N.D. district to phase out grade levels
A North Dakota school district is moving away from grade levels and the seat-time approach to school and instead is adopting competency-based education, which allows students to move at their own pace and advance when they have demonstrated proficiency. District Superintendent Cory Steiner said they want to transform the traditional way of thinking about school: “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to manage without grade levels.”
Full Story: The Hechinger Report
Some educators are adopting whole-brain teaching, in which teachers use practices to engage all parts of students’ brains by mirroring words and using certain physical movements. Stacey Byl, a fourth-grade teacher in Michigan, says she learned about the strategy through YouTube videos, and now uses the approach in her classroom.
Full Story: EdSurge
Educator: Talking could improve reading
Students who struggle with literacy can benefit from an instructional approach in which students partner with a classmate to discuss a text, asserts Nina Parrish, a special-education teacher and tutor. In this blog post, she describes how to implement this strategy in the classroom.
Full Story: Edutopia
NYC school adopts new teaching practices
An award-winning elementary school in New York City has adopted strategies to improve their students’ math performance, principal Kristin Erat says. In this interview, she talks about how to support teacher leadership and describes a math practice — adopted from the text, “5 Practices For Orchestrating Mathematical Discussion” — that motivates students to build on experience to find the answer.
Full Story: Chalkbeat
How one teacher handled a challenging parent
Ted Halbert, a high-school English teacher in Colorado, took a proactive approach to communicating with a parent who other educators said was difficult. In this interview, Halbert, selected for the 2019 National Education Association Foundation Global Learning Fellowship, describes how he established a relationship with the parent by outlining clear goals for her son.
Full Story: Chalkbeat
Audrey Altmann is an editorial assistant at SmartBrief.
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