|
|
|
It's Not Too Late to Join Us in the Conversation on Professional Capital by Hargreaves/Fullan
Join us in the discussion on our website around the book,  Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan strive to equip teachers and those who work with them with insights, ideas, and actions that will dramatically improve their effectiveness, which in turn will improve societies and generations to come.
Hargreaves and Fullan's latest book is "about a collective transformation of public education achieved by all teachers and leaders in every school. And it's about how to secure this through a new strategy that harnesses the commitments and capabilities of the many: the power of professional capital."
Join us as we "seize the moment, confront the core problems, present and develop clear alternatives, and turn those alternatives into an energizing reality."
Join us on the Iowa ASCD web site. Post your thinking and experiences - and challenge ours. The plan is to address questions around the following:
- September 19 - 25 Chapter 1, A Capital Idea
- What does it mean to you to "invest in high-quality teachers and teaching"?
- How shared and circulated is "capital" in your school/ district/ organization? Share examples to create the picture in our minds.
- Team trumps individuals every time. What does that mean to you? How does it play out in your organization?
- What do you see as the essential steps if we are to develop both high human and social capital?
- What of the wrong strategies are evident in our schools/organizations?
- What do you see as the right answers to achieve the professional capital that will impact our students' learning?
- September 26 - October 2 Chapter 2, Competing Views of Teaching
- What role should passion for teaching play in students' learning?
- Which view of teaching - the business capital or the professional capital - is prevalent in our school(s)/organization(s)? What evidence do you have? What are some actions that if eliminated/supported could strengthen the vision in which you believe?
- What is missing if we are to move from individual-teacher quality to a team-social capital quality for our students' success?
- What does it mean to you to "teach like a pro"?
Additional Information: You can view a 90-minute presentation by Andy Hargreaves at http://education.washington.edu/news/video/hargreaves-2012.html.
|
|
Advocacy and Influence: Contact Your Legislators
 Be sure to contact your legislators and let them know your position on those things important to education and the teachers and learners in your district.
ASCD reminds us to take time now to remind your legislators: No more cuts to education budgets!
Unless Congress acts, federal education funding will be drastically cut by 8.4 percent in January 2013, risking services to 7.5 million students and threatening 90,000 educator jobs.
Please review the sample message provided by ASCD to encourage your senators and representatives to stop the automatic budget cuts. You can add your own personal experience, data, or story before sending it through this web site. |
|
Six Steps to Learning Leadership
A generation of principals has heard the mantra that they should be instructional leaders, but rarely have they been encouraged to be learning leaders. While an instructional leader pays attention to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instruction, a learning leader focuses on what is learned and how it is learned. These roles are not mutually exclusive, and they both have value.
Cathy Toll, education consultant and author of Learnership, focuses on how that role of being a learning leader relates to teacher learning and identifies the six steps to learning leadership: (1) expectations; (2) demonstrations; (3) hospitality; (4) possibility; (5) inquiry; and (6) the whole learner. When principals engage in creating hospitable learning spaces, demonstrating learning themselves, asking learning-oriented questions, honoring the entire learner, and offering possibilities, they are likely to find even more ways to lead learning, Toll advocates. Of course, such strategies are not for principals alone. They can be shared by teacher leaders, parent leaders, district leaders, and others. However, as a visible and influential part of every school, principals' roles as learning leaders can greatly enhance the teacher professional learning that takes place.
|
|
So What Is Academic Rigor?
 "Basically, academic rigor is helping kids learn to think for themselves," says Robyn Jackson, coauthor with Claire Lambert of How to Support Struggling Students (ASCD).
There are four main components of academic rigor, according to Jackson:
- Students know how to create their own meaning out of what they learn.
- They organize information so they create mental models.
- They integrate individual skills into whole sets of processes.
- They apply what they've learned to new or novel situations.
Jackson advocates that these are demonstrated by successful leaders, whether educational, industrial, or political - and the ones we must develop in our students if they are to be successful as young adults.
She and Lambert share in their book how to assure students a productive - not destructive - struggle that leads to their understanding, makes learning goals attainable, yields results, and empowers students with efficacy and hope.
These authors remind us when students experience a destructive struggle, they have run out of strategies, they give up, they get frustrated or angry. As teachers develop kids' ability to handle productive struggles, they assure students strategies for grappllng with issues, for determining possibilities/solutions, for achieving the intended learning. Teachers and students alike see the power of feedback - timely, specific, and accurate - as well as the role of memory strategies, and making the abstract concrete through the use of specific examples.
Remember, says Jackson, that "one of the key signs of rigor is independent thinking and learning." As teachers, we must recognize when the intervention and remediation can and should come to the end point.
|
|
Iowa ASCD seeks to keep you informed abut webinars for your learning and the learning of those with whom you work. Check out the following as you prepare for a great start of the 2012-2013 school year. Many of these support the work in your collaborative time and definitely help with implementation of The Core!
- Title: How to Secure and Manage the Untethered Classroom
- Presenters:Richard Culatta, deputy director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education; D. Patches Hill, technology systems manager, Indian River School District, Delaware; Mike Maxwell, national director, U.S. State and Local Government & Education, Symantec Corporation
- Provider: Education Week
- Date: September 25, 2012, 1:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Free
- Title: The Teacher Evaluation Conundrum: Value-Added or Devalued Teaching?
- Presenter: Heidi Hayes Jacob
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: September 25, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Free
- Title: EduCoreTools for Teaching the Common Core
- Presenter: Sherida Britt - Secondary Education
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: October 3, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Free
- Title: Project-Based Learning and the Common Core State Standards
 - Presenter: Andrew Miller
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: October 8, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Free
- Title: Assignments Matter: Making Connections that Help Students Meet Standards
- Presenter: Eleanor Dougherty
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: October 11, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Free
- Title: English Language Arts and Literacy ad the Common Core State Standards
- Presenter: Sue Beers
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: October 31, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CST
- Register Free
- Title: Mathematics and the Common Core State Standards
- Presenter: Nanci Smith
- Provider: Iowa ASCD
- Date: November 5, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CST
- Register Free
- Title: Critical Strategies for Empowering 21st Century Teachers with Coaching and Capacity Building
- Presenter: Andrew Miller
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: November 14, 2012, 2:00 P.M. CST
- Register Free
Access ASCD's archieved webinars here.
|
|
Key Factors in Successful Professional Learning Communities
Tamara Holmlund Nelson, David Slavit, and Angie Deuel of Washington State University in Vancouver recently shared
in the Teachers College Record.
The authors remind us that "there are numerous pitfalls associated with the enactment and scaling up of" PLCs, noting that many teachers lack the skills and support to use data in ways that improve practices and that many districts have too much pressure on increasing test scores instead of pursuing "deeper, longer-range goals of improving instruction and student understanding."
They emphasized the different results of PLCs based on the teachers' stance toward their work in PLCs. Those in a proving stance worked at a general level that was "teaching focused," seeking information as proof that what they were doing was right. Change in teaching was limited or, at best, targeted to the general student population. Those in an improving stance were more student and learning focused; these teachers used assessments as tools to better understand their students and their thinking. Data was used to improve practice and student success. And as the "improving stance" grew, the teacher team became "nuanced" - increasing their reflection on their practices and the students' thinking. These teachers also went beyond their own classrooms. "Our kids," instead of "my kids," became the norm. Conversations went from "disconnected talk," where a teacher addressed his/her own classroom only to one of "connected talk" where a teacher connected to another educator's ideas, and ultimately to "exploratory" and "inquiry-based talk" where teachers became transparent in their problems and practices. They questioned their own thinking and beliefs and were open to changes in their assumptions, beliefs, and practices. Students become the real winners in these PLCs.  |
|
Technology Tip: Teachers' Guides for Technology
Over the last couple of months, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has been working diligently on a variety of educational technology guides for teachers and educators. You can connect to them on our web site.
These 34 guides (with more on the way) come in very handy for every teacher looking to better integrate technology into his/her teaching - from blogging to using googledocs to Skype to using the iPad. They are very simple, developed in a step-by-step process, illustrated by pictures, diagrams, video tutorials, and examples, and concluded with a webliography containing links to a variety of other websites relevant to the topic under discussion. Pedagogical implications are also included in the review of the web tools featured in the guides.
if you want to reuse them somewhere else.
|
|
You Ought to Know That . . .
- ASCD has released EduCore - a new, free digital tool designed to help educators implement both the English/language arts and math Common Core State Standards. The EduCore tool is a repository of evidence-base strategies, videos, and supporting documents that facilitate educators' transition to the new standards. Check it out! It's free! And there are webinars shared above that support the new learning opportunities with Common Core.
- Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director of Learning Forward, has shared a 13-question quiz to help you assess the progress your PLC is making. Check it out! Just how effective is your PLC?
- David Conley, PhD, is an educator with a background in college- and career-readiness issues. He recently is featured in Policy Priorities - an information brief from ASCD - and spoke with ASCD about what students need in order to be prepared for life after high school. He discusses the most important parts of being college- and career-ready in this audio clip.
- You can access the absentee ballot form for the November election on our web site as well as the address of the county auditor.
- Teachers new to the profession may join Iowa ASCD for only $15. This is a great way for you to mentor their learning and practices.
- Iowa ASCD really appreciates your membership. Let us know how we can best serve you!
|
|
|
Iowa ASCD - Twitter!
Stay current with learning! Follow Iowa ASCD on Twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/IowaASCD |
 Iowa ASCD is the source for developing instructional leadership and translating research into daily practice. Serving more than 850 educators - teachers, principals, superintendents, directors of curriculum, technology specialists, college professors, AEA staff - Iowa ASCD strives to develop the collaborative capacity to impact the learning of each and every student in Iowa. |
|
|
|
|
Iowa ASCD Contacts President Jason Ellingson Past-President Leslie Moore President-Elect Allan Eckelman Membership Information Bridget Arrasmith Secretary Marcia Tweeten Treasurer Julie Davies Members-at-Large Julie Grotewold Ottie Maxey Becky Martin Kevin Vidergar DE Liaison Tina Ross Higher Education Jan Beatty-Westerman Elaine Smith-Bright Advocacy and Influence Pam Armstrong-Vogel Susan Pecinovsky Curriculum Leadership Academy Sue Wood Fall Institute Kelly Adams Summer Institutes and Grade-Level Conferences Kym Stein Planning Chair Cindy Swanson Technology Chris Welch Membership Relations and E-Learning Amy Wichman Executive Director Lou Howell |
|
with Iowa ASCD
- October 12, 2012
- Fall Institute
- Presenter: Rick Smith, international expert on engagement of students through brain-based learning
- 8:30 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.
- Drake University
- $90 for members; $135 for non-members
- Focus: increase teachers' knowledge and practices with the Iowa Core through strategies that "wire" the learning of their students in their long-term memory.
- Register Now!
- February 5-6, 2013
- "Advocating for Students and Their Learning"
- Presenter: ASCD Director of Public Policy David Griffith
- February 5: 5:30 - 7:30 P.M., Savory Hotel
- February 6: 8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M., Historical Building and the Capitol
- Focus: training on advocacy "on the hill" as well as update on national and state agendas and tips for influencing your legislators
- April 10 - 11, 2013
- Iowa ASCD Leadership Academy
- 8:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. daily
- Hilton Garden Inn, Urbandale/Johnston
- $250 for members; $295 for non-members
- Focus: strategies and best practices around Iowa Core and RTI for curriculum leads
- Get The Source the first and third Friday of each month.
|
|
