background preloader

Professional Articles

Facebook Twitter

Crib Sheets Help Students Prioritize and Organize Course Content. February 27, 2013 By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog Most faculty are familiar with the strategy: students are allowed to bring into the exam a card or sheet of paper that they’ve prepared beforehand and that contains information they think might help them answer exam questions.

Crib Sheets Help Students Prioritize and Organize Course Content

I became convinced of the strategy’s value when my husband was an undergraduate. Anchor Charts: Academic Supports or Print-Rich Wallpaper? Am I the only teacher who rewrites anchor charts to make them presentable?

Anchor Charts: Academic Supports or Print-Rich Wallpaper?

Because I have a confession to make. Until now, I’ve only shown my “pretty” charts on this blog. 9 Tips to Support English-Language Learners. Posted 08/30/2014 6:24PM | Last Commented 09/05/2014 8:16AM If you are teaching English Language Learners, here are some tips and strategies that you can practice in the classroom to create a safe environment and support the students throughout their learning process: 1.

9 Tips to Support English-Language Learners

Speak slower, not louder: Students need to process the words separately and form an understanding, for ELL students this requires some extra time. Speaking louder doesn't help and in fact sounds condescending. 2. 3. 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment. 10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment by Terry Heick For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today.

10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment

Wherever we are, we’d all like to think our classrooms are “intellectually active” places. Progressive learning (like our 21st Century Model, for example) environments. Highly effective and conducive to student-centered learning. The reality is, there is no single answer because teaching and learning are awkward to consider as single events or individual “things.” So we put together one take on the characteristics of a highly effective classroom. Studying With Quizzes Helps Make Sure the Material Sticks. iStock By Samara Freemark, American RadioWorks Roddy Roediger is a psychology professor at Washington University in St.

Studying With Quizzes Helps Make Sure the Material Sticks

Louis and runs the school’s Memory Lab. He’s been obsessed with studying how and why people remember things for four decades. About 20 years ago, Roediger was running an experiment on how images help people remember. When Roediger tested the three groups on the pictures a week later, there were huge differences in how much they each remembered. This phenomenon — testing yourself on an idea or concept to help you remember it — is called the “testing effect” or “retrieval practice.” But the testing effect had been mostly overlooked in recent years. How Relearning Old Concepts Alongside New Ones Makes It All Stick. iStock By Samara Freemark and Stephen Smith, American RadioWorks UCLA researcher Dick Schmidt gazes across the driving range at a line of golfers trying to improve their game.

How Relearning Old Concepts Alongside New Ones Makes It All Stick

It’s a breezy day at the Westchester Golf Course and there’s a relentless roar of jet traffic from the nearby Los Angeles airport. Schmidt is a retired professor of psychology at UCLA, and an authority on how humans learn and develop motor skills. As Schmidt watches the golfers practice the same swing with the same clubs, over and over, he chuckles. How to Reinvent Project Based Learning to Be More Meaningful. By Thom Markham This is a crucial time for education.

How to Reinvent Project Based Learning to Be More Meaningful

Every system in every country is in the process of figuring out how to reboot education to teach skills, application, and attitude in addition to recall and understanding. Helping students be able to grapple with increased problem solving and inquiry, be better critical and creative thinkers, show greater independence and engagement, and exhibit skills as presenters and collaborators is the challenge of the moment. Mandating the mere posting of objectives, and other pointless ideas. As promised in a prior post and in response to reader queries: Yes, I am still working on my ideal accountability system (as follow-up to my criticism of most current test-score-based systems).

Mandating the mere posting of objectives, and other pointless ideas

In the meantime, I want to respond to a number of recent e-mails, observations in classrooms, and in-person discussions with educators about the increasingly-common demand that teachers post daily objectives in highly visible form the classroom. [PS: thanks to a great comment, I slightly edited the title to reflect my argument, below.] In almost every classroom now, one sees such posters; here are a few pictures of some posted Essential Questions in schools using UbD: But here is a recent e-mail we received, from a teacher working in a district that attempts to honor Understanding by Design on a recent school policy: My school is currently mandating the posting of K U E D posters in every classroom. 5 Things Teachers Can Learn From Video Games. Players of video games learn how to strategize and how to perform sometimes complex actions in order to achieve a goal.

5 Things Teachers Can Learn From Video Games

I believe we can all learn to engage students through studying video games. A therapist goes to middle school and tries to sit still and focus. She can’t. Neither can the kids. Students listen during a lecture in a same gender science class at G.

A therapist goes to middle school and tries to sit still and focus. She can’t. Neither can the kids.

James Gholson Middle School in Prince George’s County Public School District earlier this year. (Photo by Michael S. Redos and Retakes Done Right. Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learns. A student takes notes at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington D.C. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Do teachers really know what students go through? To find out, one teacher followed two students for two days and was amazed at what she found. Her report is in following post, which appeared on the blog of Grant Wiggins, the co-author of “Understanding by Design” and the author of “Educative Assessment” and numerous articles on education. A high school teacher for 14 years, he is now the president of Authentic Education, in Hopewell, New Jersey, which provides professional development and other services to schools aimed at improving student learning.

Wiggins initially posted the piece without revealing the author. 21 Things Every 21st Century Teacher Should Do This Year. The Past mixing with the Future #selfie A new school year always brings about new ideas and hopeful ambition for teachers. However, it’s almost 2015.

Five Tips for Getting Started With Differentiation in a Secondary Classroom. By Jessica Hockett Differentiation in middle and high school doesn’t need to involve designing eight different assignments, orchestrating complex group work, or turning the physical space into a kindergarten room. At its core, differentiation simply moves all students toward and beyond common and important learning goals. Sometimes, students share a route toward those goals. Other times, ongoing assessment compels teachers to plan different routes that vary by readiness, interest, or learning preferences.

Nurturing the Innovator's Mindset in Your Classroom. Galileo Learning's California-based programs have been developing K-8 innovators for the past 13 years. This summer, more than 20,000 kids worked with 1,300 educators to build go-karts, print 3-D projects, program Java to modify Minecraft, paint Italian frescoes, engineer bridges, and design fashion lines. The Art of Managing Middle School Students. Squirrels. That is what they remind me of. We were all that age once and we were all just like squirrels! Have you ever watched a squirrel?

Zoom, freeze for two seconds, flick tail, and repeat. The Skyping Renaissance. Professional Articles.