Hacking Assessment to Go Gradeless with Starr Stackstein
Four Lessons I learned from Reading Recovery
My Conversation with Dr. Chris Emdin
The Depth Behind Icebreakers
Hacking Assessment to Go Gradeless with Starr Stackstein
I’ve been an admirer of Starr Sackstein and her work for a long time. She’s been a beacon for years on moving away from grading and moving toward a focus on self-directed learning. She has made real movements in pedagogy and ownership of learning through her passion, practical advice, and the way she has grown a supportive educator community. I asked her to sit down for an interview with me in light of the recent publication…
Four Lessons I learned from Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery is not just an intervention; it's an investment in students and teachers. Matt Renwick explains four lessons learned.
My Conversation with Dr. Chris Emdin
Highlights from my interview with scientist, advocate, teacher, speaker and connector Dr. Christopher Emdin about his new book: "STEM, STEAM, Make, Dream."
The Depth Behind Icebreakers
These icebreakers provide an opportunity to lay the groundwork for building relationships and identify the Habits of Mind that are critical behaviors for building the quality of those relationships.
Learning Loss: Are We Defining the Problem Correctly?
Rather than asking, How can we make up for all of the content that was not covered?, we propose framing the problem differently around two key questions.
It’s Time for Curriculum Mapping 3.0
This post was first published on Solution Tree Blog and is reprinted with permission. Curriculum mapping is a well-established process for helping to ensure a "guaranteed" curriculum. Unlike a lesson plan that focuses on specific learning objectives for a single session, a curriculum map records curriculum content over time, often for an entire school year. Typically, a curriculum map identifies content (i.e., what will be taught), along with when, and for how long it will…
“I Like to Write, and So Do They”: How Our Beliefs Influence Our Students
Plus: Four Ideas for Promoting a Positive Attitude Toward Writing A stack of 1st grade how-to books caught my eye while students worked independently on their math sheets. One student, seated next to the stack, pointed to a black bin in the middle of their classroom library. "That’s where our published books are."¹ Taking the hint that the stack I had spied was not ready for a public audience, I walked over and sat next…
Deep Learning is Doable: Five Strategies for Supporting Deep Learning in Virtual Environments
by Jay McTighe, Harvey Silver, and Matthew Perini Learning is learning, whether it occurs in a classroom, at a library, or within a virtual environment. But regardless of the venue, learning can vary—from superficial to substantive. We wrote this blog post because we know that so many teachers across the country are looking for ways to make online and hybrid learning more substantive and less superficial. In it, we’ll describe five specific and practical…
Heirlooms of Gratitude: Growing Opportunities and Skills through Culinary Enterprise
"Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want." —Jim Rohn The CROP Foundation is a young organization, just finding its roots in the local community. Incorporating gratitude into the very foundation of the program helps students understand their larger role in the community ecosystem. CROP, which stands for "creating opportunities", was established by Chef Kip Poole in 2014, when he was working as a culinary arts…
What “Drives” Student Learning? What my son reminded me about teaching and learning
In this awkward era of "distance" or "virtual" learning, teachers have been forced to drastically change their teaching. They are working harder than ever to try to help their students and are turning to digital and media resources in an effort to provide information to students as an attractive alternative to handouts, textbooks, and other traditional classroom learning tools. Teachers are hunting down digital and media resources that already exist as well as spending hours…