Even Hobbits Support Teachers Making Home Visits!
Jason Renshaw found this video, and I think it does a good job explaining the benefits that Hobbit teachers (and human ones) can gain from making home visits: I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Teacher Home Visits.
Update On “Parent Teacher Chat” On Twitter
Last month, Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats: As a school principal, I receive more bullying referrals from the school bus than anywhere else. Unfortunately, the school bus [...]
“Study: Head Start Programs May Increase Parents’ Involvement”
Study: Head Start Programs May Increase Parents’ Involvement is a short blog post at Education Week about a new….study. It might be worth a look…
Chicago Parents Organize Against School Closures
Large numbers of parents are organizing in Chicago against proposed school closings and “turnaround” plans. You can read about it here, and watch a local news report here.
“Parent Meetings: Bypassing the Dance of Blame”
Parent Meetings: Bypassing the Dance of Blame is an excellent article by my Teacher Leaders Network colleague Dave Orphal. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.
“Parent Engagement: A Paradigm Shift”
Parent Engagement: A Paradigm Shift is an article by Marilyn Price-Mitchell that’s worth reading. Here’s an excerpt: Many equate parent engagement to volunteering, school governance, and fundraising. While these activities are vitally important to schools, the kind of parent engagement that affects student success is vastly different. This type of engagement involves parents as teachers [...]
New Family Engagement Blog
I’ve written about the Parent Involvement Matters organization in the past, and was pleased to hear that later this month they’ll be starting a new blog on family engagement issues. It sounds like they’ve lined up a great list of writers, including Joe Mazza.
“It Takes A Community”
It Takes A Community is the theme of this month’s “California Educator,” the magazine of the California Teachers Association. It has a number of good stories of teachers and schools working with parents to improve local communities.
“A Match On Dry Grass”
A Match On Dry Grass is an upcoming book and conference on community organizing and schools. You can see read descriptions of the different sites and methods discussed in the book here, as well as learning more about the conference. I’m adding the information to The Best Examples Of Parent Engagement Through Community Organizing.
“Effective Communication With Parents”
Effective Communication With Parents is a useful article at Education World. It’s a joint project between Education World and Eye On Education, the publisher of my latest book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves.
“Want to Improve Schools? Make Parent Involvement Meaningful”
Want to Improve Schools? Make Parent Involvement Meaningful is a New York Times article about the ongoing challenge parents face in the New York City school system.
“Parents demand stronger role at council hearing on engagement”
Parents demand stronger role at council hearing on engagement is an update on some recent actions in New York City. Things don’t seem to be getting any better there…..
“More Districts Sending Teachers Into Students’ Homes”
More Districts Sending Teachers Into Students’ Homes is the title of a lengthy article in Education Week giving a national overview of parent teacher home visits. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Teacher Home Visits.
Report From Parent Teacher Home Visit Conference
Regular readers know that I’m an enthusiastic supporter of the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project. Our school has been a big supporter, I’ve written about them in my book and in other articles, I’ve helped with some of their trainings and, of course, I’ve made plenty of home visits. I’ve also posted The Best Resources [...]
New Issue Of “The School Community Journal”
The latest issue of The School Community Journal has just been published. It’s available free online, and has a number of useful parent involvement/engagement articles.
“Ideas to Increase Parent Communication in Schools”
Ideas to Increase Parent Communication in Schools is a very useful blog post by Eric Sheninger. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.
“Parent Teacher Chat” On Twitter — Guest Post
For people who are not familiar with Twitter, there are many organized opportunities for discussion called “chats.” These are scheduled times when people with interest in a particular topic can communicate and share at the same time. One of these is called Parent Teacher Chat. I’ve invited Joe Mazza, one of the chat’s organizers, to [...]
Resources For Immigrant Parents
Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services has a number of resources for refugee (though useful for all immigrant) parents and people working with them. One example of their parent resources is a free book called Raising Children In A New Country: An Illustrated Handbook. Here is a complete listing of their available publications. They could [...]
“Making Parent Involvement a Two-Way Street”
Making Parent Involvement a Two-Way Street is a nice guest article in Education Week by teacher Kevin Mixon. It’s worth a read…
A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Parent Engagement — 2011
Since I have published so many “The Best…” lists, I thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted a few year-end collections. Here is A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Parent Engagement — 2011: The Best Ideas On How Parents Can Help Their Kids Succeed Academically “The Best Research Available On Parent [...]
The Best Posts On The NY Times-Featured Teacher Effectiveness Study
Boy oh boy, yesterday was sure a “one-two” punch on teachers with the Gates report and the front page New York Times story on the Chetty, Friedman & Rockoff (CFR) study. Here are my choices for The Best Posts On … Continue reading →
The Best Online “Explainer” Tools For Current Events
A number of news sites have regular features called something like “explainer” or “explain it to me” where they provide — in either video or text — short explanations about current events or answers to reader/viewer questions. Here are my … Continue reading →
“Even Hobbits Support Teachers Making Home Visits!”
Even Hobbits Support Teachers Making Home Visits! is the newest post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. It might be worth a look…
“let some of the players with lower batting averages go”
Yesterday, I wrote a post (see “The message is to fire people sooner rather than later”) commenting on the big (non peer reviewed) study featured in The New York Times about the long-term impact on students of having “high value … Continue reading →
Two Good Online Video Games For English Language Learners
I’ve previously written about how I use online video games as a language-development activity for my ELL students. Here are two new games, along with links to their walkthroughs (instructions on how to complete the game), that look good. Be … Continue reading →
What A Great Rube Goldberg Feature In Today’s NY Times!
Boy, The New York Times sure gave me a bunch of additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Rube Goldberg Machines today. They have a feature article on a man who designs them, and interactive feature on one of … Continue reading →
The Best Posts On The Gates’ Funded Measures Of Effective Teaching Report
The Gates’ funded Measures Of Effective Teaching released their latest studies today. There have been a few posts about it, and I’m sure there will be many more. I thought I’d get a hard start on collecting them in one … Continue reading →
“The message is to fire people sooner rather than later”
The headline for this post is from a researcher quoted in today’s front page article in The New York Times headlined Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain. Here are some quotes from this ringing endorsement of using value-added … Continue reading →
Great Response To Gates Report From Randi Weingarten
I wrote a post earlier today about the new Gates Foundation-funded report on teacher evaluation. Here was a great response to it from United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in The Washington Post: Randi Weingarten, president of the American … Continue reading →
PhotoPin Looks Good For Images
PhotoPin is new search engine for Creative Commons images. It has a very nice interface, and I especially like it because you not only get the photos, but it also gives you the exact attribution to copy and paste. I’m … Continue reading →
Gates Just Releases Big Teacher Evaluation Report
(NOTE: See Great Response To Gates Report From Randi Weingarten) Measures of Effective Teaching, the huge Gates Foundation-funded research project on teacher evaluation, just released their latest report this week. They actually released two of them: Gathering Feedback For Teaching: … Continue reading →
“Does Money Matter In Education?”
The Albert Shanker Institute has just released a report titled “Does Money Matter In Education?” You can read an accompanying blog post about it here, and a commentary in The Washington Post here. I’m adding these resources to The Best … Continue reading →
More Info On FCC’s Plan To Get Internet & Computers To Student Homes
I’ve written quite a bit about our school’s efforts, other similar programs, and new national initiatives to get Internet access and computers into the homes of low-income students and their families (see The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing … Continue reading →
Hot Spot Interview — Report From Russia
Last year, I began a new regular interview series. There are always lots of “hot spots” around the world — places where there are natural disasters, political upheavals, etc. And English teachers can be found in most of those places. … Continue reading →
The Best Guides To Figuring Out Pinterest
In case you haven’t heard, Pinterest is the hot new social media site of the moment. It’s not even open to the general public yet, and you have to request an invitation. I’m not entirely convinced the Web needs yet … Continue reading →
“Time Is Nothing”
Just in case you haven’t seen this great video yet, I decided to embed it here. Here’s how The Atlantic describes it: Abandoning a successful business career, Kien Lam quit his job and spent a year traveling around the world, … Continue reading →
“How Do We Include Students In The Formative Assessment Process?”
How Do We Include Students In The Formative Assessment Process? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave your responses either there or in the comments section here.
If The World Were 100 People….
I’ve just updated The Best Sites That Show Statistics By Reducing The World & The U.S. To 100 People. It’s a pretty interesting list. Additional suggestions are welcome.
Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
(Usually, I just post a weekly version of this regular feature. However, sometimes I post an extra “Special Edition” when I have more good links than usual) I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post … Continue reading →
“This is, quite possibly, the best New York Times correction in history”
The title of this blog post is how Kerri Hicks described this New York Times correction. I learned about it through Ira Socol, who accurately described it as “Pure Gold.” I’m not sure if the image will come through on … Continue reading →