Lauren Davis, author of Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources presented a very popular webinar in May 2012, titled "5 Things Every Teacher Should be Doing to Meet the Common Core's Literacy Standards." In this video clip, Lauren discusses why teachers should teach complex text, what makes a text complex, and resources for finding leveled texts.

Shelly Arneson is currently finishing her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of West Florida. Prior to spending six years as a principal at Edge Elementary School, she was a teacher and a guidance counselor. Shelly has also presented workshops on leadership and communication at ASCD.

In this podcast, Arneson talks about how school leaders can better communicate with their teachers during teacher evaluations.

The start of each new school year brings plans for the months ahead.  It also increases the amount of email all educators receive on a monthly basis.  In Get Organized!: Time Management for School Leaders, Frank Buck shares practical strategies on how to establish healthy emailing habits. School leaders, adopt these practices for yourself and share them with your teachers! 

The following blog post is part of a blog series called "Comments on the Common Core," written by Eye On Education's Senior Editor, Lauren Davis.

I’ve heard some teachers say that it’s difficult and time-consuming to find appropriate nonfiction and informational texts to meet the Common Core. I’ve put together some resources below. I hope these are helpful.

This tip, from Write With Me: Partnering with Parents in Writing Instruction by Lynda Wade Sentz outlines a creative way to keep parents involved in their child's writing in September, and keep them engaged all the way through the end of June—scrapbooking!

Keeping writing fun and fresh can seem to be a challenge, but not if you think outside the page. Whatever you can do to keep the interest level up month to month while still reinforcing the instruction will definitely make your job easier. Most teachers are experts at piggybacking on whatever the latest craze among our students is. In the case of writing, look to what many moms across America have embraced—the scrapbook.

Here are our TOP 5 favorite educational tweets of the week, which were retweeted and/or clicked on the most by you — our loyal Twitter followers! These tweets were originally tweeted by @eyeoneducation and some of our other favorite Tweeters. If you're not yet on Twitter, join today!

Many elementary school teachers like to read aloud to their students. In her book Reaching English Language Learners in Every Classroom, Debbie Arechiga discusses the interactive read-aloud as an improved way of teaching literacy to all students, including ELLs. By asking questions during reading and promoting focused academic conversation among students, the teacher helps students stay engaged and think critically about the text as is it being read.

We've asked the members of our panel: Have you used the interactive read-aloud or a similar strategy in your classroom? If not, what have you found to be the most effective activity for teaching literacy to English language learners?

The following poem and tip were written by Annette Breaux and featured in her book with Eye On Education: 101 Poems for Teachers.

One of the biggest fears of new teachers is dealing with parents—namely the angry ones. And, if a new teacher does not know a few simple tricks for working cooperatively with parents, parent conferences can be unsuccessful and downright frightening experiences. So read on if you would like to learn ways to work cooperatively with parents—even the angry ones.

The following guest blog post was written by PJ Caposey, author of Eye On Education's upcoming book Building a Culture of Support: Strategies for School Leaders, publishing in November, 2012. PJ is the principal of Oregon High School, an adjunct professor in the educational leadership department for Aurora University, and he is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree through Western Illinois University. He can be found on Twitter @principalpc, and he is a guest blogger for many websites such as ASCD, Edutopia, and Test Soup.

In Math in Plain English: Literacy Strategies for the Mathematics Classroom, Amy Benjamin provides many ways for math teachers to use language to increase their students’ ability to understand, retain, and apply mathematics concepts. This tip provides strategies that math and writing teachers can use to increase students' understanding of mathematical terms.

Vocabulary at the Core: Teaching the Common Core Standards, by Amy Benjamin and John T. Crow, explains clearly why vocabulary is at the core of all learning and communicating, and why word study (as emphasized by the Common Core State Standards) should play a more significant role not only in English class, but across the curriculum. This tip provides a sample lesson and a chart that can be used to teach students how to use context to understand an unknown word.

The following blog post was written by Debbie Arechiga. To read more newsworthy blog posts from Eye On Education, subscribe to our Insights eNewsletters.

Many teachers are concerned that the new Common Core State Standards will cause ELLs to fall behind. How do we prevent this from happening? It all starts with vocabulary instruction. “Learning, as a language-based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge” (emphasis supplied) (Baker, Simmons, & Kame’enui, 1998, p. 183). We’re not just being told here that vocabulary is a help in learning. It’s much bigger than that.

The following tip, from Communication and Motivate: The School Leader's Guide to Effective Communication, by Shelly Arneson provides school leaders with strategies for mediating parent/teacher conferences.

What better opportunity to role model the kind of communication skills we want to have with our teachers than to ask to sit in on parent/teacher conferences? Even though it might seem like a burden of time, we need to be always ready, willing, and able to attend conferences, especially if the teacher anticipates difficulty or tension with a parent.

The following blog post was written by Kristen Swanson, author of the upcoming book Professional Learning in the Digital Age: The Educator's Guide to User-Generated Learning, to be published by Eye On Education in November 2012. Kristen is an active educational blogger, an adjunct professor for DeSales University in their instructional technology M.Ed program, and one of the original Edcamp Foundation Board members. She can be found on twitter @KristenSwanson.

What if…. we honored educators with the same style and flair as celebrities and athletes?

Here are our TOP 5 favorite educational tweets of the week, which were retweeted and/or clicked on the most by you — our loyal Twitter followers! These tweets were originally tweeted by @eyeoneducation and some of our other favorite Tweeters. If you're not yet on Twitter, join today!