Thursday, October 27, 2016

Professional Development Articles 2016 Fall Collection

Professional Development Articles 2016 Fall Collection


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What Trump Can Teach Reason-Loving Smart Folks
http://bigthink.com/errors-we-live-by/what-trump-can-teach-smart-folks
ETHOS - LOGOS - PATHOS

Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation and Growth Mindset in Writing
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/intrinsic-motivation-growth-mindset-writing-amy-conley
 
How Meaningful Feedback for Teachers and Students Improves Relationships
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/24/how-meaningful-feedback-for-teachers-and-students-improves-relationships/

"Teachers often focus on the feedback they give students and can even feel frustrated when students ignore carefully written comments on returned work. Less common is taking the time to get feedback from students on how they experience a teacher. As a way of fostering transparency, strong relationships and student voice, McComb asks his students for specific feedback about how he’s serving them as a teacher. To help students feel safe, he has asked student leaders to discuss with their peers and bring the information back to him."

Why Understanding Obstacles is Essential to Achieving Goals
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/26/why-understanding-obstacles-is-essential-to-achieving-goals/
"Another study involving high school students found that those who set up a plan for overcoming their obstacles to studying for the PSAT practiced more diligently than a control group that merely dreamt about it."

When Kids Have Structure for Thinking, Better Learning Emerges
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/31/when-kids-have-structure-for-thinking-better-learning-emerges/
 "To help make these ideas more concrete, Ritchhart and his colleagues have been working to hone in on a short list of “thinking moves” related to understanding. To test whether these moves were really crucial, researchers asked themselves: could a student say she really understood something if she hadn’t engaged in these activities? They believe the important “thinking moves” that lead to understanding are:
  • Naming: being able to identify the parts and pieces of a thing
  • Inquiry: questioning should drive the process throughout
  • Looking at different perspectives and viewpoints
  • Reasoning with evidence
  • Making connections to prior knowledge, across subject areas, even into personal lives
  • Uncovering complexity
  • Capture the heart and make firm conclusions
  • Building explanations, interpretations and theories.
These thinking moves all point to the conclusion that learning doesn’t happen through the mere delivery of information. “Learning only occurs when the learner does something with that information,” Ritchhart said. “So as teachers we need to think not only about how we will deliver that content, but also what we will have students do with that content.”

Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Student Engagement
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/17/slowing-down-to-learn-mindful-pauses-that-can-help-student-engagement/ 
"One way to promote engagement and learning is to consciously create pauses throughout the day. We can create a sense of spaciousness in our classroom by slowing down the pace of our speech and punctuating our lessons with silence. Introduced well, this practice can improve classroom discourse."

Become or Stay a Transformation Teacher: 
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/become-and-remain-transformational-teacher-david-cutler

Using Graphic Organizers Correctly
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-graphic-organizers-correctly-rebecca-alber

There’s No "I" in Teacher: 8 Tips for Collaborative Planning
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/rules-of-thumb-collaborative-planning-rebecca-rufo-tepper
1. Cultivate Trust 2. Don’t Be Married to Ideas
3. Apply the KISS Principle
KISS stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." No matter what you're creating together (a game, project, or lesson plan), the more complex the rules or the structure, the more questions students will have, and the less time students will be engaged in the actual learning.
4. Playtest Often 5. Know When to Scale Back
6. Involve Students From the Beginning
7. Use What's Around You
8. Build on Strengths and Interests
 Digital Tools and Strategies that Support Student's Reading and Writing
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/08/19/18-digital-tools-and-strategies-that-support-students-reading-and-writing/

What Motivates A Student’s Interest in Reading and Writing
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/03/18/what-motivates-students-interest-in-reading-and-writing/
"I would suggest that teachers explicitly connecting what is being taught in school to student goals—by pointing it out themselves or by drawing it out of students (which, as Chapter 1 pointed out, appears to have less damaging potential)—can have a place in class, but also has to be kept in its place. In my experience, we will get fewer “Why are we learning this?” questions in learning environments that promote autonomy, competence, relatedness, or are connected to student interest."

Making Learning Visible: Doodling Helps Memories Stick
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/07/15/making-learning-visible-doodling-helps-memories-stick/ 

"Shelley Paul and Jill Gough had heard that doodling while taking notes could help improve memory and concept retention, but as instructional coaches they were reluctant to bring the idea to teachers without trying it out themselves first."

Deprogramming kids: Obsolete teaching strategies and learning management techniques
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/15/how-deprogramming-kids-from-how-to-do-school-could-improve-learning/

Designing the best presentations with PREZI - tips and tricks
http://blog.ted.com/10-tips-for-better-slide-decks/?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=ted-blog&utm_term=business

Listening to Podcasts: 
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/18/why-listening-to-podcasts-helps-kids-improve-reading-skills/

 Storytelling Apps that help ESL:
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/31/6-storytelling-apps-that-get-english-language-learners-talking/
Do's & Don'ts For Teaching English-Language Learners
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski
"The number of English-Language Learners in the United States is growing rapidly, including many states that have not previously had large immigrant populations. As teachers try to respond to the needs of these students, here are a few basic best practices that might help. We have found that consistently using these practices makes our lessons more efficient and effective."

Effective Teaching - 20 Characteristics
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/20-observable-characteristics-of-effective-teaching/

How To Give Students Specific Feedback That Actually Helps Them Learn
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/how-to-give-students-specific-feedback-that-actually-helps-them-learn/

 21st Century Classroom Design
http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/blogs/edutopia-wade-visualizing21stCclassrmdesign.png

 How We Learn: 
A paper published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest evaluated ten techniques for improving learning, ranging from mnemonics to highlighting and came to some surprising conclusions. 
http://bigthink.com/neurobonkers/assessing-the-evidence-for-the-one-thing-you-never-get-taught-in-school-how-to-learn

Learner-driven learning
http://smartbrief.com/original/2016/11/learner-driven-learning

Getting to learner-driven learning is a multiple-pathway process, but here are three intersections where we can look to make the “right” turn when we arrive.
Question, rather than answer.
Keep it interactive.
Follow up.

Unlearning Everything I Was Taught About Teaching 
http://catlintucker.com/2016/10/unlearning-what-i-was-taught/

"So, this is what I walked into my first classroom believing…
  1. Students should sit in rows.
  2. A quiet classroom is an effective classroom.
  3. Students in the same class should do the same assignments. It’s only fair. 
  4. Students demonstrate understanding with a pen and paper.
  5. The teacher possesses the information.
As I review this list, I am struck by the difference between this initial vision and my classroom today. The truth is I’ve had to unlearn most of what I was taught about teaching. I believe these initial assumptions about teaching almost led me to flee this profession."


RubiStar 
A tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics, but does not have the time to develop them from scratch 
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

 Cognitive Biases:
 There’s a category of not-so-helpful mental habits and inclinations called “cognitive biases.” The problem with these biases is that when we incorrectly apply them to decision-making, they prejudice our thought process and keep us from thinking, and deciding, clearly. Researchers have identified a number of these mind traps. In this video, Baumann zeroes in on confirmation bias, where we ignore any evidence that doesn’t support what we’ve already concluded, and only find things that prove it. He also nominates the uniqueness bias as maybe the most amusing cognitive bias. http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/a-chart-of-brain-busting-cognitive-biases-hang-it-on-your-wall

The Warm Demander: An Equity Approach


How to Stop Yelling at Your Students


Gifted and Talented: We Need a Flexible Mindset
http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F95%2F%3Fuuid%3D57456&cmp=SOC-SHR-linkedin

 Explore the Growth Mindset
The incredible research by Carol Dweck and her colleagues on the power of mindset in learning has become pervasive in education. The concept of growth mindset shows that contrary to popular belief, people aren’t born smart. Instead, we become smart as a result of hard work, productive effort, and feedback.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-10-25-why-growth-mindset-isn-t-working-in-schools-yet?
https://www.edutopia.org/article/growth-mindset-resources

Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff


Multilingual Parenting

Bilingual Siblings
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Monday, March 21, 2016

2016 Spring Professional Development Articles

2016 Spring  Professional Development Articles

“Education can be encouraged from the top-down but can only be improved from the ground up”- Sir Ken Robinson

“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey


Professional Development

Work smarter not harder: https://theconversation.com/lets-stop-trying-to-teach-students-critical-thinking-30321
Let’s stop trying to teach students critical thinking
Many teachers say they strive to teach their students to be critical thinkers. They even pride themselves on it; after all, who wants children to just take in knowledge passively? But there is a problem with this widespread belief. The truth is that you can’t teach people to be critical unless you are critical yourself. This involves more than asking young people to “look critically” at something, as if criticism was a mechanical task. As a teacher, you have to have a critical spirit.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck
Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset - JANUARY 11, 2016
A growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your talents and abilities through hard work, good strategies, and help from others. It stands in opposition to a fixed mindset, which is the belief that talents and abilities are unalterable traits, ones that can never be improved. Research has shown (and continues to show) that a growth mindset can have a profound effect on students' motivation, enabling them to focus on learning, persist more, learn more, and do better in school. Significantly, when students are taught a growth mindset, they begin to show more of these qualities.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-_oqghnxBmYGrowth Mindset Animation - Published on Sep 28, 2014
A Short animation explaining the theory of growth and fixed mindsets. This is a tested and effective way of teaching young people what a fixed mindset is and how we can change that. Many of the messages in this video have been taken from the theorist Carol Dweck.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVUqv0v1EE  Published on Jun 2, 2014
Having a growth mindset means that you know you can train your brain to get smarter.

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F147%2F%3Fuuid%3D57223&cmp=eml-enl-eu-mostpop
Nurturing Growth Mindsets: Six Tips From Carol Dweck - By Evie Blad March 14, 2016
Here are six tips pulled from Dweck's talk:
1. Acknowledge the nuance in the research.
2. Everyone has a fixed mindset sometimes.
3. Name your fixed mindset.
4. Move beyond effort.
5. Put mindsets into a greater school-culture context.
6. Don't use mindsets to label students (or yourself).

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/24/growth-mindset-how-to-normalize-mistake-making-and-struggle-in-class/
Growth Mindset: How to Normalize Mistake Making and Struggle in Class By Katrina Schwartz AUGUST 24, 2015
These mindset changes are easy to describe and dictate, but more challenging to implement. To help both teachers and parents, Stanford’s PERTS Center has teamed up with the Teaching Channel to produce videos that demonstrate process praise and productive struggle. PERTS has developed a toolkit to support the adults in children’s lives who are struggling to change their practice.

http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/15-characteristics-21st-century-teacher
15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher  - Tsisana Palmer , ESL Instructor/Intensive English Program
Posted 06/20/2015
1.       Learner-Centered Classroom and Personalized Instructions
2.       Students as Producers
3.       Learn New Technologies
4.       Go Global
5.       Be Smart and Use Smart Phones
6.       Blog
7.       Go Digital
8.       Collaborate
9.       Use Twitter Chat
10.    Connect
11.    Project-Based Learning
12.    Build Your Positive Digital Footprint
13.    Code
14.    Innovate
15.    Keep Learning

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-highly-effective-teaching-practices-rebecca-alber
5 Highly Effective Teaching Practices-FEBRUARY 27, 2015
1.       Teacher Clarity
2.       Classroom Discussion
3.       Feedback
4.       Formative Assessments
5.       Metacognitive Strategies
6.       Collaborating with Colleagues

http://ingvihrannar.com/14-things-that-are-obsolete-in-21st-century-schools/
14 things that are obsolete in 21st century schools
Posted by ingvihrannar | February 26, 2014
1.       Computer Rooms
2.       Isolated classrooms
3.       Schools that don’t have WiFi
4.       Banning phones and tablets
5.       Tech director with an administrator access
6.       Teachers that don’t share what they do
7.       Schools that don’t have Facebook or Twitter
8.       Unhealthy cafeteria food
9.       Starting school at 8 o’clock for teenagers
10.    Buying poster-, website- and pamphlet design for the school
11.    Traditional libraries
12.    All students get the same
13.    One-Professional development-workshop-fits-all
14.    Standardized tests to measure the quality of education



http://www.edutopia.org/blog/performance-based-assessment-reviewing-basics-patricia-hilliard
Performance-Based Assessment: Reviewing the Basics-DECEMBER 7, 2015
In general, a performance-based assessment measures students' ability to apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit or units of study. Typically, the task challenges students to use their higher-order thinking skills to create a product or complete a process (Chun, 2010). Tasks can range from a simple constructed response (e.g., short answer) to a complex design proposal of a sustainable neighborhood. Arguably, the most genuine assessments require students to complete a task that closely mirrors the responsibilities of a professional, e.g., artist, engineer, laboratory technician, financial analyst, or consumer advocate.
Although performance-based assessments vary, the majority of them share key characteristics. First and foremost, the assessment accurately measures one or more specific course standards. Additionally, it is:

Complex
Authentic
Process/product-oriented
Open-ended
Time-bound

http://blog.ed.ted.com/2016/02/12/whats-the-future-of-education-teachers-respond/
What’s the future of education? Teachers respond-By Laura McClure on February 12, 2016
There will be more creativity in education.
The classroom will be one big makerspace.
There will be no physical campus.
Students will learn that nothing is impossible.
Education will look nothing like it does now.


http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/02/08/how-has-google-affected-the-way-students-learn/
How Has Google Affected The Way Students Learn? By Zhai Yun Tan-FEBRUARY 8, 2016
How To Teach Digital Natives?
Heick has since left teaching to start TeachThought, a company that produces content to support teachers in “innovation in teaching and learning for a 21st century audience.” To him, the Internet holds great potential for education — but curriculum must change accordingly. Since content is so readily available, teachers should not merely dole out information and instead focus on cultivating critical thinking, he says.
One of his recommendations is to make questions “Google-proof.”
“Design it so that Google is crucial to creating a response rather than finding one,” he writes in his company’s blog. “If students can Google answers — stumble on (what) you want them to remember in a few clicks — there’s a problem with the instructional design.”

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/diverse-learners-process-their-understanding-john-mccarthy
Make Learning Last: How Diverse Learners Can Process Their Understanding-JANUARY 13, 2016
In classrooms, effective learning happens when teachers provide the conditions that learners find relatable. The challenge is that these conditions will vary for each learner. A common question is, "How do I meet the needs of my students when each has a different level of current understanding and tends to learn at a different pace?" The easy answer is to inform planning with various kinds of assessments, but that doesn't make the path clear for what to do.

Differentiated instruction looks at instructional planning based on content, process, and products. These areas are familiar to teachers and their assessment practices. A typical lesson delivers content to students, and then has them create products to practice and demonstrate their learning. Many of these lessons are missing perhaps the most important element in the learning equation: process.
Processing Understanding
Quick Reflections of Understanding
·         Silent Reflection
·         Journaling
·         Partner Conversations
Quick Surveys
·         Kahoot!
·         Poll Everywhere
·         Plickers
·         Google Forms
Provide Diverse Perspective Assessments
Empower Students With Their Learning
Students need practice reflecting on their learning 2-3 times per lesson on a daily basis. This ensures that learners strengthen their connections to the concepts and skills for long-term gains.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-metacognition-in-classroom-marilyn-price-mitchell?utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=metacognition-in-classroom
Metacognition: Nurturing Self-Awareness in the Classroom-APRIL 7, 2015
Self-awareness is part of The Compass Advantage™ (a model designed for engaging families, schools, and communities in the principles of positive youth development) because it plays a critical role in how students make sense of life experiences. Linked by research to each of the other Compass abilities, particularly empathy, curiosity, and sociability, self-awareness is one of the 8 Pathways to Every Student's Success.


http://www.edutopia.org/sites/default/files/resources/edutopia-stw-replicatingpbl-21stcacad-reflection-questions.pdf
The 40 Reflection Questions
Backward-Looking:
1. How much did you know about the subject before we started?
2. What process did you go through to produce this piece?
3. Have you done a similar kind of work in the past (earlier in the year or in a previous grade; in school or out of
school)?
4. In what ways have you gotten better at this kind of work?
5. In what ways do you think you need to improve?
6. What problems did you encounter while you were working on this piece? How did you solve them?
7. What resources did you use while working on this piece? Which ones were especially
helpful? Which ones would you use again?
8. Does this work tell a story?
Inward-Looking:
9. How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What
did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?
10. What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product?
11. What did/do you find frustrating about it?
12. What were your standards for this piece of work?
13. Did you meet your standards?
14. What were your goals for meeting this piece of work? Did your goals change as you worked on it? Did you
meet your goals?
15. What does this piece reveal about you as a learner?
16. What did you learn about yourself as you worked on this piece?
17. Have you changed any ideas you used to have on this subject?
18. Find another piece of work that you did at the beginning of the year to compare and contrast with this
what changes can you see?
19. How did those changes come about?
20. What does that tell you about yourself and how you learn?
Outward-Looking:
21. Did you do your work the way other people did theirs?
22. In what ways did you do it differently?
23. In what ways was your work or process similar?
24. If you were the teacher, what comments would you make about this piece?
25. What grade would you give it? Why?
26. What the one thing you particularly want people to notice when they look at your work?
27. What do your classmates particularly notice about your piece when they look at it?
28. In what ways did your work meet the standards for this assignment?
29. In what ways did it not meet those standards?
30. If someone else were looking at the piece, what might they learn about who you are?
Forward-Looking:
31. One thing I would like to improve upon is ...
32. What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?
33. What will you change in the next revision of this piece?
34. What's the one thing that you have seen in your classmates' work or process that you would like to try in
your next piece?
35. As you look at this piece, what's one thing that you would like to try to improve upon?
36. What's one goal you would like to set for yourself for next time?
37. What would you like to spend more time on in school?
38. What might you want next year's teacher to know about you (what things you're good at)?
39. What things you might want more help with?
40. What work would you show her to help her understand those things?

Pictures:



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2016 Spring Gifted Education Articles

2016 Spring GT Articles

“Education can be encouraged from the top-down but can only be improved from the ground up”- Sir Ken Robinson
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey

Gifted Education

https://www.facebook.com/Upworthy/videos/1129411723766351/
Students with learning challenges give their teachers some heartfelt advice. (via Brain Highways)

https://www.facebook.com/HoagiesGifted/posts/10154190239717240
"[Twice-exceptional students] represent a potential national resource whose future contributions to society are largely contingent upon offering them appropriate educational experiences. Without appropriate education and services, their discoveries, innovations, breakthroughs, leadership, and other gifts to American society go unrealized.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/07/15/when-parenting-twice-exceptional-kids-not-everything-needs-to-be-fixed/?tid=ss_tw When parenting twice-exceptional kids, not everything needs to be fixed By Robin Finn July 15, 2015
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2016 Spring - Bilingual Matters Articles

2016 Bilingual Matters Articles

“Education can be encouraged from the top-down but can only be improved from the ground up”- Sir Ken Robinson
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey

Bilingual Matters

 http://bilingualmonkeys.com/my-best-tips-for-raising-bilingual-kids/
With 50 tips, and over 6,000 words, you’ll find a wealth of ideas to help strengthen your success in bringing up bilingual children. You can also freely download the whole post as a handy PDF file for saving, printing, and sharing!

 

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2016 Spring - ESL Articles

2016 Spring - ESL Articles

“Education can be encouraged from the top-down but can only be improved from the ground up”- Sir Ken Robinson
“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey

ESL

http://blog.ed.ted.com/2014/05/29/be-a-better-writer-in-15-minutes-4-ted-ed-lessons-on-grammar-and-word-choice/
Be a better writer in 15 minutes: 4 TED-Ed lessons on grammar and word choice - By Emilie Soffe on May 29, 2014 in TED-Ed Lessons. TED-Ed has put together a list of four of our favorite grammar and language lessons to get your next piece of writing in tip-top shape. First, let’s look at the often-confusing comma. What about the Oxford comma? Keep your nouns away from elongating nominalizations! Use this little trick to improve your writing: let go of the words “good” and “bad,” and push yourself to illustrate, elucidate and illuminate your world with language.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-fest-ell-video-resources
5-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos for ELL Classrooms. Videos can be an effective tool for teaching and learning English (or, for that matter, any academic subject) if used strategically and not as a "babysitting" device. My colleague Katie Hull Sypnieski and I wrote a previous post for Edutopia titled Eight Ways To Use Videos With English-Language Learners that shares instructional strategies for many kinds of clips. Here are a few of my favorite videos to use with those exercises.

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/03/20/5-tools-to-help-students-learn-how-to-learn/
5 Tools to Help Students Learn How to Learn By Katrina Schwartz MARCH 20, 2013
Helping students learn how to learn: That’s what most educators strive for, and that’s the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. Students think about the choices they make throughout the process and the way they feel as they learn. Those observations are as important as the content they learn or the projects they create.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35170392
The advantages of a bilingual brain - 25 December 2015
There's an increasing amount of scientific research that suggests the extra work bilingual brains do when translating has additional benefits - especially in old age.

https://www.ted.com/talks/yassmin_abdel_magied_what_does_my_headscarf_mean_to_you#t-576294

What do you think when you look at this speaker? Well, think again. (And then again.) In this funny, honest, empathetic talk, Yassmin Abdel-Magied challenges us to look beyond our initial perceptions, and to open doors to new ways of supporting others.
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