My TLAC colleagues and I have always loved Deans of Students—we think they do some of the most important work in any school and have always thought it was a major problem that they are asked to do such critical and challenging work without access for the most part to quality training and resources. In response…
In our work supporting remote teaching, we’ve been using the term Dissolve the Screen to describe one of the key tools we see successful teachers using. To “dissolve the screen” is to heighten students’ awareness of the back-and-forth exchange that still exists between their teacher and themselves so they feel it more strongly. To connect this…
Teachers and school leaders in need of a bit of good news take note: We are excited to preview details of our Expanded Reading Reconsidered Curriculum Pilot for the 2020-21 school year, which will officially be available on May 4. Background: Two and a half years ago, with great enthusiasm (and a bit of trepidation), we…
Watched a few synchronous online lessons today and was struck by how lacking in purposefulness the first few minutes were in several of them. Teachers seemed agenda-less. There was no clear starting point. Or there was a clear starting point but only after 6 or 7 minutes of idle chatter. There was insufficient clarity about what…
As you can tell from reading this blog, our team has been furiously watching footage of online instruction. We’ve been inspired by the enthusiasm and humility of teachers as they take on sudden new challenges in the name of remote instruction. Last week we watched several teachers doing Retrieval Practice as part of their online lessons. …