All posts in Change
Getting Race-Ready
Pythagoras suggested that the beginning is the half of everything. Anyone who has been facilitating ELA work around the Common Core Learning Standards this fall knows this, because David Coleman …
Envisioning the Top
What is your vision of the graduate you hope to shape? What is your vision of the professional you will become? Envision your students at the very top of their …
Race to the Top: A Means, Not an End?
It depends on your perspective, I guess. We can treat Race to the Top as a mandate. We can make it our holy grail. We can bend dramatically under the …
Cultivating Capacity with Quiet Leadership
On Tuesday of this week, I was invited to attend a Board of Education meeting at Wellsville Central School to share a bit about the professional learning opportunities I’ve …
June is for Gratitude
June is my favorite month on the calendar. I get to spend these weeks bringing closure to the work that was done during the school year, working with teams to …
What Kindergarteners Can Teach Us About Research, Creating Content, and Connected Learning: Part 2
Today’s post is the second in a series relevant to the learning that has transpired in Lockport teacher Heather Bitka’s kindergarten classroom this spring. I introduced Heather in this post. …
Three Years: Reflecting on What I’ve Learned
When I first became a professional development provider, much of what I was capable of doing was limited to speaking engagements, short-term projects, and workshops. I worked on a team …
Teaching All Learners to Advocate for Their Needs
Reflective Journaling Enables Learners to Assess Their Needs As a teacher, when I began my own search for self-advocacy protocols, strategies, and processes, my efforts led me to countless books, …
Practicing Appreciative Inquiry
As teachers, we are often far more sensitive to the weaknesses that learners possess than we are to their strengths. Once we’ve targeted a weakness, it is common for …
Looking In, Looking Out, Looking Up
Some of the conversations that I have with young writers are inspired by the work of Christopher Johns, whose framework for reflective practice is enabling them to identify their needs, …
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