Hold My Chalk

I have been doing some research into some classroom management strategies to synthesize some of the philosophies I have been exposed to over the years. In the process of doing that I have run across what at first appears to be conflicting information. Many people will tell you that the most important skill a teacher can have is good classroom management. I don’t disagree with that statement personally, but when you look at Hattie’s research you will see that this does not have the greatest impact on student achievement. In fact out of 252 factors, classroom management lands almost in the middle at 134. For those of you interested in the actual effect size numbers, Classroom management has an effect size of 0.35 which falls below the “hinge point.” The item with the greatest effect size is Collective Teacher Efficacy and it has an effect size of 1.57. Any factor with a positive effect size has a positive impact while a negative effect size has a negative impact but that is oversimpl...

This week there are several items I wanted to share with you.  Some because they are quality pieces and others just because they serve as a good reminder that not everything is new that is innovative.  Sometimes we need to re-examine what we have used previously and find ways to make it more effective. The first article I really thought about excluding from the list completely because after my initial read through I realized that it is just a new name for something teachers have done for years. They are calling it crowdsourcing, but you may call it collaborative learning, or cooperative learning groups or something very similar. Crowdsourcing in the Classroom Crowdsourcing has become an important and simple way of solving challenging problems since the advent and evolvement of the Internet. Companies, scientists, charities etc. sometimes crowsource to acquire help from the crowd to get their difficult jobs done. But have you ever heard about crowdsourcing in classroom? This n...

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. This lyric from the Byrds is a direct quote from Ecclesiastes 3 and is a reminder of the change and seasons we all face in life.  When I started working in Clinton twenty years ago as a para, I never knew how long this season would last.  This season is coming to an end and I wanted to reflect on and give back to the people that have been such an integral part of this season. There is always an emotional component to any change and one that is twenty years in the making is bound to be laden with emotion.  As I compose this I am flooded with memories of students, colleagues, mentors and friends.  These experiences have shaped who I am as an educator and a person.  I have learned and grown along they way and I am thankful for so many things.  As I reflect on those, I want to share some of them with you. Always do what is best for students.    This is something that I lea...