via ‘Personalized Learning’ is For Everyone in the System – Leadership 360 – Education Week

The single-point rubric offers a different approach to systematic grading in the classroom. Like holistic and analytic rubrics, it breaks the aspects of an assignment down into categories, clarifying to students what kinds of things you expect of them in their work. Unlike those rubrics, the single-point rubric includes only guidance on and descriptions of successful work—without listing a grade, it might look like the description of an A essay in the holistic rubric above. In the example below, you can see that the rubric describes what success looks like in four categories, with space for the teacher to explain how the student has met the criteria or how he or she can still improve.

via 6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric | Edutopia

Art Equity

According to the American Art Therapy Association, artistic expression may decrease anxiety, feelings of anger and depression. This creative process can also enhance cognitive abilities, foster greater self-awareness and help students regulate their emotions.

via How Making Art Helps Teens Better Understand Their Mental Health | MindShift | KQED News

Teachers go to great lengths to clearly define the problems our students will solve, how they should solve them, and what the outcomes should be. Although students can and do learn from highly planned tasks, there are serious drawbacks from relying too much on these kinds of learning experiences.

Students also need opportunities to productively engage with uncertainty.

via Are We Over-Planning Students’ Learning Experiences? | ASCD Inservice

How would it be if we change our language within our schools and stop talking about special needs children, and highly gifted students, as if the former are less smart than the latter? Every child is gifted. Every child is an expert. A new world opens when we become aware that, as soon as we shift our focus to “what is happening in between,” many new solutions can be found. Changing language to one of hope and possibilities suddenly activates everyone to make a difference, not only by talking but, most of all, by “doing.” Together. Through joint action.I am thrilled when we see the many possibilities.

We can treat every child as a V.I.P. – as a Very Important Persons – using their potential to open new worlds which will lead to better solutions for our complex educational world.

A teacher affects eternity, but s/he can never tell where her/his influence stops, AND I am convinced that our children will tell us how to do it….

via News and Ideas from The Taos Institute – November 2017

via Six Myths About Choosing a College Major – The New York Times

Myth 1: For the big money, STEM always delivers.

Myth 2: Women want to have it all.

Myth 3: Choice of major matters more than choice of college.

Myth 4: Liberal arts majors are unemployable.

Myth 5: It’s important to choose a major early.

Myth 6: You need a major.

Overall, the personalized-learning field is still marked by significant unresolved pedagogical tensions, said Benjamin Riley, the executive director of the nonprofit Deans for Impact, which seeks to improve teacher preparation. Among the biggest: the appropriate role for software in the classroom, how much autonomy is best for student learning, and the challenge of maintaining high standards and social interaction when every student is pursuing his or her own path.

via The Case(s) Against Personalized Learning – Education Week

via Making Student Feedback Work | Harvard Graduate School of Education