Local Engagement Strategies for Teachers

Our island culture is full of kinesthetic learners: in other words, we are a community of people who learn by doing. Project-based learning, therefore--particularly through the arts and marine trades, for both of which there is great local support--is really the type of schooling which best supports our learners. Most importantly, project-based learning has proven to be an excellent way of increasing student engagement with school: a necessity for success in all subjects. With the support of principal Todd West and community nonprofits such as the Island Institute, Haystack, and the Opera House, opportunities for project-based learning are deepening and increasing in our schools. Here's a great article on the "how's" and "why's" of this educational strategy: http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-teaching-strategies.

One Model for Evaluating Quality of Instruction

From today's NYTimes, an interesting editorial on how the New Haven, CT school district is revamping their teacher evaluations and development processes--an important and central aspect of the SIG process.

While urban districts ostensibly have more resources, both human and financial, to allocate toward such initiatives I think it is important to note that the concepts themselves--for instance, rating teachers on a variety of clearly-defined items, including things such as "how well they collaborate with colleagues,"--are transferable, the scale of things simply being much smaller here on the island.

The New Haven Model