Reflections of an Educator

The pace of schools today is frantic.  So little time is left in a child's 24 hour-day to play and explore - both in and out of school.  Unintentionally, we may be pushing students to think and learn at high levels when more basic needs are not met.  For a student to be available for learning, basic needs need to be met - in both school and at home.  We need to shift our paradigm from student supports as "extras" and "add-ons" to prerequisites for a student to be available for learning.  I created this Maslow's Hierarchy of School Needs to highlight the need for other pieces to be in place for students to be available to learn (and to learn at high levels, reach their potential, and increase their potential). Any thoughts, feedback, edits, subtractions or additions?

How can social media help make me be a better leader?  Let me count the ways: Exposure to new educational research. Awareness of educational trends. Sharing (and stealing) of best practices. An increased ability to connect staff members with relevant resources. Pro-active (not reactive) school PR: instead of waiting for a parent/guardian to reach out to inquire, I can share relevant pictures, quotes, ideas and videos of learning occurring - usually in real time! Support on my personal journey to be a lifelong learner and expand my horizons. Empower staff, students and me to be creative with ideas and make new connections. Differentiate staff professional development. Exposure to web 2.0 tools that students and staff can and should be using the classroom. Collaborate with folks by having ideas challenges, expanding my PLN and connecting with educators out there with similar (and different) philosophies. Daily, I am humbled by how much I don't know, and how endless the p...

If we want our students to possess, practice and utilize 21st century skills, then we must support the implementation and practice in our administrators, staff, classrooms and school structures.  Not only must classroom teachers keep 21st century skills in their forethought of planning, administrators too must be cognizant of how their words and actions support (or don't support) staff development and how the structures of their schools promote and encourage (or don't) the utilization and practicing of 21st century skills in the classroom with students.   After reading the National Academy's study brief of "Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century," I was inspired to think about how administrators must support teachers, so they can support students.  Let's model with staff what we want implemented with students.  According to the National Academy's study, deeper meaning occurs when students can take i...

This quick and easy Google search function will allow you to search for content by reading level.  What incredible potential to easily provide differentiated reading levels for students.  Go ahead, try it now and provide content to students based on their reading level!  Here's how: Step 1 : Go to http://www.google.com, enter your topic and hit the search button. Step 2 : Just below the search field, click on "Search tools." Step 3 : After clicking "Search tools" in Step 2, a new toolbar will show up.  Click on "All Results," which will open a drop-down menu. Step 4 : Click on "Reading level."   Step 5 : After clicking on "Reading level" in Step 4, a new field will show up with three hyperlinks.  Click on "Basic," "Intermediate" or "Advanced" to sort results by reading level. Below, you can see the difference in the first three results, organized by reading level: Ba...