Learning After Hours

Click Here to view an archive of our first #piconnect chat!

As a Result of Your Lesson.....

Dr. Justin Tarte recently published a piece called, It's Not Teaching If There's No Learning.   (Click to read full article)

"We can have the most wonderfully planned lesson in the world with varying degrees of differentiation, plenty of opportunities for global collaboration, autonomy and flexibility in how to demonstrate student understanding, and a healthy dose of technology integration, but if the students aren't able to accomplish or demonstrate any level of learning or understanding, then our lesson frankly was not a success." - Justin Tarte

Tips For Choosing Strategic Partners

Our Piedmont Intermediate blog creates one place to share our knowledge and experiences so that we can all benefit as a personal learning community of teachers.  Recently, Mrs. Dunn shared with me a video from The Teaching Channel called, Choosing Strategic Partners.  I think we all agree that partner work is effective, but not all partners work well together. Click here to view the 2 minute clip and think about the following questions:

• What can you learn from Ms. Tse about choosing partners for your students?
• How does Ms. Tse consider the task when selecting partners?
• When might you allow students to pick their own partners?

Hook Them the Second Students Walk Through Your Door

Show Me the Strategies is a great article that provides many resources on how to engage your students from the time your students walk through your classroom door.  "What happens in the first minutes of your class will indicate your success for the rest of the class period."  If students could vote with their feet, what will you do the first five minutes of every lesson so that students will want to be in your classroom?  Something to think about.

Together, Let's Make Shift Happen

Cultural Shifts In A Professional Learning Community

In five years from now, and if we commit to the following shifts within our school, in what ways do you believe we will be different?  Describe what is going on in terms of practices, procedures, relationships, results, and climate.  I look forward to reading your comments.

Click Here to view important shifts to move any school from good to great.

Videos Worth Sharing

The following video features Marc Chun and his presentation on Diving Into Deeper Learning.  Have you purposely focused and assessed students in the area of transfer?

How to Escape Education's Death Valley

"If you sit kids down hour after hour doing low grade clerical work, don't be surprised if they start to fidget." - Sir Ken Robinson

Rita Pierson presents: Every Kid Needs A Champion

"Kids don't learn from people they don't like." - Rita Pierson

In this Leaving to Learn video, a high school senior shares what students expect—and what they deserve—from their schools.

Video can be viewed here