The Dallas Center-Grimes Community school district in Iowa is making strides in reaching important district and building goals by having collaborative teams of teachers learn together about how to conduct formative assessments of student learning. The entire district leadership and teaching force is focused on this effort and four years…

At my in-law’s annual reunions of the offspring of Danish immigrants who settled in northern Iowa, one can learn a lot about life by listening to the stories about farming. Last year, I heard a retired farmer reminisce about the time he loaded the grain silo on Thorvold’s farm with…

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage month. We were in the midst of our customary recognition of cultural heritage months, which we hold every month, when we ran into a wrinkle that we just couldn’t smooth out on our own and we’d like…

In recognition of the day, some of us at West Wind want to share about teachers from our K-12 years who we remember and appreciate. BY DEB HANSEN—I have been thinking lately about my High School German teacher, Frau (Mrs.) Chua. At the time I thought she was very strict,…

Last weekend I was reminded of the care and caution needed with raising young Black men. My sons have been involved with a local Boy Scout troop for the last five years.  My eldest joined the scout troop at the beginning of sixth grade and my younger two sons followed…

On Saturday I attended an apple grafting workshop. Though I have no particular inclination to learn how to graft apples, I do have a passion for small-scale sustainable farming and orchards are almost always included as part of the design of sustainable homesteads. So, I went to the workshop and…

This year, my youngest son was admitted into the district Extended Learning Program (ELP), a program for students identified as gifted and talented.  Almost immediately upon hearing the news, he remarked, “Wow…I’m the smartest Nyberg, besides you and Dad, of course.”  Ever since then, I’ve wondered about the messages we…

On Monday, the West Wind Education Policy team – including our colleague who telecommutes from 2 hours away – gathered in the West Wind offices for a staff retreat.  We do this twice yearly and spend one to two days working together side-by-side.  During this retreat we spent the first…

Have you given much thought to how you learn? When you are planning learning experiences to help other professionals learn new knowledge and skills, are you using practices that will make a difference? Always on the look-out for research on professional learning, I was pleased to discover a study by…