This year marks the 40th Annual Kagan Summer Academy! It will be held in the Disney World bubble in Orlando, Florida. It is an incredible opportunity for professional growth, collaboration, and yes, a little pixie dust too. Are you planning to attend? kaganonline.com/workshops/su…

Our kindergarten students @AAOTAS used the @KaganOnline cooperative learning structure Quiz-Quiz-Trade to identify numbers and practice counting. This is a quick strategy to have students practice and review information!

9 years ago, @AAOTAS was a D-rated school, one of the lowest in the district. Today, we’re #1! @KaganOnline Cooperative Learning helped us transform our school culture and improve student learning outcomes. It is the initiative that drives the success of our school.

This post by @MrZachG did not get the attention it deserves. When I became principal @AAOTAS, our school was rated a "D." The charts below show our growth over the years. For the past two years, we have been the only Title I school in our district to earn an "A," and last year we were the top-performing school in the district. A key factor in our success has been establishing a core set of techniques that every teacher uses from kindergarten through 8th grade. For example, as we head into week 3, if you walked into any of our kindergarten classrooms on Monday, you would see students confidently sharing with a @KaganOnline PairShare, Single RoundRobin, or RallyRobin. This culture of shared techniques permeates every classroom across all grades and teachers.

As we all gear up for a new school year, here are two management tips that work well at our school! Tip 1: A/B Labels for Quick Partnering Saw this in a Little Ones Workshop with @MelissaAtKagan, a genius idea! Post A/B signs near your whiteboard. When students are on the carpet or using StandUp–HandUp–PairUp, they instantly know who’s Partner A or B. You can then select which partner starts for strategies like PairShare. Tip 2: Use or Create Kagan Management Mats We love the @KaganOnline Mats! They make managing pairs and teams much easier. You can also write numbers and letters directly on desks or tables. Assigning each number a specific colored pencil or marker helps you monitor contributions during team work. In addition, you can use the numbers to manage materials. For example, when practicing content with the structure RallyCoach, you might say: “Number 2s, please grab two worksheets for your team.” You can find more management tips in chapter 8 of Dr. Kagan's Cooperative Learning book.

Below is research from Joyce and Showers (2002), which shows that if you want a strategy to truly stick, it’s not enough to present it, model it, or even have teachers practice it. To ensure high levels of fidelity, coaching is essential. As Dr. Vern Minor reminds us, "It's not happening in our offices! We must place ourselves in settings where we can create the greatest amount of influence, and that is the classroom."