Welcome to Unboxed Issue 28
In my forties, I have taken up two possibly ill-advised pursuits: skateboarding and indoor rock climbing.
We Have All This Data, Now What?
Too often when teachers get data, they don’t know what to do with it. At the University of Chicago Middle Grades Network, we use two protocols in succession (the first with staff members, the second with students) to transform data into effective action. The staff meeting protocol is called “What? So what? Now what?” and based on what we learn from that, we organize a “data circle” with students. Here’s what that looks like in detail.
Tackling Chronic Absenteeism
Tracking absences quarterly allows schools to spot trends and changes faster, whether they be something to celebrate or a student who needs more support. When we track the number of absences by quarter, just a few missed days in a row can trigger early intervention or celebration.
How Schools Are Using Identity Questions to Improve Literacy
ELA teachers asked students to connect their personal and cultural identity to the academic content at key junctures in their lessons.
WIN Time at Parkway Academy
Parkway faculty carved out time in their daily schedule to pull specific groups of students to work on a particular skill or intervention,
Love Languages for Educators
By learning to recognize the preferred ways in which people in your life understand love, you can better connect with people.
Radical Dreaming
Following unbridled curiosity is the central work of children. And, contrary to what industrialized education might demand of us, enabling the deep work of childhood to flourish is the actual central work of educators, school leaders, caregivers, and anyone bestowed with the honor of raising and educating young people.
The Bookworms and Mr. Reading Pot
Every Friday, Mr. Reading Pot would make a grand entrance into the classroom and be seated in the middle of a large circle of squirrely kids. Mr. Reading Pot was a bad-tempered and curmudgeonly fellow.
Convergence
Teachers plan meaningfully and rigorously in ways that allow the synergy of soft and hard skills to interact
The Power of YES
It was the week before the exhibition at High Tech Middle Chula Vista. My eighth-grade class had spent the last eight weeks exploring the question “What makes us resilient?”