to implement the program; teachers need only facilitate student exploration. By using these types of programs and strengthening visual-spatial skills, you are really helping prepare students for STEM.

4. Don't over-emphasize math and science-there's so much more to engineering.

One of the "biggest barriers" to pursuit of a STEM career is students' belief that they must be "good at" math and science, says Laura Laing, author of Math for Grownups and a former middle and high school math teacher. That "very dangerous belief" causes a lot of creative people to discount STEM fields 'because they're afraid of the coursework that leads up to it," says Randy Freeman, director of student programming for the Society of Women Engineers. As a teacher, remind students that they don't have to be perfect at science and math. Engineering is more about creative problem solving. Focus on this first!

5. Put tools in their hands, and let them experiment.

Natascha Neptune grew up helping her dad and uncles fix cars in the driveway. "I was the little helper," says Neptune, a senior mechanical engineer at the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. "That's what influenced my decision to go into mechanical engineering."

Unfortunately, many girls don't get the opportunity to do hands-on work at home or school, unless it's arts and crafts, says Julia Imbarrato, a science teacher at Keene High School in New Hampshire.

The Baldwin School's Greer recommends giving girls broad exposure to-and reasons to use-all kinds of tools, including sensors, probes, power tools and CNC machines. "One thing we should be teaching girls is that they're capable of learning anything, including how to use tools that have traditionally been in other people's hands," she says. One really powerful tool is the Solid Edge software available for free download.

6. Surround them with support ...lots and lots of good support.

Auslander started Coder Gals to provide other girls with the support she didn't have as a young girl. "I learned how to code in 6 th grade, but I didn't have any female role models to look up to. I didn't have any friends interested in coding. So I lost interest," she says. Be sure to have a network for support that will help reinforce skills. This will likely increase their level of participation and promote long-term interest. Coder Gals and SWENext, an offering of the Society of Women Engineers, give girls a chance to connect with other girls who share their interests.

7. Find projects that help others-students love this.

Research has shown that girls (and boys) respond favorably when STEM careers are positioned as an opportunity to help people. Talking about engineering and science as a way to solve problems and improve lives can capture the interest of young humanitarians, and provide the spark they need to persist. Programs such as Engineer a Better World and Design Squad Global offer inspiration and project ideas.

8. Connect with women who are working in STEM careers right now!

Girls who see women working in STEM careers are more likely to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or math. That's one reason why Neptune volunteers at school career days. "I bring a package of gum and ask students, 'How do you think we make this?' Then I tell them I work on machines that make and wrap gum," Neptune says. Consider checking out events by Society of Women Engineers, which gives girls the opportunity to work with professional engineers and other girls to solve problems and earn the recognition and respect of peers and industry professionals. You can use also Nepris to virtually connect girls with women working in a wide variety of industries, no matter where you live or teach.

At the end of the day, teachers can do a lot to help promote STEM with girls. Even highlighting cool projects or being a welcoming voice can go a long way. Plus, giving them the right software is huge. To download the Solid Edge software for free, go here.

Want a free "Think Like an Engineer Poster" as seen below? Download it here!

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Learn How to Get More Girls in STEM with These Ideas

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All children are innately curious. Yet that shared drive to understand and shape the world hasn't translated to equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The science and engineering workforce in the United States is still overwhelmingly male, despite the fact that women now earn more than half of all undergraduate degrees.

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STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math) encourages investigation, hands-on learning, and creativity and incorporates interdisciplinary learning.

I often say that STEAM education happens the most in early childhood, and has been for decades: Young students often gather for circle time and begin their day with songs that focus on academic content. Walls are covered with art that students have produced to learn about shapes, colors, or sight words.

Then students are sent off to centers to explore, through hands-on work and self-exploration- they build models and learn by trial and error. The teacher serves sometimes as the facilitator and other times as the instructor, helping students make connections and understand the standards associated with their tasks.

Changes in STEAM Education in Middle School

Fast-forward to middle school. While there are some schools that have circle time and morning meetings and incorporate interdisciplinary learning through the use of STEAM education, that's more of an exception than a norm.

I've taught in early childhood education and in elementary and middle schools, and I've witnessed the change. Why do we change our methods drastically, while asking for deeper understanding?

STEAM education is bigger than the subjects the letters represent-it's the practices, creative spark, and growth that can be gained from engaging in all of them simultaneously.

Several years ago my middle school teaching team decided to engage our students in the study of multiplication through music. The overall goal was to familiarize students with facts needed for immediate recall in higher-level mathematics. This was targeted instruction for students to bridge learning gaps-traditional models had not been successful for them. We told them to be creative, have fun, and most importantly show they understood the concepts. The kids were so engaged and excited to let their creative expression flow.

They practiced daily, and came up with introductions and choreography. They were out of their seats, on the floor or moving around, and they were engaged in math. It was wonderful! Our students who struggled to stay focused or were generally uninterested in multiplication, or math in general, were leading during this time-the incorporation of arts and interdisciplinary learning had set a spark in them.

Junior Film Directors

Imagine welcoming your class one day and telling them they won't be students that day-they'll be filmmakers. Tell them they're going to make short movies that display their understanding of ratio and proportion, as well as a few other math standards, and let them know the videos will become a part of an online math resource center for students. This project can be done over a few class periods, or if time permits you can commit an entire class to completing the films.

Sixth-grade math standards include students' ability to understand ratio and proportional relationship, as well as statistical questions. These concepts could be explored with a scene that involves preparing for a party-that would lead students to determine total costs when given the unit prices for snacks, and to figure out how much they'll have to pay the party entertainment, cleaning crew, etc., when given the hourly wage. Or students could explore ratios of ingredients in cake or pizza dough recipes-how would the numbers change with different numbers of guests?

Have students develop at least one statistical question to be used in their scene, and remind them that statistical questions are ones that can be answered through data collection. Helping students make a connection to how they can use ratio, data collection, and statistical questions to problem solve in their everyday lives makes for an engaging and meaningful learning experience.

As the teacher you are the director, providing guidance, facilitating, and instructing. Allow students to guide their own learning and utilize online resources. You'll probably need to remind them that their movie must exemplify the learning standard, and you'll need to guide them to make connections to their STEAM education throughout the process. Encourage them to self-reflect during the revision process and to focus on the mechanics of making a movie.

Have your students evaluate themselves using a rubric you create-include a scale for how well they engaged, exhibited mastery of the standard, and understood the process. For additional assessment, or to assess a different standard, students can do a teach back to show their level of understanding or create a written reflection or exam.

This project is interdisciplinary, promotes collaboration and creativity, and incorporates not only STEAM standards but English language arts ones as well. Finish strong by doing film previews, by grade level or the whole school-you can roll out the red carpet, invite families, and have students be prepared to make an introductory speech before their movies.

Engaging our students in STEAM education and its principles allows for a very enriching experience-students identify how they can apply course content and concepts in the real world.

When someone walks into a classroom in the 21st century, it should be unclear exactly what subject the students are engaged in-the lines between subjects should be blurry, or removed, and the only thing that should be clear is that students are engaged and learning.

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Preserving the Early Excitement of STEAM | Edutopia

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STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math) encourages investigation, hands-on learning, and creativity and incorporates interdisciplinary learning. I often say that STEAM education happens the most in early childhood, and has been for decades: Young students often gather for circle time and begin their day with songs that focus on academic content.

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Most teachers understand the power of visual aids in helping students grasp content. Teachers value the support that visuals lend to classroom instruction because they encourage students to make associations between pieces of information, soak up chunks of course content quickly, and function as a memory aid.

But sometimes we teachers don't approach the use of visual aids as carefully as we should. We may be too lax in monitoring how students interpret visuals (allowing the oversimplification of content) or how students create visuals (which shows whether they understand what should be included). As a result, students struggle to make the needed connection with course content.

As an educator who relies on graphic organizers and charts in the classroom, I have three strategies for using visual aids without sacrificing course content.

Sharing Intent

We often naively believe that a visual can stand on its own with minimal explanation. Instead, we should directly communicate to students what we hope for them to see (or interpret) based on the lesson at hand. For example, it's useful to help students explore why the visual was selected and what the key characteristics of it are, and to identify the non-essential elements of it. And we should specify what we intend for the students to know after examining it. For instance, Professor Howard Cox's purpose in integrating props like an officer's cap and a replica revolver into his lectures on fiction set during the Civil War is to help build his students' foundational knowledge about an author's purpose and inspiration.

If time allows, I like to share a "runner-up" image and invite students to consider why the image didn't make the cut. This discussion can deepen their understanding. And teachers can use prompts to help students reach that deeper understanding. Examples include "This image is a stronger representation of the concept because _____" and "This image makes me think about _____ from our lesson, which is important because _____."

Activating Discussion

Most teachers encourage some level of class discourse when presenting a visual aid, but we need to go a step further. We can promote a conversation about how the visual helps in processing the course content. For example, ask students to share how the visual reinforces-or challenges-what they previously learned about relevant vocabulary terms. In my College Readiness class, we review a line graph that compares letter grades and attendance, discussing how the upward direction of the lines supports our expectations of a connection between consistent attendance and higher grades. We also question the story presented by the graph: Beyond lower grades, what consequences do absentee students face?

To increase students' processing opportunities, use a think-aloud to get students talking about what makes a visual useful vs. the qualities that seem less important to understanding the theme or central message of the graphic or its connection to other content.

Push students to think deeper. For instance, in order to promote retrieval practice, put the visual away and ask students to break down the concepts represented in the visual relying solely on their memory. It's important to discuss any discrepancies between what the students recall and what's actually present in the image.

This is an excellent opportunity to explore misconceptions about the concept at hand. It's also an ideal time to highlight any blind spots or typical areas of confusion related to the concept. For example, when sharing a bar graph, caution students that the measurement scale can lead them to misread it, especially if the y-axis starts with a random number instead of zero or if information is measured in the short term instead of the long term.

Creating Visual Aids as a Class

I believe involving students in the design of visual aids is essential to foster buy-in and learning ownership, but initially, students may hesitate to create their own visuals and take on the designer role.

Establishing design parameters for students should help. For example, limit their format options by specifying the type of graphic organizer or chart they can use, and provide time to discuss what kinds of visuals would potentially work best based on the content at hand. You can also assign a specified number of key concepts-based on the content reviewed-that students are required represented with their visual.

For students who continue to seem uncertain about creating a visual on their own, educator Matt Miller explains the value of maintaining a library of icons (related to the topic, of course). Such a library allows students to focus on making meaning from the course material instead of becoming frustrated with the design work.

In addition to parameters, offer models. Make a point of asking students if it's OK to share their visual with peers, and let them know why you wish to share their work. And teacher models are priceless. Dr. Deidra Gammill, a high school teacher in Mississippi, makes a habit of including images in her notes in order to provide concrete examples for her students to follow.

It's not enough for a visual to capture attention-it should help students become more engaged. Over time, I've learned that aligning visual aids with course content is a deliberate process, one that is harder than I realized when I was starting out. With appropriate attention, we can ensure that our visual aids are windows to our lessons' purpose and construction.

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Making the Most of Visual Aids | Edutopia

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Most teachers understand the power of visual aids in helping students grasp content. Teachers value the support that visuals lend to classroom instruction because they encourage students to make associations between pieces of information, soak up chunks of course content quickly, and function as a memory aid.

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Student Presenters at Education Conferences

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Student Presenters at Education Conferences

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Bringing students to professional learning conferences has benefits for both the students and educators.

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The audience settled in for a highly anticipated session at the Middle Grades Collaborative conference, a statewide education conference in Vermont. Jen Hill, a superstar librarian and change agent, started by noting that the session would focus on the ways in which student voice had shaped key school policies related to personalized learning.

And then she turned the presentation over to students.

The students offered their perspective on what was going well with personalized learning and what needed to change in the future. They described their leadership activities in great detail by referencing the continuum of student voice as a framework for the evolution of their work. During the Q&A, they gave candid advice that was immediately applicable for audience members.

The session was heartfelt, persuasive, insightful, and practical. What more could an educator ask for?

Student presenters are becoming increasingly common at education conferences in Vermont. At the Dynamic Landscapes conference in May, for example, there were over 100 students presenting or participating to enhance the professional learning of educators. This is a substantial student presence for a two-day conference averaging 350 attendees per day.

While it's especially important to put students front and center at events that are meant to promote and support student-centered learning, I would argue that the student perspective will enhance almost any type of professional learning by educators.

5 Reasons to Bring Students to Conferences

1. Your audience will appreciate it: Shifts in practice are heard in a different way when they're described by students. Especially when your audience includes educators, the practices you're promoting and risks you're taking will sound much more authentic and convincing coming from students. After a student-led session, one teacher turned to me and said, "I need to create a classroom where students are leading, like these kids."

2. Your students will present to an authentic audience: Students get to provide their perspective-and potentially share their work, depending on your topic-to interested educators, underscoring the purpose of school in general and the practices that you are presenting in particular. Whether students present projects they've created or share ideas as student leaders, conferences are a great venue for a culminating event.

3. Your students will be engaged and empowered: Young people are motivated and inspired when their ideas about schooling and learning take center stage. They realize that they bring valuable expertise as students that enriches the professional learning of educators. As one student put it after facilitating an anti-bias workshop for educators, "I was really being listened to."

4. Your students will learn: Students will have the chance to delve into the rationale and design of your teaching practice. They'll engage in metacognition as they reflect on their experiences and gain a better understanding of learning and of themselves as learners. If they present about a specific project, they will solidify their learning.

5. You will be inspired: Your students will step up and amaze you with their thoughtfulness and performance, and they'll appreciate your trust in them. Your willingness to take a chance on them and provide a public platform for student leadership and feedback may remind you of the transformative power you have as an educator.

Beyond these benefits to your audience, your students, and yourself, letting students lead professional learning shifts the mentality of how we grow as educators. As John Craig, one of the organizers of Dynamic Landscapes, puts it, "Student presenters don't just change the sessions, they change the conversations that are happening across the entire conference."

And bringing students to conferences can change the conversation back at your school, too. Vermont's Crossett Brook Middle School took an entire busload of students to present in several sessions. Fifteen percent of the students, along with their principal and several teachers, were out of the building for a day to share their leadership activities and lessons learned in several sessions. This kind of critical mass reflects and reinforces a student-centered culture.

If doing this seems daunting, consider shifting your school culture in this direction by looking for ongoing opportunities for students to present to authentic audiences. For example, at another Vermont school, Colchester Middle School, every faculty meeting starts with a student presentation of some sort. This shift can also start at the classroom level, with project-based learning units that involve authentic audiences at various stages and during culminating events.

Whether you jump right in or build up to doing this, be assured that copresenting with students has huge benefits for them and for professional learning.

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Student Presenters at Education Conferences | Edutopia

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The audience settled in for a highly anticipated session at the Middle Grades Collaborative conference, a statewide education conference in Vermont. Jen Hill, a superstar librarian and change agent, started by noting that the session would focus on the ways in which student voice had shaped key school policies related to personalized learning.

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Last year, I was surfing Pinterest hoping to find some interesting ideas to implement in my AP World History class. I came across several articles where individuals had used the classic tales animated by Walt Disney to encourage student learning.

After thinking on this, I had an epiphany: What if I had students use historical knowledge they had gained throughout the course to pick out inaccuracies in Disney films? This had the potential to be an interesting project for students to explore a movie of their choosing and develop a polished presentation to teach their peers about the selected time period and region. I wanted to create an assignment in which students harnessed and nurtured their creative abilities but also accomplished the goals.

After extensive planning, I was able to develop a project that embodied the analysis of historical context, a fun animated classic, and also primary sources. The parameters for the culminating project were as follows:

1. Summarize the story as portrayed by Disney.

2. Determine the origins of the fairy tale behind the movie. Where did the fairy tale originate in the world? How true to the tale did Disney stay?

3. Determine the setting of the movie (time and place) and whether the architecture is appropriate. For example, is Mulan set in Han China, when the Forbidden City had not yet been constructed?

Is the clothing congruent with the setting? How accurate is the appearance of the characters? Are there any geographic misrepresentations? For example, does Hercules mention visiting Mount Kilimanjaro in Greece?

4. Determine what was going on the world at this point in history. Consider all events globally and identify at least one major event from each continent (except Antarctica).

5. What historical inaccuracies can you find in the movie? Aside from talking animals and the magical powers of wands and genies, what fallacies are represented in the movie?

6. Select two primary sources from someone who would have been a contemporary during the time and in the location of the movie's setting. If Beauty and Beast takes place in Revolutionary France, you can use a letter from Robespierre. This source should be connected in some way to the movie. If you use Robespierre's letter, perhaps you want to relate it to Gaston in his attempt to raid the castle.

As with any new project, I had some trepidation about whether the outcome would be as desired. There were several potential flaws that occurred to me. "What if the students really just see this as an excuse to watch a movie and really don't analyze it as I envision? What if the students just decide to turn in poster paper? What if I haven't prepared my students to think about these movies in a global context and really analyze them? Have I really thought through any possible hiccups? With so little guidance into what the final product should look like, what should I expect?" Because my students had worked so hard to prepare for the AP test, I figured I would wing it. Trial and error, right?

At the end of this project, I was more than impressed. Of course, there are always modifications to be made, but essentially all of my students created final presentation products that were polished, analytical, and comprehensive. I received some Prezi presentations, video compilations, elaborate PowerPoints, and even a PowToon.

Several of my students reported that they had learned more from this project than any other assignment in their history classes. Others reported that the freedom they were given to search out resources and to create a product in a format other than a written report was refreshing.

I consider every lesson a learning experience, no matter how many times it has been implemented. This lesson with a select group of students has taught me that project-based learning encourages a deeper learning model. I have also learned that despite our best intentions to maintain a structured environment, there is something beneficial about letting students guide their own learning. We as teachers all know that our students learn more when they are interested in a topic, but letting them drive their own learning takes this to the next level.

I consider this assignment a success and plan to implement it again this spring. I'm still considering taking it even further into the redefinition category-for you fans of SAMR (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition).

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Project-Based Learning Using Disney Movies | Edutopia

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Last year, I was surfing Pinterest hoping to find some interesting ideas to implement in my AP World History class. I came across several articles where individuals had used the classic tales animated by Walt Disney to encourage student learning.

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Anderson is a veteran teacher and coordinator of fieldwork and place-based education at Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, a K-8 public charter school in Portland, Oregon. She's also the author of a new book, Bringing School to Life: Place-Based Education across the Curriculum, that is full of practical strategies for turning any community into a learning lab.

She shared some highlights in a recent conversation.

EDUTOPIA: How did you become an advocate of this community-centered approach to PBL, which you describe as place-based education?

SARAH ANDERSON: After college (I was an American Studies major), I came to Portland with AmeriCorps. My project was about getting people to embrace public land and take care of it. That got me thinking about, how do you foster democracy and promote the public good? I kept coming back to education. Eventually, I went to graduate school at Antioch University specifically to study with David Sobel, an expert in place-based education.

EDUTOPIA: At Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, you've been able to put theory into practice. Tell us about the school and your role there.

ANDERSON: The school had only been open a year when I arrived in 2008 to develop the middle school program. It was started by a group of parents whose neighborhood school had closed. Getting a public charter school started taught them a lot about what it means to be civically engaged, and they brought that idea into the school mission. Today, the school has about 200 students from K to 8. Students take part in at least three in-depth projects in each grade, often in collaboration with a community partner.

After six years teaching middle school humanities, I took on a new role as coordinator of fieldwork and place-based education. Now I work with teachers to help them learn about place-based education and design projects, and do outreach to connect with community partners. I also do professional development with teachers from other schools.

EDUTOPIA: What questions do you hear most often from teachers who are new to place-based education?

ANDERSON: The biggest struggle seems to be with integrated learning. Our traditional system has content all siloed and segregated, and teachers have been trained to teach that way. It feels easier to organize and control. But that's not the way the world works, and you can't do project-based learning (or place-based education) that way.

Some teachers also wonder about schedule. They'll ask, "When do I have time in the day to do projects?" It takes time for them to see that projects aren't something you add to the curriculum-projects are the curriculum.

Some teachers are uncomfortable reaching out to potential partners. They're good at working with children, but forging relationships with organizations may not be their forte. I spend about a third of my time now on outreach.

EDUTOPIA: Your school emphasizes fieldwork instead of field trips. What's the difference?

ANDERSON: Field trips are often little additions or treats at the end of a unit. Fieldwork is the way our students gather information. They approach fieldwork with a specific focus or set of questions they want to answer. Their work might involve surveys, observations, interviews, or data collection.

Our third graders create an exhibit every year for an Archaeology Roadshow. In preparation, they visit a local museum and learn from professional curators about how to make a good exhibit.

Our seventh and eighth graders are finishing a pop-up museum about immigration that will be installed temporarily at the Portland Mercado, a public market serving the Latino community. They visited another pop-up museum, interviewed museum designers, and kept journals to record what they were learning. On the content side, they spoke with an immigration lawyer and other experts to understand current issues like DACA and sanctuary cities. Their exhibit will help to inform visitors to the Mercado about these issues.

EDUTOPIA: How much choice do students have in these kinds of projects?

ANDERSON: Our projects are designed by teachers, often in collaboration with a community partner. We design projects to build certain skills that cross disciplines and grade levels-such as knowing how to do research-and also to meet specific content standards. Some projects are used again and again, with slight updates. Students do Project Citizen, for example, in both seventh and eighth grades.

So students aren't necessarily coming up with the project ideas themselves. But within each project, students make decisions about what they will create and, sometimes, which role they want to take. For the pop-up project, students could apply to be curators, researchers, fact checkers, art makers, cartographers, or documentarians. In the same project, there were learning activities that everyone was doing to build background knowledge. For example, they all read the same book, Enrique's Journey, and mapped the difficult journey that the main character made through Central America and Mexico on his way to the United States.

EDUTOPIA: What advice would you offer to schools interested in place-based education?

ANDERSON: Be patient. It takes time for teachers to get comfortable teaching this way. It also takes time to develop relationships with community partners.

But the investment is worth it if we want to help kids grow into people who are compassionate and caring and want to take care of others. There are plenty of serious challenges in our world that our students will face. How will they even start? Tackling local problems is way more realistic. You can often make change faster at the local level.

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A Place-Based Approach to PBL | Edutopia

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Anderson is a veteran teacher and coordinator of fieldwork and place-based education at Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, a K-8 public charter school in Portland, Oregon. She's also the author of a new book, Bringing School to Life: Place-Based Education across the Curriculum , that is full of practical strategies for turning any community into a learning lab.

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Math hooks changed the feel in class right away. There was confusion, conversation, wonder mixed with frustration, some magical revelations, and lots and lots of rigorous thinking. This was all exactly what I was looking for.

Inquiry Before Instruction

Ideally, I wanted every hook to look like this:

A simple visual accompanied by a short, succinct prompt. Not every math standard boils down to such a visual though, so often I use mathematical models, patterns, or matching exercises to catch kids' attention.

The idea of the hook is to allow students to investigate the concepts within the daily lesson in a straightforward manner through a low-floor, high-ceiling problem that generates conversation.

Sometimes there is no visual component. For example, I gave my students this series of equations:

This hook invites students to investigate properties of powers. Hooks like this are simple to differentiate to the needs of your class or of student groups within the class. The trick is to find the challenge level your kids need.

In the example above, you could ask students to write a fourth example of the rule, write the rule in their own words, create an algebraic rule for the property, or define negative exponents.

To Struggle Is Good

When a hook hits the right level of challenge for your students, it lands with a thud. Students get very quiet. Slowly but surely, however, voices begin to rise. In the beginning, there are questions-lots of them. They're basic questions like, "What am I supposed to do?" Soon more specific questions arise. Students might ask about the meaning of the exponents, why the answers all have smaller exponents, or why the "big numbers" are the same.

And sometimes that's it. That's as far as they can get, and I step in and begin my lesson. However, in that time, my students have collaborated, persevered, and said wrong answers out loud many, many, many times. All of this helps me build a classroom culture that values voices and ideas over right answers.

In the time that students work on a hook, I have the opportunity to gather terrific formative assessment. Best of all, before I've even introduced my objective, my students have some questions for me.

Becoming Mathematicians

Before introducing solving systems of equations algebraically to my eighth-grade students, I asked them to work on the following hook:

Peter observed these two equations: 9x + 4y = 19 and y = x - 5. Peter's claim was this: 9x + 4x - 20 = 19. Prompt: What is Peter thinking, and is he correct?

After the initial shock, many students decided to use Peter's equation to solve for x. Then they went on to calculate the value of y. Of course, this didn't reveal to them the process of substitution to solve systems of equations, but it did show their effort and desire to use their prior knowledge to make sense of the new ideas presented to them.

In short, they did what mathematicians do-ask questions and make calculations. They also felt the way mathematicians often feel, completely stumped. All of which, for me, is terrific. Because above all, in math class, I want my students to become mathematicians.

Investment Dividends

Perhaps the largest benefit of using hooks has been the investment it creates in my lessons. Now that I've given my students seemingly impossible puzzles to solve, they naturally want to know the solutions. Hooks open students up to asking questions and admitting confusion, something many would never dare do in my traditional lessons. So lessons that begin with a hook get a turbo-boost from students' engagement.

In addition, there are the benefits of productive struggle: Students attain a deeper understanding of the structure of the problem because they've had the opportunity to tackle it on their own first. Using hooks, my lessons feel different, classroom discussions click, rigorous thinking is undertaken, and students enjoy learning. From the students' perspective, math class becomes fun.

I've created hooks for every seventh- and eighth-grade standard and shared them on my website, MathHooks.com. However, new hooks can easily be created and applied at any grade level. Many of the hooks I created were simply the common math models used in my lessons-but presented to students before any instruction.

Allowing students the opportunity to practice inquiry before instruction makes math come alive. It challenges them to engage in struggle, collaboration, and rigorous thinking, and it increases participation in lessons. Most importantly for me, hooks create a feeling of discovery and fun in math class that makes it different from... well, math class.

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Promoting Productive Struggle in Math | Edutopia

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Math hooks changed the feel in class right away. There was confusion, conversation, wonder mixed with frustration, some magical revelations, and lots and lots of rigorous thinking. This was all exactly what I was looking for. Ideally, I wanted every hook to look like this: A simple visual accompanied by a short, succinct prompt.

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Four minutes later, those who remained saw the landing of two of the booster rockets. We all laughed with joy at the amazing, synchronized vertical double landing.

One student said, "They scienced the crap out of that."

Another replied, "Actually, they engineered the crap out of that."

My students had been paying attention. I beamed, wondering if my day could get any better.

Science and Engineering: Questions and Answers

It's said that science asks questions (the scientific method) and engineering solves problems (the engineering design process). In order to have a truly inquiry-based science classroom, there must be both questions and answers. They may not all be the right questions and answers, but coming up with them takes students to true science literacy.

But we can't simply tell our students to solve a problem-we must give them a structured process to do so.

The first time I encountered the Next Generation Science Standards, I was at a district-wide science staff development. Many teachers looked at the new standards and gasped.

"Wait. What? You want me to teach engineering? But I don't have an engineering degree! I can't even assemble Ikea furniture!"

Fair enough. The younger teachers were especially spooked. These were committed, hard-working teachers who wanted to do the best they could, and they felt unprepared for the new standards.

I knew, as a science teacher, mentor, and curriculum writer, that I needed to learn the NGSS Engineering Practices inside and out. I started with the common foundation that can be adapted for grades from kindergarten to 12th: the engineering design process. (KQED created a beautiful graphic to explain the process.)

I created a worksheet that I use for project-based learning, but it can be used in any problem-solving situation.

Steps of the Engineering Design Process

Define the problem: Scientists use the scientific method to make testable explanations and predictions. Engineers define a specific need. This may be stated as: Who needs what because why? Once a problem is identified, it needs to be researched: Is this really a problem that needs solving? Is there already a good solution? What have others done in the past?

Identify constraints: Students can be as specific or as general as they need to be in identifying constraints like time, budget, materials, and criteria for success.

This step is sometimes not seen in the engineering design process, but it's important to be realistic about time and materials. For example, we can't simply say we're going to solve the problem of how to make our car go faster if we don't have access to fuel, tools, and engine parts. We may need to just wake up earlier and start our journey sooner-in that case we haven't made our car go faster, but we have solved the problem of getting to where we need to be on time.

This is a silly example, but it shows that identifying what we have to work with is crucial.

Brainstorm multiple solutions: This step is preferably done in groups because groups generate a larger number of ideas, but it can be done by individual students. Either way, they can't rest with a single solution at this stage-this is the time for wild ideas, creativity, and building on other people's ideas.

Select the most promising solution: Students should now review their possible solutions and identify the best one, keeping the constraints in mind. They should be able to say why their choice is best.

Prototype the chosen solution: This makes the idea come to life. Keeping the original problem in mind, have students push themselves to make the best prototype possible.

Test and evaluate the prototype: At this point, students begin to answer these questions: Does it work? Does it solve the problem? They should collect data and analyze: Does it work some of the time? All of the time? Why or why not?

Iterate to improve the prototype: This is redesign time.

Communicate the solution: Students report on whether they met with success or failure.

The engineering design process worksheet can be used for project-based learning, self-designed science inquiries-it can even be used in culinary class to find the best recipe for mac and cheese. Students will gain a strong foundation in engineering at its most practical.

It doesn't matter if a student grows up to command a Mars mission or never takes another science class. We must make our children science and engineering literate. They'll have to make good choices about what to buy, how to vote, what kinds of food to eat. Being science and engineering literate helps students know the real from the fake. It helps make them good critical thinkers and problem solvers. It gives them a sense of wonder at the world around them. It empowers them.

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Guiding Students to Science Literacy | Edutopia

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Four minutes later, those who remained saw the landing of two of the booster rockets. We all laughed with joy at the amazing, synchronized vertical double landing. One student said, "They scienced the crap out of that." Another replied, "Actually, they engineered the crap out of that." My students had been paying attention.

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A well-known protocol can help student teams reflect intentionally on their work-a necessity for improvement and learning.

©Shutterstock/Rawpixel.com

Working in teams is difficult, but most teachers recognize that building the capacity to collaborate with others is essential. The most pressing problems facing us, our communities, and our society are complex and multifaceted-they evade simple solutions and tend to require a breadth of knowledge, insight, and creativity that can only be accessed when people come together.

But even educators who espouse the virtues of collaboration can struggle mightily to support students in doing it well.

Teams Can Be Stubborn

Unlike individuals, who have the potential to be agile and learn quickly, teams can repeat the same mistake over and over again, to the frustration of every single member of the team.

That's because teams don't learn in the same way that individuals do.

When you as an individual touch a hot stove, you're far less likely to touch it again. Most of us process the painful experience and choose to change our behavior rather quickly. However, it's quite easy for a group to touch the same proverbial hot stove again and again-within a team, there is no single head within which a painful (or successful) experience can be processed and where reflection and adaptation can take place.

For many educators, our instinct is to rush in and save the day when we see teams struggle. We take on the responsibility for defining and solving the problem on behalf of the team. Students may welcome this intervention, as it can offer momentary relief from the struggle and frustration that their team may be experiencing.

However, such interventions can keep the students from developing their own capacity to learn from their team's experiences and successfully address future problems. In other words, the problem at hand might be solved, but the group isn't getting any smarter. Chances are, the team will once again touch the same hot stove that caused the trouble in the first place.

A Powerful Protocol for Group Learning

To address the problem of group learning, a team must develop the ability to reflect on itself. Without intentional reflection, members of a team are unlikely to develop a collective sense of what is working and what is not, making improvement unlikely.

What would this reflection look like? Consider the rather simple, yet powerful, protocol developed by the U.S. military and used by many corporations-the after-action review (AAR). The AAR is a structured process that allows a team to learn from its own experiences. Part of it involves a team asking and answering four basic questions: What did we intend to do? What were our actual results? What explains our results? Moving forward, what do we want to sustain, and what do we want to change?

In my experience as a high school math teacher, it was common to see student teams repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Whether it was due to a lack of communication, imprecise language, failure to draw on the insights of all team members, or deficient or unclear team processes, I would constantly see teams grow frustrated and fall into the typical group work traps. These traps can have severely negative impacts on a team's ability to grapple with complex content, explore meaningful questions, and learn deeply. In fact, these traps are the very reason why so many educators avoid group work in the first place.

Walking my students through questions similar to the AAR proved remarkably powerful in helping them overcome these traps. Here's an illustrative example that occurred on the fourth day of a five-day design project, when one of my student teams experienced a moment of panic. The students were well through their design phase and had started constructing their design. While their original design was creative and mathematically sound, they ended up misinterpreting their own diagram and plans, which led them down an incorrect path.

When I approached them, they were eager for me to solve the problem. However, I knew less than they did about the nature of their problem, let alone how to address it. Rather than swoop in to fix their problem, I helped them reflect on what had happened.

I asked each student to describe what had gone wrong while the others listened. Each of the students had a slightly different perspective on the problem. They talked about challenges with their team's communication, faulty mathematical assumptions they had made, and their inattention to the mathematics within their design and plan.

Next, I asked them what they intended to do moving forward. They were able to articulate thoughtful changes to the way their group would operate to address their challenges. These changes included more regular and structured communication between team members and frequent referrals to their team's design. In the end, the group experienced a tremendous rebound and ultimately had a successful project and learning experience.

Whether a teacher helps students reflect on their team's experiences, or whether teams learn to use their own protocols for doing so, the important idea is that teams only learn through intentional and deliberate reflection. Without the time, space, and discipline to reflect on their experiences, teams likely won't develop a collective and explicit understanding about what they're doing that's working and what they need to change.

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A Strategy for Effective Student Collaboration | Edutopia

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A well-known protocol can help student teams reflect intentionally on their work-a necessity for improvement and learning. ©Shutterstock/Rawpixel.com Working in teams is difficult, but most teachers recognize that building the capacity to collaborate with others is essential.

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Transform your classroom into an epic adventure, played with your students throughout the school year. Sign up for free!

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When's the last time you made something or took something apart to see how it worked or to turn it into something else? Unless you have a hobby that requires you to be hands on, you probably haven't made anything in a while. For many of us, making something is both a difficult and rewarding process. While the motivation is there, finding the time and place to tinker can be a whole other barrier to entry-unless you have access to a makerspace.

What is a makerspace?

You might have heard of a makerspace . It's a buzzword that's been floating around for a few years now. But what, exactly, is it? A makerspace is a room that contains tools and components, allowing people to enter with an idea and leave with a complete project. The best part is that makerspaces are communal. The goal is to work together to learn, collaborate, and share. Most importantly, makerspaces allow us to explore, create new things, or improve things that already exist.

Makerspaces are part of what we call the maker movement , which started in the early 2000s. Of course, scrapbooking, tinkering, and other arts and crafts activities have been around for quite some time, but the maker movement emphasized hands-on discovery in a world that had become increasingly automated.

Is a makerspace something I should look to create for my students?

In a word, absolutely. If makerspaces are ideal for anything it's . Kids naturally tinker; they build things and take things apart-especially when they're left unattended! Makerspaces encourage that natural creativity. Your students will also be able to practice critical thinking skills, challenge their imaginations, and come up with solutions to real-world problems. Makerspaces are really helpful for STE(A)M-related activities. For instance, Brooke Brown of Teach Outside the Box Most features fostering play and open-ended learning STEM bins in her makerspace, giving students hands-on opportunities to practice their STEM skills. More importantly, makerspaces are safe places for students to "fail." At a time when test scores and getting the right answer often trump the process of learning, makerspaces allow students to learn by trial and error, improving with each attempt.

How do I set up a makerspace for my students?

As the idea of makerspaces caught on, places like universities and local libraries began creating them. Though you might not have the resources of MIT or even your local library, you can definitely create a makerspace. You'll need room for tools, a table(s), and space for students to move around and work together. Choose a section of your classroom to set up a makerspace or talk with administrators about a room in the school, like an old science lab, that might be available. Space in the library could be ideal. Diana Rendina, librarian at Stewart Middle School in Tampa, Florida, started a makerspace in the school library in 2014. Wherever you put your makerspace, be sure to think about which grade level(s) will be using the space, what topics or learning goals will be addressed, and how often the space will be used.

Next step, get tools for your makerspace-but don't break the bank .

You'll want things like batteries, popsicle sticks, old boxes, small machines, and rotary tools. Ask for donations from families and also from the school custodian. That way, you can use whatever funding you have for higher-end items, such as a tablet, a circuit set, or the crown jewel of any makerspace: the 3D printer.

We're really fond of Dremel 3D printers. They're perfectly suited for the classroom. They're easy to use, safe, and can also help your students' ideas come to life. You can easily connect them to your school WiFi or ethernet, manage and configure multiple printers from one spot, and use the built-in camera to monitor them. You can also use Dremel 3D printers for standards-based learning projects and activities. They'll fit nicely in your makerspace-and your curriculum.

Sounds awesome, but not missing room in your budget? Well, you're in luck. You can enter to win a Dremel 3D printer for your classroom here! If you win, your students might develop something incredibly useful, like the group of high schoolers in Riverdale Park, Maryland. They used a 3D printer to make a prosthetic arm for their classmate.

How can I use a makerspace alongside my curriculum?

Although STE(A)M activities easily lend themselves to the makerspace, there's a makerspace-appropriate project or two for any subject. Use leftover jelly beans to introduce your students to architecture and engineering . That lesson you taught on westward expansion? Have students use the makerspace to build tool that would help them on The Oregon Trail and explain to the class how it works. Studying waterways in science? What might your students create to help stem flooding or address the problem of plastic trash polluting water? Nothing says medieval times-and physics!-like making a catapult !

The possibilities are as vast as the imaginations of your students. All you need is to create a makerspace to witness just how far your students' thinking and imaginations can go.

Take a look at how teachers have created a makerspace in their classrooms:

Win a 3D Printer for Your Classroom!

Dremel DigiLab is giving away a 3D printer (worth $1799!) you can use as the centerpiece of your classroom makerspace. Enter here for a chance to help your students bring their creations to life!

Here are some additional resources on makerspaces that you might find helpful:

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When's the last time you made something or took something apart to see how it worked or to turn it into something else? Unless you have a hobby that requires you to be hands on, you probably haven't made anything in a while. For many of us, making something is both a difficult and rewarding process.

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A school district uses monthly missions in design studios to increase student and teacher engagement and foster self-directed learning.

Students build a prototype nest box for penguins in a design studio that the author helped create.

In 2016, I reconfigured a learning space at each of the two schools in the Harrison Township School District in New Jersey into a design studio to promote design thinking, engagement of students, and self-started learning opportunities.

The goal was for homeroom teachers to utilize the spaces with their classrooms to do things they couldn't accomplish in a traditional room. Thirty homeroom teachers at each building would share the spaces, and my colleague AnnaLisa Rodano and I assisted them with a modeled approach to using the spaces effectively.

In that first year, we noticed that some teachers would use the spaces much more than others. They were comfortable with relinquishing control of their traditional lessons. But to ensure equity for our learners, we knew we had to develop a way to expose all learners to the design studios on a consistent basis.

Creating Missions to Support Student and Teacher Learning

To support the teachers and students during the 2017-18 school year, AnnaLisa and I created thematic missions for all grade levels. These design studio missions were planned out to be a way for students and teachers to get comfortable with design thinking and project-based learning. Having the materials and directions ahead of time allowed teachers of all comfort levels to participate in the missions with their learners. Teachers could decide when and how often they came to the space to work on the missions.

Each month, we created a new mission, so we needed a variety of materials that could be used in different ways. We reached out to the community to collect materials that would allow the missions to be successful, collecting rocks, tinfoil, straws, cardboard-items that were specific to our missions.

Kids in kindergarten through sixth grade all accessed the same mission pages, meaning that we had to develop experiences that 5-year-olds could try and that would still be challenging for 12-year-olds. We developed the mission pages using Padlet, and gave teachers differentiated options so they could adjust to the needs of their learners. Additional programs like Edpuzzle, Do Ink, and Flipgrid were embedded into the missions to help teachers familiarize themselves with these digital tools.

When we began designing each mission, we first thought of the learning that must take place before the hands-on learning events could begin. We provided teachers with background information-recommended picture books, podcasts, readings, three ACT math videos, and cross-curricular infographics-in all subject areas, which they used in their classrooms to build excitement for the visits to the design studio to work on the mission.

The Design Studios Hit Their Stride

In September, we started out by asking students to create an apple-balancing device for a relay race. This blending of design, engineering, and physical education was a hit. But January's mission was when we realized we had captivated the community. In the course of some earlier research, I had discovered that New Zealand has safety concerns around penguin populations crossing roads and highways on Great Barrier Island. Local organizations there build wooden nest boxes and place them in safe areas so the penguins will stop and make a home instead of migrating further.

So for the January mission, we decided to ask students to construct prototype nest boxes that improved on the ordinary design-the challenge was to create the most enticing nest box for penguins to visit. The mission started with students learning about various types of penguins. Next came the design project as they built their nests with only cardboard and tape. (We had prepped for this earlier by asking families to send in cardboard from packages they received in the holiday month of December.)

AnnaLisa and I infused video production into the mission as well. Soon videos were flying in with students using descriptive writing and persuasive techniques to lure penguins into their hypothetical nest boxes. I think my favorite had to be a kindergarten design that included a hot tub for the penguins.

The most amazing component of this mission-and all of our missions-is that students of every age were exposed to content knowledge, group work, and tactile learning that brought in 21st-century learning standards.

Each month brought a brand-new experience for our students. They looked forward to the experiences because they were enjoyable. I feel we were able to harness the fun factor or hook that many teachers are looking for in a content-driven experience.

Some of our lessons were built around empathy-as when we celebrated Black History Month and Autism Awareness Month-and others were strictly driven by the engineering principles involved in topics like buoyancy and the flight of bats. I invite you to visit our Missions page to see how they developed over the year. We're making them public because we want to build a community of educators who will create and share similar project-based experiences for all students to enjoy and learn from.

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A school district uses monthly missions in design studios to increase student and teacher engagement and foster self-directed learning. Students build a prototype nest box for penguins in a design studio that the author helped create.

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Whether students do the advance work at home or in class, these tools help teachers track their work and assess their understanding.

©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images

Flipped classroom, flipped learning-you've probably heard these phrases in recent years, and you may be wondering how this strategy works.

Flipped lessons replace teacher lectures with instructional material-often a video-that students watch and interact with at home. They apply what they learned in class the next day through a variety of activities or assignments that could once have been homework, with the teacher working as a coach or guide.

The benefits include allowing students to work at their own pace, to determine for themselves the material they need to review, and to apply concepts in different contexts in class to ensure that they thoroughly understand of the content.

But this model can be unsuccessful if students don't do the advance work-if they don't have access to reliable internet outside of school, for example. Students who are unable to complete the advance work the evening before find themselves either unable or ill-prepared to participate in class activities the following day.

One solution is to keep the advance work in the classroom-students can reap the benefits of flipped instruction while doing everything in class. In this model, teachers give their students time to watch the video or read a text in class; students then do the follow-up work, with the teacher providing help and guidance as needed. This is extremely helpful for students who need help with the content they're learning in the video.

The teacher still moves from being the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side" by providing individualized help for each student. While some teachers may prefer to avoid whole-class direct instruction, others may find it helpful for their students when reviewing content or demonstrating or revisiting a concept. Part of the beauty of the in-class flipped model is that it provides a great deal of flexibility for teachers based on their students' needs.

Structure of a Flipped Lesson

Flipped lessons can take a variety of forms. Some flipped lessons stand alone, meaning that students learn the content presented in an instructional video or text and demonstrate their understanding through an assessment, project, etc., before moving on to the next concept. Other lessons may take the form of a unit HyperDoc that requires students to progress through a series of lesson components designed to encourage them to engage with and explore content, apply what they've learned, and extend their knowledge.

Google Classroom: Teachers use Google Classroom in a variety of ways-to deliver assignments to students and to provide effective and efficient feedback, for example-and it can be a great landing page for students as they navigate assignments. At the beginning of a lesson, teachers can direct students to assignment goals, objectives, and instructions in Classroom. Classroom can also be used to distribute a lesson's digital texts and other resources.

In flipped environments where students take notes on instructional videos digitally, Classroom can be used to assign a unit Google Doc to students for that purpose. Teachers can establish this procedure as a norm at the beginning of the school year so students know that they should begin each class period by going to Google Classroom.

Edpuzzle: Instructional videos are an important component of the flipped classroom. While there are many schools of thought concerning teacher presence and action in these videos and how long they should be, most teachers would agree that students should be held accountable for the video content and that teachers should have a way to monitor student progress and provide timely feedback.

Edpuzzle allows teachers to do just that, and it provides teachers with the ability to embed a variety of formative assessments into videos they create or use from other sources. Students can access Edpuzzle videos from any browser or through iOS or Android apps, so it's very convenient.

Padlet: After students have viewed an instructional video, it's a good idea to provide them with an opportunity to reflect on the content. Padlet provides teachers with a way to have students not only review and reflect on content, but also collaborate with their peers.

Teachers can create a new Padlet wall for each video or unit and encourage students to ask questions and answer their peers' questions about content as a review for unit assessments. Using an extension such as Screencastify, teachers can create screencasts of the Padlet wall for their students to use as a study aid.

Quizizz: Formative assessment is extremely important in any classroom, and flipped classrooms are no exception. The flipped strategy puts more responsibility for viewing and interacting with content on the students, and formative assessment is therefore needed after every video.

Teachers can create gamified formative assessment activities for their students using Quizizz and assign these activities as homework, which allows the students to play the games individually. Quizizz activities can also be used as a whole-class formative assessment-students enjoy Quizizz because of the gamified component of the activity and the memes that greet them when they respond to each question.

With the help of these tools, teachers can implement a flipped classroom approach-with students working on their own either at home or in the classroom-and provide a more individualized learning experience for all of their students.

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4 Tools for a Flipped Classroom | Edutopia

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Whether students do the advance work at home or in class, these tools help teachers track their work and assess their understanding. ©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images Flipped classroom, flipped learning-you've probably heard these phrases in recent years, and you may be wondering how this strategy works.

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A school district uses project-based learning to introduce students to a variety of careers starting in kindergarten.

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What can zombies teach kids about the brain? Images from popular culture provide an entry point to exploring science and math.

So many adults, including teachers, joke about not being able to do simple math or not being a "science person" that many students enter STEM classrooms with negative views. This creates a fixed mindset as students believe they need certain natural abilities to be successful in math and science. As educators, we need to create opportunities for students to overcome these deeply planted negative views.

Using images or ideas from popular culture gives students an entry point to explore science-they're already experts, and they can use the confidence they have in that area to become more open to learning and experiencing how math and science are rooted in creativity and imagination.

Using a Zombie Apocalypse Scenario

I (Ed) have a background in neuroscience, so when I used to teach units on brain function in my classroom in Chicago Public Schools, I just assumed that students would be fascinated hearing about the brain. I later realized that my lessons were based on rote memorization and testing-there was little room for students to apply their learning in a real way.

So I decided to harness the power of zombies, and Amy and I created a series of workshop lessons in which students learn the structure and function of different brain regions by examining the various types of zombies that would arise from lesions to specific regions of the brain. We developed these lessons as part of a weeklong zombie camp, but we've also been able to break them up into two-hour chunks.

Concentrating on four regions-the cerebellum, amygdala, frontal lobe, and hypothalamus-we started by making paper brain hats, which gave each student a 3D model to refer to, and also set the tone that science does not always need to be serious.

Students next brainstormed characteristics of zombies: They move slowly, they're hungry, they lack coordination, etc. We challenged the students to consider how a zombie virus would have to impact the brain to cause these characteristics. What part of the brain would need to be damaged to make a zombie move slowly? to make it angry?

We challenged students to apply their learning and explain what characteristics a zombie might have if the virus only corrupted select parts of the brain. If they observed a zombie that did not seem hungry or angry, but was moving slowly, what type of brain damage had it sustained? Could they describe the brain of a fast, hungry zombie?

Instead of taking a test, students created projects categorizing various zombies they might encounter based on how deeply the virus had impacted the zombies' brains.

Some students wrote survival handbooks describing zombie types and ranking how dangerous a zombie would be based on the amount of damage its brain had sustained. Other students made public service announcement-style posters and life-size zombie cutouts illustrating how a zombie might look with that type of brain damage.

Students also wrote choose-your-own-adventure scenarios based on encounters with zombies with different brain lesions.

Students experienced deep learning as they held extended conversations debating whether they should run if they met a zombie with an intact frontal lobe or if the zombie had an intact cerebellum.

These connections helped students engage deeply and move forward with their inquiries into the brain.

Begging for More Math

The students were so excited about the choose-your-own-adventure format that they begged for more scenarios. We were able to make interdisciplinary connections by incorporating creative writing and math story problems.

Our story problems were long and were embellished with visual details and references to familiar locations in the area around us. For example, we gave students scenarios in which zombies were headed in their direction and they had to work out whether they had time to get to different locations for supplies and back to their hiding place before the zombies arrived.

The students were so excited about solving these problems that they decided to write their own story problems to present to other groups. They were using creative writing and math in a real way, and including various plot perspectives. (We did include rules that scenarios could not include violence, unnecessary gore, or death.)

These scenarios may not be real, but when students get excited and engaged in a topic, they move toward self-directed inquiry. One set of parents, for example, told us that their daughter was inspired to take out her math books to practice so she would be ready for the upcoming story problems. And throughout these camps we have seen kids grabbing books from our collection to learn more about zombies so that they can keep working.

It's not enough these days to just know science facts-students need to be able to apply their learning in a creative manner and to use design thinking. Connecting to pop culture lends itself to this creativity and outside-the-box thinking.

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What can zombies teach kids about the brain? Images from popular culture provide an entry point to exploring science and math. So many adults, including teachers, joke about not being able to do simple math or not being a "science person" that many students enter STEM classrooms with negative views.

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A fifth-grade project-based learning unit harnesses excitement about Mars to develop science, math, engineering, and literacy skills.

©Shutterstock/Jurik Peter

Media stories about colonizing Mars are everywhere. Elon Musk, NASA, the Mars One project-seems like everyone wants to visit the most habitable planet beyond Earth.

Elementary and middle school students love learning about Mars too, so can we use their interest to get them thinking critically about the complex science, math, and engineering needed to survive on another planet? The answer is yes: My fifth-grade students address these issues with research, technology, teamwork, and creativity as part of a roughly two-week Martian Colony project-based learning unit.

Mission to Mars

Our driving question is: How can humans survive on Mars? The answers begin on Earth, as students think about what makes our planet habitable, and by comparison what unique challenges Martian colonists will face. There are many challenges to consider: no oxygen, food, or readily available water; extreme cold and solar radiation; meteorites-sometimes I'm glad I'm too old for such an expedition.

Students working in groups of four or five research all things Mars using books, websites, and videos, some of which I post on my teacher portal and some of which they find. We focus on the human perspective-they don't need to know the diameter of the planet, but they do need to know the surface temperature and how that will affect their survival.

We also try to incorporate some fun into the unit. Before every mission, NASA crew members design a mission patch for the astronauts' flight suits. My students do something similar: Some design paper mission patches, complete with spacecraft and images of Earth and Mars. Others create computer-based drawings or even 3D models representing their group, which they often give silly names like the Goat Grandmas or the Flying Banana Peels. One year we used the website Patches4Less to make real cloth patches that cost each student about $2.50.

Applying What They Learn

On a more serious note, students must think about supplies they would need for their voyage. The students consider how much storage space their launch vehicles would hold and what items are mission critical. Is it realistic to bring a herd of cattle to feed Martian colonists? Probably not.

It's important to give them some parameters for this. I ask students to imagine an empty school bus (with no seats) and to think of items that could fit inside. And I require them to list supplies by category (food, clothing, medical) to help them organize their thinking.

Teams pick a landing location on Mars using Google Earth Pro's Mars option (look for the image of Saturn on the toolbar). There are no right answers, but they must justify their choices. If they plan to mine Martian ice for water, a location near the polar ice caps might work. Protection from meteors and solar radiation might suggest building in a crater or in one of the Martian canyons.

Our final product is a digital 3D model of the colony, an involved step that takes three or four days to complete. Students must first submit a working blueprint of their colony on grid paper. I set a square footage limit for the colonies, which forces students to make choices about essential elements and encourages them to apply math skills like multiplication, area, and perimeter.

As the Supreme Chancellor of Martian Colonization, I use the blueprint to verify the placement of buildings in the final model. If the blueprint shows a 12 foot by 10 foot science lab in the southwest corner of the colony, I ask students to show me this same building on their model. This encourages them to match their blueprint to their final product and spurs further collaboration between team members. More advanced groups calculate total colony volume by finding the lengths, widths, and heights of their various structures.

In previous years, early versions of the final product used recycled materials like cardboard and aluminum cans and then computer models built with Google Sketchup.

For the past three years, we have designed colonies on Minecraft.edu, an education version of the popular video game that omits the creepers and online communication with other gamers. Our school tech coach helped get things up and running and created a Minecraft server to save all of our work. Many students already know Minecraft, so the learning curve is not steep. I've been continually amazed by the solar panels, greenhouses, science labs, and Martian exercise equipment designed using only Minecraft blocks and group ingenuity.

Writing about their colonies accesses another set of skills. Can you persuade me that your colony is the safest and best designed of all the choices out there? Can you produce a travel log detailing daily life on Mars? Or a travel brochure advertising the colony to potential colonists? Students choose the writing form they think best represents their colony.

Presenting What They Learn

I save a day at the end for presentations. In addition to classmates, audiences have included students from other grade levels and sometimes parents. One day I'd like to invite an astronaut or NASA engineer to our presentations as well. The following questions guide feedback from the audience:

Would you feel safe in this colony?

What elements of the colony did you think the most creative?

What suggestions can you give to make this colony better?

Mars is an amazing place, and I hope to inspire students to dream big about the possibilities for human colonization of the Red Planet in their lifetimes.

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A fifth-grade project-based learning unit harnesses excitement about Mars to develop science, math, engineering, and literacy skills. ©Shutterstock/Jurik Peter Media stories about colonizing Mars are everywhere. Elon Musk, NASA, the Mars One project-seems like everyone wants to visit the most habitable planet beyond Earth.

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Teachers’ Strategies for Pronouncing and Remembering Students’ Names Correctly | KQED

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A mispronounced or forgotten name can have a lasting impact on students on how they feel about school. Teachers provide tips on how to make those names stick.

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Teacher Leadership and Implementing the Common Core Standards

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Teacher Leadership and Implementing the Common Core Standards

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Education Week - Leading From the Classroom

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Marsha Ratzel is a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches middle school math and science in Kansas. Her blog, Reflections of a Techie, focuses on technology integration in the classroom. Last month at the Center for Teaching Quality, I had the opportunity to meet with Marsha and the 22 NBCTs from North Carolina and Kentucky who are piloting curriculum tools to support the Common Core Standards. As with any movement that brings change to the classroom, there are opportunities and challenges for teacher leadership. Marsha's discusses her thoughts on teacher leadership and the Common Core in this week's guest post. Why Teachers Need to Take Ownership of Implementing the Common Core
How schools will go about implementing Common Core Standards is a huge topic within education today. Stephanie Hirsh has written an impassioned discussion of what will be required of our school communities in order to move forward. It made me stop and think.

Teacher leaders will be critical to the successful implementation of Common Core Standards (CCS). Sounds like a no-brainer, but teacher leaders are most often the missing piece of education reform. Effective teamwork and sustainable implementation of such a large change depends on teachers leading the effort forward and co-designing professional development.

I've been lucky to work with an amazing set of 22 NBCTs from North Carolina and Kentucky that who have spent the last six months piloting curriculum tools developed by the Math Design Collaborative (MDC) and the Literacy Design Collaboartive (LDC) at the Center for Teaching Quality. It makes so much sense to capitalize on all the knowledge these teachers have gained from their working with the MDC and the LDC in a real classroom situation.

Alignment between states, districts, and teachers depends on teacher leaders. Even the Department of Education blog acknowledges that this implementation needs to be different: "Neither students nor teachers are served by a structure that treats some teachers like interchangeable cogs in a machine. We long to lead our own profession because when we drive our craft, we will see huge shifts in the responsibility, leadership, pay and respect."

As states begin to blend CCS with their own standards, district administration may be ready to move ahead without teacher input. They realize teachers have no choice in whether to implement. But the choice isn't to implement or not to implement; the choice is in how to implement. With a strong base of teacher leaders in place and leading the effort, other teachers will find inspiration and success.

Time and again, top-down implementation stalls as teachers fail to hear workable plans that reflect the realities of their classrooms. One must only look as far as the top-down force-feeding of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to see how negative side effects may outweigh any benefits. Ask any teacher how she felt about the implementation of NCLB and you're likely to get an earful about how things could and should have been done better.

With the implementation of CSS, educators and administrators have a chance to find a better model for rolling out widespread change. According to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, more than 90 percent of teachers believe that other teachers contribute to their success.Teacher leaders can help build a climate that draws on their colleagues' expertise and wisdom to improve the CSS implementation. Teacher-designed and teacher-defined professional development is the other critical element in aligning CCS.

Critical to a successful launch of CSS in schools is establishing credibility for that change. Teachers are often wary of anything they had no part in creating. This attitude is even more pronounced toward CSS, since the standards come from a political movement started by governors to "fix" education.

There is no force that is more adaptable, nimble, or capable of calling to action every one of the 3.2 million classroom teachers than genuine teacher leaders. These are leaders who work in classrooms every day. They have lived through NCLB and can apply the best and worst of that initiative. They have the respect of their peers, and can therefore call into action the legions of teachers who simply want to make tomorrow better for their 49.4 million students.

Image licensed under CC with attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/625205010/sizes/m/in/photostream/

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Teacher Leadership and Implementing the Common Core Standards

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Marsha Ratzel is a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches middle school math and science in Kansas. Her blog, Reflections of a Techie, focuses on technology integration in the classroom. Last month at the Center for Teaching Quality, I had the opportunity to meet with Marsha and the 22 NBCTs from North Carolina and Kentucky who are piloting curriculum tools to support the Common Core Standards.

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In 11th grade, students in my county are expected to generate a research paper or product. In the past, I stuck to the traditional paper, mostly because doing so was comfortable for me as an English teacher. I can do papers. I can do essays. I can provide feedback and teach revision.

However, last year I took a risk-instead of the traditional paper, I told my students we would be embarking on a project-based learning (PBL) journey. They seemed excited, mostly because they thought they wouldn't have to write a paper. In the end, they did so much more than that.

Project-Based Learning in High School English

I had my students form groups and then gave each group the task of choosing an issue they were interested in. The project would involve coming up with a viable solution. As a class we brainstormed all kinds of big issues, including school shootings, poverty, LGBT rights, bullying, and homelessness, as well as local issues like the need for more options in school lunches, such as vegan and gluten- and diary-free options.

Next they had to brainstorm possible resources and questions they needed to answer. Therein lies the beauty of PBL: Since I couldn't anticipate their every need, they had to take responsibility for their own learning, and solve problems as they encountered them.

Mini-Lessons and Formative Assessments

Their first formative assessment developed organically as they realized they would need to email professionals who could answer questions to guide their research. These adults included our school principal and our security team, as well as local government officials. Students reached out to their local delegates and other elected representatives, including the congresswoman for our district.

I gave a mini-lesson on how to write a formal email, and then the students composed their emails. Before they sent the messages, I previewed them, offering feedback and constructive criticism (formative assessment), and students made revisions.

By the next class period, my students had one of two versions of the same problem: Their recipients had responded or they hadn't, but either way my students didn't know what to do.

I gave a mini-lesson on how to send a follow-up email when someone doesn't respond and on how to move forward when they do. They wrote follow-up emails, and again I previewed these. As we awaited responses, several groups asked if they could poll the staff or their peers about school lunch choices, improving school security, and expanding the school parking lot. This exercise could benefit all groups, so we decided to make it the next task.

I showed them how to create an online survey using Office 365. Their surveys had to contain at least two graphics and 10 good questions (open ended, multiple choice, or order of importance).

Meanwhile, students continued getting responses from their email recipients and needed to set up interviews with those people. How to write good interview questions became the next mini-lesson. My students were largely unaware of how to interview someone and didn't realize that the questions they prepared were critical in gaining the evidence they needed to support their proposals.

For example, a group who wanted to expand the school parking lot went from asking broad questions like, "Do you think we need a larger parking lot?" to very specific ones like, "How many accidents have occurred in the parking lot since the school opened?" Most of the interviews were conducted over the phone, but some were in person-one group, with permission from their parents, interviewed members of a local homeless camp.

Students also had to find at least three solid sources and take notes to be embedded in their final product, with correct citations. They found statistics and data to support their proposals, and made sure to address counterarguments.

The Final Products

I gave my students options for their final products. All of them had to contain their survey results, research, and emails and interviews in one form or another. They came up with ideas like a public service announcement, a formal proposal, a bill, a documentary, a photo essay, or a piece of music or art.

I created rubrics and exemplars so students would know what I was expecting. I didn't want to be too controlling, but I wanted high-quality products. They shared their final products with a variety of authentic audiences, including their congresswoman, our principal, a county supervisor, and our security team.

I gave each group one summative grade, but in the future I plan to split the grade: 70 percent of each student's grade will be for their group's work, and 30 percent will be an individual grade based on my observations, students' self-reflections, and peer reflections.

As students shared their projects and we reflected on the process together, a few things became clear to me. First, I'll never teach the research paper any other way because the PBL model we used helped develop real-world problem solvers, thinkers, and doers instead of rule followers. I learned that to encourage students to step out of their comfort zones, I too had to step out of mine, but beautiful, authentic learning happens when we create the right conditions for it.

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Project-Based Learning and the Research Paper | Edutopia

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In 11th grade, students in my county are expected to generate a research paper or product. In the past, I stuck to the traditional paper, mostly because doing so was comfortable for me as an English teacher. I can do papers. I can do essays. I can provide feedback and teach revision.

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Can I show a video from Netflix in my classroom? Can I make 25 copies from my favorite math workbook? I just need three more copies of our book, can I make those? As educators, we use a variety of resources in our classroom to enhance a lesson. Knowing when our decision to use something falls under fair use and when it is a copyright violation can get tricky, but it doesn't have to.

Before we dive too deep, let's get a basic understanding of copyright and fair use.

What is Copyright?

According to copyright.gov, copyright is "a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression." Tangible media that can be protected through a copyright include songs, movies, books and artwork. Since copyrighted works are protected, they often require special permission or licensing for use with groups, including classrooms.

What is Fair Use?

Fair use permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Teaching is an activity that qualifies as fair use. When determining fair use, four factors should be considered,

1. the purpose and character of the use;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. the amount and substantiality of the portion use in relation to the whole work; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market.

So where does that Netflix documentary, the Disney movie, those workbook copies and my only copy of "Harry Potter" fall with fair use? Here's where things can get a bit tricky.

Printed materials, like books and articles, do fall under fair use in some cases-but this can be flexible. There is no hard-and-fast rule, although some districts may set specific guidelines of their own. For example, some might let you make multiple copies of an article or story less than 2,500 words. But this isn't law-just an interpretation. (As a side note, consumables or workbooks do not fall under fair use. Making copies from a single workbook is not covered by fair use.)

Making worksheet copies is easy, but it's not the only option. There are several resources out there to ensure learning and understanding without a worksheet. If you have a document camera or interactive board, put them to use! These two devices allow students to see the worksheet or text, but the interaction is centered on the board or the classroom discussion, instead of the individual student. You could also amp up the DOK (depth of knowledge). For example, instead of completing a worksheet on graphs, have students collect data, analyze the results and create their own graphs. Students can also create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast two books.

G-Suite tools like Drawing, Slides and Sites are great resources students can use to showcase their knowledge. And use digital tools to their full potential: Students can do so much more with them than just fill out a worksheet.

Check out books, including "Ditch the Textbook" by Matt Miller, the "Hacking Learning" series and "Teach Like a Pirate," by Dave Burgess for more ways you can stop making copies of worksheets and make learning interactive.

When it comes to printed materials, like books and magazines, you may want to dive into DonorsChoose, which connects classroom projects with donors. Company partners like Chevron, Google and Sonic along with individual donors help support teacher projects all over the United States. As a classroom teacher, one of my first DonorsChoose projects was for a class set of "Magic Tree House" books.

Can You Show That Video?

The right to show video in the classroom doesn't rely on fair use. In fact, there is a separate part of copyright law that lets teachers show video in class. However, consider these four points. You can show video:

1. During face-to-face teaching

2. When viewed in a classroom or other place of instruction

3. With a lawfully made copy

4. As a regular part of instruction and directly related to content being taught

If your district pays for a subscription to a multimedia resource like Learn360 or Discovery Education, then that should be your first stop for finding videos to use.

So what about Netflix? At first glance it seems like it would be OK, but a teacher wanting to show a Netflix movie would have to log into Netflix using a personal account. The user agreement the individual agreed to when he or she created the Netflix account prohibits showing movies in a public venue, which may be a contract violation. (However, Netflix does permit the showing of some documentaries in class.)

Don't let that discourage you. Ask your media specialist about whether or not your school or district has public performance rights to show videos outside of class and in public settings for non-teaching reasons (like the last day of school). If not, you want to ask your media specialist to look into gaining those rights. Most districts go through Movie Licensing USA, a company that provides licensing for K-12 schools for a variety of studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, Sony Pictures and DreamWorks Animation. You can pay a one-time license for a movie or an annual fee that covers you throughout the year.

Students are quick to use copy/paste and hit share/retweet. We have to help them understand copyright affects their daily lives inside and outside the classroom. Teaching copyright doesn't have to be done during a set-aside time. These lessons can go right along with classroom research, creation and even discussions at the lunch table.

My go-to resource for all things digital citizenship is Common Sense Media and their K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum. You can read more about Common Sense Media below. Another good resource for Copyright ideas for the classroom is Media Education Lab. In their Copyright section, you can gain access to visuals and lesson plans for secondary students.

As we encourage students to be creators of content, rather than consumers, they need to understand Creative Commons. Creative Commons, or CC, provides copyright licensing for those who want to share and encourage reuse. As students create, they can apply one of the six Creative Commons licenses to their work.

This not limited to students. Teachers can also use Creative Commons on resources they make. Next time you are browsing Teachers Pay Teachers, look for the CC label.

So, where can you go to get a better understanding of what does and does not fall under fair use? Here are some great resources you will want to bookmark for the next time you have a fair use question.

Copyright & Fair Use Resources

copyright.gov
This is the U.S. Copyright Office website. You can learn just about anything you want to know about the copyright law and its history. Be sure to check out the Education section.

UMUC Library
The University of Maryland, University College Library discusses copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons on the Get Help section of their website.

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers
This PDF resource was created by Hall Davidson. It is a great reference for teachers when it comes to fair use and the variety of mediums we use in the classroom. The downloads section of his website has a great selection of copyright resources.

Copyright and Intellectual Property
Kathy Schrock's website is always a great resource for educators. She has a section all about copyright and intellectual property with resources for classroom use and educator learning.

Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media offers a free, K-12 digital citizenship curriculum. Creative Credit/Copyright is one of the eight topics the lessons focus on. These lessons are a great way to help students become positive, productive digital citizens.

Media Education Lab
This is a good resource for media literacy education. Teachers can find a variety of teacher resources focus on media literacy, including copyright, as well as professional development opportunities.

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Can You Show Netflix in Class? Copyright for Teachers Made Simple - EdSurge News

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Can I show a video from Netflix in my classroom? Can I make 25 copies from my favorite math workbook? I just need three more copies of our book, can I make those? As educators, we use a variety of resources in our classroom to enhance a lesson.

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Report Card Assemblies That Inspire

The team came up with the idea of report card assemblies to transform report card distribution into an inspiring event focused on self-reflection. Administrators, counselors, and teachers attend and facilitate the assemblies, which we organize by grade level. This allows us to build a sense of class camaraderie: "Good morning, Class of 2021! Look around-these are the people you'll graduate with in four years."

In our presentation, we put careful thought into our messaging about grades. One issue was that some students were satisfied with barely passing, yet completely demoralized by failing. We reframed grades as Honors (90-100 percent), Passing (75-89 percent), and Borderline (65-74 percent), and changed Failing (below 65 percent) to Not Passing Yet.

Before our first assembly, we primed our teachers by having them watch Carol Dweck's TED talk " The Power of Yet " and coached them to use that language in their classrooms.

We now explicitly teach students what it means to self-reflect, and coach them to identify how their actions led to their current grades. We model for them how they can talk to teachers about their grades calmly, rather than with frustration, in order to understand those grades better.

We also highlight students who have made improvements. For example, we might say, "In the first marking period, Jennifer earned a 65 percent in English. She started revising her work based on feedback, and her writing became more organized. She raised her grade to an 85 percent!"

After the presentation, the students work on a report card reflection activity using their own report cards. This involves sorting their grades into the four categories of Honors, Passing, Borderline, and Not Passing Yet, and then comparing their grades to the previous marking period.

Next students reflect on what they did to earn their most improved grade: "What is one grade you improved? How did you improve it?" They also reflect on grades that declined: "What was a grade that went down? Why?"

Students then set a goal to improve their lowest grade in one class and write out two actions they'll take to meet that goal. To support our ELLs with the language of reflection, we provide sentence frames and a bank of exemplar responses.

Counselors meet with any students who need support completing the reflections or creating more specific goals. The report card reflections are then mailed home along with the actual report cards so that parents can read them.

Classroom Reflections Instead of Assemblies

We have found that a whole-grade assembly works best for our school's goal of creating a class identity. However, report card reflection would also be an ideal classroom activity, particularly for schools that have advisories.

On one occasion when we did this activity in class, we distributed a normed PowerPoint presentation so that the message of growth mindset was clear across classes. One benefit of doing the reflections in a smaller setting is that the teacher can monitor the quality of reflections more closely.

Improved Grades, Improved Mindsets

Since we implemented the report card assemblies, grades and learning have improved. The grade reporting system in New York City measures grades above 65 percent and grades above 80 percent. The year we implemented report card reflections, the number of students earning grades above 80 percent in English increased by 15 percent, while the number of students earning grades above 80 percent in math improved by 12 percent. The percentage of ninth graders earning 10 or more credits in a year increased from 82 percent the previous year to 97 percent. And the number of students meeting college-readiness requirements on New York State math and English exams more than doubled.

Our report card reflections have evolved to include post-secondary planning, in which students compare their grades and GPAs with college benchmarks and learn how their transcripts relate to college acceptance.

Using Not Passing Yet instead of Failing has also made an impact. In teacher-team meetings, we've started to hear teachers say, "Joshua is not participating in group work-yet," and, "Our ninth graders are not organizing their time well-yet." The yet then naturally leads to "How do we help our students get there?"

The greatest benefit of the assemblies is evident in our students' mindsets. Most students are no longer satisfied with merely passing and are taking pride in improvement. Best of all, more students see their grades as a reflection of their learning and effort, rather than as a random number given to them by a teacher.

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Metacognitive Reflection at Report Card Time

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The team came up with the idea of report card assemblies to transform report card distribution into an inspiring event focused on self-reflection. Administrators, counselors, and teachers attend and facilitate the assemblies, which we organize by grade level. This allows us to build a sense of class camaraderie: "Good morning, Class of 2021!

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Back in September, teacher Mary Gilreath's first-grade class was asked to wear blue for Peace Day. An adult worried the girls might not own blue shirts, and Gilreath saw an opportunity for her Boulder classroom. She shared the story with her students.

"What do you all think about that?" Gilreath asks them.

"Maybe it's because girls mostly wear dresses?" a girl wonders.

"Oh, is that true?" Gilreath replies. "What do you all think?"

The first graders erupt in a chorus of "No!"

Gilreath goes out of her way to address gender identity in her classroom. She says it's "a safety issue and a mental health issue for kids," pointing to the recent suicide of a 9-year-old Denver boy who was bullied after he came out to his classmates.

Studies have shown LGBTQ students are more likely to be bullied at school, which can lead to missed classes and a higher risk of suicide. For those kids, a teacher who knows how to be inclusive - or how to "queer" the classroom, as some refer to it - can make a big difference. But many teachers aren't sure how to do that. Over the years, gender and sexual identity have evolved, and not everyone has kept up.

"When they [teachers] realize, 'I don't know what I'm doing,' you know how vulnerable it feels? It's a big deal. They need support."

"When they [teachers] realize, 'I don't know what I'm doing,' you know how vulnerable it feels? It's a big deal. They need support," says Bethy Leonardi, co-founder of A Queer Endeavor, an initiative of University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. A Queer Endeavor helps teachers navigate questions like how to intervene when they see anti-LGBTQ bullying, how to be there for students who identify as gender-fluid and how to address kids who use gender-neutral pronouns like "they."

The organization has put out a list of tips for making classrooms more LGBTQ-friendly. They include:

Let students identify themselves on the first day of class. Ask them to fill out index cards with their preferred name and pronouns, then be sure to update the class list and share that list when there's a substitute teacher.

Avoid using gendered language to address students ("ladies and gentlemen," "boys/girls"). Instead, use words like "scientists," "readers," "athletes," "writers," "artists," "scholars," etc.

Avoid grouping students by gender. Instead, use birthdays, ice cream preferences, pet preferences, etc.

If there are all-gender bathrooms, make sure students know where they are and that they are for everyone.

Make your ally status known by hanging a rainbow flag, sharing your own pronouns and/or supporting the school's LGBTQ groups.

"I just didn't know the questions to ask"
Lisa Durant teaches health and physical education at a high school outside Denver. She says when she started hearing students use words like "asexual" and "gender-fluid," "I had no idea what they were talking about."

Then in June, Durant attended A Queer Endeavor's teacher training. She learned some new terminology ("C-I-S; binary, non-binary; the umbrella of transgender, pangender") and reconsidered an interaction with a student who transitioned from male to female while at Durant's school. She remembers talking to that student about which pronouns to use and the lesson material she'd missed. But Durant now looks back at that conversation with regret.

She says she didn't ask, " 'How can I support you? What do I need to do to make you feel more comfortable in a group setting in this classroom?' I just didn't know the questions to ask."

A Queer Endeavor also encourages teachers to validate who their students are. Before the training, Denver high school teacher Kari Allerton had always lived the mantra that it doesn't matter who you love or how you identify: "You're all my students and I love you all." But the training gave her an insight.

"Saying [to a teenager] that I don't care if you're gay or straight or trans, it's almost like when people say, 'I don't see color.' "

"Saying [to a teenager] that I don't care if you're gay or straight or trans, it's almost like when people say, 'I don't see color,' " she explains. It's dismissing them instead of "validating the beautiful people that they blossom into at our school."

She remembers a student who, by the end of the year, had dyed his hair pink and started wearing earrings and lipstick. "I didn't say anything to him," Allerton says - she didn't know what to say. At the training, a fellow teacher made a suggestion: "It's so much fun watching you become who you are."
"We don't talk like that in my classroom"
As an LGBTQ teacher, Meghan Mosher brings a different perspective to her Louisville classroom. She says she works hard to make her high school science class a place where kids feel free to ask uncomfortable questions. Once, during a lesson about chromosomes, she heard a student put one such question to his classmate.

"He was whispering across the table and said, 'Is that what makes you gay?' "

For Mosher, it was a chance to clarify that many factors determine sexual orientation and gender identity.

But Mosher has also struggled with how to address slurs like "That's so gay." In the past, she talked to kids individually; but that didn't stop other students from uttering the same slurs. Then one day she heard it in the middle of a lab.

"And I stopped everybody. And it was dead silent. And I said, 'It's not OK to use someone's identity as an insult.' And I finally brought my own identity into it."

The slurs stopped after that. She knows not all teachers can bring their personal lives into the classroom, but she says it's important to tell kids what's appropriate and what's not.

Asher Cutler agrees. A recent Denver high school graduate, Cutler identifies as gender-fluid. At the training, they said they know it can be uncomfortable to intervene, but, "Don't fear that. Go for it, please. Your role as an authoritative figure means that you can save someone's life. ... These comments are the little things that build up over time, and you have to, as a teacher say, 'No, we don't talk like that in my classroom.' "

When a teacher makes their classroom a safe place where a student isn't bullied for an hour out of the day, "That is so important," Cutler said.

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5 Ways To Make Classrooms More Inclusive

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Back in September, teacher Mary Gilreath's first-grade class was asked to wear blue for Peace Day. An adult worried the girls might not own blue shirts, and Gilreath saw an opportunity for her Boulder classroom. She shared the story with her students. "What do you all think about that?"

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First Person

Talk of school quality tends to focus on teachers-what they do to affect student achievement, how they succeed or how they fail. But district and building administrators also have an enormous influence in the education equation, a factor that is often overlooked.

Over a 25-year career, I have worked in four schools as an elementary teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach. I have been led by 12 different principals and countless district administrators who have spanned the spectrum from fantastic to problematic.

Administrators wield enormous influence over teacher working conditions and student success. When teachers work under a poor leader, morale sinks and negativity permeates the culture of the school or district. When districts and schools are populated with positive and dynamic leaders, students are the ultimate beneficiaries. Teachers thrive and grow under great leaders, and, in turn, instruction for students is strengthened.

Over the years, I have noticed recurring characteristics of difficult and of strong administrators. I have learned to recognize the motivations and traits of those in power and, whenever possible, look for a work environment where the leaders create working conditions rooted in growing teacher capacity and a positive climate. Hopefully, this list can help other teachers call out problematic behavior when they see it and articulate the qualities they would like to see in school leadership.

(All vignettes shared in italics below are from actual experiences I have had over the course of my teaching career. In some examples, pronouns or positions have been changed.)

Four Types of Difficult Administrators

The Unrealistic, Out of Touch Administrator: This leader has forgotten what it is like to teach in a classroom. She layers in new initiatives and expectations with little regard as to how they all work together.
My principal was rolling out a program that was going to be difficult to implement due to other work underway, an issue she ignored. Frustrated teachers struggled to meet the new expectations and the program did not have the intended impact.
The "I Know Everything" Administrator: This leader thinks he has all the answers, even on topics he has little or no relevant knowledge about. He typically does not consult others and often ends up making unsound decisions.
My new principal had zero elementary-level experience. Despite his lack of relevant knowledge, he announced daily writing prompts would be administered schoolwide to improve student writing. He was unaware that our staff had recently revamped the writing program to address student needs.
The Bully Administrator: This person appears to enjoy making life difficult for staff. She targets those who are willing to speak up when her decisions are questionable or have unintended consequences. She makes judgements about staff based on rumors and the opinions of a favored few.

One principal I worked with was threatened by those with deep instructional knowledge. In return for unquestioning loyalty, she gave a few staff members all of the leadership opportunities and undue influence over schoolwide decisions. When other staff members tried to speak up, she called them in for private meetings to discuss their "transgressions" and to deliver veiled threats.

The "It's for the Children" Administrator: This person often justifies the decisions he makes by implying or stating they are based on what is best for students. The message is sent that alternate viewpoints have little or no value, leading teachers to feel like their input is not welcomed.
The district administrator shared his new weekly paperwork requirement. It was baffling as similar records were already being kept, and this added a layer of time-consuming duplication. When asked why it was necessary, he said, "It's for the children," a line he often used to justify decisions that had little to do with children.
Four Qualities of High-Impact Administrators

As problematic as the above behaviors are among school leaders, the below characteristics are the ones that support teachers and create a positive school culture.

The Administrator Considers Teachers' Opinions: The leader weighs staff input and is willing to make adjustments if something is not working.
Our principal met with teachers to discuss ways a new source of funding could be utilized. The group members shared many ideas, all of which had merit. When the principal ultimately made her decision, everyone felt like their opinions had been heard and valued in the process.
The Administrator Plans Ahead: Before implementing a new initiative, the leader considers what could present challenges. He consults with staff members that have relevant knowledge to consider angles he might not have considered.
District leaders rolled out a large initiative. My principal took a measured approach to implementation, bringing together teachers to plan for how to roll it out incrementally, in a way that built upon our current work. As a result, morale remained high among staff members and there was a high level of buy in.
The Administrator Is Empathetic: The leader understands how demanding the job of teaching can be. She is an active listener who cares about staff members at a professional as well as a personal level.
Our principal took time to listen to and ask questions of a struggling teacher. She discovered that in addition to having a challenging class, the teacher's husband had just left her. Taking the time to understand why the teacher was faltering led to better problem solving on how to move forward.
The Administrator Develops Talent: The leader values all staff members and recognizes the strengths they bring to the table. He works to build leadership capacity and expertise across the staff.
The principal asked several teachers to take on the task of planning and presenting professional development to the staff, something they had never done before. He gave them the needed support to develop a quality presentation and, in the process, the teachers involved developed new leadership skills.
Nurturing Positive Leadership

How can schools nurture and develop leaders who have positive traits while also identifying when there are leadership situations in which things have gone awry?

A large part of the responsibility lies with the district. School systems should provide substantive and meaningful training for new administrators, including an opportunity to hear from teachers about what leadership qualities they value.

But teachers, too, have the power to shape leadership decisions. Network with teachers across the school or district to communicate how important it is that teachers be involved in decision making. Advocate for anonymous surveys of teacher working conditions, so that staff can give honest and constructive feedback without fear of repercussions. Ask that the district offer all staff members who leave the option of having a confidential exit interview, so that it is possible to uncover issues related to leadership that may not be coming to light through other avenues.

When administrators who are struggling do something positive, teachers should acknowledge the success. If administrators are open to improvement and growth, it is beneficial for them to get feedback so they know when their leadership was well received.

When there are difficult situations or conflict between administrators and staff, stand together in unity with other teachers. Too often, only a small handful of teachers are willing to speak up. It is very easy for an administrator to dismiss concerns when this happens. Teachers should harness the power in numbers.

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Administrators Can Make or Break School Culture. Here's How to Spot the Best Ones

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First Person Talk of school quality tends to focus on teachers-what they do to affect student achievement, how they succeed or how they fail. But district and building administrators also have an enormous influence in the education equation, a factor that is often overlooked.

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How to Live the Life You Never Imagined | Richard Pimentel | Goalcast

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Imagine that you have a full-time job that requires you to be at the office for seven to 10 hours a day, and your boss tells that you that you will also need to work offsite on nights and weekends. After a few weeks, the after-hours projects are taking anywhere from five to 20 hours a week, and you find that you don't have a free minute. Your job performance and your home life suffer-you're only sleeping five hours a night, and you missed a family celebration. Unfortunately, this is the only job you're qualified for, so you can't quit.

If you're a high school student these days, this is your job.

After serving as a high school principal for a decade and a half, I became increasingly concerned at the net effect that homework was having on our students. After hundreds of conversations with students, teachers, and parents, I came to believe we were reaching a tipping point.

Students told me how little sleep they were getting, parents described how stressed out their kids were, and teachers commented on how they spent endless hours grading the very work they had assigned.

And the results from our 2014 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were alarming:

61 percent of respondents reported experiencing "somewhat high" or "very high" levels of stress as a result of their academic workload.

70 percent reported that they got seven hours of sleep or less each night.

12 percent had seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, up from 8 percent in 2006.

In another survey we conducted on homework with all 1,300 of our students, 51 percent reported doing more than three hours of homework per night. This flies in the face of research showing that the benefits of homework diminish after approximately 2.5 hours a night for high school students.

The Working Group on Homework

With all of this in mind, I decided it was time to make the lives of our students better, so I formed the Working Group on Homework. I wanted to make sure that student voices informed everything we did. They were the ones experiencing the stress and the ones who had the first-hand knowledge of how difficult it was to do the work night after night.

I selected four students with very diverse academic profiles and backgrounds. This diversity is critical. If you do something like this and only pick overachievers and student leaders, they may only tell you what they think you want to hear. One of our struggling students talked about the hopelessness he felt when multiple assignments "snowballed" behind him.

Another piece that was critical to successfully incorporating student voice was meeting with the students on their own prior to the first full group meeting. I knew that with many adults in the room, the students might be hesitant to fully share their experiences. They needed to be coached, so I previewed the process for them, let them know who would be involved, and got them to outline the ideas they wanted to share. We even did some role-playing to practice what it would be like to make a point and how to respond to a follow-up question.

In addition to incorporating student voice, the best thing I did was to make it very clear to both the students and the faculty that there were no preordained conclusions going into the process. The goal was to determine simple steps we could take as a school to help bring the lives of students back into balance.

These key steps were critical to achieving a successful outcome:

Gather data on the scope of the issue through student and parent surveys.

Recruit teachers from every department (including guidance counselors, special educators, and tutors, for a total of 14 adults and four students).

Establish a limited number of meetings to avoid an endless process.

Provide specific research ahead of time for the group to read.

Facilitate the discussions using protocols so all voices are heard.

Coming Up With Workable Changes

In the end, the Working Group came up with three recommendations that were implemented school-wide:

1. No homework assigned over the weeklong vacations (we have three).

2. All homework assignments posted on Google Calendar (we had been using multiple platforms).

3. Homework needed to be available before the end of the class period so students could get work done during study halls and before athletics in the afternoon.

Students I talked to in the halls saw these changes as steps that definitely improved their daily lives. And it's worth noting that the faculty bought in because we didn't impose time limits on the amount of homework that could be assigned by individual teachers.

Without the incorporation of student voice, I'm sure this effort at making school-wide change would have ended up as yet another committee whose efforts lead to no real change. Because we involved students with different profiles and backgrounds and supported them prior to their engagement with the adults, they were better able to effectively harness the power of their experiences.

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Getting Student Input on the Burden of Homework

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Imagine that you have a full-time job that requires you to be at the office for seven to 10 hours a day, and your boss tells that you that you will also need to work offsite on nights and weekends.

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When Mark Benigni took the reins as superintendent of Connecticut's Meriden Public Schools district in 2010, the central office was half empty-the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and personnel director had recently retired. While there was hope for change and innovation, there was no plan for how to get there.

"We were kind of being stale-doing the same thing over and over and wondering why the kids weren't buying in," Benigni said.

He could sense the teachers and students felt it too.

With a limited budget, Benigni started small-providing dedicated time each day for teachers to talk to each other, hoping to build trust that would support reinvention. But something bigger happened: Teachers started identifying and driving improvements across the district.

This shift away from top-down innovation made all the difference, Benigni said: "Collaboration is about recognizing that the best ideas don't always come from the superintendent's desk. Sometimes it comes from our students or our families, and many times it comes from a great teaching staff."

8000 | Public, Urban

71%

Taking direction from his staff, Benigni targeted key areas for investment: enhancing professional development for teachers and administrators; focusing on an individualized, student-centered teaching approach, backed by new one-to-one technology initiatives; and making an ongoing commitment to collaboration between administrators and teachers.

Today, the diverse 8,000-student district is humming with innovation. Throughout Meriden's 12 schools, teachers put students at the center of their instruction, directing them to take the lead in their learning process. One-to-one technology is available in most schools, and students are encouraged to use it anywhere to drive their learning. And staff are equipped to ensure that every child, regardless of needs and abilities, is empowered to achieve to his or her potential.

Meriden is seeing results. Suspensions are down 86 percent and expulsions are down more than 95 percent since 2011. Teachers report a more positive working environment district-wide. And in 2016, Meriden reported some of the highest test scores in its history, and was honored with a National School Board Association Magna Award and recognized as a District of Distinction by District Administration magazine.

With their safety goggles on and knowledge of chemistry in hand, twelfth-grade students in Brenda Parness's class at Maloney High School are working to identify six white mystery compounds. One student reminds her group to test whether the powdery substances are soluble and to check density and conductivity.

As they work, Parness moves around the room, listening to questions but providing minimal feedback. At the school, teachers take on the role of guides, encouraging students to think outside the box and become active problem solvers rather than passive note-takers.

The student-centered approach to instruction was identified during Meriden's teacher-to-teacher collaboration as a way to give students more "voice and choice" in their learning. While the shift hasn't been easy, it's helped increase student engagement and decrease time off task as students take more ownership of their work, according to teachers, including English language arts teacher Patrick Good.

"For 17 or 18 years, it was, 'What am I going to tell the kids today?' And now it's, 'What am I going to have the kids show me today?'" Good said of the new student-focused approach. "The person who is blown away by that is me."

"Once upon a time there was a castle," a first-grade student types on a Google Chromebook.

"Who lives in the castle?" prods one of two fifth-grade students who look on supportively during a lesson in the weekly "tech buddies" program at John Barry Elementary School.

The program, which pairs older and younger students for technological training, grew out of a need to improve students' skills after the school went one-to-one-part of Meriden's larger push to modernize teaching and learning district-wide after Benigni came on board.

In one session, fifth-grade students taught their first-grade buddies how to use Google Slides and learning apps like Padlet, Osmo, and myON to create interactive presentations on reptiles.

Partnering teachers meet once a week to plan sessions centered around what younger students need to learn to do independently. They say the program is empowering their students, improving confidence and social and emotional skills. Though the older students say teaching can be challenging, they also say it's worth it.

Walking into the "sensory room" at Hanover Elementary School, you may see a child being pushed in a large swing or crashing into soft floor mats. Another may hit a punching bag or test his or her balance on a walking path.

For students with autism in particular, the sensory room has become a safe space to get grounded and release emotions before they go back to class to learn.

In 2013, the school transformed the room as part of a larger effort to improve Meriden's special education services after Benigni realized that too many special needs students were being sent outside the district to get the care they needed. In Meriden, roughly 14 percent of the student body has an Individualized Education Program (IEP).

Students with autism attend daily 30-minute "sensory breaks" as well as a weekly physical therapy session, learning breathing exercises and calming movements that help them regulate behavior and emotions. According to teachers, the sensory room is the most important piece of their students' day, and has increased time on task and decreased negative behaviors.

"Research shows if the students are in the right mindset and they get their sensory needs met, they are going to be much better learners," said special education teacher Cheryl Cunningham. "After the sensory room, they're able to focus more and learn easier, and they retain more information."

Walking through Meriden's schools, it's hard to believe there was a time when the district was stuck in the past. The profound changes of the past several years are apparent to teachers and students alike.

It was new leadership-and the resulting shift to teacher-driven innovation-that made Meriden's reinvention possible, according to one principal, who says educators now feel confident about sharing their thoughts and trying new things.

"Leadership is about making people comfortable to take risks," said Benigni, who was recognized as a Leader to Learn From by Education Week. "If you're not willing to fail, you're never going to be innovative, and you're not going to be as successful as you should be."

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Want to Improve a District? Let Teachers Lead the Way

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When Mark Benigni took the reins as superintendent of Connecticut's Meriden Public Schools district in 2010, the central office was half empty-the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and personnel director had recently retired. While there was hope for change and innovation, there was no plan for how to get there.

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As the designated Teacher Scholar at Narragansett School in Gorham, Maine, Debbie Loveitt recently enjoyed an experience more familiar to university professors than to K-12 teachers.

She was freed from her classroom responsibilities for a full year to pursue professional interests that she would not otherwise have time for. Debbie used the year to learn more about student assessment and educational technology and to share her knowledge with other teachers through workshops, presentations, and one-on-one sessions. "I'd always seen myself as a leader in my own classroom," she says, "but this experience gave me the opportunity to use those leadership skills to help others."

For more than a decade, the Gorham School Department, a suburban school district of 2,400 students in southern Maine, has encouraged teachers to become leaders with the idea that they'll then pioneer new practices for their peers. Each year, teachers and staff at each of the district's six schools create special leadership positions for experienced educators and allocate funds to support them. Up to a third of the district's 170 classroom teachers assume these roles in any given year, usually in addition to their regular teaching duties.

The teacher-leader positions allow educators to take on new challenges and advance in their profession without leaving the classroom to become administrators. They learn new teaching skills and are better able to manage student learning.

Gorham's schools use block scheduling and common planning times to give all teachers opportunities to work together and provide phones and networked computers in classrooms to encourage communication. "We are fortunate to have a district that says, 'We want things to be better for kids, so we are going back to teachers to make that happen,'" says Michael Carter, a teacher-leader in social studies.

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Teachers as Leaders: A Year Off Can Add So Much More

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As the designated Teacher Scholar at Narragansett School in Gorham, Maine, Debbie Loveitt recently enjoyed an experience more familiar to university professors than to K-12 teachers. She was freed from her classroom responsibilities for a full year to pursue professional interests that she would not otherwise have time for.

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Like many schools, MS 354 is in the midst of change. We're still adjusting to new standards and the EngageNY course curriculum. About a year and a half ago, we were also introduced to the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a network of educators who use a common system to create literacy-rich assignments and lessons in subject areas. In the middle of these shifts, our district mandated that we consolidate with another middle school in our building, MS 334. Both schools serve a diverse group of students, many of whom enter below grade level.

These changes have been rapid. Within a year, I've gone from being a social studies department of one to leading a team of new teachers. It's challenging at times, but I'm quickly learning so much about teacher leadership.

Lesson 1: Continually Improve My Own Skills

As teachers, we see a lot of fads come and go. That shouldn't stop us, however, from trying new approaches, taking what works, and disregarding what doesn't. It's not easy with our busy schedules. When I was introduced to the LDC, I skeptically thought, "It's one more thing." But after doing the training and trying the tools, here is what I found:

When I previously assigned document-based questions (DBQs), I would ask students to read and analyze documents on a topic and then write a few drafts of their response. Now, with the LDC tools, I break down each step and teach students skills along the way, such as annotating a text or note taking. I'm seeing my students write at a deeper level and apply their new skills to other tasks, like using note-taking strategies in their notebooks.

The new tools help me do what I was already doing -- but do it better. It wouldn't have happened, though, if I hadn't given them a try.

Lesson 2: Connect New Ideas, Tools, and Materials

It's critical to make these connections so that everything you're implementing will work together. At MS 354, we're balancing three sets of standards -- Common Core, New York Content, and the College, Career and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies (PDF) -- along with the EngageNY materials and the Literacy Design Collaborative tools. This has the potential to be really confusing. So how are we making it work? Here's one example:

The EngageNY curriculum provides the social studies standards and content, such as the Agricultural Revolution and American Imperialism units. Within these units, we use the LDC tools to refine assignments. We reword prompts so that they don't lead students to "yes/no" responses. We also identify certain requirements in the prompt -- instead of asking students to just "argue," we name the specific demand, such as analyze, evaluate, or compare. Students are clearer about what the assignment is asking and learn different approaches to writing about the content.

From this, I've learned that good leadership connects seemingly different strategies and materials in ways that make sense for the classroom. By doing so, we work to avoid the "pile on" of strategies that overwhelms teachers and students.

Lesson 3: Find Ways to Discuss Each Other's Work

As our school consolidates with MS 334, all teachers are bringing their own experiences and feelings about the changes. My principal expects that I'll help acclimate the social studies teachers to our school and build a cohesive department.

I started our department conversations by emphasizing our common goal: helping students. I then introduced the LDC tools as one way to help students improve their literacy skills and, through that, their social studies content knowledge. Although it was a bumpy start, little by little, our new department gave it a try.

Now, we've decided as a team to use LDC to organize and discuss our teaching. A teacher recently mentioned that she was concerned about the level of student work on a particular assignment. Using the LDC tools, we looked at the student papers and classroom lessons, and we realized that students didn't analyze the rubric. Reviewing a rubric isn't necessarily a lesson that all students need. However, it was clear that these particular students didn't know how to unpack the rubric and, because of that, didn't understand what was expected of them.

By using a system to look at lessons and student work, the teacher and I were both comfortable in knowing that our conversation wasn't personal. We were problem solving together to help students.

Here's the overall lesson that I've learned about leadership. It's not about me telling people what to do. It's about all of us learning together. Are you a teacher in a leadership position? What lessons have you learned through the experience? Please share them in the comments section of this post.

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Teacher Leadership as Professional Development

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Like many schools, MS 354 is in the midst of change. We're still adjusting to new standards and the EngageNY course curriculum. About a year and a half ago, we were also introduced to the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a network of educators who use a common system to create literacy-rich assignments and lessons in subject areas.

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Gloria is part of an innovative mentoring program resulting from a partnership between the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and area public schools. Two U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grants have enabled 350 teachers to enroll in a UTEP master's program integrating educational technology and teaching. The centerpiece of the program is a mentoring class designed to enhance the technology and leadership skills of teachers as they mentor other teachers.

By using mentoring to transform classroom teaching, this grant has been one of the primary forces driving the school technology reform agenda in El Paso. As graduates such as Gloria mentor at least three other teachers at their schools, an estimated 1,000 teachers will benefit from the program by the end of the grant period in 2003.

Students transform their traditional pencil-and-paper stories by adding original art work, graphics, and sound elements.

Credit: Marcos Martinez

Theory to Practice

Why a separate course on mentoring? Because the theory taught at many universities does not necessarily translate into classroom practice. During the course, Gloria practiced her mentoring skills with a cohort of five teachers. "We developed skills for effective interpersonal communication, such as being a good listener and providing meaningful support and guidance to our colleagues. Not only did we learn the theory, but we learned how to support each other," she says.

For example, using their skills from the course, the cohort developed an integrated unit on air pollution -- a topic of great concern in El Paso, a metropolitan area of 700,000 sitting on the Rio Grande. Gloria and her colleagues discussed the role of technology, conducted research, collaboratively wrote the lessons, and chose appropriate graphics and software for the topic.

Continually reflecting on the lesson objectives, members of the group mentored each other every step of the way. At the start of the course, some cohort members were strong writers; others were more technically savvy or had better research skills. Over time, however, all members were able to improve upon all these skills; each teacher learned to give and receive support in a non-threatening atmosphere.

As Gloria says of the experience, "In order for us to learn, we had to learn together."

Underlying the UTEP course is the assumption that mentoring involves more than just teaching others how to use technology. It also involves guiding class members as they discover new ways to use technology most effectively, and working to resolve the challenges they encounter while helping other teachers use technology. Gloria practiced how to be a mentor through simulation and role-playing. The instructor divided the class into small groups. Half of the participants played the role of mentors and the other half played the role of mentees, reenacting situations they experienced at their schools. Group discussions followed these dramatizations.

First-graders in Maria Aguilera's class create multimedia stories from activities in their Writer's Workshop.

Credit: Emerald Jasmine Maese

Becoming a Learning Organization

The mentoring course gives teachers a clinical setting in which to examine and share their teaching practices with the instructor and cohort members. The mentoring relationships developed in the course help break down walls that in the past have isolated teachers, allowing colleagues to become members of a team. By continuously reflecting on their practice, the mentors experience their own professional growth at the university and at their schools, which helps each school become a "learning organization" where participants support each other as they integrate technology into curricula.

Back at her school, Gloria took "baby steps" to help other teachers learn to use technology. "I thought, 'There's no way I could mentor other teachers, motivate them, or get them enthused -- it's just going to be too much work.' Then I realized that if I could get one teacher interested, I could get others interested."

"So, I visited first-grade teacher Maria Aguilera and saw her students' beautifully written stories hanging on the wall," Gloria continues. "I asked Maria if I could borrow the students' work and put the stories into HyperStudio. Maria and her students saw how the technology transformed their work, making it look professional with added sound and graphics features. As Maria witnessed her students' enthusiasm, she decided to accept the challenge herself and worked with me to learn how to implement technology in her classroom. As a mentor, I had my first mentee."

Exchanging Ideas

During Gloria's initial meetings at her school, she asked teachers what areas of technology use they were most interested in. She then used her own students' writings to highlight how technology tools support learning. "Teachers at my school would say, 'I like what you are doing, but how do I get my students started using technology?' This is exactly how the mentoring course supported me. I demonstrated an idea to make the lesson more concrete for our teachers, and they learned valuable skills, such as using a scanner and converting files using multimedia tools."

"Our first step as a group was to develop a five-point rubric for assessing technology-based lessons," Gloria says. "These rubrics help students understand what is expected of them by defining what kind of work earns five points, four points, and so on. For me, the rubrics provide a means for assessing the students' projects. These rubrics are now posted in each room."

A mentor helps reduce the anxiety of new learners by adjusting learning tasks to fit their proficiency level. Without one-on-one mentoring, many teachers are afraid to use technology in their classrooms. Leslie Chavez, one of Gloria's mentees, explains, "I had three computers in my classroom and never knew what to do with them. With a mentor's help, I've been able to realize what is possible. We've expanded our Writer's Workshop by having students create and publish their own stories using computers. Gloria is here when the questions come up, and the ongoing day-to-day contact makes the difference."

"I was afraid to use technology because it's hard to show students something I don't know," continues Chavez. "Now I feel comfortable letting students work through problems that may arise with the technology. I was afraid they would learn it 'wrong,' and now I know that's not true. The students often help me."

The experiences of Gloria, Maria, and Leslie are not unique. Graduates of the UTEP program are taking the skills they learn back into their classrooms. They are mentoring colleagues in their schools and are more involved in campus technology planning activities. They report that their students are working more cooperatively, are learning more, and are more willing to try new things. Through its innovative use of mentoring, the UTEP program is providing teachers with the skills to transform their schools into twenty-first-century learning institutions.

Jorge Descamps, Ed.D., is co-director of the 1995 El Paso Technology Innovation Challenge Grant and professor of education at the University of Texas at El Paso.

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Teachers Helping Teachers: The Path to School Improvement

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Gloria is part of an innovative mentoring program resulting from a partnership between the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and area public schools. Two U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grants have enabled 350 teachers to enroll in a UTEP master's program integrating educational technology and teaching.

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Effective Administrator and Teacher Leadership

Leadership is second only to teaching among school-related factors that can improve student achievement, and it tends to show greatest impact in traditionally underserved schools ( Leithwood, Seashore Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). Superintendents, principals, and others in positions of authority in school systems are instrumental in providing the vision, time, and resources to support continual professional learning, a positive school climate, and success for all students (Leithwood et al., 2004; The Wallace Foundation, 2012). Research shows that the following features of effective leadership can improve student achievement (Leithwood et al., 2004; Vescio, Ross, and Adams, 2008; The Wallace Foundation, 2012):

A vision of academic success for all students based on high expectations

A safe and cooperative climate for learning

Support and training to promote continual professional learning

Data to track and promote collaborative inquiry and practices that improve student learning

Cultivating leadership in staff, parents, and community partners

Great leaders focus on developing people's capacities rather than their limitations (Leithwood et al., 2004; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011). Schools that foster trust among parents, teachers, and school leaders are more likely to see academic improvement than schools that do little or fail to foster trust ( Bryk and Schneider, 2003).

Teacher leadership is also critical for school improvement efforts to succeed. Accomplished teachers are most knowledgeable about how students in their school or district learn, and thus they are ideal candidates to lead professional-learning and curriculum development efforts (Vescio et al., 2008; Webster-Wright, 2009; Accomplished California Teachers, 2012). Teacher-advancement systems that effectively identify and support quality teaching include the following features (Accomplished California Teachers, 2012; Darling-Hammond, 2012):

Professional standards, such as those of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Research has found that the National Board certification is a way to identify teachers who are more effective in increasing student engagement, learning, and achievement, and a variety of evidence shows that NBPTS-certified teachers may be more likely to stay in the profession, as compared to teachers who have not achieved certification (NBPTS, 2012; NBPTS Research page). Additionally, the standards themselves influence teacher mentoring, leadership, team building, professional development and evaluation, curriculum development, efficacy, and overall school leadership (NBPTS: Impact of National Board Certification page; NBPTS Research page).

Performance assessments that integrate evidence of teaching practices and student learning measured in a variety of ways (such as student work, lesson plans, assignments, in-person or video observations based on standards, and/or National Board assessment)

Consideration of practice and performance for teacher teams and individual teachers to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing

Expert evaluations, with experts who include teachers who are trained in evaluation criteria and have demonstrated expertise in teaching the content and working with their peers

Useful feedback connected to professional-learning opportunities and reviewed by an oversight committee to ensure fairness and consistency

Extensive evidence of quality teaching for tenure (e.g., using Peer Assistance and Review programs as described in Darling-Hammond, 2012 (PDF))

To promote student learning and achievement, research indicates that teacher advancement systems should compensate teachers for their expert contributions, particularly in economically disadvantaged schools where teaching challenges tend to be greater (Accomplished California Teachers, 2012). Finally, researchers discourage the use of value-added modeling in teacher evaluation practices due to their low levels of statistical reliability across years and limited validity for detecting individual teacher effects (Darling-Hammond, 2012).

Job-Embedded Professional Development

When teachers receive well-designed professional development, an average of 49 hours spread over six to 12 months, they can increase student achievement by as much as 21 percentile points ( Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, and Shapley, 2007). On the other hand, one-shot, "drive-by," or fragmented, "spray-and-pray" workshops lasting 14 hours or less show no statistically significant effect on student learning ( Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, and Orphanos, 2009). Above all, it is most important to remember that effective professional-development programs are job-embedded and provide teachers with five critical elements (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009):

Collaborative learning: Teachers have opportunities to learn in a supportive community that organizes curriculum across grade levels and subjects. When teachers and schools engage in high-quality collaboration, it leads to better achievement gains in math and reading for students. In addition, teachers improve at greater rates when they work in schools with better collaboration quality (Ronfeldt et al., 2015).

Links between curriculum, assessment, and professional-learning decisions in the context of teaching specific content: Particularly for math and science professional-development programs, research has emphasized the importance of developing math and science content knowledge, as well as pedagogical techniques for the content area (Blank, de las Alas, and Smith, 2008; Blank and de las Alas, 2009; Heller, Daehler, Wong, Shinohara, and Miratrix, 2012).

Active learning: Teachers apply new knowledge and receive feedback, with ongoing data to reflect how teaching practices influence student learning over time.

Deeper knowledge of content and how to teach it: Training teachers solely in new techniques and behaviors will not work.

Sustained learning, over multiple days and weeks: Professional-development efforts that engage teachers in 30 to 100 hours of learning over six months to one year have been shown to increase student achievement.

Research on professional development for teachers has shifted in the last decade from delivering and evaluating professional-development programs to focusing more on authentic teacher learning and the conditions that support it (Webster-Wright, 2009). In the next section, we discuss models of professional learning that focus on supporting continual professional learning and community-based feedback cycles that help teachers to critically and collaboratively examine and refine their practices.

Professional Learning Communities

Professional learning communities (PLCs) or networks (PLNs) are groups of teachers that share and critically interrogate their practices in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, and growth-promoting way to mutually enhance teacher and student learning ( Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, and Thomas, 2006). PLCs go a step beyond professional development by providing teachers with not just skills and knowledge to improve their teaching practices but also an ongoing community that values each teacher's experiences in their own classrooms and uses those experiences to guide teaching practices and improve student learning (Vescio et al., 2008). Research shows that when professional learning communities demonstrate four key characteristics, they can improve teaching practice and student achievement in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies subject tests (Vescio et al., 2008):

Successful Collaboration

Focus on Student Learning

Continuous Teacher Learning

Teacher authority to make decisions regarding curriculum, the processes of their own learning, and aspects of school governance.

In the following sections, we discuss several practices of professional learning communities that have received consistent support:

Video-based reflections

Lesson study

Mentoring programs

Grade-level teams

Video-based reflections: Using video to reflect upon teaching practice has been shown by several studies to improve teaching practice or student achievement ( Allen, Pianta, Gregory, Mikami, and Lun, 2011; Brantlinger, Sherin, and Linsenmeier, 2011; Roth, Garnier, Chen, Lemmens, Schwille, and Wickler, 2011). In one case study, teachers met regularly to develop video clips of their best teaching practices for the National Board Certification application (Brantlinger et al., 2011). This resulted in the teachers engaging in intensive discussions about mathematical discourse while collaboratively and substantively examining each other's practices (Brantlinger et al., 2011). Similarly, in a case study of four middle school math teachers who participated in a yearlong series of ten video club meetings to reflect on their classrooms, teachers in the video club "came to use video not as a resource for evaluating each other's practices, but rather as a resource for trying to better understand the process of teaching and learning" in a supportive, nonthreatening setting ( Sherin and Han, 2004). MyTeachingPartner-Secondary (MTP-S) is a coaching system that provides a library of videos showing effective teaching, as well as personalized Web-based feedback videos of teaching practice using the research-based CLASS-S scoring system to define effective student-teacher interactions (Allen et al., 2011). In a randomized controlled experiment of 78 secondary school teachers and 2,237 students, MTP-S improved teacher-student interactions and increased students' performance on standardized tests by nine percentile points (Allen et al., 2011). Science Teachers Learning through Lesson Analysis (STeLLA) is a professional-development program for upper-elementary school science teachers in which teachers develop two lenses for analyzing teaching, the "Student Thinking Lens" and the "Science Content Storyline Lens," to analyze videos of teaching practice. In an experiment with 48 teachers and 1,490 upper-elementary students, STeLLA improved science teaching and science content knowledge among students and teachers (Roth et al., 2011).

Lesson study: Lesson study is a form of Japanese professional development that engages teachers in collaborative analysis of lessons. It has grown rapidly in the United States since being introduced in 1999 ( Lewis, Perry, and Murata, 2006). One purpose of lesson study is to continually improve the experiences that teachers provide for their students. Teachers come together to work on three main activities: (1) identifying a lesson study goal, (2) conducting a small number of study lessons that explore this goal, and (3) reflecting about the process (including producing written reports). In one California school district, lesson study began when an instructional improvement coordinator and a math coach sent an open letter inviting teachers to participate in lesson study during the 2000-01 school year. In the first year, 26 teachers responded, and six years later, the school was still continuing the program. Student achievement data at Highlands Elementary School suggest that lesson study is paying off for students ( Lewis, Perry, Hurd, and O'Connell, 2006). Lesson study is used in the majority of elementary schools and middle schools in Japan but is rare in high schools ( Yoshida, 2002). For materials to start a lesson study community, check out these resources by Makoto Yoshida, whose 1999 dissertation brought the practice to the attention of U.S. educators, and Catherine Lewis, who conducts academic research on lesson study.

Mentoring programs: A body of research indicates that mentoring programs can increase teacher retention, satisfaction, and student achievement ( Ingersoll and Strong, 2011), as well as reduce feelings of isolation, particularly for early-career teachers ( Beltman, Mansfield, and Price, 2011). For example, a quasi-experimental study by the Educational Testing Service found that teachers with a high level of engagement in a large-scale mentoring program (California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers) improved both teaching practices and student achievement, producing an effect size equivalent to half a year's growth ( Thompson, Goe, Paek, and Ponte, 2004). Mentor relationships are most successful when the mentor is positive, pro-social, professional, and from the same teaching area (Beltman et al., 2011).

Grade-level teams: Grade-level teams focused on student learning have also been supported by research. In a quasi-experimental study in nine Title I schools, principals and teacher leaders used explicit protocols for leading grade-level learning teams, resulting in students outperforming their peers in six matched schools on standardized achievement tests ( Gallimore, Ermeling, Saunders, and Goldenberg, 2009). These outcomes were more likely for teams led by a trained peer-facilitator, teaching similar content, in stable settings in which to engage in ongoing improvement, and using an inquiry-focused protocol (such as identifying student needs, formulating instructional plans, and using evidence to refine instruction) (Gallimore et al., 2009).

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Teacher Development Research Review: Keys to Educator Success

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Leadership is second only to teaching among school-related factors that can improve student achievement, and it tends to show greatest impact in traditionally underserved schools ( Leithwood, Seashore Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004).

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Even an initiative as divisive as the Common Core State Standards.

The CCSS debate still boils the blood of many a pundit and educator. If anything, politicians, think tanks, and philanthropists have had to respond to the pushback from all sides of the debate's spectrum. With all that has been going on, teachers on the ground have had to implement the standards to some fidelity. The idea of fidelity becomes difficult when there's a serious conflict between what experts think teachers should do in the classroom and what teachers actually do in the classroom.

But this also assumes that teachers in the classroom aren't themselves experts, an idea often exacerbated by policy makers who strip their policies of ongoing teacher input. As such, the average teacher who sees the standards might first ask if educators developed it. Regardless of whether or not teachers agree with each other on pedagogy, most teachers I speak to would feel comforted by the idea that teachers had a hand in developing, testing, and giving feedback for the standards they taught. That's why my advice is as follows (set to a well-known tune about the benefits of sharing).

Give It Away (The Standards Themselves)

Let teachers delve into them. Despite the objections of many think tanks, the standards ought to have another set of eyes screen them and see if they make sense for our students who are struggling the most. This must be in the context of trust and response on the part of the district assigning this work to a task force of teachers. If there is a large disconnect between what the experts say should happen in the classroom and what teachers are doing, why not hand it over to the teachers and make them the experts?

Side note: I've seen some teacher groups try to advocate for the CCSS as well. The best ones always ground their work in what's happening in the schools, not what's happening in ivory towers or hotel conferences. The work of the school must be central.

Give It Away (The Curriculum)

When teachers in New York City (full disclosure: I'm one) were told that we would receive curriculum, we didn't get the books until a month into school. Most of the teachers I know didn't even use half the books until January. Why? For one, curriculum maps aren't developed in the middle of the year, but rather during the spring and summer, well after we've administered the state exams. This gives us time to reflect and have conversations with one another about how best to approach what we're teaching. Secondly, we still have to look at the material in the new books and align our maps to them. Even with multiple overviews of the new curriculum, it failed that first year because whoever was responsible didn't get it to us on time.

I teach math, and perhaps this scenario looks different for English Language Arts curriculum, but my point is that all of this can be avoided if teachers are allowed to work on curricula with their colleagues and with the support of administration and other staff. This idea that teachers have to get scripted lessons and unit plans handed down to them from their district doesn't help teachers own their profession.

Give It Away Now (The Assessment)

Even the testing ought to have teachers at the lead. If we're intentional about the process of a teacher's work (pedagogy, curriculum, and standards), then assessment of this work needs to align with the other work they do. This might be the hardest part to transform since our current accountability systems rely heavily on assessment -- mainly because it's the easiest to quantify. Yet if we believe in differentiation and ownership for students, then we have to show even more trust in teachers with the right supports and contexts. We need an array of different assessments, and eventually, we'll need to look at those various assessments to review a student's entire body of work, not simply for the three-hour block they get for the four major subject areas.

If the CCSS is to succeed, it won't be because of the flashy commercials, the stickers and t-shirts, or any sort of rally organized around it. This will come from our foremost practitioners of the CCSS, whether they agree with it or not. Then again, I also believe we'd see a sea change in how educators see it overall. Of course, I also believe that, if these three processes are followed, the need for the Common Core might be diminished.

After all, part of the premise for the CCSS is that teachers don't know what to teach. The better question ought to be: "What if teachers decided what could be taught?"

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Teacher Leadership and the Common Core State Standards?

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Even an initiative as divisive as the Common Core State Standards. The CCSS debate still boils the blood of many a pundit and educator. If anything, politicians, think tanks, and philanthropists have had to respond to the pushback from all sides of the debate's spectrum.

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Leadership Drives Innovations: A Critical Element in Creating a Successful School

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The importance of leadership in implementing innovations in schools.

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A former high school biology teacher shares what he learned from his mistakes in flipping his classroom instruction.

©Shutterstock/sirtravelalot

In my early attempts to flip my high school biology classroom, I was achieving remarkable content gains. We covered multiple chapters a week and were posting laudable exam scores on national assessments. Yet my enrollment numbers were falling. Each year my scores improved-and I had fewer students.

I was forced to the realization that all humans are emotional beings first. My online spaces were sterile environments focused only on information density. I meticulously organized study guides, discussion forums, and formative assessments-I'm certain a robot would have loved my course structure! Research has shown that organization and attention cueing aren't enough, though. Students need social prompting.

The Man Who Lied to His Laptop describes how people often respond to computers the same way they do to people. We will do them favors, tell white lies to protect their feelings, and form social circles with "in" computers and "out" computers. People note that it's silly to treat a computer like a person, yet we can't escape our humanity when we use them.

Build Online Learning Environments to Be Social

Our physical classroom space is powerful because we can connect with students there. I bubble with energy, and my students respond with their own enthusiasm. I signal when it's time for seriousness, and my students respond with an increase in focus. The timing of my jokes, my gestures during a lecture, even the T-shirt I wear on spirit day-all contribute to building a human connection that makes my classroom a great place for student learning. We must find ways to provide a spice of humanity in online material as well.

On my education podcast, Two Pint PLC, I discussed a recent study in the Journal of Educational Psychology that showed that when researchers added a simple animated teacher character to a piece of digital multimedia, student performance improved. Students were trying harder and understanding more when the material included a little humanity.

Simple Ways to Improve Flipped Classrooms

The good news is that social signaling is all about the subtle cues we give each other. You don't need to make sweeping changes to add humanity to your online environment.

1. Humans respond to faces: Discussion threads are a staple of most online coursework. Why is it that it can feel like pulling teeth to get students to engage in an online discussion, yet my Facebook page blows up with chatter when I post a picture of my breakfast? Make the online members more visible as humans.

If students are responding to a prompt, consider letting them talk instead of type. Ed.VoiceThread is a subscription product that is great for lettings students see each other as they contribute. If a subscription service is tough for your building, students can record simple response videos and upload them to most forums with free software like Open Source Broadcaster. The more students can see that they're interacting with humans, the more socially invested they'll feel in the work they're doing.

2. Relationships are about give and take: Online interactions too often feel like a student is simply dumping information into a box so they can strike something off their to-do list. Expecting students to respond to each other's posts is an easy first step, but if the response never gets read, neither participant ever sees a payoff for their contribution to the relationship. Humans respond to reciprocity.

Building a culture of reciprocity takes time, but you can be creative to get the most out of that investment of time. Let's say Jane writes an original post about protein structure. I might expect John to make a comment on Jane's post, but I can make it clear that John should add new information in his response-for example, he might connect Jane's remarks on protein structure to protein regulation. That expectation that responses should move the conversation forward extends to Jane, who can respond to John's response with her reaction and mention how protein regulation compares to DNA regulation.

Students should experience the give and take of a real-world social interaction when they're working online.

3. There's no replacement for real-world connections: Flipped classrooms really shine when they move the less social components of learning out of the classroom, and that creates space for improving the human interactions within the classroom. My early attempts to flip my biology course assumed that students could read about a topic and I could do completely different things in class. My students saw the disconnect.

It's better to start the conversation with students during class. Students can explore a debate in class that identifies the major points of each side of an argument-why someone would be for or against electric cars, for example. Between classes you can then flip an examination of two sources that provide new information for the discussion. Reading an article or watching a short video works fine without classmates, and when students return to class the link between their online work and their in-person experience will demonstrate the value of that work between classes.

Technology is advancing rapidly, but it should still serve human needs. Remembering how vital our social connections are to human motivation and behavior will help students get the most out of their online experiences. And I should know, because after I started taking the steps above my enrollment numbers went back up.

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Making Your Flipped Classroom More Human

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A former high school biology teacher shares what he learned from his mistakes in flipping his classroom instruction. ©Shutterstock/sirtravelalot In my early attempts to flip my high school biology classroom, I was achieving remarkable content gains. We covered multiple chapters a week and were posting laudable exam scores on national assessments.

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Alessandra is the youngest of three siblings. Her father works in construction and her mother, she said, works making French fries. A Latina student living in rural America, Alessandra is not the stereotypical future engineer. More than many professions, engineering is still dominated by white men. Forty-nine percent of the jobs in science and engineering were held by white men in 2015, according to the National Science Foundation's report on " Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering."

Black and Hispanic women together claimed less than 4 percent of jobs in science and engineering, according to the report. Less than a third, 28 percent, of scientists and engineers working in those fields are women. Black and Hispanic men held less than 7 percent, total, of science and engineering jobs in 2015.

And while science and engineering degrees earned by Hispanic people have been increasing over the past decade, that same National Science Foundation report found that the number of science and engineering degrees earned by black people has actually declined.

High schools and colleges have been aware of the imbalance, and tried to remedy it, for years: There are many programs aimed at pulling women and students of color into science and math fields as teens and young adults. Some, like the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, have been inordinately successful at guiding underrepresented students, including many young women, from middle school algebra through to a college degree in a STEM subject. Other efforts, like the Hour of Code challenge by Code.org, are more about exposing kids to the world of science and engineering than about shepherding individual students through years of education.

The Museum of Science's Engineering is Elementary curriculum is aimed at attracting potential engineers before they get distracted by whether or not they fit the stereotype. Since 2003, more than 15 million 6- to 11- year-olds at thousands of schools across the country have been taught how to think like engineers using the curriculum.

Initial findings from the first study of how well the curriculum works show that students taught with Engineering is Elementary learn both science and engineering better than those taught the same subjects without the eight key elements included in the Museum's curriculum. It turns out that explicitly teaching students about the connections between engineering, science and math, teaching the engineering design process rather than just posing an engineering challenge, and helping students gather information from failed attempts all make a difference to students' ability to absorb and retain science and engineering concepts. Researchers also found that kids' attitudes about girls in engineering were more positive for both boys and girls after being exposed to the Engineering is Elementary curriculum.

The Museum of Science, a nonprofit, makes an effort to ensure both children of color and girls have access to this hands-on curriculum and are represented in the stories used to kick off each unit. The curriculum is designed to fit into a teacher's regular schedule. There are 20 units featuring engineering design projects that can be purchased independently and used alongside or in place of science units on the same topic, like electricity, water or insects. The teacher's guide for one unit costs $55; an accompanying storybook is $9. Materials can be also purchased from the museum, but most materials needed to complete the experiments - like rope, pulleys and cardboard - can be borrowed from home or bought cheaply at grocery or hardware stores.

Teacher professional development options run the gamut from a one-day class for teachers new to the curriculum to a three-day session for teachers learning to train other teachers. Costs for whole-school training sessions range from $2,500 to $10,000 depending on location. Independent workshops at the museum can cost as little as $450.

Teachers whose students are mostly from low-income families are eligible for subsidized curriculum materials and professional development.

Camille Jones, a teacher at Pioneer Elementary School, discovered Engineering is Elementary in 2014 when she went online looking for ways to teach her students engineering concepts. Jones had just joined Pioneer as a STEAM enrichment teacher. (STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.)

"I really loved what I saw," Jones said of the stand-alone units. "I wanted a unit we could all do together [as a school]. I found a civil engineering unit on building bridges and thought that would be accessible to all."

In one of her very first classes using the new-to-her curriculum, Jones said a struggling student blew her away with the model he built. She worked with his other teachers to pull him into the advanced STEAM class she taught despite his low grades in other subject areas.

"We talked so much about engineering and all the other fields and you could see him thinking, 'Oh there is a future. I'm good at this and I want to live into that,'" said Jones, who was her state's teacher of the year in 2017.

Engineering as a profession is expected to grow by 8.3 percent between 2016 and 2026 and to offer an average of 126,600 open jobs each year during that time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some engineering fields could grow even faster. The Bureau predicts we will need 10.6 percent more civil engineers and 15.2 percent more petroleum engineers. Engineering technicians, who need a solid background in math and science but not a bachelor's degree in engineering, will also be in high demand with approximately 40,100 openings per year on average.

Perhaps even more relevant to students from low-income families: Engineering jobs tend to offer steady, upper-middle class employment. The annual mean wage for all engineers as of May 2017 was $96,670, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For children growing up in a school district like Quincy's, where apple and pear trees are far more plentiful than bachelors' degrees, exposure to engineering as a possible future job must happen at school, said Pioneer Principal Alesha Porter. "I just want our students to know it's possible for them to become engineers and go to college," Porter said.

Both Porter and Jones are from Quincy and attended high school together in the early 2000s. Porter was among the first in her family to attend college. Jones, who had grown up, she said, with "about as much privilege as anyone is going to have" in Quincy, got to college intending to major in engineering and found herself totally unprepared for the coursework. Both women aspire to better prepare their students to pursue engineering degrees, should they choose that path.

The Museum of Science in Boston isn't the only provider of engineering curricula for elementary school students. The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, offers Amplify Science, which incorporates engineering principles of problem solving. Various other organizations like TryEngineering.org, PBS Kids and NASA offer engineering resources for K-12 classrooms.

There are also several single-city pilot programs offered by colleges. One, from Purdue University in Indiana, trains elementary school teachers to teach science using engineering design principles. American University and Johns Hopkins University work together on another to offer a program at nine high-poverty schools in Baltimore that both trains teachers and instructs students in real-life engineering projects.

"What we tried to do was pick topics that were very relevant to the student to make it appealing to kids of that age group in Baltimore," said Carolyn Parker, the director of the masters of arts program in teaching at American University, who leads the project. "Kids at one school," she said, "were really bothered by the number of feral cats. They wanted to help them. So how could you build cheap structures to provide shelter for cats in the winter time?"

Building those structures got the kids in Baltimore excited, Parker said, and that's what she wants to see at the elementary school level, especially for girls and students of color. "I love science," she said. "I love imparting that excitement and interest in the world to young people."

The National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, funds Parker's work and several other organizations that work to get engineering classes into elementary schools. The Foundation also pays for studies, like the one being conducted on Engineering is Elementary, that examine how successful these new programs are at teaching kids about science and how to solve problems like an engineer. One of the goals of the National Science Foundation is to keep the United States "at the leading edge of discovery." That includes preparing America's schoolchildren to take on the massive task of leading in science in the 21st century, something we are arguably not making a priority.

American elementary school students currently get little exposure to math and science. Students in first through fourth grade spent an average of just 2.5 hours per week on science during the 2011-12 school year, the last for which data is available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Performance on measures of elementary students' science proficiency reflect the minimum focus; just 38 percent of fourth-grade students performed at or above proficient on the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress.

Numerous surveys have found that nearly half of elementary school teachers feel underprepared to teach science. Confidence in teaching engineering isn't usually surveyed because engineering is not considered a standard elementary school subject. For that reason, teacher professional development is a critical part of the success of any engineering curriculum, said Christine Cunningham, founding director of Engineering is Elementary.

Cunningham said the elementary school teachers she's worked with "really want those students to be able to understand the world around them and succeed. If [teachers] come in contact with a resource that engages a student who has struggled, they will bend over backwards to get those resources into their very full classrooms."

Cunningham said teachers have guided her team's curriculum development work from the beginning and that the curriculum has become so widely used because teachers have found it effective, especially with otherwise hard-to-reach kids.

Engineering lessons changed everything in her fifth-grade classroom in Lawrence, Massachusetts, said Nia Keith, now the director of professional development for the Museum of Science. Kids living in Lawrence, a mostly low-income community, weren't often exposed to engineering concepts at home and many struggled to stay engaged with typical math and science lessons at school, Keith said.

But when she started teaching engineering, complete with hands-on projects and searches for creative solutions, "kids who didn't speak up or show up as leaders were suddenly throwing out ideas," she said. "It allows for all kinds of learning to shine."

Back in Quincy, a ramp made of cardboard had collapsed and the top, stuck on with masking tape, kept coming off. Without missing a beat, Alessandra and a friend found some sturdier packing tape, fixed the ramp, and resumed collecting data on whether the short steep ramp or the long shallow one was a better way to move a bag of potatoes.

Alessandra said later she wasn't sure what she wanted to do when she grew up but with her calm practicality and clear interest in the project, it isn't hard to imagine her looking at herself in the mirror in 15 years and thinking: "Well, yes, I do look like an engineer."

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How to Introduce Engineering Principles Early to Help Inspire Interest in STEM

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Few elementary school students are exposed to engineering classes. A curriculum designed by the Museum of Science Boston could help change that even as it attracts more children of color and girls to engineering. More than 15 million children have learned about the E in STEM through the museum's inexpensive lessons.

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Specific examples of MITECS applied to core subjects.

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The ISTE Educator Standards challenge educators to deepen their practice, empower students and rethink traditional approaches to education.

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How Do We Have It All?

How do we address both the short-term goals of preparing students for the tests as well as addressing the long term goals of preparing them for life? How do we address the need for our students to learn both the traditional content as well as the essentials for modern learning simultaneously?

The first thing we need to understand is that the traditional emphasis on literacy, while absolutely important, is no longer enough. We believe that even if we were to educate all of our students to the standards of 20th Century literacies - reading, writing, arithmetic - that our students will be literate by the standards of the 20th century, but they won't be literate based on the needs and demands of the 21st Century. We believe that we need to move our thinking - that we need to move our teaching - beyond our current focus on just 20th Century literacies - to equipping them with the essentials of modern learning.

The essentials of modern learning are mental processes that can be learned, practiced, developed and applied as unconscious habits of mind. These new mental processes are essential skills that pave the way to success in the modern world. There are two major steps in developing these skills. The first step is the conscious application there are two major steps in developing these unconscious habits of mind.

Conscious Application

First, there is the conscious application of the skills. In other words, you can use them, but you have to think about how to use them. This is a very necessary and useful stage in skill development. Think back to when you were learning to drive. When you got your learner's license for driving a car, you were very conscious about turning the steering wheel, stepping on the brake, stepping on the gas, using the turn signals, checking mirrors, and a whole bunch of other new skills.

Learning all of these things was a necessary step which is why we don't just give student drivers their license. They're just not ready to drive independently without an experienced driver being with them to help them learn the necessary skills.

And because they have to constantly think about applying these new skills, student drivers don't drive the car smoothly. They lurch, they stall, they stop abruptly. In the beginning, driving is a halting, uneven, uncomfortable experience. To become an independent driver, students need sufficient practice and experience so they can learn to apply all of these skills unconsciously and intuitively. Experienced drivers can actually perform all of these driving skills at a high level, drive smoothly and still be able to carry on conversations with their passengers and listen to music because they don't have to think, they just drive.

Unconscious Application

They have reached a level of unconscious skill. When a driver reaches an unconscious skill level, they're able to move to higher level cognitive functions. Not just respond, but also to anticipate what other drivers are going to do and to take corrective or preventative action before something actually happens. This unconscious skill level doesn't just apply to driving, it also applies to reading, writing, arithmetic, research, and problem solving skills. It's what multitasking is all about - being able to do several things unconsciously and simultaneously.

So what are the essential skills for modern learning? Put another way, what are the critical skills all students need to know to an unconscious level that are above and beyond an understanding of traditional content areas? We've asked this question hundreds of times in dozens of countries, to everyone from students, parents and teachers to educational and political leaders. No matter who we talk to - no matter where we ask this question - the answers we hear are almost always the same. People consistently identify nine essential skills they believe must become an increasing focus of teaching and learning if we hope to keep schools relevant in the modern changing world. In fact, we believe the skills we're about to introduce are as important as reading and writing were for success in the 20th century - these are not optional skills. We call them the 9 I's for Modern Learning.

The 9 I's For Modern Learning

Intra-personal Skills are internal skills, perceptions and attitudes that occur within a person's own mind. Art Costa called these the habits of mind. Skills that individuals use to work through real world situations. Skills that allow individuals to respond using awareness, thought, and intentional strategy in order to gain positive outcomes.

Examples of intra-personal skills include such things as self-esteem, open mindedness, being aware of your own thinking, the ability to learn, being able to understand and manage your own emotions, self-confidence, self-discipline, self-motivation, being able to overcome boredom, being patient, being a self starter, being able to take initiative, working independently, being persistent, having a positive attitude, and being a good manager of time, to name but a few.

Intra-personal Skills can be learned in the same way that we learn math and language skills. And they are the absolute foundation of every day life. The problem is that these skills aren't typically introduced to students in any kind of organized manner.

The 2nd I is for Interpersonal Skills. One of the vital differences between intra-personal and interpersonal communication is that Intra-personal skills are inward focused, whereas interpersonal skills are outward focused. Interpersonal abilities have to do with understanding and comprehending external situations and being able to communicate with people. Interpersonal Skills are the life skills we have to use every day to communicate and interact with other people, both individually and in groups.

Interpersonal skills include such things as non-verbal communication, being able to conduct a conversation, being able to give positive feedback, the ability to listen, being able to persuade, debate, convince, sell, or defend a position, the ability to ask questions, being able to communicate respectfully, social and cultural awareness, being able to accept criticism, and personal assertiveness. Having a well-developed repertoire of interpersonal skills allows individuals to handle challenging situations more effectively.

Independent Problem Solving Skills

The 3rd I is Independent Problem Solving. Independent Problem Solving involves students learning a structured mental process that will allow them to independently solve complex problems in real-time. The world is in desperate need of analytical thinkers who are able to compare, contrast, evaluate, synthesize, and apply their analyses in order to answer difficult questions or solve problems in real time - independently without instruction or supervision. In other words, people who can the higher order thinking skills that we talk about all the time. Independent Problem Solving requires students to learn clear steps - unconscious habits of mind that can be explained, learned, practiced, applied, internalized and most importantly, be improved upon over time. This model originally known as the 4 D's (but now expanded to 6 D's - Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Debrief), was originally developed by Ted McCain back in the 1980's.

Describing the process is too much to do in such a brief overview but, in general, the D's parallel the structured mental process of Scientific Method, the Writing Process, or what videographers do in creating film. Independent Problem Solving is a process that must be embedded into every subject, at every grade level - and the responsibility of every teacher.

Interdependent Collaboration Skills

Being able to work with others on a project has always been an important skill. Collaboration is based on the idea that the power of we is greater than the power of we. In the fast-paced, high pressure, online world of today, individuals and businesses must use every competitive advantage available to them. Today, even competitors are collaborating with each other when it is mutually beneficial. With the development of global online communications and shared productivity tools such as Skype, Go-To-Meeting and Google Docs, being able to collaborate both physically and virtually has become an essential skill for all.

Interdependent Collaboration skills include such things as planning and facilitation skills, being able to organize functional teams with members who complement one another, the ability to take on a role within a group, being able to criticize ideas without criticizing individuals, negotiating within a team, group brainstorming, group problem solving, eliciting and listening to feedback, and taking responsibility for designated tasks

Today digital online tools have greatly expanded the scope of collaboration. Collaboration skills can now be synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous collaboration happens in real-time, where collaborative partners are simultaneously working and communicating as they work. Online collaborative tools now mean that this real time collaboration can also take place with virtual partners who are not physically in the same place. Asynchronous collaboration happens where partners are working and communicating using collaborative software, but they're not necessarily communicating at the same time.

Information Investigation Skills

The 5th I is Information Investigation. We don't want students who simply consume and regurgitate theoretical knowledge without questioning and validating the reliability of what they have read or seen. Rather, we want students who can differentiate between reliable and unreliable information sources in order to determine the credibility of a wide range of digital and non-digital materials.

We want students to be information investigators who are able to apply a structured mental process we call the 5A's (Ask, Access, Analyze/Authenticate, Apply, Assess) to solve information problems. Once again, describing the process is way too much to do in such a brief overview as this, but suffice it to say that the 5A's is a structured mental process for being able to answer any information problem.

Information Communication Skills

The next I is Information Communication. This is a message that everyone reading this needs to hear. The world has moved beyond text. Visual communication through graphic design or presentation became the standard quite some time ago - it's a given. But now today the world has moved even further. Kids today are growing up in the YouTube era. We have moved beyond still images to a new video standard. Messages are being constructed using an audiovisual standard that not only requires an understanding of graphic design but also of video production tools that as little as 10 years ago cost millions of dollars to purchase are now free or inexpensive.

They have allowed students to move from being consumers of media to prosumers of media where they not only consume but produce media. In an increasingly visual world, visual communication design must be an everyday part of the curriculum at every grade level and in every subject. Students must be able to communicate as effectively in multimedia formats as we, the older generations were taught to communicate with text and speech. Every student and every teacher needs to know how modern readers read, they need to understand the principles of graphical design and typography, the principles of color use, the principles of photo, the principles of sound production and the principles of video composition as well as how to use this knowledge to effectively communicate information to others. Information Communication skills are absolutely foundational in a modern world.

The next I is Imagination Creativity. Imagination Creativity skills are about how you imaginatively communicate ideas. For example, when we were growing up, if we wanted to make a comment about race relations, the standard way of communicating this was through words in the form of an essay. But for many people, this was stifling. It put them in a straight jacket because there are so many other ways to creatively communicate your thoughts on race relations to be limited to a single form.

The school system has a very narrow academic focus that does not acknowledge the wide spectrum of possible ways of communicating. For example, in addition to writing an essay, you could also write a song, create a poster, write a play, short story or poem, paint a picture, or create a sculpture - all of these alternative modes of communication could greatly enhance how your message is conveyed.

Further, Imagination Creativity is how you can add meaning through design. For example, it's what Apple does with the exterior shape of their technology, or what fast food restaurants do this with the creative packaging and presentation of hamburgers and pizza, or what Levis does with the style of their clothing, and Ford does with the styling of their cars and trucks. imagination creativity is what changes people's perceptions of products. For example, there are lots of companies that make computers, but only one company that makes Apple computers.

Imagination Creativity goes even further than this. It is also about creating beauty and value purely from its shape and form. This is why people buy a sculpture or piece of art - this is beauty for beauty's sake. It doesn't have to serve a function - its value can come purely from its shape, its colour, its texture or its sound. Imagination Creativity involve two processes: conceiving, then producing. If you have ideas, but don't act on them, you are imaginative but not creative. To be imaginatively creative. you need to both generate an idea as well as find a creative ways to communicate that idea.

The next I is Innovation Creativity. While imagination creativity deals with the form of something, innovation creativity deals with its function. The whole idea of innovation is that we are going to do something that is improved or new. Many people think that the ability to innovate is genetic - that some people can do it and others can't - this is patently untrue.

Have you ever owned a product and thought that if they just put some velcro here or a button there that it would work better. Have you ever seen people unloading a truck and thought that if they just did it a different way, it be so much better - that's innovation skill. You've just thought of a way to improve a product or process - you may have even thought, "Hey, someone should invent something to do this or that." That is true innovation of how to produce a new product or process.

The first key to sparking innovation is to have students examine products or processes they are familiar with. For example, have students consider how announcements are made, or how food is sold in the cafeteria, how chemicals are stored in the chemistry lab, how textbooks are distributed, how the bus schedule works, or how to teach fractions. Things from students' everyday school life. Snd ask them to come up with alternatives. Ask them to come up with better ways to do things.

The important factor is not for their ideas to be successful, but to get them to start thinking about how they can improve something that already exists. This kind of thinking is greatly valued in the world today. Successful companies will tell you that they want their research and development departments to generate hundreds if not thousands of ideas because all they need is one great idea to make millions of dollars. The key here is that a culture of looking for new and improved ideas is encouraged because it's ideas that make the world go round - that's what sparks innovative thinking. The point here is that in getting students to generate innovative thinking that leads to original ideas for improved or new products and processes. That's what Innovation Creativity is all about.

The last I is Internet Citizenship. You wouldn't give the keys to your car to a kid without first showing them how to drive, having them obtain a driver's license, outlining your expectations and identifying the consequences for inappropriate actions. Yet we give kids access to the internet, smartphones and other digital devices without proper guidance and some of them inevitably do stupid things. Why in the world would we do that without first providing comprehensive internet education?

That's what Internet Citizenship is all about. Internet Citizenship is about protecting yourself in the online world, protecting others in the online world, and protecting the work of others in the online world. Internet Citizenship is about a set of ever-changing social conventions about how people should act using digital technology. Internet Citizenship includes online etiquette, basic courtesy and privacy considerations; common rules and practices for email, messaging, web browsing, social networking as well as behavioral expectations for any online tool. As students grow as global citizens, they must develop a system of ethics and accountability that starts with the individual and expands to the global level.

We're Almost Done...

So there they are - a brief overview of the 9 I's - the nine essentials of modern learning. There's so much more to describe, like how do you embed and teach the I's together with the curriculum content...but that's for another day and other blog posts.

For further information, please visit www.infosavvy21.com where we've provided over 5000 articles, including 600 specifically organized on an "I" by "I" basis in Evernote.

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author: Diane Sweeney and Leanna S. Harris

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author: Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Nicky Mohan

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A Brief Introduction To the 9 I's of Modern Learning - Corwin Connect

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How do we address both the short-term goals of preparing students for the tests as well as addressing the long term goals of preparing them for life? How do we address the need for our students to learn both the traditional content as well as the essentials for modern learning simultaneously?

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It is with appreciation that the REMC Association of Michigan acknowledges Kalamazoo RESA, Macomb ISD, Shiawassee RESD and Wayne RESA for their collaboration in the development, evolution and success of MiTechKids.

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Begin Here - 21 Things4Students - 21 Things 4 Students - REMC Home

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"Being a good digital citizen means to demonstrate and practice safe, responsible, and legal use of technology. A good digital citizen is someone who understands the rights and responsibilities that come with being online and someone who uses technology in a positive way. A good digital citizen spreads the good stuff!"

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Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement

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Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement

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John Hattie developed a way of synthesizing various influences in different meta-analyses according to their effect size (Cohen's d). In his ground-breaking study "Visible Learning" he ranked 138 influences that are related to learning outcomes from very positive effects to very negative effects. Hattie found that the average effect size of all the interventions he studied was 0.40. Therefore he decided to judge the success of influences relative to this 'hinge point', in order to find an answer to the question "What works best in education?"
Originally, Hattie studied six areas that contribute to learning: the student, the home, the school, the curricula, the teacher, and teaching and learning approaches. (The updated list also includes the classroom.) But Hattie did not only provide a list of the relative effects of different influences on student achievement. He also tells the story underlying the data. He found that the key to making a difference was making teaching and learning visible. He further explained this story in his book " Visible learning for teachers ".

John Hattie updated his list of 138 effects to 150 effects in Visible Learning for Teachers (2011), and more recently to a list of 195 effects in The Applicability of Visible Learning to Higher Education (2015). His research is now based on nearly 1200 meta-analyses - up from the 800 when Visible Learning came out in 2009. According to Hattie the story underlying the data has hardly changed over time even though some effect sizes were updated and we have some new entries at the top, at the middle, and at the end of the list.

Below you can find an updated version of our first, second and third visualization of effect sizes related to student achievement.
Order VL for Teachers!

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Hattie effect size list - 256 Influences Related To Achievement

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Hattie's updated effect size list of 256 influences across all areas related to student achievement.

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A school-based professional learning community (PLC) is well structured to enhance all aspects of project-based learning.

Many schools have structures to support the work of a professional learning community (PLC). Teams have dedicated time to plan together, analyze data, and plan interventions and enrichments. They collaborate to support student achievement and foster a sense of shared responsibility for all students.

This culture and work can enhance the implementation of project-based learning (PBL), but teachers may struggle to see how their PLC can support PBL, instead perceiving the PLC and PBL as separate aspects of their work. However, there are specific ways to make them work in harmony. A project cycle aligned to elements of the PLC can ensure greater success of PBL in terms of both teacher and student learning.

Improving PBL Implementation With a PLC

Learning Together: One piece PLCs that is often set aside is the sacred time to learn together as team. The whole process of the PLC fosters each individual's professional growth, but teams need to create time to learn together. This might include examining short readings, videos, or resources as a group.

This shared learning time can be used to focus on aspects of PBL. Perhaps a team learns more about designing effective projects, or reads an article about implementation and assessment. This might come out of team goals for the year, or from a reflection on a previous project. This learning can only enhance the teachers' future PBL projects.

Collaborative Planning: PLC teams plan high-quality instruction and assessment. This is a natural fit for PBL as teams can plan the project together. Specific planning components of PLC work enhance the project planning: By unpacking standards, teams can ensure that the project is clear on the assessment targets and that they have a shared understanding of student achievement. PLC teams are also well suited to planning assessments in a project, both formative and summative, including major products and milestones.

In addition, teams can plan the general lessons they feel all teachers will need to teach. It's important in this process to trust both the team and the individual teachers, in considering what does and does not need to be planned together-this will allow the individual teachers to have autonomy and to experiment within the context of the project implementation.

Critique and Project Tuning: Many schools require all projects to be tuned before implementation. Project tuning is a great way to depersonalize instruction, get feedback from colleagues, and promote collaboration across different teams.

Protocols are nothing new in PLC work, and are leveraged consistently. To tune a PBL project, a protocol is used for feedback before the project is implemented. Once initial planning has occurred, teachers should complete a tuning protocol. This can occur in planning periods, before or after school, or at faculty meetings-one round can take 20 to 30 minutes.

Looking at Student Data and Work: A critical component of the work of PLCs is examining student work. By looking at student work, we share collective responsibility for all students in a course, and identify students who are ready for enrichment as well as students who need intervention. There are many protocols for examining student work out there, so teams can select or develop an appropriate one for their own use.

While a team is implementing a PBL project, a major project milestone or formative checkpoint is a great opportunity to come together to examine student work. As teachers examine the data, they can also identify teaching strategies that are particularly effective. For example, it might become apparent that one class has been more successful than another at this point, which becomes an opportunity for teachers to learn from each other.

Differentiation and Intervention: While differentiation is occurring consistently during a PBL project, teachers can also plan more formal interventions and enrichment opportunities following their analysis of student work and data.

For example, teachers might use a "stacked classroom" approach if there is more than one teacher for a course or grade level-the different teachers can provide specific lessons for students depending on their need. Or the PLC can plan small group instruction or interventions with the help of specialists.

It's important to remember that this about more than the students who aren't doing well-students who need a challenge and enrichment in the project can also be identified by the PLC, and steps can be taken to meet their needs.

Reflection and Celebration: At the close of the PBL project, it's important to carve out time to reflect on the effectiveness of the project as a whole. Teachers might dialogue on specific guiding questions, or journal about them and then share out. PLC teams can use this time to capture these reflections and celebrate their success.

This is also an opportunity to set new team goals or monitor progress on existing ones. We should take time to celebrate both student learning and teacher learning.

PBL and PLCs go together very well. The work of the PLC can improve the overall implementation of a project and drive future improvements as well. Teachers working together can do this work, and instructional coaches can support it as well.

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A school-based professional learning community (PLC) is well structured to enhance all aspects of project-based learning. Many schools have structures to support the work of a professional learning community (PLC). Teams have dedicated time to plan together, analyze data, and plan interventions and enrichments.

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Photo credit: specialkrb via flickr

In my last post about taking PBL projects up a notch, I focused on integration of subject matters and disciplines. Fittingly, this post focuses on integrating technology. Teachers often adjust and improve projects by finding new and innovative ways to infuse technology into the PBL process and products. However, it's not about more technology tools, but about the intentional use of the tools available.

In my classroom, one of the driving forces for reflection in terms of technology integration is the Technology Integration Matrix from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. The matrix is a great way to focus on how to improve collaboration and knowledge construction by using technology, and also on how to make learning more active and authentic as students work towards specific goals. In fact, I feel this matrix aligns well to PBL and how technology should be used in the PBL classroom (or any classroom). Here are some PBL-specific ways to improve technology integration in the classroom.

Authentic Audience Communication

Teachers often struggle to physically bring authentic audience members into the learning environment. In our day and age of the flat classroom, it only makes sense for students to collaborate with audience members using digital tools. This could be as simple as getting critiqued by sharing a Google document, or having someone Skype in the classroom. One of my favorite projects was having a U.S. solider visit my class virtually to share his experience. This entry event led us into our PBL project that sought to answer, "How do we help soldiers return from war?" Consider using technology to connect with audience members at the beginning middle and/or end of the project.

From Products to Management

Tech and PBL newbies find easy integration with PBL products. Teachers can allow students to show their learning through voice and choice in culminating products. From Prezi to Glogster, these can be great technology tools to create products for PBL that build technology literacy skills. If you want to challenge yourself, consider instead, or in addition, using technology to manage the process of the PBL project. Teachers can use tools like Edmodo, Evernote and Wikis that allow students to use technology for storing information and building projects together. In addition, teachers can use the technology to push out important files or information. Technology can also be used to set goals and reflect throughout the project. Here the technology is infused to help build active learning for students as they work on their PBL project, rather than simply in the creation of culminating products.

Technology to Assess Collaboration

Related to the tip above, teachers can use technology not only to collaborate, but also as tool to assess that critical 21st century skill, collaboration. One part of assessment is documentation, both formative and summative. As students collaborate digitally, a teacher has specific documentation of how students are doing. Have students reflect, and give them specific feedback on how they can improve. Praise them for excellent digital citizenship, and have them share their best examples of digital collaboration. A Twitter or TitanPad chat, for example, can be a great assessment of collaboration.

Technology Literacy as a 21st Century Skill

Although 21st century skills don't necessarily equal technology, technology literacy can be leveraged as an important 21st century skill to teach and assess. Use quality indicators from the ISTE NETS as well as other rubrics to have students reflect and set goals for their work in effective use of technology. Assess technology literacy either solo or in conjunction with another 21st century skill like collaboration.

If you are looking to grow as a PBL teacher, consider technology as a way to improve not only your PBL projects, but your overall technology integration skills as well. It will be purposeful and intentional!

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Ramping Up Technology for Your Next PBL Project

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Photo credit: specialkrb via flickr In my last post about taking PBL projects up a notch, I focused on integration of subject matters and disciplines. Fittingly, this post focuses on integrating technology. Teachers often adjust and improve projects by finding new and innovative ways to infuse technology into the PBL process and products.

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Introduction to Project Based Learning (PBL) Process

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The Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a framework for describing and targeting the use of technology to enhance learning. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, collaborative, constructive, authentic, and goal-directed. These characteristics are associated with five levels of technology integration: entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation. Together, the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments and five levels of technology integration create a matrix of 25 cells, as illustrated below. All TIM descriptors apply equally well to online and face-to-face instruction, Developed by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) in 2005, the TIM is now in its third edition (2019).

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Embedding Leadership in the Teaching Profession

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Embedding Leadership in the Teaching Profession

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Four leading education groups brought some of the best and brightest minds from around the country to the 2016 National Summit on Teacher Leadership in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 5-6 to turn ideas into action and empower more educators to lead their professions.

The National Education Association (NEA), along with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSS0), and the U.S. Department of Education, organized the summit to allow participating teachers, state superintendents, and union representatives to share ideas, best practices, and examples of existing teacher-leadership efforts. Additionally, the group identified common challenges and created concrete, actionable teacher leadership plans to address them back home.

Nineteen states were represented at the summit, and included an education team from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Teachers and Leadership Not Mutually Exclusive

"[Teacher leadership] needs to be so embedded in the profession that it's an expectation... I am supposed to lead," said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García to the group. "It's not separate from your routine as teachers."

Educators and leadership is a combination that makes sense because teachers are the experts, said Aman Dhanda, a sixth grade teacher from California, now serving as a Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellow for the federal education department.

"What's been resonating with me is that a lot of teacher leaders have felt this is the first time their voices are being heard," said Dhanda of the teachers participating in the summit, which, she adds, is intended to "make sure [teachers] always ask for a seat at the table because we are the experts."

For Deborah Hollis, a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher at Molasky Jr High School in Clark County, Nevada, the summit was an eye-opening experience.

"I kept questioning myself: 'why am I here? I'm just a classroom teacher,'" she said. But after two days of engaging with fellow educators from across the country, "the summit has made me open my mind and views. There are so many teacher leaders at my school. We just don't know it."

Hollis explained that being a teacher leader doesn't mean you have to leave the classroom and become an administrator. Leading the profession could be sharing with other educators something that is working well in your classroom and inviting them to observe-"that's a teacher leader," explained Hollis, who has been in the classroom for 14 years.

Upon returning home, Hollis says she will connect with her fellow educators to share with them her experience during the summit and to let them know: "We have a voice; we have input to give."

Taking the conversation a step further was Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, who also attended the summit. She told the group, "It's not simply what I think and feel in my own classrooms, but that what I think and feel is heard and acted on in places of labor policy."
Build the Structures
Often new policies and initiatives are introduced in schools without the infrastructure to support it or the input for those who are expected to implement these policies-educators.

Karuna Skariah, a National Board Certified Teacher and an instructional program coordinator for Prince George's County Public Schools, has a solution for that.

Skariah and a group of teachers have been working with the Education Department to establish a Teacher Advisory Council. The council is being designed to give more educators decision-making authority. The group has already created a model and has presented their proposal to district leadership.

One of the key elements to the council is for it to be solutions based.

"You just can't have a concern," says Skariah. "Every concern should come with a solution so there's a pool of possibilities [that address] student learning."

The team is scheduled to present their proposal to a larger group, where they can begin to put the council in motion.

This year's national summit on teacher leadership stemmed from the 5th annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession held last year in Canada, where education ministers and leaders of teachers' unions and associations gather to discuss education issues. The 6 th annual summit is scheduled for March in Berlin.

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Embedding Leadership in the Teaching Profession - NEA Today

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Four leading education groups brought some of the best and brightest minds from around the country to the 2016 National Summit on Teacher Leadership in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 5-6 to turn ideas into action and empower more educators to lead their professions.

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Exploring Ways to Support Preservice Teachers' Use of UDL In Planning and Instruction

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Exploring Ways to Support Preservice Teachers' Use of UDL In Planning and Instruction

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Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education

Abstract

There is limited research documenting current efforts to support preservice teachers to use the universal design for learning (UDL) framework in authentic teaching experiences. To increase knowledge on the effects of preparing preservice teachers to incorporate the UDL framework, researchers examined the effects a UDL professional development seminar that was delivered during the student teaching phase had on eight teacher candidates during their K-12 placement. Using a concurrent triangulation mixed-method design, researchers examined lesson plans, video footage of teaching, teacher candidate reflections on their teaching sample, and university supervisor measures of the same sample before and after the UDL seminar. Findings are shared as well as recommendations for future practice.

Publication Title

Journal of Educational Research & Practice

Recommended Citation

Lowrey, K., Classen, A., Sylvest, A. (2019). Exploring Ways to Support Preservice Teachers' Use of UDL In Planning and Instruction. Journal of Educational Research & Practice, 9(1), 261-281.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/16695

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Exploring Ways to Support Preservice Teachers' Use of UDL In Planning and Instruction

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There is limited research documenting current efforts to support preservice teachers to use the universal design for learning (UDL) framework in authentic teaching experiences. To increase knowledge on the effects of preparing preservice teachers to incorporate the UDL framework, researchers examined the effects a UDL professional development seminar that was delivered during the student teaching phase had on eight teacher candidates during their K-12 placement.

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A popular theory that some people learn better visually or aurally keeps getting debunked.

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A popular theory that some people learn better visually or aurally keeps getting debunked.

In the early '90s, a New Zealand man named Neil Fleming decided to sort through something that had puzzled him during his time monitoring classrooms as a school inspector. In the course of watching 9,000 different classes, he noticed that only some teachers were able to reach each and every one of their students. What were they doing differently?

Fleming zeroed in on how it is that people like to be presented information. For example, when asking for directions, do you prefer to be told where to go or to have a map sketched for you?

Today, 16 questions like this comprise the VARK questionnaire that Fleming developed to determine someone's "learning style." VARK, which stands for "visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic," sorts students into those who learn best visually, through aural or heard information, through reading, or through "kinesthetic" experiences. ("I learned much later that vark is Dutch for "pig," Fleming wrote later, "and I could not get a website called vark.com because a pet shop in Pennsylvania used it for selling aardvarks-earth pigs!")

He wasn't the first to suggest that people have different "learning styles"-past theories included the reading-less "VAK" and something involving "convergers" and "assimilators"-but VARK became one of the most prominent models out there.

Experts aren't sure how the concept spread, but it might have had something to do with the self-esteem movement of the late '80s and early '90s. Everyone was special-so everyone must have a special learning style too. Teachers told students about it in grade school. "Teachers like to think that they can reach every student, even struggling students, just by tailoring their instruction to match each student's preferred learning format," says Abby Knoll, a Ph.D. student at Central Michigan University who has studied learning styles. (Students, meanwhile, like to blame their scholastic failures on their teacher's failure to align their teaching style with the student's learning style.)

Either way, "by the time we get students at college," says Polly Husmann, a professor at Indiana University, "they've already been told, 'You're a visual learner.' Or aural, or what have you."

The thing is, they're not. Or at least, a lot of evidence suggests that people aren't really one certain kind of learner or another. In a study published last month in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education, Husmann and her colleagues had hundreds of students take the VARK questionnaire to determine what kind of learner they supposedly were. The survey then gave them some study strategies that seem like they would correlate with that learning style. Husmann found that not only did students not study in ways that seemed to reflect their learning style, but those who did tailor their studying to suit their style didn't do any better on their tests.

Husmann thinks that the students had fallen into certain study habits, which, once formed, were too hard to break. Students seemed to be interested in their learning styles, but not enough to actually change their studying behavior based on them. And even if they had, it wouldn't have mattered.

"I think as a purely reflective exercise, just to get you thinking about your study habits, [VARK] might have a benefit," Husmann says. "But the way we've been categorizing these learning styles doesn't seem to hold up."

Another study published last year in the British Journal of Psychology found that students who preferred learning visually thought they would remember pictures better, and those who preferred learning verbally thought they'd remember words better. But those preferences had no correlation to which they actually remembered better later on-words or pictures. Essentially, all the "learning style" meant, in this case, was that the subjects liked words or pictures better, not that words or pictures worked better for their memories.

In other words, "there's evidence that people do try to treat tasks in accordance with what they believe to be their learning style, but it doesn't help them," Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, told me. In 2015, he reviewed the literature on learning styles and concluded that "learning styles theories have not panned out."

That same year, a Journal of Educational Psychology paper found no relationship between the study subjects' learning-style preference (visual or auditory) and their performance on reading- or listening-comprehension tests. Instead, the visual learners performed best on all kinds of tests. Therefore, the authors concluded, teachers should stop trying to gear some lessons toward "auditory learners." "Educators may actually be doing a disservice to auditory learners by continually accommodating their auditory learning style," the researchers wrote, "rather than focusing on strengthening their visual word skills."

In our conversation, Willingham brought up another study, published in 2009, in which people who said that they liked to think visually or verbally really did try to think that way: Self-proclaimed visualizers tried to create an image, and self-proclaimed verbalizers tried to form words. But, there was a rub, he said: "If you're a visualizer and I give you pictures, you don't remember pictures any better than anyone who says they're a verbalizer."

This doesn't mean everyone is equally good at every skill, of course. Really, Willingham said, people have different abilities, not styles. Some people read better than others; some people hear worse than others. But most of the tasks that we encounter are really suited to only one type of learning. You can't visualize a perfect French accent, for example.

The VARK questionnaire itself illustrates this problem pretty well. One question, for example, asks:

You are planning a vacation for a group. You want some feedback from them about the plan. You would:

describe some of the highlights they will experience.

use a map to show them the places.

give them a copy of the printed itinerary.

phone, text, or email them.

But of course, any friend-having human in 2018 would email their friends to coordinate group travel, whether or not that email includes the first three elements. (Another question asks, sweetly, "You are helping someone who wants to go to the airport" and suggests different ways of giving directions, along with the option to simply "go with her." It depends on the "her" in question, one would assume!)

The "learning styles" idea has snowballed- as late as 2014, more than 90 percent of teachers in various countries believed it. The concept is intuitively appealing, promising to reveal secret brain processes with just a few questions. Strangely, most research on learning styles starts out with a positive portrayal of the theory-before showing it doesn't work.

Willingham goes so far as to say that people should stop thinking of themselves as visual, verbal, or some other kind of learner. "It's not like anything terrible is going to happen to you [if you do buy into learning styles]," he said, but there's not any benefit to it, either. "Everyone is able to think in words; everyone is able to think in mental images. It's much better to think of everyone having a toolbox of ways to think, and think to yourself, which tool is best?"

Husmann says that the most important thing, for anyone looking to learn something new, is to really focus on the material-that's what the most successful students from her study did. Rather than, say, plopping some flash cards in your lap ... "but I'm really watching the football game," she says.

Fleming did not return a request for comment by press time, but his own papers seem to warn against getting too carried away by VARK. "I sometimes believe that students and teachers invest more belief in VARK than it warrants," he wrote in 2006. "You can like something, but be good at it or not good at it ... VARK tells you about how you like to communicate. It tells you nothing about the quality of that communication."

In other words, it might help you learn about yourself, but it might not help you learn.

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A popular theory that some people learn better visually or aurally keeps getting debunked.

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Testing, Testing | Linda Darling-Hammond | TEDxStanford

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from the Office of Educational Technology

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Measuring learning is a necessary part of every teacher's work. Teachers need to check for student understanding, and parents, students, and leaders need to know how students are doing overall in order to help them successfully prepare for college and work. In addition to supporting learning across content areas, technology-enabled assessments can help reduce the time, resources, and disruption to learning required for the administration of paper assessments ¹ Assessments delivered using technology also can provide a more complete and nuanced picture of student needs, interests, and abilities than can traditional assessments, allowing educators to personalize learning.

Through embedded assessments, educators can see evidence of students' thinking during the learning process and provide near real-time feedback through learning dashboards so they can take action in the moment. ² Families can be more informed about what and how their children learned during the school day. In the long term, educators, schools, districts, states, and the nation can use the information to support continuous improvement and innovations in learning.

Technology-enabled tools also can support teacher evaluation and coaching. These tools capture video and other evidence of qualities of teaching such as teamwork and collaboration. They provide new avenues for self-reflection, peer reflection and feedback, and supervisor evaluation.

Educators and institutions should be mindful of whether they are measuring what is easy to measure or what is most valuable to measure. Traditional assessments in schools and post-secondary institutions today rely largely on multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-bubble answers. ³ Many assessments also happen after learning has occurred and with results delivered months later, usually after the course has ended. Assessments are more instructionally useful when they afford timely feedback.

Continued advances in technology will expand the use of ongoing, formative, and embedded assessments that are less disruptive and more useful for improving learning. These advances also ensure that all students have the best opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on statewide assessments that increasingly focus on real-world skills and complex demonstrations of understanding. Statewide assessment-coupled with meaningful accountability-is an essential part of ensuring students have equitable access to high-quality educational experiences. At the same time, it is crucial to focus time and effort on tests worth taking-those that reflect the kind of instructional experiences students need and that provide actionable insight.

As technology gives us the capability to improve on long-standing assessment approaches, our public education system has a responsibility to use the information we collect during assessment in ways that can have the greatest impact on learning. This means using assessments that ask students to demonstrate what they have learned in meaningful ways. And students and parents know there is more to a sound education than picking the right answer on a multiple-choice question or answering an extended-response question outside of the context of students' daily lives. All learners deserve assessments that better reflect what they know and are able to do with that knowledge.

Approaches to Assessment

Various types of assessments are appropriate for different uses and at different times. Summative assessments measure student knowledge and skills at a specific point in time. Summative assessments often are administered in common to a group of students, whether an entire class, grade level at a school, or grade level across a district. These assessment results can help to determine whether students are meeting standards in a given subject and to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional curriculum or model. ⁴

Many PK-12 schools administer formal summative tests at the end of the year, which they may augment with interim tests earlier in the year. These assessments provide system-wide data on student achievement as well as data by sub-groups of learners. ⁵ The data can provide valuable insights regarding the achievement and progress of all students, including efforts to promote equitable access to excellent educational opportunities and to narrow achievement gaps.

In contrast, formative assessments are frequent, instructionally embedded checks for understanding that provide quick, continual snapshots of student progress across time. Formative assessments provide information during the instructional process, before summative assessments are administered. Both teachers and students can use the results from formative assessments to determine what actions to take to help promote further learning. These assessments help identify students' understanding, inform and improve the instructional practice of teachers, and help students track their own learning. ⁶

Optimally, a comprehensive assessment system balances multiple assessment approaches to ensure that students, families, educators, and policymakers have timely and appropriate information to support individual learners and to make good decisions to strengthen educational systems overall.

Using Assessment Data to Support Learning

In almost all aspects of our daily lives, data help us personalize and adapt experiences to our individual needs. However, there is much work remaining to realize the full potential of using assessment data to improve learning. One recent study of teacher perceptions of the use of data revealed a range of frustrations with many current implementations. These frustrations include being overwhelmed with large amounts of data from disparate sources, incompatibility of data systems and tools that make data analysis unnecessarily time-consuming, inconsistency in the level of detail and quality of data, and delays in being able to access data in time to modify instruction. ⁷

Education data systems do not always maximize the use of interoperability standards that would enable easy and secure sharing of information with educators, schools, districts, states, students, and their families. As a result, educators are missing out on significant opportunities to use data to improve and personalize learning. With improved educational data systems, leaders can leverage aggregate data to improve the quality and effectiveness of technology-enabled learning tools and resources.

For example, it is now possible to gather data during formative and summative assessments that can be used to create personalized digital learning experiences. In addition, teachers can use these data to inform interventions and decisions about how to engage individual students; personalize learning; and create more engaging, relevant, and accessible learning experiences for all learners.

Assessment data can be made available directly to students. When they have access to their data, students can play a larger role in choosing their own learning pathways. ⁸ The data also can be made available to family members so students' advocates can play a more active role in supporting their children's education. Moreover, data can be used to support teachers' efforts-individually or in teams, departments, or schools-to improve professional practice and learning. ⁹ For personalized learning systems to reach their full potential, data systems and learning platforms should include seamless interoperability with a focus on data security and issues related to privacy.

In many cases, pre-service teaching candidates do not receive sufficient instruction on understanding and using data. At the same time, in-service teachers can benefit from ongoing professional development on the integration of technology to enhance their teaching. According to the Data Quality Campaign, as of February 2014, just 19 states included the demonstration of data literacy skills as a requirement for teacher licensure. ¹⁰ Although data from technology-based assessments and data systems hold great potential, they are meaningful only when educators use them effectively. Teachers deserve ongoing support to strengthen their skills in how to use data to meet the needs of students better.

Addressing these challenges will take a three-pronged approach: (1) preparing and supporting educators in realizing the full potential of using assessment data, (2) encouraging the development of data assessment tools that are more intuitive and include visualizations that clearly indicate what the data mean for instruction, and (3) ensuring the security and privacy of student data within these systems.

For a more complete discussion of student data safety and privacy, see Section 5: Infrastructure.

How Technology Transforms Assessment

Technology can help us imagine and redefine assessment in a variety of ways. These tools can provide unobtrusive measurements for learners who are designing and building products, conducting experiments using mobile devices, and manipulating parameters in simulations. Problems can be situated in real-world environments, where students perform tasks, or include multi-stage scenarios that simulate authentic, progressive engagement with the subject matter. Teachers can access information on student progress and learning throughout the school day, which allows them to adapt instruction to personalize learning or intervene to address particular learning shortfalls. The unique attributes of technology-based assessments that enable these activities include the following.

Enable enhanced question types

Technology-based assessments allow for a variety of question types beyond the limited multiple-choice, true-or-false, or fill-in-the-blank options that have characterized traditional assessments. Examples of enhanced question types include the following:

Graphic response, which includes any item to which students respond by drawing, moving, arranging, or selecting graphic regions

Hot text, in which students select or rearrange sentences or phrases within a passage

Equation response, in which students respond by entering an equation

Performance-based assessments, in which students perform a series of complex tasks

Technology-enhanced questions allow students to demonstrate more complex thinking and share their understanding of material in a way that was previously difficult to assess using traditional means.

In particular, performance-based assessments are designed so that students must complete a series of complex skills that ask them to synthesize information from multiple sources, analyze that information, and justify their conclusions. For example, a performance task in English language arts might include reading passages from primary documents, analyzing the set of passages, and writing an essay in response to a prompt. In a mathematics class, a performance task might ask students to analyze a graph based on actual data and describe the linear relationship between the quantities. Because performance-based assessments allow students to construct an original response rather than selecting the right answer from a list, they can measure students' cognitive thinking skills and their ability to apply their knowledge to solve realistic, meaningful problems. ¹¹

Using the technology offered in performance-based assessments, students can enter their responses in the online interface. For tasks that require hand scoring, scores can be merged with machine-scored items in the same system, thus providing complete test results. For example, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium evaluate students' ability to excel at classroom speaking and listening assignments in addition to more traditional machine-scored prompts.

PISA

PISA is a triennial international survey that aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. For additional information, visit www.oecd.org/pisa/.

Measure complex competencies

A recent convening of the National Research Council (NRC) underscored the importance of broadening the focus of assessment to include non-cognitive competencies and the importance of technology in measuring knowledge, skills, and abilities. ¹²

As an example, the NRC highlighted the work of the international comparative assessment, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA administers a novel technology-based assessment of student performance in creative problem solving designed to measure students' capacity to respond to non-routine situations to achieve their potential as constructive and reflective citizens. The NRC also highlighted the SimScientists simulation-based curriculum unit and assessments, which are designed to use technology to measure middle school students' understanding of ecosystems and scientific inquiry.

Similarly, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently announced plans to expand its testing program to begin to include measures of students' motivation, mindset, and perseverance in an effort to build the evidence base for more widespread use.

Technology Enables Assessment of Growth Mindset

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Small Business Innovation Research program, Mindset Works developed SchoolKit, an app designed to strengthen academic and social and emotional success. Through animations, assessments, and classroom activities, students learn a growth mindset-the understanding that ability develops with effort. Pilot research in nine middle schools showed significant increases in student growth mindset, which related to increases in learning goals, positive beliefs about effort, and positive academic habits and behaviors (such as resilient responses to failure and better learning strategies). ¹⁹

These changes also related to increases in students' grade point averages. Since launching in 2012, SchoolKit has been used by tens of thousands of students around the country, including all middle schools in Washington, D.C. The app is based on Carol Dweck's research on growth mindsets. ²⁰

Provide Real-Time Feedback

Technology-based formative assessments can offer real-time reporting of results, allowing stakeholders to understand students' strengths and weaknesses, while guiding them to make valid, actionable interpretations of the assessment data. Such assessments can enable educators to see, evaluate, and respond to student work more quickly than can traditional assessments. Similarly, learners and their families can access this information almost in real time. Technology-based summative assessments also facilitate faster turnaround of results.

Some of today's technology-based assessments also allow for a richer menu of approaches to feedback than do traditional or even first-generation online assessments. Certain formative assessment platforms allow educators to provide feedback to students via in-line comments (through video, audio, or text), engage in online chats, e-mail feedback directly to families and learners, and connect learners to additional resources for practicing specific skills or developing key understandings.

These technologies also can increase the efficiency of the process of giving feedback, allowing educators more time to focus on areas of greatest need. For example, for giving feedback on areas of frequent concern, educators can pre-populate a menu of responses to use as comments, allowing them to shift focus to areas of feedback unique to each student. Automated responses can be generated as well when assignments are late or incomplete. Although this is still nascent technology, in recent years, advances have occurred in automated scoring of essays that may make it a more powerful tool to generate timely feedback.

Increase Accessibility

Advances in technology grounded in UD and systems that align to UDL have made assessments more accessible and valid for a greater number of students, including those with diverse abilities and language capabilities. These advances have allowed a greater proportion of the population access to assessments.

Special features include the ability to increase font sizes and change color contrast, text-to-speech, bilingual dictionaries, glossaries, and more. These features can be embedded in assessments and made available to students, depending on what the assessment is measuring and identified learner needs. Seamless accessibility features embedded in technology-based assessments reduce the need to single out individual students for extra supports, providing an added benefit for students and educators alike.

Similarly, assistive technology, such as text-to-speech, alternate response systems, and refreshable braille, supports students with disabilities in accessing learning. These technologies continue to advance and can make it possible for students to interact with digital learning resources in ways that would be impossible with standard print-based assessments. When both assistive technologies and assessments effectively interoperate, students are better able to demonstrate what they know and how to apply this knowledge.

Adapt to Learner Ability and Knowledge

Computer adaptive testing has facilitated the ability of assessments to estimate accurately what students know and can do across the curriculum in a shorter testing session than would otherwise be necessary. Computer adaptive testing uses algorithms to adjust the difficulty of questions throughout an assessment on the basis of a student's responses. For example, if the student answers a question correctly, a slightly more challenging item is presented next; if the student answers incorrectly, he or she receives another opportunity to demonstrate knowledge in a different manner.

Because adaptive tests target content and test items aligned with each student's ability level, the adaptation leads to more precise scores for all students across the achievement continuum in a greatly reduced time period. Achieving the same level of precision in a traditional paper-and-pencil test would require students to answer many more questions, potentially impacting instructional time. Moving forward, these assessments can benefit from increased interoperability so that the data from these adaptive measures can be pulled into a centralized dashboard that allows a more integrated understanding of student performance.

Embedded With the Learning Process

Embedded assessments are woven directly into the fabric of learning activities students undertake. Such assessments may be technology driven or simply a part of effective instruction, and they may appear in digital learning tools and games. They are generally invisible to the instructional process because they are embedded in the regular classroom activities. Embedded assessments have the potential to be useful for diagnostic and support purposes in that they provide insights into why students are having difficulties in mastering concepts and provide insights into how to personalize feedback to address these challenges. ¹³

Game-based assessment is designed to leverage parallels between video game design and next-generation learning and assessment. 14, 15 Recent research has focused on promising ways that digital learning can support formative assessment practices ¹⁶-including wraparound features such as annotation tools and dashboards-and ways that games can identify more nuanced conclusions about student learning outcomes. ¹⁷

Incorporating Student Interests: Games and Assessment

GlassLab creates and supports high-impact games that make learning visible by creating games, conducting research, and building infrastructure that lowers entry costs for new developers. For example, GlassLab has conducted a number of studies investigating the efficacy of games as a tool for learning and unobtrusive assessment.

Students using GlassLab's games regularly report that they persist in the face of challenging academic content in the games and that they feel ownership over their learning. SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!, one of GlassLab's digital games, provides educators with the tools and content to engage students in real-world challenges faced by countries globally. The game focuses on the countries' need to reduce dependence on cheaper, pollution-generating resources such as coal while at the same time growing their economies.

In SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!, students play the role of a city mayor faced with a growing pollution problem and a shrinking economy. While learning how economic and environmental issues influence one another, students are assessed on their ability to problem-solve and understand relationships in complex systems. The GlassLab assessment system gathers evidence for students' problem-solving and systems-thinking skills unobtrusively in the course of students' gameplay by logging student activities. To support teacher facilitation, and enrich teacher-student interactions, the game also includes lessons plans, teacher and student dashboards, and student data reporting.

Embedding Assessment: Understanding Middle School Students' Knowledge of Physics Concepts

Valerie Shute, the Mack and Effie Campbell Tyner Endowed Professor in Education at Florida State University, is studying the impact of video games on learning, with a focus on building a greater understanding of the future of embedded assessment.

One study conducted by Shute and her colleagues of middle school students focused on the acquisition and embedded assessment of physics concepts by having students play the relatively simple video game, Newton's Playground. Players guide a ball to a balloon across a set of increasingly challenging two-dimensional environments involving the placement and manipulation of ramps, pendulums, levers, and springboards. After taking a traditional pre-test and answering a background questionnaire to assess prior knowledge, students played the game during six class periods-about four hours in total-and concluded their participation by completing a traditional post-test.

Newton's Playground generates detailed log files as students play, capturing data such as time spent on the level, number of restarts of the level, total number of objects used in a solution attempt, whether the solution ultimately worked, and the trajectory of the ball. Each of these data points provides information that the game uses to make inferences about how well each student is doing in the game and to gauge the student's current understanding of the physics concepts being taught.

On the basis of analyses of the pre- and post-test data, game log files, and the background questionnaire, Shute and her colleagues demonstrated the following:

Students playing the game improved their conceptual physics understanding.

Students who were more engaged in playing the game learned more than those who were less engaged.

The assessments embedded in the video game could be used to substitute for the traditional assessments commonly used in today's classrooms.

Shute's work underscores the potential for embedded assessment to play an increasingly important role in helping students to gain and demonstrate mastery of important knowledge, skills, and abilities. ²¹

Access for Ongoing Learning

Technology provides students with multiple pathways to create assessable work throughout the year. To demonstrate their understanding, students can create multimedia productions, construct websites to organize and analyze information, and design interactive presentations to serve as products for assessment. These pathways allow teachers to understand how students access and understand information across given categories. For students who need individual accommodations, advances in technology allow for dynamic and personalized presentation and assessment using alternative representations of the same concept or skill. For example, alternative text can be provided for images through the work of the Diagram Center to make graphics accessible to learners with print disabilities.

Moving forward, increasingly sophisticated technology-driven assessments will enable more powerful personalized learning, likely accelerating the shift from time-based learning to competency-based learning.

The Future of Technology-Based Assessment

Although the process is often challenging, in many places, transitioning to technology-based assessment is well under way. Such assessments will continue to improve across time in the following ways.

Continuous Improvement of Assessments

Traditional paper-and-pencil tests, and even some first-generation technology-based assessments, usually are reviewed and updated only on a designated schedule, often driven by printing and distribution cycles rather than when test items need to be updated. Online delivery of assessments allows for continuous improvement of test items.

Integrated Learning and Assessment Systems

Technology has the potential to move assessment from disjointed separate measures of student progress to an integrated system of assessments and personalized instruction to meet the needs of the learner. Technology can integrate more fully student classroom experiences, homework assignments, and formative and summative assessments, all of which are tied closely to academic standards. Online learning platforms can display effects of missing assignments, progress toward goals, and channels for communication with mentors and teachers.

We also should expect to see integrated systems that make the learning process more seamless for students and educators. As students progress along personalized learning pathways, they will be assessed when they are ready to demonstrate mastery over particular skills and content rather than when the calendar indicates there is a testing date. At the same time, we have a responsibility to ensure that all students are held to high standards and offered excellent educational experiences. Ensuring equity while also providing accelerated personalization is the one of the greatest challenges and opportunities moving forward for technology in assessment.

Using Data Effectively and Appropriately

To realize the vision of sharing data across student information systems, we need to address several challenges. On the technical front, formidable barriers to the development of multi-level assessment systems are created by having several student data systems running side-by-side, coupled with disparate data formats and the lack of interoperability across systems. Student and program data today are collected at various levels and in various amounts to address different needs in the educational system. State data systems generally provide macro solutions, institution-level performance management systems offer micro solutions, and student data generated by embedded assessments create nano solutions. Providing meaningful, actionable information that is collected across all of these systems will require agreement on the technical format for sharing data while attending to student privacy and security.

To assist with overcoming these challenges, the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education has been leading the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) Initiative, a national, collaborative effort to develop voluntary, common data standards. The CEDS Initiative's objective is to help state and local education agencies and higher education organizations work together to identify a minimal set of key data elements common across organizations and come to agreement on definitions, business rules, and technical specifications to improve the comparability of and ability to share those elements. (Note: Version 5 was released in January 2015.)

For more information on protecting student data and privacy, see Section 5: Infrastructure.

Learning Dashboards That Enable Visualizations

Although systems that support real-time feedback can increase educator and learner understanding of progress toward learning goals, the feedback is even more valuable if it is available in one easily accessible place. To achieve this, we need to connect information about learning that happens across digital tools and platforms.

Learning dashboards integrate information from assessments, learning tools, educator observations, and other sources to provide compelling, comprehensive visual representations of student progress in real time. A learner's attendance data, feedback from instructors, summative evaluation data, and other useful information all can be made available in formats specific to different stakeholders. Learning dashboards can present this data in easy-to-understand graphic interfaces.

These dashboards also can offer recommendations about resources to help students continue their learning progression as well as help identify students who may be at risk of going off track or even dropping out of school. Across larger education systems, these dashboards can help educators to track learner performance across time as well as monitor groups of students to identify shifts in equity, opportunity, and achievement gaps. Although teacher dashboards are becoming commonplace, student and family dashboards can offer promising opportunities to help students take control of their own learning.

Putting Learning on Display: Summit Public Schools' Student Dashboards Personalize Learning

Each morning, students at Summit Public Schools connect to their Personalized Learning Plans by using their devices. Here, students find both their short-term and long-term project views, the materials they need to complete their projects, and just-in-time formative feedback to improve their individual learning, all in one location. Using a color-coded system, each project is linked explicitly with the associated content knowledge standards, and students can see the progress they have made toward those standards as well as areas in which they need more practice.

This automated feedback and work management system gives students easy access and greater control over their learning and frees educators to spend more time teaching and less time on administrative and organizational tasks. "It was really difficult to track where my students were on their progress towards meeting a learning objective and giving them timely feedback," says Elizabeth Doggett, a teacher at Summit Public Schools. "Often I would take student work home over the weekend, but by the time I got through giving them all feedback, it would be too late for them to make meaningful changes." ²²

With the Personalized Learning Plan system, students have the formative feedback they need in real time, and their educators, such as Doggett, are able to plan and execute differentiated instruction more efficiently and effectively so that all of her students can succeed. Students also are benefiting individually from the student-facing side of the Personalized Learning Plan. Educators have taken notice of how these plans promote student agency and motivation. "Students should be able to access what they need at the moment they need it, and we provide the resources so that they can do that," says Jon Deane, the former chief information officer of Summit Public Schools. ²³

Doggett sums up the effect of implementing the Personalized Learning Plan, saying, "It makes the students' lives so much easier. It makes me a better teacher, and it makes them more successful students." ²⁴

Set of Shared Skill Standards

As we shift toward personalized learning, there is increased need for a shared set of common skill standards. The development of micro-credentials is one approach to address this need by creating a shared language and system for communicating success in developing these competencies.

Micro-credentials, often referred to as badges, focus on mastery of a singular competency and are more focused and granular than diplomas, degrees, or certificates. The earning and awarding of micro-credentials typically is supported by a technology-based system that enables students and evaluators to be located anywhere and for these activities to take place everywhere and all the time. Micro-credentials also allow for the portability of evidence of mastery. Information about the student's work that earned a badge can be embedded in the metadata, as can the standards the work reflects and information about the awarder of the badge. As with other data systems, a key goal for the next generation of micro-credentialing platforms is interoperability with other educational information systems. ¹⁸

Recognizing Digital Literacy Skills: Assigning Micro-Credentials

LearningTimes, in partnership with the New York Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Readiness, has developed DIG/IT, a digital learning course that introduces students in transfer schools (second-chance high schools) to digital literacy skills while they develop their plans for college, careers, and life after high school. DIG/IT is an open standards-based system designed specifically for badge-empowered social learning that uses challenge-based quests and badges to recognize competencies and positive behaviors in four areas: digital citizenship, college and career explorations, financial literacy and arts, culture and games. At the end of the course, students design a learning experience for a family member or another important person in their lives.

Upon completing a series of related quests, students earn badges acknowledging tangible new skills they have acquired. They also earn reward badges for contributions to the online and classroom community. As they gather enough rewards, they "level up" and continue to earn rewards for participating in the community and for helping others.

DIG/IT is currently in use in 36 New York City transfer schools. The initial pilot has had promising results, including positive teacher and student feedback and reportedly higher levels of student engagement in school. Student attendance in the DIG/IT- based course has been higher than in courses not using the approach. The DIG/IT program will be rolled out to approximately 50 transfer schools over the next two years, reaching more than 5,000 students.

Since DIG/IT's development, LearningTimes has spun off Credly to focus on earning, managing, and analyzing digital credentials and badges in an open and portable way. Credly hosts more than 6,000 organizations and their respective micro-credential initiatives. BadgeOS, the open source environment for setting up progressive credentialing programs, has been installed more than 30,000 times by organizations around the world and supports millions of learners.

Educators also can benefit from earning micro-credentials because they can gain recognition for new discrete skills they learn throughout their careers. The nonprofit, Digital Promise, has developed an educator micro-credentialing system, noting that educator micro-credentials can identify, capture, recognize, and share the practices of our best educators. Proponents view micro-credentials as a promising emerging professional development strategy.

Recommendations

Revise practices, policies, and regulations to ensure privacy and information protection while enabling a model of assessment that includes ongoing gathering and sharing of data for continuous improvement of learning and teaching. This will require not only greater systems interoperability standards but also increased capacity on the part of educators and administrators to understand the types of systems they want to establish within schools and colleges. In addition, they will need to have an understanding of the standards of interoperability they should demand from vendors. A key component of this increased capacity should ensure educational leaders have a firm understanding of privacy and security concerns, how those concerns are addressed within the school or system, and clear communication of policies and procedures with all stakeholders. Achievement of this recommendation would benefit from the involvement and guidance of organizations, such as CoSN, ISTE, and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), that have developed specialized expertise in these areas.

States, districts, and others should design, develop, and implement learning dashboards, response systems, and communication pathways that give students, educators, families, and other stakeholders timely and actionable feedback about student learning to improve achievement and instructional practices. The next generation of such tools should integrate across platforms and tools seamlessly, be designed with a mobile-first mindset, and be guided by UD and UDL principles to ensure accessibility by all stakeholders. Although current products and dashboards include basic functionality and features that improve on those of their predecessors, future iterations should be built on a premise of feedback and conversation, allowing learners and families to discuss learning outcomes and evidence and increasing agency and ownership across stakeholder groups.

Create and validate an integrated system for designing and implementing valid, reliable, and cost-effective assessments of complex aspects of 21st-century expertise and competencies across academic disciplines. Interoperable formative assessment formats offered by major testing consortia for use by educators throughout the year are an important first step. However, work remains to ensure more educators have access to high-quality formative assessment tools and to develop additional capacities to assess both cognitive and non-cognitive skills better. Moving forward, increasing educator capacity for the design and deployment of valid and reliable formative assessments will require the concerted efforts of current assessment developers, teacher preparation programs, school systems, and researchers. Furthermore, colleges and universities will benefit from system-wide reviews of assessment practices and from ensuring all faculty have deep understandings of key principles and practices surrounding the design and implementation of effective learning assessments.

Research and development should be conducted that explores how embedded assessment technologies such as simulations, collaboration environments, virtual worlds, games, and cognitive tutors can be used to engage and motivate learners while assessing complex skills. Although some of this research is in its early stages, the way forward will require close collaboration among organizations-such as GlassLab, Games for Change, and iCivics; colleges, universities, informal learning spaces, and schools; philanthropic organizations; and research institutions-that have a deep understanding of how game mechanics increase learner motivation. This collaboration can increase the likelihood of effective and engaging experiences being built to support learning.
Feedback / Share Your Thoughts

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Assessment - Office of Educational Technology

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Measuring learning is a necessary part of every teacher's work. Teachers need to check for student understanding, and parents, students, and leaders need to know how students are doing overall in order to help them successfully prepare for college and work. In addition to supporting learning across content areas, technology-enabled assessments can help reduce the [...]

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Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148

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Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148

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As educators, we know the power of a good rubric. Well-crafted rubrics facilitate clear and meaningful communication with our students and help keep us accountable and consistent in our grading. They're important and meaningful classroom tools.

Usually when we talk about rubrics, we're referring to either a holistic or an analytic rubric, even if we aren't entirely familiar with those terms. A holistic rubric breaks an assignment down into general levels at which a student can perform, assigning an overall grade for each level. For example, a holistic rubric might describe an A essay using the following criteria: "The essay has a clear, creative thesis statement and a consistent overall argument. The essay is 2-3 pages long, demonstrates correct MLA formatting and grammar, and provides a complete works cited page." Then it would list the criteria for a B, a C, etc.

An analytic rubric would break each of those general levels down even further to include multiple categories, each with its own scale of success-so, to continue the example above, the analytic rubric might have four grades levels, with corresponding descriptions, for each of the following criteria points: thesis, argument, length, and grammar and formatting.

Both styles have their advantages and have served many classrooms well. However, there's a third option that introduces some exciting and game-changing potential for us and our students.

The single-point rubric offers a different approach to systematic grading in the classroom. Like holistic and analytic rubrics, it breaks the aspects of an assignment down into categories, clarifying to students what kinds of things you expect of them in their work. Unlike those rubrics, the single-point rubric includes only guidance on and descriptions of successful work-without listing a grade, it might look like the description of an A essay in the holistic rubric above. In the example below, you can see that the rubric describes what success looks like in four categories, with space for the teacher to explain how the student has met the criteria or how he or she can still improve.

A single-point rubric outlines the standards a student has to meet to complete the assignment; however, it leaves the categories outlining success or shortcoming open-ended. This relatively new approach creates a host of advantages for teachers and students. Implementing new ideas in our curricula is never easy, but allow me to suggest six reasons why you should give the single-point rubric a try.

1. It gives space to reflect on both strengths and weaknesses in student work. Each category invites teachers to meaningfully share with students what they did really well and where they might want to consider making some adjustments.

2. It doesn't place boundaries on student performance. The single-point rubric doesn't try to cover all the aspects of a project that could go well or poorly. It gives guidance and then allows students to approach the project in creative and unique ways. It helps steer students away from relying too much on teacher direction and encourages them to create their own ideas.

3. It works against students' tendency to rank themselves and to compare themselves to or compete with one another. Each student receives unique feedback that is specific to them and their work, but that can't be easily quantified.

4. It helps take student attention off the grade. The design of this rubric emphasizes descriptive, individualized feedback over the grade. Instead of focusing on teacher instruction in order to aim for a particular grade, students can immerse themselves in the experience of the assignment.

5. It creates more flexibility without sacrificing clarity. Students are still given clear explanations for the grades they earned, but there is much more room to account for a student taking a project in a direction that a holistic or analytic rubric didn't or couldn't account for.

6. It's simple! The single-point rubric has much less text than other rubric styles. The odds that our students will actually read the whole rubric, reflect on given feedback, and remember both are much higher.

You'll notice that the recurring theme in my list involves placing our students at the center of our grading mentalities. The ideology behind the single-point rubric inherently moves classroom grading away from quantifying and streamlining student work, shifting student and teacher focus in the direction of celebrating creativity and intellectual risk-taking.

If you or your administrators are concerned about the lack of specificity involved in grading with a single-point rubric, Jennifer Gonzales of Cult of Pedagogy has created an adaptation that incorporates specific scores or point values while still keeping the focus on personalized feedback and descriptions of successful work. She offers a brief description of the scored version along with a very user-friendly template.

While the single-point rubric may require that we as educators give a little more of our time to reflect on each student's unique work when grading, it also creates space for our students to grow as scholars and individuals who take ownership of their learning. It tangibly demonstrates to them that we believe in and value their educational experiences over their grades. The structure of the single-point rubric allows us as educators to work toward returning grades and teacher feedback to their proper roles: supporting and fostering real learning in our students.

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As educators, we know the power of a good rubric. Well-crafted rubrics facilitate clear and meaningful communication with our students and help keep us accountable and consistent in our grading. They're important and meaningful classroom tools.

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To get started with student-led, project-based work, teachers can try the 5E instructional model.

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To get started with student-led, project-based work, teachers can try the 5E instructional model.

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New teachers—and experienced ones too—can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.

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New teachers-and experienced ones too-can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.

In the 1950s, psychologists Jacob Kounin and Paul Gump discovered a curious side effect of discipline: If a student was being disruptive and the teacher responded with strict disciplinary measures, the student might stop-but other students would start exhibiting the same misbehavior. Kounin and Gump called this the " ripple effect," and it demonstrated that efforts to control a classroom can backfire.

"The teacher who is interested in controlling ripple effects can generally do so best by giving clear instructions to the child rather than by exerting pressure on him," Kounin and Gump wrote.

Decades later, classroom management is still a thorny issue for teachers. Nearly half of new teachers report that they feel "not at all prepared" or "only somewhat prepared" to handle disruptive students, in part because the average teacher training program devotes just eight hours to the topic, according to a 2014 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. This lack of training comes with a cost, as teachers report losing 144 minutes of instructional time on average to behavioral disruptions every week, which comes out to roughly three weeks over the course of a year.

Recent research confirms what Kounin and Gump discovered decades ago. A 2016 study found that while negative attention-reprimands like "Stop chitchatting!"-may temporarily stop misbehavior, students eventually became more likely to engage in disruptive behavior. Students in the study felt disengaged, had difficulty concentrating, and weren't able to effectively regulate their thoughts and emotions-a vicious cycle that "actually amplifies students' inappropriate behavior," the study authors explain.

8 Proactive Classroom Management Strategies

Instead of handling disruptions after they've happened, it can be more effective to set up conditions in which they are less likely to occur. Here are eight classroom strategies that teachers have shared with Edutopia, all backed by research.

1. Greet students at the door: At Van Ness Elementary School in Washington, DC, Falon Turner starts the day by giving each of her students a high-five, handshake, or hug. "During that time, I'm just trying to connect with them.... It's kind of like a pulse check to see where they are," she says.

In a study published last year, greeting students at the door helped teachers set a positive tone for the rest of the day, boosting academic engagement by 20 percentage points while reducing disruptive behavior by 9 percentage points-adding roughly an hour of engagement over the course of the school day.

2. Establish, maintain, and restore relationships: Building relationships with students through strategies like greeting them at the door is a good start. It's also necessary to maintain them over the course of the school year, and to repair them when conflicts arise. "The stronger the relationship and the better we understand our students, the more knowledge and goodwill we have to draw on when the going gets tough," writes Marieke van Woerkom, a restorative practices coach at the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility in New York.

Strategies for establishing, maintaining, and restoring relationships -such as regular check-ins, and focusing on solutions instead of problems-can reduce disruptions by up to 75 percent.

3. Use reminders and cues: "Novelty-such as the sound of a wind chime or rain stick-captures young students' attention" writes Todd Finley, a former English teacher and current professor of English education, who suggests using these techniques to quiet a noisy class.

For older students, give plenty of warning if you need them to follow instructions. Reminders and cues are helpful ways to encourage students to follow instructions without being overtly controlling or forceful. For example, if you can anticipate a disruption-such as students getting out of their seats if they finish an assignment early-give a short reminder of what they should do instead.

Reminders are commonly verbal, but can also be visual (flicking the lights to signal that it's time to be quiet), auditory (ringing a small bell to let students know they should pay attention to the teacher), or physical (using a hand signal to let students know to get back in their seats).

4. Optimize classroom seating: When students choose their own seats, they're three times more likely to be disruptive than when seats are assigned. After all, they'll probably pick seats next to their friends and spend more time chatting.

But that doesn't mean choice is always bad. Giving students a sense of ownership in the room, paired with clear expectations for behavior, can have surprisingly positive effects. A welcoming space can reduce anxiety and boost academic performance. Emily Polak, a ninth-grade teacher in Madison, Alabama, gave her room a cozier feel by adding a couch, a loveseat, rugs, a coffee table, and posters. Her students decide where to sit-but if they can't get their work done, they get moved back to a desk. "Discipline issues have significantly decreased. My students seem to feel more relaxed and more motivated in a setting that honors their choices," Polak says.

5. Give behavior-specific praise: It may seem counterintuitive, but acknowledging positive behavior and ignoring low-level disruptions can be more effective than punishing or disciplining students. Instead of focusing on specific students, offer praise for the behavior you want to reinforce. For example, tell students, "Excellent work getting to your seats quickly."

It's also helpful to avoid using the word don't, suggests Alyssa Nucaro, a sixth-grade English teacher in Memphis. Students are more likely to listen to instructions that include clear reasons.

6. Set clear expectations: Instead of just displaying rules for behavior, have a discussion with your students about why those rules matter. Bobby Shaddox, a seventh-grade social studies teacher in Portland, Maine, works with his students to create a list of norms-words such as inclusive, focused, and considerate -to build a sense of community. "It helps us own the behavior in the classroom," Shaddox says. "Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together. These are words that we believe in."

7. Actively supervise: "Presence is crucial to maintaining classroom management and to effective delivery of instruction, and it's a skill we can develop with effort," explains Sol Henik, a high school teacher in Pleasant Hill, California. Although it's tempting to sit at your desk and grade papers, that's also an invitation to your students to get distracted. Be active: Move around the room, check in on student progress, and ask questions. It's not about policing your students, but about interacting with them.

A 2017 study found that a teacher's nonverbal cues-such as smiling and making eye contact-can "reduce physical and/or psychological distance" with their students, boosting students' positive feelings toward the teacher and the course material while improving behavior.

8. Be consistent in applying rules: Early in Kelly Wickham Hurst's career as an administrator in a public high school, she was asked to discipline a black student for violating the school dress code by wearing sagging jeans. As they walked down the hallway, he pointed out other boys-all white-who were also wearing sagging pants. "Are you gonna get him, too, or is it just me?" he asked. School and classroom expectations, rules, and routines should be followed and applied fairly to all students. Don't single out certain students-it's the behavior you should be focused on, not the student. Correct errors when you see them and provide additional instruction or reteaching when misbehavior occurs.

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New teachers-and experienced ones too-can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins. In the 1950s, psychologists Jacob Kounin and Paul Gump discovered a curious side effect of discipline: If a student was being disruptive and the teacher responded with strict disciplinary measures, the student might stop-but other students would start exhibiting the same misbehavior.

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Simple Exercise: Help Students Analyze Their Growth Over Time

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Simple Exercise: Help Students Analyze Their Growth Over Time

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Students rarely recognize how much progress they are making over the course of a semester or school year. Their school days tend to be a blur of information, assignments, and activities. However, if students do not appreciate their growth over time, it may be harder to understand the value of the work they are doing or stay motivated.

I encourage teachers to dedicate class time to an exercise that requires students to compare two pieces of work from two different moments in time using the Google Document below.

bit.ly/AnalyzeGrowth

The Google Document guides students in selecting two pieces of work to analyze and reflect on. The goal is to get students thinking about their skills and how they have changed or developed over time.

When I have done this exercise in the past, many students exclaim, "Oh my gosh! I cannot believe I wrote this!" They are genuinely shocked by their growth. I remind them that the purpose of our work together is to help them develop as readers, writers, thinkers, speakers, and creators.

I've found that this simple exercise helps students to recognize the value of the work we are doing. It can be particularly powerful to engage students in this exercise mid-year or at the start of the second semester. It is also a great way to end the year so students can appreciate the impact that a particular course has had on their development.

This entry was posted in Learning and tagged metacognition, reflection. Bookmark the permalink.

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Simple Exercise: Help Students Analyze Their Growth Over Time

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Students rarely recognize how much progress they are making over the course of a semester or school year. Their school days tend to be a blur of information, assignments, and activities. However, if students do not appreciate their growth over

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Examples From Elementary Classrooms

Diane Dahl of Texas, a participant in our brain-based teaching program, enjoys teaching her elementary students about the brain and strategies for learning. Students learn what neurons, dendrites, and axons are and how connections between neurons created by axons and dendrites create learning. Dahl emphasizes that each child has an amazing, unique brain and that through their practice and effort, all students will learn and remember a lot during the year. (Marcus discusses these brain basics and classroom implications in a short video.)

Next, Dahl tells her students that when we learn, it's important to connect new information with something we already know. She gives a couple of examples and then tells students they'll be using pipe cleaners and sticky notes to make a model of a brain and what they are thinking and learning.

Students each get three pipe cleaners to twist together in the middle to represent the axon, leaving both ends untwisted to represent dendrites. They then work together to build the representational brain structure, connecting all the axons by twisting a dendrite from one neuron around the axon of another, with guidance from the teacher. The structure represents the class's brain at the beginning of the school year. Throughout the school year, students create and add new axons to the brain, labeled with sticky notes describing new concepts they have learned.

In her own words, here are Dahl's tips for success:

As the year progresses, the brain model gets more complicated, and it's harder for second graders to add new axons (this might not be an issue for older students). At some point, I take over connecting the new axons.

I write the labels myself so we can all keep track of the new learning that is added to the brain.

We suspend the brain from the ceiling, but low enough that students can interact with it and read the labels. We choose a location away from busy traffic areas.

Whenever possible, we discuss how new learning relates to other content.

Some elementary teachers have students create their own individual models of a neuron that they can keep at their desk or take home as a reminder of their vast learning potential.

Examples From Secondary Classrooms

We know from discussions with secondary teachers that their students are motivated to learn when they are taught that their brains change as they learn and that they can get functionally smarter.

To teach this concept, teachers can draw a diagram of a neuron on the whiteboard to illustrate how synapses fire and form connections to other neurons in response to new experiences and learning.

Georgia teacher Jeremy Green, another participant in our program, frames the need to be metacognitive about one's learning by launching his AP psychology and U.S. history courses with a presentation on neuroplasticity, emphasizing that our brains can change and that we're always getting smarter as long as we are learning.

Green explains that he and his students talk about neuroplasticity early in the school year, discussing the idea that they're not just what they are at present-that hard work plus the use of proven learning strategies will affect their academic success.

Another high school teacher, Michael Fitzgerald, says, "There are things in life you're not in charge of, but you are in charge of you. When you accept that, your brain changes. And every time your brain changes, you grow." The Idaho teacher adds that this can be very empowering to students, explaining, "It also challenges them to take charge of their learning."

He incorporates into his teaching the ideas that learning changes the brain and that students can become progressively functionally smarter by thinking about their thinking with the goal of improving how they learn. These concepts are new to many of his students and pave the way for cognitive and metacognitive strategies that Fitzgerald explicitly introduces and models as a way for them to succeed at school.

More on these examples and a host of other related topics can be found in our book Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains, published with ASCD.

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Building a Metacognitive Classroom | Edutopia

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Diane Dahl of Texas, a participant in our brain-based teaching program, enjoys teaching her elementary students about the brain and strategies for learning. Students learn what neurons, dendrites, and axons are and how connections between neurons created by axons and dendrites create learning.

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Poor-Quality Materials Abound on Lesson-Sharing Websites

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Poor-Quality Materials Abound on Lesson-Sharing Websites

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Reviewers looked at more than 300 of the most-downloaded resources for high school English-language arts, across three lesson-sharing platforms: ReadWriteThink, a hub for free, peer-reviewed ELA lessons managed by the International Literacy Association and the National Council of Teachers of English; Share My Lesson, another free lesson site, from the American Federation of Teachers; and Teachers Pay Teachers, a for-profit marketplace where any former or current teacher can sell resources or list them for free.

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It's common for teachers to go looking for lessons and classroom resources online-digital marketplaces like Teachers Pay Teachers or Share My Lesson offer seemingly endless pages of user-created materials that teachers can use to supplement their schools' curricula, or in some cases, piece together one when none is provided.

Teachers rely on sites like these to save time and fill resource gaps. But many educators have argued that the materials available aren't high-quality .

Now, a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute confirms some of those concerns. Reviewers evaluated more than 300 resources from three online platforms-ReadWriteThink, Share My Lesson, and Teachers Pay Teachers-for alignment to the Common Core State Standards and overall quality. Most of the materials, 64 percent, received an overall rating of very poor or mediocre.

In the years since the release of the Common Core State Standards, the nonprofit EdReports formed and began to evaluate curricular materials against new requirements.

For the most part, EdReports reviews comprehensive core offerings. But most teachers aren't just using the curriculum that their school or district provides (if teachers are provided a curriculum at all). A 2016 study from the RAND Corporation found that 98 percent of secondary math teachers and 96 percent of secondary English-language arts teachers were using materials that they had developed or selected themselves.

In many cases, these supplemental resources are coming from crowdsourced marketplaces, where teachers don't have access to independent reviews of the materials they're downloading.

For this study, researchers Morgan Polikoff, an associate professor of education at the USC Rossier School of Education, and Jennifer Dean, an educational consultant, created a rubric that could do this kind of vetting.

Their criteria look at how well these resources aligned to the shifts in instruction outlined in the Common Core State Standards-like requirements that materials build students' knowledge, give them opportunities to work with complex text, and ask them to cite textual evidence. They also considered other aspects of curriculum quality, like rigor, usability, and inclusion of diverse cultural perspectives.

To build the rubric, they adapted criteria from a prior Fordham study on assessment quality and existing tools that evaluate materials against the common core-like EdReports, the EQuIP rubric, and the state of Louisiana's curriculum rubrics. Polikoff and Dean also partnered with four reviewers who had experience evaluating resources against the common core.

Reviewers looked at more than 300 of the most-downloaded resources for high school English-language arts, across three lesson-sharing platforms:

1. ReadWriteThink, a hub for free, peer-reviewed ELA lessons managed by the International Literacy Association and the National Council of Teachers of English;

2. Share My Lesson, another free lesson site, from the American Federation of Teachers; and

3. Teachers Pay Teachers, a for-profit marketplace where any former or current teacher can sell resources or list them for free.

The study focused on multi-day units and some single-day lessons, rather than one-off worksheets or activities. Most of these units were book studies, with reading and writing comprehension tasks built around one or more anchor texts.

Overall, the reviewers' analysis painted a bleak picture of these marketplaces.

Most materials-56 percent-weren't aligned to the majority of the standards that authors said were covered in each resource. (Eight percent weren't aligned to any of the standards that the materials' authors claimed were covered.)

There's an incentive for creators to tag their lesson with as many standards as they can, said Polikoff, in an interview with Education Week. On many lesson-sharing websites, users can search by these tags. Listing more standards means showing up in more search results.

"The consequence of that is that a lot of these materials are overtagged," Polikoff said. This means that it's often up to teachers to figure out whether a resource actually aligns to the standards it claims to meet.

Even if teachers find a lesson that does address the standards they're looking for, quality varies. Overall, reviewers thought that the anchor texts in these lessons-the fiction or nonfiction books that the reading, writing, and speaking tasks are organized around-were strong selections. When books didn't meet this bar, it was often because they were below grade level, as determined by Lexile measures, one assessment of text difficulty.

Even so, materials didn't fare well on measures of cultural relevance. About two-thirds of lessons didn't include authors from diverse backgrounds.

Text quality also varied across sites: ReadWriteThink and Share My Lesson scored higher than Teachers Pay Teachers. Reviewers made these judgments on qualitative evaluations of the book's quality of writing and importance, as well as measures of grade-level appropriateness.

On average, reviewers ranked the reading, writing, and speaking tasks in the lessons as low- or mediocre-quality. Prompts often weren't text-dependent, instead asking students to draw on personal feelings or other knowledge. The vast majority-86 percent-didn't offer any support for differentiation. (One bright spot in the analysis: Most of the resources didn't have major errors, and were well-organized and visually appealing.)

The reviewers also looked at how the multi-day units built knowledge-how they covered the historical or literary context for the ELA text, or made connections to subjects like social studies, science, or the arts. More than half of the units didn't build knowledge, or did it weakly, devoting more time to "skill building, simple recall, or personal interpretation," according to the report.

When it came to assessing student learning, reviewers found that most lessons and units (69 percent) included assessments that covered most or all of the core content in the lesson. But about half of all materials didn't include rubrics that would help teachers understand how the assessments were meant to be scored.

Curation Could 'Shore Up' Gaps

Researchers looked at some of the most popular resources on these sites. But it's hard to know whether downloads and star ratings are good metrics of teachers' true feelings about a resource.

In interviews with the research team, teachers talked about feeling pressure not to critique their colleagues' work, even if they thought it was subpar. "They went way out on a limb to put it out there, and I don't want to seem like I'm criticizing ... We get bashed constantly, by administrators, the press, parents, etc., so I can't see making it any worse for anybody," one teacher is quoted in the study as saying.

Still, it's apparent that the materials teachers are downloading aren't always meeting their needs. Teachers told the researchers that they're often making modifications to materials before they use them.

More curation has the potential to solve some of these problems, Polikoff said. For example, he said, Teachers Pay Teachers could vet the materials on their site, and spotlight a few dozen that are of the highest-quality.

See also: On 'Teachers Pay Teachers,' Some Sellers Are Profiting From Stolen Work

And especially when users are paying for materials, it's a big problem that teachers don't have a way to preview and vet the entire resource before they purchase, Polikoff said. (Currently, Teachers Pay Teachers-the only one of the three sites in this analysis to charge for materials- has a limited refund policy, and some requests are subject to review by side admin.)

"There's also a role on the school district side, or maybe even a state department of education, to help curate," said Polikoff. Districts could identify the potential gaps in their core curricular materials, and point to supplemental materials that they think would "shore up those weaknesses," he said.

Charts via the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

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Poor-Quality Materials Abound on Lesson-Sharing Websites, Report Says

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It's common for teachers to go looking for lessons and classroom resources online-digital marketplaces like Teachers Pay Teachers or Share My Lesson offer seemingly endless pages of user-created materials that teachers can use to supplement their schools' curricula, or in some cases, piece together one when none is provided.

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A Litmus Test for Making Tech More Inclusive

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A Litmus Test for Making Tech More Inclusive

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A once-shy student is now a teacher working to make sure all students, even those who are quiet by nature, feel productive and included.

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A once-shy student is now a teacher working to make sure all students, even those who are quiet by nature, feel productive and included.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

Educational technology can help encourage quiet students to become active participants in the classroom, says Stacey Roshan, math teacher and director of innovation and educational technology in Potomac, Maryland. Being called on in class was stressful and intimidating for Roshan throughout her education, she writes in a recent piece on reaching quiet kids in class for EdSurge. "I could never pay full attention because I always felt on alert," Roshan says. "I was scared to be called on. I didn't want to be put on the spot." She recalls teachers frequently calling only on those who were first to raise their hands.

Her experience made her more sensitive to the needs of methodical thinkers and shy kids and informed her approach to facilitating class discussions. Roshan concluded that educational technology is a valuable tool "to engage students, inform individual and group instruction, differentiate lessons, document work, and empower students to direct their own learning."

Does it give each child a chance to participate, even if they are not the first to answer?

"Does it engage every learner in the room, and require them all to actively participate and respond to each question, form an opinion, and submit an answer?"

Does it allow for students to share openly, without risk of exposure of their mistakes to other students?

Is it efficient and effective for teachers to target not only class needs, but individual student needs?

Does it vary the way students can respond to a question? Some students like oral discussion while others prefer written replies.

But creating safe spaces for all students, she says, requires vetting technology for the classroom. Over many years, Roshan developed the following questions to assess whether educational technology is appropriate and useful which she uses as a rubric when deciding whether to adopt a technology solution:

Frequent, well-planned use of the tools that meet her high standards makes them feel second-nature to the students. Roshan recommends Flipgrid which allows students to create and post videos in response to questions from both the teacher and other students-a less stressful scenario for a shy student than speaking to a whole class. EdPuzzle also passes her test: It's a flipped classroom tool that enables students to interact with each other through video questions.

An inclusive classroom environment requires a culture shift from "first is best," where the teacher calls on the first student to raise her hand, to one where all students feel safe and comfortable participating.

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A Litmus Test for Making Tech More Inclusive

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A once-shy student is now a teacher working to make sure all students, even those who are quiet by nature, feel productive and included.

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Guiding students to create an ongoing cycle of growth in self-regulation starts with having them set explicit goals for themselves.

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Social and Emotional Learning

Guiding students to create an ongoing cycle of growth in self-regulation starts with having them set explicit goals for themselves.

Self-regulation is a skill that takes a long time to learn and may take a lifetime, in truth, to really master. We can get better at it with practice, and our students' social, emotional, and character development requires that we provide routine opportunities in classrooms and schools for them to work on this skill.

Developing self-regulation as a skill is for everyone, not just those who are experiencing difficulty in some area of their life. The concept here is one of continuous improvement. Self-regulation means identifying and taking steps to help one get better at things that are important for that person's individual development. Everyone, at all ages, no matter their degree of accomplishment or shortcoming, can participate in an improvement process.

Setting a Goal

In helping students learn to self-regulate, consider following these five steps, which are to be repeated in an ongoing cycle for continued growth and improvement.

1. Have students determine their goal-the aspect of self-regulation they'd like to improve. You can ask them to work on up to two out of the four areas below at any given point in time.

2. Have them create a plan for how they will improve in that area in the short term.

3. Ask students to review their goal and plan with a classmate who will act as their support partner and then get final approval from their support team-a small group that includes classmates and you.

4. Students should periodically evaluate the plan against the goal they set and determine whether their plan needs adjustment. They should finalize this adjustment after review and approval by their support team.

5. When students meet one goal, have them set another and create a new plan to share with the support team.

Four Areas for Self-Regulation Improvement

While improvement plans can be made in any area, I suggest focusing on study skills, social and emotional competency, physical health, or citizenship. I've designed improvement plan worksheets for these four areas .

Study skills: Everyone, no matter how committed or organized, can improve their study habits. Perhaps that means learning to take notes better, or finding the most suitable space in which to read, or developing ways to remember unfamiliar vocabulary words, or improving one's grip on a pencil. When studying is less burdensome, we're more likely to do it.

Character-social-emotional competencies: Everyone, no matter how virtuous or socially and emotionally skilled, can be kinder, more responsible, more appreciative, more empathic, and more solution focused. As more and more schools adopt social and emotional learning competencies and character virtues, students will benefit from learning to improve in these aspects of their lives.

Physical health: As a complement to what is learned in health classes, students can set goals around fitness, nutrition, and healthy habits. By learning self-management as a part of health education, students will come to understand that improving their health is an ongoing responsibility, as is helping others become healthier.

Community member: What better way for students to understand that they can and should be positive assets to their community than to have them participate in that community? In preschool, all children have jobs and understand, at their level, that the class needs and benefits from them learning to do those jobs, doing them well, and helping their classmates become better at their jobs. After all, if the cups are not put out right-side up and flat, the juice pourer will not do his or her job very well.

Sometimes these important lessons are lost in secondary education. All students, preschool to 12th grade, need opportunities to develop at being good citizens-in the classroom, in extracurricular programs, on teams and in performance groups, and in their communities.

The improvement plan worksheets are meant to be modified so as to meet needs specific to different groups of students. They can and should be tailored to students' developmental levels and current status in each of the four areas. There is little point in setting objectives that are clearly beyond a student's capacity. The point is to set up a process and mindset of gradual improvement and self-efficacy, as well as to promote an attitude of helping classmates and colleagues as a way of making them, and ourselves, better. And this applies to the adults in a school as well as students.

While the examples provided are geared toward students, every aspect of the process applies to staff members (and parents and caregivers). There's no better way to encourage improvement in young people than the visible modeling of improvement strategies by adults.

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Social and Emotional Learning Guiding students to create an ongoing cycle of growth in self-regulation starts with having them set explicit goals for themselves. Self-regulation is a skill that takes a long time to learn and may take a lifetime, in truth, to really master.

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However, while I was clearing my credential, working with mentor teachers to reflect on my practice, and finding out how real students differed from theoretical ones, I also spent long hours after school with the speech and debate team reading philosophy and theory and talking about innovative alternatives for national defense, natural resource allocation, and, of course, education.

That led me to some uncomfortable conclusions. Although I encouraged my students to think critically and challenged myself to develop new methods of instruction, the actual conduct of the class seemed at odds with all that. I wanted my students to do more than just follow rules handed down to them. I wanted them to understand why those rules exist, and be willing to interrogate ones that didn't seem valuable, meaningful, or useful.

Getting Started

So I gradually abolished formal management protocols. Away went the rules about bathroom policies, eating in the classroom, and what defines appropriate behavior in a traditional classroom. Instead, I theorized about the broad, underlying principles that would define the field within which we could have a productive learning community.

To be honest, I was terrified. I was worried that if I started to dismantle my power, the class would devolve into chaos.

But I also knew my students: They were thoughtful and reflective, kind and observant, willing to take intellectual risks when they felt supported and safe.

So we started with first principles-it's wise to start with a simple framework-identifying core premises from which we could build a classroom community. These depend on the teacher's values, the school culture, and the needs of the students. In my case, I derived them from ideas of agency and social equity, and let the students extrapolate from there.

Next, we proceeded to norm that behavior. I simply took the time to comment on how particular contributions, habits, and behaviors were either in concert with or contrary to the core principles, with the idea that students would begin to mirror that level of depth and awareness. I made sure to offer opportunities, usually at the end of class, to reflect not just on what learning took place, but on what community standards were missing, newly established, or reaffirmed. For example, without a school-wide policy about bathroom usage during class, and after I expressed my own disinterest in regulating bodily functions, we started a conversation about how to solve the problem, deriving community standards from it. Students recognized that that if they weren't in the room, they couldn't be engaged or prepared, and staying in the bathroom wasn't really respectful if other students needed to go as well. One student suggested that it was impossible to take intellectual risks if you were in the bathroom all the time.

The same approach applies to homework, often considered a non-negotiable in high school classrooms. In my class, it's a chance to demonstrate student agency and experiment with what we've learned in class. If a student fails to do it, the absence is its own punishment-I don't need to double down with teacher-driven shame. If a student tells me they haven't done their homework, my response is, "That's fine, you're all right, but why not?" From there, I can respond in a more personalized way and unearth how to best help.

Metacognition and Student Responsibility

The big insight here is that using this model, every class starts to operate at two levels simultaneously. In the foreground, class proceeds as usual, with the teacher and students engaging in productive work. In the background, there is a kind of running metacognitive discussion that is always evaluating behavior based on these underlying principles. Sometimes, this underlying dynamic breaks through to the surface, and we dedicate valuable class time to equally worthwhile conversations about, for example, the difference between a compliant student and a respectful one, or about how teacher-student relationships ought to be reciprocal.

I have four of our foundational classroom principles posted on the walls:

1. Be respectful to yourself because it sets the context for being able to participate in a community; to others because it is hard to be a student and everyone's struggles merit your respect; and to the teacher because although it is a position of authority, the teacher should also be vulnerable and learning.

2. Be engaged, because merely being present in the classroom does not necessarily qualify as participation, and a truly pluralistic community requires all voices.

3. Be prepared, because informed conversation requires prepared members, and preparation transcends just the work that is assigned-and is closer to deep thought, sincere skepticism, and a general willingness to interrogate assumptions.

4. Be courageous, because learning requires acknowledging that there are things we don't know, skills we lack, and ways in which we might still be foolish-which is a scary prospect for everyone in the class, teacher included.

Of course, these are only my principles. A case can be made for any number of others, provided they focus on the conditions for learning, rather than on controlling the minutiae of student behavior.

The reason I find this strategy better than rules is because it teaches students to become active participants in the formation of a community. Rules alone tend to condition the students to become dogmatic followers, while broader imperatives guide them to be critical and reflective participants.

A concession, though: This approach is expensive in terms of time. It requires space and resources and lots of student-teacher conversations. When a student violates the underlying principles or acts in a way that is either self-destructive or hurtful to others, time must be taken to unpack the behavior in a way that respects the community and its principles and doesn't alienate the individual. That's a very sophisticated conversation for a high school student to have.

And an admission, too: When I first opted for this method, I didn't really think it would work. I imagined it as an interesting experiment. But it did work. Not just with my high-performing debate kids or my AP English classes, but with all of them. My students who were burned out and checked out. Those who coasted by with Cs. Freshmen and seniors. Even my English language development students, many of whom have been in the country for less than six months, bought in to the method and grew. They all wanted to feel that their contributions mattered to the community. And if this alternative approach can at least prepare them for a more open, more pluralistic society, then I will take the time and energy it requires from me. That would be a worthy return on investment.

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Why I Don't Have Classroom Rules | Edutopia

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However, while I was clearing my credential, working with mentor teachers to reflect on my practice, and finding out how real students differed from theoretical ones, I also spent long hours after school with the speech and debate team reading philosophy and theory and talking about innovative alternatives for national defense, natural resource allocation, and, of course, education.

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In class, this may look like misbehaving, off-task behavior, or frequent visits to the nurse. But avoidance may be hard to recognize because some of our math-anxious students have perfected the skill of doing very little math without drawing too much attention to themselves.

Lack of response: Do you have students who seem to freeze when asked a question involving math? When students have math anxiety, any math-related question can make them feel extremely stressed. They lack full access to their working memory, making it nearly impossible for them to think clearly. They may even have this reaction when they know the answer-it's the fear that is standing in the way, not the math.

Tears or anger: Tears or anger might signal anxiety, especially if they appear only during math. Students with math anxiety tend to be very hard on themselves and work under the harmful and false assumption that being good at math means getting correct answers quickly. These beliefs and thoughts are quite crippling.

Negative self-talk: Students suffering from math anxiety have negative thoughts about the subject and their own abilities. Much of this talk may happen in their heads, making it difficult to catch, but some students may share these comments out loud with peers and teachers, saying things like, "I hate math. I'm not good at math. I'll never be able to do this."

Low achievement: Given that math-anxious students avoid math, it's not surprising that this also affects their achievement. With less exposure to math than their peers, these students tend to do poorly on assignments and assessments. And students begin to see low grades as labels that verify their belief that they just can't do math.

Strategies to Support Healthy Math Identities

Provide students with time to understand the why: It may seem like a good idea to help struggling students by focusing on procedures, but this may actually make things worse. Many math-anxious students tend to see math as a series of nonsensical steps that must be memorized.

For example, students are often taught to multiply decimals by moving the decimal out of the factors and back into the product. This makes little sense to students who haven't developed a conceptual understanding of place value and decimals-they're left asking procedural questions such as, "Which way do I move the decimal?"

All students deserve the time to truly understand the math they're being asked to do. Skipping this time shortchanges our students and gives them a joyless math-one requiring a lot of memory, repetitive steps, and anxiety.

Use healthy and accurate messages: One way to support math-anxious students is to have regular class conversations about negative beliefs. Reassuring students that there's no such thing as a math person, or special people born more capable in math, will reduce their anxiety and help them see themselves as mathematicians.

The words that teachers use when conferring with students are also important. Praising students for correct answers, speed, or good grades does little in the way of providing useful feedback. On the other hand, using specific comments about processes students use to solve problems, their decision to represent the math in multiple ways, or their use of particular sense-making strategies encourages all students and makes the math accessible to all.

Allow think time when asking questions: For a student with math anxiety, being asked a question in front of others can be an excruciating experience. On-the-spot questioning can also send the unintended message that mathematics is about quickly firing off answers.

Giving students appropriate think time supports them in developing conceptual understanding and communicates that being fast at math is not the same as being good at it.

Students do their best learning when they feel comfortable and safe. A fear that the teacher may call their name at any moment causes some students to focus on the fear instead of the math. If the worry of being singled out is removed, students will have the time and space to think deeply as mathematicians and, with time, may begin to volunteer their ideas.

Use mixed-ability grouping: Struggling students are often put together in math groups in order for the teacher to give targeted instruction. But students rarely exit from these groups and often receive very different math instruction than their high-performing peers. And such groups can confirm the negative opinions some students have about their abilities.

Heterogeneous grouping serves all students by giving everyone access to high-quality math and to different ideas and perspectives. And math tasks with multiple entry points are a great way to foster healthy problem solving that allows for students to share multiple methods and strategies.

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Recognizing and Alleviating Math Anxiety | Edutopia

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In class, this may look like misbehaving, off-task behavior, or frequent visits to the nurse. But avoidance may be hard to recognize because some of our math-anxious students have perfected the skill of doing very little math without drawing too much attention to themselves.

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As Teen Stress Increases, Teachers Look for Answers

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As Teen Stress Increases, Teachers Look for Answers

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Seventy percent of teens say stress is a major problem. Research backs that up—and teachers are beginning to offer solutions.

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When nonteachers ask me with genuine curiosity, "What's new with teens?" I usually tell them that every school year, it seems like more of them end up in the hospital.

I've taught frazzled high-performers who eschew sleep for flashcards and always seem on the verge of a breakdown. I've had students who won't come to school because they don't want to compound their stress. I've heard members of a student panel brazenly explain that they felt burdened by their workloads and simply wanted "the points." It's actually become common for student breakdowns to happen and for parents to request their child's upcoming assignments in advance, knowing they'll be out of school.

Though it may seem otherwise, my school isn't a high-stress pipeline for Ivy League colleges, but a diverse public school that is home to both affluent and low-income students. We're like many other public schools where student stress seems to be on the rise and is putting teachers like me in a tough position, causing us to second-guess ourselves and ask whether students are really too stressed-or just lacking time-management skills and angling for reduced homework.

Yet my personal observations that students seem more stressed than in years prior are backed by research, which shows that anxiety, depression, and self-harm are on the rise among teens. According to a 2019 Pew Research Poll, 70 percent of surveyed teens agree that stress is a major problem. Emergency room visits for self-inflicted, nonfatal injuries among children and young adults increased by 5.7 percent from 2008 to 2015, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 2007 and 2017, more teens were seriously considering suicide or hurting themselves in suicide attempts than in past decades.

"I've seen an uptick in diagnosable anxiety disorders that almost incapacitate teens," said Dr. Melissa Holland, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at California State University, Sacramento. "It's estimated about one in five teens have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and most of them go untreated."

The problem is real and scary, but what's to blame?

Rising Pressures

Two years ago, I participated in a question-and-answer session at a preschool that my spouse and I were considering for our daughter. The head of the school asked parents what they wanted for their children in the coming years.

As the kids were playing just feet away, still in diapers, two parents immediately volunteered that they were eager to see their toddlers get exposure to a STEM curriculum. A third parent raised her hand and said that she wanted her child to be happy. Tellingly, her neighbors, squeezed into miniature wooden chairs like overgrown versions of their kids, looked at her with amusement.

The academic pressures and stress faced by teens today start long before high school and seem to escalate every year. The pressure comes from parents and educators who worry-and make teenagers worry-that they won't get accepted into highly ranked universities with increasingly prohibitive tuitions or be prepared for a competitive job market once they graduate.

Short on sleep, students reared in the testing-heavy wake of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) enlist SAT tutors, fill schedules with activities and service projects, and take as many honors and AP classes as possible to boost their GPAs. Even with these overloaded schedules, students have no guarantee of getting into colleges- even state institutions-where admission rates keep dropping.

"There are academic and career aspirations, diminishing opportunities and reduced social mobility, and tremendous competition to get ahead," said Daniel Keating, professor of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics at the University of Michigan and author of the 2017 book Born Anxious. "For teens [today], it's not clear that there's going to be a prize at the end."

He explained that students react more intensely when their world feels less stable than they expect-and less likely to reward their efforts and hopes with desired outcomes. For teens in particular, these pressures can be especially challenging to navigate, given their stage of brain development: They simply can't manage the stress like adults.

They are simultaneously more sensitive and less capable of controlling impulses, said Keating. "The stressors feel even worse [for teens], which leads to behavioral issues, hair-trigger responses, acting out, and an inability to keep things in perspective-or, alternatively, becoming more isolated."

Unique Cultural and Social Dynamics

Students don't learn in a bubble, though. According to the psychologists and educators I talked to, these academic pressures are compounded for teens by the state of the economy, current events, and unique cultural and social dynamics that previous generations weren't exposed to.

While the world has never been safe, teens who make up Generation Z-born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s-now receive constant alarmist reminders online through a personalized I.V. drip of troubling headlines (fake and otherwise).

"The other day, a student told me that the world isn't safe anymore, with school shootings, terrorists, politics, war, and violence," said Barbara Truluck, a middle school counselor who was recently named Georgia's 2019 Counselor of the Year. Her students sometimes erupt with emotion over issues seemingly detached from the school experience. "Kids are processing a constant bombardment of [negative] headlines on a daily basis."

There are also new terrors-climate change, immigration policy, #MeToo. Truluck's observations are corroborated by the American Psychological Association's 2018 Stress in America survey, which found that 75 percent of participants between the ages of 15 and 21 reported worrying about mass shootings, compared with 62 percent of adults overall. With every issue-whether immigration policy, sexual harassment, climate change, or suicide itself-Generation Z members reported experiencing the most stress of any age group.

As well as being constantly exposed to negative news online, teens are also engrossed in the digital hallways of Snapchat and TikTok-sometimes so much so that they collide in the real-life hallways of school. Last year, a Pew Research Center study on teen social media use revealed that nearly 95 percent of teens use a smartphone and over 45 percent report being online "constantly," an increase of over 20 percent since 2015.

Though tech use can have positive benefits for youth, obsessive, always-on media can mire teens in the unhelpful refuge of wide-ranging shallow connections that sharpen existing problems and render them all-consuming-whether it be a conflict with a peer, an unhealthy relationship, or a negative body image. These digital connections can quickly become a substitute for real, deeper relationships that might help teens combat stress or cope with challenges.

Solutions for the World We Have

At the beginning of one school year, a senior asked to speak with me in the hallway. "I want to let you know that I will not be able to turn in all of my assignments," she said with practiced calm. "I usually let my teachers know so they understand ahead of time-I get really stressed out." Other students have given similar spiels. The message is that because tasks bring stress, tasks must be removed.

Yet playing whack-a-mole with individual student stressors doesn't address the big picture. As assignments are whisked from the gradebook to soothe a stressed student, new opportunities to panic will inevitably take their place-so long as no coping strategies take hold.

Of course, schools deserve more guidance counselors and therapists-jobs that are often first on the chopping block with school budget cuts. Students should surely detox from their phones. And the snowplow parent who wades into conferences to do battle on behalf of a kid's valedictorian chances only delays the student's inevitable reckoning with the limits of parental power.

By teaching them grit, resiliency, and self-care, you're teaching a toolbox for any stress they may face.

But for parents and teachers who can't change circumstances, they can rely on useful solutions that confront the world we live in, including coping strategies that help them address future challenges. "By teaching them grit, resiliency, and self-care, you're teaching a toolbox for any stress they may face," Truluck emphasized.

Teachers, for example, can be open to the idea that the way they have always assigned and graded work may aggravate stress without actually boosting rigor. Students also have a point when they complain that teachers don't communicate enough with one another, which can mean students are faced with completing substantial assignments at the same time.

More holistically, though, social and emotional learning shouldn't be seen as an add-on in high school, or be equated with a loss of academic rigor and instructional minutes: Self-care can actually become part of the curriculum-as some schools are recognizing.

After losing a student to suicide in his third year of teaching, Roni Habib committed himself to improving the emotional health of teachers and students. Habib said that schools need to make sure that every single kid in a school knows that at least one adult in the school "really sees them" because "it's very easy for kids to fall through the cracks," especially as they progress through school and academics take priority.

There's no reason this type of connection must be informal. Habib suggests figuring out a way to have each teacher shadow a student throughout the day at least once. Habib's experience following a student from class to class shook him. "By the end of the day, I was exhausted," he said. "I barely had time to pee or eat."

Teaching his popular Positive Psychology elective at Gunn High School in the years since has also helped him realize that kids benefit from having time in the day built in, not just for relaxation, but for active healing. Even in the AP Economics course he used to teach, Habib said, he found that incorporating games and mindfulness practices into his lessons helped students focus better and made their collaboration richer.

"What's more important-for a child to understand an obscure concept in macroeconomics, or be gentle and kind with themselves when they fail so that they can recover and try again and persevere?" said Habib.

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As Teen Stress Increases, Teachers Look for Answers

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When nonteachers ask me with genuine curiosity, "What's new with teens?" I usually tell them that every school year, it seems like more of them end up in the hospital. I've taught frazzled high-performers who eschew sleep for flashcards and always seem on the verge of a breakdown.

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6 Ways to Promote Data-Driven Instruction in K-12 Schools

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6 Ways to Promote Data-Driven Instruction in K-12 Schools

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By: Jason Lange
When you think about it, education is really all about data.
Think about what makes a great teacher. Fundamentally, it's the ability to quickly analyze available knowledge - a student's blank stare, for example - to decide if a student is "getting it" and respond accordingly.
When educators use data to drive their plans and decisions, they can grasp how to respond to problems, construct new ways to teach, and advance skill sets at an even faster rate.
The push for data-driven instruction has been widespread since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in 2002. Yet the number of individual classrooms regularly practicing DDI remains startlingly low.
It would be easy to blame teachers for the slow adoption rates, citing a supposed "fear of data," but the true reasons are actually more complex. Only when we address the real issues holding education back and discuss ways to solve them will we be able to provide DDI to students countrywide.
What's Holding Data Back?
First of all, I'd like to debunk the myth of teachers' "fear of data." The truth is that educators have been using data collection and analysis techniques in their classrooms to track students' skills, comprehension, and progress for years. Many of these are simple methods, such as tallying missed assessment questions or charting students' reading skills, but they still provide teachers with useful information to improve the educational experience.
Recent studies have shown that teachers in schools with data-focused programs find that data use improves instruction, revitalizes their eagerness to teach, and increases professional fulfillment. So what's stopping its proliferation?
Here are a few factors that have slowed the implementation of DDI:

Collecting good, reliable data takes discipline. Properly collecting data requires a level of discipline that most people aren't inherently comfortable with. Consider how many people actuallywrite down their personal goals - like a New Year's resolution or an exercise plan - and track their progress over time. The answer: not many. Simply put, we're not wired to gather data without a great deal of intentional focus, and teachers have plenty on their plates as it is.

Making sense of data can be a full-time job. Even if you manage to collect great data, interpreting it in an actionable manner is not only time consuming, but it also requires some pretty advanced analytical skills. It can be an enormous task for a single teacher. Many schools simply lack the tools, resources, time, and training to aptly utilize data that's been collected for each classroom.

Sometimes there's too much data. Schools generally gather more data than they can use. An overabundance of data and conflicting results can make it difficult to prioritize information and create worthwhile curriculum changes.

How to Make It Work
Luckily, there are ways that school districts, administrators, and educators can work together to implement data-driven instruction programs in more classrooms while still making the experience engaging and beneficial to teachers and students.
Here are six methods schools can put into practice:

Keep it simple. Use simple tools and techniques to collect data, such as clickers, response sticks, or exit tickets. They'll provide a straightforward process for understanding learning outcomes.

Think small. Start with one class, and scale your efforts with the progress. For example, if you want to improve your questioning strategies, track the times you require students in one class to justify their responses. Once you find instructional techniques that work, slowly apply them to all your classes.

Analyze your efforts. Based on the data,reflect on whether the steps you've taken have had an impact. When you begin to see a difference in the students and their work, the extra effort will seem valuable.

Engage students. Involve students in setting goals and tracking progress to invest them in the process. This might be as simple as improving an opening routine or as complex as meeting large assessment goals. Likewise, encourage students to reflect upon their progress to help them determine what worked, what didn't, and what should be done differently next time.

Make progress visible. Track progress daily using a graph or chart. This will help students see their progress and, ultimately, be empowered. The size of the goal doesn't matter; students need to see what they're working toward and what they've accomplished.

Be transparent with class-wide results. Follow pre-assessments tests, and communicate the results to students. You don't have to single them out. Simply relay the outcomes, and explain how instruction will be adjusted based on the new information. For example, you could say, "Based on the data from this quiz, we need to revisit phases of the cell cycle, so you'll see questions on this topic in your warm-ups for the rest of the week."

The delay in DDI isn't due to educator anxiety. Rather, it's a direct result of the complexities of data analysis and an inability to make results useful. But as more school districts, administrators, and educators recognize how integral data collection and analysis is to improving education, more teachers will find ways to implement this type of instruction in their classrooms.

Jason Lange is the CEO and co-founder of BloomBoard, a company dedicated to bettering the K-12 education space by providing a marketplace for personalizing educator development. BloomBoard uses the data collected from free observational and evaluation tools to create individualized learning plans and recommendations for teacher growth.

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6 Ways to Promote Data-Driven Instruction in K-12 Schools

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By: Jason Lange. The push for data-driven instruction has been widespread since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in 2002. Yet the number of individual classrooms regularly practicing DDI remains startlingly low.

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Teachers can guide students to avoid ineffective studying habits in favor of ones that will increase their learning outcomes.

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Teachers can guide students to avoid ineffective studying habits in favor of ones that will increase their learning outcomes.

Too often people imagine that long hours of studying are the best path to being a model, straight-A student. Yet research shows that highly successful students actually spend less time studying than their peers do-they just study more effectively.

Teachers can help all students learn to more effectively use the time they spend studying by sharing research-proven techniques.

Study Less, With Greater Intensity

In this era of social media and digital distractions, many students-and adults-do a lot of multitasking. But there is no such thing as successful multitasking, because much of the time spent is wasted on context switching, where the brain has to restart and refocus.

Consider the formula "work accomplished = intensity of focus X time spent." A student who is studying for AP Biology but also checks his texts and scrolls through Instagram has a low intensity of focus-say a 3. Though he spends 3 hours "studying," his work accomplished is only a 9.

On the other hand, a student who takes steps to focus solely on AP Biology has a high-intensity of focus-a 10. Though she spends only an hour studying, she accomplishes more than her distracted classmate did in 3 hours.

Highly successful students have generally learned to avoid multitasking. Instead of spending a lot of time doing low-intensity work with numerous distractions, these students work for shorter periods at higher intensity, without any distractions from email, social media, etc. Their studying is more effective and leads to greater achievement gains.

Ineffective Learning Techniques

Many students use learning techniques that are time consuming and give the illusion of mastery. They become familiar with ideas and information in preparation for a test, but forget it a week later because their learning techniques never led to long-term learning.

Ineffective techniques include:

5 High-Intensity Study Habits

Researchers have found that the following techniques increase sustainable learning and retention when incorporated in students' daily study habits. These techniques are difficult and require effort, and they slow down learning. Initially the learning gains seem to be smaller than with some ineffective practices. However, these techniques lead to long-term mastery.

The book Make It Stick identifies several research-proven studying techniques.

1. Pre-test: When students practice answering questions, even incorrectly, before learning the content, their future learning is enhanced. Research has shown that pre-testing improves post-test results more than spending the same amount of time studying.

2. Spaced practice: Spacing out study sessions-focusing on a topic for a short period on different days-has been shown to improve retention and recall more than massed practice. The book How We Learn explains that spaced practice can feel difficult due to an initial forgetting of knowledge-reacquiring that knowledge takes effort.

Creating flash cards that can be used for spaced practice and self-quizzing is effective. Students should create different piles when reviewing the flash cards. The cards they're able to answer immediately should be placed in a pile to review three days later; those answered with some difficulty should be reviewed two days later; and those that they answered incorrectly should be reviewed the next day.

3. Self-quizzing: Testing has a negative connotation in this era of standardized testing, but it is a form of active retrieval practice. Encourage students to make test questions for themselves as they learn a new concept, thinking about the types of questions you might ask on a quiz or test. They should incorporate these quizzes into their study sessions, answering every question, even those they believe they know well.

4. Interleaving practice: Students may rely on blocked practice, studying a set of problems-such as multiplication problems-as a group until they feel mastery. A more effective method of studying is to work on a set of problems that are related but not all of the same kind-for example, a set of math word problems that call for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. The consecutive problems cannot be solved with the same strategy. This is more effective than doing one multiplication problem after another.

5. Paraphrasing and reflecting: Many of us have read a few paragraphs in a textbook only to realize that we didn't retain a single concept or key point presented in those paragraphs. To show your students how to combat this, have them utilize intentional learning strategies. These include relating what is being learned to prior knowledge, thinking about how they would explain the content to a 5-year-old, and reflecting on and asking questions about the content.

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Teachers can guide students to avoid ineffective studying habits in favor of ones that will increase their learning outcomes.

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Sal Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

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Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

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Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions. With that in mind, if you are a new teacher or perhaps not so new but know that question-asking is an area where you’d like to grow, start t…

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The power of believing that you can improve

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The power of believing that you can improve

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Growth mindset and "Not Yet".

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The power of believing that you can improve

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Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.

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A Public School Makes the Case for ‘Montessori for All’

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A Public School Makes the Case for ‘Montessori for All’

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A Title I public school in rural South Carolina is proving that Montessori education can work well anywhere.

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The five miles from Interstate 95 into Latta, South Carolina, amble past fireworks shops and stretches of farmland bordered by matchstick pines and interspersed with the occasional home. Railroad tracks and a lone post office mark the center of town, home to 1,300 people and one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school that serve students in a county nearly 100 miles wide.

In many ways, Latta is no different from other communities scattered throughout the rural South: Jobs are limited, businesses are local, and residents know one another. But the opening of a Title I public Montessori school has put this small town at the forefront of a movement that is upending the status quo around access to progressive education.

More than a century old, Montessori education takes a holistic, child-centered approach to teaching and learning that researchers say is effective, but for decades these schools have largely been the domain of affluent, white families. Nationally, estimates suggest that between 80 to 90 percent of U.S. Montessori schools are private, and most are concentrated in urban or suburban enclaves-not communities like Latta, where the median income is $24,000.

"My expectations have always been really high regardless of where you come from," says Dollie Morrell, principal of Latta Elementary, where more than 70 percent of the 661 students receive free or reduced price lunch and nearly half are students of color. "One of the biggest misconceptions about Montessori education is that it is just for privileged children in the private sector, but as a large public school, we're showing that Montessori works for every child."

While Latta Elementary is one of the largest public Montessori schools in South Carolina-the state with the highest number of public Montessori schools in the nation-it's not a complete outlier. From 2000 to 2015, more than 300 public Montessori schools have opened across the U.S., often in low-income and racially diverse communities, including Puerto Rico and cities like Boston, Detroit, and San Antonio.

Student gains have also increasingly been supported by research, tracked to Montessori's dual emphasis on academic and social and emotional learning.

A study released last year by Furman University revealed that public Montessori students in South Carolina outperformed their non-Montessori counterparts on standardized tests and a variety of social and emotional metrics. Meanwhile, a three-year study of preschool students in Hartford, Connecticut, found that public Montessori schools helped close the achievement gap between higher- and lower-income students, and that students in Montessori schools performed better overall academically.

A Time-Tested Approach

At Latta Elementary, soft music playing on boomboxes wafts through the hallways, but otherwise, it's surprisingly quiet. Inside classrooms, children as young as 4 grab a quick breakfast before self-selecting colorful, handheld lessons from small shelves that line the walls. They join other children of different ages who are scattered all over the floor, sitting or lying on their bellies, intently focused on various activities they've spread out on kid-sized beige rugs. Their teacher wanders throughout the room, pausing to squat down and help as needed.

Latta's classrooms didn't always look this way. Desks were placed in orderly rows, teachers delivered whole-class lessons, and students received report cards with letter grades.

"We were basically a pretty traditional school district in teaching methods and instruction, but what I felt like was missing was, is this what our students need? Are we making learning interesting? Are we making learning relevant?" reflects Superintendent John Kirby, who has served in the position for nearly 30 years. "We were not looking at the long haul. The school system is the best chance our students have to compete in the world."

On a mission to make learning more forward-looking and engaging for every child, Kirby tasked district administrators with developing new schoolwide approaches to prepare their students to be successful-in school and beyond their small, rural community. In response, the high school established an International Baccalaureate (IB) program, the middle school now has a STEM focus, and the elementary school became a Montessori school.

"We had naysayers that said, 'You're too small, you're too poor, your kids aren't smart enough.' It was a big task for us," says Kirby, who, along with Morrell, was particularly attracted to Montessori's whole-child approach to education, which has roots that reach back to the turn of the 20th century.

In 1907, Italian physician Maria Montessori opened Casa dei Bambini ("Children's House") to keep underprivileged kids in school and off the streets of Rome. A keen observer and researcher of child development, Montessori developed tactile learning materials and child-centered teaching practices based on how she believed kids learn best-with movement, independence, and choice. Her unique pedagogies and classroom structure gained popularity and were soon adopted in schools all over the world, and they are still used today.

To an outsider, a Montessori classroom may seem chaotic, but every component-from the layout to the school schedule-is designed with specific purpose, emphasizes Angeline Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who has conducted research on Montessori schools for the last 15 years.

These practices are also increasingly supported by research, says Lillard, who is the author of the book Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius. The three hours of uninterrupted work time given to students each morning help children develop executive functioning skills, like focusing on a task and managing time efficiently, which have proven to be decisive in giving kids a leg up in school and life. Additionally, the flexibility to move around the classroom has been shown to stimulate learning and improve academic performance, while choice in lessons provides a sense of autonomy that can boost motivation and engagement.

'One of the Most Difficult Things'

Merits aside, the considerable differences between traditional public education and the Montessori approach made Latta Elementary's transition "one of the most difficult things the teachers have ever done," says Morrell. The process took five years, as the school shifted classrooms and staff in batches. For teachers, this meant balancing a full-time job with more than two years of nightly and summer trainings in nearby Florence.

Extensive training-comparable to graduate school coursework-is necessary as the Montessori curriculum challenges educators to rethink fundamental classroom dynamics, right down to the roles of teacher and student. Instead of delivering whole-class lessons, teachers prepare individualized work plans for every child every week, and circulate around the room during class time to help and observe students individually.

"As a traditional teacher, I felt like I was telling them what they needed to know; now I feel like I'm showing them the way to learn," says teacher Amanda Smith, who, along with her colleagues, had to switch from teaching individual grades to teaching multiage classrooms-a cornerstone of Montessori schools that encourages peer-to-peer learning.

Many of the core subjects, such as math, also required a new approach to instruction-employing tactile materials to build students' foundational understanding before moving to high-level, abstract concepts. A soft-skills component of the curriculum teaches students to take responsibility for their indoor and outdoor environment through activities like washing dishes, caring for a classroom pet and a coop of chickens, and maintaining a garden.

"Montessori is just a different way of learning. We still have to cover all of the same standards as any other public school, I think we just go further," says Smith, who adds that the hardest part has been preparing students for state testing in a model that does not encourage testing-or grades or homework, for that matter.

The challenge of standards and testing is not unique to Latta and has been cited as one reason-along with the high costs of materials and teacher training-that there are relatively few public Montessori schools.

But the results show that Montessori students are testing well. Before the entire school transitioned to Montessori, Latta compared the state test scores of non-Montessori to Montessori students and found that Montessori students significantly outperformed their peers on math and English language arts (ELA) tests, with 86 percent of Montessori students meeting or exceeding state standards in math in 2017 and 79 percent doing so in ELA.

A Family Matter

Because of the challenges, some schools implement only a partial Montessori curriculum, which can result in skewed public perceptions about what Montessori education is and what it isn't, according to Mira Debs, a researcher who is the executive director of the Education Studies Program at Yale University and the author of Diverse Families, Desirable Schools, a book on public Montessori schools.

Debs emphasizes the importance of families to the expansion of Montessori, and has found that messaging and framing can have considerable impacts on which families are attracted to Montessori schools.

In a study of public Montessori magnet schools in Hartford, Connecticut, Debs found that white families at the schools were generally more comfortable with the approach than black and Latino families, who expressed more concerns about long-term academic success for their children. "One of the key problems I see is a tendency to downplay the academics benefits of Montessori in emphasizing the whole-child benefits," says Debs, who notes that families of color she interviewed tended to have fewer options for school choice. "That can be a turn-off to families who are really seeking clear reassurance of the academic benefits of a particular school."

In Latta, school leaders realized quickly that parent buy-in would be critical. The district had to convince them it wasn't "witchcraft or just for artsy kids," said Superintendent Kirby half-jokingly, stressing the contrast between the old and new approaches. To build acceptance, the school originally offered Montessori as in opt-in program for individual classes, and required parents to observe the classrooms and attend information sessions to make the system less mysterious.
©Nora Fleming
"I had heard of Montessori, but had no earthly idea what it really was. It wasn't until I got into my first classroom observation that I understood how it worked," says Rachel Caulder, a Latta Elementary parent and a high school teacher. Once parents started to see the benefits, they chatted at sports events and school drop-off, creating a domino effect of demand for Montessori that helped transition the entire school.

While Caulder's two children are very different, both have become more independent and creative learners in Montessori. In particular, they've developed a greater sense of responsibility-for themselves, for their schooling, and for their environment.

"I've been amazed at their understanding of their place in the world. And they always start with that, 'I am here.' They start with Latta, but then they understand how that grows and how that broadens," she said.

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A Public School Makes the Case for 'Montessori for All'

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The five miles from Interstate 95 into Latta, South Carolina, amble past fireworks shops and stretches of farmland bordered by matchstick pines and interspersed with the occasional home. Railroad tracks and a lone post office mark the center of town, home to 1,300 people and one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school that serve students in a county nearly 100 miles wide.

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As more educators drop penalties for late work and allow students to redo tests, a high school teacher says that traditional policies are better for the majority of students.

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As more educators drop penalties for late work and allow students to redo tests, a high school teacher says that traditional policies are better for the majority of students.

In my 21 years in the classroom, I've had experience with policies around allowing test retakes, dropping late work penalties, and prohibiting zeros. Education reformers have recently gained traction in promoting these policies, and here at Edutopia David Cutler recently wrote an article entitled " Tips for Allowing Test Retakes."

In my experience, however, the more lenient we are in these matters, the less students learn. The traditional policies-giving each assessment only once, penalizing late work, and giving zeros in some situations-help most students maximize their learning and improve their time management skills, preparing them for success in college and career.

3 Reasons Traditional Policies Remain Effective

1. Student motivation: Proponents of the new policies are well intentioned, but these policies are designed for intrinsically motivated students. The truth is that no one-students, teachers, parents-is entirely intrinsically motivated. These current reforms seem to overlook that. Many of my students have candidly admitted that flexible due dates and retake opportunities leave them unmotivated, and therefore they learn less than they could.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist who wrote a book on human decision-making called Predictably Irrational, has studied the power of deadlines. One of his research studies showed that college students who were held to firm deadlines performed better, in general, than students who chose their own deadlines or turned in all work at the end of the semester. In a TED talk about self-control, Ariely explains that most people prioritize immediate desires over long-term goals. Just as adults are always starting their diet "tomorrow," students will begin writing their essay or studying for their big test "tomorrow"-both students and adults procrastinate.

Deadlines and consequences for late work provide scaffolding for students to learn self-control. These policies provide the extrinsic motivation students need to build study habits and time management skills. In my experience, reform policies rely too heavily on students already having strong self-control and intrinsic motivation. In math classes, where concepts constantly build on one another, traditional policies hold students to schedules that keep them learning with the class. This makes kids practice and check their practice on a timeline determined by the teacher that will have them ready to test before the test. Deadlines build students' ability to self-assess and then self-advocate to get the help they need.

2. Mental health: When deadlines are flexible and retakes are available, many students spend their time with their entertaining devices at the detriment of keeping up with their schoolwork. They spend hours a day on video games and social media. Record numbers of students today are reporting feelings of depression, which some researchers link to the increase in student screen time.

Retakes and soft deadlines allow students to procrastinate: Why do school work that can be completed later when they can Snapchat now? Deadlines and one-time testing, on the other hand, provide extrinsic motivation to keep students on task on a regular basis.

Retake policies also allow students to dig themselves into "late holes" that cause preventable stress and anxiety. My math class builds sequentially: Mastery in early units helps students be successful in the following units. In my experience, traditional policies motivate students to maximize their learning in the first unit, which helps them on every later unit.

Under retake policies, parents at my school have expressed concerns about how overwhelmed their children become due to being caught in a vicious cycle of retakes. Traditional policies send the message to students and parents that it's important to work hard consistently throughout the course, and teachers can provide extra support to keep struggling students from feeling overwhelmed.

3. Teacher effectiveness: Reform policies can be effective if the teacher has time to implement them well. However, every minute writing and grading retakes or grading long-overdue work is a minute that I'm not planning effective and creative instruction, grading current work so students receive timely feedback, or communicating with parents.

In special circumstances, such as an illness or death in the family, it's reasonable to give students second chances and to extend deadlines. Doing this too often, however, steals valuable time away from the teacher that may reduce the quality of instruction for all the other students.

A key flaw in the reform policies is the assumption about motivation. Many students-not all, but many-require extrinsic motivation. Due dates, one-time assessments, and late penalties provide motivation for the majority of our students.

There is no one way to teach, and any system will inevitably better fit some students than others. But in my experience, reform policies benefit a small portion of the student body, whereas traditional policies better serve a majority of students.

I hope that the dialogue around these policies starts shifting back in favor of traditional methods because they work for the majority of students and give teachers more time for effective planning and assessing, which all teachers agree are vital for a successful classroom.

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As more educators drop penalties for late work and allow students to redo tests, a high school teacher says that traditional policies are better for the majority of students. In my 21 years in the classroom, I've had experience with policies around allowing test retakes, dropping late work penalties, and prohibiting zeros.

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Giving students a chance to redo tests and assignments can help them keep striving for mastery, if the process is well managed.

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Allowing students a chance to redo tests and assignments can help them keep striving for mastery, if the process is well managed.

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5 Ways Society Sabotages Girls' Interest In Science And Math

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5 Ways Society Sabotages Girls' Interest In Science And Math

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Includes a link in the article to a discussion of minorities and science.

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Unless you have lived under a rock with no Internet or mobile data connection, you know science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are vital career pathways of the future. However, STEM is often not the chosen pathway for minorities and girls. In a previous Forbes essay, I documented that many minorities avoid science because of cultural perceptions about what is considered a "successful" career, limited mentors, lack of exposure to the "fun" of science, and stereotypes. Dr. Nicole Joseph is an Assistant Professor of mathematics and science education at Vanderbilt University. She recently delivered a thought-provoking lecture at the University of Georgia-hosted workshop called "Navigating STEM." Her lecture inspired me to explore five reasons girls avoid entry into STEM-related fields.

Before diving as deeply as 1400 words will allow, let's document the problem. According to the National Science Board and the National Science Foundation (NSF) website:

The percentage of female science and engineering (S&E) workers continues to be lowest in engineering, where women constituted 15% of the workforce in 2015....Other disproportionately male S&E occupations include physical scientists (28% women) and computer and mathematical scientists (26% women). Within computer and mathematical sciences occupations, the largest component, computer and information scientists, has a smaller proportion of women (24%) compared with the mathematical scientists component, which is closer to parity (43% women).

For additional data, I consulted the National Girls Collaborative Project website:

Though half of the U.S. college-educated workforce, women account for only 29% of the science and engineering workforce.

In 2013, women held a little over half the bachelor's degrees in biological sciences but other disciplines were much lower: computer sciences (17.9%), engineering (19.3%), physical sciences (39%) and mathematics (43.1%).

Based on 2016 data from the NSF, women are over-represented in the social sciences-related careers (62%) as compared to the physical or natural sciences.

While not an expert on this nor a woman, I am deeply concerned because: (1) it is a societal problem based on decades of inertia, (2) exclusion of any major segment of society limits ideas or innovation, and (3) I have a 15-year old daughter interested in science.

Imagery. Here is your first assignment: Take a minute and search the Internet using "I'm too pretty to do math." What you will find are t-shirts, memes, and other merchandise targeting girls or women. Such messaging reinforces antiquated notions of gender roles. Dr. Barb Mayes Boustead is a meteorologist and instructor with the National Weather Service. She told me by email:

Sexism is still strong in our society. You don't have to look farther than the pink "girl" toy aisles or marketing of airplanes and science fiction to boys to see it. Children internalize from very early ages what being a girl (or boy) is "supposed" to look like. We should focus as much on preschool teachers as on college professors to help children start reinforcing early and often that a child of any gender can be interested in and succeed in anything.

In 2011, a major retail store pulled a shirt that said, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." Scholars have shown that these narratives shape how college-aged girls view math and science. Sian Beilock, writing in Psychology Today, summarized a key finding from a study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin:

when women think about romance, they become less interested in studying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. College-age men, however, can get interested in romance without any impact on their engagement with math and science.

Self-fulling prophecy. Such imagery can have an unintended consequence of leading to self-fulfilling prophecy. As an African-American male raised by a single mother, there were all kinds of societal signals that suggested that I could only fail, do crime, play sports, or dream of being an atmospheric scientist. I attacked that narrative head on to prevent my own self-fulfilling prophecy, but they are real. It drives me nuts to hear a parent say, "I am not a math person so my kids probably will not be either." Math is not a hereditary trait, but it does require some level of interest, aptitude and the willingness to work at it. Sadly, it is not just parents. Eileen Pollack wrote in the New York Times about teachers that said girls were not good at STEM or needed "girl" curves when grading. Stephanie Langley is a science educator in the Gwinnett County School System. She taught my daughter and was simply outstanding. I asked her for some perspective, and she said:

So many adolescent girls try so hard to fit in that they place their need to belong far above their need to pursue their interests. In class, many girls will answer questions but in small groups, and specially groups with boys, they look around to their peers before answering or proposing ideas demonstrating how unsure they are of how to express their thoughts and ideas. Science is (and should be) a process of learning to be wrong and then improving upon the mistakes. But, how could girls be wrong and still feel accepted? Many would rather just not speak up or participate at all to avoid the failure.

Lack of Mentors. Minority scientists, including myself, have reported that having mentors that "look like them" or even just seeing examples of other minority scientists is critical for recruitment and retention. Professor Joseph cited statistics confirming that the number of women in mathematics has remained flat for decades. The numbers can partly be attributed to pipeline issues. However, retention of girls is a major impediment to progress also. Mentorship, inclusive environments, and removal of institutional barriers to success metrics (promotion processes, pay raises, and awards ) because "life norms" happen (childcare, maternity leave) are also required. I recently learned of the Women in Science organization at my university. This organization, created by two ecology doctoral candidates, is exactly the type of resource that will move the needle. Joseph also spoke of the importance of networks and community building in her lecture. Her March for Black Women and Girls in STEM (picture below) is another great example, particularly since these challenges are even more acute within communities of color.

Having to Prove Something. Did you see the movie Hidden Figures? This movie did wonders for exposing the world to three African American women in STEM fields and their contributions to the U.S. Space Program. In the movie, the women constantly had to overcome stereotypes and perceptions. Professor Joseph told me that nothing is different today:

Several factors contribute to black girls access and retention in mathematics. In the K-12 system, some teachers take up societal stereotypes about Black girls, such as them being too loud or too talkative, and view these behaviors as in appropriate for math learning. We know that black girls suffer harsher discipline in schools as a result of teachers not understanding deep black girlhood.

I have a very bright 15 year-old daughter that does well in school. She wants to be a Pharmacologist one day (for now). Joseph's point hits home because my wife and I observed subtle examples of this over the years with our daughter because of her confidence, mature body, and willingness to share her opinions.

Joseph also added that in higher education (and probably the corporate world too) women, especially black women, are spending emotional labor proving they "belong" to men or majority groups. You might be surprised at how often women or people from a marginalized group feel their job performance, speech, or appearance reflects on their entire peer group. It shouldn't be that way, but I can assure you this is a very real phenomenon.

Conveying the Value of STEM. My colleague Professor Kecia Thomas pointed out something that may not be obvious but is very important. Many girls, particularly those from marginalized groups, may not see the value of STEM or frankly, may have more pressing concerns. Thomas argues that more attention is needed in "personalizing" STEM value rather than hammering home STEM, STEM, and more STEM without context. Thomas, Senior Associate Dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology, has thought about issues of diversity and inclusion for many years. She shared this perspective:

In short, much of STEM hasn't communicated its value to minority populations and women of color in particular. When your 'hygiene needs' aren't met, much of what we see about STEM might seem frivolous or having impacts so far down the road the outcomes and products aren't improving one's quality of life anytime soon. This might explain the drift to professional schools over the bench sciences.

As a climate scientist, I resonate with her point and often make a similar argument to colleagues. We cannot just inundate the public with more temperature trends, maps of changing rainfall patterns or models. We must personalize climate change impacts and link them to people's value systems.

Thomas noted that colorblindness, micro aggressions, and unintentional actions by well-meaning dominant groups can also be challenging. For example, an accomplished scholar might actually be insulted after a lecture by this well-meaning compliment, "You are so articulate or well-spoken." What did you expect from a person with a doctorate and years of in-depth training and presentations within her field? My former NASA colleague Lisa May is an accomplished engineer. She said "The most alienating aspect of my STEM education was the feeling that my contributions were supplementary to those of all the men who've already figured it all out."

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5 Ways Society Sabotages Girls' Interest In Science And Math

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Unless you have lived under a rock with no Internet or mobile data connection, you know science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are vital career pathways of the future. However, STEM is often not the chosen pathway for minorities and girls.