Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

A common challenge for students and teachers is how to develop a great idea for a piece of writing. Too often students struggle with the process of finding inspiration for their writing. They have a vague idea for the story they hope to tell, but all too quickly it transforms into a list of events with little or no detail. The goal here is to provide our students with a process to use during the planning process. The hope is that by identifying the type of thinking required during the early phases of ideation and to focus their attention on details, that the stories our students subsequently compose will be more enjoyable to read. Hopefully, this process helps.

Particular patterns of pedagogy have been of most interest to me across the years, particularly those that shift the focus from what the teacher does to what the student does. With this shift comes an emphasis on understanding how students learn and with this knowledge in mind developing learning experiences that will allow them to develop their skills for learning.

"We are delighted to announce the start of a series of webinar sessions, designed at supporting teachers develop skills, knowledge and resources for daily classroom practice. Through 2019, we will be releasing webinar series on a variety of essential topics for educators worldwide, and although the webinar sessions will be live, registered participants will be able to watch the replay at any time."

In the contemporary classroom, there is much greater consideration of what the learner does in partnership with their teacher so that they develop the capacity to learn. Classroom routines and structures are designed to engage the learner in a rich process of dialogical learning. 

Jackson, C. Kirabo. (2018). What Do Test Scores Miss? The Importance of Teacher Effects on Non-Test Score Outcomes. Journal of Political Economy, 126(5).

Our learners will never now a world where Digital Technologies are not the norm. Using solutions developed within this space and with this mindset is already their normal. Unless they are to be slaves to this technology we must also empower them to be creators of digital solutions. To do this we must begin with recognising the challenges that a curriculum built around mastery of Digital Technologies brings to our teachers and seek to understand the supports they require.

At the heart of all that we do as teachers lies the act of learning. Our hope is that our actions inspire our students to engage in a process that results in their acquisition of new knowledge, mastery of new skills and the development of capacities and dispositions which will prepare them for life beyond our classrooms. Increasingly our focus is on developing the skills and dispositions our students require to become life-long learners. We recognise that in a rapidly changing world, the capacity to take charge of your personal learning journey, to become self-navigating learners is essential. 

"Teaching communities can be incredibly nurturing, caring and supportive of the children in their care, but sometimes forget to extend this to the teachers who are at the front line. Teachers may be afraid of being seen as weak or struggling if they open up about their challenges or difficulties. My first piece of advice is find a colleague you can open up to and can offer support or just a listening ear, of course, you can do the same for them. Building and nurturing positive relationships is one of the most important things anyone can do for their well-being."

What should our goal for student thinking be? How do we scaffold student thinking in ways that are meaningful while developing autonomy and encouraging students to think effectively when we are not there? What would success with thinking strategies look like? These were the challenging questions that Mark Church presented to teachers at the most recent 'Cultures of Thinking Teach Meet' hosted by Masada College.

This [Buck Institute for Education] rubric describes beginning, developing, and Gold Standard levels for Project Based Teaching Practices for K-12 teachers" (What is it? ¶1, 2016.06.10).

"Metacognition (or thinking about thinking) is the secret to and driving force behind all effective learning. If you want your students to learn as much as possible, then you want to maximize the amount of metacognition they're doing. It's a pretty simple equation. The only problem is that most classrooms are set up to promote metacognition in the teachers, not the students."

"The Slate authors and Macnamara et al. dismiss the 10K hour rule too lightly, and their explanation of genetic/innate basis for expertise is too simple.  Practice is not the same as deliberate practice, or practice with a teacher. Expertise is learned, and we start learning at birth with expertise developing sometimes in ways not directly connected to the later activity. The important part is that we are able to learn to overcome some genetic/innate disparities with good teaching. We shouldn't be giving up on developing expertise because we don't have the genes. We should be thinking about how we can teach in order to develop expertise."

"Suggestions from educators at KIPP King Collegiate High School on how to help develop and assess critical-thinking skills in your students."

Blog post exploring the opportunities for professional development

"Putting technology first-simply adding a layer of expensive tools on top of the traditional curriculum-does nothing to address the new needs of modern learners."