Chuck Bell
Commerce, Georgia
According to Robyn Jackson of Mindsteps, Inc., "It’s easy to succumb to the pressure and the pervading cynicism that has crept into our profession. But it is at times like this where we have to fight the hardest to preserve what matters most. How do we do that?"
"By focusing on good teaching."
Read more at: Grateful for Good Teaching - Mindsteps, Inc.
As we prepare to administer our first benchmark assessments during the week of September 26-30, Tom Schimmer in the post below provides wise and timely commentary on preparing students for success on summative assessments. In my mind, "Over-Preparing 'Em" is always a great thing!
Over-Prepare ‘Em
September 12, 2011 by Tom Schimmer Although many schools/districts have had students in session for a while now, this week, for many, marks the second week of school. As such, it is likely that many of you are preparing your students for their first summative assessment/moment in your class (maybe it’s already happened). Back in January – in my first blog post no less – I wrote that “It’s all about Confidence.” While a new school year can provide many students with the opportunity to re-invent themselves and fix what (in their minds) needs fixing, there is an unparalleled opportunity to build student confidence through success on the first summative assessment. This is not a debate about the merits of summative assessments; this about the realization that many of you will be using some form of summative assessment to determine whether or not your students have reached the intended learning goals. Therefore, if you want students to have a positive emotional response (feeling confident) to the prospect of being assessed, over-prepare your students to the point where success is almost guaranteed. Two things that over-preparing doesn’t mean: It doesn’t mean you give it away nor does it mean dumb-it-down. In either situation students will quickly recognize that the summative moment is atypical and does not represent their usual experience in school/your class, thereby rendering the assessment results meaningless. Over-preparing means we provide the maximum amount of learning and support to ensure that they are ready for that first authentic summative moment. This will maximize their success and likely result in many students “out-performing” themselves – which leads to increased confidence that this year might be different and that success (or even greater success) is possible! As a reminder, here is one of my favorite quotes from the book Confidence by Rosabeth Moss Kanter: The expectation about the likelihood of eventual success determines the amount of effort people are willing to put in. Those who are convinced they can be successful – who have ‘self-efficacy’ – are likely to try harder and to persist longer when they face obstacles. (pg. 39) Now…imagine what might happen if we over-prepare ‘em for every assessment?
Activities and events like Innovation Day 2011 open our eyes to the value of self-directed student learning. All too often we find reasons why we can't pursue this kind of event. I know the time is right for our school to focus on making it happen regularly.
For those who appreciate the connections between successful coaches, players, and teams, I highly recommend reading "The Score Takes Care of Itself" by Bill Walsh. Like this fine post from Cooperative Catalyst, you gain a better understanding of what leads any organization on the road to excellence.
Successful sports teams have an identity, a vision, and a culture of learning and being that permeates throughout the entire organization. The Pittsburgh Steelers, for example, is the most success team in NFL history. They are a common man’s team with community values. The ownership believes in loyalty (up to a financial point), “blue collar” hard work, and good people, and it shows in the way the team plays, the players they choose and the personnel they hire. The Steelers aren’t a glamorous ”new media team.” They are old school like the rotary phone. And, unlike most of the professional sporting world, the Steelers have only had 3 head coaches in the last 40 something years. Which has resulted in every one of the 3 coaches playing in the Super bowl more than once and winning at least 1 championship.
How does that relate to school success? Easy!
Often public schools have no direction, no meaningful mission, and very high turnover rates – especially at the leadership positions. This results in learning programs constantly changing, new philosophies being handed down, and a teaching corps who doesn’t know what will happen next. As such, the school just hovers. It can’t move forward because it’s in perpetual flux.
No organization can be successful without an identifiable, mission, vision, and culture of learning. Everyone from the superintendent to the TA to students should be able to clearly and succinctly communicate what the school stands for, believes in, and is doing to achieve its stated goals. No organization can be successful when high turnover is as certain as death and taxes. And, no organization can be successful when its members are not hired and developed according to the organization’s needs.
If public schools continue to throw stuff at the walls to see what sticks instead of developing a sustainable learning organization, they will reach the point of no return. They will become the LA Clippers or the Cleveland Browns of education.
About peoplegogy
Will Deyamport, III, MSEd is a social media strategist and frustrated filmmaker. A former intern at CAREEREALISMcampus.com, he is now the Chief Social Strategist for StrengthsFactors – a career development resource company. Will has a B.A. Film Production, a B.S. in Child and Family Studies and an MSEd in Professional Studies in Education. He is also the founder of PEOPLEGOGY – a blog focusing on life and career developments, and he is currently working on an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Management from Capella University
“George Brett could fall out of bed on Christmas morning and hit a line drive.” ~ Former Kansas City Royals General Manager John Scherholz
As a Kansas kid, summer meant a break from school, work on the family Christmas tree farm, and Royal’s baseball. It was an era when players spent entire careers with one team, and George Brett epitomized Kansas City baseball. Brett played for the Royal’s from 1973 to 1993, ringing up an impressive list of accomplishments, including 3,154 hits, 317 home runs, 1,595 runs batting in and a .305 lifetime batting average.
All that being said, let’s consider a two game stretch during Brett’s 1980 season. During two games against the Oakland A’s, he tallied nine at-bats and no hits. Zero hits. A .000 batting average. What a shame it would be if we judged George Brett’s season, or career, based upon this two game stretch. Ridiculous, right? After all, there are a number of variables that may have contributed to this mini-slump: pitching, the weather, health, umpiring, etc. By the way, the Hall of Fame third baseman finished the 1980 season with a .390 batting average.
It is testing season at our public schools. A time when we will use three to four days to make a determination about student progress and teacher performance. Even assuming that a standardized test is a valid measurement of student understanding (a big assumption), any number of variables could impact student performance during this relatively small testing window. We wouldn’t judge a professional athlete by those standards, should we be using them to make judgements about students and teachers? Just saying.
Do your best. Maintain perspective. Remember what is important.
by Celes | ShareThis
Today’s post is to share my favorite applications, based on years of sieving and experimentation. You’ll find many of them very handy. The amazing thing is – they are all freeware!
Total count: 20. I’ll add on over time as I find new gems. Enjoy!
- E-mail: Gmail. Not exactly a software since it’s web mail, but its hands down the best email managing system IMO. (and I’ve used other email clients before like Outlook, Lotus, Yahoo).
- Browser: Google Chrome. I switched from Firefox last year. It took some getting used to in the first week. But after that, I started loving Chrome. I love that it lets you shift your tabs around, unlike Firefox. It also lets you “pin” your frequently accessed pages so it becomes a small icon on the navigation. It’s fast, minimalistic in interface, and very reliable as a browser.
- Calendar: GCal. Keeps all my schedules in check, and it’s web-based so you can access it anywhere – even your phone if it has the web-surfing function
- Task Shuffler: Ever felt the need to move the programs around in your task bar? I know I do. This is an extremely handy program that allows you to do just that, simply via clicking/dragging/dropping. For Windows only. (Special thanks to reader Matt for sharing!)
- Screen Capture: Snipping Tool if you are using Windows Vista (in built), Zap Grab if you are using other platforms. Just click and grab any part of the screen, and you have your image. Extremely useful.
- Automated Computer Shut Down: Switch Off. Automatically Shuts down/Hibernates/Restarts/Logs Off your computer at a time you input. Great if you are downloading something which is taking a while but you need to leave your computer before it finishes.
- Document Processor: Libre Office. This is almost a direct clone of MS Office set (Powerpoint, Word, Excel) – about 99.9% similar. I find it hard to believe that this is free! The only issue I’ve experienced so far is the slight change in formatting when you convert to MS office extensions (.doc, .xls) – but it’s manageable.
- PDF: PDF Creator. Libre Office already comes with an inbuilt pdf creator. But if you want to create PDFs from other applications, PDF creator is for you. As long as there’s a “Print” option, you can generate a pdf from there.
- Graphics Editing: GIMP. Very similar to Adobe Photoshop. Some functions are named and organized differently than Photoshop, so if you are a Photoshop user you can download GIMP Shop to change GIMP’s interface similar to Photoshop. The amazing thing is how GIMP packs with so much graphic editing prowess in such a small program (installer is 15.2meg, while Photoshop is over 700meg).
- FTP: Filezilla. Excellent FTP program that does its job well. You got to love open source projects
- Chat: GTalk. Extremely low-resource and fast chat application with functions that supersede MSN (example: logging of chat history which is integrated with and automatically saved in Gmail Chat folder). For even more functions (emoticons, group chat, etc), check out Gtalk Labs Edition.
- Blogging: WordPress.org if you are looking to host your own blog and WordPress.com for the free hosted version. TPEB is using WordPress.
- Journal: Daily Diary. A very simple yet effective free journaling application that lets you type and store your entries on your computer. Comes with password protection and multiple journal creation for different purposes (e.g., record of different goals, areas of your life, etc)
- Information Storage: Ever Note. Storage central for information captured across any environment – Computer, Web, Phone.
- To-Do Lists: Remember The Milk. Very effective for getting your tasks in check. It’s web-based, which means you can access it anywhere.
- Post-It Notes: Morun Sticky Notes. Minimalistic post-it notes on your desktop. Convenient placeholder for storing commonly-accessed or used information.
- Mind Mapping: Free Mind. It’s a great open-source mindmapping software. Great tool and very user-friendly.
- Timer: E.gg Timer. This is a web-based app and not an actual software. It’s an online stopwatch you can time yourself and it’ll beep at the end. Very useful if you want to timebox when doing a task, exercising, etc.
- Internet Calls: Skype. Gtalk works great too as a backup. Both support video conferencing. I use Skype for my coaching sections.
- HTML Editor: NVU is a free, open source web editor, which you can use to build your website via a WYSIWYG editor (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). According to the website, it rivals programs as Adobe’s Dreamweaver and Microsoft’s Expression Web even, in functionality. Usually I use notepad for webpage edits outside of the WordPress platform, but when there’s heavy coding involved, NVU is a great time saver. I used it to build the TPEBook and 30DLBL sales pages.
Originally written and published on Feb 5, 2009. Updated on Apr 14, 2011.
Image © Shutterstock
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A great post worth sharing!
While thousands of Americans lose their bargaining rights, wages and retirement funds, the NFL players argue over their next millionth dollar.
I can certainly survive without professional sports. I'm betting you can too. Any thoughts on this? Am I overreacting?
Volume 27, Number 2
March/April 2011Top 10 Web Tools for Teachers
By DAVE SALTMAN
In an online exclusive from the Harvard Education Letter, Dave Saltman shares his top 10 web tools for teachers.
"In the quest to work smarter, not harder, teachers are flocking to an ever-expanding galaxy of web-based tools for help with everything from classroom management to classroom discussions. Here are some tools that are now grabbing teachers' attention--and the attention of their students. Virtually all are free, with a few offering paid upgrades that add some technological bling."
A must-read...
Do you remember recess as a kid? Or naptime? Or gym class? If so, you’re having memories that countless children won’t in upcoming years.
An astonishing forty percent of elementary schools in the United States have now cut recess altogether. Fifty percent have cut gym.
How did this happen?
The No Child Left Behind Act gives children tests to prove they have acquired the basic math and reading skills appropriate to their grade level. With such a rigid standard in place, many schools are falling behind. Their solution is to increase class time, at the expense of free time and physical activity, which would actually improve learning itself.
As adults, we make much the same assumptions on a daily basis: that the more hours we put in, the more value we’ll produce. The ethic of more, bigger, faster has permeated not only our boardrooms, our hospitals, and even philanthropic organizations. It has now seeped into our kindergartens.
The qualities that set human beings apart from all the other species – empathy, creativity, self-control – are the ones that are cultivated in the quieter moments, and get lost when we don’t have time to rest and recover. By taking this time away from kids at such a young age, we are developing a new generation that is narrower in their thinking, more superficial, and less capable of reflection or intimacy.
A recent study of 11,000 children demonstrated that just 15 minutes of recess significantly increases academic performance. A 2010 Gallup poll showed that 2/3 of the almost 2000 elementary school principles surveyed nationwide believe that students listen better and are more focused after recess.
When kids come into kindergarten, they have spent little to no time learning how to focus their attention. The idea that we then ask them to sit down and concentrate for hours upon hours is ludicrous. The ability to focus is a muscle, and it must be developed in the same systematic way that we lift weights at the gym – through intense effort balanced by rest.
In order to truly develop our brains, we need to learn from an early age how to cultivate absorbed focus, and how to truly renew and recharge. Otherwise, kids are in a constant state of semi-attention, trying to grasp what the teacher’s saying while at the same time drumming fingers on their desk, leaning back in their chairs, and daydreaming about the next game of kickball.
Do you know what the policy is in your children’s school? If not, try asking them how much time they spent outside the classroom or doing physical activity during the day today. If you don’t feel it’s enough, try talking to your administration. Nothing will change until we all take a stand.
Playworks is a wonderful organization fighting hard to change the tide on recess and physical activity in schools. Check out their website for information on what they’re doing to bring play back into schools.
A great deal of Tony Schwartz's work at The Energy Project focuses on how we can maximize our productivity and happiness as adults. I highly recommend his newest book "The Way We're Working Isn't Working." I was quite pleased to see this post: "What Happened to Recess?" As a middle school principal, the article confirms what far too many schools overlook: Recess improves student performance! Our middle schoolers (grades 5-8) enjoy 20 minutes of recess daily, immediately before or after lunch. New studies are touting the benefits of recess immediately before lunch instead of after. Regardless of how or when you build it into your school day, I encourage you to give recess a chance to work for your school.
