Student “engagement” declining dramatically – and what schools can do | Hometown SourceHometown Source. Joe Nathan Column – What can five- and six-year-olds learn from building a playground, or high school students learn by helping to produce a play, writing a history of their community, creating You-Tube videos about the value of Dual (High School/College) credit courses, conducting water quality testing, or planning and then building a community garden? The answer is clear: Students who participate in such hands-on, active learning generally will be more “engaged” in their learning. And, a 2012 Gallup poll of almost 500,000 American students, grades 5-12, helps explain why student engagement is so important. Joe Nathan The poll also shows a dramatic decline in student engagement as students move thorough our public schools. How do we “engage” students? Let’s be clear. This is NOT an attack on teachers. But as the national Gallup organization points out, we should care about this because “Hope, engagement and well being of students accounts for one third of the variance of student success.
How Do We Teach Critical Thinking in a Connected World? As a child, I grew up in a world that was dominated by left-brained thinking. Both my parents were in professions that required in-depth analytical thinking. The “rule” in my house was: “If you break something, try to fix it. Only THEN come ask Dad for help.” Dad was an avionics engineer and had an incredible mechanical ability.
He could fix anything, and he instilled within his children a desire to understand how things work and a hunger to ask questions that clarify thinking. Looking back now, I realize something I never understood then — what he had instilled was an ability to think critically. Several months ago, as I was visiting one of our diocese schools, I was fascinated that a first grade teacher was actually teaching critical thinking to her students within a math lesson.
The addition sentences were easy for the six and seven-year olds. Shortly after my classroom visit, I came across a website dedicated to teaching critical thinking. ‘How do you know what you know?’ Creativity Now!:Fundamentals of Creativity. 21st Century Fluency Project. In praise of failure: the key ingredient to children’s success | Canada. Mike Faille/National Post Emily Martell was born to be Rizzo. So badly did the Grade 4 student want the role of the sassiest Pink Lady in her school’s production of Grease that she marched into the audition in a short brown wig and silky pink jacket and told the panel as much. “She was so good and I was so proud of her and thought ‘She’s going to get this part,’” her mother, Ali Martell, said. She didn’t get it, and saw the defeat as a crushing failure — one so traumatic she seriously considered abandoning her passion for school plays.
Ms. “She stewed on it for a day and a half, then came back to us and said ‘I never want to quit, I love drama. In letting her daughter work it out alone, Ms. The most recent plea for the embrace of failure came this week from a New Hampshire middle school teacher, Jessica Lahey, who recalled talking with a student’s mother about her daughter’s blatant plagiarism. Ms. Courtesy of Ali MartellEmily Martell (L): “I never want to quit, I love drama. Ms. 7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning. Big Ideas Culture Teaching Strategies Flirck:WoodleyWonderworks Every educator wants to create an environment that will foster students’ love of learning. Because the criteria are intangible, it’s difficult to define or pinpoint exactly what they are. But one group is giving it a try. Researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the Innovative Learning Environments project to turn an academic lens on the project of identifying concrete traits that mark innovative learning environments.
Their book, The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice and the accompanying practitioner’s guide, lay out the key principles for designing learning environments that will help students build skills useful in a world where jobs are increasingly information and knowledge-based. “Adaptive expertise tries to push beyond the idea of mastery,” said Jennifer Groff, an educational engineer and co-founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign. Related. OESIS 2013 : Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools.
Finding Students' Hidden Strengths and Passions. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to inspire both. He has some ideas about how we can inspire our students by helping them find their hidden strengths and passions. To use the word "hidden" may not be quite accurate because often, strengths are hidden by lack of opportunity to display them. Too often, when students are in school, they are not looked at in terms of their strengths; rather, there is a focus on remediating their deficits. This is rarely a source of inspiration for anyone. What ends up happening is that kids' strengths and passions are either hidden from their educators or worse, they become hidden from themselves because they do not get encouraged.
So what can educators do? Second, ask students to talk about times when they found out something surprising and good about someone else. You may have your own ideas. Partners in the Future of BC Education. The Most Powerful 3-Letter Word a Parent or Teacher Can Use. Kids love to announce that they’re not good at something. They usually do it just after they try something new and challenging, and they say it with finality, as if issuing a verdict. I’m not good at math!” Or, “I’m not good at volleyball.”
At that moment, our normal parental/teacher/coach instinct is to fix the situation. To boost the kid up by saying something persuasive like, “Oh yes you are!” So here’s another idea: ignore the instinct to fix things. You add the “yet” quietly, in a matter-of-fact tone, as if you were describing the weather or the law of gravity. “I’m not good at math” becomes “You’re not good at math yet.” “I’m not good at volleyball” becomes “You’re not good at volleyball yet.” The message: Of course you’re not good — because you haven’t worked at it. At first glance, it seems silly — how can just one word make a difference?
The answer has to do with the way our brains are wired to respond to self-narratives. Yes, it’s kinda corny, like these things tend to be. Little Numbers Add Up to Big Differences in High School Math Tests - Inside School Research. Teaching Students the ABCs of Resilience. From natural disasters to economic meltdowns, from wars abroad to tragic shootings close to home, this year brought to light the increasing complexity of the world in which we raise kids. Our natural instinct as teachers, parents and caretakers is to protect children from hardship, yet we know walking between the raindrops of adversity is not possible. Instead of sidestepping challenge, we can teach kids to cope positively, to learn and grow from adversity. We can arm our youth with skills of resilience, and these lessons can begin in the classroom.
Understanding the Roots of Resilience Have you ever wondered why one student may be more resilient than another? You may guess the difference lies in their genetic disposition or family circumstance. The ABCs of Resilience Students can adjust their own cognitive style by learning about the ABCs of resilience. If you asked Lisa or Jenny why she was unhappy upon receiving low math grades, she would probably look at you quizzically.
Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement. A while back, I was asked, "What engages students? " Sure, I could respond, sharing anecdotes about what I believed to be engaging, but I thought it would be so much better to lob that question to my own eighth graders. The responses I received from all 220 of them seemed to fall under 10 categories, representing reoccuring themes that appeared again and again. So, from the mouths of babes, here are my students' answers to the question: "What engages students? " 1. Working with their peers "Middle-school students are growing learners who require and want interaction with other people to fully attain their potential. " "Teens find it most interesting and exciting when there is a little bit of talking involved. 2.
"I believe that when students participate in "learning by doing" it helps them focus more. "We have entered a digital age of video, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and they [have] become more of a daily thing for teens and students. 3. "I believe that it all boils down to relationships. 4. Sir Ken Robinson: Fostering Creativity in Education is Not an Option. Facebook. Mpricemitchell.sharedby.co/share/xKXvvO. Good Read: Highlighting Is a Waste of Time: The Best and Worst Learning Techniques. Common Functions Reference.