“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”
– Warren G. Bennis
This year we prepare for many changes. This year we prepare for the best year ever! This year we are asking our teachers to do A LOT – new curriculum maps, new instructional practices, transformation with the 1:1 learning environment initiative, new middle school exploratories, implementation of STEM/Communication Media Arts, new science programming … to name a few!
This is another in a series of how we are supporting teachers this year in the anticipation of transformative public education in DPS109!
These tools are being shared in no particular order – the point/aim/goal is to share, celebrate, communicate, and publicize the many leaders and the many tools that will enable others to act – challenge the process, inspire a shared vision – and support improved teaching and learning! While company information and logos are shared it is not our intention to use this as “advertising” – we are simply sharing with whom we are partnering to support our mission. The name(s) of the people leading these services is/are provided – feel free to contact them with any questions or comments about the tools.
Many of these web based subscriptions will allow for 24/7 – school/home access! The possibilities are endless for our learning as we truly become a COMMUNITY of learners.
(Scott Schwartz) Star Walk Kids Media:
At StarWalk KidsMedia we are committed to serving a community of educators who are trying to instill their students with 21st Century digital literacy skills. In order to achieve this, we have created a library designed to support educators who are looking for high quality, well-written trade books, particularly nonfiction books, to support Common Core (CCSS) Reading and Writing strategies. The StarWalk Kids collection is tightly curated for excellence, showcasing the work of award-winning authors and illustrators that educators know and trust. Familiar and respected names in the StarWalk Kids catalog include not only Seymour Simon, but also David Adler, Doug Cushman, Diane deGroat, Johanna Hurwitz, Kathleen Krull, Newbery Honor author Kathryn Lasky, Stan Mack, Caldecott-winner Emily Arnold McCully, Doreen Rappaport, Hudson Talbott, New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award winner Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and more. The collection is approximately 60% nonfiction, and covers Pre-K through 8th Grade.
Each eBook in the collection has been expertly adapted and professionally narrated in preparation for digital streaming via the best-in-class, proprietary StarWalk Reader™, and all titles are accompanied by a “Teaching Links” document developed by nationally known literacy expert and StarWalk Kids Director of Education Linda Hoyt. The Teaching Links match each eBook to relevant CCSS standards, and provide suggestions for CCSS-appropriate teaching activities and further inquiry.
(Eileen Brett and Tracy Hoyt) CoreStand:
What is CoreStand?
CoreStand is a teacher-driven professional ecosystem that’s devoted to
collaboration around best practice and career readiness. Created by teachers (in Evanston) for teachers, CoreStand’s mission is to equip and empower educators to actively shape how standards movements like the Common Core are implemented in classrooms across the country.
What are some of the resources and tools now available to you?
Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs). These are teacher-led groups devoted to collaboration and professional dialogue, and now you have the ability to create your own and invite others to join. As easy to use as email, you can start discussions, post documents, embed videos and photos…all with the click of a button. VLCs streamline and extend face-to-face collaboration around anything: vertical alignment, school wide initiatives, best practice strategies, etc. To see a short video on how they work, click here:
http://www.corestand.com/video-tutorials/virtual-learning-communities-vlc-tutorial/
Evidence and Evaluation “Vaults”. You can also use VLCs as a way to gather evidence as part of your evaluation cycle. Doing so provides an easy, streamlined way to organize and archive work, annotate lessons, and save successes for the future.
Reference Guide Library. We’ve unpacked the CCSS into over 5,000 student-friendly “I can…” learning targets for E/LA, math, and literacy in social science/history and science/technology, grades K-12. Once logged in, click on “Reference Guides” in the beige strap at the top to access these digital and print-friendly resources:
http://www.corestand.com/what-are-the-core-standards/reference-guides/
Unlimited Downloads. Visit our “Lessons & More” page and use either our yellow search field or our “Browse By Category” tool to find CCSS-aligned lessons, units and activities uploaded by our School Share Network members. For example, here’s a link to a popular line of argumentation modules produced by the CoreStand team:
http://www.corestand.com/lessons-and-more/products/?s=con-text
The tools mentioned above are embedded within a robust ecosystem of resources. Because of this, you’ll have access to the resources and tools we offer our free members, too: our blogs, best practice videos, our Standards By Grade posters, and our CoreWeekly newsletter (it contains literacy templates tied to current event articles…sign up for it on the Lessons & More page).
Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at team@corestand.com
(Anthony McConnell) School City:
Schoolcity is an assessment system and learning management system that will allow us access to nearly 100,000 common core aligned assessment items. This system can be used to create everything from quick formative assessments to large scale district benchmarks. Assessments can be administered online and students will have access to a variety of resources such as LearnZillion and Kahn Academy. Student data can be viewed by performance on assessments or by specific standard over any time frame. This system is designed for assessment for instruction and will be a key resource for us as we move to standards based learning and reporting.
inquiry.