May Your Holidays Be Filled With Peace and Joy

To All The Dedicated Teachers in the World,

May Your Holidays Be Filled with Peace and Joy,

Thank You for the Work You Do,

Peace!

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., renewed 1951, by Robert Frost. Reprinted with the permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983)

Snow fall changes the landscape and the world has to slow down if only for a minute.

As New England prepares for the first major winter storm of this season, slow down a minute and enjoy! Enjoy this holiday season.

Developmental Teaching, LLC

Developmental Teaching is Proud to Present Tapcin

Developmental Teaching, LLC is proud to present its newest teacher planning tool---Tapcin. Tapcin is an acronym that stands for Teach~Align~Plan~Community~International~Network. It is an online web-based application designed to streamline lesson planning, aligning lessons with Common Core State Standards, creating and managing plan books, measuring and self assessing and, perhaps most importantly, collaborating with others. Check it out at www.tapcin.com

Action Plan for Common Core State Standards Based Teaching

Misson of the Common Core State Standards:
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

OK Teachers! Whether we agree or not with the standards-based movement we have to agree that it is not going to go away. I would like to propose that we find simpler ways to make meeting the standards more streamlined and easier to implement so that teachers have more time to teach! So, how do we do this? Let's take the CCSS mission statement and break it down into an an action plan:

1. Provide a consistent clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.This means that we must assume that we have a community of support. Action plan component number one: Build and define a community of support for teachers, parents and students.
2. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. The real world of learning includes experiential opportunities that exist outside of preparing for tests. Action plan component number two: Provide experiential opportunities to help students develop a strong sense of self and community; to strengthen critical thinking and problem solving skills.
3. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will best be positioned to compete successfully in the global economy. For our students to compete successfully in the global economy means that our students need to learn and know about the global economy. Action plan number three: Teach students about the world.

Teaching May Be the Secret to a Good Life

Teaching May Be the Secret to a Good Life

Red Sox Opening Day

Here in New England after an especially long winter the holiday that seems to be most celebrated is not Easter or Passover. It is true that families come together to share special meals and special times. But traditions are made and kept for generations around opening day of the Red Sox. Why do you suppose that is?

Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning

2012 hmmmm. Where did it go? The short term and long term goals and projects either disappeared, lost priority in people's minds or have somehow found their way to 2013. So here we are with a new beginning and a clean page to put the virtual pen to virtual paper. Many things sidetracked this part of life but ALL of them are important and ALL of them revolve around improving the quality of teaching and learning. So this is the new tag line for Developmental Teaching, LLC:
Improving the quality of teaching and learning! Hope you like the ring of it so let's ring in 2013 with this!

Happy New Year