High-Quality Teaching

"...the more powerful technology becomes, the more indispensable good teachers are." (Fullan, 2000)

Indisputable Evidence
“The evidence is indisputable. Mortimore and Sammons (1987) found that [quality of] teaching had 6 to 10 times as much impact on achievement as all other factors combined. Robert Marzano (2003) points to numerous studies demonstrating that two teachers working with the same socioeconomic population can achieve starkly different results on the same test: in one class, 27 percent of students will pass; in another, 72 percent—a life-changing difference.” (Schmoker, Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning, Chapter 1, 2006)
-------> Student performance improves when instruction improves.

Discipline with Dignity

Step-by-step Discipline help for over one hundred misbehaviors!

Teach with Dignity
What five things deeply motivate young people to achieve? How can we inspire kids to persevere with complex tasks?

MOTIVATION: What Works, What Doesn't (A Kaleidoscope Resource)
Lessons From Skateboarders, by Richard Sagor
An excerpt from At-Risk Students: Reaching and Teaching Them, 2nd Edition by Sagor & Cox
While there is some disagreement regarding the precise process for identifying students who are at risk, there are certain behaviors that generally characterize the defeated and discouraged learner. In his excellent handbook for teachers, Our Other Youth, Jerry Conrath (1986) describes the most common characteristics of these kids, which school "traditions" or strategies are deadening to them, why it is so difficult to reach these kids, and how we can begin to construct program interventions with much greater promise for success.

Instructional Strategies KNOWN to Increase Achievement

Which instructional strategy is associated with a 45 percentile increase in achievement? (Similarities and Differences)
Link to Jordan School District's T4 Web Site for technology applications linked to the nine categories of instructional strategies that are KNOWN to increase achievement. Marzano's book is available for you to download (free) in PDF format (180 pages). NOTE the link to Jordan's wiki where you can contribute and/or read ideas for using technology in ways "that work."
Classroom Instruction that Works, Technology Applications (Marzano, Gaddy, Dean)

Instructional Strategies for Using NC WiseOwl Subscription Resources

eBistro

Seven Essential Conditions for Learning

What are the seven essential conditions that must be present before complex learning/higher level thinking can occur?
Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Eric Jensen

6 Words/Phrases Every Educator Should Ban

Results-Based Collaboration
Do you participate in true professional collaboration or merely the appearance of teamwork?

Target a standard of student under-performance. (What profound, critical challenges do our students face year after year after year?)
Select a sub-component to focus upon for a set of lessons (or across disciplines and units).
Determine the prerequisite skills or knowledge necessary for the learner to be successful.
Locate or draft an assessment for each item identified in #3.
- Do we know IF technology can be expected to significantly advance this general learning area? See pages of Technology in Schools: What the Research Says.
- What technology resources are available to support instruction?
Teach / assess / did it work? If not, refine strategy / reteach / assess