ISTE Standards Refresh 2016

ISTE Standards Refresh 2016

Audience: Educators, School Leaders, Technology Coordinators
Put Vermont on the map with your review and comments for the new International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards Refresh project. The ISTE has developed Standards for Education Technology, of which the last round, in 2009, the State Board of Education endorsed as a basis for our standards work in Vermont. The new standards are in draft form and comments are being taken through a survey tool into March 2016. Stay tuned for a Vermont session on this topic via webinar being planned for late January or early February 2016.
Contact: Peter Drescher at (802) 479-1169 or peter.drescher@vermont.gov

VT AOE Seeks Input on High School Assessment

AOE Seeks Input on High School Assessment

Audience: Educators, Administrators, Parents, Students, Community Members
The Agency of Education is inviting interested individuals to complete a survey that will help the Agency select the best approach to assessment for Vermont’s high school students. The survey requests input relative to two key questions: 1) should the Agency replace the Smarter Balanced Assessment with a college admissions exam such as the ACT or the SAT and 2) when making this decision, how much weight should the Agency place on each of several specific factors related to assessment cost, content, purpose and use? The survey, which should only take a few minutes to complete, can be accessed here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WZC3W6W. Learn more about the High School Assessment survey.
Contact: Michael Hock, State Assessment Director, at (802) 479-1288 or michael.hock@vermont.gov

Qualities of an Effective School Leader

(The post below comes from Issue # 618 of The Marshall Memo, an EXCELLENT resource for educators)

“A teacher affects eternity,” says Adam Rohdie (Greenwich Country Day School) in this article in Independent School paying tribute to his mentor and friend, John Hanly, who was battling Parkinson’s disease. Just before Hanly went into hospice care, Rohdie asked him for a list of the ten most important qualities to look for in a school principal. “He, of course, gave me 14!” says Rohdie. They are:

-   A passion for education, a respect for and love of teachers, and a delight in students;

-   An eye for potential in others – being able to spot a diamond in the rough;

-   The ability to stay cool under pressure;

-   The confidence to say, “I don’t know the answer to the problem that you raise; I’ll have to think about it.”

-   Willingness to share the credit but to shoulder the blame;

-   The ability to motivate and build a team;

-   The ability to inspire trust;

-   Genuine delight in the success of the people who work with you;

-   The discernment to know when to let someone go and when to give that person a second chance;

-   The willingness to be thin-skinned at times in order to sense the pulse of the school; the strength to be thick-skinned at times in order not to overreact to criticism;

-   Solid judgment based on experience, thoughtfulness, personal integrity, courage, and compassion;

-   Engagement in life and all of its complexities, frustrations, and joys;

-   The ability to take the long-term view, to distinguish what is important from what is merely urgent;

-   Discretion, balance, and perspective.

“Touching Eternity” by Adam Rohdie in Independent School, Winter 2016 (Vol. 75, #2, p. 12, 14), no e-link available

Leah Mermelstein: The Power of Write-Alouds

First Your Mouth, Then Your Hands: The Power of Write-Alouds
by Leah Mermelstein (2010) introduced me to a wonderfully useful tool: Write-Alouds.

 "During a write-aloud, you and your students compose a piece of writing together around a shared topic - a topic/story/idea about which the students have the same or almost the same knowledge as you do....The goal of the write-aloud is not mechanics (that's the role of shared/interactive writing) but composition."

This practical piece describes the rationale and role of write-alouds in the context of writing workshop, and includes a "snippet" of a write-aloud that Leah Mermelstein conducted in a classroom in which she and the students planned the development of a character in a story.  The piece also includes helpful advice on ways to integrate write-alouds into instruction.

Noticed and Noted for Math Teachers, Teachers of World Languages and Satire Aficionados:

Check out these additional useful links!

A model backwards-designed Algebra I course from the Alexandra, Virginia public schools;

Evidence of Student Learning in World Languages: A Starting Point for Collecting and Analyzing Data Related to Communication

Education Tweak: A Journal of Opinion, Research and Farce - Special Digital Learning Edition

Reformers Tackle Deficiency in Children's Screen Time

&

Reformers Automate Personalization

Using Neuroscience to Make Standards Work for ALL Students

Vermont Higher Education Collaborative 

Using Neuroscience to Make Standards Work
for ALL Students 

WORKshops Designed by Bill Rich

for Middle & High School Educators & Leaders

Crafting Student-Friendly Learning Targets
Head spinning from all the “new” standards (VT-PBGR, Transferable Skills, Content Standards, Common Core, etc.)? Imagine how our students are feeling! This workshop is designed to help educators unpack standards into student-friendly learning targets that empower students to determine where they are in their learning and what next steps they need to take toward meeting and exceeding the standards that matter most in our setting. (October 7, 2015, Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT – Workshop $175)

Designing Performance Tasks to Power Student Learning

Get Your Students Pumped for Practice: What makes athletes engage so seriously during practice? They’re preparing for a Big Game. This workshop will support teachers as they design performance tasks of all shapes and sizes, be it an interdisciplinary performance task a’ la SBAC, a capstone for your school’s graduation requirements, or a simple end-of-unit performance task. After studying models and considering why the brain engages so fully in performance tasks, participants will spend most of the WORKshop designing and creating performance tasks to use with their students, while receiving timely feedback on their work. (November 18, 2015 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175)

Getting To (& Surviving) Standards-Based Grading

Most educators recognize that traditional grading practices undermine learning, but how do we make the switch to better grading practices while we wait for our system to make the switch to standards-based reporting? After studying models and considering why the brain learns best when we emphasize standards-based grading, participants will spend most of the WORKshop re-designing their gradebook and writing a letter to their students that describes the why, what, and how of their new approach to grading. (March 10, 2016 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175) 

Data-Tools to Keep You in Sync with Your Students
Imagine a suite of simple tools that would organize all your assignments & students’ work in one place, enable you to give more timely feedback to your students, and provide you with summaries of the progress of individuals and classes. After experiencing the power of a range of tools that teachers use to stay in sync with their learners, participants will choose one to learn more about in preparation to use the tool this school year. (May 4, 2016 – Capitol Plaza, Montpelier, VT - Workshop $175) 

Course Option: All 4 workshops + online participation + 1 concluding face-to-face session
Course Cost: $1590  3 credits from Castleton State College
Instructor: Bill Rich
Workshops: All workshops from 9:00 to 3:00 @ $175 each or all 4 for $600
Contact: Bill Rich at redhouselearning@gmail.com

Registration opens August 10th: http://www.vthec.org

Five Online Resources for Global News: from School Library Journal

Global news online – This School Library Journal article recommends five websites that provide free up-to-the-minute news from around the world:

-   Global Voices – http://globalvoicesonline.org - Written, translated, and curated by more than 800 citizen journalists and media experts, searchable by topic or region, 43 languages

-   Newsmap – http://newsmap.jp - Real-time, trending news in 15 countries, color-coded by topic and adjustable by how much detail you want

-   TV News Archive – http://archive.org/details/tv - Televised news clips from over 700,000 shows from 2009 to the present

-   Al-Monitor - www.al-monitor.com/pulse/home.html - News about the Middle East translated into English from Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, and Arabic

-   AllAfrica - http://allafrica.com - Aggregated news from over 130 African news outlets and content from AllAfrica reporters.

 “Five Resources for Global News” in School Library Journal, September 2015 (Vol. 61, #9, p. 19)

PLEASE NOTE: The item above comes from Marshall Memo 603 (September 14, 2015) The Marshall Memo (marshallmemo.com) provides a weekly roundup of important ideas and research in K-12 education.  A terrific resource for busy educators!