Virtual School Dispatches

  Easing the Transition for Our Students  Wow! What an exceptionally long break! Many of our students have probably had minimal socialization with peers since mid-December. You may want to think about some welcome back activities that give students an opportunity to share their winter break experiences and can incorporate some social skill development. Think of some questions and prompts you can use that will work for all students. While avoiding religious questions and avoiding celebration-centric questions, some question stems might focus on the whacky weather, favorite activities of break, level of excitement to return to school, etc. Even better, get your students involved in developing culturally responsive questions!    Spending some time on activities like this allow students to reconnect, share and learn and spur excitement for the remainder of the year.    For some students the extended break will make it harder for them to get back to th...

Helping Students Meet High Standards  The  following is from the research of Ronald F. Ferguson and his work on the Tripod Project for School Improvement.    Students invest more effort when one of two classroom conditions are met. The first is high help where the teacher communicates a love for the students, their questions and has a means of providing students with feedback and help when they get confused or make mistakes. The second desirable condition is high perfectionism. This occurs when the teacher pushes students to go beyond understanding.    Ferguson’s research team found that when these two conditions are met all students thrive but particularly students in predominantly Black and Latino classrooms. From his research he concluded, “combining cheerful helpfulness with pressure for producing correct answers in an antiracist strategy for raising achievement and narrowing achievement gaps.”   Teachers in high help-high expectation...