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Stenhouse Newslinks
September 17, 2004

C O N T E N T S

1) Growing Readers is in!
2) PD Corner: What's your school's PD "type"?
3) RSS and the blog boom
4) On-line teacher calendars
5) Measuring teacher effectiveness with a value-added system

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1) Growing Readers is in!
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"I have waited a long time for this book...Growing Readers can 
become the seed to wrap your teaching around, nurturing your own 
experiences in the light of an author whose fresh and original 
teaching reflects her deep, deep understanding of young children 
and reading."
--Lucy Calkins, from the Foreword of Growing Readers

In her new book, Growing Readers, Kathy Collins helps primary 
teachers launch and maintain an independent reading workshop with 
units of study for a yearlong curriculum. Each unit includes a 
sample curriculum and examples of mini-lessons & reading 
conferences.

Growing Readers is now available in print. To order your copy, 
follow the link below, where you can also review the entire text 
of the book on-line.

Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom
Kathy Collins * 296 pp/paper * $22.50
http://www.stenhouse.com/0373.asp?r=n55b

And we've just posted the complete text of Kelly Gallagher's new 
book, Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0384.asp?r=n55b

This book will be available in print in October.

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2) PD Corner: What's your school's PD "type"?
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*September Quote of the Month*

"It is difficult to see how teaching can be improved without self-
monitoring and research on the part of teachers."
--Lawrence Stenhouse

In "Two Tiers Too Many," Dennis Sparks of the National Staff 
Development Council looks at the difference between two types of 
professional development cultures found in schools--those that 
promote reflection and community, and those that hand scripts and 
programmed instruction to teachers. The essay is an excellent 
resource for discussing and designing professional development 
plans for the year, including prompts for planning workshops:
 
http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/transformational/
(Click on the "May 2004" link.)
 
The "Mentoring" Read Share Teach workshops from Stenhouse are a 
model of a yearlong plan for monthly meetings between new teachers 
and mentors that build reflection and community:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rsttoc.asp?r=n55b
(The Mentoring workshops link is near the bottom of the page.)

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3) RSS and the blog boom
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"If I'm a classroom teacher, how will I know about news in the 
school without reading tons of email? RSS and Web logs represent a 
paradigm shift."
-- Thor Prichard, CEO of Clarity Innovations Inc.

This recent article from eSchool News serves as an excellent 
introduction to RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a growing way of 
publishing and accessing information on the Web. It highlights how 
RSS and blogs (Web logs) can be used by schools to disseminate 
information, and by educators and students to monitor information 
from a variety of Web sites and blogs:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5211
(Free registration required.)

The article also describes how blogs and RSS can be used to 
facilitate collaboration in the classroom. Here are a few sites to 
explore for examples and ideas:

Weblogg-ed, "Using weblogs and RSS in education"
http://www.weblogg-ed.com
(See the "Practices" section for links to a variety of educational 
Web logs, and the "RSS Quick Start Guide for Ed." link for a more 
detailed introduction.)

Educational Bloggers Network
http://www.ebn.weblogger.com/about

Literature Circles EduBlog
http://anvil.gsu.edu/LiteratureCircles/

How familiar are you with RSS? Answer our new Web site poll and 
see how others have responded:

http://www.stenhouse.com/
(The "Mini-Poll" is located at the bottom of the page.)

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4) On-line teacher calendars
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Education Oasis has a wonderful monthly calendar for teachers that 
includes links to Web sites for highlighted dates. There is a 
strong emphasis on literature connections-this week's birthdays 
included children's authors Mildred Taylor (Roll of Thunder Hear 
My Cry), Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) and Gail Carson Levine 
(Ella Enchanted):

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/calendar/calendar.htm

And check out the ReadWriteThink calendar, which has links to 
classroom activities, lesson plans, and a bibliography for each 
event/date:

http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/

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5) Measuring teacher effectiveness with a value-added system
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In a recent report titled "The Real Value of Teachers," Kevin 
Carey of The Education Trust describes a "value-added" system for 
evaluating school and teacher performance--one that is based on 
individual student improvement over time instead of snapshots of 
average student performance. The report argues that identifying 
effective teachers is a key to improving the achievement of low-
income and minority students:

Thinking K-16

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