Posting (weekly)

• How Are We Defining College Readiness? – SchoolBook

  • • Having students retest in English and math until a 75 was earned. (The target of scoring 80 on the algebra Regents was not set for schools yet.)
    • Having students take at least one advanced placement course before graduating.
    • Having students attend a Saturday SAT academy. (Financing from the Gates grant ended in 2009, and as a result of citywide budget cuts during 2009, 2010 and 2011, the Saturday SAT academy also ended.)

• SchoolBook - New York City

  From the NY Times, this site provides school news, data and conversations about NYC schools.

  tags: education NYC trends resources

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Closer Look at "EngageNY"

EngageNY is a powerful teaching and learning clearinghouse designed to support New York teachers, principals, administrators, and Network Teams in rolling out the Common Core State Standards. as well as teacher and school leader effectiveness. The team at EngageNY clearly spent a great deal of time compiling and aligning top-notch resources and tools to support a school's whole school change journey.

Some of the "Featured Resources" on the site include:
1) Teacher Evaluation Roadmap -- a roadmap designed to help school leaders decide on the best possible teacher evaluation system (e.g. Danielson's framework, NYSTCE, etc.)
2) Common Core Video Series -- These videos were created in partnership with NYS PBS and are designed to help educators in becoming more versatile in rolling out CCSS in their schools, specifically ELA and Math.
3) Driven by Data -- For any school looking to implement DDI -- Paul Bambrick-Santoyo's book, Driven by Data is essential reading.  This page includes many of the resources found in the CD Rom that comes with the book. The assessment calendar sample and analysis rating sheet are both worth their weight in gold.

There is quite a bit to sift through here, but the user-friendly interface, and tag based infrastructure makes the site a breeze to navigate. This should definitely be a mandatory stop for all NYS and city teachers and administrators, as well as educators across the country.

Digging into the Core

Below are some bookmarks I marked up with Diigo while attending a recent Common Core institute. The big push this year in the New York City Department of education is to "engage all students in at least one literacy task and one math task aligned to strategically selected Common Core standards" (From DOE Citywide Instructional Expectations 2011-2012).

• Common Core State Standards Initiative | Mathematics | High School: Geometry | Introduction
  • geometric objects can be applied in diverse contexts—interpreting a schematic drawing, estimating
    
• Common Core State Standards Initiative | Mathematics | Introduction | How to read the grade level standards
  • These Standards do not dictate curriculum or teaching methods
  • What students can learn at any particular grade level depends upon what they have learned before.
• Common Core State Standards Initiative | Mathematics | Introduction | Standards for Mathematical Practice
  • These practices rest on important “processes and proficiencies” with longstanding importance in mathematics education
  • process standards of problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, representation, and connections
    
• Universal Design for Learning  - Curriculum Mapping - New York City Department of Education
  • The goal of using Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) is to provide the highest academic standards to all of our students. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles that provides teachers with a structure to develop their instruction to meet the needs of a diversity of learners.
  • three principles of UDL; providing options in representation, action/expression, and engagement.
    
• Common Core Library - Common Core Library - New York City Department of Education
  This is the DOE's CCSS library. There is some excellent resources here, and will support our work in understanding the vision for NYC is heading, in terms of instructional expecations, high-leverage standards and much more.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Improving Navigation

A Google a Day  is a a wormhole inspired time machine that enables users to solve spoiler free puzzles by searching the Internet as it existed before A Google a Day launched. I could see this being used as great opening activity across all content areas, with an emphasis on teaching young people navigation, research and critical thinking skills.

Moving Beyond the Walls...

Check out this inspiring video demonstrating how students at the NYC iSchool are partnering with educators at the East Bronx Academy to move beyond the four walls of the classroom through virtual instruction. Through the use of Skype and other collaborative learning tools (Google Docs, video chat, etc.) the students are able to receive real-time instruction for advanced placement courses that are currently not being offered at the iSchool.

One of the students featured in the video, Angelica Modabber, said: "It definitely is working. I don't know if it is just because she is a good teacher or because it's just kind of a good way to learn."

Watch Video

CCSS Curriculum for ELA

Source: Common Core, Inc.

In doing some research for a recent workshop I facilitated, entitled "From 'Complex Text' to Complex Interactive Media" -- I came across this amazing resource, The Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project. Essentially, this space is a clearinghouse/digital mecca  focused on developing curriculum maps that translate the new Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten through 12th grade into unit maps that teachers can use to plan their year, craft their own more detailed curriculum, and create lesson plans.

I was blown away by the level of work that went into unpacking the standards, designing the units, making interdisciplinary connections, and much more. After browsing the Project Team link -- one will find out quickly that this is a top-notch team of educators from of variety of backgrounds working collaboratively to build out the highest level mapping project I have come across in ages.

New York state is only a short while away from a full-blown Common Core implementation, and this exactly the kind of tool teachers can utilize to support their growth and raise student achievement.

Posting (weekly)

• Teacher Development: Fueling Teachers to Go High-Tech | Edutopia

  This article and video explores how one elementary school in Columbia, South Carolina transformed itself into a 21st century teaching and learning community.

  tags: techintegration 21stcentury-skills plc edutopia

• Ed. Tech DOE Specific Resources

  tags: DOE Unblock resources technology integration

• 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Technology - NYTimes.com

  tags: tools ed-tech technology integration

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.