Goals for a New Year - Josh Stumpenhorst1/5/2011 4:25:00 PMAs many of us approach the New Year we often reflect on the past year and set goals. We call these New Year’s resolutions but I think they are the same as goals. This is my list of goals for the upcoming year and I feel like posting them might help make me stick to them… and I hope my PLN will keep me honest!
1 –
I will get more people on Twitter
I have written about Twitter in
past blogs and how powerful of a tool I think it is. In 2011, I want to convince more of my colleagues to be a part of the collaboration and learning that I know is a crucial part in my professional development.
The Growth Mindset - Mary Rice-Boothe 1/5/2011 4:19:00 PM
The Growth Mindset
There’s an assumption that schools are for students’ learning. Well, why aren’t they just as much for teachers’ learning?” –Professor Seymour Sarason in Mindset:The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
I left the NYC Department of Education in order to become a better educator. After years of being a principal, I felt stifled and constricted. I had lost the feeling of being innovative which I cherished while teaching. Now, everyday I’m interacting with a different educator in a different location and I’m growing everyday.
Recognition in the New Year - Terence Ayres 1/5/2011 4:09:00 PMIn 1993 when I first became a school governor at a UK state school I like most of the general public thought teachers had a pretty easy time, short days and long holidays. It did not take me long to understand how wrong I was.
The school which I serve as Chair of governors is a small primary in one of the most deprived inner city areas in the UK was one described by a national newspaper as a 'Disgrace', that was in the dark ages of the 1990s, to day that same school is ranked one of the most successful in the UK. That success is due to a head teacher who is anonymous yet his record makes him one of the best and a team of teachers and support staff, whose talent, commitment and dedication to providing quality education for children whose need is greatest, are as good as it gets. They are a team in every sense of the word - go into the staff room and one could not tell who is a teacher, classroom assistant and even a governor - anyone who as worked education in an inner city area, be it New York or my own city of Leeds, will understand the expression 'Survival is about US not ME'.
My Thoughts - Maggie Hos-McGrane 1/5/2011 4:07:00 PMThis year at school there has been an attempt to tie the professional development programme in with improved student learning - this is being done by helping staff to achieve appropriate professional goals which in turn will help students and teachers achieve their full potential. We start with a preliminary goal setting meeting and then have further discussions throughout the year to reflect upon our classroom practice.
Because last year was my first year at the school, I was given a formal appraisal - now I'm in the part of the cycle where I'm involved in ongoing goal setting and professional development. This year, after quite a bit of thought, I decided I wanted to explore the 7 Visible Thinking core routines and to make more use of the Project Zero throughlines. Last year I had these throughlines written up and displayed in the lab, but I have to admit that I didn't refer to them with the students very much. This year I am trying to refer to these a lot more with the 3rd through 5th Graders who actually use that lab.
A Year of Firsts - Henrietta Miller1/5/2011 3:39:00 PMAs my school year draws closer to the end, I have been reflecting on what an amazing year of firsts it has been for me.
My first year of blogging. I started this blog back in January with my first post wondering if I could keep this blogging lark going. The number of half written never posted musings is testament to the fact that I have the ideas, but never the time. It was in my second post that I challenged myself to use 2010 as my year of becoming a connected teacher.
As part of this challenge I started my first class blog year5rc, so that my class could become connected too.
Education Needs Reflective Educators - Blog 4 Edu - Shelly Terrell and Greta Sandler 1/5/2011 3:33:00 PMOur Vision
In blogging for education reform, we have collaborated together on an initiative we believe represents what education needs, bloggers for education! The project is
Blog 4 Edu (The Blogging for Education project), a Twitter account (
@Blog4Edu), wiki, and
Facebook page to help support bloggers, blogging projects, and blogging challenges. Our vision is to persuade as many educational stakeholders worldwide to blog as possible.
Why Blog 4 Edu?
We suggest that blogging and social media are two of the main components of improving education worldwide. This won’t fix everything in education but through blogging we can open the conversation to the possibilities. When we blog we open the conversation to all education stakeholders (the public, parents, students, administrators, and educators). We automatically get an audience for our message even if it initially consists of one. Eventually, we share our message and reach someone who joins the conversation of how to improve education worldwide. This conversation continues for as long as we participate in the conversation.
Happy New Year! - Linda Dunnavant1/5/2011 3:20:00 PMHappy New Year! I decided to create a tag cloud using Tagxedo to see what I have been trying to say with this blog in 2010.
