Stress is one of the invisible enemies of the demands a learning organization imposes on its learners. Stressors affect all those working in learning organizations, children, teachers, and leaders. How that manifests in each individual is different. Stress is not observable and not all stress is negative. The response to stress is what we see.  It is most difficult for the students. They have not yet developed the coping mechanisms that help to maneuver through stress. They come to…

The Inside Candidate

Should you even bother to apply for a job when you know that there are inside candidates? Can you beat out an insider? Are the cards already stacked against you? The short answer is that you should apply—there is nothing to lose. The actual status of the insider or insiders is unknown. The “powers that be”, the superintendent, board members, other administrators, may not favor the insider. The insider may have been on the wrong side of some…

Educators need to know about #MeToo for multiple reasons. The barrier of silence is being broken. Vulnerability and shame which protected offenders for so long are losing power over victims. Among our staff and our student body are women and men, girls and boys who are victims. We have an obligation to teach what sexual harassment is and how to deal with it. There may be among us, as leaders, those who have experiences similar to the ones begin told in other fields. If so, we need to…

 "....the content of their character." Martin Luther King clearly thought it's important.

 Children in public schools don't hear that message anymore. They're not encouraged to work harder, be all they can be, all that old-fashioned stuff.

 Now it's enough if children slide through at a slovenly level, cutting corners, maybe cheating a little, rarely finishing anything on time.

 The attack on character,…

The 21st century answer to preparing students for both college and career is STEM.  Schools that have opened their minds to the possibilities of project and problem based learning, to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary subjects, to business and higher education partnerships, embrace both academics and vocational training as valued endeavors.  As a matter of fact, schools that have made the shift to this 21st century model have…

Assessment FUN* and Games

*FUN = Focused, Useful, eNgaging

Is the FUN missing in your assessments? Tests may not provoke joy in your students, but these strategies can make assessment more user-friendly than traditional measures. These active assessments are informative, engaging, responsive, support student ownership, and of course, aligned with learning intentions.

SPOT THE FAKE

Choose the real news item from the list and defend your selection:…

When we talk about educating ALL students, our calling is to include the brilliant and the disabled, the rich and the poor, the global citizen and those who remain rooted in the community of origin. Sometimes we have difficulties having conversations about these groups as well. But anecdotal data reveal that it is almost treacherous to open a conversation about race.  Before working to change that, we are called to question our beliefs about race.  What is it? What do we believe about…

What will be the results from the shrinking childhood today's children are experiencing? We hope people will not passively wait and see what the lasting effects will be. We urge educators to begin considering this issue and make proactive decisions. Teachers of the early grades have found themselves responsible for more and more academics and increasingly numbers of schools have limited or eliminated recess as the academic press took hold. Recess and physical education were places…

How can teachers help students develop problem-solving skills when they themselves, even though confronted with an array of problems every day, may need to become better problem solvers? Our experience leads us to conclude that there is an expertise in a certain kind of problem-solving that teachers possess but that broader problem-solving skills are sometimes wanting.There are a few reasons why this happens. One reason may be that teacher preparation programs remain focused on how to…

Helping Students Think outside the Box

Every teacher that wishes to teach his students how to write properly will mostly focus on assigning projects/papers. Teachers give deadlines and students are expected to deliver their projects in time. These academic tasks are extremely challenging for students but even so, teachers still consider necessary to force these tasks on all of their students. They actually believe…

Homework is the best example of how educators can improve the use of practice. No matter whether as an educator or a parent, homework as practice remains a standard that might serves many purposes. Teachers use homework to offer students a chance to reinforce what they have learned and what they complete contributes, most often, to a grade. Parents use homework to see what their children are learning and some use it to become partners in the learning experience. Interesting, if it…

 Schools, their students, teachers and leaders, hold the future of this country in their hands.  Yes, it sounds like hyperbolic, but it is not.  The fiscal environment of education combined with changing demographics over the last decade or so coexisting with expanding career options and economic shifts has led to declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs. As a…