Active listening is a key skill for school leaders, especially when faced with the need to mediate complex or volatile issues. Consultants Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn describe 5 barriers to effective listening and 10 tips to help every leader become more successful.
Short-term projects with specific techniques and ample examples fill Shelley Harwayne’s book, Above and Beyond the Writing Workshop. Helene Alalouf recommends the book’s authentic and interesting writing assignments complete with scaffolds and templates.
A former English teacher, Megan Kelly is eager to discover how she can incorporate the learning power of storytelling into history units. As a first step she created a transmedia storytelling experience that had summer camp students exploring where ‘history’ comes from.
Close Reading the Media / New Vocabulary
by Frank Baker · Published 01/09/2022 · Last modified 01/10/2022
Metaverse? Prebunking? Zombie claims? The rapid evolution of digital technology and methods of persuasion has unleashed a flood of words and phrases that need to be in students’ vocabularies. Media literacy expert Frank Baker offers examples from across current culture.
Bouncing off a family session of Scattergories gone wrong, Curtis Chandler considers how to tap into multilingual learners’ interest in games and competition – including challenging tasks – by offering opportunities to play with and practice new skills in collaborative settings.
Classroom discourse is an opportunity for students to develop voice, advocate positions, and build collective understanding. Paul Bambrick-Santoyo and Stephen Chiger show how teacher Vy Graham structures and prepares for discourse so all her students experience it equitably.
Frank Buck revisits the Wild West movie days in his quest to help educators defy the daily deluge of unsolicited or redundant email that steals their time. Get the details on how to circle the wagons, energize the pony express, and deny those emails entry to your inbox.
Middle grades teacher Kathleen Palmieri shows how Google’s Applied Digital Skills videos and lesson plans can help students in grades 5-12 tap the power of Google Docs and the Google Drive to learn portable skills like digital collaboration, file sharing, and organization.
In Giving Students a Say principal Myron Dueck details key research-based reasons why students should have a say in assessing their progress. Dueck’s helpful tools and strategies can be used to effectively create student-centered assessments, writes reviewer Jennifer Wirtz.
Educators are exhausted and under attack, and faculty and staff need school leaders to take their frontline challenges seriously, write Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn. The leadership authors detail seven steps principals can take to offer real help and support.
