Classroom Q and A

There have been significant changes in the availability of arts programs since the emphasis has shifted to a narrow focus on standardized test. What is the impact of the loss of arts education? What can teachers do about it?

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Virginia McEnerney is th Executive Director, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. David Booth is a professor of Literacy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He has written many books on effective reading and writing strategies, on helping boys develop literacy proficiency, and on the arts in education.

The culture of an organization is a powerful predictor of success. This applies to school cultures as well. In this segment we explore the markers of a successful school culture and look at what we can do to develop them.

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Heather Wolpert-Gawron is a middle school teacher, blogger, and author of the books Writing Behind Every Door: Teaching Common Core Writing in the Content Areas and ˜Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers. She has also authored workbooks on  Internet Literacy and Project Based Writing

Chris Lehmann is founding principal of Science Leadership Academy, a progressive science and technology high school in Philadelphia, PA. The Science Leadership Academy is an inquiry-driven, project-based, 1:1 laptop school that is considered to be one of the pioneers of the School 2.0 movement nationally and internationally.

Despite the love that many history teachers have fore the subject, It can be difficult to engage students who may think that studying the founding fathers is irrelevant to them. In this segment we go looking for ways to make history more compelling and engaging..

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Peter Pappas is a veteran of 25 years in the classroom. His work continues as blogger, keynote speaker, curriculum designer, university adjunct. Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez is a National Board Certified fifth-grade teacher in the Folsom Cordova School District. She was a participant in the Teaching American History Grant, Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Summer Institute, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

What is the current role of a 21st century school counselor and how can teachers best work with counselors for the benefit of students.

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Leticia Gallardo has been a counselor for Luther Burbank High School for six years and has worked with a very broad range of students. Mindy Willard is a Professional School Counselor at a K-8 school in Glendale, Arizona. She is the President-Elect of the Arizona School Counselor's Association and 2013 American School Counselor of the Year.

What is the current role of a 21st century school counselor and how can teachers best work with counselors for the benefit of students.

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Leticia Gallardo has been a counselor for Luther Burbank High School for six years and has worked with a very broad range of students. Mindy Willard is a Professional School Counselor at a K-8 school in Glendale, Arizona. She is the President-Elect of the Arizona School Counselor's Association and 2013 American School Counselor of the Year.

We're all inundated with things and things to do in our classrooms. In this segment our guests share their best tips for keeping our classrooms organized.

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Julia Thompson is the author of several books for teachers, including The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide. She is also a classroom teacher, workshop leader, and consultant .Ariel Sacks teaches 8th grade English Language Arts in Brooklyn, NY. She is proud to say this is her tenth year of full time classroom teaching.Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach is Ariel's first book.

Our guest believes that we need to rethink grading. Though he acknowledges that changing our thinking about grading is hard, he argues that once we get past the initial resistance, we can construct a better system.

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Rick Wormeli, a long time classroom veteran, now award-winning author and teacher trainer, was one of the first Nationally Board Certified Teachers in America as well as Disney’s Outstanding English Teacher of the Nation in 1996. Today, he train teachers and principals in all 50 states and eight countries, writes for education journals and magazines, and is working on his 12th book. His latest book, The Collected Writings (So Far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy Good Stuff I Learned about Teaching Along the Way, was released last year.

Sadly, during the course of a career almost every teacher will have to help students handle loss and grief. In this segment our guests offer guidance along with some basic dos and don'ts.

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Mary Tedrow has been teaching since 1978 and is a National Board Certified instructor of English Language Arts as well as the English Department Chair at John Handley High School in Winchester VA. She blogs at "Walking to School." Stephen Lazar a NBPTS Certified Social Studies and English Teacher in NYC, where helped start Harvest Collegiate High School. He is featured in the book Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers who Lead but Don't Leave.

In this segment we explore best practices and misguided approaches to differentiating instruction.

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Carol Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. Her work on differentiation has been translated into 13 languages. She works with teachers in the U.S. and internationally who want to create more academically responsive classrooms.

In this segment we explore the many benefits of providing every student with a portable computing device and some of the biggest potential pitfalls of setting up a 1:1 program.

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Alice Barr is the Instructional Technology Integrator at Yarmouth High School in Yarmouth, Maine. She is also a Google Certified Teacher. Dr. Troy Hicks is an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University and focuses his work on the teaching of writing, literacy and technology, and teacher education and professional development. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K12 colleagues and explorres how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms.