Sharing Ideas

Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.  (Peter Senge) This is what we do as teachers…help one another, be it our students or our peers, grow as individuals and as professionals.  We do this by sharing what we know…

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New Avenues to Better Teaching

This month ERG has focused on Instructional Leadership and Peer Coaching.  In one of our recent newsletters it was noted that ” Leadership in education is about learning – and not just the empowerment of student learning.  As instructional leaders, teachers assume a wide range of roles to support the learning needs of students –…

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Power of Yet

“There is a difference between not knowing and not knowing yet.”  – Shelia Tobias Research is showing that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger and works better the more it is exercised.  Each time we work hard, take on a challenge, stretch, and learn something new, our brains form new connections and our…

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Reflection = Growth

“Self-reflection is a humbling process.  It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things . . . then better yourself.”  – Sonya Teclai The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards states, “Thinking analytically about teaching is complicated because teaching is complicated.”  Teachers generally have little time for self-analysis and reflection, yet…

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No Quick Fixes

“Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are teaching to the test. Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation materials.”  Craig Jerald It’s hard for teachers to stay…

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Teachers Observing Teachers

“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.  Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”  – Robert John Meehan More and more teachers and administrators are finding that peer observations are a form of collaborative professional development that truly delivers.  A school culture that encourages and promotes this sharing of…

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Keep Teaching

To do test prep or not to do test prep…to keep with my literacy routine or not…those are the questions on most teachers’ minds.  The good news is you don’t have to choose.  You can keep with your regular routine and teach test prep.  Just as you teach fiction, biography, and poetry as different genres,…

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Got Stress? – Get Moving!

The end of the year timeline is quickly approaching.  The days are filled with assessments, reports, conferences, and checklists.  Teachers and students are over whelmed with endless to-do-lists and stress can rise inside like a raging inferno.  When these feelings hit, stress hormones circulate throughout the body.  These hormones are designed to make the body…

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Moving Our Thinking Along

  Sometimes it’s called the Socratic Method.  Sometimes it’s called Higher Order Thinking Skills.  And sometimes it’s called Thinking.  Regardless of the name it requires the ability to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and create in order to make logical and rational decisions.  The question is how do we help them achieve this level of thought.  How…

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Nurturing the "Cognitive Enterprise" of Reading

Reading has been called a “cognitive enterprise” and it happens as a result of the connection between the reader and the text. – What do I visualize?  What connections can I make?  Does this make sense? – Successful readers monitor their reading, use strategies for understanding, and evaluate their efforts.  To comprehend a text, a reader…

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