What does it mean to be “smart”? I began my educational experience in a Montessori program where student voice, choice and individual learning pace was valued. When I was in third grade, I moved to a public school setting. Initially excited to finally be in a “normal” school, I quickly realized that I might not […]
Pitfalls of running groups Teachers and students alike have experienced unproductive groups and so they are reluctant to run groups. The reality is that groups are likely to fail unless they are structured to be productive. Below are some common pitfalls of running groups and solutions to those problems. 1. No positive interdependence structured There […]
As a high school special educator, I have had the opportunity to work with English and math teachers using ClassDojo to teach and reinforce the common core standards. ClassDojo has been gaining popularity as a classroom management tool, but its uses go beyond simple tracking of behaviors for the sake of classroom management. As we […]
Angela Duckworth defines “grit” as the ability to persevere combined with an ability to pursue interests and passions over a long period of time to attain goals. She argues that this learnable quality is a predictor of success. More recently, her research has led to a focus on self-control as the underlying skill needed to […]
Collaborate With Anybody! As I was leaving my co-planning time today, I turned to my co-teacher and said something to the effect of “I love our co-planning period”. And I truly do, too. We are not only highly productive but we have transforming conversations that change the way we teach on a daily basis. The […]
One of the main parts of a school interview is the practice lesson plan. It is a place where you can really show the interview team what you can do. For the interview team it is what they will remember most, so it is important to do it well. Below are 7 ideas for creating […]
Sample Lesson Plan In this sample lesson plan, a general activity is used to show how cooperative learning elements can be embedded to structure the lesson for improved productivity. Use any worksheet that requires answering questions or solving math problems. For the purposes of providing a specific example, imagine students have engaged in a mini […]
Cooperative Learning Elements I cannot emphasize enough the importance of teaching kids to work in groups. There are several reasons that using groups is so important. Employers today want collaborators. They want people who can work with other people and be highly productive and efficient. If an employee doesn’t work well with others, they can […]
One of the most important skills great teachers possess is the ability to take risks. As a mentor to new teachers, I always encourage “no fear” teaching, with common sense of course. What I mean by that is teaching intuitively and being very careful not to avoid implementing innovative ideas for fear of, well, anything. […]
There is quite a bit of recent research pointing to the idea that psychological interventions in learning environments can have a great impact on achievement. Eric Jensen summarizes some of this evidence in his article Your Students’ Number One Life Skill. While the idea of social emotional learning is complex, there are some easy ways […]
