Six Improvements We Can Make As Educators

"Six Improvements we can make as educators," found at: http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/1956

1. Teachers need to love their students and administrators need to show teachers that they care about them
2. Everyone in the school needs to know the mission and vision of the school and buy into it
3. All stakeholders need to be motivated to work together for the ultimate good (meeting the needs of our students)
4. We should always be improving. We wouldn’t want a surgeon using 20 year old techniques so why should we be using 20 year old techniques in the classroom
5. Teachers need to be open and honest with students. It is OK for a teacher not to know something. We need to do away with the top down approach to rules in the classroom. Administrators need to be open and honest with teachers.
6. We need to create a school culture that is focused on learning and the culture defines the organization regardless of who the current leader is.

Five "Key Strategies" for Effective Formative Assessment

SMS,
I found the above-mentioned article very informative. The website is http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=11474
Listed below are the five "Key Strategies":
1. Clarifying, sharing, and understanding goals for learning and criteria for success with learners.
2. Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions, activities, and tasks that elicit evidence of students’ learning.
3. Providing feedback that moves learning forward.
4. Activating students as owners of their own learning.
5. Activating students as learning resources for one another.