Heather Clayton is principal of Mendon Center Elementary School,
Pittsford Central School District, New York.
Making the Standards Come Alive! is a must read for any educator committed to ensuring that students”™ engagement and achievement levels are significantly increased. Issues explore strategies that can help us design instruction based on rigorous standards in ways that maximize their positive impact on student learning. We encourage you to use entire issues to promote thought-provoking discussions and use key points as handy inserts in newsletters or posts on district and school websites.
Access the complete library at https://justaskpublications.com//msca/library/ (41 issues)
- “Feedback in the Mathematics Classroom” 65,000 pageviews
- Related Readings:
- Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Growth-Producing Feedback”
- Just for the ASKing! issue titled “It”™s a Feedback World”
- Professional Practices issue titled “Growth-Producing Feedback and Looking at Student Work”
- Related Readings:
- “The Art of Questioning: The Teacher”™s Role”
- PDF Tool: “Question and Stem Guide for Teachers and Students”
- Related Readings:
- Making the Standards Come Alive! issue titled “The Art of Questioning: The Student Role”
- EmpowerED 3.2.1 issue titled “The Importance of Questions”
- “Learning Targets”
- “Norms and Protocols: The Backbone of Learning Teams”
- Related Reading: Professional Practices issue titled “Creating a Culture of Inquiry: A Focus on Data Teams”
- PDF Tool: “Establishing Norms”
- PDF Tool: “Use of Collaborative Norms Survey“
- PDF Tool: “Data Analysis Questions“
- PDF Tool: “Data Flow Chart“
- PDF Tool: “Data Review Questions“
- PDF Tool: “FHN with Data“
- PDF Tool: “Five Whys“
- Go Deeper: Creating a Culture for Learning: Your Focus on PLCs and More ”“ TEXT
Bruce Oliver was the 16-year principal of Thoreau Middle School,
Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia.
Just for the Asking! addresses the needs of all those who strive to be instructional leaders. Each issue includes information that provides immediate food for thought and serve as a resource in promoting professional learning in faculty meetings, collaborative teams, and coaching and supervisory sessions. The Areas of Focus addressed are Instructional Leadership, Making Assessment a Learning Experience, Creating a Culture for Learning, Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners, Best Practice in Instruction, and Thought-Provoking/Motivational.
Access the complete library at https://justaskpublications.com/jfta/jfta-library/ (198 issues)
- “Just ASK Opening of School Checklists”
(The 2020 version is the 16th edition. There have been an average of more than 2,000 PDF downloads each of the last eight years.)
Access the 2020 Opening of School Checklist Reproducable PDF Tool
Related Reading: Just for the ASKing! Special Edition: “Where Do We Go From Here? ”“ 2021 Closing of School Points to Ponder” - “Strategies That Promote 21st Century Skills” 34,000 pageviews
- PDF Tool: “How I”™ll Show What I Know”
- PDF Tool: “Four-Box Synectics review”
- Related Reading: Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Making the 21st Century Skills Come Alive!”
- Related Reading and PDF Tool: Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Moving to 21st Century Thinking Skills”
- “Making the Case for Standards-Based Grading”
- Related Reading: Professional Practices issue titled “Achieving Equity in Grading”
- Related Readings: Just for the Asking! issues that focus on assessment and grading include:
- “Just ASK”™s Non-Negotiables for Creating a Culture for Learning”
- Full-Color PDF Tool: “Creating a Culture for Learning Non-Negotiables”
- Related Readings:
- Just for the ASKing! issue titled: “Building Strong School Cultures: Signs of Progress”
- Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Creating Cultures for Learning”
- Go Deeper : Creating a Culture for Learning: A Focus on PLCs and More ”“ TEXT
Marcia Baldanza is an assistant professor at Marymount University; earlier she was the Executive Director of Federal and State Programs and then named as Area Director for School Reform and Accountability for the School District of Palm Beach; Director of School Restructuring for Broward County Schools, Florida; and principal of multiple schools in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia, Houston ISD, and El Salvador.
Professional Practices features the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) published in 2015 and now used by many states as the basis of their leadership performance standards and by many universities in their educational leadership programs.
- PDF Tools: Yesterday and Today Graphics (One for each standard)
- PDF Tools: PSEL Self-Assessments (One for each standard)
Access the complete library at https://justaskpublications.com/just-ask-resource-center/e-newsletters/professionalpractices/library/ (40 issues)
- “Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment” 25,000 pageviews
- PDF and PowerPoint Tools: “Top Ten Tips for Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century”(Includes full color handout/poster templates cross referenced to Why Didn”™t I Learn This is College? and Instruction for All Students and a 30-slide PowerPoint show)
- Related Readings:
- Professional Practices issue titled “Rigorous and Innovative Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment”
- Professional Practices issue titled “Making Rigor a Reality”
- Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Moving to 21st Century Thinking Skills”
- “Equity and Cultural Responsiveness”
- Related Reading: Professional Practices issue titled “Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, Part II”
- Related Reading: Professional Practices issue titled “Achieving Equity in Grading”
Bonus!
Distance Learning Collection
The Just ASK Team has written new articles and updated some older ones as 2.0 versions to support our many colleagues who are tasked with creating positive and productive learning experiences from a distance and/or in hybrid or face-to-face environments that are ever evolving. A special thanks to Marcia Baldanza for sharing so many powerful stories from her work as a professor, K-12 educational leader, and mom and for providing us with dozens of amazing and helpful links. Feel free to share with colleagues near and far. Access the Distance Learning Collection.
Paula Rutherford was a professional development specialist and school-based administrator in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia. She earlier taught social studies and history with an eventual focus on students with learning disabilities in Sweetwater USD (National City Junior High School), California; Grace Episcopal Day School, Orange Park, Florida; and Clay County Public Schools (Orange Park High School), Florida.
Even though publication of Mentoring in the 21st Century was terminated when the Mentoring Memo was published, many issues continue to be extremely popular as tools for mentoring programs.
- PowerPoint Tool: “Mentoring in the 21st Century” slideshow
- Go Deeper: The 21st Century Mentor”™s Handbook – TEXT
Access the complete archives at https://justaskpublications.com/just-ask-resource-center/e-newsletters/mentoring-in-the-21st-century/ (20 issues)
- “Challenges and Concerns of New Teachers” 24,000 pageviews
PDF Tools: Needs Assessment and Goal Setting for New Teachers - “Do You Hear What I Say? Do I Hear What You Say?”
PDF Tool: Do You Hear What I Say? Do I Hear What You Say? (Includes a variety of communication tips and an Information Processing Style Survey.) - “A Great Mentor Is”
- Full-Color PDF Tool: “A Great Mentor Is”¦”
- Video Clip: “Supporting New Teachers” (Features three interviews with new teacher and their coaches ”“ directed by Brenda Kaylor)
- Video Clip: “Words of Advice for New Teachers” (Interview of Sheri VanderVelde 4th/5th grade teacher at Orchard Avenue School, Grand Junction, Colorado by Brenda Kaylor)
- “I”™m in the Slump and I”™m Normal”
- “The Slump Revisited”
PDF Tool: You”™ve Got Mail
Bonus!
Mentoring Resource Collection
Are you looking for video clips of mentors and protà©gà©es in action, an opening of school mentor”™s checklist, tips you can use for expanding and refining your mentoring program, a monthly mentoring calendar, or tools and templates you can share with novice teachers? If so, we have you covered.
Our Mentoring Resource Collection, housed on the Just ASK website, is a one-stop shop for those mentoring resources and more. They are all FREE and copyright-free!
Curated by Paula Rutherford, author of The 21st Century Mentor”™s Handbook and Why Didn”™t I Learn This in College? this collection is updated monthly and a Mentoring Memo is disseminated via email to all subscribers. Don”™t miss out on this great resource. Access the Mentoring Resource Collection.
Marcia Baldanza is an assistant professor at Marymount University; earlier she was the Executive Director of Federal and State Programs and then named an Area Director for School Reform and Accountability for the School District of Palm Beach; Director of School Restructuring for Broward County Schools, Florida; and principal of multiple schools in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia, Houston ISD, and El Salvador.
Each EmpowerED 3.2.1 features 3 Big Ideas, 2 Quotes, and 1 Question with lots of links to resources from different perspectives such as business and industry, medicine, athletics, economics, recreation, and parenting as well as music and the arts. The goal of these brief commentaries is to advance our thinking about how that wide array of information connects with and supports our work as educational leaders.
Access the complete archives at https://justaskpublications.com/empowered-321/ (56 issues)
- “We Must Accelerate Rather Than Remediate In all Settings ”“ Virtual, Hybrid, and In-Person”
- “Maximizing Distance Learning”
PDF Tools: Why Didn”™t I Learn This in College? Online Tools and Templates Tools 6, 7, 10, 11, 18, 31, 35, and 54.)
- “Tools and Tips for Checking for Understanding in Virtual and Traditional Settings”
- Video Clip: “Words of Advice for New Teachers” (Interview of Sheri VanderVelde 4th/5th grade teacher at Orchard Avenue School, Grand Junction, Colorado by Brenda Kaylor)
- Go Deeper: Active Learning and Engagement Strategies ”“ TEXT
- Go Deeper: Instruction for All Students ”“ TEXT
- “Good vs. Great Coaching”
- PowerPoint Tool: “Collection of Reflective Questions slides” (Developed by Brenda Kaylor)
- Related Reading: Empowered 3.2.1 issue titled “Powerful Coaching”
- Video Clip: “Supporting New Teachers” (Features three interviews with new teacher and their coaches ”“ directed by Brenda Kaylor)
- Related Reading: Just for the ASKing! issue titled “Send Me in Coach”
- Go Deeper: Creating a Culture of Learning: Your Guide to PLCs and More”“ TEXT
- Go Deeper: The 21st Century Mentor”™s Handbook – TEXT
Go Deeper resources listed as TEXT in this document are available for purchase. All other resources are available for your non commercial use.