“I want to help you, but I can’t” was what I was told. I am not big on being told no, especially by someone I had a working relationship with. I was the Head of Department, and what I was asking was both reasonable and something that I had asked before. I was frustrated …
Someone might ask you one day, how have you used data to make a difference in an educational setting? I would like to share with you a recent example of an answer to this question from my practice. I am currently 18.75% finished with my doctorate in education via University of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana. My research …
Volunteer teacher training in Honduras : From Data/Research to Practice. Read More »
According to John Hattie’s research in a 2017/2018 ranking, collective teacher efficacy (CTE) has the biggest positive impact on student learning. And the difference is quite large. CTE scored 1.57, with second place (self-reported grades) scoring 1.33, which represents an 18% increase in effect size. Why is this data important? Because this can shape where …
It’s amazing how stressful it is to search for a leadership position. Many of us have the same story where we start by searching for an admin position and we are open to searching for a position that we are currently in (ie. homeroom teacher, middle school math, counselor). Having two options is comforting and …
Routines are those things we regularly do. The patterns of our life as it were. The examples of patterns in our lives are endless. Our morning routine of waking up and, for me at least, starting the water for coffee, checking my phone for social media, getting breakfast for my children, and getting ready …
Classroom Management: Observing the Start of Class Read More »
There may exist an old-school conception that educational leaders should not show vulnerability as it may display weakness, which could undermine one’s authority. Think of Morgan Freeman’s first speech to his faculty as a new High School Principal in Lean on Me when he shouts ‘no one talks in my meetings, no one!’ This is a great …
Vulnerability as a Strength in School Leadership Read More »
How do you take care of the mental and physical health of your teachers? This is the question that came to my mind after reading the blog post titled, “We’re Constantly Talking on Students, What about the Teachers?” This particular blog post is written based on a popular image going around about how a …
The first question the administration needs to ask itself is “why does classroom management matter to us?” We can take a page from Simon Sinek and his book series including Start With Why (2009). We need to know why we are going to address the behavior before we begin to tackle the classroom issues. We …
I have been thinking a lot about classroom management lately. I have not been thinking about the discipline models, but the teacher’s management of their teaching space. When I say classroom management, I am talking about everything that a teacher does from the moment a student walks in the door to when that student leaves …
One comment I have heard is that the acronym STEM or STEAM may perhaps not be the best way to promote curricular integration. What does this mean? It means that STEAM may not just be confined to Science, Technology, Engineering and the Arts. It also means that schools should have strong Science, Tech, Engineering and …
