The largest, most difficult, and most impactful “shift” in Common Core and other “Next Generation” learning standards is the recognition that students must be able to perform at a deeper level of cognition – literally, “depth of knowledge”.
You’ve heard of the flipped classroom. You’re an expert at using stations in your classroom. Now it’s time to give those stations a flip. Learn how you can quickly create flipped stations for your classroom!
The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics describe eighteen different varieties of math problems which can be solved by multiplication and/or division. In a typical textbook, only a handful of these problem varieties are addressed.
Opinions matter! Many students are eager to weigh in on issues that are important to them. By teaching them how to write sound arguments, we can help them persuade others of their point of view now and in the future.
Dan Levin, President and Founder of EducAide Software, demonstrated how to turn ordinary skills-based questions into the kinds of multi-step questions and tasks which are at the heart of the Common Core math standards. The discussion was practical and based on real-world examples
School leadership can be challenging, and leadership at a virtual school can present its own set of challenges. Whether it’s working with remote faculty members or statewide enrollments, evaluating the performance of virtual instructors, or partnering with hundreds of brick and mortar schools – being a virtual school leader can be a much different experience than leading at a traditional school.
Across the nation, foundations, non-profits, school districts, state, and university programs are working to institutionalize school gardens. These “Regional Support Models” work to provide funding, empower garden champions, build partnerships, and lay the foundation for long-term sustainability of school garden programs.
The Developmental Writing Scale (DWS), which ranges from emergent writing (scribbling) to cohesive and coherent paragraph level writing, serves as the anchor measure and was developed to be sensitive to small changes in writing quality in beginning writers.
Students need to be learning 2,000 – 3,000 words a year to keep up with expected levels of vocabulary growth. Teaching 10 words a week is only going to add up to 300-400 per school year. The major way to grow vocabulary is to teach students a process for figuring out what words mean as they confront unfamiliar words in text.
The Medal of Honor Character Development Program (CDP) is a free resource for teachers that includes over 50 lesson plans and 100 video vignettes on the character traits of courage, integrity, sacrifice, commitment, citizenship, and patriotism, based on the Medal of Honor Recipients’ stories.