The silver bullet for closing the achievement gap these days seems to be formative assessment. In simple terms, formative assessment is any ongoing activity that helps teachers gain information about student learning—information they can then use to adjust their instruction and provide more specific feedback to students who are then motivated to reach their learning
Read More… from 8 Digital Formative Assessment Tools to Improve Motivation
In the midst of a busy morning arrival time, a few middle school students greeted me as I walked through the crowded hallway toward the room in which my meeting was being held. “Sup Dr. W. Are you coming to our classes today?” one student asked. I replied that I would try if I had
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Sometimes teaching can cause tunnel vision. Teachers often look inside their school district, building, or classroom for resources to help their students learn, neglecting the partnerships outside the immediate school community that can provide invaluable resources. One such partnership was forged between a school district, a local park district, and a university. In the Beginning
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No matter what you teach, if you are a middle school teacher you want to set up some norms and guidelines for your classroom. Even better, you want to be on the same page with the other teachers. But this is middle school and things can get a squirrely, especially about how students “joke” around
Read More… from “Just Joking”—Helping Students Understand When Teasing Hurts
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Positive student behavior develops from expectations, relationships, and direct instruction. Although many schoolwide discipline efforts focus on systems, rules, and consequences, they often overlook effective response strategies to students’ misbehavior. Without straightforward approaches to teach, encourage, and correct behavior moment by moment, discipline efforts can fall short of changing student behavior. When asked why they
Read More… from Moment by Moment: An Instructional Approach to Positive Behavior
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Academic lifeguards are on duty, on guard, and willing to jump in when necessary. You are a lifeguard on a beach and you see a child engulfed by an enormous wave, then struggling to keep her head above water. You use every skill you have to prevent the child from drowning. Academic lifeguards are no
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Read More... from AMLE Celebrates Inaugural Schools of Distinction
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Read More... from Reimagining School – What should it look like and who is it for?
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