Most educators have known for some time that traditional professional development is in need of a significant makeover. According to a growing body of research, we spend considerable amounts of money on a development system that is neither effective nor helpful. That’s why we here at Thriving Schools spend so much time on new approaches, programs, and resources that allow us get better!

In this piece, we speak with Jason Lange, co-founder and President of BloomBoard, to share his company’s vision for what professional learning for teachers can look like. Imagine – curated learning resources, virtual collaboration spaces, the ability to demonstrate mastery, and access to coaching. All with the focus on giving teachers exactly what they need!

While the idea of student portfolios has been around for a long time, they’ve never really taken off due to the significant demands placed on a teacher. It turns out collecting and organizing student work can be very time consuming! But by giving students ownership over these tasks and providing them access to a wide range of media (video, pictures, audio, notes, and more), the EdTech firm Seesaw is showing how powerful student-portfolios can be. And in the process, it’s giving students an audience for their work in ways never before seen.

In this piece, we speak with Bronx Arena’s Abe Cohen about the differentiation practices he employs in the classroom. Specifically, Abe tells us how he uses metacognitive conferencing, student interest inventories, and The 5 E’s to create an environment in which students initiate their own learning. All too often, a dichotomy is set up between “fun, engaging” learning and a more “regimented, exam-preparation” style of instruction. But in this piece we see that it doesn’t have to be this way – that if students are driving the instruction, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve both!

We recently spoke with Paul Dean about how to develop strong instructional coaches. Paul is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Jounce Partners, an organization that trains current and future school leaders for a reimagined principal role that emphasizes teacher development. In this piece, we talk about specific practices that Paul uses in coaching teachers and school leaders.

The last time we spoke with Chris O’Brien and Ronald Brownrigg we focused on how to create an environment in which live coaching can take place. For instance, we asked them why so many schools fall short in the development of their teachers. Ron responded, “The problem comes down to too much talking! Coaching needs to be a practice of modeling for and with a teacher to show them what something should look like – talking isn’t going to suddenly result in the formation of better habits.” In this second part of our conversation, we discuss the specific coaching practices at Village Prep Woodland Hills. We cover scheduling, tools and techniques, coaching conversations, and the use of video.

It’s every teacher’s dream – allowing students a high level of self-direction in their studies while not sacrificing performance on standardized tests. Yet for the last several years, Evelyn Rebollar has done exactly that! Despite her disdain for our culture of standardized testing, she has found a way to encourage a high level of differentiation and still have her students “performing” at the highest level. In this piece, Evelyn shares with us how she has shifted her thinking on student self-direction and some of the processes she uses to help achieve it.

If we want students to thrive in post-secondary education, they need to be proficient writers. But in an environment of standardized testing, writing is rarely given the class time it requires. As a result, 71% of 8th and 12th graders have partial or limited proficiency in writing, according to 2015 NAEP results.

In this piece, we talk to Prof. Shawn Datchuk who researches writing instruction in the classroom and has years of experience teaching special education. Shawn provides us with classroom strategies and techniques for improving handwriting, spelling, academic fluency, and grammar in student writing.

This is round 2 with Charlie Friedman, Founder and Head of School at Nashville Classical. Last time, we asked Charlie when his school starts to think about hiring for next year. His response? “When are we not thinking about hiring? We believe there shouldn’t be an off-switch on the hiring front!”

In this piece, we focus on teacher retention. When we asked Charlie what a successful retention program looks like, he told us that getting your most impactful teachers to make a 3-5 year commitment to the school is much more important than seeing how many teachers come back on a year-to-year basis. Read on to learn about the other systems Charlie uses at Nashville Classical to retain top talent!

Over the last year, several schools have received media attention for their implementation of mindfulness practices. News reports have touted fewer suspensions, improved attendance, and higher concentration levels. Sounds pretty good, right? But while the media has been quick to report these stories, they haven’t provided any help in navigating available resources or understanding how to implement a new program.

That’s why we decided to give Marni Parsons a call at Bright Star and ask how the network went about designing their own pilot program. If adding a little Zen to your school sounds like an intriguing idea, you’ll definitely want to check out this resource-packed conversation!

The Success Academy Charter Network operates 41 schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. In 2015, its schools scored in the top 1% in math and top 2% in ELA among all schools in New York State. Perhaps more telling, though, is the response from parents. In the same year, it received more than 22,000 applications for a mere 2,300 open seats.

One of the more strategic decisions it has made over the years is to opt for large class sizes. In this piece, we explore the logic behind this decision and some of the programs to which savings are reallocated.