The key to education reform: change your mind #edreform #pd

ktenkely's avatarDreams of Education

5-Sigma Education Conference February 20-22, Colorado

The problem with education reform is that we keep attempting to change surface level systems and hoping for deep systemic change as a result. What we actually end up with is new standards, new curricula (usually replacing one one-size-fits-all with another one-size-fits-all), new technology initiatives, more professional development, added “rigorous” expectations, new standardized tests, new assessment systems, and new buzz words. If you’ve been involved in education for any amount of time, you begin to see a pattern emerge. As a society, we seem to be always searching for the next best thing that is going to “fix” education; it quickly begins to feel like a broken record. I’ve often heard education veterans lament about how this is, “just one more new program.” It will get hyped, change the way everything is done, but the end result will be the same: countless professional development dollars will have been spent, there…

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Can We Discuss the Title “Lead Learners” for A Moment?

Some thoughts on titles in education:

Pernille Ripp's avatarPernille Ripp

Those who know me may know how long I have been mulling over this post.  How long these thoughts have been percolating, simply based on how many times I have brought it up in conversation.  You see, it’s been bugging me for a while, yet I know so many amazing principals that call themselves “Lead learner” that I have been afraid to say anything because I am not here to hurt, nor here to make others feel bad.  But the whole lead learner title, can we discuss it for a moment?  And perhaps rethink the use of it?

Before people get upset or chalk it up to me not understanding, hear me out.  I know what the title “lead learner” is supposed to signify, I have had many conversations with people who have explained their intent, and for that I am grateful, because those conversations have helped me understand the title…

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6 Effective Writer’s Secrets That Will Blow Your Mind

Some great tips here on writing:

Couple's Chronicle's avatarCouple's Chronicle

Effective WritingYou’re passionate about writing.

You wanted to create an article that will loved by readers. It is hard to please them all but at least you will get a percentage of them, liking your work.

But it seems so hard that your mind almost blown away of pushing yourself to the limit of your so called “creative imagination”. But still it suck!

Every writer has to be creative and effective in all their writings and projects. There is no other goal for them than to be more effective.

But how to write effectively? What were their secrets?

Actually there are no secrets in writing effectively. You often oversee it, it is actually in front of you. You did not notice it because you are so busy doing other thing. But still you wanted to be an effective writer.

Now here are the “Secrets” in writing effectively, but not actually a…

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#EdTechWish: What Do We Want?

This post was originally published in Edutopia. Education Technology is such a necessity in every 21 century classroom. It is no wonder that EdTech is one of the most popular discussion topics in schools, personal & professional learning communities amongst educators. What triggered this post? Lindsey Lipsky, an amazing educator in my Twitter Personal Learning Network, wrote … Continue reading #EdTechWish: What Do We Want?

English Language Learner Helpers – Visuals

This is a great post by Melissa with a few awesome ELL resources.

Melissa Eddington's avatarAdventures in Leading and Learning

imagesWe know people learn through different means…visual, auditory, kinesthetic, aural, logical, social and solitary…and one size doesn’t fit all, so why do we teach like it does?

Judie Haynes has spent much of her life teaching ELL students and has immense knowledge on the best ways to help and teach them in your classroom. On her website, www.everythingesl.net, she has an article titled, Seven Teaching Strategies for Classroom Teachers of ELLs which gives a brief overview of seven great strategies all classroom teachers could use in their classroom in order assist ELLs.

Using visuals in your classroom helps all students. They are able to connect your spoken words with the visual words or picture. Through seeing the picture or graphic representation they are able to connect the unknown English word to a word they know in their first language (L1). Using visuals will allow the student to learn English…

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A few Fabulous Resources for English Teachers

There are countless digital resources to use for English teachers. Here are some of my recent and classic favourite resources for teachers to use in the classroom: The Purdue Online Writing Lab: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/ This site is very helpful to direct students for extra help with writing, composition, grammar, citation and much more. It is also useful … Continue reading A few Fabulous Resources for English Teachers

Let them Write: Let it be their voice

Writing is a prominent practice in an English Language classroom. It is the essence of an English class. Writing is a necessity. Since writing holds such value in our English classrooms, let alone real life, students of course need opportunities to practice writing during class time. Of course as English teachers we do provide students … Continue reading Let them Write: Let it be their voice