My Name is Becca and I’m a Podcast Addict.

by Becca LeCompte

I currently subscribe to no less than 65 podcasts. Yeah, it’s excessive. When I started planning this post, it was 58. I listen to podcasts through my car radio, while I walk my dog, and while I do the dishes. With the help of this medium, I learn about history, science, pop culture, music, movies, politics, and, of course, education. Podcasts provide listeners with on-demand, high-interest topics easily accessible with a smartphone, laptop, or tablet.

But what is a podcast?

A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download and consume at their own convenience. The name was created as a combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcast” by Generation X icon and MTV alumnus Adam Curry, who created the technology in 2004 so that he could download internet radio broadcasts to his iPod. Over the 15 years since, the phenomenon of the podcast has exploded. According to research from June 2019, over 750,000 podcasts have been created, with over 30 million episodes! This represents a repository of high-interest information that can be accessed easily and on-demand from a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It’s an education goldmine!

OK, but what are they about?

Chances are if you have a favorite actor or actress, he or she has a podcast (I am partial to “David Tennant Does a Podcast With…” and “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone”). There are podcasts for brushing your teeth and podcasts for meditation. Journalism, true-crime, and self-help podcasts of every kind can be found online with an almost cult-like following. I just finished an episode of Endless Thread where I learned what industry buys the most glitter (hint: it’s not makeup - that was my guess). The information can be fascinating, like the glitter tidbit, or poignant, like the stories shared on Terrible, Thanks for Asking which examines grief and how we navigate heartbreak. Still, others motivate me to improve the world, like the stories on, the investigative journalism podcast Reveal which shed light on mistakes of our past in the hope of preventing their repetition.

You can read more about using podcasts in the classroom with the Teach Create Motivate blog with this post: Using Podcasts in the Classroom. If you’re working with secondary students, or with project-based learning, check out The Subscribed Classroom and this post, Using Podcasts to Teach About Social Justice. Of course, you should listen to each podcast before you use it. Some long-standing favorites, like This American Life and Freakonomics Radio, keep a searchable archive of episodes with transcripts online for easy access. Below you’ll find several more podcasts you can use for professional learning or classroom activities and lessons, and a blurb about each one.

For the educator: 

• Google Teacher Tribe: This podcast is like a serial edtech tutorial for any teacher using Google applications in the classroom. Learn about time-saving extensions and engaging, technology-enhanced lessons for your students with their tips and ideas.

• Teachers on Fire: Hear interviews with innovative, passionate educators and educational leaders in this podcast by Tim Cavey, an 8th-grade teacher from British Columbia. He selects people who are “on fire” with unique ideas and exciting strategies to increase student engagement, community involvement, or just general teacher energy. 

• Truth for Teachers: National Board Certified teacher and experienced instructional coach Angela Watson tackles the tough issues in this podcast, emphasizing self-care ideas and open communication with colleagues to solve problems. 

For younger students: 

• Wow in the World: Veteran NPR hosts Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz “guide curious kids and their grown-ups on a journey into the wonders of the world around them” in this fun, 30-minute podcast. They explore topics such as why onions make you cry or why zebras have stripes.

• Peace Out: Chanel Tsang tells short stories in this podcast that “help children calm down and relax by guiding them through visualization and breathing exercises”. Using it could help children work on mindfulness and self-regulation. 

• Brains On: This award-winning podcast from American Public Media features science covered by kid scientists and reporters. They cover subjects like why humans sneeze and what it means when a cat purrs. 

Thought-provoking content for older students: 

• Imagined Life: A favorite for my tween, this podcast features a narrative of the moments and challenges that shaped someone’s life before they were famous. We love to gather clues to the identity of the person while we listen and try to guess correctly before the identity is revealed in the last seconds of the show. Be sure to listen to episodes before sharing with students to avoid sensitive content.

• Pessimists Archive: One of my two favorites on this list, Pessimists Archive documents the history of human resistance. From the printing press to bicycles to the walkman, people have been hesitant to embrace new things for all of recorded history. This podcast outlines the reactions people had in the past to objects or practices that are now commonplace. Be aware that this podcast sometimes includes adult language. 

• Reply All: My other favorite podcast here, this bi-monthly show is hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman who tell stories with the general theme of technology and the internet. The show features segments like “Yes, Yes, No” where the two hosts explain a multi-layered Tweet to their boss, and “Super Tech Support” where a listener calls in with a curious technology problem for the hosts to troubleshoot. Again, some episodes can involve adult subjects and language, so listen ahead. 

• Especially for this year: The 1619 Project: “The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.” This is another podcast you’ll want to screen first. The stories are important and powerful but can be difficult for students to hear. 

Still not convinced? Check out this article from Common Sense Media which asserts that using podcasts can improve literacy in the classroom. Want to create podcasts instead of listening? Check out this article on teaching podcasting to teachers. As you explore the podcasting world, please share the names of podcasts you love in the comments of this post - I’m always interested in adding one more to my list. Happy listening!





Becca LeCompte is a CITT (Curriculum Integration Technology Teacher) for Hampton City Schools. Before taking this role, she taught middle and high school math at Jones, Bethel, Jones again, and then the Spratley Gifted Center in Hampton City Schools. In her spare time, she helps run a unique family business with her husband and son and talks about herself in the third person. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaLCITT.

Acing Your Educational Leadership Interview

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

Hey there, aspiring educational leaders. You've made it to the interview! You're amazing! Now you have to stick the landing with the interview. Interviews are high-stress situations, so you're more likely to do well if you've practiced beforehand and some of these "tricks of the trade" are muscle memory. Here are some of the top things I tell people to prepare for interviews:

1. BE ON TIME.

I cannot stress this enough. "On time" in this case means about 10-15 minutes before your scheduled interview time. If you're earlier than that, it's inconvenient for the interviewers to have you hanging out in a waiting room or office. Sometimes interviewers are running early, though, and you'll get an edge on their good graces by being able to start a few minutes early (interviews are exhausting for interviewers, who usually have to sit through multiple interviews in a row). How do you get there precisely 10-15 minutes before the interview time? What I like to do is 1) scout the location ahead of time so I know where I'm going. You can also use Google Maps and input a different time to see what traffic is usually like at the date/time that you'll be traveling. 2) I use the estimated amount of time and I DOUBLE it. If I have to go across a bridge or tunnel, I TRIPLE it. 3) I get to the interview early and put on an entertaining podcast while still in my car and use the time to check my makeup/hair, review my resume, etc..

2. SMILE.

You're on stage from the moment you leave your car to the moment you get back in. EVERYONE is watching you, and I have definitely seen people have lovely interviews and then lose the job because of something that happened on the way in or the way out.

3. PREPARE ANSWERS AHEAD OF TIME FOR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.

Here are some that you'll often get for an educational leadership position:

• Why are you interested in this job?
• Why do you think you're the right person for this job?
• Tell a time that you encountered a difficult situation with a colleague and how you handled it.
• What do you feel are your greatest strengths? What are your greatest areas for growth? (Oh, and PLEASE do not answer that last one with a non-answer like, "I'm just too dedicated to my job." Be honest AND positive. "I'm excited to learn more about early literacy because I have mostly taught in upper elementary. I know where the kids need to go, and I'm looking forward to learning more about how we get them there.")
• How do you create buy-in for a new initiative?
• How do you establish a climate and culture of learning?

When you're preparing your answers, have SPECIFIC details about things that you've done. Do not simply answer in general. For instance, don't just say, "Well, to establish buy-in, you want to meet with all stakeholders." Say things like, "To establish buy-in, you need to meet with all stakeholders. For instance, when I was the summer school site coordinator, I met with each grade level of teachers beforehand to...etc.."

Additionally, you want about 7-10 "go-to" personal, educational anecdotes that you can tell off the top of your head and spin different ways based upon the specific question. These might include things like: a time you led a project, initiative, or team; a time that you failed and what you learned; a stretch project or goal and what you learned from it; difficult challenges you've mastered. 

4. TAKE YOUR TIME BEFORE YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS.

If they have a printed copy of the questions (which, no, you usually cannot take with you, please don't even ask), take the time to READ the question. You have a grace period of about 10 seconds before anyone expects you to actually start talking, which seems really short but can actually encompass a lot of thinking. Interviewers would rather have you share a well-thought-out answer than ramble incoherently. You can also stall with statements like, "That's a really great question," or "Wow, I have so many thoughts on this one; let me think about my favorite thing to share about this."

5. PRACTICE THE FOLLOWING FORMULA FOR ANSWERING QUESTIONS.

• Explain a summary of what you're about to say.
• Give 3-4 quality details to support your summary.
• Close with a concluding sentence.

If you get into the habit of this format, you'll do better than if you just start saying random things. Remember, if you're not the first interview of the day, the interviewers are often tired and may be getting antsy. Say what you need to say, say it well, and be done. For instance, "I think that early literacy is the key to a successful elementary school. As a summer school site coordinator, I helped to choose the early literacy materials by working very closely with our English curriculum supervisor. We reviewed several different programs to determine which we thought would best meet the developmental needs of our students, and finally decided to use Scholastic because we loved how hands-on it was and the amount of student choice it involved. Then, to help teachers understand it, we not only had a 3-hour professional development with the Scholastic trainer, but I met with all the K-2 summer school teachers ahead of time to plan as a group and practice using the various products. I conducted walkthroughs twice a week and provided feedback to teachers. We saw tremendous gains based on running records from our students in K-2. I would love to take a similar approach to early literacy in a school by working closely with teachers to ensure success."

6. READ THE INTERVIEWERS' BODY LANGUAGE.

Some interviewers will be taking notes, and you won't get much from their body language because of it. That's okay. Continue to make eye contact with people around the room anyway. But if you notice that the interviewers are getting antsy, or the ones who were making eye contact stop doing so, it's time to shorten your answers. Even if you prepared a 100-page portfolio (read more here about why you shouldn't do that, though), if your interviewers' eyes don't light up when you mention something from it, take some time to consider whether you actually need to bring out the artifact...and please don't insist the interviewer go through it all.

7. HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK THAT SHOWS YOU'VE DONE YOUR HOMEWORK.

Yes, you can ask the perennial question, "When can I expect to hear about a decision for the position?" BUT, don't start with that when they ask you what questions YOU have. Instead, treat this as your time to get to know the organization for which you're interviewing. A great question to ask is, "What are some of the qualities that you feel are most important for this particular job?" You also get bonus points for having researched the organization. "I noticed that you're the technology magnet school for the district. I would love to hear more about how teachers incorporate technology into their everyday teaching at this school." OR "I've been following the headlines about the Academies model in your school division. What do you think has been the greatest part of the Academies implementation so far?"

8. BE PROUD AND BE HUMBLE AT THE SAME TIME.

Obviously you think you're a good fit for the job--you applied for it! Now, tell the interviewers why you think that. Yes, it's a fine line between sharing why you're a great fit and being boastful, but that's why you're sharing details rather than platitudes about your own awesomeness. Give credit to others where it's due, and be honest about your own growth. You can share mistakes you've made and what you learned from them and how you've moved on.

9. BE GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO INTERVIEW...NO MATTER THE OUTCOME.

Even if you don't get the job, you're getting invaluable experience at learning how to interview. Sometimes it's all about the fit of the job...there may be a team that needs a particular skill-set that you don't have. If you are gracious, knowledgeable, and amiable at your interview, you may not get that job, but they are more likely to call you back for an interview for another job...which may be perfect and you'll knock it out of the park.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

The Best Way to Actually Use That Ed Leadership Portfolio You Had to Make in Grad Schools

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

You did it! You got an interview for an educational leadership position! Your fabulous resume and poignant cover letter got you in the door, and now it's time to wow them with your knowledge and charm. You pick out your interview outfit, practice some potential questions you found online, and find a brand new 4 inch binder for that leadership portfolio you had to create in grad school.

Here's the thing about that binder: no one on your interview team really cares about it. They're certainly not going to use the interview time to leaf through it thoughtfully and say, "Hmm. Tell me what you were thinking here." And that's a good thing. You want your interview team concentrating on you; if they're looking through your portfolio, they might miss when you say something awesome.

"So, wait a minute," you might be thinking. "I was told this portfolio was incredibly important to demonstrate my leadership abilities and now you're telling me I shouldn't even bring it to my interview?"

What I'm saying is actually that while you can bring a select few key artifacts, but yes, leave the rest of the portfolio at home. Instead, make sure to link the portfolio on your resume, and it's more likely to help you GET the interview. The point of the interview, however, is to meet you in person, not to leaf quietly through a 100-page scrapbook. Here's how to choose what artifacts to actually bring:

1. You only want to bring about 1-5 artifacts with you. Think of them more as "work samples" rather than a "portfolio."

Your artifacts should fit in a professional-looking portfolio like this one. You don't want to walk into the interview looking like a pack mule. While you're at it, pack a couple of resumes as well. It's pretty unlikely that anyone will actually ask for your resume at an ed leadership position interview (they already saw your resume; it's why they asked you for an interview), but it never hurts to have one or two just in case.

2. Unless asked, resist the urge to bring technology or digital copies of your work samples.

Look, I'm all about the technology. But also: you don't have that much time in an interview. Setting up your laptop, establishing an internet connection, connecting to a projector...that all takes way too much time, and you want to spend that time impressing people with your dazzling intellect, not having them watch you fumble with adapters. Unless you are specifically asked to bring something in a digital format, go the old fashioned route and buy yourself some heavyweight 8.5x11 inch paper and print your artifacts. Bring 3-4 copies of everything, unless you are specifically told that there will be more people on the interview panel.

If you really have something amazingly cool that's only available digitally, put a bitly or QR code on your business card. People may or may not look at it after your interview, but there's a chance you'll get points for trying while also not wasting people's time.

3. Choose artifacts that enhance, not replace, what you are most likely to be asked about--and only if you think someone has to physically see it to understand its awesomeness.

Let's say that you created the School Improvement Plan template that is now used by all the schools in your district--by all means bring that in! If the topic naturally comes up as a part of the conversation, then go ahead and show people your awesome formatting skills and how well you remembered your Strategic Planning courses.

A couple of caveats here: only bring an artifact if it can be visually understood and its awesomeness assessed in about 10 seconds. And only bring it out of your portfolio and share it if it naturally comes up in conversation. For instance, if asked, "Tell me about a time that you dealt with a colleague you disagreed with you and how you handled that," don't say, "Well, I reminded the colleague of the values described in our school improvement plan, which I designed for the entire district, and oh by the way, I have a copy of that template." Instead of receiving kudos, you'll lose points for being off-topic.

4. Don't bring something that everyone else in your leadership preparation program could also bring.

So you created a professional development on phonological instructional strategies and you really want to bring in your 36-slide presentation? Even at 6 slides per page, it's too many. A better choice would be a one-page plan for the year-long book study that you facilitated with your teachers, especially if it includes an easy-to-read graph demonstrating improved student gains for that content in your school.


Keep in mind: even if you stick to these rules and keep your artifacts limited to just a couple of really high-impact things, it's likely that you still won't actually use them. Artifacts are more the staple of a performance review rather than an interview. In short, if you can easily put your hands on some high-value artifacts that distinguish you from others AND you are okay with the idea that you might not use them at all, it's fine to bring some copies. But don't do it at the expense of preparing for potential interview questions; that might actually get you more bang for your buck in the end.


Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

7 Crucial Steps to Write a Resume for an Educational Leadership Job

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

So you've finished your coursework, gotten your endorsement, and are now hoping to get an educational leadership position. A strong resume is going to be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. More than that, it can actually positively or negatively color how the interviewers see you when you walk in the door. A generic resume may be enough to get you an interview, but the interviewers may be less forgiving with any fumbling or nervousness on your part. A strong resume can buy you some initial goodwill.

Here's the hard part, though: because teachers generally have similar experiences, and because graduate coursework in educational leadership has the same requirements in order for colleges and universities to be accredited, a lot of aspiring educational leaders end up having almost the same resume. This means you have to go the extra mile to stand out from the crowd.

Now, there are some things that you're going to have to include to get your resume through the first round of review in HR. If you need an administrative endorsement for the job, you have to include that you have it or the expected award date. You need to include the name of the college or university where you completed your studies, etc.. HR will review the resumes and push forward ALL qualifying ones to the actual hiring team, which usually includes executive directors or other exceptionally busy people who find themselves needing to read through dozens or more resumes (while also doing all their other work) in order to whittle down the list to three to eight people they actually want to interview.

Below are some tips and examples to help your resume shine through the sea of generic resumes.

1. Always, always, always refine your resume for the specific job for which you are applying.

Print out the job description itself, and go through and highlight the portions of your resume that best meet those criteria. Reword things if you need to. You want to leave no doubt that you have experience in these areas. Even if you're only applying for Assistant Principal jobs, make sure you tailor the resume to the specific school district. This helps your resume get past HR.

For example, if the job description says this: Computer competency and familiarity with emerging technologies and their instructional management applications, then somewhere on your resume you need to have evidence that you meet this criteria.

2. Keep your resume to 2 pages. No, seriously.

Neither Human Resources nor the interview team want to read a book. I know it's so tempting to put down ALL THE WAYS that you're qualified, but trust me...go for quality over quantity here.  You need to make sure that you cover all the jobs that you've done in your professional life, and that you explain any gaps...but determine HOW MUCH information you're going to put based upon how well that particular role provides evidence of you meeting the job description.

Here's what I do: I keep a "resume template" for myself with EVERYTHING I've done on it, similar to a curriculum vitae. I pick and choose what to include for a particular job based upon the specific job description. In these days of digital resumes, you can always include a link to your curriculum vitae if it really kills you to cut out certain things. When I applied for my previous job (Professional Learning Coordinator), almost the entire resume was about my experiences with professional learning, and I only referenced technology as it related to being effective at coordinating training. When I applied for this current job (Director of Innovation & Professional Learning), my technology experience suddenly had a starring role alongside my professional learning experience.

Overall, it's better to have a shorter resume that gets read than a longer one that doesn't.

3. Lose the Job Goals and Skills section.

Space is at a premium here. I know that the Job Goals and generic Skills section are staples of many rubrics, but I personally don't see the point of them in educational leadership resumes. It makes sense if you're posting a generic resume to a site like Linked In or ZipRecruiter, but not if you're applying to be an assistant principal.

If your resume is tailored to the specific job description, then it's pretty obvious what your job goal is. Also, you applied to the job. We get it: you want to be an assistant principal. Don't waste space on a resume telling me that.

Moreover, the Skills section becomes almost redundant when so many teachers and aspiring leaders have the same skill-sets. Of course you're motivated and a self-driven learner. Who applies for an educational leadership program that ISN'T? And just because you TELL me that you're a good communicator doesn't actually give me confidence that you are; I'd much rather see specific examples of your communication abilities within the rest of your resume.

4. 10-point font and 0.5 inch margins are the smallest you should go (and no Arial Narrow!)

Look, most of us who are reading applications don't have youthful eyes, okay? We don't want to have to pull out our magnifying glass to read your resume. Even if I can technically zoom in on a digital resume, don't make me zoom. You want to make everything as easy as possible for me to get excited about you. Extra steps in an already involved process make your resume reviewers tetchy.

5. Simple formatting is better.

Choose a neutral font, like Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Tahoma. If you choose Comic Sans, I am going to raise an eyebrow, and if you get an interview, you're going to have to work slightly harder to convince me that it's because you've read that it's easier for people with dyslexia to read, and not just because you think it's "cute." If you choose Bradley Handwriting, you'll be lucky if I even read the resume.

Include enough white space. I want to be able to skim your resume and come away wow'ed. I do not want to read a two-page expose on everything you've ever done during your professional career. 

6. Bullets, narratives, past-tense, present-tense...it doesn't really matter what you use as long as it's readable, consistent, and correct.

You might think it seems silly, but I actually care if one of your bullets is a complete sentence and the other is a sentence fragment. If you choose to start one with an action verb in present-tense, and another with an action verb in past-tense (with no good reason why; it's just a sloppy error), I wonder how much you really want the job. One typo won't ruin my opinion; multiple typos make me think you didn't care enough to read it over several times and get friends and loved ones to read it over, too. It also makes me wonder if, when I hire you, I'll need to spend my own time proofreading your work and checking over your work.

One exception: make sure you vary your verbs. Sometimes I read resumes where the applicant "designed" something in every bullet. My eyes start to glaze over when this happens. If you really want this job, use a thesaurus and make your writing just interesting enough that it keeps me awake as I dig through those 20 other resumes.

7. I don't just want to know that you're qualified; I want to know that you're the BEST candidate.

I saved the best (and hardest) for last. As I said earlier, a lot of people have the same experiences during their administrative preparation programs. You were a summer school site coordinator? Yep, so were lots of the other people applying for this job. You observed teachers and provided feedback and a part of your course of studies? Of course you did...your program wouldn't be accredited if you didn't. As a teacher, you wrote lesson plans and ensured the safety of your students? I mean, I hope so.

In other words, you need to tell me why YOU did all these things BETTER than everyone else in this stack of resumes. It's not uncommon for HR and executive directors to read 40 or more resumes for only eight interview slots and only one position. Why are YOU a leader in these areas? After all, you're applying for a leadership position.

You want to be as specific as possible in providing evidence not just that you did something, but that you were extremely effective at it.

Let's take a look at some of the most common descriptions I see on resumes:

DON'T DO:
Summer School Site Coordinator

• Facilitated a culture of high expectations and learning

DO:

Summer School Site Coordinator:

• Facilitated a culture of high expectations that resulted in an average mean gain of 30 percentage points on a diagnostic assessment for all students in grades 3, 4, and 5.

DON'T DO:

Grade 3 Teacher

• Designed and delivered multiple professional development sessions focused on social emotional learning

DO:

Grade 3 Teacher:

• Recruited by division leadership to design and deliver two sessions on How to Talk So Kids Can Learn for the Teachers Teaching Teachers Summer Conference. Session maxed out the allowable attendance at 40 teachers per session; participants rated the relevance and engagement of the session as a 3.9/4.0 and a 3.8/4.0 respectively. Based on this, asked by principals of two other schools to deliver the same presentation for their staffs.

Who do you want to hire in each example?

Writing a resume doesn't have to be arduous, but it shouldn't necessarily be easy, either. A resume is your first chance to not only demonstrate your capability to do the job, but your passion to do it. If you follow these seven steps, I can't guarantee you an interview, but you'll certainly up your chances significantly, allowing you to get in the door and show the hiring team how amazing you actually are.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

PBL Help! My Students Don't Want to do a PBL!

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

You would think that students would be thrilled at the idea of hands-on learning, right? Well, sometimes, not so much. Why?

There's a few possible reasons.

Reason #1: It's not easy

Learning by doing projects is engaging. That means it requires students to actually, well, engage with the learning. Engagement requires thinking. It requires work. If students have been spoon-fed their entire academic career, the idea of having to go above and beyond to think critically and creatively might seem arduous at first.

Potential Solutions: Let students know ahead of time that they're going to be doing a PBL. Mention it frequently and explain what it is and what it will look like so they get their angst out early and move past it by the time you do the actual project. Assure them that you'll be there to scaffold it. You can even do an activity where you have them individually write down all their worries or oppositional thoughts, submit anonymously and then compassionately address the various concerns.

Reason #2: They hate group work

A lot of our top students don't actually enjoy group work because they're used to getting top grades AND being expected to pull along their less academically successful peers. They interpret a project as, "Here is a giant project that you are going to have to do all by yourself, except it will take even longer because you're going to have to redo other peoples' work and manage them when they don't pull their weight."

Potential Solutions: One option is to ensure that grades are a combination of individual and group work grades. Some teachers allow students to "grade" one another's contributions (the teacher has final say over the individual grades that students receive). On the front end, assign roles that evenly distribute the work (for instance, the timekeeper often doesn't need to do as much as, say, the facilitator).

On the back end, technology can also be a great help here; using collaborative programs like Google Slides or Google Docs allows you to see exactly how many times various students accessed the documents AND what they contributed.

Reason #3: They don't care about the project topic

You excitedly tell students that they are going to create a PSA about why cyber bullying is wrong. They sigh and agree to do it but are obviously unenthusiastic.

Potential Solutions: This is where student Voice & Choice can be your best friend. One of the temptations in order to manage a project is to simply tell students what they are going to do. This makes it easier to help them complete their project and to grade it...but it can also be de-motivating if the students have no interest. One way to potentially combat this is to ask more questions rather than giving the solutions. For instance: "What are the impacts of cyber bullying? How has it impacted you personally? What do you think we should do about it?" So that the project doesn't go completely into left-field, you can still give students a rubric with the content that you want them to address...but letting them have some voice and choice in how they complete it is one way to help draw them in.

Another big way to combat the apathy is authenticity. Authenticity means that the project is either directly connected to students' current lives OR has them working in a way in which people in careers work. The cyber bullying project above is a perfect example of a project that is authentic to students' lives. A project that is authentic to a career might be something like having students design a new community center or create a menu for a new restaurant.

Lastly, consider a high engagement entry event. For instance, when doing a project on combatting pollution, have students start by taking a field trip to a common area, such as a beach, and actually clean up the trash. Then tell them, "Okay, how are we going to keep this from happening again?"

Reason #4: Students don't understand how to do projects

Sometimes students are slow to warm to the idea of project-based learning simply because they don't know what is expected or how to even start. I remember when I was in high school physics and I had to create a vessel that could keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped from the top of the bleachers. Quite frankly, I had no idea how to do this. I put it off and put it off because I didn't even know what step one should be (this was in the days before the internet where you could just look up a plan to save your poor defenseless egg). My egg contraption was made the weekend before it was due and I'm sorry to say that the egg, that did nothing wrong, did not survive.

Potential Solutions: Break up the project for students. In the egg drop project, it would have been nice if the teacher had specifically chunked the PBL. Maybe we could have started simply with some whole group brainstorming, then moved to small group researching. The teacher could have checked in with all of us to see what we were planning and provide feedback. Perhaps our initial designs would have been turned in and we could other groups critical feedback. We would have done a test run and used the results to make improvements. Then, I might have actually learned something rather than simply wasting a perfectly good breakfast item.

In Short

What are the overall lessons? Teachers need to scaffold the PBL by providing structures for it and chunking it into manageable pieces. The teacher should check in frequently with students and make sure everyone is pulling his or her weight. The project needs to include students' voice and choice and be authentic to their lives or future careers. Lastly, the more than students do projects, the better they'll be at doing projects, and the more excited they'll be about them, too.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

Teacher, where do assessments come from? The Origins of an Assessment

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

When an assessment is born, there are several different places it can come from, and there are pros and cons to each.

International Assessments

• Examples: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), International Baccalaureate (IB)
• Pros: These tests can let us know how students across the world compare. They are also highly standardized and generally provide good reliability (consistency) and valid inferences about student understanding.
• Cons: They may not fully match the students' actual (often state-set) curriculum, which can often say more about the curriculum than the particular instruction or student ability. The results are often very general (questions are not usually released), so there is a limited amount of information a specific teacher can gather from results.

National Assessments

• Examples: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) for Reading and Mathematics; Measure of Academic Progress, SAT/ACT, competency exams
• Pros: These tests compare students across the country. They provide statistical norms and can be measures of the curriculum as well as the instruction and student ability.
• Cons: Because these tests often require a large number of assessments to be graded, they tend to use more select-response style assessments. The results are often very general (questions are not usually released), so there is a limited amount of information a specific teacher can gather from results.

State Assessments

• Examples: Standards of Learning Tests, Common Core Assessments
• Pros: These tests are usually highly aligned to the state curriculum. Like national tests, they provide statistical norms and can be measures of the curriculum as well as the instruction and student ability.
• Cons: Similar to national assessments, there's a strong preference toward select-response style assessments. They usually occur more toward the end of the school year, and are therefore more like an autopsy of what was learned rather than a diagnostic check-up.  These are usually created by organizations with assessment departments, and therefore often have a high degree of validity and reliability.

District/Division Assessments

• Examples: Benchmark assessments, critical skills assessments, district/division performance assessments
• Pros: These can be specifically aligned to district curriculum and occur whenever the district sets them. Therefore, they don't have to be given at the end of the year. There's an option to have teachers grade their own, which means that the assessments can be more open-ended (like performance assessments)
• Cons: The district may or may not have the ability to run statistical analyses on the validity and reliability of the assessments, and those writing them may or may not have training in assessment writing. This can lead to less reliability or valid inferences of student knowledge. Unlike state assessments where there are often specific directions on how to give the assessment, validity may be compromised by how teachers implement the assessments (e.g., some teachers may allow their students to go back and check their work, whereas others do not).

Classroom Assessments

• Examples: Teacher created tests, quizzes, or other classroom activities
• Pros: These assessments can provide the most information to teachers. They also provide the most flexibility. They can be designed to target specific knowledge or skills.
• Cons: Teachers have to create or design them themselves. The level of reliability (consistency of results) and validity (do the results actually help us make valid inferences about what students know and are able to do?) may be impacted if the teacher has never had specific training on how to write assessments.

In short...there's a time and a place for each type of assessment, and knowing the strengths and limitations of each can help us make better decisions about how to use each.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

The Main Types of Assessment & How to Balance Them

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

There are two main types of assessments: select response and constructed (or supply) response. Performance assessments are a special type of constructed response. The type of assessment that you choose will depend on your standards or competencies and what students are supposed to know, understand, and be able to do.

The goal in education should be to use a Balanced Assessment system...to use the appropriate type of assessment for the appropriate level of learning.

Select-Response

Select response items are common in today's standardized assessment world. The teacher provides the student with various answers, and the student selects one. True/False, matching, and multiple-choice are examples of select response questions.

Constructed-Response

Unlike a select response question in which the teacher provides the answers and the students choose the correct one(s), in a constructed response, students must create their own responses. Examples of this can include fill in the blank, diagrams, short answers, essays, or performance assessments.

Performance Assessments

Performance assessments are a special kind of constructed response because they require students to actually USE what they have learned in a practical or authentic way. When we say "authentic," we mean that it can be authentic to students' current lives, to potential future careers, or to the discipline itself. When we have students create series/parallel circuits, take a patient's pulse, or make change using physical money, those are all examples of (albeit less complicated) performance assessments. Performance assessments can range in length, intensity, and instructor intervention.

How do we choose which type of assessment or assessment item to use?

There's no hard and fast rule for how we choose the type of assessment. Generally, select response items cover the Understanding through Application level (with some multiple-choice being able to meet the Analyze level). Simple constructed response (such as fill in the blank) can also be lower-level, but the beauty of constructed response is that they can go all the way up to the Create level. Therefore, it's important to unpack standards using a taxonomy such as Bloom's cognitive domain or Webb's Depth of Knowledge in order to determine the appropriate rigor of the standard.

We also have to consider how long the various types of assessments take. Students can complete a single multiple-choice item, on average, in about 30-60 seconds. An essay, on the other hand, can take upwards of an hour. Performance assessments, especially if they become complex projects, can take days or weeks.

Moreover, grading time for the various types of assessments is different. With a select response or a lower-level constructed-response item, a teacher doesn't have to spend a long time grading. With a longer constructed response, especially a performance assessment, the teacher may end up spending considerable time grading using a lengthy checklist or rubric.

For these reasons, it's usually best to use the following rules of thumb:

• To check factual knowledge or simple application of skills (for instance, whether students can add/subtract with regrouping), use select response or lower-level constructed response.
• To check in-depth understanding or ability to use skills in real-life contexts, use constructed response. Especially when it comes to using skills in real-life settings, performance assessments are preferred.
• Strive for a balance between select response, constructed response, and performance assessments.

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Director of Innovation and Professional Development for Hampton City Schools. You can follow her on Twitter @LearningKate or on Linked In or email her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.

PBL Starter Guide: The Essential Question vs. the Driving Question

by Kate Wolfe Maxlow

The Essential Question and the Driving Question serve important, but very different, roles in Project-Based Learning.

Let's talk about Essential Questions. 

Essential Questions are big, open-ended questions that have no right or wrong answers. They're meant to be discussed again and again, in multiple contexts, and spur inquiry and justification. They can be asked in various grade levels and content areas, and they are immediately intriguing and spark debate. Essential Questions look like this:

1. How do we know what is true?
2. What does it mean to be free?
3. Who should lead?

Look at question #1. This question could asked in multiple content areas and grade levels. You could ask this of a 5 year old or a 95 year old, and you would get vastly different answers. If you ask it in a science class, you might use it to discuss the scientific method, theories, and hypotheses. If you use it The Great Gatsby, you'll relate to the reliability of a narrator. If you're in a history class, it's going to spark a question on primary sources.

You can see how these questions can be instantly engaging for students. Almost every student can provide a basic answer at first, and the depth of that answer will deepen as he or she continues to explore the question and look at it from new perspectives.

So what's a driving question?

A driving question is more specific than an Essential Question. It comes from the Essential Question, but provides a direction, or a reason, for exploring the Essential Question. In the context of PBL, it usually lets students know what it is that we're trying to better understand or solve.

Let's go back to that first Essential Question: How do we know what is true?

We'll imagine that we're exploring this question as a part of a Government/English/Library Media collaboration project. The Essential Question can be asked in each classroom and explored from multiple viewpoints, but it's the Driving Question that gives us the PBL.

In this case, the Driving Question might look like something: How can we create a resource to help people better identify "fake news?"

The trick to the Driving Question is that it is at once specific and yet open-ended. The resource created isn't named, so students have some options (teachers can also provide students with a list of potential options, but the emphasis should be more on understanding or solving the problem than on finding "the" correct answer). We could create a video, a website, a tool...sky's the limit.

Does this mean we leave it completely open-ended? Nope. The change here is that we move from expecting kids to create a specific "thing" to instead meeting certain expectations. We do this through the use of rubrics that are shared ahead of time. For instance, students might know that, among other things, however they answer the driving question needs to meet the following criteria:

• Easily used by anyone with a Grade 5 or higher reading level
• Provides an annotated list of links to reputable online sources
• Creates a strong list of "look fors" to identify "fake news"
• Provides an example of a recent "fake news" story, including how and why the story was spread

When we provide students with criteria like this, we give them space to think creatively and think big, while also ensuring that they are incorporating various learning objectives and meeting standards or expectations.

In Conclusion

By marrying the Essential Question with a strong Driving Question, we help students better explore real world scenarios, problems, and questions. We give them freedom to think outside the box and create real, important products and performances that can make a difference in their...and our...worlds.