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On: 03/06/2012 - 7:00am
Recently, I facilitated a Lesson Study cycle with a group of third-grade teachers and coaches. We examined a math lesson on area. The students had some previous experience with the concept and in this lesson we expected this concept to solidify. The students were to cover four tangrams with different shapes and then calculate the area in square...
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On: 02/08/2012 - 11:49am
This past February, the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals and DSC partnered to put on a mini-conference on leading learning communities. I gave the keynote sessons. Sue Wilder, Isabel McLean, and Linda Rourke did small-group sessions, and we had a panel of school leaders close our day by sharing their experiences working with us...
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On: 01/20/2012 - 7:00am
Looking back on how little my teammates and I knew about lesson study, I am in awe of how much my teammates and I have been able to grow since we started our journey in October of 2010.
As a rookie teacher, I loved the idea of actually having a structured time and format to sit with my teammates and discuss the planning and teaching of a...
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On: 01/09/2012 - 1:27pm
We are so pleased to introduce a new blogger, Suzanne Teague, from Orange County, Florida. This blog was written at the end of the school year, and she just came across it in her journal. We thought it was so informative about the Lesson Study process that we thought we would share it with you now, during the winter months!
My classroom has been...
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On: 12/07/2011 - 4:10pm
This has been a crazy week of travel. Last Friday I was in Orlando. From Sunday to Tuesday I was at the Learning Forward Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. Today I am off to talk with folks in the Kansas City area. I, for one, am ready for a holiday break.
Our presentation in Anaheim was a huge success. I had the privilege of presenting with some...
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On: 12/02/2011 - 1:00am
How many times have you said, "If only I had one more hour in the day I could…"? When schools and districts consider implementing Lesson Study, the issue of time becomes nearly as heated a discussion as funding. In my last blog I compared and contrasted two different ways to find time for Lesson Study Finding time can be as...
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On: 11/18/2011 - 5:05pm
In Denver, as I worked with Teacher Leaders and Teacher Effectiveness Coaches around facilitating lesson study, we ended up spending lots of time thinking about the power of open-ended questions. Our conversation reminded me of some thinking I did in my book, The Lesson Planning Handbook. For this week's blog I decided to share a...
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On: 11/16/2011 - 11:43am
How do I get my teams beyond Lesson Study being about the lesson?
“The funny thing about participating in Lesson Study all last year, is that I haven’t learned what makes the perfect lesson.” This comment came from one educator who worked through three year-one cycles of Lesson Study with me and embarked on the first cycle...
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On: 11/03/2011 - 10:47am
The other day, a colleague sent me an article from the New Yorker to read on the power of coaching. It is a great piece, written by a surgeon who felt as if he had peaked in his career and needed some coaching to improve his practice. My colleague wanted me to read the piece thinking it might be something I’d like to blog about. However, as...
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On: 11/01/2011 - 1:26pm
“This is going to be about more than just this lesson, right?” There it was. The moment in every Lesson Study where my chest tightens and I fling myself into the unknown, the unscripted. I stood in the hallway and nodded, “Just wait, Cathy.”
The process for Lesson Study is planned out; norms to be set, articles to read and...
