Appreciative inquiry focuses on increasing what an organization does well rather than on eliminating what it does badly, and how to analyze that success in order to achieve greater success in future endeavors. And what if you discovered another organization that really excelled at the parts your organization did not do well, but still needed. There are exciting possibilities for new partnerships, new arenas of opportunity.
Read about what one participant reported as a result of attending this session at the recent ALA conference in Seattle. The full blog post appeared on Jan. 27 on AL Inside Scoop.
Do teachers ask for your assistance with lesson planning?
Is it hard to stay ahead of them?
I recently saw a handy Edutopia blog post that not only talks about different Web 2.0 tools to assist in this work, and also offers links, tips and tricks.
Recently the President’s speech called for universal preschool programs. He went into detail about the achievement gap among children as young as age 3. Nine states and the District of Columbia fund universal prekindergarten programs for 4-year-olds, and most states fund some preschool for low-income families.
Does it surprise you that the benefits of receiving preschool programming are best measured in how much better kids do as adults? Can universal preschool close the achievement gap? Read more at The Washington Post (2/13)
Recently, our friends at MindShift did a great piece on “open source learning” — a variation on inquiry learning or passion-based learning – it is about helping students choose their own learning path, an approach that already has some well-known champions among educators.
Read this post about an English teacher who teaches Advanced Placement English and Composition courses, uses blogging, videoconferencing, and collaborative working groups as part of his instruction. KQED.org/Mind/Shift blog (2/14)
Many book lovers could have easily contributed to this blog from Edutopia, “Ten Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading in Students”
The post was written by a teacher who lists 10 suggestions for how, regardless of the subject, a person can engage students and nurture an appreciation and ultimately a love of reading.
Then the question remains: Teachers and administrators, what do you do towards this end? Parents, how do you encourage this with your own children?
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