It's nothing new for us. We have been studying the work of John Hattie for years and the impact that quality leadership can have on student achievement. We know that principals who understand, embrace, and implement the seven characteristics of highly effective leaders are more likely to positively impact student achievement than those who don't. A recent study published in the Education Next journal illustrates the impact that quality principals do, indeed, have on student performance.
"Our results indicate that highly effective principals raise the achievement of a typical student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a single school year; ineffective principals lower achievement by the same amount. These impacts are somewhat smaller than those associated with having a highly effective teacher. But teachers have a direct impact on only those students in their classroom; differences in principal quality affect all students in a given school."
Have you reviewed those seven characteristics of highly effective leaders lately?
Highly Effective Principals Raise Student Achievment
To read the study, click: Study
As Feedback continues to be a major area of focus for our buildings SIP visits, I thought this article provided us with some concrete examples to improve feedback between students and teachers. The author, Heather Rader, describes three strategies: Schema; 10:2 Theory; and Exit Slips that are quick and easy to implement in the classroom, yet provide the essential feedback we need to ensure students are on the right track.
"While it may sound like a Geico commercial, five minutes spent on feedback before, during and at the end of a lesson can save...a lot."
Getting and Giving Student Feedback
Knowing Your Learning Target
For the last few years, each School Improvement Team in the Hilliard City Schools selected one Characteristic of Highly Effective Teachers on which to focus. Many buildings are explicitly imbedding the “Knows and Applies Best Practice” characteristic. The first classroom look-for is “Learning targets for the lesson are clearly identified and students are aware of them.” Much professional discussion has occurred in HCSD in our early attempts to gain clarity on the meaning of a clear learning target. This week’s article, “Knowing Your Learning Target”, explains that “They convey to students the destination of the lesson—what to learn, how deeply to learn it, and exactly how to demonstrate their new learning.” The article describes the difference between an instructional objective for teachers and shared learning targets. The article could be beneficial to teachers as they intentionally and consistently communicate clear learning targets with students.
Knowing Your Learning Target
“Some Handy Tools for YouTube” is simply a brief, practical blog post about tools for both creation and consumption of YouTube videos. If you’d like to get more out of YouTube for your students and/or yourself, read this blog. OK, maybe Steven Anderson isn’t necessarily the best speller on the planet, but I didn’t care so much about his spelling as I learned a bit more about getting rid of the distractions and comments that come along with some of the videos, easy editing, adding soundtracks, trimming videos to only the parts I really need, creating my own private screening room, creating playlists, and more. As an added bonus, the blogger invites comments from others so that they, too, can share some of their favorite YouTube tools. It’s certainly worth the quick read.
Some Handy Tools for YouTube
I'm willing to bet one of the toughest struggles teachers will face is this inevitable shift from keeper of the knowledge to being on the outside looking in at google, the black hole of facts. If a teacher would feel the sense that their curriculum and their self worth can be outshined by google, thus preventing the evil search engine from penetrating the classroom, I would say it's time to reexamine your teaching style. If a teacher is an outdated human version of a search engine, we are failing our students. We shouldn't see a teacher with a list of vocab words on a transparency having the students recite them after searching 30 minutes for the definition in the back of the book. That's google. We should see a teacher actively engaging the students in the deeper meaning of those words and the context, concepts, and any other "c" word you want to throw in. Going from "teacher" to "coach" is the wave I want to be a part of. Walking with the students through the journey of learning and development. In this article it speaks to this point. Have a great week!
Future of Learning: Obsolescence of Knowledge, Return to Real Teaching
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