Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
Learning Schools
August 2009
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In This Issue
ARTICLES
Strength training institutes pump up teachers' roles as instructional leaders
When Deb Brady, the new assistant superintendent of the North Middlesex Regional School District, came into the district as part of a new leadership team in 2006, she asked teachers from the high school about their hopes for the year. One teacher’s reply made quite an impression on her: “I just wish people would start to respect the high school.”
For Diverse Families, Parent Involvement Takes On A New Meaning
Educators often ask how they can increase parent involvement, particularly among culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse families. They believe doing so will improve student achievement.
Skeptics to partners
As residents of the ivory tower, we know we cannot exist on our own. Without our partners in local school districts, we have no research and no real-world context.
Focus, feedback, follow-through
Reading coach Amy Martin stepped into the classroom of 2nd-grade teacher Sharon Densford, who was asking students comprehension questions and reviewing the main idea of a reading passage. Putting pen to pad, Martin began collecting data on what Densford and the students were saying and doing, recording student engagement levels as the lesson progressed.
Take responsibility for your emotional wake
A friend describes his home at the foot of San Diego Bay, where all of the houses have docks. The speed limit in the bay is five knots. Once in a while, some cowboy rips through the area and rocks all of the boats, knocking them up against the docks. The person might not have done this on purpose.
Let data do the talking
JSD: What role has effective professional development played in your district’s success?
Learning schools bring NSDC's definition to life
Peter Senge writes that learning organizations are places “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, […]
Think time
All of the students waited patiently while a classmate focused on the problem he was trying to solve on the board. He attempted one solution and realized it didn’t work, then haltingly tried another. His classmates watched intently, apparently all thinking through their own solutions. Many of them referred to their writings on individual whiteboards in front of them. No one snickered. No one sighed impatiently. Eventually, the teacher offered the student the option to request help from a classmate.
Develop a protocol to make the most out of school visits
Irecently had the opportunity to visit schools with a superintendent of a large urban school system. I enjoyed spending the morning observing instruction and interacting with teachers and students. On […]
A new definition
Too few teachers experience the quality of professional development and teamwork that would enable them to be more effective educators each day. As advocates for professional learning, our job is to make sure that what we know is essential to good teaching is embedded in all teachers’ lives.
Deep learning engages senses, moves, heart, NSDC academy finds
What are you learning about learning?” This theme echoed throughout NSDC Academy 2010’s learning teams as they met for the third time at the 2009 Summer Conference in Boston this year. The NSDC Academy is an extended 2½- year, problem-based, inquiry-driven learning experience designed to immerse school and district leaders in authentic collaborative learning so they not only develop as leaders of professional learning, but also understand and appreciate the deep structure of this form of professional learning.
Fast track to literacy
Improving the literacy skills of struggling high school readers remains one of the greatest challenges educators face today.
Slow turn ahead
5 principles guide district through a changing demographic landscape.
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