Frank and Tracy Spagnolo are young, caring teachers in Tonawanda, New York (products of Niagara University) with the experience and intuitiveness of veterans. The opportunity to work with them and similarly energetic recent-comers to the field of education is one of the more enjoyable aspects of my work with the Institute for Learning Centered Education. Frank has created his own teacher-friendly web site. It also has a major focus on information for administrators and other “leaders”. Because Frank is a cutting edge professional educator, using his web site to address the needs of his colleagues, the site is worth checking out:
http://www.mrspagnolocentral.org/resources/Administrators/default.htm

Dave Masters was (and perhaps still is) in charge of animation for Warner Brothers Studios. We communicated for several years in the late nineties. Dave was introduced to me as a veteran of 18 years in California classrooms, and a winner of CNNs “Technology Teacher of the Year” award prior to becoming a major player at Warner Brothers.

Dave began his career as a teacher who taught art through use of animation. Using his own equipment, he engaged students in the performance task of producing their own animated videos. One Saturday in May, he invited family and friends for a display of what their students had produced during the year. Eighteen years later, when Dave left teaching to head Warner Brothers’ animation department, the technology companies in California were tripping over each other to donate equipment to the school (this was just before the market crash of the late nineties) and the annual May display had become a major community event.

Skeptics of his success using animation as a vehicle for student learning had claimed “You can do that with a subject like art, but what about the academic subjects?” Dave’s answer was to team with a math teacher to demonstrate that you could use animation as a vehicle for teaching math. Then he repeated this success by teaming with a science teacher.

I was reminded of Dave Masters this summer when a representative of FableVision shared her company’s video products with teachers at our summer conference. Teachers were extremely receptive to FableVision’s video materials for teaching vocabulary, reading and writing. Among the many classroom materials developed by FableVision, “Brain Cogs” is another exciting sequence for student learning that interested teachers, administrators and students at our conference.

FableVision is a ten year-old company located in Watertown, Massachusetts and is soon to be housed at the Children’s Museum in Boston. Check it out at
www.FableVision.com

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Mention that the topic for your next staff development day will be any of the following and you are likely to hear professional educators say, “Oh no, not again”:

“Mission Statement”

And now, the words to say that are guaranteed to bring a groan to any teacher who has been employed for more than a few years is “Curriculum Mapping.”

It’s not that each of these lacks the potential to be of enormous value to a school district as they often are to a private corporation. Unfortunately, in most cases these initiatives, when undertaken by a school district, suffer from either of three fates: 1) the task is never completed and nothing becomes of the time and effort initially contributed by many; 2) the task is completed, but a new administrator takes over, ignores what has been done and launches new initiatives which will then be abandoned by the next administrator; or, 3) the initiative takes years to complete and the staff developer makes the mistake of not finding ways to put some of the work to immediate use so that people will see practical applications of a process that may take awhile before it is fully completed.

Jerry Peters was the first person I heard use the term “shelf art” to describe the reams of paper that line shelves of bookcases in school rooms with student outcomes, mission statements, disaggregated data, strategic plans, and curriculum maps.

Now let’s take a look at curriculum mapping (or “curriculum alignment” as it is sometimes called by people who don’t distinguish between the two); let’s discuss how a district can align its curriculum and end up with a document that has immediate practical application and will not run the risk of becoming shelf art.

The key is performance assessment. There must be three key ingredients to the curriculum map:

• · Identified learning objectives for an entire grade level in a particular discipline

• · sample assessment activities

• · performance assessments for each sample assessment activity

The first two are easy; however, performance assessments are difficult because: A) most teachers (even the best) rarely used performance assessments before 2000 and it takes many years to perfect the skill of designing and working with them; B) most administrators never experienced a performance assessment when they were teachers because the concept of a “rubric” – the major vehicle for a performance assessment – was something that simply wasn’t used in the field of education until recently. Consequently, most administrators underestimate how long and difficult the road is for a teacher to become truly effective with performance assessments and often make performance assessments too low a priority for staff development.

A performance assessment IS NOT a short answer or essay test to see how well a student can answer questions about the Pythagorean Theorem, the causes of the civil war, or the meaning of “conflict” and “theme” when one is reading a novel.

A performance assessment IS an activity that requires a student to demonstrate understanding or the ability to apply knowledge. A performance assessment is a teacher’s assessment of a product of student work. Or it is a teacher’s assessment of the student’s performance while engaged in work (i.e. the process); or it is a combination of assessing a product and the process.

During a performance assessment activity, the student may not even realize he is being assessed because the student is performing (hence the term “performance assessment”) while the teacher is observing and recording notes. There may be more traditional assessments following student performance and these may include essays and short answer questions, but they usually supplement the data the teacher collects while the student is performing.

If your school is aligning curriculum, requiring teachers to submit curriculum maps, or whatever you call it, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE:

1. Require that learning objectives be identified for the entire course in a particular discipline. Learning objectives reflect, very specifically, what students need to learn during the the course. They are the objectives of specific lessons or units. Learning Objectives fit under the umbrella of standards, core curriculum, and performance indicators, but they are more specific: i.e. “students must demonstrate an understanding of the concept of gravity.”

2. Insist that there be a sample performance assessment activity that can be used to determine if a student has met the standard required at a particular grade level for the learning objective that must be addressed before proceeding to the next grade level.

To be continued in a subsequent newsletter.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Invariably when I admire Paul Vermette as he teaches a lesson, he will bring a student to the front of the room and make his points through a demonstration involving the student. For instance, once he asked a student to measure him. The student held a string that was as long as Dr. Vermette was tall. Dr. Vermette then asked the student to estimate how many Vermettes long it would be from one end of the room to the other. This was the starting point for a math lesson on measurements.

Another time, teaching first graders the concept of multiplication by tens, he had two students counting pieces of pasta into paper cups.

I asked Dr. V. why he frequently brings students to the front of the room early in a lesson. His response:

“I’m an adult. No one wants to look at me, certainly not a middle school student or first grader. So it’s hard for me to keep their attention focused on what I say or do. But when one of their peers is in front of the class, all eyes are on her. The classmates are wondering: “Is he going to embarrass her?” “Will she be asked a question she can’t answer and look foolish?’ “What’s going to happen?

“I never embarrass a student. I treat the student with respect and give her tasks she can handle and have fun with. I command more attention from students to what I am saying and doing when I can make the point through their peers.”

Dr. Vermette also points out that, “When I first ask for a volunteer, and the class doesn’t know me, very few students will offer, but there are always a few who will eventually raise their hands. However, after I work with the first student then the others relax and wish they were up there and the next time I want a volunteer there are many more hands.”

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

It doesn’t appear to be that there is as much light as heat in the debate over standardized assessments. On the other hand, perhaps I am oversimplifying some of the issues. If so, I know I can count on you to weigh in and correct me. Here goes.

• The issue is not, as some would portray it, whether to discard the concept of standardized testing. We will always have standardized testing. This is a political reality. The public will always demand it. Besides, it may be a good idea. How else can we compare an A in Yonkers with an A in Canton, or Maryvale, or Elmira?

The issue, therefore, is what form should the standardized tests take, not should they exist.

• Standardized assessments today are more performance based than these same assessments were a few years ago. They are changing. I’ve had good teachers tell me that the move toward performance assessment and assessment of higher level thinking skills, in the standardized tests, is forcing some of their more change-resistant colleagues to alter their teaching practices. Who had heard of, much less used, DBQs before they were introduced in the standardized tests? What about rubrics? Few teachers had ever heard of a rubric in 1995.

• On the other hand, standardized tests are still primarily multiple choice and essay. While they assess performance and higher level thinking skills MORE than a decade ago they are still testing memorization far too much, thinking skills far too little, and are relying far too much on formats that favor people with strong linguistic and mathematical/logical intelligences. They tend to be unfair to people whose strengths lie in other intelligences. In other words, the standardized tests, for the most part, are not a fair way to let students demonstrate what they really know, understand, and can apply.

• Why can’t states (and countries) move toward standardizing a system of performance assessments? It can be done. It isn’t economically or administratively impossible.

• I’ll tell you why we aren’t moving more rapidly in that direction. It would require risk taking and thinking out of the box. So, what’s wrong with that?

Since prior to 1970 when the New York State Education Department launched “Project Redesign” (to be followed by shared decision making, the Compact for Learning, and Standards-Based Education), the adages from the mount in Albany often implore us to “Think Out of the Box.!” (Remember when Joel Barker’s Paradigms’ Tape was the biggest thing since hula hoops?)

We need educational leaders to practice what Albany has been preaching since before 1970:

1. Let’s think out of the box.

2. Let’s create new paradigms.

3. Let’s take risks.

4. And let’s take another phrase form the distant past – right out of the Compact for Learning:

Let’s have “Top down support for bottom up reform.” I’m at the bottom. I have no title, no elected or appointed governmental position and I, along with many others working in the trenches and trying to improve education constitute the bottom that is saying we need performance assessments and it can be done.

Now if we could only get some top down support!

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

In sports, the coach teaches through interventions while players are performing. In other words, engagement precedes explanation. During practice, the football coach asks the guard, ‘Do you think that player would have been able to get past you if you altered your stance?’

The coach has a context for explaining (teaching). The performance (either the practice session or the actual game) creates engagement that opens the door for teachable moments.

The subjects of math, science, English and social studies aren’t as naturally performance based as football and other sports, but the principles of learning are the same. Math, science, social studies and English teachers need to create performance tasks (activities that will engage students with the information they want them to learn) in order to teach effectively so that students will be able to understand and apply, not merely regurgitate. We’ve all seen examples of this, but not frequently enough. There is the mock trial of Socrates, asking students to rewrite a play but change the era, creating a cultural dinner, having students write a book of math problems, etc.

It’s usually at this point in a workshop that someone will ask, “Isn’t a science lab an example of what you are talking about? Isn’t that an example of challenging students to think critically and teaching them through performance?

Well, that’s the general perception, but too often it’s not true. From our book, “Standards-Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Middle and High School Students,” I quote my mentor and co-author, Pat Flynn:

“There is a distinct difference between traditional science labs and teaching science through an inquiry approach. In the traditional lab approach, the student is asked to follow a process by completing a series of steps to get a predetermined result.

“In the inquiry approach the student is given a problem and is asked to figure out how to solve the problem by conducting a student-initiated inquiry. The lab approach doesn’t require the student to demonstrate understanding, whereas the inquiry-based approach does. The inquiry approach increases the likelihood for meaningful spontaneous interventions (teachable moments) when the teacher can explain something at a time the student is most likely to want the information.”

Paul Vermette has summed it up this way: “My role as a teacher is to make the students ask for the information I want them to have.” An inquiry-based science lab is one way for a teacher to accomplish this.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2006 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

If schools, or State Education Departments, want to take one major step toward raising the achievement of at-risk students they could start with summer school programs. While I am sure there are exceptions, too many districts run summer school programs like one I recently heard about. This came directly from the teachers:

· Some students deliberately stop working in the spring because they know they can go to summer school and pass the course with much less work, over a shorter period of time, than if they undertake the year-long process of passing the course the first time around.

· There is absolutely no communications between the teacher who taught the summer school student throughout the year and the teacher of the summer school course. There is no personal contact and there is no written communications.

· Wouldn’t it seem logical to focus the summer school student on those skills and concepts that were his weakest and to avoid frequent repetition of the areas of his strengths? Yet, this does not happen because there is no communications between the classroom teacher who worked with the student throughout the year and the teacher responsible for the student in summer school.

· Each summer school student takes the same abbreviated course as other students who failed the same course. This is ludicrous. Students fail courses for different reasons. Unless the summer school teacher knows what the student needs and is allowed to individualize the curriculum for each student, we are missing a major opportunity to improve the achievement of many of our at-risk students.

I am not trying to tar every summer school program with the same brush. I am sure there are exceptions to the kind of program I just described. But I know, from personal experience, that what I just described is all too common.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

Middle School social studies teacher Carol Fries was the guest in my undergraduate class at St. Lawrence University recently. She was selected by the four students whose authentic task was to conduct a 70 minute interview which had to include an exploratory phase and a closure (reflective) activity.

After one of the students introduced Ms. Fries as the 2003 New York State Teacher of the Year, each of the 26 students was asked to share what they think is the most important quality for a teacher to possess. Then the interview began and the guest was asked “What do you think is the quality you possess that makes you an effective teacher.

Her response: “Passion; if you aren’t passionate about teaching nothing else will matter.”

The students proceeded to ask questions of Ms. Fries, some had been solicited from their classmates the week before and some were generated spontaneously in response to the guest’s answers. The class was highly successful from any standpoint, the questions were probing, the format engaging, and the interest level remained high. It caused me to reflect on two weeks previous when I had brought a guest into my morning and my evening classes. For the morning class I had been able to assign a team of students to meet with the guest in advance and to conduct the interview just as the group had done with Ms. Fries. The discussion was challenging, the number of students who participated was high, and the time flew by.

For the evening class, circumstances didn’t allow me to assign a student group to prepare and conduct the interview so I did it myself. The results were OK, but the discussion, student interest, and number of students participating fell far short of the earlier session when their peers ran the class.

What is my role when I have students run a class and conduct a 70 minute interview? I have to decide what scaffolding to provide. The scaffolding has to be sufficient so that it is realistic to expect the students to be able to handle their roles, but it cannot go one step further than is necessary. If I provide too much scaffolding I deprive the students of the chance to be independent learners and the pride of accomplishment that goes with it. For the student-conducted interviews, I do the following:

1. I allow students to work on teams of 3 or 4.

2. I distribute a list of eleven guidelines to follow as they arrange for the guest, conduct the interview and follow through with appropriate thanks a week later.

3. I distribute criteria for the exploratory phase and for the closure/reflective activity.

4. I model potentially difficult parts of the process during previous classes (before the first of six teams has been responsible for their own guest interview).

Yes, these are college students and they are capable of conducting a 70 minute class (or longer). However, I have worked with kindergarten teachers and teachers of every discipline and at every grade level and, over the years, we have been able to conduct a completely student-run class from kindergarten to college. For a kindergarten class, it may be each team of four presenting for five minutes and the scaffolding may require much greater support. But at all grade levels teachers have been able to create entire lessons of 40 minutes or longer where the teacher sits in the back of the room for the entire time while the students teach each other that which the teacher wants them to learn.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

· Are you about to show your class a video?

· Is a guest coming into class?

· Are you assigning students a reading?

· Will there be a brief demonstration?

BEFORE you begin, let the students know the questions you will pose afterward.

This is an effective teaching strategy I learned from my mentor, Pat Flynn, many years ago. We were conducting a workshop for teachers in Grand Island , New York and I was about to divide fifty teachers into five groups and ask each group to watch a different ten minute video.

Pat suggested, “Give them a hand-out with one or two questions you will pose for discussion after they have seen the videos. Otherwise, when you challenge them with the questions afterward, they will be trying to recall parts of the video that had little meaning for them at the time; they will be saying to themselves, ‘I wish I could see that scene again.’ Create a lens for them to view the videos.”

Your reaction may be, “But then I’ll be giving away the answers and making it too easy.

That’s only true if the questions you have in mind require rote memorization. If your purpose is to challenge students to think critically, creating a lens will enhance the quality of the discussion. Ironically, if you are successful in getting students to think critically about the information in the videos, they are more likely to retain the information later on.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

If someone were to walk through the halls of your school, occasionally peeking into some classrooms, what would they see decorating walls, hanging from ceilings and adorning table displays?

While Supreme Court decisions place parameters on the extent of seasonal exhibits, most schools reflect religious and/or cultural celebrations to some degree. It is almost certain that a visitor to a school will be able to discern the cultural and/or religious bias of the majority just by taking a walk through the hallways. If there are public exhibitions reflecting the culture of minority groups it is usually because of sensitivity toward those among us who do not share the traditions and background of the majority.

I would like to suggest that it is in the best interests of the majority of the population to share the customs and traditions of minority groups, including those that may not even be represented among the faculty or student body. Most cultures/religions have some kind of celebration between November and January. Two quotes come to mind as I think of the terrific opportunity this season presents to support student learning and sensitivity.

The first was spoken by someone who was a superb representative of a State Education Department although this particular statement was not typical of her usual display of intelligence. While discussing an event being planned for a small rural community she observed, “This is not an urban center; we don’t have to be concerned with issues of diversity.”

Forget for the moment that this small rural community was a university town with more racial, religious and geographic diversity than this lady was able to recognize. Even assuming that most of the people in this rural area share similar beliefs and practices, the children of this community are not likely to spend the remainder of their lives within a few miles of where they were born. The less they are exposed to cultures and traditions that are different from their own, the more difficult will be their transition when a job opportunity, romance or some other circumstance takes them out of their comfort zone.

The second quote I recall was uttered by my esteemed colleague and human relations expert Larry Byrd. He was asked by a principal “What can we do to make students of a tiny minority population feel comfortable in our (their) school? Larry’s response: “Walk through the corridors of your school and as you look at the walls and display tables, ask yourself one question: “If I were a member of this minority group, what would I see that would make me feel welcome – that would make me feel as if you set a place at the table for me?”

Winter is an excellent time to educate students about different cultures and religious celebrations without crossing the line that needs to separate church and state. What a great “authentic task” to have groups of students each putting together displays, pictures, and or essays describing the ways different people celebrate their winter holidays.

I have written on this topic almost every year. One teacher responded to tell me of her school which has on display a focus on a variety of cultures throughout the year. This is terrific and I’d encourage any school to go for it on a year-round basis. However, knowing how things are in most schools, I’d settle for knowing that at this time of year, the environment in schools doesn’t simply speak loudly to the people who represent the majority religion or culture while ignoring others. And my reasoning is not solely out of consideration for the children of the minority populations. It is the children of the majority populations who may suffer even more if they are not exposed to the kind of world that exists outside of their hometown.

Excellent teachers are continually looking for “authentic tasks” to motivate their students. Unlimited opportunities exist for authentic tasks at this time of year.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

Here is a brief checklist a teacher can use after drafting a lesson or unit and before actually implementing it:

• For each lesson, have you clearly articulated a limited number of learning objectives (one, two, or three is usually preferable unless it is a lengthy unit)? Your learning objectives will be either skills, concepts, competencies, and/or factual information that students need to know, understand and/or be able to apply. They should be drawn from standards, but are much more specific. They reflect what you expect every student should learn from the lesson or unit.

• Have you designed a brief opening activity that meets the criteria of an Exploratory Phase (i.e. accesses prior knowledge and interests, grabs the attention of the students, motivates students to want to participate in the lesson)?

• Is there an authentic task (a project or process with an audience other than the teacher for a grade) that is the focus for a culminating activity that requires students to demonstrate understanding of and/or ability to apply the learning objectives?

• Is there a very brief reflective activity to bring closure to the lesson that requires students to think about what they’ve learned and how they’ve learned it and to share information that informs the teacher of some of the impact of the lesson on the students? (Research indicates that “reflection” is as much a part of the learning process as content introduction, explanation, or application.)

• Are the dimensions of your rubric aligned with your learning objectives?

This last question – “Are the dimensions of your rubric aligned with your learning objectives?” is the one aspect of assessment that many excellent teachers have not yet mastered. Often what teachers assess in their rubric are the requirements for the assignment, not whether the student has satisfactorily addressed the learning objectives. This will be the subject of a future newsletter.

The Institute is currently offering a fifteen percent discount for teams that register prior to December 1 for the 2007 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.