As I was sitting here at my desk, in the midst of the Holiday Break, I started to reflect on this year and all that I’ve experienced. This isn’t a unique thing. I think we all do this around the New Year. We often think about the amazing things that happened this year, the challenges we faced, and what our … Read More
Still Not Sure How to Roll Out That New District Initiative?
Working on a new district initiative? One of the most common things we come across when talking with district administrators is the story of that last initiative that fell flat or blew up in their face. The truth is, rolling out a new district-wide initiative is not easy. It is complicated, stressful, and always presents the potential for push-back, frustration, … Read More
Let Spoken Word Transform Your Poetry Unit!
Don’t Fear the Poetry Unit. I don’t know about you, but the loudest collective groan to ricochet off the four walls of my classroom occurs the moment I announce the start of our poetry unit. Without fail, students go into panic mode. They offer to do double the homework for a month if we could just read another novel. I … Read More
Digital Citizenship: Is Your School R.E.A.D.Y. to be Good Digital Citizens?
Are your students ready to be good digital citizens? Todays’ students are using technology to collaborate, learn, research, and communicate while at school. Blended and personalized learning with digital tools has flooded classrooms, but most teacher-prep programs do not incorporate digital citizenship as requirements for teacher certification. This leads to a cross roads of districts pushing digital learning into schools … Read More
3 Mistakes Districts Make with Professional Development (PD) – Video
How was your last professional development session? Video Highlights Having worked with hundreds of districts around the country, we have seen some amazing PD sessions, and we’ve seen quite a few that just don’t work. What we’ve found is that most of those that don’t work, don’t work because of three key mistakes that districts make with PD. Districts … Read More