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Scott Habeeb's Blog (125)

Another Great Song to Share - Our Lives by The Calling

Here's another great song to consider sharing with your students (if the video doesn't load right away try refreshing the page):

This song, Our Lives by The Calling, has an axcellent message for our young people. As I have recommended with songs before, try playing it for your students as a Do Now/Bell Ringer activity. Ask your students to listen to the song and…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on March 3, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Why is Allen Iverson on Assessment FOR Learning?

(This post was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning. While it does not directly relate to freshmen, it does relate to the art of teaching and assessing.)

Members of this network may have noticed a video that seems out of place on an educational social network. The video is of a post-game interview with NBA player Allen Iverson. Why in the world is that on here?

Salem… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on March 2, 2010 at 8:00am — 2 Comments

Success Prep Conferences - guiding freshmen into the future

"If only someone had told me that when I was a freshman!"

What a sad statement to hear coming from a high school senior. High school is all about choices. As educators we must take every opportunity to help students and parents make better informed choices early on in their high school careers.

I would like to a recommend a model for doing this called Success Prep Conferences. Many schools – including Salem High School… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on February 24, 2010 at 2:30pm — 3 Comments

AFL on the Football Field

This post was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning

Sometimes when you…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on February 23, 2010 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment

Recommended Books for Teachers

Here are some great books to consider reading and/or sharing with your students.

Over the years I have been amazed by the number of educators who don't read books related to our field. We recognize the importance of our students reading but then overlook how important it is for us. Perhaps part of the reason is that many books on educational topics are pretty dry. Also, many such books are written by "the experts" and seem to have little real-world application. Well here are…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on February 15, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

6 Key AFL Ideas

This was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning.…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on February 7, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Use Music to Inspire and Connect with Students

Kids respond to music. Use it to teach them lessons about life and to express your hopes for them. Use it to let them know you love them. Don't just wait for teachable moments to come along. Instead use music to create teachable moments.

Here are 2 ideas for how you can use these songs:

1. Use the song as a Do Now/Bell Ringer activity in your classroom. Make a PowerPoint with the words to the song. Then play the song and have the students read the words while…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on January 27, 2010 at 9:30pm — 4 Comments

Want to teach your students about life? (PART 2) Try these ideas...

This is a sequel/follow-up to a post from December 14, 2009.

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As I stated in my post from December 14, our freshmen are in need of life lessons. They need to learn content, but they also need help… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on January 1, 2010 at 10:18pm — No Comments

Why do Freshman Academies sometimes fail?

Why do Freshman Academies sometimes fail?

The answer – which will sound confusing at first – is because they are academies. Huh? Let me explain.

First of all let me refer you to 2 previous posts:

1. The Pros and Cons of the Academy Approach

2. The Pros and Cons of the… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on December 31, 2009 at 9:30am — 5 Comments

Happy Birthday!

The Freshman Transition Network has just had its 1st birthday!

In the past year, The Network has gained 187 members from 30 states and 3 countries. We have had over 2000 visitors from 21 countries around the world.

With 76 blog posts, 17 forum discussions, 45 videos, and links to dozens of resources, The Freshman Transition Network has become a leader in the important effort to transform schools from the bottom up by better meeting the needs of 9th… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on December 27, 2009 at 9:02pm — No Comments

Article About Walk for Africa

The Walk for Africa that freshmen at Salem High School and Huntington High School held in November was featured in a recent article from TrackAhead.com. Click here to read the article.

After you read the article, try checking out… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on December 16, 2009 at 9:30pm — 1 Comment

Want to teach your students about life? Try these ideas...

For more great ideas for making classrooms and schools places of inspiration, visit Go Beyond the Content.

Our students are in need of life lessons. They need to learn content, but they also need help learning how to think, how to believe, and how to succeed. While many teachers agree with this, finding a way to work these sort of lessons into a classroom can be difficult. I have found that the Do Now/Bell…

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Added by Scott Habeeb on December 14, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

AFL - IT'S ABOUT STUDENTS TAKING OWNERSHIP OF LEARNING - Practical Examples

This post was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning on December 2, 2009.

This post is excerpted from an article written by Stephen Chappuis and Richard Stiggins. It was originally published in Educational Leadership in 2002 and was then reprinted in the book, Assessment FOR Learning: An Action Guide for School Leaders.… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on December 2, 2009 at 8:02pm — No Comments

9th Grade Administrator Tip #4

Be sure to spend the correct amount of time visiting your 9th grade team meetings. So what is the correct amount of time?

1. It will vary depending on the situation. Strong, healthy, functioning teams will need less oversight/assistance from an administrator. However, I would suggest visiting even the strongest teams at least 1 time per week.

2. Newer teams or teams that are not functioning quite as well will probably need at least 2 or 3 visits per week until they are… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on November 22, 2009 at 9:38pm — No Comments

Assessment FOR Learning - Examples of using rubrics

This was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning on November 12, 2009.

Rubrics are a great way to help students learn from their mistakes and to assess their own knowledge (#5 and #6 of the 6 Key AFL Ideas).

In the typical high school… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on November 12, 2009 at 3:40pm — 2 Comments

Assessment FOR Learning - Practical ideas for more frequent assessment to enhance learning

This post was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning on October 30, 2009.

As a teacher, have you ever experienced anything similar to the following scenario:

You teach your course content over a period of time. The day before your big test you have a review activity of some sort. The review activity is a good one. It goes well, but during the activity you realize that your students don’t know the material… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on October 31, 2009 at 9:06pm — 2 Comments

Guidelines for using Ning in a school setting

My school system - City of Salem Schools, VA - has undergone a lengthy process to determine what types of social networking should be available on our system's network. Until recently, all social networks were blocked by our filter.

After much discussion and exploration, it was decided that social networking would be open for all faculty members. Faculty members would be treated as professionals who are able to use social… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on October 28, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

9th Grade Administrator Tip #3

Make sure you know the sort of skills/ideals/strategies that the teachers in your Freshman Transition Program are teaching your 9th graders. Then come up with ways to support and reinforce those.

For example, teachers at my school use John Wooden's Pyramid of Success in their classrooms. When I'm meeting with students in my office I try to reinforce those lessons by referring… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on October 28, 2009 at 7:07am — No Comments

An AFL review strategy that can be used by any teacher in any content area

This was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning on October 22, 2009.

As I have come to comprehend better what Assessment FOR Learning truly means and how its principles can be applied, I find myself regularly thinking about how I would do things differently if I were still in the classroom. After recently observing Paola Brinkley, one… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on October 22, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Does AFL lead to grade inflation?

This was originally posted on Assessment FOR Learning on October 12, 2009.

A criticism of Assessment FOR Learning is that along with it comes pressure to make sure that students’ grades increase. In other words, some have been concernerd that AFL might lead to grade inflation.

I would hope that no school would ever encourage grade inflation while it encourages its teachers to try AFL techniques. I think that… Continue

Added by Scott Habeeb on October 13, 2009 at 9:18pm — 2 Comments