The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has developed a series of three Data and Assessment Literacy modules. These three modules provide flexible learning opportunities for pre-service teachers, veteran teachers, administrators, and school board members. They may be accessed via slides to be used as a district-wide, school-wide, or small group PLC learning experience or individually on-line. The modules are broken down into smaller units of study that can be taken in any order, at any point in time based on the specific needs of the user.

This video demonstrates how to help students learn to expect direction from one spot in the classroom. Teachers will consider why it is effective to have students' full attention before teaching or giving directions; how teacher consistency improves student response; and what additional cues or signals may be used to capture students' attention?

Some students misbehave because they are trying to attract teacher attention. Surprisingly, many students who value adult attention don't really care if it is positive (praise) or negative attention (reprimands)--they just want attention!
Unfortunately, instructors with students who thrive on teacher attention can easily fall into a 'reprimand trap.' The scenario might unfold much like this: First, the student misbehaves. Then the teacher approaches the student and reprimands him or her for misbehaving. Because the student finds the negative teacher attention to be reinforcing, he or she continues to misbehave-and the teacher naturally responds by reprimanding the student more often! An escalating, predictable cycle is established, with the student repeatedly acting-out and teacher reprimanding him or her.
Teachers can break out of this cycle, though, by using 'random positive attention' with students. Essentially, the instructor starts to ignore student attention-seeking behaviors, while at the same time 'randomly' giving the student positive attention. That is, the student receives regular positive teacher attention but at times unconnected to misbehavior. So the student still gets the adult attention that he or she craves. More importantly, the link between student misbehavior and resulting negative teacher attention is broken.

Motivating a reluctant student to complete schoolwork is not easy. In a typical classroom, students can choose from a number of sources of potential reinforcement (Billington & DiTommaso, 2003)--and academic tasks often take a back seat to competing behaviors such as talking with peers. One way that teachers can increase the attractiveness of schoolwork is by structuring lessons or assignments around topics or activities of high interest to the student (Miller et al., 2003).In fact, with planning, the teacher can set up a 'trap' that uses motivating elements to capture a student's attention to complete academic tasks (Alber & Heward, 1996). Here is a 6-step blue-print for building an academic 'motivation trap' (adapted from Alber & Heward, 1996).

The purpose of this collective case study was to develop an understanding of why California K12 public school administrators distribute instructional leadership responsibilities to either
instructional coaches or teacher librarians and how the two roles compare within the context of
the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards in ELA/Literacy. The study
addressed the following research questions: Why do administrators select instructional
coaches/teacher librarians to help them provide instructional leadership? How do administrators
and instructional coaches/teacher librarians work together to provide professional learning within
daily instructional practice? How do administrators evaluate the effectiveness of the
instructional coaches’/teacher librarians’ instructional leadership roles? Participants were district
administrators who oversee the population, site administrators who directly supervise site-based
instructional coaches or teacher librarians, and the corresponding instructional coaches and
teacher librarians. Data were collected from multiple sources, including documents, interviews,
observations, and focus groups with participants. Within-case and cross-case analyses were
conducted to develop a naturalistic generalization of what was learned about how the coach and
teacher librarian contributed to instructional leadership. Results demonstrated that administrators’
personal values influence their decisions to select and utilize instructional coaches or teacher
librarians to provide instructional leadership. Instructional coaches are considered to be extensions
of administrators as instructional leaders in ELA while teacher librarians are considered to be
resources that can be called upon to provide occasional instructional support in ELA.

Students can sometimes have emotional outbursts in school settings. This fact will not surprise many teachers, who have had repeated experience in responding to serious classroom episodes of student agitation. Such outbursts can be attributed in part to the relatively high incidence of mental health issues among children and youth. It is estimated, for example, that at least one in five students in American schools will experience a mental health disorder by adolescence (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). But even students not identified as having behavioral or emotional disorders may occasionally have episodes of agitation triggered by situational factors such as peer bullying, frustration over poor academic performance, stressful family relationships, or perceived mistreatment by educators.

he teacher's most important objective when faced with a defiant or non-compliant student is to remain outwardly calm. Educators who react to defiant behavior by becoming visibly angry, raising their voices, or attempting to intimidate the student may actually succeed only in making the student's oppositional behavior worse! While the strategies listed here may calm an oppositional student, their main purpose is to help the teacher to keep his or her cool. Remember: any conflict requires at least two people. A power struggle can be avoided if the instructor does not choose to take part in that struggle.

Dr. Bettina Love keynotes at the 2018 YWCA Racial Justice Summit in Madison, Wisconsin.

Dr. Love is an author and associate professor of educational theory and practice at the University of Georgia. She was a keynote presenter at the 2016 Conference for Community Arts Education, November 2-5, 2016. This is a highlight from her speech.

Dr. Bettina Love, an esteemed writer and educational researcher, will be speaking at Madison College’s Truax campus. Dr. Love will be appearing at a free event inside of Mitby Theater on Wednesday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m.

One of the greatest frustrations mentioned by many teachers is that their students are often not motivated to learn. Teachers quickly come to recognize the warning signs of poor motivation in their classroom: students put little effort into homework and classwork assignments, slump in their seats and fail to participate in class discussion, or even become confrontational toward the teacher when asked about an overdue assignment. One common method for building motivation is to tie student academic performance and classroom participation to specific rewards or privileges. Critics of reward systems note, however, that they can be expensive and cumbersome to administer and may lead the student to engage in academics only when there is an outside 'payoff.' While there is no magic formula for motivating students, the creative teacher can sometimes encourage student investment in learning in ways that do not require use of formal reward systems.

Simply make a copy of this template to be used in meetings when you are highlighting work you are doing. Just describe the project or task in the wedge(s) to which it applies. By filling out one of these templates at each meeting, you can gather evidence about what wedges have been focus areas. This could give you insight on future areas of work or help identify priorities.

The Good Behavior Game is an approach to the management of classrooms behaviors that rewards children for displaying appropriate on-task behaviors during instructional times. The class is divided into two teams and a point is given to a team for any inappropriate behavior displayed by one of its members. The team with the fewest number of points at the Game's conclusion each day wins a group reward. If both teams keep their points below a preset level, then both teams share in the reward. The program was first tested in 1969; several research articles have confirmed that the Game is an effective means of increasing the rate of on-task behaviors while reducing disruptions in the classroom (Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969; Harris & Sherman, 1973; Medland & Stachnik, 1972).
The process of introducing the Good Behavior Game into a classroom is a relatively simple procedure. There are five steps involved in putting the Game into practice.

This impassioned talk explains how students who identify with Hip Hop culture have been ignored or deemed deficient in schools because of mainstream misconceptions associated with Hip Hop culture. Through Hip Hop, these students embody the characteristics of grit, social and emotional intelligence, and the act improvisation- all of which are proven to be predictors for academic success. So where is the break down between formalized education and the potential for success for these students? Dr. Love argues that ignoring students' culture in the classroom is all but an oversight; it's discrimination and injustice that plays out in our culture in very dangerous ways.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Hillary Mills uses a series of hands-on activities to engage and excite her students to learn new scientific concepts. Using fossils, buckets of sand, rocks, pennies and timeline cards, she covers in short order everything from geologic terminology to how isotopes break down over time. This fast-paced small group activity is deceptively simple yet packed with learning

Teachers skilled in classroom management are able to respond appropriately to just about any behavior that a student brings through the classroom door. While having a toolkit of specific behavioral strategies is important, the real secret of educators who maintain smoothly running classrooms with minimal behavioral disruptions is that they are able to view problem student behaviors through the lens of these seven 'big ideas' in behavior management.

Professional Development Resource to support the implementation of a high-quality math resource (Math Expressions, 2018), and provide professional learning around the Geometry Progressions.  This professional learning is appropriate for all levels of math educators but focuses on math education for grades 5-8.  It provides educators an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and make connections to their own grade level Geometry standards. 

Thsi is a Professional Development Resource to support the implementation of a high-quality math resource (Math Expressions, 2018), and provide professional learning around the Geometry Progressions.  This professional learning is appropriate for all levels of math educators but focuses on math education for grades 5-8.  It provides educators an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and make connections to their own grade level Geometry standards. 

Professional Development Resource to support the implementation of a high-quality math resource (Math Expressions, 2018), and provide professional learning around the Geometry Progressions.  This professional learning is appropriate for all levels of math educators but focuses on math education for grades 5-8.  It provides educators an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and make connections to their own grade level Geometry standards. 

This is a pre and post survey given to staff as a part of the professional development provided to math educators in the area of Geometry.