Getting Started with Culturally Responsive Teaching
This article demystifies culturally responsive teaching. Becoming more culturally responsive begins with getting to know students well. The author lays out a roadmap for teachers who want to jump in. It includes ideas to confront implicit bias, build classroom culture that fosters student belonging and ownership, and revamp curriculum to make it more relevant. This… Read More ›
The National Standards for Quality Online Learning
More and more students are taking part in some type of online learning. To guide educators, families, and students, the Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance and Quality Matters have created new national standards for virtual education. This is the first revision of these standards, originally written the Aurora Institute (formerly known as iNACOL), in ten years. … Read More ›
Using Sketchnotes and Doodles in ELA Lessons
In this blog, a veteran ELA teacher shares ideas for incorporating art into ELA lessons to improve learning. She describes her efforts to incorporate more art in her classroom after reading a study that showed drawing is one of the best ways to retain new information. Her activities included “sketchnoting” in which small doodles are… Read More ›
National Action Civics Collaborative
The National Action Civics Collaborative (NACC) brings together a group of diverse education and youth serving organizations committed to advancing action civics, a project-based authentic way to empower students to get engaged in their schools and communities. Designed for teachers and community-based educators, the NACC site provides an overview of the approach, powerful stories of… Read More ›
Student Agency: Resource Collection
For learning environments to be truly student-centered, students must be the agents of their own learning. Educators can support this development by getting to know their students in order to choose the most relevant and engaging content and, whenever possible, giving students control over what they study and how they demonstrate mastery. Creating an engaging… Read More ›
Educator Professional Development Through Public Research Lesson Events
Have you been looking for an educator professional development structure that builds teacher leadership and inquiry capacity, develops robust content and pedagogical knowledge, and centers on deeply understanding student thinking? If so, we invite you to explore Lesson Study – a collaborative inquiry structure that can transform professional learning communities (PLCs) or discipline meetings into… Read More ›
Researching the Effects of Culturally Responsive Mastery-Based Education
Every year, there are renewed calls to improve, reform and reinvent public education for all students, and particularly for marginalized students. In efforts to transform educational experiences for students of color, students with disabilities and linguistically diverse students, innovative approaches are imagined (or more often, reimagined) in an effort to address the challenges that these… Read More ›
From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope
The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development was created to engage and energize communities in re-envisioning learning to encompass its social, emotional, and cognitive dimensions so that all children can succeed in school, career, and life. This culminating report draws on the information gathered over two years from conversations, meetings, and site visits… Read More ›
When Personalized Learning Also Boosts Special Education Students
This article looks at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School which is successfully serving a large number of students with learning disabilities, in part because of its commitment to personalizing learning. Students progress at their own rate, not in grade-by-grade lockstep. Teachers are trained to give all students targeted, individualized support with the help of an integrated student information… Read More ›
Moving Toward Mastery: Growing, Developing and Sustaining Educators for Competency-Based Education
Building off examples of effective teaching, professional development and practice across the nation, this CompetencyWorks report explores how communities can work together to prompt and sustain complex systems change. To support a shift to student-centered education systems, the teaching profession must be equity-oriented, learning-centered, and focused on life long learning. This report is a must read… Read More ›
Assistive Technology Module
Originally created by the Center on Technology and Disability for college and university personnel training programs, this module can help teachers better understand assistive technologies. It brings together a wealth of resources, including a library of videos and webinar recordings, along with a glossary of important terms. It can also be supplemented with Assistive Technology in… Read More ›
Differentiating Instruction: How to Plan Your Lessons
In this video instructional expert Larry Ferlazzo and veteran teacher Katie Hull Sypnieski talk through the kinds of questions they ask themselves when planning a lesson for a multi-ability classroom. They answer teachers most common questions, such as “What will students do if they finish early?” and “How can the materials be modified to… Read More ›