Vientiane College Cyberspace Learning Community

Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity and peer interest.

I really thought about my husband's question—and realized my colleagues and I were missing out on opportunities to improve our practice together. I would love the chance to visit my colleagues' classrooms, to observe firsthand how they managed stations or how they taught writing. But how, when school schedules make it nearly impossible?

We decided to ask each participating teacher to record two lessons: one that he or she was proud of and wanted to share with the group and one that he or she felt needed improvement. We created a recording sheet to focus the group and guide our discussions. Using the sheet, participants took notes on events they noticed while watching the video, key comments made during our discussion, and takeaways for their own classroom.

Since I believe it is time for a better word and a better concept to drive American education, I recommend “vigor.” Here my dictionary says, “active physical or mental force or strength, healthy growth; intensity, force or energy.” And my mental association is to all the Latin-based words related to life.

Now, more than ever, “rigor” is being used to promote the idea that American students need advanced course work, complex texts, stricter grading, and longer school days and years in order to be ready for college or the workplace.

A while back I wrote a blog titled "Don't Say Think!" In it I talk about how the word "Think" is a vague term, one that lacks clarity and precision and how students are likely to engage in many different forms of "Thinking" when directed to simply "think"  It's a term that encompasses many other, more specific, terms. And it's these terms I believe we should be using when we ask students to "Think, Pair Share"

The most vital pieces of paper in our class are our individual sketchbooks, something I call the Thinking Book

When graded, children tended to prefer easier assignments and became less interested in learning for learning's sake. Studies also revealed that receiving low grades did not motivate kids to study more.

"It's important to remember that grades are a communication tool with a lot of gray area that varies from school to school," says Dr. Russell Hyken

When the Habits of Mind are seen as something that can be "covered" then they inevitably are "covered". And once covered they are left behind. To push on with the Habits of Mind in the face of people (students or teachers) seeing them as a topic, is a sure way to build resistance and it will ultimately lead to the Habits being another program that comes through the school. We must approach the Habits of Mind in a similar way as a subject that needs continual development if we are to sustain the work in the classroom.

What does all this desk and test time mean for the quality of our kids’ lives, now and for their future?

putting in a second shift of homework after seven hours in school does not help my son become a more inquisitive, confident, life-long learner with an intrinsic sense of curiosity and joy in discovery. It does not allow my family to strike a graceful balance between school and home life. It does not leave time for those non-academic pursuits — lying on a blanket under the sky and puzzling out the constellations, peering under rocks, putting a nose in a book for long, lost hours — that can shape a child’s personality, aspirations and dreams.

a growing body of scientific data tells us that a brain under chronic stress is a brain that performs less well.