Reinventing Education

EP93 Roles For Parents In Mainstream Schools

How can parents best contribute to student learning and the functioning of the school and community? 

Well, the answer seems to be, to get out of the way in a mainstream school. 

In this episode, we look at how the role of a parent in a school has moved away from the passionate volunteer in the school to an informed coach at home. We examine the pros and cons of this new approach. 

EP92 Effective Parent Teacher Communication In Mainstream Schools

How do mainstream schools, that place importance on student success in relation to a curriculum, communicate effectively with parents?
We analyze best practices with:

- parent-teacher conferences

- ongoing weekly or monthly communication

- admissions & selling a school to parents

EP91 Kindergarten Best Practice Teaching In Mainstream Schools

We cover the pros and cons of:

-play-based learning

-differentiation and addressing developmental stages

-social-emotional learning strategies

-conflict resolutions

-assessment and developmental benchmarks

EP90 Get The Most Out Of Breaktime In Mainstream Schools

Breaktime can be an opportunity to maximize play, development & personal accountability. 

We look at:

- shared social agreements & conflict resolution

-clubs, sports & organized activities

-equipment & staggered timings

-influence of health & safety and legal responsibility for supervision

EP89 Effective Student Government. Best Practice In Mainstream Schools

Pros and Cons of supporting student government via:

-student chaired meetings

-class representatives

-input in schoolwide decisions including staff hiring & budgeting

-event organization

 

We also examine Roger Hart's framework Ladder Of Participation to help clarify student governments as merely tokenism vs authentic decision marking. 

EP88 Class Jobs For Efficient Mainstream Classrooms

Pros and cons of making your classroom efficient using:

-class job schedules

-role-playing real-life job applications and reviews

-jobs for lessons and student learning

-school-wide jobs and rewards

EP87 Efficient and Effective Assessment and Grading Practice in Mainstream Schools

In this episode we look at:

-purposes for standardized assessments vs in school assessments

-alternatives to written tests

-testing validity: does it measure what it says it measures

EP86 Principles Of Feedback And Marking in Mainstream Schools

Traditional approaches to feedback and marking focused on correcting mistakes. 

In this episode we explore strategies the modern Mainstream approach uses:

-feedback for improvement

-finding your zone of proximal development

-ongoing and frequent feedback

-transparency 

-specificity

-conferencing models

EP85 How to Manage Behaviour In Mainstream Schools

In this episode, we discuss classroom agreements, preventative strategies, incentives for good behaviour, IEPs for behaviour, student choice and behaviour management models. 

EP 84 : Homework in Mainstream Schools

There are few more controversial issues in schooling than that of homework. Should it exist? How much is enough? Does it support progress or extinguish a love of learning?

Tonight we dig into the pros and cons of the way the mainstream school system approaches homework.

In this episode we reference the paper "Does High School Homework Increase
Academic Achievement?" by Charlene Marie Kalenkoski & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia,  and the article "Key Lessons: What Research Says About the Value of Homework" from the Reading Rockets site. We also mention Alfie Kohn and his classic educational text, "The Homework Myth".

Join us! And feel free to add your own voice to the conversation at reinventingeducationpodcast@gmail.com