Volume 11, Issue 47, November 26

This weekly newsletter is published by Education World®, the largest FREE resource on the Web for teachers and school administrators. Don't miss our eight other FREE newsletters. Education World posts new content daily--bookmark us to get every new article and resource! November 26, 2013 Volume 11, Issue 47 This Week's Featured Story: Microsoft Office Tutorials: 2007-2013 Sections Lesson Plans Professional Development Technology Administrators Education Headlines

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Lesson Plans

Timely and Practical Lesson Ideas Writing a Good Resume: Student Exercise Grade 9-12 students critique and practice writing resumes. Thanksgiving Feast (Read the Charts) Grade 3-8 students read a chart to learn more about where the foods in their family's Thanksgiving feast were grown. Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights Read aloud a simple telling of the Hanukkah story and follow up with across-the-curriculum activities. Every-Day Edit: LeBron James This student editing activity celebrates one of the world's best basketball players. Site Review: Classmint Classmint allows anyone to create interactive, audible, annotatable and beautiful study notes. Celebrate Winter Find more than a dozen classroom activities for celebrating the Solstice (Dec. 21). Search for more lesson plans by subject. Explore our full collection of Lesson Plans of the Day. This Week’s Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plan Why Polar Bears Are White Grade K-2 students learn how color can help animals in the wild. See more Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans. This Week’s Early Childhood Resource Sharing Dreidels Celebrate Hannukah with these tasty treats. See more Early Childhood Activities. Fun Features Here are a few of EducationWorld’s many learning games and activities. Five Quick Games Build Reading Skills Build skills in syllabication, sentence structure, sequencing, word recognition, skimming and visual recognition. December Traceable Calendar Get ready for winter with this cute template. Like these? We’ve got hundreds more, many of which include convenient printables: Hunt the Fact Monster Want to build students’ online research skills? Explore our extensive archive of Web hunts. Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks – Math Games For painless math practice, try these fun games. Language Arts Templates Use these to print out book-report forms, shapebooks and more. Animals A to Z Kids reinforce simple writing skills while identifying mistakes in short passages.

Bookmark our home page, EducationWorld.com, and come back often to find new content posted daily. From Web site reviews to iPad app reviews. From strategies that work to worksheets. From Every-Day Edits to holiday ideas. From classroom tips to classroom tech. From lesson of the day to weekly headlines. From 5-minute fillers to Lesson Boosters.

Professional Development

Featured Photo Gallery: Drug Prevention Dos and Don’ts Avoid some of the pitfalls of drug prevention with this handy gallery. A Gifted Teacher’s Reasons to Be Thankful An educator offers six reasons to be thankful in your profession. Effort: The Ultimate Gift of a President Following the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, ask students to reflect on his, and other presidents’, legacies. Designer Homework Kids say this technique allows them to be creative and teaches them responsibility.  Site Review: National School Climate Center Here’s everything you need to plan your school, district’s or state’s climate improvement efforts. Including Wyatt A boy with cerebral palsy became a participating--and respected--member of the classroom community. To access more great content, check out our Professional Development Archive and our Professional Development Channel Page. Highlighted Columnist Cathy Puett Miller: Understanding and Teaching Revision Revision is the second most important part of writing (after the idea). See more Professional Development Columnists. This Week's Classroom Tips Incentives Teach Lessons If you want students to cooperate, you must answer for them the question, “Why should I?” Access additional Classroom Management Tips.

Explore the Education World Community The new Education World Community, a FREE professional network for educators, offers teachers and administrators the opportunity to meaningfully interact with others in the field. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this powerful resource.  Join today!

Technology

Featured Microsoft Office Tutorials: 2007-2013 These handy tutorials help pre-service and in-service teachers learn the suite of applications included in Microsoft Office 2007, 2010 and 2013. iPad App Review: 3D Brain Here's a comprehensive, digital model of the human brain, complete with scientific information detailing its parts and their functions. Apple Offers Free ‘Field Trips’ for Students and Teachers Apple is aiming to make learning new tech a little easier. See Hand-Written Gettysburg Address Google, via its official blog, is making all five hand-written copies of Lincoln’s famous speech available to everyone. Internet Scavenger Hunt: The Boston Tea Party Teach about this historic event, commemorated on Dec. 16. The Learning Machine The Science Machine: Science of Music Science Topics: sound, music (Grades 3-8) Long Line o' Math Cats Math Skills: addition; subtraction; multiplication; division; problem solving (Grades 5-12) Hugo Cabret: Write Your Own Word and Picture Stories Reading Skills: writing, storytelling (Grades 3-8)

Administrators

Featured Unbelievable School Decisions: Banner Deemed Racist An Alabama high school hung a controversial football banner that some deemed offensive to Native Americans. Principals Launch School-Wide Wellness Programs Principals share curriculum-integrated ideas for fitness, health and nutrition awareness. Promoting Unity Among Different Staff Groups Teachers aren’t the only ones who contribute to making our school a great place. Hands-On Reform Leads to Big Student Gains Read about one school’s effort to revamp instruction, assessment and the curriculum. Making Decisions: Stoplight Cards and Thumbs Up These methods are good when you need to move quickly through a decision-making process. Math Games Can Target Key Instruction Areas Use games to differentiate instruction and reinforce skills that students need to tackle higher math. Highlighted Columnist George Pawlas: More Tips for Great Newsletters Learn what to include in the newsletters you produce during the second semester. To browse more Administrator Columns, visit our archive.

Education Headlines

Heat Builds for School District Smoking Ban When Nicole Keith first noticed adults smoking outside her child's school, she figured that they were flouting the rules. Then she learned that there is no smoking ban for adults on the grounds of Wayne Township schools. Advice for LI Districts Wrestling with School Closures Educators and parents in districts that have closed schools in recent years have this advice for their counterparts in Half Hollow Hills facing the same situation: Efficient and thoughtful transition, openness from district leaders, and empathy for those struggling with the changes are essential. Mount Greylock Grapples with 'High School' Moniker The School Committee is grappling with what to call it: Though it's often referred to as Mount Greylock Regional High School, it serves seventh- and eighth-graders, too. How a School Where 91 Percent of Kids had Been Suspended for Fights Stopped the Violence Students at George Washington Carver Academy in the past have acted out with violence. Last year 91 percent of the students had been suspended after getting in fights. Texans Warned of Private High Schools Peddling Useless Diplomas Literacy advocates say there's a burgeoning market of groups that claim to be private accredited schools peddling useless high school diplomas. Kids Pay The Price In Fight Over Fixing Philadelphia Schools Sharron Snyder and Othella Stanback, both seniors at Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High, will be the first in their families to graduate from high school. This, their final year, was supposed to be memorable. Instead, these teenagers say they feel cheated. Missouri High School Under Fire for Teacher-Led Prayer Sessions A Missouri school district has vowed to "vigorously defend" itself after a secular organization announced it had filed a lawsuit to prevent alleged teacher-sponsored school prayer sessions in high school classrooms. Arizona High School Student Suspended After Fight Over Confederate Flag An Arizona teenager is protesting his school's decision to punish him after getting into a fight with another student over a Confederate flag displayed on his truck. Other Items of Interest Community Discussion of the Week Administrator Survey: Realities of Technology in the Classroom

Want to be considered for Teacher of the Day? Think about your successes and challenges in the classroom, plus a few interesting facts that make you unique. Find a clear "head shot" photo of yourself and click here to submit!

Schoolnotes.com School-To-Home Communication Now, New.SchoolNotes.com is the FREE platform that can help keep you, your students, and their parents "on the same page." You can post homework, create and share flashcards, keep a calendar of upcoming events, and upload documents, images, and favorite URLs all to YOUR page! Students and parents can automatically receive notification when you update your SchoolNotes page.

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Welcome to our Education Technology website

Welcome to our Education Technology website

My name is Phillip Rekdale and I am a graduate of Griffith University (1996) with majors in Teaching and Human Resource Development. However, my original career was in Electronics Education and Education Technology. I love Indonesia and its people and I hope that together we can help to raise the quality of education in this country.

I have worked in the Electronics Education and Education Technology fields in Australia for over 22 years. Most of my experience has been in universities and other forms of tertiary education including TAFE, as well as 6 years in a school that taught from Primary to Year 12. In Indonesia I have worked for 2 years as a Technology and School Development Consultant for the Ministry of Education, Indonesia, and I have been active in the Indonesian education arena as a consultant on other education projects and also as a Director of Studies at an Australain / Indonesian International Institute. I also own/manage about 150 domain names and about 70 active websites that deal mainly with Indonesian education issues.

Because early in my career I graduated in Education Technology (Audio-Visual Aids) at RMIT (1982), a program of studies that went deeply into both theory and practice of education technology in the role of Leaning & Teaching, I have been fascinated with the issue of how technology can assist learning and teaching in the classroom. Especially those applications that have assisted, as well as those applications that obviously didn't, and why. At this website we will be discussing the topic of Education Technology and the main focus will be to discuss the topic in terms of reality not theory.

In developed countries issues like efficiency and effective utilization of education budgets don't seem to be the important issues that they are here in Indonesia (I am sure many of you are shaking your heads in disagreement). One of the issues that fascinated me while working in Australian universities was that we were always under pressure to keep things like photocopying to a minimum and sometimes had to sign and get an authorizing signature (or code) in order to make photocopies that were integral to a teaching program. However, there often seemed to be plenty of money available to buy technology that was of uncertain value to the teaching programs (usually in the name of research). (Att: Budget Administrators).

In Indonesia it is absolutely crucial that all of our education budget is used effectively to improve the quality of Learning and Teaching Process in the classroom because other support for students outside the classroom is minimal, or non-existent in many schools. Therefore "the truth" about issues like "the value of education technology to the Learning and Teaching Process" is highly critical. Hopefully this site through its forum can help to establish what "the truths" really are.

History of Pendidikan (Education) Network Indonesia

I have been interested in Indonesian education ("pendidikan" in Malay/Indonesian) since my first assignment here in 1983 because my duties in those days included the selection of trainees for education technology positions. From my observations in other institutions and my experiences in my own institution interviewing many relatively highly educated candidates 'it appeared' that there may be three key issues that need addressing regarding aspects of an Indonesian education. (1) An Indonesian education doesn't appear to encourage learners to think individually, be critical, analyze, or to be independent. (2) Middle-level vocational education particularly for technical staff, general staff, secretaries, etc. is clearly inadequate. (3) Almost all forms of education beyond basic education appear to be too expensive for the majority of the population.

I have been using and working with computers since early 1972 however only in recent years I have become interested the Internet because of the greatly improved communication capabilities of the new generations of computers and the range of materials that were beginning to become available on the WWW. Before coming back to Indonesia in 1998 I searched the Internet for Indonesian education resources (in Indonesian) and it was apparent that useful information for teachers and students was practically non-existent. Therefore, before I arrived I already had thoughts of expanding upon the amount of information currently available even though I had no idea what form this should take.

Having just completed two assignments with DEPDIKNAS (National Ministry of Education) as (1) Language Technology Consultant and (2) School Development Consultant it was very clear that there are many Indonesian educators and school principals in the field who really care about education and are interested in improving their professionalism and the quality of education in Indonesia. There are also many exciting self-initiatives taking place in schools that greatly benefit their learners. However, a problem that seriously undermines national development is that educators do not have an effective communication system for disseminating or sharing the information with their colleagues in other schools. Therefore, their experiences, knowledge, and replicable development in these limited number of schools is not being transferred and is not benefiting the thousands of other similar schools as it should. I believed that the first most important step was the creation of a communication network - provide an opportunity for educators and students to share their thoughts, experiences and knowledge!

In 1998 I created a Senior Secondary Education (Sekolah Menengah Umum - http://smun.net) website. It was my first ever serious attempt at a homepage and after extensive searches of the Internet for Indonesian education resources, it became very clear that little useful material or information for schools was currently available on the Internet. There was considerable hype (rhetoric) about the benefits of the Internet for education in Indonesia, however actual useful content was almost non-existent. And, even more importantly, the opportunities for the Indonesian education community to participate and contribute to the development of education (via the Internet) appeared to be zero.

Read About My Experiences
Using the Internet for Education Development
(in Developing Countries)

PORTFOLIOS IN TEACHER EDUCATION

Md. Abdullah-Al-Mamun Patwary, M.Ed. in CIT (Dhaka), M.Ed. in IT (Jogja)

Teaching portfolios are increasingly popular tools for both evaluation and professional development. Portfolios are currently in use in a variety of setting- in university teacher education programs to foster the growth of pre-service teacher, with the national board for Professional Teaching Standards to certify and reward teaching excellence and in school districts to hire and evaluate teachers.

Why have educators turned to teaching portfolios? Proponents contend that portfolios present authentic views of learning and teaching over time, offering a more complete and valid pictures of what teachers know and can do (Wolf, 1996, Educational Leadership). Moreover, they believe that portfolios promote professional development by providing teachers with a structure and process for documenting and reflecting on their practice.

Although portfolios have many attractive features, their use can have significant liabilities as well. Portfolios can be time-consuming to construct, cumbersome to store, and difficult to score. Nonetheless, the potential of portfolios for addressing assessment needs as well as advancing professional learning suggests that administrators should consider a role for teacher portfolios in their school-based evaluation and staff development programs.

WHAT IS A TEACING PORTFOLIO?

In its most basic form, a teaching portfolio is a collection of information about a teacher¡¦s practice. Portfolios can come in different shapes and sizes, but in practice they often take the form of scrapbooks filled with photographs of classroom life, along with affectionate notes from students and parents.

According to Lee Shulman (1992), ¡§A teaching portfolio is the structured documentary history of a carefully selected set of coached or mentored accomplishments, substantiated by samples of student work, and fully realized only through reflective writing, deliberation, and serious conversation.¡¨ Again Sally J. Zepeda (2006) mentioned, ¡§A portfolio is a means for teachers to chronicle and assess their teaching, and the portfolio can be used as a means to extend teacher evaluation.¡¨

The key features of a teaching portfolio are as follows:

"X The portfolio should be structured around sound professional content standards and individual and school goals;

"X The portfolio should contain carefully selected examples of both students and teacher work that illustrate key feature of the teacher¡¦s practice;

"X The contents of the portfolio should be framed by captions and written commentaries that explain and reflect on the contents;

"X The portfolio should be a mentored or coached experience, in which the portfolio is used as a basis for ongoing professional conversations with colleagues and supervisors.

WHAT PURPOSES MIGHT A TEACHING PORTFOLIO SERVE?

There are three main purposes of a teaching portfolio:

"X To address evaluation requirements

"X To advance professional growth

"X To aid in employment searches

Although a carefully conceptualized portfolio can address all of these to some degree, each purpose suggests somewhat different design considerations. For the evaluation portfolio, fairness is a chief concern. Consistency- in portfolio requirements and in the evaluation process- best advances this goal. With the professional development portfolio, however, ownership of the learning process is a major concern. Individual customization of the portfolio best serves this goal. Moreover, for a professional development portfolio, latitude in choice concerning the focus and format of the portfolio is likely to increase learning, because each teacher will adapt the portfolio to his or her specific needs and goals. A portfolio used in employment searches is shaped by still different forces.

Although three types of portfolios are distinguished in terms of their primary purposes, a single portfolio can advance all three goals if the user responsible for conceptualizing the portfolio is clear about his or her purposes as well as thoughtful in designing it.

WHAT MIGHT BE INCLUDDED IN A TEACHING PORTFOLIO?

The contents of teaching portfolios can be as varied as the people who construct them. A portfolio might include samples of student and teacher work. In addition, a portfolio might include a variety of other information, such as letters of commendation form parents, evaluations from supervisors, and even teaching credentials and academic transcripts.

The following items are included in every portfolio, regardless of its primary purpose:

"X A statement of philosophy or teaching goals

"X Samples of teacher work, such as lesson plans and student assessments

"X Samples of student work, such as reading logs and student assignment

"X Captions that briefly explain the work samples

"X Commentaries that reflect on the teaching and learning documents in the portfolio

Captions provide contextual information about each item in the portfolio and (see figure 1.0). In addition to samples of students and teacher work, captions and commentaries on those samples are essential. Commentaries are written accounts that elaborate on and interpret the portfolio contents.

Figure 1.0: Portfolio Caption Form
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title of evidence: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date created: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Educator¡¦s name: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description of context in which evidence was collected: ----------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interpretation: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional comments: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In essence, then, a portfolio should be framed by a sound philosophy that is consistent with professional expectations and school goals, illustrated through samples of students and teacher work, and explained through captions and commentaries. Depending upon the purposes of the portfolio, however, additional information might be warranted.

HOW MIGHT THE PORTFOLIO PROCESS UNFOLD?

The following steps might serve as a guide for teachers in building their portfolio:

"X Prepare a philosophy statement.

"X Set goals for the portfolio in consultation with a supervisor.

"X Collect a variety of student and teacher work samples.

"X Discuss the work samples with colleagues at regular intervals.

"X Organize and caption the portfolio contents.

"X Write reflective commentaries about the teaching and learning documented in the portfolio.

"X Submit the completed portfolio to a supervisor for review.

"X Receive feedback from the reviewing supervisor.

"X Set new goals in light of the supervisor¡¦s feedback.

HOW SHOULD A TEACHING PORTOFOLIO BE EVALUATED?

Portfolios are exciting as assessment tools because they allow teachers to represent the complexities and individuality of their teaching in great detail. Ensuring that the evaluation process is manageable and fair requires that several elements be put into place in advance, including identification of sound content and performance standards for teachers, specification of the requirements for construction of a portfolio, and design of an efficient evaluation system.

Identification of Content and Performance Standards

The evaluation of a teacher¡¦s portfolio should be based on clear content standards and performance standards. These standards will serve to guide teachers in the construction of their portfolios as well as reviewers in their evaluations. Along with content standards, performance standards need to be established as well. Performance standards address the question, How good is good enough? What level of performance is required for an ¡§outstanding¡¨ designation? Rating can be made at the overall performance level or for each of the content standards.

Feedback to teachers should be detailed and linked to the information in the portfolios, so that teachers have a clear understanding of the specific strengths and weakness in their performance as well as the reasons for their ratings.

Designing the Portfolio

To help that the portfolio construction and review process is manageable, a portfolio should be focused on a few areas of teaching rather than the entire curriculum, and should be slender in size rather that as thick as a metropolitan phone book.

Less is more, not only in terms of breath of coverage but also in amount of information. A carefully selected collection of evidence can be used more productively by both teacher and administrator than can a file cabinet¡¦s worth of materials. Five to ten teacher work samples and a similar number of student work samples might be sufficient, assuming they are carefully selected to illustrate their connection to the content standards and portfolio goals. Add a caption for each piece of information and one or two commentaries of two to three pages in length, and the portfolio evaluator has a wide range of information on which to base decisions and feedback.

Specification and Requirements

To make the portfolio construction and evaluation process more manageable and fair is to specify the requirements for the portfolio in advance, which includes the following elements:

"X Purposes of the portfolio

"X Procedures for constructing the portfolio

"X Timeline for completion and evaluation of the portfolio

"X List of required and /or suggested portfolio contents

"X Description of the evaluation process

"X Evaluation criteria (content and performance standards)

"X Description of the feedback and appeals process

Clearly defined portfolio procedures allow teachers to spend more time reflecting on their instruction and less on trying to figure out how to ¡§play the portfolio game¡¨.

Evaluating the Contents

Administrators examining teacher portfolios follow a systematic review process that includes the following steps:

"» Read the entire portfolio to get a sense of the overall performance.

"» Review the portfolio in light of the content standards and teacher goals.

"» Take notes about significant pieces of information in the portfolio.

"» Assign a rating for the portfolio (if appropriate).

"» Provide feedback to the teacher.

It is important that the reviewer examine the portfolio for each of the content standards. This can best be achieved by reading the entire portfolio first, and then reviewing the portfolio with each standard as a separate lens.

During these cycles through the portfolio, the reviewer should note significant sources of evidence that will be used in the evaluation and as feedback to the teacher. In addition, the reviewer should keep the teacher¡¦s goals for the portfolio in mind. A portfolio, although a thick collection of information, is still only a thin slice of a teacher¡¦s entire performance.

The teacher¡¦s goal for the portfolio, which has been set in consultation with a supervisor, should provide the focus for the evaluation. It is wise for administrators to draw on multiple sources of information beyond the portfolio in evaluating a teacher. Ideally, feedback on a teacher¡¦s portfolio should be presented in both written and oral form. It is important that feedback from the administrator is not the only source of information for the teacher about his or her practice. Regular portfolio-based conversations among teachers should be and integral and ingoing feature of the portfolio process.

More than a collection of paperwork and discrete artifacts, the portfolio involves teachers in

a) developing goals;

b) selecting artifacts that offer rich portrayals of teaching;

c) receiving feedback on the artifacts as they relate to ¡¥live ¡¥ teaching;

d) reflecting on the impact of the artifacts through data collected in class-room observations; and

e) chronicling changes in practice based on accumulating artifacts over time (this is achieved by examining notes or memos on earlier artifacts). (Sally J. Zepeda, 2002)

PUTTING PROTFOLIOS INTO PRACTICE

Kenneth Wolf (2006) proposed a series of steps that administrators might follow in introducing portfolios in their school or institutions, as well as considerations for creating a productive climate for teachers:

i. Define the expectations for teacher performance.

ii. Clarify the purpose of the portfolio.

iii. Identify the products for the portfolio.

iv. Develop guidelines for portfolio construction.

v. Establish procedures for portfolio evaluation.

Introducing the Use of Portfolio

Along with those described above, the following steps should be followed during the introduction of the use of portfolios in a school:
"½ Enlist volunteers.
"½ Start small.
"½ Keep the risk low.
"½ Encourage portfolio-based conversations.
"½ Use multiple measures of evaluation.

CONCLUSION

The use of portfolios in assessing teaching has evolved in practice due to many currents, including the work with pre-service teachers and initial certification, the emergence of the portfolio in the process of applying for national board certification, and as the evolution of more authentic forms of student assessment has taken hold.

All portfolios should contain carefully selected examples of teacher and student work, farmed by commentaries and captions, and brought to life through extended conversations with colleagues and supervisors. A portfolio¡¦s purpose drives many decisions about the specific contents of the portfolio, as well as the process for constructing and evaluating it. Although the purpose for creating portfolios may vary, all portfolios contribute to the same ultimate aim- to advance student learning through the professional development of teachers.

References:

Brinkerhoff, R.O., Brethower, D.M., Hluchyj T., Nowakowski, J.R.(1983). Program Evaluation: A Practitioner¡¦s Guide for Trainers and Educators. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff Publishing.

Charles, R., lester, F., O¡¦Daffer, P. (1994). How to Evaluate programs in Problem Solving. USA, Virginia: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.

Cronbach, l.J. (1983). Designing Evaluations of Educational and Social Programs. Washington: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Harlen, W. (2007). Assessment of Learning. London: SAGE Publications.

Hoy, C., Jardine, C.B., Wood M. (2000). Improving Quality in Education. London: Falmer Press.

Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1996). Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Knapper, C.K. (1980). Evaluating Instructional Technology. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Madus, G.F., Seriven, M.S., Stufflebeam, D.L. (1986). Evaluation Models: Viewpoints on Educational and Human Services Evaluation. USA, Boston: kluwer-Nijhoff Publishing.

Sanders, J.R., Sulins, C.D. (2006). Evaluating School Programs: An Educator¡¦s Guide. (3rd ed.). California: Corwin Press.

Strong, J.H. (edit) (2006). Evaluation Teaching. (2nd ed.). California: Corwin Press.

Stufflebeam, D.L., Shinkfield, A.J. (1985). Systematic Evaluation: A self-instructional Guide to Theory and Practice. USA, Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers.