The Critical Skills Classroom

Really a great post by Vermont Superintendent Dan French. In this he talks about educators from across districts and beyond "utilizing the collective wisdom of their peers." He sees a potential providing an opportunity for educators where "Curriculum development and professional development are 'open sourced' with best practices being identified, implemented, and evaluated much more quickly across a group of schools since teachers are no longer working in isolation within their own schools or districts." I can't help but think of the CFG work that I did with my Principal Cert. cohort. It also has me thinking of the powerful possibilities for members of the #CSPMT program and the work we are beginning to engage in.

"I used to think I was a pretty good teacher. Now I realize that I did the best I could with the knowledge I had, but my classroom was woefully inadequate for many of my students. I failed to equip them with what they needed."

"...researchers and educators ... want to know how kids learn by tinkering - fooling around with something until one understands how it works. They want to know what happens cognitively - how this learning process helps form habits of mind, builds character and how it affects the individual."

"How do we create functioning, collaborative groups?  So I did a little thinking about the pieces of the puzzle the I consider when to facilitate effective collaboration and searched for some reputable sources for more ideas."

Can creativity be taught? Absolutely. The real question is: "How do we teach it?"

A Dropbox folder where I will storing documents, websites specific to CSPMT "stuff" as I collect it.

"Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!"

Tools for Documenting and Making Learning Visible "...includes three types of learning tools: documentation tools, protocols, and technical help."

Relates to the conversation CSPMT has about video in classrooms, institutes, workshop presentations on Sat., October 27. Great resources for using video to document and reflect on student learning and professional practices.

Everything you have ever wanted to know about Critical Skills, but were afraid to ask...in 4 concise pages.

This video was created by Bill Vinton, Nelia Dwyer and Jason Finley during the Critical Skills Master Teacher training on Oct. 27, 2012

"I have moved to criteria lists because it doesn't really talk about an evaluation aspect per say, but rather a list of expectations."

Supervising professional and support staff for a Comprehensive PreK through 8th grade elementary school. Must be a dynamic educational leader with a proven knowledge of curriculum, teaching methods and assessment. Candidate should be astute, creative individual, open to new ideas, capable of analyzing data and recommending changes. The district is currently involved in a review and revision of our curriculum, the development of formative assessments and a district-wide adoption of the Antioch University Critical Skills program.

"Powerful learning begins to manifest when students take responsibility and ownership for their learning - when they become co-creators of their learning experience, rather than their education being something that is done to them. True student empowerment and engagement begins when we cross the threshold of co-creation."

Embedding technology into our classrooms should begin with the question "How do we enable students to use technology as part of the learning process...rather than use it as part of our teaching process?"

"These terms are often used interchangeably, although there are some differences among them."

1. Welcome authentic questions2. Encourage effective teamwork3. Be ready to go Big4. Build empathy5. Uncover passion6. Amplify worthy ideas7. Know when to say no8. Encourage breakthroughs

"...fourth in a series of posts from PBL World, a global gathering of educators interested in project-based learning."

I heard him speak at a Brain conference earlier this year, and he got a standing ovation from the 1000's of educators, school admins and school psych's attending.

Judy Willis is awesome...Just saying.

"True innovative people have a certain drive and energy about them that you like to be around. They are always full of ideas and looking for ways to improve things. Keep in mind that they aren't born as black belts in these mental traits…they've developed them over time."

Also could be titled "10 Outcomes of the Critical Skills Classroom"

Almost a re-wording of a modern Bloom's taxonomy.

I get fired up when I read articles like this...they validated my belief that our focus as educators should be to teach our students how to learn rather than to fill them with information. jf

"The researchers' conclusion was that, in the context of strange toys of unknown function, prior explanation does, indeed, inhibit exploration and discovery." I'm looking forward to talking about this on Saturday. Is it appropriate sometimes to limit exploration & discovery? Or is exploration & discovery the default method of a critical skills classroom?

Interested in your discussion results, Tom. My gut feeling is that pure discovery learning is inefficient, can promote frustration which can lead to loss of interest, and possible misconceptions. Isn't coaching and guided discovery a way of teaching the process of problem solving?

Good piece on getting started with Twitter.