Digital Portfolios / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 07/06/2016 · Last modified 11/15/2019
Kevin Hodgson and his 6th graders learned how to build digital portfolios together in recent months, creating a reflective space to re-examine and “curate” a year’s worth of digital projects. He shares tools created to guide the process and the lessons learned.
If there is one thing that will influence voters more than anything else during Campaign 2016, it is the image. More than ever, what the voters see, not what they hear, has become paramount in getting elected. Frank Baker shares ad techniques students need to know.
Beyond the Textbook / Future of History
by Sarah Cooper · Published 06/27/2016 · Last modified 11/22/2019
In Sarah Cooper’s never-ending effort to reach beyond textbook basics, she sometimes asks students to read a selection from a scholarly journal article or popular history book. Carefully sharing a JSTOR piece on Sherman’s March helped students grasp “total war.”
Summer offers a rare opportunity for principals to devote ample time to their own professional learning, say Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn. The leadership consultants offer four summer strategies to help assure continuous growth as an effective leader.
NBCT Amber Chandler looks at three factors that might be holding teachers back from pursuing National Board Certification – finding time, covering the cost, or “already being a good teacher” – and offers her reasons why you should move beyond all three obstacles.
As product placement ads invade more of our visual space, educators can use the trend as a hook to engage students in critical thinking about what it means to be media literate. Expert Frank Baker uses the NBA’s 2016-17 plans for jersey advertising as an example.
Current Events / Future of History
by Jody & Shara · Published 05/31/2016 · Last modified 11/29/2019
Jody Passanisi, an eighth grade teacher and author of “History Class Revisited,” uses a three-step scaffolding process to help students raise their awareness between events currently taking place and the historical events they study in the social studies curriculum.
Interactive writing can help teachers to differentiate and integrate. In “Interactive Writing Across Grades” Kate Roth and Joan Dabrowski detail effective ways to use a familiar K-3 writing strategy in grades 4-6, says reviewer and literacy coach Pam Hamilton.
What motivates teens to innovate in STEM? Anne Jolly researches the background of young inventors who are making a difference for our 21st century lives and identifies some common experiences that helped them be successful, including the support of teachers.
Change Agents / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 05/24/2016 · Last modified 11/26/2019
Co-teachers have the opportunity to guide a transformation in the way students view themselves as learners and the way teachers and parents view educating diverse learners. Coach Elizabeth Stein describes four steps along the path to becoming an agent of change.
