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Strategies to Build Intrinsic Motivation

Strategies to Build Intrinsic Motivation
"The fox leapt high to grasp the grapes, but the delicious-looking fruit remained just out of reach of his snapping jaws. After a few attempts the fox gave up and said to himself, 'These grapes are sour, and if I had some I would not eat them.' The fox changes his attitude to fit his behavior." - Aesop’s Fables There is a general misconception that our beliefs are the cause of our actions. Just like the fox, people will tell themselves a story to justify their actions. Punishment, Rewards, and Commitment The issue with classroom management policies in most institutions is that it operates on a carrot-and-stick model. The goal of self-persuasion is to create cognitive dissonance in the mind of the one being persuaded. Punishment In 1965, Jonathan Freedman conducted a study in which he presented preschoolers with an attractive, desired, "Forbidden Toy." Weeks later, Freedman pulled the students out of class one by one and had them do a drawing test. Rewards Commitment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Related:  Teaching StrategiesTeaching ToolsTeaching methods

Making It Stick With My Summer PD Reading List Glenn Whitman , Director, The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning Posted 05/07/2015 7:20AM | Last Commented 06/05/2015 8:01AM One of the great perks and necessities for many teachers is the summer break. It is an important time to recharge, reflect, and revision for the next school year. This said, I do believe that there is a learning cost to the extended summer breaks students are given. As this year’s summer break draws near, I recall my religious school rabbi, on the final class before each summer, recommending to his students that the summer should be used for three things: “Reading a good book, taking a long walk, and making a new friend.” Every year around this time, a variety of lists emerge on social media and blogs suggesting good books for teachers to read that can inform and transform their professional practice over the summer. At St. That said, here are my contributions to the growing number of suggested professional reading lists for teachers:

7 Best Practices for Giving Student Feedback Part of being an educator is having the skills to make hard concepts easier to understand, and the ability to make any student feel accomplished no matter how much they’re struggling. It’s all part of giving great feedback. Proper feedback should enable and inspire. It should make someone feel good about where they are, and get them excited about where they can go. These strategies for helping you boost your student feedback mojo could be things that you already practice with your students. Make the student feel safe Our students want us to know that they need to feel protected and supported in their learning environments. Whatever the reasons for this may be, you’re in the perfect position to provide comfort and solid reassurance that your classroom is not a place of judgement, but one of empowerment. The student may need to know that they aren’t in trouble, and may need guidance in realizing that mistakes are opportunities in disguise. Stress teamwork It’s more common than we think. 1.

6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups by TeachThought Staff Grouping students is easy; creating effective student groups is less so. The following infographic from Mia MacMeekin seeks to provide some ideas to help make group work easier in your classroom. MackMeekin’s suggestion to consider problem-based learning in a group setting is especially useful in that it also provides a link to the design of curriculum and instruction as well, rather than merely being a grouping strategy. Create a ZPD ZoneCognitive Dissonance is GoodNumbers CountPraiseGive Them Something to DoFacilitate image attribution Mia Mackmeekin; This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License; 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups

Connected Educators - Homepage The Educator's Guide to Creating Connections Edited by Tom Whitby This book is every educator's guide to becoming connected through social media, blogging, personal learning networks, and even new policy. Thought leaders in Connected Education help you use real-world tips and tools to: Master and adapt to 21st Century teaching methodologies Build ongoing technology literacy skills Begin your connected journey View Resources What Meaningful Reflection On Student Work Can Do for Learning Via MindShift The following excerpt is from “Authentic Learning in the Digital Age: Engaging Students Through Inquiry,” by Larissa Pahomov. This excerpt is from the chapter entitled “Making Reflection Relevant.” Characteristics of Meaningful Reflection For student reflection to be meaningful, it must be metacognitive, applicable, and shared with others. Metacognitive Although it’s something of a buzz word, “metacognition” is a state of mind that can be useful for all the core values presented in this book. By sharing their reflections on their academic work, students can both advise and seek help from their peers. When children are first learning to reflect on their work, their educators use simple prompts to get them thinking: Do you like what you made? Of course, there’s a danger of this metacognition turning into a kind of feedback loop: Am I reflecting adequately on my reflection? ➤ The digital connection. Applicable ➤ The digital connection. Shared ➤ The digital connection.

The Best Ways of Using Essential Questions in the Classroom When we first put the driving question of a lesson to the students, the goal is to begin a lively discussion with them. In this discussion, we guide them beginning with what they think or “assume” they already know about what the question is asking. Encourage them to speak openly and share ideas about the issues that are being posed by the question. The students begin to realize that finding an answer is not always easy, but certainly not impossible with the right mindset. What do we know (or believe we know) about what this question is asking? A good exploration of our learners’ assumptions will foster curiosity for the question. Giving the Question Ownership to Learners In any inquiry- or project-based challenge, we want to shift responsibility for the learning to the students. When we pose the essential question, it’s meant to help students achieve an understanding that both involves and extends beyond the curriculum. Shifting Gears All the best is ahead of you and your students.

Peeragogy 27 Teacher Actions That Help Promote Valid Assessment Data Via TeachThought There is often talk about assessment–its forms, frequency, and the integration of gleaned data to revise planned instruction. Formative versus assessment, rigor, and the evasive nature of understanding are also areas for exploration. But rarely is there discussion about the kinds of things teachers can do–literal actions and concrete strategies–to help streamline the assessment process, and hopefully produce purer results you can trust. In the infographic below, Mia MacMeekin offers her now familiar “27 ways” format, this time teacher actions that are conducive to more valid assessment results–and thus data you can trust. Coupled with our 10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds Or Less, that’s several dozen simple formative assessment forms and strategies to add to your teacher tool set. As with any list, some are better than others, but a few stand out: Evaluate Having the student evaluate the format helps bring them closer to the actual process of learning Seconds Match

Protocols and activities good for classroom use | National School Reform Faculty A number of NSRF protocols and activities work beautifully even with students as young as kindergartners. Students at about the fifth grade and older find protocols an especially fascinating way to learn, especially as they come to appreciate the value of silence! Almost all of these protocols will need to be modified for use with students (for example, times should often be cut). You will notice that some of these protocols and activities are not available to you in updated form. Click on the symbol (not the name) to open the PDF. If the links don't work, please open a second tab or window with the A-Z listing and click on the links in that window. = protocol or activity previously available/from old website = new or revised protocol only available to Members and Member-Coaches. = new or revised protocol only available to Member-Coaches.

9 Great Books on The Impact of Technology on Learning and Cognition February 4, 2016 We are living in an age of distraction par excellence. The tumult of digital noise is surrounding us all day long dividing our attentiveness and making us think in short bursts of attention. The impact of new technologies especially social media websites and tools of mass communication has been the centre of several scientific and academic books. 1- Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, by Sherry Turkle (Author) “Alone Together is the result of Turkle's nearly fifteen-year exploration of our lives on the digital terrain. 2- The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr (Author) “Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. 3- Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, by Marshall McLuhan (Author), Lewis H. 4- Hamlet's BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, by William Powers (Author)

Why Facebook is Blue: The Science of Colors in Marketing via Buffer Why is Facebook blue? According to The New Yorker, the reason is simple. It’s because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind. “Blue is the richest color for me I can see all of blue.” Not highly scientific right? After all, the visual sense is the strongest developed one in most human beings. So how do colors really affect us and what is the science of colors in marketing really? First: Can you recognize the online brands just based on color? Before we dive into the research, here are some awesome experiments that show you how powerful color alone really is. Example 1 (easy): Example 2 (easy): Example 3 (medium): Example 4 (hard): These awesome examples from Youtube designer Marc Hemeon, I think show the real power of colors more than any study could. How many were you able to guess? Which colors trigger which feeling for us? Being completely conscious about what color triggers us to think in which way isn’t always obvious. Black: Green: Blue: For green, their intuition was this:

The 10 Commandments of Teaching Difficult Students Difficult students come in all shapes and sizes, ages, cultures, and demographics, you name it. The reasons for difficulties are as numerous as the stars. However, they all share one thing: they’re hard to reach. Congratulations to you for taking on their cause. What follows is an amalgamation of advice on teaching difficult students gleaned from personal experience, advice from experts, and other teachers themselves. These are the 10 commandments, if you like, for teaching difficult students. 1. You may find that this is the best thing, the first step, the prime directive. I find that breathing cold air through the nostrils awakens a part of the brain that creates good feelings. 2. This is getting to the root cause. If they can voice their own feelings, all the better, but they might need some help. 3. Calling children lazy, bad, rude, or ADHD does nothing to resolve difficulties. Rather than scolding and shaming, state the problem as you would a math problem: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Over 50 Wonderful Books for Teachers and Educators February 1 , 2016 Reading is key to personal and professional development. It provides us with a window into the outer world and expands our insights and shapes our beliefs. It takes us from a simple state of being informed to a deeper and nuanced state of being illuminated. At a digital era where digital text reigns, it seems like we are doing a great deal of reading and in fact we really are. We are surrounded by all kinds of texts all day along and more than anytime in history we have an unrestricted access to a wide variety of reading materials. But the thing is most of what we read online is shaped by the medium through which it is communicated. A lot of people spend a decent amount of time perusing their Facebook feeds, reading tweets, or going through short 'newsy' blog posts that are tailored specifically to attend to their short attention span. In the context of deep reading, we are sharing with you some excellent books we have reviewed in the last few years.

10 Apps for Learners Who Struggle with Reading and/or Writing Despite the growing use of multimedia in classrooms, schools remain primarily text oriented. This is a major problem for significant numbers of learners who struggle with text. No matter how capable they may be in other respects, these students are not “academically” oriented in the ways that tend to matter most in the classroom. So, as I’ve explored possibilities with the iPhone and iPad, my most urgent priority has been to discover free and low-cost tools that can be effective in supporting individuals who struggle with text. In this post, I’m sharing 10 free and low-cost apps that may be especially helpful for individuals who find reading and/or writing challenging. TextGrabber for turning paper hard copy into readable PDF Use iPhone camera to turn paper hard copy into readable PDFOCR is good enough for text-to-speechOnly available for iPhone, but PDFs can be exported for use on iPad or iPod TouchiPhone only ($1.99)Click HERE for more information in previous post about Text Grabber

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