This blog post was a joint effort between Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) and Ross Cooper (@RossCoops31). Click here to explore Starr’s work.
Music has a way of encouraging thought provoking discourse about life. When we listen to the words of our favorite bands, we can find the sage advice applicable to many aspects of learning.
Check out some life lessons brought to you by the Grateful Dead.
[Read more…] about The Educational World in Grateful Dead Lyrics
This past weekend I traveled to Queensbury, New York for a day of learning at EdcampUNY (upstate New York). The decision to make the trip was an easy one, after being “bullied” into it by Vicki Day (@VictoriaL_Day), Lisa Meade (@LisaMeade23), and Christina Luce (@ChristinaMLuce).
Here is a reflection of what I experienced this past Saturday at Edscape 2014, an educational technology conference in New Milford, New Jersey. I have attempted to briefly recap what took place, while also supplying the reader (you) with the most beneficial resources and ideas on which I could get my hands.
With the hustle and bustle of the daily school schedule, this conference was a nice opportunity to escape from reality (even for just one day).
[Read more…] about Edscape From Reality (Oh There Goes Gravity)
I was recently out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with a friend, and I was asked if I was enjoying my dish (Mexican chicken mole, which was excellent, by the way). I quickly replied something to the effect of, “Yes! I would order it again.” In my mind, whether or not someone would order the same food again is the true litmus test in determining if the food is truly worthwhile. Now, while eating I was thinking about all that has been taking place in my school district, where I am an assistant principal. Then, somehow I managed to make a connection between “Would you order the same food again?” to “Would you want to be a teacher in your district?” The latter question is the litmus test for whether or not an administrator is happy in the district for which he works. (See the connection?)
[Read more…] about Would you want to be a teacher in your district?
This year I began work as an assistant principal across two primary schools. Along with starting to establish rapport with staff members, one of my first priorities was getting my two offices set up. I saw it as my duty to furnish my workspaces prior to the students’ first day of school, even though my time on the job officially began only about 1.5 weeks before this day. If all teachers were able to get their classrooms up and running, there was no reason why I could not do the same with my rooms.
When decorating my offices I decided to go with student friendly themes, a Pixar theme for one (inspired by Creativity, Inc.) and a superhero theme for another. What I now have serves as a starting point, and I plan to add to the décor throughout the year. Here are five reasons why a building administrator should have a student friendly office:
[Read more…] about 5 Reasons For a Student Friendly Principal’s Office
Right now, one of my classes is finishing up their current Language Arts project, Making Waves. This project, which was inspired by Colton Shone, a journalism student at Arizona State, requires students to create a radio broadcast through the use of Apple GarageBand. Everything is wrapped in the essential question, “What is an effective radio broadcast?”
Students complete the project in groups of two. The majority of their work is done in a Google document, and I created a template to provide them with a starting point. (To save a Google file as a template, access your files > right-click on your file of choice > Submit to template gallery. After, copy the template’s link and share it with your students.)
A PDF version of the template is here, and below is a shortened version of these directions:
This past Sunday I attended EdcampNYC at Avenues: The World School in Manhattan. If you are unfamiliar with Edcamp, a prior post details what Edcamp is all about, while another post describes how we have adapted this model to work with our building-based professional development at the elementary school level.
EdcampNYC was divided into three one-hour time slots.
As mentioned in a previous post, one element of effective professional development is taking into consideration who is on the receiving end of it (in regards to their experiences, beliefs, attitudes, current practices, etc.). On a recent webcast I listened to Daniel Pink claim how the project-based learning label is constantly overused and misused by educators, and this is a statement with which I can easily agree. As a result, when presenting project-based learning professional development it could be advantageous to not just discuss best practice, but to take educators from where they might be (projects) to where we think they should land (project-based learning).
We will compare and contrast the two columns on the chart, one step at a time, while also discussing how the transition could be made from projects to project-based learning in a way that is transparent and simplified.
[Read more…] about Project-Based Learning: The Easiest Way to Get Started
For the fourth and final installment of the BYOD series, we will take a look at a recommended one-year timeline for BYOD implementation from an administrative/district standpoint. But first, here is a quick rundown of what has already been discussed!
Part 1: Lessons learned from a BYOD pre-pilot
Part 2: Top 10 apps for BYOD
Part 3: A recommended teacher implementation timeline for BYOD
To provide some perspective, as mentioned prior, “This year, my district has begun the process of implementing BYOD in what is being called a pre-pilot, and my students and I were delighted when we got the call to be the first classroom in the entire district to have the honor.” The timeline below reflects the lessons that we have learned from the pre-pilot, and the district goal for next year is to involve teachers from grades 5 and up on a volunteer basis.
[Read more…] about BYOD: An Implementation Timeline For School Districts
As mentioned previously, “In my classroom we are all about explicit strategies… Reading and writing strategies are taught early on in the school year, and then we continuously spiral them throughout the year as students dive deeper and deeper into how to leverage them effectively. This approach to teaching and learning provides everyone with a common language, which helps in stimulating collaboration amongst students and a positive classroom culture. (This method is even more beneficial when the same strategies are utilized across multiple classrooms and grade levels.)”
While an earlier post details our strategy for open-ended responses to texts, here is a look at Pigs Rock And Roll, which is what my students use when they have to read texts and then answer multiple-choice questions.