In Service

Sometimes, one needs a bit of a fire lit beneath them in order to stop procrastinating. It’s been an exciting week of blogging in our home, thanks to the inspiration of my daughter, Laura. And I figured since everyone else has gotten on the ball with this little challenge of hers, I should probably do [...]

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Yesterday, I led a Cooperative Learning workshop with a group of second year teachers. I’ve presented on this topic, in this district, several times before–and it was one of my favorite kind of days.
The group was small–there were seven teachers, total. And they were a diverse group: music teachers, speech pathologists, special education teachers, and [...]

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Many of the school districts that I am working with this year have identified vocabulary development as an area in need of attention. Instructional practices are lagging behind what current research suggests might work best to help our students build deeper understandings about words.
Digging into this issue quickly leads most teachers to the realization that [...]

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As I discussed in previous entries, classroom data can be the most powerful data that teachers gather and discuss collaboratively. Using classroom data to inform instruction can pay off in incredible ways…..but which data might teachers consider gathering?
Supposing that teachers have already deconstructed historical state assessment data, teachers might begin by revisiting those performance indicators [...]

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How did YOU feel when you perused this document for the first time?
I know how I felt.
And I know how a few hundred teachers in Erie County felt as well.
Just a teensy bit overwhelmed. And kind of in need of a drink. Despite any happy rumors we heard, the new Core was not more specific, [...]

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As a coordinator for curriculum and staff development, I have the good fortune of working with many data-savvy administrators and teachers. Eager to uncover what the New York State Assessments truly demanded of students, and more importantly, determined to develop a common, deeply aligned curriculum that would produce results, this very group of educators challenged [...]

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