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SchoolSpring » Sandi Detwiler

Appropriate wording & proper evaluation

May 27th, 2010 | 4 Comments

By Sandi Detwiler Teachers know that simply writing Good or Poor on a student’s essay is meaningless feedback. Yet many teachers receive equally meaningless feedback in the form of evaluations that label them average or above without any suggestions to help them improve their skills. These vague, meaningless phrases are called “valentines” by Superintendent Patricia Hopkins who is cited in Morgaen Donaldson’s article in the May 2010 edition of Educational Leadership “No More Valentines”. Donaldson describes several districts which are working to improve teacher evaluations so that better teaching will increase learning. One model I found interesting was in Cincinnati, Ohio where teachers are trained as evaluators and work for a three year term as an evaluator or consulting teacher. Teachers are sorted into different groups for evaluations so that new teachers … Read entire article »

Filed under: curriculum, Future of Education, Sandi Detwiler, teacher evaluation, Teacher motivation, Teacher skills

Cross Country Travel & Realizing the importance of the Outdoors

May 12th, 2010 | Add a Comment

After living in five countries and teaching in international schools for the past twenty one years, Rick and I are delighted to be back in the U.S. A. We are privileged to have explored in cities, ruins, beaches and mountains on five continents, but we realized we had not traveled as much in our home country. So, during the usually muddy months of March and April, we set off in our popup camper to travel to National Parks in the South and Southwest. We discovered that these parks are our nation’s gift to us all. We have returned from a fabulous eight week road trip across the South and into the Southwest.The highlight was the experieince of being in our National Parks. As we hiked and explored, I thought about how important it … Read entire article »

Filed under: curriculum, Environmental Studies, mentoring students, outdoor Education, Rick Detwiler, Sandi Detwiler, Student Health

Daily Cafe – A great Resource

March 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment

I am always happy when I open my inbox and find an email from info@thedailycafe.com. Sisters Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, authors of The Daily Five, http://www.thedailycafe.com/ send a free weekly newsletter with valuable tips and thought-provoking articles. A recent issue caught my eye because it got me thinking about how we make changes in schools. So many of us hold strong beliefs about teaching and learning, and sometimes that makes us reluctant to try new practices because they may not resonate with our beliefs. I am sure you have heard this refrain or something like it “Kids have been learning to read using this workbook for 20 years. Why should we do something different?” Even though change is difficult, we know we have to do something different because we have an explosion of new information about … Read entire article »

Filed under: curriculum, Sandi Detwiler

A Strong Teacher= A Strong Student?

March 2nd, 2010 | 2 Comments

I have read a couple of articles in the last few days with a similar, but not so surprising idea: Strong Teachers are the key to student success. Are you smiling? First, I read about Kentucky’s proposal to win $200 million of the $4.35 billion allocated for Obama’s Race to the Top initiative.   Along with adopting new content standards, Kentucky hopes to use its share of the money to help teachers improve their skills so they can better teach the standards.  The proposal calls for collaboration in designing lessons, professional developmnt in differentiation, and building networks for supporting teachers in what has often been a lonely profession. Then Bob Herbert’s Op Ed piece in the New York Times struck the same chord. He describes Deborah Kenny, the founder of successful charter schools in Harlem, who … Read entire article »

Filed under: Sandi Detwiler, Teacher motivation, Teacher skills