With the summer break almost here and all of the new educational initiatives coming over the next couple of years, what are you going to do as an educator, school, district or state to better prepare yourself and your students for success.
Those not in the field of education often think that summer is the time when teachers take off and go to the beach all the time and don't work. Those of us in the field know that is just not the case. There is way too much to do for us to not take advantage of these two months when the students are not in front of us and many of us are not physically in the school. Join us Sunday night at 8 PM on #edchatri as we discuss many topics that will help us to plan and prepare for Taking Advantage of the Summer.
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As we all begin the transition to the CCSS, we also have to look at the assessment that measures the work we will be doing. Any good body of education, whether it is at the state, district, school or the classroom level should always look at the goals they want to achieve before they design the assessment. However if the assessment is already designed for us then the next best thing to doin order to guide the work they do.
To do this work well we must apply a "backwards design" method. Since we will have the assessments created for us by PARCC or SBAC, we will already have the destination chosen and then we need to design the road map to plan the trip to the desired destination. Therefore what are we doing right now to plan and prepare ourselves and our students for the work that lies ahead. A much more rigorous assessment lies in store for all of us in PARCC and SBAC. Following is a description and the link to both the SBAC and PARCC: The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) is a state-led consortium working to develop next-generation assessments that accurately measure student progress toward college- and career-readiness. Smarter Balanced is one of two multistate consortia awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Education in 2010 to develop an assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by the 2014-15 school year. (www.smarterbalanced.org) The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of 22 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers. These new K-12 assessments will build a pathway to college and career readiness by the end of high school, mark students’ progress toward this goal from 3rd grade up, and provide teachers with timely information to inform instruction and provide student support. The PARCC assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-15 school year.(parcconline.org) Join us Sunday night at 8 PM on #edchatri as we discuss what we have done and what we plan to do to better prepare for the work that lies ahead. 
Can we develop intelligence over time or is our intelligence fixed and determined for us. This has been a question that has been debated for some time. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait—they have a certain amount, and that's that. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 1999, 2007).
The key to our success as educators is to develop that growth mindset in ourselves and our students. We need to develop a culture of risk taking and challenge our students and ourselves to step out of our comfort zones, to challenge our intellect and sometimes even our beliefs. How can we emphasize the focus on the challenge and not just the success. How do we engage all of our students in the learning process and perhaps more importantly how can we utilize the skills, talents and abilities of our students to help one another achieve that growth mindset that we yearn for. This week we are going to try something new on #edchatri by delivering an article as a pre-read to this Sunday's conversation. There are of course many articles out there, but this one by Carol Dweck does a great job looking at the many components of growth mindset. Enjoy "Even Geniuses Work Hard" and we will see you Sunday at 8 PM on #edchatri. 
As schools undergo dramatic transformations, leaders must learn to manage in an entirely different way. To lift morale, leadership must be flexible and innovative.
When employee morale is high, productivity rises. When employee morale is low, it's hard to retain the best and brightest workers, so how do we make sure to keep the morale up and keep our focus. It has been said that the foundation of strong employee morale is communication — that means collaboration, feedback and recognition. Are we doing that in our school and if not, what is the effect that may be having. What are we doing and what can we do to make sure that we keep the morale of the team up and keep moving forward. Join us Sunday night at 8 PM on #edchatri as we look at this very important piece to the educational puzzle of success. |
AuthorDon Miller - Archives
December 2016
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