About: Jon Konen

Jon Konen is a high school principal and freelance writer in Columbia Falls, Montana. He has been a superintendent and has taught most all grade levels K-6, and has been an instructional coach. In addition, he has been an elementary and middle principal. As a 5th grade teacher, in 2010 he won the Presidential Award for Elementary Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). As a principal, his school won the 2012 Blue Ribbon Award. In 2018, he won the National Distinguished Principal Award (NDP). In 2019 he won the National No Kid Hungry Breakfast Hero Award. He is the author of three guides published on teacher.org: An Educator's Guide to Combat Bullying & Bully Prevention; Teacher Evaluation: A Transition Guide to Exemplary Performance; and You are the Wild Card: Infusing Fun Back into Curriculum. He has authored a children's picture book that was released January 2019 titled Benjamin’s Visit to Principal Reads Office…again! (available at www.archwaypublishing.com)

Setting Instructional Outcomes: Danielson Component 1c Explained

Students gathering around a laptop and teacher working on a lesson

Setting Instructional Outcomes is Domain 1, Component 1c of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, and it asks whether your learning goals are rigorous, sequenced, and matched to the students in front of you. Evaluators look for outcomes that build on prior learning, cross subject areas, and stay flexible enough to reach every student. [xyz_feat_school] Two…

teacher leaning in to talk with a small group of secondary students seated around a table in a school library

Demonstrating knowledge of students is Component 1b of the Danielson Framework, called "Knowing and Valuing Students" in the framework's current edition. It comes down to how well you know your students' development, learning needs, interests, and cultural backgrounds, and how that knowledge shapes what you teach. These nine questions are a starting point for that…

woman smiling thoughtfully beside a checklist with the five-star top rating checked off

Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy is Component 1a of Danielson's Framework for Teaching. It covers three things: how well you know your subject, how well you understand which concepts depend on which, and how well you match teaching strategies to that content. Possible evidence includes lesson plans, coursework, and classroom choices that show all…

An adult's hand and a child's hand holding a red felt heart between them outdoors

The practical answer to how to teach empathy is structural: build it into what students do every day instead of teaching it once. An SEL curriculum, a supervised playground, kindness recognition, service projects, and restorative discipline can help develop empathy and prosocial behavior by giving students regular chances to practice it. [xyz_feat_school] Back to the…

Hands using scissors to cut the letters IM off a paper strip reading IMPOSSIBLE

Relational trust in schools is the confidence that colleagues, leaders, students and families will do their jobs and follow through on what they say. Bryk and Schneider identified four parts: respect, personal regard for others, competence, and integrity. In their study of Chicago elementary schools, higher-trust schools were more likely to improve. [xyz_feat_school] Back to…

Laptop screen reading Stop Bullying on a sunlit desk, with glasses, a notepad, and an adult working on a tablet

Community bullying prevention works when the school stops carrying the effort alone. Local businesses, police, service clubs, faith groups, and parents each take a visible role, so students hear the same message everywhere they go. The 13 ideas below are ones we have actually run in our own district. [xyz_feat_school] A school can run a…

Chalkboard sign in neon marker reading No Wifi: talk to each other, call your mom, pretend it's 1993, live!

The main types of cyberbullying are outing, harassment and name-calling, catfishing with fake accounts, sharing explicit or humiliating images, forwarding hurtful posts, and threats or intimidation. Repetition and a power imbalance are central to how bullying is defined, though conduct like threats, stalking, or non-consensual image sharing can require a response without meeting that definition.…

Girl sitting alone on the grass while two classmates behind her whisper and look in her direction

The types of bullying in schools fall into three behavior categories (verbal, physical, and psychological) plus cyberbullying, which cuts across all three. All four share the same markers: unwanted aggression, a power imbalance, and repetition or a high likelihood of it. Which type you're looking at shapes how you document it. [xyz_feat_school] About 19.2% of…

Hand drawing a chalkboard diagram of tangled white lines resolving into a yellow bullseye and straight arrows

Start tracking bullying incidents by logging every report with the same fields: date, time, location, grade, students involved, incident type, and severity. Review the log monthly for patterns rather than case by case. Those patterns tell you where to add supervision, which students may need additional behavioral supports, and what professional development your staff actually…

Teen girl gestures while talking with her father in a kitchen as her mother and younger brother look on

"Provocative victim" is a term from older bullying literature for a student who is both experiencing bullying and engaging in provoking or escalating behavior toward peers. Terminology and definitions vary across the research, and the label carries a real risk of sounding like blame. It describes a pattern staff are seeing, not a reason a…

About: Jon Konen

Recent Posts by Jon Konen

Setting Instructional Outcomes: Danielson Component 1c Explained

Demonstrating Knowledge of Students: Danielson 1b Explained

Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy: 10 Questions

Eight Ways to Teach Empathy in Your School

Relational Trust in Schools: One School-Wide Philosophy

13 Community Bullying Prevention Ideas for Schools

Types of Cyberbullying: 6 Tactics Students Use and What to Do

3 Types of Bullying in Schools + 1 Immense Social Challenge

Tracking Bullying Incidents: 20 Ideas to Use Bully Data

Provocative Victims and 7+ Practices for Victory

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