Education Leader with a passion for school improvement ensuring equity for all! Assistant Principal, BCPS
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Natural Laws of School Leadership
According to Robert Ramsey, author of Lifelong Leadership by Design, school leadership can be described in two words: relentless change. However, he goes on to describe some “fixed truths” or “natural laws” that have universal application in performing as an effective school leader.
Law #1: A title doesn’t make you a true leader; it merely gives you the opportunity to become one.
Law #2: Your not a leader until some follows you.
Law #3: The best leaders are “servant” leaders.
Law #4: It’s never about you.
Law #5: The wind blows from all directions when you’re at the top.
Law #6: There is always someone more important than you.
Law #7: Life’s most important questions are not on any standardized tests.
Law #8: School leadership is easy when times are good.
Law #9: Complacency never bothers losers.
Law #10: Good leaders discriminate for the right reasons.
Law #11: Sometimes, good isn’t good enough.
Law #12: School leadership is the greatest profession.
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Exemplars for Introductory Lessons
Throughout the school year, I teach several different writing structures - both fiction and nonfiction. As a part of each unit of study, pupils are required to demonstrate their aptitude in independently creating each structure. Introducing each text structure with an exemplar allows the entire class to discuss, read, and analyze the features and expectations of each piece. In order to home in on specific aspects of an exemplar, students color code the elements outlined in the mini-lesson. I also provide students with a graphic organizer to record the elements that make the piece an exemplar. These activities are placed in our writer’s notebooks and used as study resources and reference pieces for writing assignments and projects.
Exemplars for Revision1 Practice
My sixth grade writers breeze through the writing process... until they meet the revision and editing steps. Oftentimes, they combine the two steps, which means I have to work with each person, explaining why it is necessary to separate the two steps. Exemplars are a wonderful way to present the strategies and concepts of revising and editing writing. With a partner, class members discuss how the message of a piece of writing could improve. From here, we discuss transitions, word choice, and sentence variety as a class. Seeing a concrete example provides writers with a scaffold to assist them in trying out new strategies and improving current strategies.
Exemplars to Celebrate Writing Successes
Taking the time to celebrate individual student success lets young writers know they are achieving, and these celebrations motivate other writers to evaluate their own writing and better understand the changes they need to consider in their work. I use both informal and formal student exemplars to share and discuss with the class. Informal exemplars demonstrate thinking and effective employment of a writing strategy or skill. When teaching revision techniques, I will post a student’s work on the whiteboard and have the class discuss changes made to the original draft and guess the reason(s) the author might have chosen to revise. Not only does this offer an opportunity for critical thinking skills, it also gives those hard workers a well-deserved pat on back for a job well done.
Source: http://community.lessonplanet.com/t/using-student-exemplars-to-maximize-writing-success/7919
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Know your Tech Terms?
Is all the jargon getting you down? Too many tech words and not enough time? Check out this great resource from the Office of Digital Learning Resource Wiki. Great place to bookmark for future reference! Have five minutes? Quiz your class - what is student comfort level with these terms?
https://bcpsodl.pbworks.com/w/page/88309451/Glossary
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We know that to increase student interest and engagement, we should be providing AUTHENTIC opportunities for students to interact with people around the world. Students are more likely to show higher levels of engagement when the task is intended for a real reader or audience. The audience could be a panel of teachers in your school, another class in your school or district or connecting with a school in another country in which students are working on the same skills/content.
How do we make writing exciting, interesting and relevant? Consider starting a class blog or partnering with the New York Times in order for students to connect with real life topics with high student interest.
Click here for more information: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/10-ways-to-promote-writing-for-an-authentic-audience/?_r=0
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Seeking Feedback
Urge students to share their work with each other and online. Few writers have ever improved by keeping their work to themselves. As the teacher, I know that my opinion holds significant weight. But the same is true of what others think, especially one's peers. In an increasingly flat, digital age, students must feel comfortable and confident with sharing their work for the whole world to see. In that regard, teachers should help students produce appropriate, high-quality content.
Source: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teach-and-model-effective-writing-david-cutler
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Writing across content areas should be the focus for ALL classrooms. What about Math? Are there opportunities for students to express themselves with writing in order to explain the mathematical process to the teacher or a peer? Do students have an opportunity to share processes with other students when multiple pathways are utilized to solve a problem? Consider creating a sentence starter anchor chart with your students as the idea of writing in ALL content areas is explored. Here are a few to get you started!
Check out the full resource here:
http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet.aspx?ArtMID=888&ArticleID=221
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Looking to raise student interest, model dialogue among characters or begin a discussion with a discussion? Then check out www.ifaketext.com! This resource allows you to create your own "fake" text messages! Cool way to introduce the writing prompt, journal entry or to bring closure to the lesson.
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Writing 101
Looking for a special tip, resource, organizer or writing topic? Visit
https://www.pinterest.com/edutopia/writing-101/ to explore a variety of teacher curated writing resources. You may even decide to "pin" some yourself!
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The Value of Sharing
No matter what you teach, share your written work. I always share with my students and ask for their feedback -- even their criticism. In that respect, it's essential for students to recognize not only your skill, but also that you are interested and engaged in constantly refining a crucial life skill. Working on a graduate class? writing a blog? love poetry or short stories? Consider sharing your work with students!
Looking for an idea to make writing more authentic for students? Consider this idea: A Travel Journal (of student learning)! What a great way for students to take responsibility for learning.
http://www.edutopia.org/practice/creating-travel-journals-assess-learning
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As we move into February, our instructional focus calendar begs us to look at opportunities to infuse writing opportunities across content areas. Some of us are more explicitly adding writing into our daily practice, some are measuring student learning using conventions of writing for SLOs data, and others of us are finding that students are struggling to transfer skills from one classroom to another. We know we must have a similar conversation across the school building and show our students that we have a love of writing, too!
To help our students become writers, we need to write side by side with them.
In our classrooms, as students are scratching away with their pencils brainstorming ideas, drafting on the computer, thumbing through a thesaurus, or reading a section of their essay aloud to a classmate, we need to be willing to do the same. We need to be willing to participate in writer's workshop with the children we teach. This sends an invaluable message to the young writers in the room. It says this:
I struggle too. I get tongue-tied and run out of things to say. I repeat myself and I forget words that I know I've used in the past. I sometimes change my mind halfway through a page, or even two, and want to start over with a new topic. Writing isn't always so easy!
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Bringing Closure to January
As we bring January to a close, revisit the grouping strategies and ideas that have been covered throughout the month. Take 10 minutes and scroll through the grouping ideas, select ideas that are in alignment with your upcoming lessons or look for a new idea that would enhance student engagement! Select "archive" at the top of the page to see the "month at a glance."
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Teaching Students to work together
Want to plan opportunities for students to work together, but are unsure of how to get started? Students must be taught "how" to work in a group and "why" this method of collaboration is important and relevant for the instructional goal. Collaboration among students should have clear expectations, roles and assessment.
Check out these resources for "teaching" the art of collaboration. Preparing Students for Group Work Achieving Group Diversity Additional Considerations Assigning Tasks Individual Tasks Title and Task Tent Cards
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Flexible grouping for middle level students Moving beyond "whole group"
1. All together now
2. Four on the Floor
3. Just the Two of Us
4. Eight is Enough
Click here to read more.....
http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet.aspx?ArtMID=888&ArticleID=17
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Benefits of Collabortive Groups for Special Ed Students
Benefits of Collaborative Grouping for Special Education Students
The process of collaborative learning is advantageous for special education students in quite a few ways. When working in small groups to grasp concepts and complete assignments, children with special needs can:
increase self-esteem through contributing valuable input to the group.
strengthen communication skills through conversing and socially interacting with classmates.
strengthen critical thinking skills through problem solving, group discussion, and taking responsibility for portions of a task.
decrease feelings of anxiety that stem from having to work independently in the classroom.
model the problem solving and behavioral techniques exhibited by typical children in the group.
contribute to an understanding of diversity within the group. When collaborating with one another on schoolwork, all group members can learn to respect and appreciate the individual strengths, differences, and insights of others.
gain a positive attitude in regard to learning new classroom material. The sense of being included in problem solving and working with "teammates" to complete an assignment can bring great satisfaction to children who have struggled academically or socially in the past.
The benefits of collaborative learning and special needs students having the opportunity to engage in small group tasks can produce positive results in regard to classroom organization and management. Teachers who research tips on collaborative learning and implement the practice with students are likely to have a successful inclusion classroom.
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Great thoughts on building relationships with students! How would you answer this question? What does this look like in your class? Are you continuing to actively build relationships and get to know your students? Keep it up!
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