powerED Up

It’s important to recognize where our skills will best serve the need and evaluate if you are the best person.

As a staff, develop comradery where you all support each other so the teachers with more time to give personally can step up for those who don’t.

We only have so much time and energy, so we must delegate responsibilities to others to empower those professionals.

Don’t follow the toxic positivity that is out there in education, and focus and commit to the important things.

Humanizing teachers and students when you attend outside events. It will have a direct impact on classroom management.

Take the time to evaluate the intended outcome. Does the time put in match the time out?

Leverage the strategy of who, not how.  Who can support this initiative or idea, and how can they take some of the workloads off your plate?

Empower your students to take ownership of the clubs; you can be there as a mentor when needed.  Set the expectations from the beginning.

His first book Bold School was ahead of its time in technology integration, encouraging teachers to utilize technology and maintain old-school, sound instructional practices.

Evaluate how we use technology; it needs to connect students to the teacher, the content, and each other.

We need a sound and robust understanding of the most effective instructional strategies. We need to know what they are called, exactly how to implement the strategy and the effect size of it.

Check out John Hattie’s work on the effect sizes of students. 

We need to know what tools are available and the instructional practices that it supports.

We need to improve our practice to bring joy back into our classroom.

Learn about Weston’s ATLAS model and how to create engaging lessons for students. 

Teachers support students, principals support teachers, upper administration supports principals, and the school board supports upper administration.  In AJ’s district, everyone is focused on students through an organized system.

Measure how much time you are spending focused on improving teaching and learning.

Have all administrators watch the same lesson and score it. They can understand what good teaching is and why.

AJ is measuring his success by evaluating how soon the district doesn’t need him.

We all have choices in how we spend our time and what we focus on daily. We need to be intentional with our time.

If the school board is self-evaluating, then it becomes easiest for leaders and teachers to do the same.

Students are capable; we must allow them to rise to the occasion.

Sometimes the best scaffolds are the ones that we wait to provide students.

Developing and harnessing interest in a student can be one of the best strategies for facilitating complex learning.

Look to your students for advice; they probably have something meaningful to share.

Attending conferences means networking with other teachers, having great professional development, and learning new opportunities available to you and your students.

Encourage your colleagues to step outside of their comfort zone.

The data we often receive is too vague to know what students can and cannot do.  Assess your students and hold yourself accountable.

Evaluating all factors contributing to a student's lack of reading ability can be overwhelming.

Phonics is not enough; we need to develop phonemic awareness.

For older students, use a non-sense word test to determine whether it is a decoding problem.

Word sorts are a powerful way to reinforce phonemic skills.

Utilize discovery strategies to allow students to find the skills needed to be successful.

We must evaluate our role and responsibility to all learners while trying to do the best for students.

Book: Reading Reflex

Book: THE First Days of School by Harry Wong.

Book: THE Classroom Management Book by Harry Wong.

A lesson needs a clear learning target and objective students understand to strive for.

Assess prior knowledge to make decisions about the upcoming lesson.

Create criteria of success for students to self-evaluate their own learning.

Check out the book 17,000 classroom visits cannot be wrong

Work with your staff to create efficacies of learning. After that, bring the students into the conversation and teach them the teaching strategies we are learning to elicit powerful learning.

Student-led conferences are a great way to encourage a learning culture and get students on the learning train.

Tap into curiosity to drive the exploration of content.

State standards are what we teach, and the kids are who we teach. Put them together, that is how we teach.

Use local references, in his case, the military community, to create design challenges.

Flex the guardrails of your curriculum to push the boundaries of learning for students.

To empower your classroom, you have to allow students the opportunity to relearn curiosity.

Take a risk, and fail.  The first thing you will do always sucks, so fix it and try again!

Leverage your class engagement to power through the “boring” lessons that are a necessary part of the process.

Analyze your state standards and determine if you are teaching too much. There is a good chance you spend more time on skills that are not standards or, focus too much on non-essential standards.

Create lessons that students are genuinely curious about, and the best way to determine that is to ask them. 

Tinkercad

Brush.ninja

Robert Dilts Logical Levels Pyramid

Curious by Ian Leslie

Start every day on the same page and on the same note to be the best version of yourself

Create opportunities for students to thrive through the structures you create in the classroom.

Differentiation is a powerful tool to reach the needs of all learners.

When we know students, we know how to provide instruction best.