Humility For Effective Collaboration in Schools
I often find myself returning to a chapter in Building School 2.0 entitled Humility Matters, as it reminds me that it is okay to struggle, because the work of teaching and learning is hard. It requires a lot of courage, among all of those involved, to take the risks necessary for real learning to happen. But authors Lehman and Chase are cautious about this courage as it has two edges. They say that courage “can also create a surety that is dangerous” as “the death of any gr
The Best Laid (Lesson) Plans Go Awry
Today, I continued work on my basement. This has been an ongoing project for the better part of 2 months now, and it has been wrought with fits and starts the entire time. Today’s work was less than ideal. There were a series of setbacks that resulted in a seemingly wasted day. The beauty of working on my house, and in my past experience in construction, is the immediate gratification that comes from altering the landscape in which you are working. No matter what I do in my h
Friday Humor: Things You Should Never Ever Say to a Teacher
Teachers work hard, putting in tons of hours both at school and at home. They use their own money for supplies. They decorate classrooms to create beautiful learning environments. They create lessons, projects, and units that have to factor in an ever-changing landscape of “musts.” They have endless meetings and responsibilities on top of their classes. And somehow, they manage to do it all despite challenging attitudes, moments of push-back, and seemingly insurmountable obst
Testing: How far is the moon from the Earth?
As we approach our mid year state assessments, I am reminded of a blog post I wrote 11 years ago around this same time. I think it's still relevant today: “Today, a colleague whom I have come to regard very highly told me a story. They spoke of a friend who, upon interviewing for a position in a NY District Attorney’s Office, was asked the question, “How far is the moon from the Earth?*” What skill would an aspiring assistant district attorney need to answer this question? T
How to Encourage Student Self-Efficacy
A confident classroom is a successful classroom. How do you build a culture of academic excellence in classrooms that promote student accountability, confidence, and success? By encouraging a growth mindset for all learners, finding ways to boost their confidence and their sense of academic potential. Here’s a look at a few ways to cultivate student self-efficacy. What is self-efficacy? According to Transforming Education, “Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to succ
How Positive Student-Teacher Relationships Create Resilient Learners
In her viral TED Talk “Every Kid Needs a Champion,” 40-year educator Rita Pierson, recounted a time when she heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” When most of us think back to our time in school, our stories tend to include the teachers with whom we had real, lasting connections. Our favorite teachers often changed our outlook on learning, made class fun, and inspired us to push beyond what
Empowering Teachers at EDxEDNYC 2019
It's that time of year! EDxEDNYC is back and ready for 2019! The EDxEDNYC Conference is June 6, 2019 from 9am-3:30pm. The EDxEDNYC Story Five years ago, a group of educators at Hudson High School of Learning Technologies wanted to make a difference in professional learning. After attending countless PD's and conferences, we noticed that teacher voice and choice were sorely lacking from professional development. Why weren't teachers learning from other teachers? Why did profes
Knowing Your Audience
In my second day at graduate school, my education professor gave my class advice that was very simple but memorable. He said, “A great teacher is like a great entertainer, you need to know your audience.” Later that day while I was sitting on the Q train heading home after class, I thought about what my professor said and looked back at my experiences as a NYC public school student; I had several exceptional teachers in elementary and middle school, but when I thought back to
Problem Posing: Generating Questions for Exploration
Students are asked a tremendous amount of questions daily, and yet they rarely spend time crafting their own questions or answering questions posed by their peers. This is true in my own math classroom, where most math problems encountered by students come from textbooks, digital curricula, blogs and suggestions from colleagues at school and on Twitter. But lately, I have been asking students to pose their own mathematical problems, with much success. What exactly is problem
March Malaise: Restorative Justice Stress Points
When reminiscing on the March Malaise and the stress points being surfaced with our current Restorative Justice practices, I recalled a similar issue I faced while teaching back in 2006. Thursday, March 30, 2006 Drowning* Imagine being in water fifteen feet deep, your arms are getting tired, and your feet can no longer help you maintain buoyancy. You begin to panic; your heart races; you desperately grasp for air. Nothing must be more frightening than those first moments a pe
Why Do You Rise?
Each day we leave our homes with a mission, may it be a mission to be the best in life, at work, or with our families, but we leave with a purpose. However, particularly for people of color, on a daily basis, we enter a world where our images aren’t the norm and we encounter a variety of obstacles unknown to many. One morning in the summer of 2010, I had a conversation with a White classmate enrolled in my special education master’s degree program at The George Washington Un
Strategies To Maximize Teacher Collaboration
I have been an educator at Hudson High School of Learning Technologies in NYC since its doors opened eight years ago. During the first few years of the school’s existence, a popular saying that my principal often said was “We are building the plane while flying it.” It was true back then, but it’s also still true today. Schools are ever-evolving. We keep the plane flying, changing its design, function and capacity all the time to best suit the needs of our students. COLLABORA
Valentine's Day: For the Love of Teaching
Check out these amazing and inspirational quotes from real educators on the love of teaching. The moment you share something you love with someone who gets the joy of what you're sharing is electrifying. If you love poetry and teach it with passion students will hear the music of the words, the beat of the heart of the poet. If you love teaching, lifting the veil on the world for your students is the most amazing opportunity; to share with them, to show them, to learn to see
SHARE: Until Poverty Eliminated, Schools Won’t Graduate 100% of Students, Expert Says
California has made higher graduation rates one of its key measures for assessing school performance as part of its new accountability system. Graduation rates have increased steadily in California in recent years, now reaching an average of 83.2 percent for the class of 2016. But just how high can or should graduation rates go? Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Michelle King has set a goal of graduating 100 percent of district students. But one of the state’s leading expert
SHARE: Setting Up Effective Group Work
Truly collaborative group work is complex and messy, so we have a few tips and tools to get students working interdependently. Research supports what we probably already knew about student collaboration: It’s integral to learning. We know that collaboration helps students build their interpersonal and social and emotional skills. We know that students don’t learn facts in a vacuum; social learning helps them build a more meaningful understanding of the world. Everyone loves c