“Teaching Quality and California’s Future”
On the same day as Diane Ravitch’s speech here in Sacramento, several organizations, including including Accomplished California Teachers & The Center For Teaching Quality (two organizations in which I participate) sponsored a Sacramento event on teacher leadership & evaluation. I … Continue reading →
This Week In Web 2.0
In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth sharing, I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” It’ll be a short compilation of new decent sites that are worth … Continue reading →
Report From Diane Ravitch’s Speech Tonight In Sacramento
I just came home from a great speech given by Diane Ravitch tonight here in Sacramento. Here’s a Storify I made of tweets from the event: [View the story "Diane Ravitch Speaks In Sacramento!" on Storify]
Australia Resources
January 26th is Australia Day. I’ve just revised and updated The Best Sites To Learn About Australia.
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 →
Chinese New Year Resources
Chinese New Year will begin on January 23, 2012 and marks the start of the Year of the Dragon. I’ve just updated The Best Resources For Chinese New Year.
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Recent School Reform Articles & Posts
Here are some good recent posts and articles on school reform-related issues: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success is from The Atlantic. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System. Forging ahead with … Continue reading →
If You Needed More Research Saying It’s Important To Be Positive In Class….
Good Intentions Ease Pain, Add to Pleasure is the title of a report on a new study that finds — unsurprising, it would seem to me — that the people’s intentions affect how others perceive their actions: “The results confirm … Continue reading →
“The Five-by-Five Approach to Differentiation Success”
Here’s a link where you can read our new article, “The Five-by-Five Approach to Differentiation Success,” at Ed Week Teacher without having to register. All feedback is welcome.
Governor Brown Calls For Less Testing, Says “My hunch is that principals and teachers know the most”
Here is a portion of California Governor Jerry Brown’s “State of the State” address today that dealt with schools: Given the cutbacks to education in recent years, it is imperative that California devote more tax dollars to this most basic … Continue reading →
Dan Rather Reports On Finland’s Schools
David B. Cohen sent out a tweet this morning: Sahlberg has high opinion of this week’s @DanRatherReport for good report on Finnish education — David B. Cohen (@CohenD) January 18, 2012 So I went to check out Dan Rather Reports’ … Continue reading →
“Simple Booklet” Back Online
Simple Booklet, a very easy tool to create online “books” without registering, is now back online. It hadn’t been working the last few times I checked it and its creator — Middlespot — has closed its excellent excellent search engine. … Continue reading →
This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a … Continue reading →
“Organizers Say 1 Million Signed Petition to Recall Wisconsin Governor”
Organizers Say 1 Million Signed Petition to Recall Wisconsin Governor is the headline from today’s New York Times article on the effort. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers … Continue reading →
CA Governor To Call For Less State Testing
Just a few miles from our school, Governor Jerry Brown is expected to call tomorrow for less state testing. Here’s an excerpt from a Sacramento Bee story today: Gov. Jerry Brown will call for less statewide testing and expanding classroom … Continue reading →
My Ed Week Teacher Column & Article On Differentiation
I guess it’s differentiation week for me! My teacher advice column at Education Week Teacher is titled Several Ways To Differentiate Instruction and features guest responses from Carol Tomlinson and Rick Wormeli. That’s a pretty powerful combination! And Ed Week … Continue reading →
Two More Rube Goldberg Machines
Here are two Rube Goldberg machines built by Target. I especially like the second one focusing on fresh food — it’s ideal for reinforcing vocabulary with English Language Learners (show the video and have students identify what they are seeing): … Continue reading →
My Plans For Future “The Best…” Lists
There are now over 840 “The Best…” lists, categorized by subject area. You can find them all here. Even though they are categorized, I believe the best way to search through them is by using Control and then F on … Continue reading →
ShortForm Looks Like A Nice Way To Collect Your Favorite Videos Into Your Own “Channel”
ShortForm lets you grab videos from YouTube, Vimeo and Hulu to create your own video “channel” that can also be embedded. In addition, you can create live events where videos can be shown to an audience. You can read more … Continue reading →
Oolone Is A New Visual Search Engine
Oolone is a new search engine that shows you large images of search results instead of text. Those kinds of visual results have obvious advantages for English Language Learners. There are other search engines the provide similar results, including Google … Continue reading →
New Report On Community Schools
Lightening the Load: A Look at Four Ways that Community Schools Can Support Effective Teaching is a new report from The Center For American Progress. I’ve written a fair number of posts about community schools, which, simply speaking, are schools which provide a lot of community services to the broader community. I obviously think they [...]
“New year brings new expectations for “parent trigger” law”
New year brings new expectations for “parent trigger” law is a new article from Ed Source. It’s worth a look….
A Parent Involvement Story About Muslim Girls & Gym Shorts
NEA Today published a story today of how parent involvement in a school dealt with a tricky situation of gym uniforms for Muslim girls. It’s nothing dramatic — just a nice, simple story. You can never get too many of those….
“Parent Involvement is Smart. Don’t Turn it Into Something Stupid”
Parent Involvement is Smart. Don’t Turn it Into Something Stupid is a post by NEA leader Lily Eskelsen. It’s about Idaho’s plan to tie teacher pay to the number of parents who show up to school meetings. I’m adding it to The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas.
“Student-Led Parent Conferences”
Student-Led Parent Conferences: How They Work in My Primary Classroom is a nice post by teacher Kathy Cassidy. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Parent/Teacher Conferences.
Parent Trigger News
I still feel very confident in saying that the “parent trigger” is pretty much dead in terms of having any kind of real influence in the education policy debate, but it does seem to appear to have some dying breathes left. You can read about them here: Adelanto school is targeted in second test of [...]
Very Accessible Review Of Parent Involvement Engagement Research
The Flamboyan Foundation has developed a very accessible review of the most current parent engagement/involvement research. It includes some surprising info, particularly around issues related to homework. They’ve published it in two parts, and the great thing about it is that both are only two pages long! The first is called Setting the Stage: The [...]
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.
