Category: Professional Development
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Is There (Finally) a New Paradigm for “Teacher Accountability?”
Two compelling events happened yesterday, each raising the possibility of a new paradigm for teacher accountability and each important in its own way. First, Bill Gates published an op-ed in the Washington Post, “A fairer way to evaluate teachers.” Here is the heart of the piece: This is one reason there is a backlash against…
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Out Like a Lamb, On to the Showers
Well, March certainly treated me like a lion would — full of travel, committee obligations, teaching, and lots of writing for some upcoming chapters — and I’m happy to say that this final weekend was much more lamb-like. That said, tomorrow I jump into the April showers, and when it rains it pours. Here are…
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What Have We Learned from Digital Learning Day
The tweets have slowed to a trickle. The webcasts are all archived. And the proclamations about the power of digital learning are a distant memory in our multi-tasked lives. Digital Learning Day 2013 is in the books. The post that follows is, really, in two distinct parts. First, I summarize my cynical vision of what…
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Open Letter to Educators: (Re)Defining Digital Learning Day
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Dear Educator: Tomorrow (well, technically today by the time I am done writing this) is the second annual Digital Learning Day. Cool. I’m all for digital learning, as the title of my blog implies. But, as we prepare for the onslaught of tweets, blog posts, videos, webinars, and other celebrations, it is worth exploring the definition…
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Teacher Leadership and Digital Writing
This weekend, I began working with teacher leaders from the Columbus Area Writing Project on the hybrid course we are calling “Teacher Leadership in Teaching Digital Writing.” I’ve been fortunate enough to make many trips to Columbus in the last few years, and look forward to having this opportunity to work with these NWP colleagues…
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Social Network “Fail” Leads to A Renewed Approach to ENG 315
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Another semester began this week, and I have been updating my syllabus and wiki site for ENG 315. Last semester, I was quite surprised and delighted by the number of you who asked me about my Wikispaces to Edmodo shift. Well, we learn from our failures, right? This is one that taught me a great…
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A (Parent’s) Rant on Rubrics
This school year, I’m involved with our faculty development center’s “High Impact Teaching Academy.” Tomorrow, we focus our conversation on assessment, specifically on rubrics. After I replied to the questions for our discussion forum posting this week, I had to go on and write another one. Selections are below: First, I think I’ve mentioned before…
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Reflection on #literacies Chat: 12/6/12
My thanks again to Anna Smith for inviting me to host the last #literacies chat of 2012 focused on digital writing and the common core standards: “Broadening the Scope: Teaching Multiple Literacies in an Era of Common Core Standards.” Before reading much further in my reflections, you might be interested in catching up on the…
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Broadening the Scope: Teaching Multiple Literacies in an Era of Common Core Standards
Originally posted on the #literacies chat blog: On 12/6 7PM EST, guest host Troy Hicks (@hickstro) will lead our last #literacies chat of 2012: While scholars of literacy studies push the envelope and explore ideas such as multi-modality, digital writing, and critical literacy, our colleagues in K-12 classrooms continue to face a number of challenges. Most notably, countless…