C-CUEs

Useful links, thoughts and quotes for school leaders and teachers curated from the web by Harriet Potoka, Director of Center for Christian Urban Educators.

Street View is an immersive panoramic image experience through Google Maps. It lets you feel like you’re right on the street of many locations around the globe. Plus, you can virtually walk around, look up, down and around, and zoom in on items of interest. This article tells you how to access Street View and has links to 20 sites worth checking out — 10 from the United States and 10 from beyond, e.g. Alcatraz Island, 9/11 Memorial, the White House, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Opera House, Blue Mosque, Eiffel Tower.

Learning to say no is tough. It can mean you’ll be seen as not a team player, as not wanting to do “what’s right for kids” (my favorite education guilt trip), or as not being “one of the guys” (always an odd one for the many women in education). Here’s advice from an instructional coach on how to turn down a new responsibility at work it necessary.

Teachers are critical in helping children affected by ASD or ADHD, as they are positioned to communicate with parents/caregivers and practice appropriate classroom intervention. This article is am excellent primer on these disorders and includes a number of links for further reading.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that students who have been diagnosed with ADHD make up 11% of the student population (2011). In this article a special education teacher and tutor who coaches struggling students (many with ADHD), shares several classroom strategies to be effective. Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder benefit from these easy-to-implement strategies—and so do their peers

Correcting every misspelling, grammatical flaw, and error in students’ work, sends students the message that teachers care more about pointing out flaws than helping them improve. Here are some key ways to offer feedback—the kind that students find helpful for improving their learning.

Need some new ideas to get students thinking — and then writing? Write About (writeabout.com) has a treasure trove of creative, thought-provoking writing prompts at www.writeabout.com/ideas.

At a time when technology and innovations have really taken charge, there exists a gap in communication between students and teachers. This article is a list of 15 things they want from their teachers. For parents this could be a source of understanding their kids better. As students, this serves as a voice of their expectations.

The end of the school year should be a time of review, reflection, and celebration. Give your students a year-end send-off that celebrates their learning. Ideas in this article include Top 10 lists, party-themed exams, symbolic toasts, and heartfelt letters. Plan now but don’t pack up too soon!

Parents struggle with how much freedom to give their children. What is hindering them? Neuroscientists and social scientists are only beginning to understand how the 24/7 news cycle does odd things to parenting brains. And there’s also the stress that carrying computers in their pockets all day brings to parents in small and big ways. But without enough freedom to make mistakes, children won’t gain the resiliency they’ll need.

Hundreds of experts agree: It pretty much boils down to these 13 things!

Do you want your children to become responsible adults? Then here's an important first step – and it might surprise you: teach them to parent themselves. Listen here.

School visits can be life changing, giving guests a chance to experience the culture and context in a way that the best video can’t convey. In the first minute of a visit, the sights, sounds and interactions give visitors a pretty good indication of the school culture. If you visit schools with other people and build in some time for reflection, you’ll see a school from several perspectives and learn even more. Consider making school visits a powerful part of the professional learning plan for your teachers.

According to John Hattie's Visible Learning research, one of the biggest influences on student achievement is how teachers think. In this free Corwin webinar, Hattie discusses his 10 mindframes and shares how to unlock the attributes that accelerate student learning. Watch it now!

In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, ASCD author Robyn Jackson discusses her book: Never Underestimate Your Teachers: Instructional Leadership for Excellence in Every Classroom. Topics discussed include: Robyn's experiences seeing teachers be underestimated in their jobs and the impact of that on their craft, the feedback mistakes leaders often make, how to give effective feedback and tools for finding the strengths in teachers.

In three years as an investor at Reach Capital, an edtech venture fund, Jim Lobdell watched public, private and philanthropic dollars pour into school operations, adaptive software, data analytics, teacher development, and teacher tools in worthy attempts to improve education. In this article he argues that most entrepreneurs and funders overlook the thing that matters most—equipping teachers with the recipes and ingredients, in the form of quality curriculum that will engage and motivate students.

Becoming Brilliant is a book written primarily for parents, but the research and analysis is extremely beneficial for educators as well. The authors speak to the 6 C’s that they believe are essential for success in the 21st century—collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence. They provide in-depth analysis and background research for each of the six categories and summarize this analysis in A Report Card for the 21st Century.

Learner-Centered Innovation is about the schools and educators around the country that are walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to rethinking how we ought to “do school.” Dr. Martin has been a part of the movement for over a decade, and pools her experiences, as well as the collective experiences of those in these schools, and synthesizes what it means to truly be learner-centered. In the book, there are detailed processes for how one might start this work, as well as real-school examples to highlight successes.

Wonderful Ideas to Ignite Collaboration, Creativity and Computation Thinking

edWeb - Tuesday, May 15, 5:00 PM EDT

The Search for a Standards-Aligned Curriculum

edWeb - Wednesday, May 16, 5:00 PM EDT

What You Can Do Today to Lessen Challenging Behaviors Tomorrow

edWeb - Thursday, May 17, 4:00 PM EDT

Fostering Collective Efficacy: 3 Enabling Conditions

Corwin - Monday, May 21, 6:30 PM EDT

Summer Fun With Digital Citizenship

edWeb - Tuesday, May 22, 4:00 PM EDT

Handwriting Reimagined

edWeb - Wednesday, May 23, 3:00 PM EDT

Visual and Date Literacy Learning

edWeb - Wednesday, May 23, 5:00 PM EDT

Navigating the Toughest Leadership Issues in Education

Corwin - Thursday, May 24, 5:00 PM EDT

Growing STEM from Early Childhood Roots

edWeb - Thursday, May 24, 5:00 PM EDT

The Center for Christian Urban Educators seeks to encourage, equip, and empower Christian educators as they impact the lives of the children entrusted to their educational care.

Email: hpotoka@ccuechicago.org
Website: ccuechicago.org
Location: Chicago, IL, United States
Phone: 312-310-5617
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCUE-Chicago-567881706592903/?fref=photo
Twitter: @HJPotoka