TL;DR: Evaluators can use teacher observations as an opportunity for growth. They can explore what is right about their teaching and where their talents lie. Evaluators can take the excellent skills demonstrated in the best foot forward lessons and channel the discussions to help them hit that high bar more often. Let’s use our imperfect system to benefit our teachers … Read More
Go Slow to Go Fast
TL;DR: Common concerns involving district initiative implementation include initiative fatigue, lack of time, failure to communicate, and lack of results. Supporting teaching and learning requires a thoughtful planning stage followed by a thorough implementation process. To find success with district initiative implementation, go slow to see long-term results. One of the main barriers to student understanding and school transformation is … Read More
Learning Our Own Lessons
TL;DR: This post focuses on learning our own lessons as educators. We can inspire ourselves with the things we teach our students. We can learn our own lessons by realizing we are a community, knowing we all have a voice and matter, having integrity, always doing our best, and knowing we are better together. Learning Our Own Lessons: Inspiring Ourselves … Read More
Living with OCD: It Doesn’t Just Go Away
TL;DR: Different facets of living with OCD are shared, including time management, losing control, and needing to be a perfectionist. Kristen shares how living with OCD affects her as an educator. When we look at other people, we do not know what internal struggles they are facing. There is no telling how people feel just by looking at them. Many … Read More
Edujargon
TL;DR: Some examples of edujargon include backwards design, common formative assessment, data walls, essential questions, personalized learning, scaffolding, social emotional learning, whole child, and more. Buzzwords or edujargon can support a school’s continuous improvement plan, but there must be consistent implementation. This post includes six questions to help educators avoid the edujargon trap. Faculty meetings, principal newsletters, conversations with colleagues, … Read More