Attention recent ed/special ed graduates

seeker ↓

Wed, May 25 2022, 2:22 pm

Can you please help me out a teeny, tiny bit? It'll only take a couple of minutes.

I graduated ~~redacted~~ years ago and I'm trying to get/stay up to date on current trends. I think I've done OK with learning new ideas and strategies, but I'm a little out of it when it comes to dropping the right buzzwords in professional communication. Can you please share the general terms or names of programs that were trending when you were recently in education/special ed grad school?

For example, when I was in school one buzzword was Balanced Literacy. Bloom's Taxonomy was all over the place, too.

A trending program was Teacher's College Reading/Writing Workshop (I believe this is still standard, but isn't it getting old? Has it not been usurped?)

A buzzword that I'm currently seeing but did not exist when I was in school is UDL or Universal Design for Learning. As far as I can tell, it's basically a lot of stuff we would have been doing anyway, but now it has a buzzword and if you try to pass someone a cover letter or job application without it, you are probably looking out of it. Since I didn't do THAT good of a job keeping up with the currents since my school days, I might not have known it was a Thing.

So I'm asking you young 'uns, what else is a Thing now that I might not know about? If I want to update my skills and resume, what should I be looking into?

Thanks for humoring an old lady.

amother

Cerise ↓

Wed, May 25 2022, 2:49 pm

Balanced literacy is on its way out. Lucy Calkins is passe--she recently had to issue a mea culpa of sorts as she repackaged her units of learning. Guided reading is in for now, so is Fountas and Pinnell. Phonics is big. Not sure if there are specific programs that are being pushed but you can't go wrong with Open Court. Conscious Discipline is in. Learning targets + success criteria is a must, it's not just regular plain objectives anymore.
The latest buzzword I hear is SoR .
This is just a smattering off the top of my head, you can research if you'd like deeper knowledge.
ETA I'm not a recent graduate either....graduated around 20 years ago.

amother

↑ Cerise ↓

Wed, May 25 2022, 4:03 pm

amother [ DarkRed ] wrote:

(just btw as a parent.of SN kids, this is already a very depressing thread)

Why? Genuinely curious. (I'm a regular Ed teacher as it happens.) Mine is the only reply so far...hope I didn't touch any sensitive nerves or cause you hurt.

↑ seeker ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 5:42 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

What's SoR? Google has way too many results, and the top few don't seem relevant.
If you graduated 20 years ago, how do you stay up to date? I try to keep an eye out but curious what resources other people are using.

Thanks!

↑ seeker ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 5:49 pm

amother [ DarkRed ] wrote:

(just btw as a parent.of SN kids, this is already a very depressing thread)

I'm not sure what's depressing but maybe you can reframe it - I would think it's a good thing that professionals are constantly trying to learn new things to make sure they are doing the best they can for our kids, and that new research and methods are evolving to do the same.

↑ seeker ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 5:52 pm

As for me personally I have put quite a bit of effort into continued development since I graduated, but since I'm on my own to seek learning opportunities, it's easy to miss things and I'm asking what I might have missed out on. Also, the learning I do is often based on issues I'm facing with a particular student, so if I've searched for answers to their issues I may not be finding out about recent developments in other areas. Some of my employers provide professional development but I find it very insufficient.

amother

Seagreen ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 6:03 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

What is SoR?

Also, why is balanced literacy on its way out?

amother

↑ Cerise ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 6:08 pm

seeker wrote:

Working in a public school is really what has kept me up to date--you are exposed to the latest and get trained in specific new programs/methods. Also, continuing education to keep up my certification. In my state, that's 6 graduate level credits every 5 years. (I know different states have different requirements.)
SoR is science of reading...looking into heavily researched teaching methods that are backed up by strong data. That's why phonics is coming back in so heavily and balanced literacy/Lucy Calkins is going out. She was figuratively ripped to shreds in a recent New York Times article. Balanced literacy is on its way out because it didn't emphasize phonics enough. I think we are looking at going back "old school" with teaching reading...I've seen it coming the past few years, so really not a surprise. That's the pendulum of education. It always swings from one extreme to the other. Hey, even teaching cursive is coming back in, which plenty of people thought was gone forever.
Another thing I meant to add is that Growth Mindset is not completely out but it's getting to be passe, too. Same thing with flexible seating (mainly yoga balls and hoki stools, from what I recall.) It's fine if you utilize it or talk about it in interviews but it doesn't generate the "latest trend" vibe.

amother

↑ Cerise ↓

Thu, May 26 2022, 7:40 pm

amother [ Offwhite ] wrote:

Is it? I’m shook.

Yes. It's been brewing for at least 3-4 years. Several states have added it into their state standards, there may be close to 25 states now. There is a lot of research that shows students retain information better when they handwrite it vs typing it, and even better when they use cursive vs printing. If you google it, there is a ton of information out there. It went to the backburner the last couple years with covid and remote learning but now that all schools are reopened, I expect to to come back to the forefront fairly soon.

amother

↑ Seagreen

Thu, May 26 2022, 8:03 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

Interesting. Can you link the NYT article?

↑ seeker

Thu, May 26 2022, 8:26 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

That's so interesting because it's been pretty much known for years but seemed certain to never catch on in widespread practice. There are just so many other things to work on.

amother

↑ Offwhite

Thu, May 26 2022, 8:37 pm

amother [ Cerise ] wrote:

Weird. I left education a few years ago so I haven’t kept up. But I never thought they'd go back to cursive.

amother

↑ Cerise

Thu, May 26 2022, 9:29 pm

amother [ Seagreen ] wrote:

Interesting. Can you link the NYT article?

Sorry, on my phone and can't link. But if you Google her name+nyt I'm sure it will pop up. It was published maybe a week ago.
It's behind a pay wall, though, probably, just FYI. If you can read it, though, check out the comments. Those were more interesting and telling than the actual article imo.