Teacher Leadership Today

Confessions of a 'Twilight'-Loving English Teacher

One of the rites of passage for new members of the Teacher Leaders Network Forum is to pen an essay for our TLN partnership page at Teacher Magazine. Jennifer Morrison, high school English teacher, PhD candidate and lover of 18th/19th century novels of manners offered us the “Confessions of a Twilight Addict,” in which she admits: “I can’t get enough. I’ve read it —all four books (five if you count the unpublished manuscript, Midnight Sun)—an embarrassing number of times.”

Between blushes, Jen describes the parallels she sees among the classics of early women's lit and the fiction of Stephanie Meyers.

Twilight is timeless because it operates on a number of levels. It entertains like Pride and Prejudice, with a reliance on dialogue and over-description; it provides social commentary and criticism; it offers universal themes about love and society; and it inspires a vision of romance ideal in both Jane Austen’s time and our own.

For teen readers, Twilight is the book that makes classics relevant. While Twilight references Pride and Prejudice, its sequel New Moon draws parallels with Romeo and Juliet. Eclipse, the third book in the series, is littered with allusions to Wuthering Heights. For many of my students, the Twilight series has opened doors into much more difficult, classic texts.

What clever language arts teacher, she wonders, couldn't hang a lesson on Twilight?

Testing Industry Misadventures

Ken Bernstein's review of Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry will intrigue and very possibly disturb you, if you are an educator weathering the standardized testing storm. Check it out at the TLN Teacher Voices blog, where we regularly post reviews of professional books for educators, including recent commentaries on Detracking for Excellence and Equity;  Protocols for Professional Learning, and A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New Teachers. Also see Bernstein's October review of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (3rd Ed). Bernstein blogs regularly about education and other important issues as teacherken at DailyKos.

Once You're Stuffed with Turkey and Dressing...

Once you're stuffed with turkey and dressing and Uncle Earl has begun to repeat stories from his oh-so-distant childhood, push back from the table, excuse yourself for some "Internet research," and partake of these recent writings by teachers in the Teacher Leaders Network. 

Cindi Rigsbee gives thanks for being "Called to Teach" in this Teacher Magazine essay from 2008, which we've asked our Education Week partners to repost during the Thanksgiving holiday. Cindi, one of four finalists for 2009 National Teacher of the Year, is currently a middle school literacy coach in Orange County, NC.

High school English teacher David B. Cohen offers tongue-in-cheek thanks to those teachers from his past who ignored his "whole child" in favor of rigor and regimentation in "A Rigorous Thanksgiving." You'll find his essay at our companion blog TLN Teacher Voices.

In case you missed them, two recent Teacher Magazine contributions from the Teacher Leaders Network feature dialog excerpts from our never-ending TLN Forum conversation. In "The Experience Factor" (11/11), TLN members from the Baby Boomer generation explain why they'll postpone retirement to reap the benefits of their hard-won knowledge and skills. And in the article "Should Teachers Sell Their Classroom Materials?" (11/18), our members offer a variety of opinions about a recent New York Times article reporting on teachers who sell their lesson plans and other intellectual property via the Internet.

Uncle Earl still telling the one about chasing the Thanksgiving turkey around the barnyard with a hatchet? Keep your seat – we've got more! Among the blog offerings at our Teacher Leaders Network website:

Nancy Flanagan (Teacher in a Strange Land) believes that "It's a good week for thinking about what makes us happy--and how we, the village, can raise our collective children to pursue the kind of happiness that matters, while simultaneously being aware of and grateful for their many blessings."

Dan Brown (Get in the Fracas) acknowledges that "Keeping a sharp eye on what isn’t entirely working is a crucial piece of the reflection process, and an indispensable facet of teaching well." But this is a week, he says, to celebrate "the good classroom moments, the tiny breakthroughs, [that] are everywhere…."

Renee Moore (TeachMoore) offers her own selection of good Thanksgiving weekend reading, as she enumerates "A Few of My Favorite Things" -- in her case, committed colleagues. "Contrary to myth, there are many successful educators among us, some of whom are pointing us toward a promising future."

Ariel Sacks (On the Shoulders of Giants) has been reading the recent research about the attitudes of today's teachers toward their profession -- and "questioning whether I fit into the contented, idealist, or disheartened category of teacher." She suspects she's leaning toward "disheartened" and would be thankful for any and all advice.

Bill Ferriter (The Tempered Radical) is not thankful when faced with "blocked websites, antiquated tools, or technology decisions that are not aligned with a new vision for teaching and learning…" But he's determined to be Digitally Resilient on behalf of his students, for as long as he can stand it.

Finally, your delicious reward for reading this far: A series of blog posts detailing the Pow Wow unit taught each year at Chets Creek Elementary in Jacksonville, FL. You'll find it at the blog of Dayle Timmons, TLN member and former Florida Teacher of the Year. She recounts:

About six years ago Kindergarten teachers became uncomfortable with their generic "Indian" Pow Wow celebration around Thanksgiving where all the little "Indians" wore brown pillowcase garb with feathers and pounded homemade drums. The teachers began researching Native American tribes as a professional learning community and decided that each class would research a specific tribe and bring those traditions to our annual Pow Wow celebration.

Dayle's commitment to capturing the instructional life of her school is unmatched, in our opinion. Follow this link to a collection of Pow Wow posts and see for yourself. You can begin with this year's first entry (Nov. 10) or view posts from the very beginning in 2007.

Happy Thanksgiving! Is that slamming car door we hear the sound of Uncle Earl heading home? Wonder if he ate all the dessert?

TLN Book Reviews: Professional Literature for the Teacher Leader

Members of the Teacher Leaders Network regularly comment on professional books that may be of interest to colleagues. Below you'll find links to our most recent reviews, with brief excerpts. Click on a review’s headline to read the compete article. Publishers interested in submitting books for review should contact TLN moderator John Norton.

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A Compelling Case for Detracking Schools

Detracking for Excellence and Equity
By Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity
(ASCD, 2008)

Reviewed by Sherry L. Annee
Biotechnology Teacher
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (IN)
Teacher Leaders Network

The authors’ coverage of detracking is so comprehensive that it leaves readers with far more answers than questions -- while simultaneously inspiring us to improve the educational opportunities for students at our local schools. Upon finishing the book, one is left cheering for Garrity and Burris as they claim, “By altering our methods of instruction in heterogeneous classes, we can accomplish what tracking never could – excellent educational experiences for all students.”

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A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community

Protocols for Professional Learning
By Lois Brown Easton
(2009, ASCD)

Reviewed by Michael Fisher
Instructional Coach and Consultant (NY)
Teacher Leaders Network

The protocols in this book help to inspire the atmosphere and culture of trust and collegiality that is necessary to open and maintain conversations among teachers. When there is a framework of understanding, and a foundation of value for everyone’s participation and unique voice, it helps everyone move forward.

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I Want to Belong to This Club!

A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New Teachers
By Jennifer Allen
(2009, Stenhouse Publishers)

Reviewed by Marti Schwartz
Teacher, Novice-Teacher Educator (RI)
Teacher Leaders Network

The plan of teacher support is frequent, intensive, individualized, and brilliant…. What Allen has given to all of us is a powerful model of strengthening the practice of novice teachers, in a book that is enjoyable to read and inspiring to emulate.

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You Can Be a Change Leader

Leading Change in Your School
By Douglas B. Reeves
(ASCD, 2009)

Reviewed by Elizabeth Stein
Special Education Teacher (NY))
Teacher Leaders Network

As I read this, I readily grasped the author's attempt to create an "I can do this in my school" mindset. This book is a great read for those who are new to the idea of becoming a change leader or for those who wish to extend their abilities. It is helpful for teachers or administrators who have already succeeded with a few ideas and feel the need to continue making positive changes.

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Multiple Intelligences in Your Classroom

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom
By Thomas Armstrong
(ASCD, 2009)

Reviewed by Kenneth Bernstein, NBCT
High School Government (MD)
Teacher Leaders Network

One should be able to see how the book can be productively used for a somewhat narrow purpose, such as curriculum development, without having to absorb the entire volume. Or one can choose to browse through the various sections to grasp more fully the possible implications of applying Multiple Intelligences theory in a variety of ways, up to and including developing a school around the principles of MI.

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Inside a Hip-Hop Lit Class

Beats, Rhymes and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity
By Marc Lamont Hill
(Teachers College Press, 2009)

Reviewed by John M. Holland, NBCT
Early Childhood Educator (VA)
Teacher Leaders Network

This is not a how-to book. It does not include planning sheets, suggestions for "texts" or discussion prompts. It is an incredibly well documented artifact of a successful experiment in bringing students' culture into the classroom and understanding that culture as a researcher and teacher. I recommend it because I learned things about myself, my students' families, and research.

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And Then I Got to Dewey . . .

Classroom Conversations: A Collection of Classics for Parents and Teachers
by Alexandra Miletta and Maureen Miletta
(2008, The New Press)

Reviewed by Marti Schwartz
Novice-Teacher Educator (RI)
Teacher Leaders Network

(T)hese articles, these thinkers, from Vivian Gussin Paley and Eleanor Duckworth advising us to listen and learn from our students, to Peggy McIntosh and Sonia Nieto who seek to open our eyes to the cultural realms of our students in order to help us to understand their needs — all have wise words for us.

PD Sourcebook Taps the TLN Wellspring

The Fall issue of the Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook from Teacher Magazine and Education Week includes content and comments from quite a few TLN Forum members.

Most prominent is Nancy Flanagan, who authors the article “Collaboration and Insight: Teacher Learning in Action,” describing a project that connects teachers in a rural NC school district with National Board Certified peers — using a virtual professional network. Flanagan shares some lessons she’s learned serving as an online moderator of teacher learning communities:

One of the pitfalls for facilitators in the online professional development age is the tendency to revert to direct instruction—to tell, to explain, to be the sage on the virtual stage. As we built learning modules for the ‘Return on Investment’ initiative, we learned to design open-ended prompts and flexible, safe opportunities to try ideas and ask for help.

The theme for this new edition of the PD Sourcebook is described by editor Anthony Rebora this way: “Can digital technology help break the decades-long hold of generic ‘sit-‘n-git’ professional development?” In an interview with Rebora, Harvard’s Chris Dede offers his answer: “Only if people use the tools well.”

In other stories, we see examples of teachers who are "using the tools well," building their own personal learning networks independent of any official professional development requirements. Writer Elizabeth Rich reports on the rise of teacher-instigated social networks — using the NING-based The English Companion (started by teacher-author Jim Burke) as one prime example. Rich includes quotes from TLN member and PLC consultant Anne Jolly at several points in the story.

Another article explores Twitter’s potential to support student and teacher learning and includes comments from TLN members Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Bill Ferriter, both popular edu-bloggers who write frequently about Web 2.0. Ferriter and Nussbaum-Beach cite Twitter as their favorite learning tool because it allows them to access a trusted network of colleagues more or less instantly when they need ideas, advice or resource suggestions.

Finally, the Sourcebook’s Blog Watch feature highlights TLN-sponsored bloggers Renee Moore and Ariel Sacks — Moore for a post at TeachMoore about the difficulty of disentangling individual teacher contributions to a student’s growth; and Sacks for a contribution to the Public School Insights blog a few months ago, where she shared ideas about increasing teacher retention in hard to staff schools by rewarding valuable teacher leadership.

More Great Start-of-Year Advice

In a recent Teacher Magazine essay, Maryland NBCT Ken Bernstein shares his Advice for New High School Teachers — underscoring the importance of developing an atmosphere of trust with students.

“High school students are often very much in search of identity,” he writes. “That includes how they relate to other people. They need points of reference. They need situations they can trust, particularly as they are challenged to grow, emotionally as well as intellectually.”

Although traditional teacher-education programs rely on veteran educators to invite student- or “practice-” teachers into their classrooms, many skilled professionals can be heard expressing some reluctance about sharing instructional responsibilities with green recruits. They may be concerned about their ability to mentor an inexperienced colleague effectively, or simply hesitant to relinquish control of instruction in an atmosphere of high-stakes accountability.

In another recent TLN contribution to Teacher, we've pulled together the highlights of a chat in our daily discussion group about The Art of Working with Student-Teachers. We think you'll agree its both revealing and thought-provoking.

Finally, in an article that continues to be the "most viewed" on the Teacher website, Oakland CA science coach Anthony Cody makes a strong case that teachers should not wait until classroom behavior is locked down tight before "allowing" students to engage in experiments, projects and other forms of hands-on learning.

"I have noticed that student behavior is often at its best the first few weeks of school," says Cody, a long-time inner-city middle grades teacher. "Students are a bit nervous—watching to see how we will react when things go sideways. We can take advantage of this window of opportunity to showcase the way we really want them to learn. This is our golden opportunity to share our highest expectations with them, and invite them to rise to meet the challenge."

Teaching in the 21st Century: EL continues to lead the pack

With its September issue focused on 21^st century learning, ASCD’s Educational Leadership has reaffirmed its status as the nation’s premiere professional magazine for educators and others interested in issues of teaching and learning.

The issue is chockful of articles presenting a variety of viewpoints about the “21^st Century Skills” debate and its implications for both students and teachers. The EL editors, as usual, also provide more practitioner-oriented pieces, like Marilee Sprenger’s “Focusing on the Digital Brain” and Susan Graseck’s “Teaching with Controversy.” Then there’s “21^st Century Scholars,” “The Students Have the Answers” and “Why Educators Should Care about Teaching with Games.” And many more.

This fall, ASCD is also offering a digital version of the magazine to members — it's a flip-thru interactive package with the graphics intact, complemented by active hyperlinks. Alone, it’s worth the price of admission, which can be as little as $29 a year for web-only membership.

Here’s the September Table of Contents. As always, a generous handful of articles are made available to the general public (something you won’t find at the sites of most other major education magazines) while others can only be accessed online by members.

This month’s public articles include:

What Would Socrates Say?

Peter W. Cookson Jr.

Do we need to craft a new model of education for the 21st century? It's a question worthy of Socrates.

The 21st Century Skills Movement

Paige Johnson

The chair of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills spells out goals.

21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead

Andrew J. Rotherham and Daniel Willingham

Why the 21st century skills movement could falter and key considerations that might strengthen it.

Why Creativity Now? A Conversation with Sir Ken Robinson

Amy M. Azzam

Creativity is a crucial skill, Sir Ken tells us.

21st Century Scholars

Terrence Clark

A district extends its school day, and the students applaud.

The Art and Science of Teaching / Six Steps to Better Vocabulary Instruction

Robert J. Marzano

Advice from the best practices guru.

Digitally Speaking / Taking the Digital Plunge

Bill Ferriter

New column by award-winning middle grades teacher

What Research Says About. . . / Encouraging Girls to Pursue Math and Science

Tracy A. Huebner

Use high-mastery teaching strategies.

These free articles are not included in the print issue but available on the Web:

Navigating the Cs of Change

J. Gregory McVerry, Lisa Zawilinski and W. Ian O'Byrne

Do your digital natives need instruction in reading online? Here's how to help. Includes a video of sample lessons.

How to Learn in the 21st Century

Rita Haugh Oates

Research tools have changed, necessitating new research skills.

Managing Messy Learning

Suzie Boss

To deliver on the promise of project-based learning, educators need project management strategies.

Leading for Global Competency

Fernando M. Reimers

How can we prepare the next generation for international understanding?

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ALSO: keep an eye on the ASCD Inservice blog during the month. Sometimes they feature an article and provide free access via the blog.)

Thanks, ASCD, for balancing membership needs and the organization’s public service mission and giving us all some thoughtful material to contemplate as the new school year begins.

A 'Digitally Speaking' Tempered Radical

Charter TLN member Bill Ferriter's new monthly column for ASCD's Educational Leadership magazine, to be called Digitally Speaking, has debuted in the new September issue — along with a new design for EL that is more...um... digy. l. Bill’s first installment is appropriately titled “Taking the Digital Plunge” and covers familiar Ferriter themes that can be summed up as “Get in the pool!”

Bill’s co-authored book from Solution Tree will be coming out in September -- it's titled Building a Professional Learning Community at Work™: A Guide to the First Year.

Bill’s popular Tempered Radical blog appears on the Teacher Leaders Network website.

Beginning-of-Year Assessment Data: What Helps Teachers Most?

What assessment data is most helpful to teachers at the beginning of a new school year? How helpful is standardized test data in determining the specific needs of your brand-new students?

Veteran high school English teacher Renee Moore (left) has been pondering this question. In a recent comment at a colleague's blog, Renee wrote: "I remember a book about standardized testing and (the assessment of) reading in which the authors showed how easily such data could be misconstrued to make very wrong assumptions about students' abilities."

At her own blog TeachMoore, Renee (who now teaches HS and community college students) shares some of her assessment routines at the start of the school year. Through the use of a timed personal essay, lots of teacher analysis, the potential use of other home-made assessments of grammar and usage -- followed by individual conversations -- she is able to gather a lot of discrete information about her students' achievement levels and help them develop goals for the course/year.

"What could we accomplish for students if we took even a portion of the funds being bestowed on the testing industry and used that to better train and support real authentic assessments by professional classroom teachers?" wonders this Carnegie Scholar, Milken winner and former Mississippi Teacher of the Year.

TLN Book Reviews and Interviews

Members of the Teacher Leaders Network regularly comment on professional books that may be of interest to colleagues. Below you'll find links to our most recent reviews, as well as several author interviews conducted by TLN moderator John Norton.

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REVIEW: Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reader’s Notebook
 (Aimee Buckner)

An effectively written balance between the philosophy and purpose of reading notebooks and the modeling of effective strategies to support them. — sixth grade teacher Kathie Marshall

REVIEW: The Book Whisperer – Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child (Donalyn Miller)

This book is chock full of literacy wisdom that I myself would like to see schools embrace as they look for strategies that will boost student achievement in reading but also bolster students’ reading dispositions. — Cindi Rigsbee, reading specialist

INTERVIEW: Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer

"I think that my credibility with other teachers lies in the fact that I am a classroom teacher... Without the constant interaction with children and my own responses and reflections about my teaching, my contribution is not as valuable."

REVIEW: Making History Mine: Meaningful Connections for Grades 5-9 (Sarah Cooper)


The entire book offers teachers the opportunity to gain a fresh approach to teaching strands of history…Through her use of diverse examples, the author is able to keep readers thinking about how they might apply strategies in their own classrooms. — Patrick Vernon, middle grades social studies

REVIEW: Timesavers for Teachers: Book 2 (Stevan Krajnjan)

Any book that can save a busy teacher time is worth some attention. This is not a typical teacher book to be read cover to cover or scanned for lesson ideas. It’s really more of a tool kit, and its usefulness will depend on what you teach and how you go about your work. — Laurie Wasserman, special needs

REVIEW: Never Work Harder Than Your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching (Robyn R. Jackson)

Jackson builds her work on the premise that the most effective teachers have what she calls “the master teacher mindset.” This mindset is built around a set of seven principles that Jackson says master teachers use to guide their practice. — Gail Tillery, high school English/mentoring

INTERVIEW: Anne Jolly, author of Team to Teach: A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams

"Effective PLTs are teacher leadership hothouses. They’re places where teachers increase their professional knowledge and leadership skills – and they can also serve as perfect vehicles for teachers to begin to put leadership into action at several levels."

REVIEW: Successful Single Sex Classrooms: A Practical Guide to Teaching Boys and Girls Separately (Michael Gurian, Kathy Stevens, and Peggy Daniels)

This book is very useful for all teachers, in that it really describes excellent instruction, with one of the best summaries of techniques and strategies for teaching and classroom management I have seen in a very long time. — Laura Reasoner Jones, technology teacher

REVIEW: Better Answers: Written Performance That Looks Good and Sounds Smart (Ardith Davis Cole)

The “Better Answer” protocol is straightforward enough to work with younger age students in elementary school and yet sophisticated enough to work with high school students. It has worked in diverse classroom settings from all over the country. — Marsha Ratzel, middle grades math/science

REVIEW: Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word (Barbara R. Blackburn)

I often find that professional reading simply affirms many of my current practices in the classroom. Here, I was not hoping for affirmation but for something to improve my instruction at this advanced stage in my career. I was not disappointed. I found this book to be both realistic and respectful. — Karen Molter, high school English

REVIEW: Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders (Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller)

The new edition of Awakening the Sleeping Giant...continues to stand as a practical and effective foundation for the work of developing leadership in teachers — a kind of primer around the basic rationale for paying attention to teachers' craft and collegial knowledge, and a self-help plan for teachers interested in building their own leadership skills. — Nancy Flanagan, music education

INTERVIEW: Gayle Moller, co-author of Awakening the Sleeping Giant

"School system leaders have begun to acknowledge that they’re not getting the results they would like. And many realize that mandates and limited professional development are not effective ways to improve results. The perceptive district leader is now turning to teachers who are competent and can work with their colleagues at the school building level."

REVIEW: Building Teachers' Capacity for Success (Pete Hall & Alisa Simeral)

The framework of peer coaching and formative evaluation outlined in Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success certainly seems to provide a promising structure for elevating discussions about teacher quality above the usual frustrated tones that tenure clauses can create. — Ellen Holmes, Distinguished Educator, Maine Department of Education