Information that Changes Lives
January 2020
The President's Message
Rachelle Dene Poth
Hello members of the Teacher Education Network!
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We hope that everyone has enjoyed the changes in our newsletter format and that you are finding new resources and ideas that you can put into practice and share within your own network. We have enjoyed including guest posts within each newsletter and hope that you will consider submitting something for upcoming newsletters as well.
In November, our theme was Digital Age Learning Environments and connecting pedagogy and technology. We will continue to do research in this area throughout the year and invite you to share any of the research that you may be involved in related to this theme. For December, we focused on Visionary Leadership as our theme. Visionary Leadership first appeared as a “buzzword” in the 1990s and was later defined as one of six styles of leadership by Daniel Goleman in 2002. According to Goleman, “the leader is inspiring in vision, and helps others to see how they can contribute to this vision; allowing the leader and followers to move together towards a shared view of the future.” So what does this mean for education?
According to Elena Aguilar, “a visionary leader is clear about what he or she believes and knows is best for children — for their academic, social, and emotional learning.” As educators, we must always be focused on the needs of our students and helping to prepare them for the future. We must share our passion for building our own capacity as educators and together design a vision for how to best prepare students. A visionary leader knows that it is important to involve colleagues and the school community, so that together they can collaborate, foster relationships and build a supportive learning community. Through open communication, clear goals, intentionality, and an investment in supporting the work of others, we can provide the best possible learning experiences for our students and push ourselves to continue to grow personally and professionally.
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As we enter 2020, we look forward to new opportunities and planning for the future. We hope that you will share your ideas and experiences on Twitter with the hashtag #isteTEN and within our ISTE TEN Community. We look forward to learning with you!
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The TEN leadership team hopes that you had time to rest, recharge, and spend time with family and friends.
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Rachelle Dene Poth
President, Teacher Education Network
Who is the Visionary Leader?
By: Deborah Kerby, Pocono Mountain School District, @DocKerby
This question is answered by a study of the ISTE Standards For Education Leaders. These standards clearly outline who the Visionary leader is and give the guy to follow as we make our plans for the day, the unit, the year, and long-term.
From the ISTE Website:
ISTE STANDARDS FOR EDUCATION LEADERS
The ISTE Standards for Education Leaders support the implementation of the ISTE Standards for Students and the ISTE Standards for Educators and provide a framework for guiding digital age learning. These standards target the knowledge and behaviors required for leaders to empower teachers and make student learning possible. They’re focused on some of the most timely, yet enduring, topics in education today – equity, digital citizenship, visioneering, team and systems building, continuous improvement and professional growth.
Standard 1: Equity and Citizenship Advocate
Education Leaders need to research and find efficient and effective ways to ensure students' needs are met in regards to technology. This requires working with teachers to ensure they are implementing technology in a way that adds to learning. The Leader must ensure teachers have the training and support to accomplish this. The Leader should also research to see that digital equity is achieved and good digital citizenship practices are modeled by all school staff and presenting regularly to students.
Standard 2: Visionary Planner
Education Leaders need to do long- and short-term planning and clearly share the plan with all education stakeholders including professional and support staff, parents, and the community. A plan must be in place to monitor and correct and necessary to ensure the plan is being followed. The Visionary Planner does not work in a bubble has conversations with all stakeholders to get a clear picture of the current situation where there is a need for change. Input should be collected from all stakeholders, peers, and up-to-date research to ensure the school is on the right track.
Standard 3: Empowering Leader
Share lessons learned, best practices, challenges and the impact of learning with technology with other education leaders who want to learn from this work. A tyrannical hierarchy with micro-management will not work here. Leaders must empower teachers to explore and differentiate their practice, allowing them to use their individual strengths. Positive change requires that everyone be on-board, and allowing teachers to innovate, collaborate, and explore will lead to the best possible outcomes for the Visionary Planner.
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Standard 4: Systems Designer
All ISTE Standards require looking at the “Big Picture;” this is no exception. The Visionary Leader sees how technology implementation can improve educational systems and achieve increasing educational outcomes. This includes developing a budget to help this vision become reality. Teams, accountable to the Designer, will be given authority to oversee parts of the vision, make it a reality, and ensure plans are carried out and adjusted where necessary.
Standard 5: Connected Learner
A key aspect of good leadership is setting the example for expected behaviors. One of the most important of these is lifelong learning. The Visionary Leader should embrace personal learning and encourage other staff members participate in the practice. He should also make meaningful and convenient learning opportunities available to staff when possible. This process should include regular participation in professional learning networks and reflection to facilitate continuous improvement in the use of technology to aid learning.
“Spinning forward”: an educational leader’s thoughts on vision
By: Peter Hessling, Teaching Assistant Professor, NC State University @ProfHessling
& Karen Anderson, Program Director, Wake Co. (NC) Principal Leadership Program
Ms. Karen Anderson is the Program Director for the Wake Co. Principal Leadership Program and also teaches a face-to-face version of the same class I teach online at NC State University: School and Society. She was a North Carolina Teaching Fellow, a 2nd and 4th grade teacher, an assistant principal, and a principal. Because of her many experiences I wanted to get her thoughts on what it means to be a “visionary leader” and what this means for technology integration in schools.
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Karen is concerned that principals can get caught up in a “spin cycle of everyday issues”: putting out fires. These everyday stresses make it difficult to consider what is down the road, or what she called, “spinning out, but not forward.” Alternatively, a principal may have a vision, but it isn’t a shared vision and becomes – in many teachers’ eyes – simply a “flavor of the week.” Visionary leadership, according to Karen, is having the capability of seeing critical issues and barriers to success, along with seeing what an institution could be. A visionary leader understands the need to communicate practical ways to fulfil the vision while – and here Karen was most passionate – not leaving anyone behind. As she puts it, the vision “should be so clear that others can run with it.”
Karen’s idea of visionary leadership is expressed in the class she teaches to pre-service teachers, as well as in her views on technology. In my opinion her classroom space is one of the worst in the College of Education: cramped, no windows, rather dingy-looking. As Karen puts it, the class can be “small, loud, and confusing.” But that has posed no barriers, as she seeks to share her vision with her students and “bring them along.” In a class I observed, for example, student school improvement teams left the classroom and found places to work anywhere they wanted to. Each team’s facilitator’s job was to communicate with Karen where they were and agree to return to class at a stated time. Meanwhile, all teams worked with Google docs that were shared with Karen. She could not only jump in with suggestions at any time, she could also monitor student participation in the project.
Meanwhile, all teams worked with Google docs that were shared with Karen. She could not only jump in with suggestions at any time, she could also monitor student participation in the project.
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For Karen, “technology is a tool that we can leverage to help everyone have a seat at the table.” In the past, everyone had to actually be at the table, just as her students would have had to stay in the cramped classroom. Technology eliminates those barriers. Moreover, non-traditional pre-service teachers have work or family commitments. Karen can leverage technology by having office hours outside of regular hours, using the Zoom tool after her students’ children have been packed off to bed.
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In sharing her vision, Karen demonstrates 21st century learning to her future teachers: collaboration; communication; and creativity are evident in what she does and what she expects of her students. For me personally, I loved learning from this experienced leader. Although I have been involved in education for over 30 years, it was still exciting to get caught up in her shared vision and – like her students – to spin forward!
One Instructor’s Reflections on EdTech in Teacher Prep
Guest Post Heidi Meister, Ed.D, Associate Professor of Practice, Curriculum & Instruction, Portland State University hmeister@pdx.edu
Reflecting on a term of educational technology classes in a graduate teacher education program has given me a front row seat to observe the impact of course element design on pre-service teachers. As a new post-secondary instructor, I have gone through the motions of re-designing courses that I would be teaching over the new year with a fresh batch of teacher candidates. In keeping with the spirit of collaboration and promoting best practice for our students, I wanted to share some of the lessons I have learned.
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It shouldn’t be a surprise that effective technology integration in teacher education programs can be a bit of a balancing act. As devices and laptops are used for more than networking, gaming, and checking emails there is a lot to be learned from what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to delivering instruction in
edtech. The first component to consider when rolling out your shiny new tech curriculum is the range of digital competencies of pre-service teachers. In other words: know your audience. Are you going to jump into a Google Sheets simulation on demographics with multiple data sets, or just go over some basic cell formulas to get everyone on board? This realization seems so obvious in hindsight, but in the moment, maybe not so much. Another consideration in effective instruction with technology is to determine the organization style that will be maintained throughout the term. While applications such as Google Classroom have made it easy to curate a wealth of class materials, moving between platforms with audience eyes divided between their screen and the demonstration screen means a lot of navigation (and clicks) gets lost in the process. A well-organized mode of delivery in which users don’t have to guess where to find links and materials is key.
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Another huge barrier to candidate buy-in of technology-forward curriculum is the lack of experience with technology used in educational settings. This is actually two-fold: limited exposure as a student, and limited exposure as a teacher candidate. With an audience that may have little memory of edtech use during their own school experience in the classroom (other than graphing calculators, presentation decks, and laser pointers), sharing common practices that may have worked are sometimes hard to come by. The other side of this issue is the limited exposure during teacher candidates practicum experience. If mentor teachers aren’t actively using technology as a tool for learning in their classrooms, the idea that web 2.0 tools are essential to create an environment that promotes critical thinking and student-centered learning, might be a hard sell.
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Currently changes for 2020 technology courses are underway. With a whole new set of candidates and a lot of new tricks up my sleeve, I will begin the term with the ever-important basics on Google Drive, spend less time trying to complicate a spreadsheet, and limit the number of clicks it takes to access course materials.
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Virtual Plates of Food to Connect our Students around the world and Leading what it means to be a Global Educator
Guest Post by Clint Carlson Director of Education Technology, Istanbul International Community School, @clinty
For our schools to successfully provide the international and global mindedness that so many of us strive for, we must do more than just explore global concepts in our individual classrooms and schools. The projects and lessons we create for our students must connect in real-time with other students all around the world. The power of educating with the idea that we are all on the same team and understanding what makes us the same and what makes us different can be the driving force to providing the generations we teach to turn these learning opportunities into mindsets.
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The “What is on Your Virtual Plate?” strives to do just that. The initial goal is providing a path for schools that think creating Virtual Environments is out of reach due to cost, time, or grade levels. This project can be done for free, in 1 hour, for grades 3-12. The larger goal is using this education technology to create connections and collaborations globally without the barrier of physical distance.
For this project to be successful, strong tutorials needed to be in place so that anyone, at any grade level, could pick up the project and join the global project. This was accomplished by creating a partnership with CoSpaces. I approved wireframes for the portal and worked heavily with the development and marketing teams to create a place for this project to grow. The real power of this project comes from leading the charge in upgrading our thinking about what it means to be a Global Educator. I recently presented on this topic at Learning2 in Nanjing, China to a large audience of education leaders - https://youtu.be/WxUDg_S4h0w.
The #VRPlate project is a global student collective resource where all participants re-create, using VR, the last meal they ate - to be shared with the world! This global project has been live for over a month now and is picking up steam via social media (#VRPlate, @CoSpaces_EDU, @Clint), webinars (ISTE, workshops). As Virtual and Augmented realities will certainly be a large part of our student’s adult lives as tools of communication and collaboration, we cannot introduce these concepts early enough.
How to: https://cospaces.io/edu/vr-plate-lesson-plan.pdf
View student projects created and shared with each other all around the world: https://cospaces.io/edu/projects.html
My recent interview about the project: https://blog.cospaces.io/launching-a-worldwide-collaboration-student-project-3c11c37fa637
Check out my Twitter feed to see examples. - twitter.com/clinty
And of course, let me know if I can help you and your school get this off the ground!
Visionary Leadership/Transformative Leader: Empowering Future Teachers
Guest Post Erin McDonnell-Jones is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska. You can find her on Twitter @TeacherEdBU.
We have seen it time and time again in K-12 and Higher Education. Students are assigned to present information to their peers and they continually choose the same tool to present: PowerPoint. For a variety of reasons, this is what they are most comfortable with, most familiar with, and in their eyes, the easiest to use. How can we, as educators, break this cycle? By empowering future teachers with tool choices to learn, model, and use within their future classrooms.
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After completing the ISTE Certification for Educators course in during the 2018-2019 academic year, I was invigorated to reexamine my Instructional Technology for Teachers course that had previously been developed for a brand-new teacher education program. Initially, the course focused on “how to use” Microsoft Office tools and did not focus on the student experience in a K-12 classroom. Through collaboration, inquiry, and trial-and-error, the newly redesigned course had a trial run this fall 2019.
Students divided into topics such as digital citizenship, equity, and literacy. They built a Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter and connected with educators in Oregon, Washington, California, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania. They created a Curated List of Resources based on their future content areas and examined multiple tools to incorporate in their future classrooms. They collaborated with local teachers to review their lessons plans based on either the SAMR, TPACK, or Triple E Framework and then adapted their lessons to utilize a variety of technology. All of these topics and discussions focused on our essential question: “How does this improve or enhance student learning?”
Based upon student feedback collected at the end of the semester, the future teachers state that they now understand their choices to invigorate their future classrooms and enhance their student’s learning. As they continue in their education courses, they will continue to work on incorporating technology focused on the question: “How does this improve or enhance student learning?” in addition to trying out new technology as they appear.
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If you have any ideas for tools to incorporate, would be willing to support our students on Twitter, or would like to dialogue about other ideas, please reach out to me: emcdonnelljones@bellevue.edu or on Twitter @TeacherEdBU.
Exploratory Leadership for Uncharted Territory
How do we Embrace Exploration to lead in uncharted territory toward continued transformation for all stakeholders?
Leaders in education and the business and organizational world are longing for ways to be more effectively equipped to navigate ambiguity and strengthen adaptive capacity in today’s complex, rapidly-changing world.
The world in front of us is nothing like the world behind us, and we have an opportunity before us for adventure, hope, and discovery while also embracing anxiety, fear, and potential losses and helping each other through needed change.
The opportunity awaits to strengthen our ability to lead in uncharted territories.
“Transformational leadership is always a two-front battle: On one side is the challenge of a changing world, unfamiliar terrain, and the test of finding new interventions that will enable the mission to move forward in fruitful and faithful ways. On the other side is the community that resists the change necessary for its survival.” - Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains (Page 124).
When we lead in uncharted territories, we can become frustrated when we are hosting events, creating experiences, launching new products, and we find out that stakeholders and customers are conveying they are not getting their needs met.
So, we are invited to Lead with Empathy and make sure we are staying closely connected to the needs of the stakeholders we are serving and seeking to influence.
https://incubatetoinnovate.com/product/changemaker-mindsets/
The Empathy Map and questions allow you to take a deep dive into someone else’s world and look at life through their eyes. Sometimes the greatest AHA is the one where you realize you can not answer the questions. Incubate to Innovate has had many trainings in the past where we have used this tool and where individuals have experienced a lot of sorrow over not knowing the answers to the questions - AND that is what leads us to dig deeper and seek to understand others in greater ways!
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If you take the time to use this tool, take some time to reflect.
What was your greatest AHA from completing the empathy map?
How will that AHA impact your interactions with that person?
What steps can you take to Lead with Empathy within your sphere of influence?
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“Don’t Just Do Something. Stand There...Then Do Something” Canoeing the Mountains, by Tod Bolsinger, Intervarsity Press, 2015, pp. 124.
Keeping Technology from Hindering Student Achievement
Guest Post by: Kathryn Procope, Head of School, Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science Twitter Handle: @kprocopeHU_MS2
Most traditional school leader preparation programs do not discuss the implementation of education technology. School leaders stumble though its implementation, often responding to the latest email solicitation or suggestion from a peer or teacher. Many school leaders struggle to develop a strategic direction for technology implementation primarily because Ed-Tech evolves so rapidly. So how do we ensure that our implementation is strategic and not reactionary? Our charter middle school, in Washington DC has a STEM focus. We planned our technology implementation around our school vision and mission. First, we addressed our school culture. We recognized that the extensive use of technology in our school required an understanding of its importance to our school culture and methods for keeping our students and staff safe, comfortable and knowledgeable on its use and maintenance. We partnered our more tech savvy staff members with those who were not so comfortable with the technology to remove any reticence that may exist. We trained students to help their peers and staff members on some simple tech tasks such as creating presentations and implementing Ed-Tech gaming tools. Next we addressed academics. We implemented blended learning and selected a scalable curriculum that provides an extensive online support to students, planning resources for teachers and an easy connection to our parents. We implemented a 2-to-1 Apple iPad framework that ensures students have digital access both at home and in school. We receive extensive support from Summit Learning as we implement the instructional platform in a way that supports all of our students.
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Our school strategic plan considers the implementation of Ed-Tech in all aspects of our school culture. Technology is used to provide classroom observational feedback that includes video where teachers are coached on improving their practice. Students use technology to enter the school and record their attendance. Our Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) relies on technology to support student demonstration of our school’s core values. Teachers and parents communicate using text and two-way messaging. Our assessment systems are technology based. With so much technology, the natural question is what happens if it fails? Planning for technology hiccups is part of our strategic plan. Our teachers never miss a beat if there is a power outage or WiFi failure. Planning includes having paper copies of assignments, using auxiliary materials to make sure that learning continues, no matter what. Because our school uses so much technology, we are often asked to pilot the “next new thing” in Ed-Tech. This is where school leaders need to be disciplined. It is so easy to get starry eyed over the newest technological application or system. But we have to carefully weigh all the implementation concerns, primarily what effect will it have on the teachers and the students. Including all stakeholders on the implementation decisions will definitely eliminate future headaches. With a solid strategic plan that includes technology implementation, school leaders will guarantee that their Ed-Tech implementation supports all stakeholders in their school.
Successful Women in Leadership Webinar by edWeb
Dr. Sandy Husk
Dr. Sandy Husk is a former district superintendent and CEO of AVID, one of the largest national nonprofits working to address opportunity gaps by opening up pathways to college and career. Dr. Husk has spent decades building networks of students, parents, board members, and community members to incite change within the classroom. Come watch a conversation with Dr. Husk, interviewed by Adam Pisoni, entrepreneur and founder of Abl about the unique contributions of women in leadership and how building and maintaining strong relationships is critical to success.
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This recorded ed Webinar will be of interest to elementary through high school teachers and school and district leaders.
Celebrating Visionary Leaders in Higher Education: Central Michigan University and American College of Education
Guest Post by Alyssa Vitale, Project Manager @ ISTE, Portland, OR
Celebrating Visionary Leaders in Higher Education: Central Michigan University and American College of Education
With this month’s focus on visionary leadership, there’s no better time to highlight innovators in the field of teacher training. Last year we launched two opportunities for higher education programs that prepare candidates to lead learning with technology in classrooms and schools of the future: ISTE Recognition for Higher Education and ISTE Higher Education Certification Providers.
We are pleased to announce that Central Michigan University’s Master of Arts in Leadership, Design and Technology will become the first ISTE Higher Education Certification Provider and that American College of Education’s Master of Education in Educational Technology is the first program to earn ISTE Recognition! Faculty curriculum teams at these two institutions evaluated, mapped and revised their curriculum to give candidates a more comprehensive, applied educational experience using the ISTE Standards for Educators. Today we celebrate their hard work by highlighting their programs:
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Central Michigan University - M.A. in Leadership, Design and Technology
CMU’s MALDT program is the first to earn designation as an ISTE Higher Education Certification Provider after achieving an impressive 100% alignment to the ISTE Standards for Educators! By the time candidates graduate, they will have hands-on experience with every single indicator through the curriculum. The goal of CMU’s MALDT program is to provide candidates opportunities to create robust, productive and creative uses of technologies that will, in turn, engage their own learners in robust, interactive experiences. Candidates learn to analyze and address technology inequities, develop comprehensive learning modules using instructional design principles and foster civil, productive digital learning environments.
American College of Education - M.Ed. in Educational Technology
The first program to achieve ISTE Recognition, ACE’s M.Ed in Educational Technology focuses on exploration and evaluation of digital tools, development of pedagogical skills and design of instructional strategies to support learning through technology. ISTE was especially impressed with the program’s focus on leadership: Candidates gain experience in analyzing learning gaps, supporting the meaningful use of technology for learning and identifying resources that support diverse needs of learners.
Congratulations to the faculty at CMU and ACE on a well-deserved honor! The entire ISTE team is very proud of your accomplishment.
Preparing a new generation of teachers: ISTE Recognition and ISTE Higher Education Certification Providers
These ISTE programs support pioneering colleges of education looking to:
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Develop contemporary curricula that account for innovations afforded by technology and better prepare candidates for K-12 digital learning classrooms or for industries seeking online instructional designers.
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Receive data and validation of their curricula and learner experience to serve as a model for the entire university by demonstrating 21st-century learning.
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Earn recognition from ISTE because our standards are widely recognized by schools and districts looking to hire candidates skilled in digital learning.
If you're an education faculty member and want to know how your program can achieve ISTE Recognition or become an ISTE Higher Education Certification Provider, find more information and contact us here: https://www.iste.org/learn/highered-recognition. You can also reach me directly at avitale@iste.org with questions.
Future Teacher = A Connected and Visionary Leader
Dr. Samantha J. Fecich
While training to be a teacher, some future educators may feel that they don’t have much to offer the educational field due to lack of experience or hours in the classroom. But, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Future teachers have value to offer their education colleagues as they are training to become educators of excellence. In my opinion, every future teacher should be connected with others through social media and by having ownership of their digital portfolios and digital presence. I am so excited to share with you some tips for creating, maintaining, and promoting your teacher blog. Remember you have the EduMagic in you and even as you are studying to be an educator of excellence, you have ideas and strategies to share with the world - why not share them on a blog?
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So, let's start with the obvious question, what is a blog?
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A blog, in my opinion, is a space where you can document your learning, ideas, lessons, and reflections with the world. There are no word or length
requirements. They can include images, videos, links, and more. Blogs can be written in any style as you see fit. My one piece of advice is to be authentically you! For example, when I write my posts I like to think that I am writing to one person and that we are sitting down having a conversation about the topic at hand.
Where do I start?
Ok, maybe by now you are thinking, "Yes! I can do this!" You are pumped for your blog and are ready to roll. But, how do you start? Where do you start? These are both great questions. First, you need to get a free, user friendly platform to host your blog. I recommend any of these tools, but you need to find one that fits your needs and style. Try a few out and see what best suits you.
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Wix
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Weebly
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Wordpress
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Blogger
Now what?
You found a platform that you enjoy and you are gettin' the hang of it. So, now what do you do? First, create a list of ideas that you want to post about. Then add to that list as you can - I like to have a list on Google Keep or Microsoft To-Do. As ideas come to mind, I am able to document them on the app or on my laptop.
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As your first post, I would recommend an introduction post. Consider thinking about who your ideal blog reader is going to be. For me, I like to write to the future and new teachers. As you begin to write your first post, you can share all about you and introduce yourself to your reader. Consider adding information such as:
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Name (obviously)
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Why do you want to be a teacher or why did you choose the teaching profession?
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Your teaching story
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Learning takeaways from classes, professional development, etc.
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Social media connections
Once you have a list of ideas try scheduling them out and decide when you are going to post. Are you going to post on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis? If you are starting out I would recommend trying to stick a weekly schedule. With some of the tools listed above, you can even schedule out blog posts. Which makes it really handy!
How do I get the word out?
Once you have your blog up and running to get the word out there! Share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. As you write a post share it out there with hashtags, images, gifs, etc. Spread it far and wide. Some tips for getting the word out
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Create a Pinterest board featuring your content
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Add your blog as a link your bio for social media
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As you post to share the link out
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Post your blog message out on linked in articles for more eyes on your work
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Remember friends, you have a voice in the educational community. When you create your first blog please tag me on social (@SFecich) I would love to help support you! After all, you have the EduMagic in YOU!
Professional learning books written by members of our Leadership Team
Dr. Sam Fecich
EduMagic A Guide for Preservice Teachers: This book challenges the thought that “teaching” begins only after certification and college graduation. Instead, it describes how students in teacher preparation programs have value to offer their future colleagues, even as they are learning to be teachers! This book provides positive examples, helpful tools, and plenty of encouragement for preservice teachers to learn, to dream, and to do.
EduMagic Shine On: A Guide for New Teachers: This book is designed to help you, as a beginning teacher, thrive during your first year of teaching by asking you to reflect, challenge yourself, and celebrate wins in and out of the classroom. It is hard, yes, but you can do it. You’ve got this—after all, you are an edumagician. We start with expectations you may have for your first year, and go through all the ups and downs of the first year and how you can take them on and grow through everything! Our hope is that you will feel encouraged and supported as you work through these pages, taking notes on the side and putting dog ears on the pages that really speak to you. Your first year is hard, but you will make it through and learn SO much...so let’s do this!
Rachelle Dene Poth
In Other Words: Quotes that Push Our Thinking. This book is focused on quotes and using them as a way to reflect. In Other Words shares stories around the importance of growing ourselves as educators, knowing our why, as well as learning from and embracing failures and taking risks with learning so we can become our best selves for those we lead and learn with. Many stories shared with guest chapters and a chapter co-written by two of my seniors! A great read for anyone, not just for educators.
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The Future is Now: Looking Back to Move Ahead: This book explains the importance for educators to break out of isolation, so that we may take the risks our kids need us to take - for them. The book is divided into sections that guides readers to leverage connections to build their own strengths so that they can build strength and capacity in others. One chapter written by a high school senior which focuses on failure, “Failure is an event, not a person.”(Zig Ziglar).
Unconventional Ways to Thrive in EDU: Unconventional will empower educators to take risks, explore new ideas and emerging technologies, and bring amazing changes to classrooms. The book is for anyone looking to get started with new ideas in the classroom ranging from promoting SEL, starting PBL, trying genius hour and edcamps, using augmented and virtual reality, making global connections, building digital citizenship skills, fostering relationships and more.
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Dr. Torrey Trust
Kids Have All the Write Stuff: Revised and Updated for a Digital Age
You can open up a world of imagination and learning for children when you encourage the expression of ideas through writing. Kids Have All the Write Stuff: Revised and Updated for a Digital Age shows you how to support children’s development as confident writers and communicators, offering hundreds of creative ways to integrate writing into the lives of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary school students—whether at home or at school. Check out the digital companions to the book: Virtual Bookcase for Young Writers and Digital Tools & Apps for Inspiring Young Writers.
Looking for some ideas and feedback for a bit of research that I am doing on education and teaching. If you have a few minutes, please respond to some of the questions in the survey. There are 12 questions, it is anonymous unless you want to share more ideas or follow up, you can reach me at rdene915@gmail.com or @rdene915 on Twitter or Voxer. Thank you!