Drafting Our Instructional Strategies

Take a deep breath in through your nose.  Can you smell that?  It’s the smell of fall and football!   Stepping outside this morning, I couldn’t help but take it all in- the birds chirping, the fresh crisp air.  Yup,  you guessed it.  This is my favorite time of year!  It’s football season and my fantasy roster is primed and ready to roll.    With the start of football season, so  begins a new school year.  Therefore,  in celebration of fantasy drafts happening all over the world,  this week’s blog is dedicated to those instructional strategies and  NFL players worthy of your first round draft pick.

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Players to draft in Round 1	Instructional Strategies to draft in Round 1
1.  RB LeSean McCoy, PHI	Formative Assessment Process
2.  RB Jamaal Charles, KC	Structured Interactions
3.  RB Adrian Peterson, MIN	Explicit Teaching of Reading Strategies through the GISH Literacy Plan
4.  RB Matt Forte, CHI	Check for Understanding
5.  TE Jimmy Graham, NO	Goal Setting with Students
6.  WR Calvin Johnson, DET	Utilizing Technology
7.  RB Eddie Lacy, GB	Learning Stations/Centers

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Fantasy wouldn’t be any fun without the sleepers.  The section below is devoted to those players deemed the sleepers of the NFL.  What is a sleeper?   According to NFL blogger Michael Fabiano,  sleepers are players  you rarely hear about.  These players come out of nowhere to make an impact.   Additionally, these could be guys who are seeing more prominent roles for their respective teams and have never had truly good seasons in the past.  The same holds true for the sleepers of  instructional strategies listed below.  They have the potential to be a weapon of the education world and  have a large impact on student learning if used correctly.

NFL  Sleepers	Instructional Strategy Sleepers
1.  QB Matt Ryan, ATL	Conferring with Students
2.  RB Rashad Jennings, NYG	The Workshop Model
3. RB  Shane Vereen, NE	Questioning Techniques (Marzano)
4.  RB Bishop Sankey, TEN	Using Exhibits as Assessments

I leave you with this closing note.  If you happen to  find yourself in an instructional strategy slump, don’t be afraid to substitute one of those first round draft picks for a sleeper.  You may find yourself living the greatest  cinderella story of your educational career.

Upcycling Our Teaching

As educators, we receive daily emails about the latest trends in education.  It seems that those deemed the best instructional strategies come around year after year, the only difference is they are wearing a new name. This fits right into the latest fashion known as upcycling.  Hipcycle.com defines upcycling as the process of converting old or discarded materials into something useful and often beautiful.  So, I decided to try out this upcycling fashion trend this summer.

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Upcycled Suede Boots

Upcycled Leather Cuffs

Upcycled Leather Boots

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I thought to myself,  upcycling could be applied  in our own teaching as well.    We could take some pieces from our favorite instructional strategies and then mold them into one amazing and beautiful strategy- one that is effective when it comes to our students hitting and reflecting on those daily learning targets.  What pieces of old or discarded strategies will you use?  Will it be good ol’ structured interactions?  What if we take the workshop model and weave in some ways to check for understanding  to make one amazing formative assessment process?  Whatever strategies you choose to upcycle, may the start of your school year be filled with useful and beautiful ones.

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Additional upcycling inspiration:

 

• 8 Tips and Tricks to Redesign Your Classroom.  
• Pinterest Board
• 8 Weeks of Free Teacher Resources for Back to School
• Focused Planning Resources
• 53 Ways to Check for Understanding