Moving the Needle on Adolescent Reading
“I used to assign reading, now I teach reading.” With these words, Josh Zajdler, Cohort One
participant gets to the heart of what the Advancing Adolescent Reading Initiative
(AARI) is all about.
The Advancing Adolescent Reading Initiative (AARI) is an in-depth professional
development program established to provide secondary teachers with access to learning
opportunities and resources aimed at building instructional capacity in the area of adolescent
reading instruction and intervention.

Questions for discussion around the staff room table
1. To what extent do you teach reading vs. assign reading?
2. How can you begin to make the shift to teaching reading in the content areas?
3. What supports do you need to move your practice to teaching reading?

http://www.industrymailout.com/Industry/Home/5548/23974/448493/May%20newsletter.
pdf

Tools for Teaching: Developing Active Readers


http://www.edutopia.org/blog/developing-active-readers-strategies-rebecca-alber

Teacher
NEVER DESTROY, ALWAYS BUILD
NEVER DOWN, ALWAYS UP
NEVER FORGET, ALWAYS REMEMBER
NEVER STOP, ALWAYS PLAY
NEVER OFF, ALWAYS ON
http://edudemic.com/2013/05/a-thankateacher-poem-dedicated-to-my-teacher/

A Thank-you For Teachers            Everywhere


 "Thank you for recognizing potential where no one else wanted to look.  May your example be an inspiration to teachers everywhere."
http://www.henrybuell.com/thanks-for-teaching/
Without great teachers there would be no great accomplishments - Henry Buell




Five ways to get kids to want to read and writehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/28/five-ways-to-get-kids-to-want-to-read-and-write/#


ARE GRADES UTTERLY USELESS?http://blog.williamferriter.com/2013/04/27/three-reasons-grades-are-worse-than-useless/?buffer_share=20c86&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer%253A%252Bwillrich45%252Bon%252Btwitter

Get Up. Get Out. Don’t Sit.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/get-up-get-out-dont-sit/


The Kid Should see This
http://thekidshouldseethis.com/about
There’s just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven’t seen. It’s most likely not stuff that was made for them… But we don’t underestimate kids around here.

2Learn Professional Learning webinars
2Learn.ca Webinar Series: Twitteracy in EducationMay 8, 2013 (3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) - Twitteracy #2 of 2 - Using Twitter in Education
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/YFVR0QREPEAT SERIES: In this, the second of the Twitteracy series, participants will learn about ways to use Twitter as a tool for professional development and to engage students in learning activities. This session is aimed at participants who have a basic understanding of the functions of Twitter.

2Learn.ca Webinar Series: Adobe Photoshop for Teacher-Generated MaterialsTo register for the entire Photoshop Series in one form, please visit http://bit.ly/10fNFWH.

May 7, 2013 (3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) - Photoshop #1 of 2: Basic Color Theory and Visual Effects
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/XEg4EaMany teachers are generating their own digital content for use in classroom practice and would like to enhance their visuals with a professional touch. In this first of two sessions, participants will learn some basic color theory as well as how to make professional-grade buttons, ribbons, banners, icons and shadow effects. This webinar is aimed at the teaching professional who has installed Adobe Photoshop C5 or CS6 or the Adobe Photoshop CS6 trial and considers themselves an intermediate or advanced user with a basic grasp of Photoshop skills.

May 9, 2013 (3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) - Photoshop #2 of 2: Working with Layers and Layer Styles
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/YCqw2dMany teachers are generating their own digital content for use in classroom practice and would like to enhance their visuals with a professional touch. In this second of two sessions, participants will learn how to work with and manipulate layers and layer styles. This webinar is aimed at the teaching professional who has installed Adobe Photoshop C5 or CS6 or the Adobe Photoshop CS6 trial and considers themselves an intermediate or advanced user with a basic grasp of Photoshop skills.

2Learn.ca Webinar Series: Google Lunch-and-Learn WebinarsDue to popular demand, 2Learn.ca is re-offering the Google webinar series in the format of lunch-and-learn sessions. The following sessions will run from 12:10 - 12:40 p.m.

To register for the entire Series in one form, please visit http://bit.ly/162Ywdd.

May 7, 2013 (12:10 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.) - An Introduction to Google Docs and Google Drive
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/11F8Py2In this webinar, participants will be introduced to Google Apps and Google Drive, including creating and collaborating, groups, folders, commenting, and accessing offline. This webinar will include both computer and mobile device applications, and is designed for new users of Google Docs.

May 8, 2013 (12:10 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.) - Using Google Forms in Schools
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/106rNfIIn this webinar, participants will learn how Google Forms may be integrated in meaningful ways for planning, student production, formative evaluation, and defining projects.

May 9, 2013 (12:10 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.) - Google Sites in Schools
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/12sk9NnIn this webinar, participants will learn how Google Sites can be integrated in the classroom, including ways in which existing Google Docs can be embedded.

May 15, 2013 (12:10 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.) - Integrating Google for Classroom Logistics and Communication
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/15cbLc0In this webinar, we will show ways in which Google Groups, GMAIL, Google Calendar, and Google Apps can help teachers with classroom logistics and communication with colleagues, students, and parents.

May 16, 2013 (12:10 p.m. – 12:40 p.m.) - Using Google Apps to Enhance and Automate Collaborative and Assessment Activities
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/ZC9vX5In this webinar, we will explore ways in which teachers can use Google Apps for Educators to enhance their teaching practices and simplify the integration of this powerful educational tool for student assessment and collaboration. Specifically, we will address tools for teachers to manage and automate digital files and assessments between teachers and students.

2Learn.ca Webinar Series: Copyright in EducationMay 14, 2013 (3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) - #2 of 2: Creative Commons, Usage Rights & Alternatives to Copyrighted Materials
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/10KOR6LWith the passing of Bill C-11, why is Creative Commons still relevant for teachers and students? Why should teachers be concerned about usage rights for any online resources? This session will provide background information that will address these questions. In addition, learn how to access and use multimedia that has been licensed for sharing and creative production from a variety of sources. This webinar is the second in a series of two 2Learn.ca webinars.

AAC/2Learn.ca Webinar 7 of 7: Creating Digital Forms for AssessmentMay 15, 2013 (3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
To Register for this single webinar event: http://bit.ly/ZANraEAssessment of student learning is an ongoing task for teachers. Making the collection of assessment evidence a seamless part of a teacher's workflow has never been easier with the growing features available in digital forms. Participants of this webinar will learn how to use Adobe Acrobat and Google Apps for Education to create customized and relevant forms that they may use on a regular basis. In addition, tools and techniques to share and disseminate assessment data will be discussed. This webinar is the seventh in a series of seven Alberta Assessment Consortium/2Learn.ca Education Society webinars.

Project Based Learning

Creating 3-D shapes in Kindergarten - Wendy Doll  Drayton Christian School

"Math, PBL and 21st Century Learning for All Students http://www.edutopia.org/blog/math-PBL-21st-century-learning-jason-ravitz

5 Tools to Help Students Learn How to Learn

Helping students learn how to learn: That’s what most educators strive for, and that’s the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. Students think about the choices they make throughout the process and the way they feel as they learn. Those observations are as important as the content they learn or the projects they create.


Years gone by: Relevant learning ties remain

"Today, I have access to thousands of teachers on Twitter, on blogs, and at Edcamps. These people have helped me just as much as you have helped me. I feel lucky to live in such a connected age in education."


 Schools give standards-based grading system a closer look
http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_22915299/minnesota-schools-give-standards-based-grading-system-closer
"School grading tends to favor students who "do school well," as Osseo's curriculum and instruction director, Wendy Biallas-Odell, put it: They show up on time, raise their hands, complete assignments and volunteer for extra credit. In some classrooms, students can make headway toward an A that way -- without proving they have mastered the material."

How Can I Make my Classroom a Playground?
Tim Wilhelmus
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=169047
Student Engagement Play
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=386314
Encourage Collaboration
Playgrounds are social by nature. When we play we seek others who want to take part in our games. We reach out to one another to help us construct the rules of our games and the details of our imaginary worlds. We also push ourselves in competition to prove our own mastery of a skill. At the same time rely on others to pick us up when we fall.

These social dynamics can be fostered in the classroom as well. In fact, classrooms that allow for a natural social environment often accelerate skills acquisition.


Play with Stuart Brown

Four Stages of Personalization - Meeting the learning needs of all students

http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/4-stages-of-personalization-music-metaphors-included/

Tools for Teaching: Ditching The Deficit Model
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-tool-ditching-deficit-model-rebecca-alber

"I'd much prefer my students engaged and invested in the learning than getting all the "right answers."


Excuses, Excuses......Will a child's future wait?
"It is not hard to learn more.  What is hard is to unlearn when you discover yourself wrong."  - Martin H. Fischer 
You know, I'm actually getting tired of the excuse, "There's just not enough time." I get it....I understand the feeling, but guess what? It is just an excuse.  It's an excuse for not wanting to change.  An excuse for avoiding the time and thought needed to examine your practices, your curriculum, your schedule, your skills and knowledge base. It's an excuse to stay comfortable in that nice well worn rut we have developed by repeating our same actions.  Why stretch our muscles when they have become comfortable at doing what we do year after year.  I hear the rallying cries of, "we just keep adding and adding, but no one ever takes anything away.  There is no time to learn this new technology tool, this teaching strategy, or to implement this new initiative." Or the ever infamous yeah buts, such as, "yeah but that won't work in my school, or with my administrator, or in our town."

http://whittyplcguy.blogspot.ca/2013/04/excuses-excuseswill-childs-future-wait.html?showComment=1365422277238#c1364915807599652903

School Based professional learning day for teachers  April 19th.

Early Learning Cohort meets with Judy Martin  April 25th and 26th - Aurora School - 9:15-3:00


We Give Books
 Dedicated to delivering award-winning books so you can read and share beautiful stories with the children in your life. By giving you great books for young readers, our goal is to create memories that will last a lifetime. Books are the heart of We Give Books — books for reading and books for giving!
Editor's Picks are free for anyone to read, anytime, anywhere, and on any device - without login!
http://www.wegivebooks.org/books


If You Want Children to Sit Still, You Have to Let Them Move
Children need to move their bodies in order to be able to stay focused and to learn.  A good thing to remember is that a nerve in the inner ear, called the vestibular nerve, serves to tell the body how upright, aroused, and present to be in direct response to movement. The only way to activate the vestibular nerve so that it can do its job is to move. http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2012/04/advice-from-ot-if-you-want-children-to.html

A FUN Brain Break..
Teach your kids the Sid Shuffle

Towards Zero Unemployment

What matters now:

• Trust
• Permission
• Remarkability
• Leadership
• Stories that spread
• Humanity: connection, compassion, and humility

All six of these are about standing out, not fitting in, about inventing, not duplicating.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/03/toward-zero-unemployment-.html

The Galileo Educational Network and the Faculty of Education presents

Innovators, Designers & Researchers: Leading a New Knowledge Network Conference 2013 | May 8 – 10, 2013
The goal of this conference is to create a new knowledge network –

• it is about participating, not only attending.
• It is an opportunity to create a knowledge network designed to critically reflect on practice and research in order to improve teaching, learning and research.

The conference will also provide an opportunity for educators to share how elements of the Teaching Effectiveness and the Twelfth Dimension frameworks live in the day-to-day practice of teaching and learning.

ClickHEREto register! Registration closes on April 26.
Visit the conference website for more information.


Recipe for high-school success: be curious, work late, ignore the textbooks
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/recipe-for-high-school-success-be-curious-work-late-ignore-the-textbooks/article10781804/?service=mobile

Teaching the last backpack generation
http://smartblogs.com/education/2013/03/06/teaching-the-last-backpack-generation/

What do we mean by Learning?
Sarason (2004) writes that "productive learning is the learning process which engenders and reinforces wanting to learn more" (p. x). Never has that been more possible than at this moment of abundant access to information, knowledge, and people via the web. But "wanting to learn more" suggests a transfer of power over learning from teacher to student—it implies that students discover the curriculum rather than have it delivered to them. It suggests that real learning that sticks—as opposed to learning that disappears once the test is over—is about allowing students to pursue their interests in the context of the curriculum. And it suggests that learning should have an authentic place in the world, that it should beshared with the world. I think John Dewey and Maria Montessori, both of whom saw school as a place for students to do real-life learning around the things that interested them, would be thrilled at the potentials that today's technologies bring to that vision.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/Students-First,-Not-Stuff.aspx


Talent Isn't Fixed and Other Mindsets That Lead to Greatness
In the creative world, we spend a lot of time talking about “talent.” It’s that special sauce—a certain style, a certain perspective, a certain aesthetic. If you’ve got it, you’ve got it. And if you don’t, well… it can’t really be taught, right?

Not exactly.

If we believe that someone’s talent is fixed—including our own—we are effectively writing off any options for growth. But if we believe that talent, or intelligence, or any other ability, evolves as a result of how much effort we put in, the opportunities are endless.

http://99u.com/articles/14379/talent-isnt-fixed-and-other-mindsets-that-lead-to-greatness

Illustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco

 Join The Teacher List today   http://www.theteacherlist.ca. 
Great technology ideas for your classroom. - Pete MacKay has taught in Alberta since 1990, across all grade levels, all of which have had a technology-based approach. Currently seconded to the 2Learn.ca Education Society from Edmonton Public Schools, he applies his range of experience to professional development activities for teachers across the province


Assessment - with Anne Davies and Sandra Herbst
http://connect2learning.com/live-events/
August 19-21 or August 21-23
We will support teachers from our division attending these sessions. Please contact Tom or Alexis for more information.


Grant Wiggins -
What works in education – Hattie’s list of the greatest effects and why it matters
http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/what-works-in-education-hatties-list-of-the-greatest-effects-and-why-it-matters/


Kids who are bad at math grow into adults who can't calculate the tip, study suggests
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57576402/kids-who-are-bad-at-math-grow-into-adults-who-cant-calculate-the-tip-study-suggests/

Developmental Assets in the School Community- Training Opportunity - April 19th

 Registration Deadline is April 1/13. Use this link to register:

https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=DmipAWF38kS8*7cy6xgYVA


Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/03/creating-classrooms-we-need-8-ways-into-inquiry-learning/

Is teaching kids that there is only one answer the right thing to do?

The End of Report Cards May be Nearer than you think......
http://acampbell99.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/the-last-and-final-days-of-report-cards/

Cultural Diversity Week!
Celebrating Central Alberta's Rich Mosaic from March 17-23 On March 21st, the United Nations will encourage the world to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; a day galvanizing us to work together, create change, eliminate Racism and celebrate Cultural Diversity. The date was chosen by the United Nations to commemorate the events of March 21st, 1960 in Sharpeville, South Africa:  

Early Learning in a Digital World

http://www.2learn.ca/2el/
This website of resources has been prepared to support parents of early learners aged 2 - 8 years in understanding the effective and appropriate use of technology, including safely navigating through the online landscape with your children.



INQUIRY
A joy to see a school built in 2009 that was designed with a student-centered vision!
http://www.patrickmlarkin.com/2013/03/an-amazing-school-in-uk.html