ReachOut Schools
Stress is natural. It's the body's way of sharpening focus, and of increasing stamina and alertness, so that you can rise to challenges and face tough situations. This type of stress is productive stress. On the other hand, unproductive stress can cause health issues and other problems.
The Emotional Labor of Teaching and the Need for Systemic Change
Early in my teaching career, I made my second-grade class cry. I didn’t mean to. I was teaching a lesson on writing with detail. My students—7- and 8-year-olds living in a big city, many of them in poverty—were sitting around me in a circle, notebooks and pencils in their laps. We were at the beginning of the unit, and I was modeling the process of coming up with an idea.
teachthought
A Visual Summary: 32 Learning Theories Every Teacher Should Know by Terry Heick Learning theory–and the research that goes into it–is a topic seen frequently in universities and teaching programs, then less frequently after once teachers begin practicing in the classroom. Why this is true is complicated.
How to Teach Analysis Like a Boss – The Rhetor's Toolbox
In my last post, I made a case against the five paragraph essay as an appropriate analytical structure for high school students. The closed thesis, redundancy, and built-in limitations to critical thinking ultimately hold students back from their best work. If not the five-paragraph essay, then what? I’m going to take you on a tour of the process I teach for close reading and written analysis. Keep in mind that there are many instructional entry points to these steps, and they should certainly be adapted for longer texts.
Overcoming Test Anxiety in High School
A rapid heartbeat. Sweaty palms. Clouded thoughts. For many students, the biggest obstacle to passing a test isn’t what they know, but the anxiety they feel. Stress and anxiety can wreak havoc on a student’s ability to concentrate on tests, leading to poor performance and, ultimately, fewer opportunities to succeed in school. A new study highlights an effective solution: Guide students to view stress differently—as a boost instead of a burden.
What Is the Purpose of High School?
To prepare students for adulthood, not necessarily for college It is dawning on more and more people that we need to rethink our approach to higher education. For decades, both the government and the culture have sought to steer young people toward college as the path to both their individual and our national success. That strategy appears to have hit a point of diminishing returns. In the model we have held out, young people will finish high school, enroll in college, receive a degree, and then begin careers that require college diplomas.
This Is Your Brain on Exercise: Why Physical Exercise (Not Mental Games) Might Be the Best Way to Keep Your Mind Sharp
In the United States and the UK, we've seen the emergence of a multibillion-dollar brain training industry, premised on the idea that you can improve your memory, attention and powers of reasoning through the right mental exercises. You've likely seen software companies and web sites that market games designed to increase your cognitive abilities. And if you're part of an older demographic, worried about your aging brain, you've perhaps been inclined to give those brain training programs a try. Whether these programs can deliver on their promises remains an open question--especially seeing that a 2010 scientific study from Cambridge University and the BBC concluded that there's "no evidence to support the widely held belief that the regular use of computerised brain trainers improves general cognitive functioning in healthy participants..." And yet we shouldn't lose hope.
35 Psychology-Based Learning Strategies For Deeper Learning
35 Psychology-Based Critical Thinking Strategies by Sara Briggs, opencolleges.edu.au Have you ever considered letting your students listen to hardcore punk while they take their mid-term exam? Decided to do away with Power Point presentations during your lectures? Urged your students to memorize more in order to remember more?
How to Write an SAT Essay, Step by Step
SAT Essay writing requires a very specific set of skills. It's a little daunting to think that you only have 50 minutes to read a passage, analyze it, and then write an essay. But don't worry—getting a top SAT essay score is within everyone's reach! The most reliable way to score high is to follow our SAT essay template for every essay and to prepare well beforehand.
What Happens When Teachers Start Stepping Out Of Their Comfort Zone -
What Happens When Teachers Start Stepping Out Of Their Comfort Zone by TeachThought Staff What happens when, as a teacher, you step out of your comfort zone? We’ve talked in the past about what happens when teachers connect, but that doesn’t necessarily require a teacher to push past their usual habits and routines. Much like adopting a growth mindset, valuing the act of pushing past what you “like to do” can, in the right circumstance, result in growth.
Critical Knowledge: 4 Domains More Important Than Academics
Critical Knowledge: 4 Domains More Important Than Academics by Terry Heick As academic standards shift, technology evolves, and student habits change, schools are being forced to consider new ways of framing curriculum and engaging students in the classroom, and project-based learning is among the most successful and powerful of these possibilities. Of course, content knowledge matters.
A Skill Strong Readers Share
Students in classrooms across the United States spend an estimated 85 percent of their school day on assignments that require reading texts. A key difference between students who can read well and those who cannot is the ability to use metacognition. Metacognition can be regarded as a conversation readers have with themselves about what they are reading. Metacognitive readers enjoy reading because they can find meaning in texts and think deeply to comprehend what they’re reading. Those who have not yet learned to be metacognitive often have trouble reading fluently and comprehending what they read.
Brain-Based Strategies to Reduce Test Stress
We live in a stressful world, and the stress is heightened for students and educators when it’s time to prepare for high-stakes tests. When test scores are tied to school funding, teacher evaluations, and students’ future placement, the consequences of these stressors can be far-reaching. From a neurological perspective, high stress disrupts the brain’s learning circuits and diminishes memory construction, storage, and retrieval. Neuroimaging research shows us that, when stresses are high, brains do not work optimally, resulting in decreased understanding and memory. In addition, stress reduces efficient retrieval of knowledge from the memory storage networks, so when under pressure students find it harder to access information previously studied and learned. Students (and their parents) often interpret suboptimal standardized test scores as a measure of the students’ limitations in intelligence and potential.
Use Google Sheets to Create Online Bingo Boards With Pictures
Flippity is one of my favorite Google Sheets Add-ons because it gives you direct access to sixteen templates that you can use to create games, progress trackers, and random name selectors. One of Flippity's most popular templates, the Bingo template, was recently updated to allow you to include pictures in your Bingo games. Flippity's Bingo template is easy to follow. Just the complete the steps listed here and you're ready to publish your game. You can print game cards to distribute to your students or you can have them play online. It is important to note that in order to use images in the Flippity Bingo template the images must be hosted online and publicly accessible.
