Group items tagged

Mornings are for “Integrated Learning Time”; no rigid boundaries of subject, time, or space.  The pod teachers decide when and how the students will move, and the teams focus relentlessly on how students will learn content through big, cross-disciplinary themes.  The afternoons are split between “Deep Dives”, physical activity-based “Minds in Motion”, “Exploration” opportunities for students to follow their passions,  and some dedicated time for mathematics in the upper grade levels.  Within each of these broad areas, the teachers are expected to amplify the process of inquiry and to embed the skills of design thinking.

How might we further dissolve rigidity by allowing students to re-arrange classroom furniture on a very frequent (more than daily) basis to meet the learning objectives of the moment? How often can we get students up to the writing walls to collaborate on work rather than taking individual notes or keying into their individual devices? How might we constantly defuse the “teacher-centrism” of the room?  If the teacher is not using a fixed projector or other device that requires a “front of the room”, why set the podium there, or stand there? How might we empower students to ask the questions that guide discussion? How might we allow students to find the best ways to interact within learning teams, rather than giving them a strict methodology to follow?  When have we given them enough instruction on how to learn, and when is it best for them to find this out for themselves and with their peers?

Set and Debrief Goals for "Work" Time

Reflect on the Driving Question

Use Team Contracts

For my elementary-school-age children, I care more about whether or not they love going to school than I do about their academic progress. I am clever enough to know that if they are enjoying themselves at school, they will learn. Academics follow naturally if the proper environment for learning is there.

When the learning environment becomes very serious and relies heavily on assessment and grades, learning targets and goals, it is not as enjoyable. It is “work,” and children don’t enjoy work. It’s not in their nature to enjoy work; children are created to learn through play.

What defines “play?” Any activity that engages the imagination and creativity, two skills that lead to innovation and problem solving when practiced often enough.

A growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your talents and abilities through hard work, good strategies, and help from others. It stands in opposition to a fixed mindset, which is the belief that talents and abilities are unalterable traits, ones that can never be improved.

We typically teach students a growth mindset through online programs that demonstrate how the brain changes with learning (how the neurons grow stronger connections when students work on hard things and stick with them) and how to apply this to their schoolwork.

"Great effort" became the consolation prize for children who weren't learning. So the very students who most needed to learn about developing their abilities were instead receiving praise for their ineffective effort.

roblem behaviors are part of typical development.

A child’s behavior is a form of communication.

“Children do well if they can”

It’s never too early to learn smart strategies to focus in on priorities and tune out what’s not immediately necessary.

Neuroscience has shown that multitasking — the process of doing more than one thing at the same time — doesn’t exist.

Multitasking is also stressful for the body. When people try to do several things at once, like drive and text, the brain uses up oxygenated glucose at a much faster rate and releases the stress hormone cortisol.

Spin the conversation forward and ask what you can do to help.Parent-teacher conferences are no longer a once-a-year check-in; they can provide useful insight for immediate and clear next steps."Conferences are now a progress report timed so parents can actually do something about what they learn from teachers,"

If teachers bring up areas for improvement, don't get defensive, says Holmes, the elementary school assistant principal.

Don't be shy to ask your child's teacher to explain what a certain educational word means.

The most effective creative process alternates between time in groups, collaboration, interaction, and conversation... [and] times of solitude, where something different happens cognitively in your brain,

Unequal participation is perhaps the most common complaint about group work.

a handful of practices that educators use to promote equal participation. These involve setting out clear expectations for group work, increasing accountability among participants, and nurturing a productive group work dynamic.

the ISEE is meant to assess a short band of academic skills that are cumulative in nature, and thus, less coachable.

To say that reading skills can be dramatically ‘beefed up’ with a brief stint of preparation is simply wrong; it completely ignores the abundance of research on child development that confirms the inverse.

It is also essential to note that the ISEE is one facet of a highly nuanced application.