Posts by neonadmin
Growing Myself, Growing CATDC in Central California
On February 4, heads, administrators, and teacher leaders from seven Central California schools will gather to engage in a dialogue about how best to approach local ongoing programming.
Read MoreJoin the Club
Clubs and affinity spaces are designed to appeal to people of common interests and experiences. This shared experience ignites a sense of understanding and support within the group, a familiar camaraderie. The sense of empowerment that exists in affinity spaces is more critical when this group of people is part of a less dominant, disadvantaged,…
Read MoreA Rising Tide Will Lift All Boats
My parents immigrated to the United States from Central America, and I began my school career as an English Language Learner. Having graduated from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Saint Mary’s Kalmanovitz School of Education, I understand what it means to…
Read MoreSummer Reading List: Emotional Resilience, Deep Learning, and Culturally Responsive Teaching
LEADERSHIP The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Effective schools have collaborative environments where teachers and staff are free to be innovative. As a leader, you are crucial in creating a culture that is safe, honors vulnerability, and has a clear mission and purpose. This book by Daniel Coyle offers a roadmap for…
Read MoreHit Pause! And Other Advice to Round Out the School Year
I was talking with my colleague recently about shifting a slightly large school policy, and as we were hashing out the specifics, I started to do a quick body scan: I felt tired; I was a bit ornery, and my brain was processing at a slower rate. The conclusion: it’s May, and I’m feeling it.…
Read MoreDescribing Student Experiences in the Math Classroom
In a sentence or two, describe what your students did in class today. Go ahead. Don’t be shy. Talk to your device. Or engage in this activity with a colleague. Lessons. Tasks. Investigations. Projects. Problems. Worksheets. Labs. Assignment. Handouts. Exercises. Classwork. Did you use any of these terms in your description? Regardless of your answer,…
Read MoreMake Your Dumb Smart
Most of us know the times of day and days of the week when we do our best work. Tuesday mornings I feel like I am on fire, getting lots done with all cylinders firing. By Friday afternoons, though, I feel burned out. I am tired, daunted by the pile that has accumulated in my…
Read MoreLet the Nervous Come Out (And Other Advice From Kids)
Watch this first. the Scared is scared from Bianca Giaever on Vimeo. February is a great time for storytelling and story listening. Whether in California or Vermont, there is an inherent coziness of the month, nestled between the January return and the sight of spring to come. I recently rewatched one of my all-time favorite…
Read MoreWe Can’t Afford Not to Discuss Current Events
We discuss current events just about every day in my eighth-grade U.S. history classes. Sometimes it takes five minutes, when I bring in an article I think students should know about – on taxes or technology, oral arguments or international diplomacy. Sometimes it takes the whole period, especially on Fridays when students give presentations and…
Read MoreVacations and Showers: Another Reason for Winter Break
At some point this week or next most of our schools will close for “Winter Break.” Why? Perhaps the most obvious reason for this school vacation is Christmas and Chanukah and the Judeo-Christian cultural norm to take an extended break during this time to celebrate and visit family. As educators, the vacation provides much needed…
Read MoreThe One Word We Need for a Great School Year
I love to drop in on classes for five to fifteen minutes. Most often I leave having observed something about how a student learns or the way a teacher teaches. Occasionally, however, I learn something that makes me have the proverbial, “aha!” moment. That just happened. After leaving a fifth grade humanities class, I immediately…
Read More4 Must-Read Books for the Beginning of the School Year
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain This book by Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction and is appropriate for all teachers at any experience level who strive to make their classrooms a safe and rigorous place for all their students. In…
Read MoreThe Learning Continues
At the end of my final faculty meeting as Dean of Faculty Development at The Athenian School, I invited everyone to turn and talk to their neighbors about their plans for summer learning: not the assigned educational articles that I had sent out that morning along with the agenda, but their own chosen reading and…
Read MoreCreating a Growth Mindset In and Out of the Classroom
We want our students to achieve growth, both in and out of the classroom. And we know that simple shifts and practice can have a profound impact on both their work and behavior. Building on Carol Dweck’s work on Growth Mindset and Carol Thomlinson’s Differentiated Instruction, we can design a roadmap for students to meet…
Read MoreHow to Add Movement to Your Lessons
“If you feel thirsty, your students are probably dehydrated.” I learned this statement in college while training to become a backpacking leader for freshman orientation trips. We, as senior trip leaders, were tasked with keeping tabs on the needs of our groups by measuring our own energy levels and then imagining a (potentially) amplified version…
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