Group items tagged

"On any given day at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, visitors to the Lower School library might be surprised to find it bears little resemblance to the school libraries of years past. Several 5th graders sit at computers, developing 3D luggage tags using Tinkercad to be printed on the nearby Makerbot 3D printer. On the central library tables, students are creating Rube Goldberg machines using physical manipulatives or the RubeWorks iPad app. The library is a buzz of activity and student engagement, punctuated with squeals of excitement. And overseeing the makerspace is librarian Judy Houser, a veteran educator who took the visionary step of transforming this once quiet library into a space where students not only learn to love reading, but learn to explore, create and innovate using a variety of tools"

This is the community service website of Judy Vorfeld, also known as Webgrammar.

"It's May, time for teachers to revisit their bookshelves and think about summer reading selections. This year, I'm considering a different kind of summer reading for my kids, books that will inspire them to head outside and make, do and create. My younger son, Finn, likes these sorts of projects, and while I can provide him with scrap lumber, nails, a drill and some screws, he and I wanted to find some additional inspiration. Judy Russell, our town librarian, enthusiastically joined in my research and helped me come up with some fantastic resources for inventing, constructing and making. "

"You don't mean to bore students. In fact, sometimes you're downright interesting-the students are engaged, the buzz in the room is palpable, and even the hesitant students are asking questions. But the fact of the matter is, even the most charismatic and experienced teachers bore students sometimes. But the good news is, it may not be your fault. Judy Willis explains the neuroscience behind it all, and offers some simply tricks to help mitigate the reality that you and your content are instinctively low on a student's neuro totem pole. "

"The shift toward applying more executive function (EF) within learning and assessment will cause some discomfort in teachers and students. The transition will not eliminate the need for memorization, as automatic use of foundational knowledge is the toolkit for the executive functions. Memorization, however, will not be adequate as meaningful learning becomes more about applying, communicating and supporting what one knows. "

"A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool"

"The realities of standardized tests and increasingly structured, if not synchronized, curriculum continue to build classroom stress levels. Neuroimaging research reveals the disturbances in the brain's learning circuits and neurotransmitters that accompany stressful learning environments. The neuroscientific research about learning has revealed the negative impact of stress and anxiety and the qualitative improvement of the brain circuitry involved in memory and executive function that accompanies positive motivation and engagement."

"I agree with Brene Brown about developing "shame resilience" and have found the usual tug of war between with teaching and mistake making diminishes when we introduce students to a mindset in which they appreciate the importance of recognizing our errors and strive for constant improvement. When I think about design thinking, I believe it could be a powerful way for students to experience their vulnerability and develop perspective taking, all the while creating real cool stuff-whether it is a piece of writing, a t-shirt, a rollercoaster, an app or, in my Early Year's classroom, a garden. They learn how to fail forward and create another prototype. This design sprint is not a destructive but constructive element because, although they spent a lot of time developing their idea, the focus shifts from the product itself to the user-who will reap the benefits of this redesign. It gets the kids to detach from what they are making to who they are making it for. This nuance has a relatively big impact on the process of improvement."

"We live in a stressful world, and the stress is heightened for students and educators when it's time to prepare for high-stakes tests. When test scores are tied to school funding, teacher evaluations, and students' future placement, the consequences of these stressors can be far-reaching. From a neurological perspective, high stress disrupts the brain's learning circuits and diminishes memory construction, storage, and retrieval. Neuroimaging research shows us that, when stresses are high, brains do not work optimally, resulting in decreased understanding and memory. In addition, stress reduces efficient retrieval of knowledge from the memory storage networks, so when under pressure students find it harder to access information previously studied and learned. Get the best of Edutopia in your inbox each week. Students (and their parents) often interpret suboptimal standardized test scores as a measure of the students' limitations in intelligence and potential. The consequence is a loss of confidence, further activating their brains' stress response, making it more difficult for them to employ their cognitive resources and knowledge during the tests themselves."