October is Connected Educator Month – Are you game?

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

For those of you unaware, the month of October is officially “Connected Educator Month” in the United States. CEM was started in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Education and is “part of the Office of Educational Technology’s Connected Educators initiative, which is supporting online, social and professional learning for educators by conducting research, hosting communities, and working with the field.” (http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-kicks-connected-educator-month)

From the Connectededucators.org website: “Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing “just in time” access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren’t realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning. This year’s event will have a special emphasis on helping districts promote and integrate online social learning in their formal professional development.”

So, you may be asking, “How do I become involved in Connected Educators Month?” It is actually quite easy and this week’s Friday 4 will provide you with 4 links to information that will help you on your path to becoming a connected educator.

The best place to start is actually the Connected Educators website where you can find a calendar of events that have already begun and will continue through the month of October. I encourage you to look through the calendar and find a webinar, podcast, twitter chat or discussion that is in an area of interest and take the plunge!
You can download a CEM Starter Kit here that includes introductions to what it means to be a connected educator and even 31 days worth of online activities you can try out.
Here is a blog post that was posted on the Edutopia website that offers “Ten Tips for Becoming a Connected Educator“
If you are really feeling adventurous and want to combine CEM with an Edcamp experience, I encourage you to sign up for and participate in the first ever Edcamp Online event that will be occurring on October 26th. If you are unfamiliar with Edcamps, here is a link to a good description of the Edcamp concept.

What are you waiting for? Become a Connected Educator this month and grow as a professional! As always, I welcome your comments or feedback. Enjoy.

Spring – A time to reflect and hone your skills

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

Spring in the education world is a frenetic time filled with final preparation for AP exams, honors teas and events for our best and brightest students, countless meetings and the final “push” to the end of the year in all of our classes. As busy as the final weeks can be, it is also an excellent time to actually take some time and reflect on the year that has past and consider how it has gone and how we might improve what we do the next time around. In that spirit, I have assembled a few items (more than the usual 4) that I ran across this week that will hopefully inspire you to think about some of the fundamental aspects of teaching and learning, and with some serious reflection, might help you to become a better teacher in the long run.

7 Characteristics of an Innovative Educator is a piece from the Teachamazing website that I thought did a good job of describing a mindset that leads to improved teaching.
The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have comes from the Edudemic website and includes some sound advice that dovetails quite nicely with the previous piece. On a side note, Loomis Chaffee graduate Jeff Dunn ’00 (@edudemic) is the founder of Edudemic.
What if Finland’s great teachers taught in U.S. schools? is a piece that appeared in The Washington Post that came across my Twitter stream this week. The importance of a culture of collaboration among teachers was particularly interesting and intriguing to me. I am curious to hear what others think.
The Atlantic had an article this week titled Why Private Schools Are Dying Out that caught my attention and made me think about what we are doing as a school to remain relevant in an ever-changing educational landscape.
Open Your Classroom Door to ‘Be Better’ is a nice little piece from the Education Week Teacher website that provides some good practical advice that any classroom teacher can implement in the spirit of collaboration and improvement.

I welcome comments on any of this week’s “finds” and welcome suggestions for future editions of the Friday 4. Enjoy!

April Showers Bring … New Possibilities

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

Friday 4 – April 12

First, I must apologize for not posting a Friday 4 last week. The week was a busy one with Admission revisit days, several interviews of teaching candidates and the first week of the JV baseball season. By the time I even contemplated crafting a Friday 4, it was Saturday morning and I was still facing a 2 hour bus ride to our first game of the season. I have been archiving a bunch of interesting articles, blog posts and such to include in Friday 4 posts, so here are a few of the ones that I have saved in my Diigo folder. (If you do not know what Diigo is, you should definitely check it out here.)

Lorri Carrol (@lcarroll94) is a fellow independent school teacher at The Hamden Hall School who moderates the weekly #isedchat on Twitter. She shared some thoughts and reflections from the the recent NAIS conference on her blog. An intersting read if you want to get a sense for what other educators are talking about these days.
Peter Gow (@pgow) has recently started blogging on the Education Week website about issues specific to independent schools and has “penned” several thought provoking pieces. He recently wrote about Professional Development and Defining the Public Purpose of Independent Schools that I found thought provoking.
Grant Lichtman (@GrantLichtman) wrote a blog post recently about his foray into the world of Twitter and how incredibly powerful and valuable he has found the medium to be for free professional development.

As a side note, you have probably noticed that most of the pieces I include in the Friday 4 include the twitter handle, ex. @smacclintic, for the author. The fact is that many of the pieces I run across or conversations I have about the various topics occur over twitter. I have found twitter to be the single best professional development resource out there. In the stroke of a few keys, you can connect with like-minded educators from around the globe, engage in meaningful conversations and share resources and ideas with some of the best educators around. Not sure how to get started? Try this link as a starting point.

A colleague recently passed along this link to a recent Ted talk by Dan Ariely titled “What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work” that is worth 20 minutes of your time. While the talk is about what motivates us at work, the insights are directly transferrable to teaching and learning.
Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) asked his blog readers the following question “What makes sports practice satisfying and how is sports practice different from math practice?” after hearing Sal Khan answer the same question in an interview. For anybody who teaches and/or coaches, the answer to this question can lead to some interesting discussions and comparisons. How would you answer the question?
In the spirit of sharing, I would encourage you to read “Share and Share Alike!” by Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby).
At the risk of beating my twitter drum one too many times, I would encourage you to check out another post from Tom Whitby titled “If Twitter Is Not PD, What Is It?“

Hopefully, these items from my Diigo library will give you a few things to think about and will encourage a few conversations with colleagues. Enjoy!

Fighting through the winter doldrums

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

Friday 4 – February 15

If you are like me, the winter term months are some of the most challenging as a classroom teacher. The excitement of a new academic year is a distant memory, the hours of daylight are disturbingly low in number and the interruptions (snow days and breaks) to any kind of “flow” in the classroom are too frequent and many to count. During the winter doldrums, I like to read articles/blogs/pieces that are more reflective and inspirational in nature in the hope that they will get me through the cold, dark, lifeless winter and excited for the upcoming warmth and optimism that spring tends to bring. With that sentiment in mind, I offer up a few items that I ran across this past week that got my juices flowing in anticipation of the start of spring and the baseball season.

25 Things Successful Teachers Do Differently is a piece from the the TeachThought blog that made me reflect on my own teaching practices and ponder some changes that I could make. There are several other pieces that are linked off of this post that are worth exploring as well.
7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning is a piece that dovetails well with the findings of Grant Lichtman and his journey across the country looking for ways in which schools are being innovative.
Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann) wrote a nice piece on his blog titled Humanity, Community and Technology in School that I think is spot on.
Grant Wiggins (@grantwiggins) recently wrote a thought provoking piece on the use and design of rubrics that made me take a hard look at the tools I use to assess student work.

As always, I hope you enjoy this week’s tidbits. Hang in there, spring is coming!

Friday Four – 2 to use and 2 to mull over

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

In this week’s Friday 4, I offer up two items that you may be able to incorporate tomorrow into your classroom routines and two items that are intended for contemplation and perhaps long term action.

Two items you could use tomorrow:

“Whiteboarding” is a wonderful way to get students working together in groups that can be used in any classroom. I came across a twist on the standard use of whiteboards in the classroom recently that I thought was pretty neat. The Whiteboarding Mistake Game will help to introduce higher order thinking into any activity that uses whiteboarding.
Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) recently highlighted three free online tools that students and teachers can use for collaborative brainstorming. With more and more collaborative work happening in classrooms, managing and facilitating the archiving of ideas can be a challenge; these tools may make it a little bit easier.

Two items to read/discuss/debate and ponder:

Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) recently penned a blog post (can I even say “penned” a blog post?) titled Confidence through Connectedness that I found to be quite thought provoking, particularly given our school’s ongoing discussions about online learning and innovative teaching.
Why do girls do better in school than boys? A recent study looks at some of the reasons. I was left thinking “What can I do as a classroom teacher to counteract the forces at work?”

As always, I welcome your comments or suggestions. Enjoy!

First Friday Four of 2013

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Scott MacClintic

Happy 2013!

I suspended posting my Friday 4 missive over the winter vacation but am ready to make up for lost time! I did a ton of reading over the break and came across a plethora of interesting sites/pieces that you may or may not have seen on your own. I will resist bombarding you with a huge list all at once and will keep a bunch in the hopper for future Friday 4 editions.

So, here are a few finds to start the new year off with…enjoy!

Got sleep? Here is a recent piece from one of my favorite cognitive scientist writer/bloggers, Daniel Willingham (@DTWillingham), titled “Are Sleepy Students Learning?” This piece appeared in this winter’s edition of the American Educator magazine and is a good overview of the research on sleep and student performance.
I do not quite remember how I stumbled across this next piece, but it is an interesting read for any classroom teacher. The post is about a legendary horse, Clever Hans, who could perform all sorts of mathematical operations…or so it appeared! The take home lesson in the piece is “never underestimate your ability to fool yourself into believing your students understand something when really what they are doing is watching you.”
The single best “find” from this past vacation has to be The Learning Pond blog by Grant Lichtman (@GrantLichtman). I spent several days reading his posts from this fall when he visited over 60 schools looking for ways in which educators were implementing changes to prepare their students for the 21st Century challenges. You can retrace Grant’s journey if you start with this post from right before he departed on his trek across the USA.
“The Need for Innovative Leadership” is the title of a thought provoking post from George Couros (@gcouros) that touches on so many of the same topics that Grant discovers on his journey.

As always, please feel free to contact me or leave comments.

The Power of Peers

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Scott MacClintic

In the past week I have been fortunate enough to have three different peers from other schools visit me and my classroom reminding me of the power and value of making connections and fostering collaboration. Last Thursday, Sharon Geyer (@sharongeyer68), from the Pomfret School visited during the Flipped Classroom Open House day to sit in on the microbiology course I teach with a colleague using the flipped model. Today, Mark de Kanter from Westminster School and John Adams (@jwadams25) from the Dublin School visited to see the flipped classroom in action and talk about ways that we are incorporating technology into the curriculum.

The conversations about teaching and the sharing that occurred during each of their visits were, without a doubt, the high points for the days. While I certainly enjoy and value the collaboration and discussions I have on a daily basis with my colleagues at Loomis Chaffee, it is always eye-opening to exchange ideas with colleagues from other schools and different educational settings. I have always benefitted and learned something new when I reach out to fellow teachers and engage in thoughtful conversations about pedagogy and the craft of teaching. Teaching can be an isolating profession if you allow yourself to remain in your “comfort zone” and do not actively seek out new ideas.

As much of a pain in the neck as it can be to take time off and visit a colleague in a different school, I firmly believe that it can be one of the most valuable professional development exercises. Watching a peer in action, asking them about how they structure and run their classrooms and sharing ideas leads to a level of self-reflection that is critical if we are to improve as educators. We frequently ask our students to try new things, take risks and reflect on their own learning. If we are expecting these things from our students, we ought to model the behavior ourselves.

So, if it has been a while since you either invited a colleague into your classroom or visited a colleague in his/her classroom, I encourage you to venture out of your “comfort zone” and engage in some low risk professional development. I promise you that it will be worth your time.

As always, I welcome your comments or feedback.

Friday 4 – October 12

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Scott MacClintic

A Fall Cornucopia

This week’s Friday 4 is an eclectic collection of items from a busy week here at Loomis Chaffee. While there is no single theme that connects the items, I am hopeful that at least one of the threads will be of interest to you.

Given the fact that it is midterm time here, I have had many discussions with colleagues about grades and how we assess and evaluate students and their work. Ever since I heard Rick Wormeli (@RickWormeli) speak at an ASCD meeting a few years ago and read his book “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”, I have thought quite differently about my grading philosophy and policies. Fortunately, you can read several pieces from Rick and see several videos from him at the the Stenhouse publishing site dedicated to Free Assessment and Grading Resources from Rick Wormeli. (You will have to register for a free account in order to access some of the info.)
I referenced Daniel Willingham’s (@DTWillingham) blog and latest book in a recent post and was pleased to see the Fall edition of the American Educator magazine feature an excerpt from his book. You can download the piece here in which Willingham explains how to analyze and dissect educational research.
Followers of the Friday 4 will know that I am a regular reader of Tom Whitby’s (@tomwhitby) blog “My Island View.” Tom recently wrote about his thoughts on the current state of professional development in education and the need to change the model and make PD “evolving and continuous.”
Jut over a month ago in the Sept 14 Friday 4, I encouraged people to join me in the Power Searching with Google MOOC. Well, I can report today that I was able to successfully finish the course and received my certificate of completion via e-mail yesterday. While there was a great deal in the course that I was already familiar with, I did learn a whole bunch of neat tricks and tips for searching with Google that will make me a more efficient and powerful searcher. The course is officially over now, but you will be able to access the videos and course materials beginning Monday, Oct 15 at this link. The ability to locate quality, reliable information on the internet is a critical skill these days that we need to know how to do both for ourselves and so that we can help our students navigate the increasingly information dense world we live in.

Enjoy and as always, please do not hesitate to leave comments or suggestions for future Friday 4 editions.

Friday Four – September 21

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Scott MacClintic

The Seasons are changing….are you?

Technically today is the last full day of summer with fall officially beginning on Saturday, September 22, 10:49 A.M. EDT, the fall equinox. While it may still technically be summer (translated – “vacation”) as I write this week’s Friday Four, it feels as if we have been in school for quite some time already and that the fall term is well under way. To celebrate the astronomical beginning of fall and the beginning of the school year, I have put together a Friday Four that includes some “big picture” items that I hope you will mull over while the “newness” of the school year is still palpable.

Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn) is a nationally recognized educational writer and outspoken critic of homework, competition and rewards in schools. He has had a piece appear on the back page of the Ed Weekly Journal every September for nearly 20 years. This year’s piece “Schooling Beyond Measure” explores the fascination/obsession with using data-based measures of assessment.
One of the fellow educators I follow on Twitter and whose blog I read regularly is Brian Bennett (@bennettscience), a science teacher from Indiana. He recently posted a piece on his blog called “Three Questions” in which he describes a conversation he had with a colleague that led to what they saw as the 3 core questions we can/should be asking our students. I found the post inspiring and hope you will as well.
NPR recently aired a piece titled “Teachers’ Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform” that explores the significant role that bias plays in teacher expectations for students.
Starting this weekend (September 23) NBC News is hosting their 3rd annual Education Nation Summit in NYC. They have a website dedicated to the year-round initiative that is loaded with great resources, news and opportunities to be a part of the conversation about education in the US and the world.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Have a wonderful first day of Fall!

Friday Four – September 14, 2012

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Scott MacClintic

Connect, Learn and Grow

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the NYTimes Schools for Tomorrow Conference yesterday and listened to a whole host of inspiring speakers. The theme for the conference was “Building a Better Teacher.” I thought it would be appropriate to include some items from the conference in this week’s missive.

This first item is actually the conference itself. All of the panels were streamed live and can be watched now on the conference website. The sessions that I found particularly interesting were:
- How do we measure teacher performance?
- How can we better support teachers to deliver better instruction?
- Keynote from Aneesh Chopra (@aneeshchopra), the former Chief Technology Officer for the United States.
Looking for a way to ramp up your Google searching skills? Why not take advantage of a MOOC (a massive open online course). Daniel Russel, the uber tech leader from Google who spoke at the NYT conference, offered a course on Power Searching with Google this summer which had over 150,000 people register and take the course. He is running the course again starting on September 24. You can register for the course here. I have registered for the course myself so perhaps we can form a study group!
At one point in the conference, the audience was polled about what they thought was the most pressing issue with regard to supporting teachers to deliver better instruction. The overwhelming “favorite” was ongoing professional development and the importance of being a connected educator. As I listened to the panel, thought about the response and tweeted out some ideas to the Twitter hashtag for the conference (#NYTedtech); I was reminded of how significant Twitter is in my ongoing PD and ability to connect with fellow educators. For those of you who have read my Friday Fours in the past, you know that I am a big fan of Twitter as a way to connect with fellow educators and share ideas. If you are not a Twitter user, I would encourage you to at least go to tweetchat.com and follow a hashtag for 10 minutes and see if you learn something new. There are hashtags for any and all interests. Here is a link to a page listing the education related hashtags that are commonly used. (Thanks to Jerry Blumengarten a.k.a. “cybraryman” for the list) You just may be surprised with how easy it is to get free PD whenever you want.
My last find this week is actually a piece published this week in the NYT by LC alum Steven Strogatz (@stevenstrogatz). He is a Mathematics professor at Cornell and is “wicked smart” to use a phrase my students are fond of. He has the ability to make math accessible to those of us who are not mathematicians, no easy task if you ask me! Not quite related to the theme of the first three finds of the week but a great find nonetheless.

As always, I welcome your comments or suggestions.

Pelican Ponderings

Thoughts and ideas from another educator

Tag Archives: professional development