Founded by innovative and award-winning filmmaker George Lucas in 1991, we take a strategic approach to improving K-12 education through two distinct areas of focus: Edutopia and Lucas Education Research. A Simple but Powerful Class Opening Activity. At the start of a recent class, my students gathered a bouquet of good news: a trip to Ireland, an end to recent car troubles, an upcoming visit with a friend.
These were highlights they shared during our start-of-class routine, the rose and thorn check-in. In this quick activity, students participate by sharing roses—something positive going on for a student that day—and thorns, which are negative, or at least less than positive. Students can choose their level of vulnerability: A rose can simply be “the weather is nice today.” A low-stakes thorn might be “I feel tired.” Going around the classroom, each student states one rose and one thorn. Benefits of the Check-In Students know that every voice matters: The rose and thorn check-in gets every student’s voice into the room at the start of each class.
Students develop awareness of others’ emotions—and how to respond to them: When students share their roses and thorns, they give their classmates a snapshot of their emotional state. 2018 Education Research Highlights. Education research continues to remind us of the powerful impact teachers have on children. This impact is overwhelmingly positive—the studies we highlight here demonstrate specific ways in which teachers can or already do help students feel a sense of belonging in school and make gains in learning. There are areas for improvement, though: Researchers have shown that different rates of suspensions and expulsions for black and white boys have more to do with adult perceptions of those kids than with their behaviors. New research also refined our understanding of many popular ideas, from learning styles to growth mindsets and the marshmallow test. But if there’s a common thread among most of these studies, it’s this: To boost student learning, focusing on academics isn’t enough.
We should also think about how well students—and teachers—are supported. Simple Yet Effective Ideas Small changes in the classroom can yield surprising benefits. Peeking Into the Brain of a Student. Teaching With Trauma. ACEs and Childhood Trauma This is just one everyday teaching situation that might inspire overwhelming emotion in a teacher who has experienced trauma. As the teacher tries to calm herself down so she can better handle the situation, she must also deal with the embarrassment that comes with being so affected by students’ behavior.
Childhood trauma and trauma-informed teaching are hot topics right now, and many school districts are taking steps to create environments that are both preventative and protective for young people dealing with adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, which include experiencing or witnessing domestic abuse or substance abuse, having an incarcerated family member, and parental separation or divorce. Teaching With Trauma Teaching can be an especially fraught profession for people who struggle with emotional regulation. Van der Kolk explains that many people who have experienced trauma develop a “faulty alarm system” that’s easily triggered by minor events. Edutopia. Addressing Persistent Defiance. We all have students who test our limits. Most kids can be uncooperative at times, especially if they’re tired, hungry, or feeling overwhelmed.
For certain age groups, like 2- to 3-year-olds and teenagers, noncooperative behavior is a normal part of development. In addition, up to 16 percent of all children and 40 percent of students diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), which is characterized by a pattern, in multiple settings over time, of consistent negative and hostile behavior that can include deliberately annoying or upsetting others, explosions of anger and hostility, defiance or frequent arguing with adults, and then blaming others for misbehavior.
Often teachers react defensively to obstinate behavior, creating a situation where teacher and student may become locked in a power struggle or an ineffective pattern of communication. Remain Calm Choose Your Words Carefully Reinforce Positive Behavior Ask yourself: Make a Plan. Brains in Pain Cannot Learn! Educators want nothing more than for our students to feel successful and excited to learn, and to understand the importance of their education.
We want our students' attention and respect to match our own. I believe that most if not all of our students desire the same, but walking through our classroom doors are beautifully complex youth who are neurobiologically wired to feel before thinking. Carrying In Educators and students are carrying in much more than backpacks, car keys, conversations, partially-completed homework, and outward laughter. Buried deep in the brain's limbic system is an emotional switching station called the amygdala, and it is here that our human survival and emotional messages are subconsciously prioritized and learned. We continually scan environments for feelings of connectedness and safety. I am learning that the students who look oppositional, defiant, or aloof may be exhibiting negative behavior because they are in pain and presenting their stress response. 1. 13 Common Sayings to Avoid.
I've narrowed my list to 13 representative items. Some of these are related to control issues, others to motivation, and still more to management. All reflect frustration and/or anger. Let's start the upcoming school year by wiping these sayings out of our vernacular. 1. "You have potential but don't use it. " 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. If a teacher loses his temper or gets frustrated and says one of these things once or even twice during the year, it's understandable. I wonder if any readers wish to add to my list. 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students. The Warm Demander: An Equity Approach. Recently, I was talking with a high school student about his frustrations with a first-year teacher. The student said, "I like [the teacher] because he's understanding, but he doesn't require enough discipline.
He tells us to stop talking, but he doesn't really do anything to stop it. If I say, 'I forgot my homework,' he extends the deadline, and he keeps extending it, so I don't bother doing it. He needs to be more strict! " He didn't know it, but this student was asking for his teacher to be more of a warm demander -- a key strategy for creating equity in the classroom.
The staff at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco, where I am co-director, developed a four-part framework for how to become a warm demander: 1. Do you really believe that all children can learn? 2. Warm demanders understand that learning starts with trust. 3. 4. Warm demanders teach their students to have a growth mindset and understand that real learning comes through failure.
12 Ways to Avoid Student Humiliation. The need to gain control of students is reaching new levels of desperation. An article in the Washington Post included the following: Three days a week, parents can take their misbehaving kids to A-1 Kutz in Snellville and ask for the "Benjamin Button Special," which Russell Fredrick and his team of barbers are offering -- free of charge -- to parents who want to try a novel form of discipline.
The cut involves shaving hair off the child's crown until he begins to resemble a balding senior citizen, inviting that unique brand of adolescent humiliation that can only come from teasing classmates and unwanted attention. Humiliation Is Never OK My opinion about any form of humiliating students is obvious from the title of the book I co-authored in 2008: Discipline With Dignity. Last month, however, I was guilty of humiliating a student seriously enough for her to later tell me that it had been the worst moment of her college life. Prevention and Repair. What Students Remember Most About Teachers. Posted 12/02/2014 8:06AM | Last Commented 12/10/2015 4:39PM ©Shuttertstock.com/Monkey Business Images Dear Young Teacher Down the Hall, I saw you as you rushed past me in the lunch room. Urgent.
In a hurry to catch a bite before the final bell would ring calling all the students back inside. “Oh, fine,” you replied. But I knew it was anything but fine. You told me how busy you were, how much there was to do. I told you to remember that at the end of the day, it’s not about the lesson plan. And as I looked at you, wearing all that worry and under all that strain, I said it’s about being there for your kids. No, they’ll not remember that amazing decor you’ve designed. But they will remember you. Your kindness. Two of my former Kindergarten students enjoying a quiet moment together Because at the end of the day, what really matters is YOU. You are that difference in their lives. Being available. You see, kids can see through to the truth of the matter. Right where you are, just as you are. Fondly, 26 Research-Based Tips You Can Use in the Classroom Tomorrow.
With so many classroom research studies published daily, you can be forgiven for missing some. The techniques below are super-tactical and, for the most part, unsung strategies that you’ll be excited to try tomorrow. Just remember two things. First, there are always limitations and nuances in research, so we suggest you click the links and dig deeper into the studies. Second, studies are just words without you—your application and adaptations give them power. Research on Engaging Students 1. 2. 3. Studying Tips to Give Students Tomorrow 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Instruction They’ll Remember 12. 13. 14. 15. Improving Academic Achievement Scores 16. 17. How to Minimize Teacher Stress 18. 19. Don’t Contribute to Needless Cognitive Strain 20. 21. 22. 23. Research on Writing Instruction 24. 25. 26. The Future of Fake News. Adler presents a few new tools that seem pretty innocuous and even cool at first look. But when you think about how they might be used to spread misinformation, the ethical implications are concerning. Voco, an Adobe application still in development, promises to become “the Photoshop for speech.”
After inputting a 40-minute recording of a person’s speech, the user can use a simple text editor to “write” an original and very convincing new recording in that person’s voice. In addition, new tech companies focused on facial re-enactment are getting closer to a tool that allows for realistic manipulation of a video of a person. In other words, you can take a video of someone giving a speech and change their expression and facial movements.
Couple this with a voice manipulation tool, and you can essentially create a realistic-looking video of anyone talking about anything. That’s huge, right? Essential Questions It’s time to double down on news and media literacy. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Teacher Curse No One Wants to Talk About. Knowledge is a curse. Knowing things isn’t bad in itself, but it causes unhealthy assumptions—such as forgetting how hard it was to learn those things in the first place. It’s called the Curse of Knowledge. In this post, we’ll identify how the Curse of Knowledge affects educators. Then we’ll outline seven ways to alleviate the curse. The ultimate goal is to improve instruction. The Curse of Knowledge The Curse of Knowledge has been described in articles by Chip and Dan Heath, Carmen Nobel, and Steven Pinker, and in books such as The Sense of Style and Made to Stick.
All the resources describe the same phenomenon—that a strong base of content knowledge makes us blind to the lengthy process of acquiring it. We don’t remember what it is like to not know what we are trying to teach. As a result, we end up assuming that our lesson’s content is easy, clear, and straightforward. Lifting the Curse Here are seven ways to make learning easier for your students. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Making It Easier. Strategies for Students With Scattered Minds. Imagine a team without a coach guiding players toward working together to execute a winning strategy.
Imagine a company without a leader to make sure that employees across departments are equipped and organized to collaborate on continually improving products and increasing sales. Imagine a marching band without a drum major to lead musicians through their complicated maneuvers while staying on beat. The brain’s executive function network performs in the same capacity as a coach, CEO, or drum major: directing one’s thinking and cognitive abilities toward setting goals and planning to achieve them, establishing priorities, getting and staying organized, and focusing attention on the task at hand.
Now imagine trying to perform those abilities if your brain’s executive functioning system wasn't working effectively -- no coach to develop a game plan, no CEO to help you organize your resources for accomplishing your goals, no drum major on which to maintain your learning focus. Motivating the Unmotivated. 11 Alternatives to "Round Robin" (and "Popcorn") Reading. 6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric. As educators, we know the power of a good rubric. Well-crafted rubrics facilitate clear and meaningful communication with our students and help keep us accountable and consistent in our grading.
They’re important and meaningful classroom tools. Usually when we talk about rubrics, we’re referring to either a holistic or an analytic rubric, even if we aren’t entirely familiar with those terms. A holistic rubric breaks an assignment down into general levels at which a student can perform, assigning an overall grade for each level. For example, a holistic rubric might describe an A essay using the following criteria: “The essay has a clear, creative thesis statement and a consistent overall argument. The essay is 2–3 pages long, demonstrates correct MLA formatting and grammar, and provides a complete works cited page.”
Both styles have their advantages and have served many classrooms well. The single-point rubric offers a different approach to systematic grading in the classroom. 1. 2. 3. Edutopia. Dysgraphia is a language-based learning difference that affects a student’s ability to produce written language. In the early grades, students with dysgraphia may have difficulty with consistent letter formation, word spacing, punctuation, and capitalization. In later grades, they may have difficulty with writing fluency, floating margins, and legible writing. In the classroom, students with dysgraphia are often labeled “sloppy,” “lazy,” or “not detail-oriented.” But students with dysgraphia are often trying very hard, if not harder than others, just to keep up. To simulate the experience of having dysgraphia, try this: Write a paragraph about the best trip you’ve ever taken.
How did that feel? Dysgraphia can be remediated with occupational therapy to strengthen fine motor skills, support written expression, and speed up language processing. 6 Tips for Creating a Dysgraphia-Friendly Classroom 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.