Administrator_Quotes-of-the-Week_Bank

**Quotes of the Week Bank**:
- "Educations research is not a blunt instrument that shatters all doubt about best practice. Rather it provides general direction that must be interpreted by individual districts, schools, and teachers in terms of their unique circumstances." (Marzano, 2007, pg.5)) What are some of your campus's 'unique circumstances' in regard to technology, population, communication, or otherwise?
 * "The Art and Science of Teaching" by Marzano:**

- "'In Pursuit of the Expert Pedagogue,' Berliner (1986) ultimately concludes that effective teaching is a dynamic mixture of expertise in a cast array of instructional strategies combined with a profound understanding of the individual students in class and their needs at particular points in time." (Marzano, 2007, pg. 5) What instructional strategies do you feel the use of interactive whiteboards, IWBs, and/or other forms of technology could best support? What questions do you have at this time about IWBs? (please include other questions that you feel might be relative as well)

-In "What Works in Schools" Marzano (2003) presents a framework for understanding the characteristics of effective schools and effective teachers within those schools. Three general characteristics of effective teaching are: 1. Use of effective instructional strategies 2. Use of effective classroom management strategies' 3. Effective classroom curriculum What are your expectations for your teachers in regards to these characteristics?

- "Action Step 1. Make a Distinction Between Learning Goals and Learning Activities or Assignments" pg. 17-19. How can teacher utilize IWBs to meet/extend/elaborate the learning goals (TEKS) of a particular activity?

-Figure 1.12 "Student Progress Chart" "The teacher can discuss progress with each student regarding each learning goal. Also, in a tracking system such as this one the student and teacher are better able to communicate with parents regarding the student's progress in specific areas of information and skill" (Marzano, 2007, pg. 26) "Focusing on knowledge gain also provides a legitimate way to recognize and celebrate-as opposed to reward- success." (Marzano, 2007, pg. 27) [Focusing] on the knowledge gain for each student [being] recognized and celebrated promotes self-regulation (Marzano, 2007, pg. 27). How do your teachers track/monitor student progress/achievement? If you have specific forms that you use, please share.

- First paragraph, Chapter 2, pg. 29- "If students understand the content provided in these critical- input experiences, they have a good start toward the accomplishment of learning goals." What are some traditional learning experiences do you feel are the most valuable? How do you think the use of an IWB or other forms of technology could impact student understanding/knowledge gained/success? How are these (traditional vs. technology) similar? How are they different?

- "Over the years there have been many discussions regarding the need for students to process new information in ways that make personal sense. Under such banners as constructivism and brain research, books have discussed the need for active processing on the part of students...The basic generalization has been that learners must be actively engaged in the processing of information and that the teaching and learning process involves an interaction among the teacher, the students, and the content." (Marzano, 2007, pg. 30-31) "The teaching-learning process is interactive in nature and involves the implicit and explicit negotiation of...meanings" (Cobb, Yackel, and Wood, 1992, p.5) {Marzano referenced on p. 31} How can IWBs enhance or extend this interaction compared to traditional methods?

- Marzano discusses what he calls 'previewing' that is much like the 'engage' of the 5E model. These activities are especially helpful/useful for students who have limited experience with the background knowledge about a topic. An IWB appeals to visual learners, but how can teachers up the anty?

- Barley (2002, pg. 84) identified several macrostrategies that are useful for students at risk: 1. cumulatively review information read 2. sequence information 3. summarize paragraphs and issues 4. state main ideas in as few words as possible 5. predict and check outcomes Do you agree? Why or why not? Are there other strategies that you would add? How can the use of IWBs or other forms of technology further help? (see pg. 35-40 for some traditional macrostrategies- can these translate/ be enhanced with an IWB?)

- "Action Step 1. Identify Critical-Input Experiences" pg. 40-41. How can IWBs better promote collaboration during these experiences?

-"Action Step 3. Organize Students into Groups to Enhance the Active Processing of Information" pg. 42-44. How do your teachers promote collaboration now? What are some ways that an IWB or other technology tools enhance collaboration?

-"Action Step 4-7" pg. 44-57. How do your teachers do this now? What are ways an IWB or other technology tool enhance these instructional practices/strategies?

- Marzano discusses the popular trend where "practice" has taken on a negative connotation. What are your thoughts on the topic? How can Web 2.0 tools and the IWB advance "practice?" (p.62)

- "Homework" pg. 65-71.Some quotes of interest: 1. "One of the most common reasons cited for homework is that it extends learning opportunities beyond the school day. This logic might have merit in U.S. K-12 education because 'schooling occupies only about 13% of the waking hours of the first 18 years of life,' which is less than the amount of time spent watching television." (Fraser, Walberg, Welch, & Hatties, 1987, pg. 234. Referenced by Marzano pg. 66). 2. For secondary students: the Cooper synthesis (1989) found that the benefit of homework continued up to one to two hours per night, or 7 to 12 hours per week produced the largest effect size. Bennett, Finn, and Cribb (1999) recommend 10 minutes per night, per grade level. (Marzano, 2007, pg. 69) 3. "By inference, large amount of poorly structured homework will not be beneficial and may in face be detrimental. Small amounts of well-structured homework, on the other hand, may produce the desired effect" (Marzano, 2007, pg. 69). 4. "Homework should involve parents and guardians in appropriate ways. Operationally, this means that parents and guardians should be provided with guidelines regarding how to help with homework. Roderique and colleagues (1994) report that only 35% of school districts have written homework policies that provide even general guidelines (Marzano, 2007, pg. 69). What does homework look like at your campus? What are your personal beliefs? Aspects/policies you might change based on p. 82-84?

-Chapter 5 discusses student engagement. 5 areas that can provide useful insights into how teachers might increase student engagement, which are discussed in detail pg. 100-103: 1. High energy 2. Missing information 3. The self-system 4. Mild pressure 5. Mild controversy and competition How can we better utilize an IWB to support this?

- "Action Step 1. Use Games that Focus on Academic Content" pg .103-107. How can an IWB enhance these games? Go to [|Promethean Planet] and search for templates for these games. Please post any that you find that you like.

- IWBs include a voting device, how could this be used in response to wait time, discussed on pg. 103, 107-108.

-Chapter 9, "Affective Tone" pg. 166-167. See bullets. How does your campus treat students of different academic levels?

-"Action Step 1-3, pg. 177-186. See bullets. In general, what mediums do your teachers currently use? What is your campus goal?

-Figure 10.3 "Questions for Daily Reflection" What aspects of this might you want to include in the Technology Walk-Through evaluation tool?

[|Interactive White Boards: Engagement is not Interaction] -What does an 'interactive classroom' look like to you? What are your 'must haves'?
 * EdTech Swami:**

[|School of the Future Part 3: Administration]

"//The most impor­tant ques­tion for me is: what are the qual­i­ties we need to see in pro­gres­sive admin­is­tra­tors to insure that edu­ca­tional reform can move for­ward. How much edu­ca­tion or expe­ri­ence does a per­son need to be an effec­tive admin­is­tra­tor in the 21st cen­tury? What per­sonal qual­i­ties do we wish our lead­ers to pos­sess? How can we insure that the great­est tal­ent goes to the most needy schools?"//

- Reflect on your personal qualities that you already feel are strong and/or be developed to be an administrator in the 21st century.

[|Black Cloud: What Educators Could Learn from Ning's Swan Song]

"//Web 2.0 tech­nolo­gies like Ning are attrac­tive to cre­ative edu­ca­tors because they are free to set up, but we need to remem­ber that noth­ing is really free. Ning is a com­pany that had investors that paid real money to get it started. These investors of course are not phil­an­thropists, they want a return for their invest­ment. When you boil it all down there are really only a hand­ful of ways to make money with a web­site. You either make money with adver­tise­ment, charge a sub­scrip­tion to use it, or use it to sell stuff. Ning was attempt­ing to make money with adver­tise­ment but I have a dis­tinct rec­ol­lec­tion of some edu­ca­tors grip­ing about Nings with ads and ask­ing the com­pany to make spe­cial arrange­ments for edu­ca­tors, which I think that they did for a while. Many of us just believed that Ning was allow­ing us to use their soft­ware and server space out of the kind­ness of their hearts, which yes­ter­day became clear wasn’t the case."//

//"So what can we learn from this expe­ri­ence? We can learn what we have always known, that it is never about the tool! We have to be care­ful never to fall in love with or rely too heav­ily on one tool, or it could end up betray­ing you like Mol­lie did Junior year. It always has to be about what the tool does. To that end edu­ca­tors need to con­stantly make them­selves aware of alter­na­tives to what they are using. Luck­ily we don’t have to do it on our own. This PLN // //is filled with peo­ple con­stantly scour­ing the Inter­net for resources and shar­ing them with all of us. We just need to make sure that if we don’t click on that link, or read that review that we at least book­mark it and look at it later. We need to insist that our pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment never has the name of a tool in the title like “How to use web­site X”, instead the PD // //titles should read more like “Strate­gies for Crit­i­cal think­ing” or “Teach Your Stu­dents to Prob­lem Solve”. These PD // //ses­sions should give you a menu of tools to use, so that you can choose what best works for you. But the learn­ing should never focus on the tool, because as we learned yes­ter­day if you are mar­ried to the tool you could be in for a messy divorce!"//

- How do we support our teachers in using these technology tools without becoming 'married' to that specific tool?

[|School of the Future Part 2: Infrastructure] "//What should the build­ing look like? How should the rooms be laid out, how large should they be, what shape should they be, what color? Should there be chalk­boards in the front, Smart­boards, or noth­ing at all? What if all of the rooms were round and there were only padded chairs, and each stu­dent was given one of those lap­top tables with the squishy mate­r­ial under­neath so they could work on their school issued lap­top. What do you think? You have a blank slate, and a blank check, how would you design this building?"//

-What is your response to the above questions? What would be your personal ideal?

[|Teachers: Go Back to School, In Your Own Building] - Do you provide teachers these kinds of opportunities? If so, how does it work? What kind of feedback have you gotten?

[|Maybe We Need to Cut Our Adminstrators Some Slack] (this was more for fun) - Thoughts?? :)

[|Pass it on! Some Great Blogs to Take a Look At] Looks to be some good blogs to incorporate through out- ideas, educational discussion, etc.

[|Project Roundup: Poetry Portfolio] Looking at the new Language Arts TEKS, what do you think of this activity? Is this something that you would have your teachers doing? What adjustments and/or questions do you have about this activity?

[|Getting I.T. Right-]** (link to main site)
 * RRISD Technology Blog:

[|Round Rock HS Teacher of the Year] -How David Osman uses a variety of technology during instruction- including the use of the ActiveSlate.

[|Callison's Interactive Classrooms] -Use of a variety of technology to enhance/extend lessons on volume, inherited traits, etc. (Video link is not valid anymore)

[|Blackland Prairie Recognizes Technology Integration] -Link to Blackland Prairie's blog about technology integration throughout the campus

Blogs: [|Defining Defferentiated Instruction] and [|Active Learning is Key to Differentiated Instruction] -How does differentiation look on your campus? How can an IWB allow teachers to differentiate? How do you think it compares to differentiating using traditional instructional practices?

[|Liven Up Your Lessons by Giving Students Choices] -What are some creative ways teachers give students choices on your campus? What do you think of the suggestions made here? How can we effectively integrate an IWB to give students more choices and/or opportunities?

[|Challenging Students to Think More Deeply] -"What effective things do you do to cinch rope your students into active learning?" Please post your thoughts to the blog as well.

[|School Successes with Dr. Seuss: Exploring Themes Through Creative Activities] -An example of how one school in Hawaii uses interactive activities and technology to explore the moral themes of Dr. Seuss.

[|iPod, iListen, iRead] -Using an iPod to improve reading fluency and accuracy among other skills/topics.


 * "Rewired" by Larry D. Rosen, PhD.:

Research/case studies**: [|Preliminary_Report_on_ActivClassroom.pdf] Case study conducted by Marzano during the 2008-09 school year on the use and impact of the Promethean board on student achievement. The following are the eight evaluation questions that were the focus of this study: 1. What effect does Promethean technology have on students’ achievement regarding the subject matter content taught by their teachers? 2. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ between school levels? 3. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ between grade levels? 4. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ between academic content areas? 5. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ based on length of teaching experience? 6. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ based on how long the teacher has used the technology? 7. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ based on the percentage of instructional time the technology is used in the classroom? 8. Does the effect of Promethean technology differ based on teachers’ confidence in their use of the technology?

- "When the results of the 85 independent treatment/control studies are combined and corrected for attenuation, the overall percentile gain is 17 . (For a detailed discussion of attenuation, see Hunter & Schmidt, 2004.) This means that on the average, the use of Promethean technology in the evaluation study represents a gain of 17 percentile points over what would be expected if teachers did not use Promethean technology (for a discussion of how effect sizes are combined and an overall significance level is computed see Lipsey & Wilson, 2001). (Marzano, 2009, pg.26)

- "The average student in the Preliminary Report 30 Marzano Research Laboratory 2008/2009 Promethean Evaluation Study March 2009 treatment group (i.e., the group that used Promethean technology) scored higher than 67% of the students in the control group (i.e., the group that did not use Promethean technology) and would be ranked 10th in the control group as opposed to 15th in the treatment group." (Marzano, 2009, pg. 36-37)

- "All four academic content areas exhibited a percentile gain greater than 10 percent. Additionally, three of the four areas exhibited a percentile gain greater than 15 percent." (Marzano, 2009, pg. 39)

- See pg.39-42 for graphs and analysis of results.

- "One can build a logical case that these last four moderator variables are related. Again they are: • length of teaching experience • how long teachers have used the technology • percentage of time the technology was used in the classroom • teachers’ confidence in their use of the technology" (Marzano, 2009, pg. 42)

- "Considering these as a set, one might predict relatively large percentile gains in student achievement under the following conditions: • a teacher has 10 years or more of teaching experience • a teacher has used the technology for two years or more • a teacher uses the technology between 75 and 80 percent of the time in his or her classroom • a teacher has high confidence in his or her ability to use the technology"