We haven’t written about the school where we draw much of our inspiration, and where we conduct much of our research. We were on the design team for Health Sciences High and Middle College, a public charter school in San Diego, CA that opened in 2007.  A unique feature of the school is its partnership with Sharp Healthcare, the largest non-profit employer in the county. Students at the school begin hospital internships starting in ninth grade. We could go on about the wonderful students, staff, and families at HSHMC, but we thought we would let them tell you themselves. We hope you enjoy this 5-minute student video. Click here to view it on YouTube.

We’ve long been big fans of Visual Thesaurus (www.visualthesaurus.com) because it provides writers and readers with a graphic representation of the relationship between words. This is a great tool (and one we use frequently in our own writing) when you are looking for that “just right” word. The ability to discern the subtle difference between words is the mark of a person with a great vocabulary. One of our favorite methods for teaching this to students is called Shades of Meaning. We use paint chips to represent a gradient of words. Check out this VT link to find out more about the Shades of Meaning activity, featured in Word Wise and Content Rich Grades 7-12, published by Heinemann,  at http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/booknook/1765/

The economic downturn has had a major impact on professional development budgets at every school district in the nation. Gathering everyone up for a day together often has such a high cost (subs, food, materials) that schools have been forced to cut back on these events. But the need for continued learning and renewal doesn’t disappear like many investments have. Budget constraints are challenging all of us to revisit what works, and what doesn’t work. The results can be innovative and effective. For example, technology is being used more and more. Webinars, podcasts, and Internet video are making it possible for people to access info whenever they need it. Limited social networks (like NING) are being established to foster professional conversations of like-minded colleagues across the world. Collaborative networking tools such as VoiceThread make it possible for people to post and discuss student work, projects, and tools. However, this doesn’t replace the need for the face-to-face contact that comes from talking with the teacher next door, attending a local  conference, or remaining in touch with professional organizations. And don’t forget that professional development is ultimately self-motivated. Read, talk with colleagues, and reach out to others across the country to keep the conversation going. The economy will eventually get better; sustaining that improvement will depend on our ability to foster learning among ourselves.

A business card isn’t enough anymore. It’s becoming increasingly common when we meet people to be asked if we have a social networking account. Among adults, it’s usually Facebook or LinkedIn (yes, we do.) Our students often ask if we have a MySpace account (uh, no.) But as we spend more time connecting with people through these sites, we have started thinking about classroom applications. We know most schools block their use on district servers, but is anyone using social networking in an interesting way in their classrooms? We’ll share two good ideas. A teacher in Hawaii told us that he asks his 10th grade Humanities students to create a MySpace-style profile of a fictious character in a medieval town. They don’t actually post them on the site, but instead create a PowerPoint presentation. Another colleague recently introduced us to Voicethread (http:voicethread.com). While not strictly a social networking site, it is a way for students meet and create collaboratively online. What are you doing? Contact us and we’ll share it with all of you.

Like many of you, we are catching up with grading this week (isn’t it funny that our friends and family think that teachers have lots of time off?) We’ve been reading analytic research papers written by ninth graders, which is causing us to notice again what is helpful and unhelpful about grades. To be sure, they serve as an important benchmark for students and their families–a yardstick of achievement. But unless accompanied by helpful feedback and advice about next steps, they don’t result in academic gains. That’s why we include “do next” feedback. Too many directives can be overwhelming, but we’ve found that when we break it down into smaller steps, they respond with a next draft. How do you provide feedback? What are your experiences with student writers?

We spend most of our days surrounded by adolescents who use a host of technology tools to rapidly communicate with each other. They IM, Tweet, text…  and a bit of that has rubbed off on us. Each time we present, we hear great ideas and wish there was a way to do what our students do — pass information quickly and efficiently to others. We hope that this web page will serve as a means to broker ideas and innovations.

For the time being, we know that this will be a bit one-sided — it can take some time to get a conversation going, and for that we really need you. We promise we’ll do our best to share ideas, time-saving tips, and tell you about those moments when we say to ourselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” We hope you’ll do the same. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there, and lots of teachers doing quietly amazing things every day. We’d be honored if you would consider engaging in an ongoing conversation about your professional practices.

We read lots of interesting books, articles, and postings but don’t usually have the time to share them with others, so we thought we’d each make a recommendation about something new we’ve encountered. Nancy’s recommendation for this month is to spend time exploring Wikipedia for classroom use. For example, many of the entries include a Simple English version (scroll down through the available languages on the left side of the page.) These entries are composed using a controlled vocabulary of about 3000 words. However, while the language is simplified, the content is not. Great for English learners, younger students, and anyone who needs a bit more background knowledge about a topic!