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.
Voices
Post submitted by Peter DeWitt, Ed.D., elementary school principal, author, and educational consultant. He writes about students’ social and emotional health in his Finding Common Ground blog for Education Week. Connect with DeWitt on his website and on Twitter @PeterMDeWitt.
Life can be very stressful. Many of us are so happy to have jobs that we feel the need to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When we are not working more and more hours, we are on the Internet searching for the most current education practices to help us in our classrooms and school buildings.
Post written by Alina Davis, an ESOL K–8 resource teacher in Orlando, Fla., 2010 ASCD Emerging Leader, and regular contributor to ASCD’s Inservice blog. Connect with Davis on the ASCD EDge® social network.
Do you have habits? How about your students? I am sure you can think of a few habits you’d like to break. But are there a few you wish would develop? Although we can’t make our students think, we can teach them how to be skillful, creative, and strategic in their thinking. We do this by helping them develop Habits of Mind (free webinar).
Post submitted by Peter DeWitt, Ed.D., elementary school principal, author, and educational consultant. He writes about students’ social and emotional health in his Finding Common Ground blog for Education Week. Connect with DeWitt on his website and on Twitter @PeterMDeWitt.
Have you ever had to sit in the same seat for hours at a time at a long meeting? As you looked around you saw other attendees bouncing their legs up and down because they began to get restless after sitting for such a long period of time. Then it happens! The facilitator allows a break, and people jump from their seats to get the circulation going in their bodies. Movement increases your energy level and the feelings of lethargy float away.
That feeling of sitting down and not being able to wait to get out of your seat is how students in our school systems feel every day. They sneak a walk to the water fountain or get up to go to the bathroom just so they can move their bodies. Physically, they need to get out of their seats to alleviate some of the energy that they have stored up as they sit through a lesson.
Post written by Thom Markham, a psychologist, educator, and president of GlobalRedesigns. His goal is to help young people gain the advanced skills and core knowledge necessary to prepare for the workforce, contribute to global progress, and work toward a sustainable future. He served as a director with Active Learning, Inc., an innovative motivational and learning skills camp program for high school and college students; taught at an award-winning high school, where he led school reform efforts and developed a highly acclaimed internship-based program; and cofounded the Marin School of Arts and Technology, an innovative charter high school in Novato, Calif. Connect with Markham on the ASCD EDge® social network and his website.
Coaching is popular these days, as evidenced by a recent article in The New Yorker (October 3, 2011) describing how a neurosurgeon decides to extend coaching into the operating room and improve his skills in unhooking a damaged thyroid from the grasp of surrounding tissue. Athletes also get coached, in just about everything. So do executives and those needing better life skills. And teachers increasingly receive coaching on structuring lessons and pacing their instruction.
Post submitted by Walter McKenzie, a lifelong learner, teacher, leader, and connector. A director of Constituent Services for ASCD, he served 25 years in public education as a classroom teacher, instructional technology coordinator, director of technology, and assistant superintendent for information services. He is internationally known for his work on multiple intelligences and technology and has published various books and articles on the subject. Connect with McKenzie on the ASCD EDge® social network or by e-mail at wmckenzie@ascd.org.
Imagine you have all the education stakeholders at the table: the students, teachers, administrators, unions, lawmakers, state and federal education agencies, professional education associations, teacher preparation programs, education technology experts, and visionary gurus… Even the deep-pocketed philanthropists who want their say. Let’s throw a few more tables together… it’s getting crowded… and more chairs… we need elbow room…
But wait, there’s still something or someone missing. You would think with this many interests represented at the table that we’d have it covered. Let’s see… we have everyone with a self-interest in seeing education move forward… no, wait.. No, we don’t. There are no parents at the table.
The following blog post was written by a unified pair of youth leaders who participate in local and national youth engagement and activation conferences to enhance their communication, leadership, and advocacy skills. These youth continue to collaborate and motivate other youth to become active in our pathway toward social justice for all. The post is republished with permission and was originally featured on the Special Olympics Project UNIFY blog.
Looking at the aspects that create schools where students are able to express their ideas, engage in meaningful leadership opportunities, and develop a collaborative relationship with the staff to address the needs of both students and teachers is challenging, yet important. One word that is indirectly included in each of those aspects is inclusion. Inclusion can be defined in many ways, each catering to a certain situation. However, there are common characteristics that we can define as being inclusive: students of all abilities, religions, genders, and races are offered equitable opportunities for academic, social, and physical growth; students perceive their peers as valued individuals with unique assets to the school community; and everyone is included in the school’s student body, regardless of popularity, athletic ability, or academic achievement.
