When Concourse Village Elementary in the Bronx had to close their school building due to Covid-19, principal Alexa Sorden and her staff pivoted quickly to deliver engaging lessons via video.…

Aaron Tombrella has published a new article on Edutopia. The article is titled ‘Revising Your Teaching Philosophy for This Crisis’.

Tombrella says, “Like many teachers around the nation, I recently went from face-to-face teaching to online teaching with little time to prep. I first tried to emulate my normal daily procedures virtually—I thought the consistency and familiarity would be beneficial. I was wrong: Although I was doing what I thought was my best for students, there was an overall lack of engagement, even with these familiar procedures in place.

I was discouraged. I knew where I needed to go, but I couldn’t see how to get there. When we received confirmation that we would not return to school for the rest of the school year, I took a weekend to reflect. If I was lost during this time, my students surely were too. (more…)

Laura McCullough has published a new article ‘Creating a Teacher-Driven Professional Development Program’ on  Edutpoia.

McCullough says, “In the usual professional development structure, teachers teach and administrators or coaches observe and offer a list of areas for growth. Changing the design so that instructional leaders give teachers the opportunity to self-assess and self-reflect makes professional development more useful and meaningful. A teacher-driven PD plan gets teachers excited about learning and invested in the opportunity to grow.

TAKE YOUR TIME AND PLAN

To create a teacher-driven professional development program, allow ample time to create sustainable plans. At my school, the Academy for Leadership at Millcreek Elementary, an instructional leadership team began the process for teacher-driven PD a full year before implementation. (more…)