January 18th Edition 

AWSA Update

The 15-Day Challenge: Providing the Deliberate Practice and Support Needed for Student Impact

For years, a common refrain of educators across Wisconsin has gone something like this:  “We are working harder than ever.  So why aren’t we seeing an impact on student learning proportional to all our effort?”  While several factors likely contribute to such a conundrum, the level of deliberate practice and ongoing support that leaders provide staff to effectively implement specific improvement aims can be a common shortcoming.  This article will discuss an approach called the 15-day Challenge (and provide some related examples) as a targeted effort that leaders can employ to address such dilemmas – and get more return on improvement efforts. Read more here.

Adolescent Literacy Series: Cause, Effect, Solutions, and Outcomes

This article is the fifth in a series focusing on seven key proficiencies. Our students are well aware of the cause and effect skill long before we have explicitly taught the skill in our classroom. As an example, one might say to a child, “it rained last night so the soccer game is canceled.” Cause? It rained last night. Effect? The soccer game is canceled. However, what might be new to our students is the phrase: cause and effect. Read more here.

Building Strong Family Connections

Schools and Districts often tout attendance rates at parent-teacher conferences, Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meetings, back to school nights, and special events such as student performances or competitions as evidence of strong family engagement, and rightfully so.  Schools should take pride in such things.  It is no small feat in today’s busy world to get nearly all parents to take time out of their hectic schedules to meet with their child’s teacher. Read more here.