Schoolwide Blog

Professional Development-Good and Better

I’ve recently had a great experience doing professional development using Schoolwide’s Testing Fundamentals material with grades 3, 4 and 5 in an elementary school in the Bronx. Much of my previous work was centered around a professional development model whereby I met with a group of teachers on a grade, we discussed what was currently going on in their classrooms (either about reading, writing or testing), and then we discussed what to focus on during the lesson I would be modeling and they would be observing in one of their classrooms. After the lesson we would debrief and plan for the lessons they would be teaching until my next visit. More...

SchoolwideBlog is proud to announce that the celebrated speaker, author, consultant, and Regents Professor Yetta Goodman will be participating on the SchoolwideBlog for the next few months.

Please look for a post tomorrow and, for those of our readers in the Tri-State area this weekend:

Yetta Goodman will be speaking at Dr Michael Shaw’s Literacy Extravaganza

Saturday, Oct. 17 at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, NY...approximately 1/2 hour from the George Washington Bridge

Yetta M. Goodman is Regents Professor of Education at the University of Arizona. She consults with education departments and speaks at conferences throughout the United States and in many nations of the world regarding issues of language, teaching and learning with implications for language arts curricula. More...

   Yesterday, we instituted our new Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) for the coming school year.  With much drum rolling, we were led to the gymnasium where we were instructed to stand under the sign announcing our group preference.  The groups (reading, writing, math, social skills, personal development - classroom management, goal setting, self-assessment, etc. - and technology infusion) were based on our work from the previous week (see my previous Schoolwide Blog)

Three other teachers and I chose personal development.  I was happy with the size of my PLC and the fact that we are all early childhood educators.  After our first meeting I felt confident that we would be able to work together well this year. More...

    In a couple of weeks, we will be starting our work in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at our school.  Last year we worked in grade group configurations and this year we are venturing into mixed grade PLCs based on teacher interest and student needs.  In order to group teachers within PLCs and to determine what teachers’ choices will be, we have been asked to think about the teaching and learning questions that have surfaced during the month we have spent with our students.  What issues have we noted related to our ability to teach our students as well as we can?  What concerns us about particular students’ learning or that of the whole class?  What isn’t working with this group of students and what might be some causes?  What skills and strategies are our students struggling with?  
So, in the spirit of thinking deeply about my teaching and my students’ learning, these are some of my questions:

•    When are the times that student A is engaged during circle time?
•    How can I help students make smooth and quick transitions from working independently to working whole class?
•    How can I help student B learn how to get what he needs from other children?
•    How can I get my students to understand that we all learn from each other and that I’m a learner, too?
•    Why isn’t the first ½ hour in the morning going well (entry and morning meeting)?
•    How can I help student C engage with books?
•    How can I make my focus lessons concise, purposeful, clear, and intentional?
•    What teacher language helps and hinders children’s ability to develop agency and independence as learners?
•    How can I get student D to be an active participant in our class and to engage in learning activities beyond what is minimally required?  

What are your insights on the above queries?  What questions do you have about your students this year?  I welcome your responses.

Win a $5,000 gift certificate form teacherwide.com for books and educational materials for your Classroom, School, or District! Judged by an esteemed panel of educators, which includes Angela Johnson, Doreen Rappaport, Dr. Linda Bausch, Georgia Heard, and more, the Schoolwide video contest guarantees the same quality we have provided to teachers for almost two decades.

Learn more about our judges here and preview this great video by judge Robin Cohen.

More...

I was sitting in the faculty room of one our buildings listening to colleagues discuss their summer reading.  One after another mentioned a “beach book” and spoke with guilty pleasure of having read something totally trivial, a mystery or romance novel, that was “fun,” “superficial,” and thoroughly “entertaining.”  It was as if they were describing some kind of an illicit act, something they would not ordinarily do, and admitting to their friends in the sanctity of the faculty room that what took place in Vegas, stayed in Vegas. More...

"I’m wondering from a teacher perspective with so many different models out there what type of professional development motivates them to keep the wheels turning. I would appreciate input from the field about what experiences have enriched and informed your teaching."

During the month of August I spent several hours on the phone with administrators on various rungs of the educational ladder designing professional development for their teachers around testing, reading and writing. In most cases the dialogue revolved around the materials they needed to purchase, how many days I would be in a particular building and which grade levels I would be working with. Unfortunately in most cases I don’t get to meet with teachers to assess their needs and wants, More...

Research on teaching literacy shows that a knowledgeable teacher can overcome obstacles like poverty and demographics to increase achievement for all students. Research has identified the most important key for success: Effective professional development that focuses on research-based best methods for teaching reading and writing skills and strategies. More...

As we move closer to the new school year, Schoolwide is pleased to announce we are also closer to the launch of our new Schoolwide Network, a video site focused on quality. The Schoolwide Network is meant to be a filter for pooling together the web's best and most comprehensive professional development content. Our goal: to give teachers one place to search for their teaching tools and professional development resources in a faster and more organized fashion.

Anyone interested in getting a preview of the site please comment below with your contact information.

Below is another sneak peek at the kind of content you'll be likely to find on the Schoolwide Network.  Here staff developer Linda Bausch explains the writing process and how to inspire students to write.

Vision

A vision is a clear image of what you are trying to create.In this case, when your school is starting a new literacy initiative, you need to be clear about what you want to be true at the end of a certain time frame.In other words, be clear about what you want to create. Make it as concrete as possible so everyone has the same picture in mind. Then communicate it.

How does this play out in action?

Scenario 

Since it’s National Poetry Month, we’ll create a simple vision for it. Keep in mind this is a short - term initiative that lasts only amonth.  This vision will describe what we want to see for students by the end of the month.

The answer to the question, "What do we want all students to have by the end of poetry month? " will be our vision.

Our vision for National Poetry Month- We want students to have evidence that they have read and created responses to 5 poems. 

Now we have to let people know what these responses look like because a picture is work a thousand words. 

In order to clearly communicate the vision we  (all the teachers asked to participate) will agree on sample responses to use as benchmark papers. We will share these benchmark papers with parents, consultants, poets in residence and anyone elsewho interacts with our students to demonstrate the type of work we are striving for.

 Once we have identified the vision,  we will refer back to our list of literacy initiatives and materials to determine how what we have in place will help us realize our vision and go to work!

If we do not have what we need, we will order a poetry collection that we think will best stimulate responses.

Applying this to other situations

You can use variations of the question above to create your vision for other circumstances. Here are sample questions to guide your vision planning …

·     What do you want all students to have by the end of third grade Readers and Writers Workshop?

·     What do you want all students to have by the end of Honors English?

·     What do we want all student to have in their literacy portfolio after completing K-12 in our school district?

Remember to refer to the lists of Instructional Initiatives and materials to see what you can use to accomplish your mission. Let me know how it goes.