Teacher collaboration tips for members of a professional learning community. Learn how to create a positive culture through self-reflection.

Are you an L&D professional? Then, check out this info-graphic which shares a few must know e-learning acronyms.

At my school, we use Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle. Many of our staff are new the PYP and new to inquiry-based teaching and learning, so we find this inquiry cycle provides some structure to t…

ATD's Adult Learning Certificate--an interactive, self-paced program--offers critical knowledge of the basic theory underlying good practices for adult learning in the workplace, and get practical tips to add to your training and development toolbox.

A chart showing the structure of TO BE with Cities, Countries and Nationalities. Great for answering the question "Where are you from?"

Explore our comprehensive collection of classroom resources, including classroom posters, engaging activities, classroom management techniques, and more. Enhance your teaching and inspire your students with these valuable insights.

Everybody is talking about RIGOR or asking, "What is rigor?" If you do any research on rigor, you will find that rigor does not mean difficulty. Instead rigor means the level of mental processing that must occur to answer a question, perform a task or generate a product. Two widely used measures of rigor are Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels. Both measures of rigor go from the simple to the complex. Karen Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix integrates these models as a strategy for analyzing the level of teacher lessons and assessments. Bloom's verbs indicate the level of performance or the level of questioning. Webb's Depth of Knowledge focuses on the complexity of standards in order to successfully complete an assessment or a task. The outcome (product) is the focus of the depth of understanding. In my district, we have been using Karen Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix to map out our learning events in our UbD units This matrix allows you to map out your lessons and assessments to ensure a balance at all levels. Certainly there is a place for recall and reproduction or routine thinking, but this matrix can be used for "tweaking" some of our lessons to make them more rigorous. When you unpack the Common Core Standards, look at the verbs and align the standard with the level of Bloom's taxonomy. Then check out what follows the verb to indicate the level of understanding. What comes after the verb is more important than the verb itself. For example, DOK 1 Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. DOK 2 Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. DOK 3 Describe a model you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock cycle. Online, you can easily find copies of the Cognitive Rigor Matrix for ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies. You can also find the Bloom's Posters created by Wake County Public Schools System Academically Gifted Program. I am attaching a link to my free flipchart on DOK in the Content areas on TPT. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/DOK-Depth-of-Knowledge-in-the-Content-Areas-455359 You can also download my free Depth of Knowledge posters for your classroom.

In order to be diagnosed with ADHD by a professional, the ADHD symptoms must have persisted for at least six months and have been present before the age of 12 years according to the DSM-5.

My role on the R&D Core Team involves looking at emerging technologies that will become important for student learning and getting the school ready to implement them in the future through prototyping them now. At the moment our group is looking at the research that indicates users are moving beyond a single device (at present a laptop) and are using secondary mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Our BYOD - Device 2 R&D Task Force is currently in the research stage - we are investigating mobile technology integration with a second device - and one of the books I've read as part of this research is Kipp D Rogers' book Mobile Learning Devices. It's very clear to me that there is a vast difference between using technology and integrating technology. Many schools who claim to be integrating technology are, in my opinion, simply using it, because they have not yet questioned and identified the reasons for using technology. Indeed I've come across administrators in those schools who have been unable to articulate the ways that technology can transform learning - they are still talking about it "enhancing" learning or calling technology "a tool". In such places, it's not surprising to find that some teachers are simply using technology for technology's sake, without developing the habits of mind necessary for the true embedding of technology into their pedagogy. On the other hand, as Kip Rogers writes, I've also experienced schools and classrooms where: True integration of technology happens ... where technology is accessible and available for activities as they are initiated. True integration of technology happens when form supports function when the tools support the goals of the curriculum and assist students in reaching their instructional goals. For technology to be accessible and available for activities as they are initiated does imply a 1:1 programme or access to the students' own mobile devices. In schools that don't have such a programme it's not always easy to plan for such spontaneous use of technology if you have to book a cart of laptops or a lab. The TPACK framework seeks to address integration through a close relationship between three forms of knowledge: content, pedagogy and technology. Research shows that authentic technology integration occurs "when there is an understanding and explicit negotiation of the relationships among these three components" and that to be a successful integrator involves a teacher being capable of using all these relationships: this teacher possesses an expertise that is considerably different from and greater than someone with knowledge in just one of them. Reading this was an Aha moment for me. It explains why I was frustrated in getting true technology integration at a previous school. The emphasis was too much on one of these forms of knowledge, and not on the interplay between them. Now that we are considering prototyping the use of a second mobile device, I feel it's important to examine these three facets and the relationships between them. When considering learning and the use of the many possible BYOD2s that students may have and bring to school, we all need to be very clear about how good teaching requires an understanding of how technology relates to both the pedagogy and the content of our programmes. We need to be sure that we are truly integrating and not just using the BYOD2s. The TPACK image is free to use and reproduce with attribution.

Incorporating technology has always been a part of our teaching, but now with distance learning and teaching digitally, we have to incorporate more than ever! Learn about the SAMR model and how it affects online learning and the technology you use in the online classroom!

A poster created for our English language arts and social studies departments (humanities) to use in their classroom, as well as in the library.