Three instructional coaches share more than 200 of the most helpful problem-solving strategies they've used in their decades-long work with teachers, administrators, and coaches. "The Instructional Coaching Handbook" is not a new model of coaching. It addresses common hiccups that prevent productive coaching conversations from happening…

This article presents "Be a coach instead of a judge" pedagogy that has resulted in significant improvement in college student learning/performance, highly favorable student comments and better teaching evaluations. This pedagogy inspires students to learn by embracing empathy, enthusiasm, positivity and trust along with other learning…

Responding to change is a critical workforce competency and an essential skill for effective leadership and management along with abilities to work in a group, problem solve, and demonstrate critical thinking capabilities. In this experiential exercise, students collaborate in groups, think critically, and respond to customer demands in a…

Building effective partnership with parents of young children with language delays has strong face value and is supported by multiple areas of research; however, building and maintaining partnerships to optimize child outcomes in practice can be difficult. This article provides a guide to teachers and speech-language pathologists who work with…

Music teachers may be tasked with documenting ways in which broader literacy skills have been embedded in music teaching. As a result, musical goals might seem to take a secondary role in support of broader language-literacy skills. Enhancing music literacy should be the goal of well-designed integration. The suggestions here provide music…

Deeper learning has been defined as "the skills and knowledge that students must possess to succeed in 21st century jobs and civic life" (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2013). "Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks" examines the role of performance assessment to facilitate…

This professional development activity on STEM Education is designed to keep Technology and Engineering teachers up to date regarding current and important issues in the discipline. This article describes why there is a focus on STEM Education, defines STEM Education, and discusses curriculum integration and its elements.

After nearly two decades of federal and state accountability requirements relying on conventional standardized assessments, Virginia and several other states are moving to create more balanced approaches to statewide assessment systems that include the use of performance assessments. But Palm (2008) states, "Performance assessment can mean…

In recent decades, research and practice have shown that investing in a positive school-wide social culture is a key component of effective education. Evidence demonstrates that educators and students succeed when students are present, engaged, socially secure, and academically successful. Developed by 2M Research in conjunction with an expert…

With the introduction of "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"), teachers have been called to find meaningful and engaging ways to teach science content while incorporating engineering practices and, to a lesser extent, computing and computational thinking. The task becomes even more complex when they also have to…

The "Connecting With Others" curriculum for grades 3 through 5 will help students learn to be sensitive to differences, resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, and learn tolerance and acceptance of others. Includes 30 lessons divided into five skill areas: Concept of Self and Others, Socialization, Problem Solving and Conflict…

Reflection, or consciously thinking about our experiences, is the key to powerful learning. Reflection allows us to analyse our experiences, make informed changes based on our mistakes, maintain successful practices, and build upon or modify our past understandings based on new and emerging knowledge. This paper describes the author's journey…

Do you feel bogged down by endless administrative tasks? Do you wish you could focus more on what truly matters--learning? "Learnership" provides both insight and solutions for moving past the distractions and becoming a learning leader. Cathy Toll illustrates this transformational process through activities and focused "learning conversations."…

As young adolescents, middle grades students experience a wide variety of changes related to their cognitive capabilities, social and emotional well-being, and use of self-regulation strategies. Authentic performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to realistic problems to create products or performances--consistent…

In looking at successful inquiry activities, patterns in pedagogical approach emerge (Meyer et al. 2011). This article discusses one such approach--the design challenge. A design challenge can be defined as an activity in which students are given an explicit task to create a product that meets a defined goal. However, simply asking students to…