LibGuides: Barrie's Picks: Resources for Teachers

Assessment

When Grading Harms Student Learning
This article gives examples of uses of grading that can actually harm student learning by creating anxiety and fear of failure, instead of providing hope. Author: Andrew Miller, Instructional Coach at Shanghai American School.
Do No Harm: Flexible and Smart Grading Practices
Follow-up article to 'When Grading Harms Student Learning.' The article discusses specific strategies for dealing with concerns around redoes, zeroes, and homework,, including: addressing behavioral issues affecting academic achievement, requesting to retest, redoing parts of an assessment, and reflecting on assessments. The author recommends that teachers "pick their battles" and concludes with a reminder that "it's about hope." Author: Andrew Miller, Instructional Coach at Shanghai American School.

Building Relationships with Your Students

A 4-Part System for Getting to Know Your Students
Four steps teachers can take to build solid relationships with their students: Break the Ice, Take Inventory, Store Your Data, and Do Regular Check-Ups. Blog post author Jennifer Gonzalez states that this "is arguably the most important thing you can do to be an effective teacher. It helps you build trust so students take academic risks, allows you to better differentiate for individual needs, and prevents the kinds of power struggles often found in poorly managed classrooms."

Character Education

Students Broken Moral Compasses: Why Don't Schools Teach Children Morality and Empathy?
Article in the Atlantic discussing the reasons character education - discussions and instruction related to morals, character, and ethics - is not present in most U.S. public schools. The article surveys efforts to blend character education with traditional curricula. Author: Paul Barnwell - a teacher, writer, and urban gardener based in Louisville, KY.

HOTS - Higher Order Thinking Skills

Question Stems - Critical Thinking / HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills)
Questions for critical thinking following Bloom's Taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, application). Adapted from Quick Flip Questions for Critical Thinking on edupressinc.com.

International Baccalaureate

Approaches to Learning
Approaches to Learning (ATL) are the strategies, skills and attitudes that are incorporated into IB schools, with the goal of teaching students how to learn.
Reflection Tool: Approaches to teaching and learning in the Diploma Programme
This tool can help teachers “audit” and reflect upon approaches to teaching and learning in their classrooms based on criteria established by the International Baccalaureate. This tool consists of two sections: Section 1, Approaches to learning (consisting of consists of five elements: thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, self-management skills, and research skills) and Section 2, Approaches to teaching (consisting of six elements: teaching through inquiry, teaching through concepts, teaching developed in local and global contexts, teaching focused on effective teamwork and collaboration, teaching differentiated to meet the needs of all learners, and teaching informed by assessment.)

Kids and Smartphones

We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones
Teen depression has surged since 2010, and psychologists, neurologists and other medical professionals are urging parents to consider limiting their children's use of smartphones. This article for Time Health, by Markham Heid, gives five tips for getting teens to reduce their use of smartphones.

Media Literacy & Online Citizenship

Did Media Literacy Backfire?
Data & Society: Points article by Danah Boyd, Researcher with Microsoft Research and New York University. In “Did Media Literacy Backfire?” Danah Boyd argues that the thorny problems of fake news and the spread of conspiracy theories have, in part, origins in efforts to educate people against misinformation. At the heart of the problem are deeper cultural divides that we must learn how to confront.
Overhauling one high-school subject is our best hope for the future of democracy
This article by Ben Moskowitz,a public-interest technologist and an instructor at the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, gives a vision for next-generation civics education. "A natural place to start would be to update the media-studies components of American government and civics courses with a new corpus, new history, and new set of lessons from the internet. Some of these could include the responsibility to verify information before you share it, the responsibility to develop a good media diet, and the responsibility to act decently online."

Multiple Intelligences

Multiple Intelligences: Digging Deeper
Learn more about Howard Gardner's intelligence types: naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and verbal-linguistic.
Multiple Intelligences Self-Assessment
A five-minute quiz that can give new insights into the way a person thinks. There is also a link to an article with more information on the theory of Multiple Intelligences, 'Multiple Intelligences: What Does the Research Say?' and a video of an interview with Howard Gardner: 'Big Thinkers: Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences.'

Performance Review - Faculty & Staff Evaluation

8 Signs an Employee Is Exceptional (Which Never Appear on Performance Evaluations)
The article discusses ways exceptional employees distinguish themselves: (1) They think well beyond job descriptions; (2) They're quirky...; (3) And they know when to rein in their individuality; (4) They praise other people in public...; (5) And they disagree in private; (6) They ask questions when others won't; (7) They like to prove other people wrong; and (8) They're constantly exploring. Author: Jeff Haden, contributing editor to Inc.

Rigor

Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor
Edutopia article on how teachers can use Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels to "create rich environments where all students learn at a high level." Tasks are categorized according to the depth of knowledge required to complete them: Level 1: Recall and Reproduction; Level 2: Skills and Concepts; Level 3: Strategic Thinking; Level 4: Extended Thinking. Author: Gerald Aungst, Supervisor of Gifted and Elementary Math, Cheltenham School District, Pennsylvania.

In this video from ACSD (a professional learning community for educators) Robyn Jackson introduces what rigorous instruction requires students to do.

Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist who writes about human behavior and public policy. For Time Magazine and the Atlantic, she has chronicled the stories of American kids and teachers alongside groundbreaking new research into education reform. "Kids have strong opinions about school. We forget as adults how much time they sit there contemplating their situation."

Teaching Strategies

How to Create Effective Homework
Article on KQED's Mind/Shift blog on the question of whether the homework teachers do give actually advances learning. The author reviews recent research and the strategies recommended by several education professionals.

Work Smarter

Even Geniuses Work Hard
This article from the September 2010 issue of the ASCD publication, Educational Leadership, presents ways teachers can "design and present learning tasks in a way that helps students develop a growth mindset, which leads to not just short-term achievement but also long-term success." Author: Carol S. Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the author of 'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.'
Five Simple Back-to-School Study Hacks for Kids
A blog post from Daniel Coyle, author of 'The Talent Code' on five 'hacks' students can use to do better at school: Space out your study time; Switch up your study locations; Mix it up; Get outside; and Throw away your highlighters– instead, make a habit of testing yourself.
The Talent Code
Website and blog of Daniel Coyle, author of several books on talent - specifically the science of how people can acquire skill and get really good at sports, art, music, and anything else. Blog posts cover topics such as practice, drills, and motivation.

Zika Virus

Zika Virus Response Planning
Interim guidance for school administrators and teachers in the Continental United States and Hawaii from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: general information about Zika; roles and responsibilities for school officials; planning for Zika transmission; and responding to a a case of Zika virus infection.

Barrie's Picks: Resources for Teachers

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