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#87 Special Edition: Teach in Ten Podcast

- December 12, 2022

"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives." - John Meehan There are a number of well-documented benefits to teacher collaboration. Successful collaboration can lead to increases in instructional quality and overall effectiveness.. John Hattie's research suggests that teaching quality has a huge impact on student performance; accounting for up to 30% of the variance overall between our high and low-performers. In addition to having a positive impact on student learning, teachers who participate in collaborative practices experience increases in self-efficacy, problem-solving, creativity and interdependence. Time spent with colleagues encourages both introspection and reflection on current practices (Mora-Ruano et al., 2019). I think every teacher inherently recognizes that collaboration is important - but it can be really hard to carve out time to learn with and from other teacher

#86: Building Tenacity: It's All About the Goals

- November 27, 2022

This is Part 2 in a series about building academic tenacity in our students. Throughout this series, I will explore empirically-validated interventions shown to promote long-term learning and achievement. This post will focus on the purposeful use of goal-formation. Academic tenacity consists of the mindset and skills that allow students to focus on long-term or higher order goals and withstand challenges in pursuit of these goals. It's about working hard, working smart, and working for a long time. It allows students to look past their immediate wants and needs and focus on long-term goals. It gives them the will to withstand challenges and persevere in pursuit of their goals. In this post, we will dive into how setting goals can affect a student's academic tenacity and overall well-being. The Importance of Goal-Setting At their most basic level, goals encompass our hopes for our future. They direct us to where we want to be. The types of goals we construct impact our tenaci

#85: Building Tenacity: It's All About the Mindset

- November 11, 2022

This is Part 1 in a series about building tenacity in our students. Throughout this series, I will explore empirically-validated interventions shown to promote long-term learning and achievement. The COVID pandemic radically changed the landscape of education. I think many educators expected things to go back to "normal" as soon as the students were back in the classroom. We were, in many ways, unprepared for many of the challenges facing our students as the result of having their education disrupted for 2+ years. A common refrain that I have heard is that many students no longer know how to "be a student." Test scores are down, absenteeism is up. Student sense of belongingness is down, mental health concerns are on the rise. Many students seem to be lacking the skill-set necessary to be successful. In the past, educational research focused on the influence of cognitive factors on student achievement. However, we are now seeing that these interventions alone are

#84: What's Good for the Goose: Personalized PD Pathways

- October 31, 2022

Have you ever heard the saying that teachers are the worst students? As a teacher who participates in professional development and as a leader who designs and implements professional development (PD), I can attest to the accuracy of this statement. I will fully admit that I am guilty of doing the following during PD time, Designing lessons Grading papers Checking emails Daydreaming Wondering "why am I learning this?" Thinking about all of the other things I could be doing with this time Participating in totally-unrelated activities Sounds familiar? Based on the number of laptop screens that I saw at my last PD session, I think most, if not all of you, can probably relate. It is time that we rethink the way we approach professional development. If one-size-fits-all doesn't work for our students, why do we continue to think it will work for adults? Last year our admin team was really excited to launch cross-departmental professional learning teams focused on developing SE

#83: Equity in Grading: Fostering Intrinsic Motivation

- October 17, 2022

This is Part 4 in a series on grading and equity. Throughout this series, I will explore ways we can improve grading practices to increase student achievement and well-being. Thank you for joining me for this series! This is the last post in a series tackling one of the most emotionally-charged topics in education, grading. As we enter into a learning space together, I am going to ask that we keep the following presuppositions in mind: We can learn from others even when we disagree with them. The best interest of our students is at the center of our decision-making. It is possible to agree with something in principle but struggle with what it looks like in practice. Change is not always a bad word. However, meaningful change must be grounded in research not common sense or intuition. In this post, we will examine how practices like mastery learning, late work policies, and retaking summatives can impact a student's level of motivation. Let's Talk About Motivation If I had

#82: Equity in Grading: We Don't Talk About Zeros

- October 03, 2022

This is Part 3 in a series on grading and equity. Throughout this series, I will explore ways we can improve grading practices to increase student achievement and well-being. Thank you for joining me for this series! This is the 3rd post in a 4-Part series tackling one of the most emotionally-charged topics in education, grading. As we enter into a learning space together, I am going to ask that we keep the following presuppositions in mind: We can learn from others even when we disagree with them. The best interest of our students is at the center of our decision-making. It is possible to agree with something in principle but struggle with what it looks like in practice. Change is not always a bad word. However, meaningful change must be grounded in research not common sense or intuition. See if you can answer the following riddle: I am worthless as a leader, but when I follow a group their strength increases tenfold. By myself I am practically nothing, neither positive nor negat

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