The Whole Child Blog

Ask Dr. Judy Webinar: What Neuro-Logical Emotional Interventions Promote Growth Mindset, Academic, Social, and Emotional Success?

February 3rd, 2012 by

Join renowned author, neurologist, and teacher Judy Willis for an exciting free webinar to learn which “neuro logical” strategies encourage information to pass through the brain’s emotional filters to reach the most powerful cognitive control centers in the prefrontal cortex.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 3:00 p.m. eastern time
Register now!

Discover the the interventions that reverse negativity, promote positive attitudes, increase participation, and build student confidence to persevere through challenges.

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Are You Meeting the Love and Belongingness Needs of Students?

February 1st, 2012 by

Muriel Rand

Post written by Muriel Rand, a professor of early childhood education at New Jersey City University. She began her career as a preschool teacher in central New Jersey and now teaches graduate- and undergraduate-level courses in classroom management, working with families, action research, and early literacy education. Connect with Rand on the ASCD EDge® social network and on her blog, The Positive Classroom.

“Ignore him—he just wants attention!” How many times have you heard a teacher say something like this? Attention-seeking behavior has a bad reputation in our schools, and it can often lead to difficult classroom management challenges. Yet Maslow, the often-forgotten humanistic psychologist, has helped us understand that seeking attention is a way of getting our love and belongingness needs met. The need for human interaction and affection is so strong that it is a kind of hunger—the more children lack these interactions, the harder they will try to get them. And any interactions, even negative ones, are better than none.

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Free Teleseminar: Improving School Climate Through a Whole Child Approach

January 31st, 2012 by

Join ASCD Managing Director of the Whole Child Initiative Molly McCloskey in conversation with ASCD author and Rutgers University professor Maurice J. Elias. McCloskey will share information about specific initiatives and examples of how a whole child approach ensures that each child, in each community, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

Monday, February 27, 2012, 12:00 p.m. eastern time
Call in to 1-800-868-1123 and use code 70187505

The teleseminar is part of a series of monthly meetings of the Improving School Climate for Academic and Life Success project at Rutgers, designed to support social-emotional character development (SECD) and antibullying initiatives in schools. The format allows you to call in and listen (only), though you can e-mail questions during the teleseminar to mjeru@aol.com. On the other hand, it’s very convenient and you can listen in the car, in the office, at home, or while shopping. We will also post the audio of the teleseminar here on the Whole Child Blog within a few days of completion.

In the Rutgers University Center for Applied Psychology, Elias serves as director of Social-Emotional Learning Lab and is the academic director of the Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnerships program. He is also the coordinator of the Expert Advisory Group to the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention and writes an Edutopia blog on SECD for the George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Implementing and Assessing the Ethics Standards

January 30th, 2012 by

Paula Mirk

Post submitted by Paula Mirk, MEd. Mirk has worked at whole child partner the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) since 1996 and currently oversees the IGE education department’s many initiatives, including the Ethical Literacy expanding community of schools.

The subject of ethics is a great opportunity to explore learning without the burden of standardized tests because (so far) the topic is considered a difficult one to measure in discrete bubbles on an answer sheet. So, this dimension of our schools and curriculum is relatively safe from the assessment wag-or-dog controversy other subjects present. Take advantage of this opportunity! In any class, in any subject, teachers can feel free to explore their students’ values-based reasoning skills without worrying about “covering the material.” The more teachers do so, the more they will find that such exploration deepens understanding and contributes to content, rather than slowing things down or feeling like an indulgent add-on.

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Feed-Up, Feedback, Feed Forward: Making Formative Assessment Come Alive

January 27th, 2012 by

A comprehensive formative assessment (FA) system should fit seamlessly within the daily flow of the classroom. But in many places, FA requirements signal an end to instruction so that students can be tested. In a recent webinar, Nancy Frey discussed an ongoing approach to FA that enhances the give-and-take relationship between teachers and students to promote learning and shared examples from elementary and secondary classrooms.

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Comprehensive, Continuous, and Coherent Assessment

January 26th, 2012 by

Our goal is to educate students who are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged and who are ready for the demands of college, career, and citizenship. Through a combination of assessments of and for learning, such as growth models; portfolios; criterion-referenced tests; norm-referenced tests; computer adaptive assessments; diagnostic evaluations; and formative, interim, and summative assessments; we get a more comprehensive and continuous picture of student achievement and long-term success.

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Our Country Deserves a Great Education System

January 25th, 2012 by

In this TEDx presentation, Brian M. Stecher, associate director and senior social scientist at RAND Education, suggests three steps we need to take to cultivate schools where students can thrive.

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Best Questions: Assessment

January 23rd, 2012 by

Despite the rumors, school improvement is hard. It’s not about a single passionate leader. It’s not about “fixing” teachers and teaching or parents and parenting. It’s not about poverty. It’s not about money. And it’s not about standards. It’s about all of them. And more.

In this column, I’ll take on the real deal of school improvement—for all schools, not just certain kinds. And for all kids. Because it’s not about quick fixes or checking off the instant strategy of the moment. It’s about saying, “Yes, and…”, not “Yes, but…” no matter what our circumstances are. It’s about asking ourselves the best questions.

I’ve been working within ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative for five years or so, and on issues related to a whole child approach to education for nearly 20 years. In that time, I’ve heard all the comments about whole child education being antiassessment and antirigor, and I usually counter with the dangers of academic pity that a whole child approach takes on, the challenged tenet, or (if I’m feeling particularly snarky) a Dr. Phil shout-out along the lines of, “how’s that almighty test focus working for you so far?”

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How Do You Assess Understanding and Learning?

January 20th, 2012 by

In this video, two educators discuss informal assessments in the social studies classroom. What are the ways you deal with assessments in the classroom?

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A Call to Action!

January 19th, 2012 by

Sign for Whole Child

The We the People initiative is the Obama administration’s effort to provide citizens with a new way to petition the administration to take action on a range of important issues facing the United States. If a petition garners 25,000 signatures within 30 days, White House staff reviews it, sends it to the appropriate policy experts, and issues an official response.

Today ASCD is taking advantage of this initiative and petitioning the administration to make whole child education a national priority. We petition the Obama administration to establish a President’s Council on the Whole Child to help students be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, and we urge you to add your voice in support of this holistic and child-centered push for education at the executive office level.

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