“SAT scores for the Class of 2015 were the lowest since the test was revised and re-normed in 2005.” “This year’s reading score is the lowest average score ever published. Math scores have not been this low since 1999.” “Education reform isn’t hitting a wall. It is the wall.” This is not a clean bill […]
Story about Pat. Pat slowly got up from the mat, planning the escape. Pat hesitated a moment and thought. Things were not going well. What was most bothersome was being held, especially since the charge had been weak. Pat considered the present situation. Pat was aware that it was because of the early roughness that […]
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-time thing…” I write these words of Vince Lombardi after just watching Matt Cassel, playing with his fifth NFL team, throw a terrible floater towards the end zone, resulting in his second interception of the game. So how does Matt Cassel, branded with a losing record, and the Dallas […]
Scaffolding learning for each different layer of understanding in my elementary classroom is one of the hardest things I professionally do. There, I said it. Maybe you can sympathize with me more completely if I tell you about a recent math lesson. By the beginning of 4th grade, students should know all of their basic facts, and we […]
Posted in EdTechReview, this article gives some background on student-centric teaching and provides six classroom practices for doing so. The flipped classroom, in my opinion, really allows for the better implementation of many of these practices. Let’s take a look at the first one: Make students do their tasks on their own: Teachers are involved […]
If good feedback is one of the most effective ways of improving learning outcomes, focusing on its characteristics seems to be a good idea! Here’s a good video with that thought in mind: What I personally found most poignant was the reminder that we should be using “I” statements. I think it’s easy to fall […]
Could showing students this video possibly improve learning outcomes? Social behaviors? Overall self-efficacy? I must first thank Kelly Tenkely for sharing this video on her blog, which is where I stumbled upon it. After watching this video, I thought about its possible classroom implications. I was curious to see if I could leverage this video to help […]
In the beginning, God created the reading and writing workshop. Now reading and writing workshop was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the student desks, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the classroom. And God said, “Let there be conferring notes,” and there were conferring notes. About a week later, […]
Whether teaching math and science, reading and writing, history or any subject area, I think it’s sometimes easy to forget the power of observation. No matter the subject area, making and documenting observations is essential to better supporting and advancing student learning. The term kidwatching personally conjures up images of primary students. Maybe studentwatching would be a […]
Why document student conferences? To be honest, sometimes I just don’t feel like doing it. Sometimes I don’t feel like working out either, but I do it because I know it holds value. Value. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. Maybe some teachers just don’t see the value of conferring notes. I think teachers who feel this […]
