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How you arrange your seating can be an asset for differentiating instruction. Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses different seating configurations for independent work, collaborative work, mini lessons, and large-group discussions. Through scaffolded guidance from their teachers—which includes a personalized learning platform, daily goals, and a culture of formative assessment—students understand how they learn best and what resources they need, enabling them to choose and set up the seating arrangement that works best for them each day. Summit uses furniture with wheels—trapezoidal and rectangular tables and soft fabric lounge chairs with tablet arms—to make it easy for students to move the furniture. Used furniture networks, like The Reuse Network, can be great resources, says Myron Kong, a Summit real estate team member, who adds that another way to lower costs when purchasing furniture is to aggregate all school orders into one.
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Teaching students basic knowledge about the brain’s potential can have a positive impact on their motivation, grit, and achievement. In particular, explicitly teaching them that learning changes the structure and function of their brains can be transformational in building a stronger belief in the value of working hard to master new material. Teachers who explain these findings report that the knowledge has a positive effect on students’ perceptions of their abilities as well as on their expectations for success. Examples From Elementary Classrooms
5 TED-Ed Lessons about awesome women in history
If it’s true that well-behaved women seldom make history, then we’d like to introduce you to a few of our favorite troublemakers. Here are 5 TED-Ed Lessons about remarkable women: 1.
Why Students Forget—and What You Can Do About It
Teachers have long known that rote memorization can lead to a superficial grasp of material that is quickly forgotten. But new research in the field of neuroscience is starting to shed light on the ways that brains are wired to forget—highlighting the importance of strategies to retain knowledge and make learning stick. In a recent article published in the journal Neuron, neurobiologists Blake Richards and Paul Frankland challenge the predominant view of memory, which holds that forgetting is a process of loss—the gradual washing away of critical information despite our best efforts to retain it.
Climate change will displace millions. Here's how we prepare
Two climate experts-- Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson-- share 15 essential reads on climate — this eclectic list contains books, essays, a newsletter, a scientific paper, even legislation. If you're looking for a way to get students and kids involved and learning about climate change, join Earth School! Embark on 30 adventures – or Quests – that will help you understand and celebrate our natural world, while learning about how dependent we are on our planet. Now more than ever, we need to protect, nurture and care for Earth – so join us to learn something amazing in every quest. Within each lesson, you’ll find fascinating resources compiled by Earth experts and ideas for getting involved in ways that count.
Classroom Management Tips for Co-Teachers
The old adage “two heads are better than one” holds special significance in the classroom. Schools are increasingly recognizing the potential benefits of co-teaching for many students across a variety of settings. Co-teaching expert Wendy Murawski defines the strategy as “two or more educators who co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess a group of students with diverse needs in the same general education classroom.” While co-teaching was originally designed to enhance inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities, it is now also embraced as a valuable tool for reaching English language learners and gifted students, and for teaching collaborative content. The instructional aspects of co-teaching have been examined, but it’s important to address the unique classroom management challenges of co-teaching and specific tactics that can be used to address these issues.
Bringing the Science of Learning Into Classrooms
New research sheds light on the effects that childhood experiences—both good and bad—have on the developing brain. But are schools keeping up? “The 20th-century education system was never designed with the knowledge of the developing brain,” says Pamela Cantor, MD, who is part of a cross-disciplinary team of experts studying the science of learning and development. “So when we think about the fact that learning is a brain function and we have an education system that didn’t have access to this critical knowledge, the question becomes: Do we have the will to create an education system that’s informed by it?” Contrary to the long-held belief that brain maturation is largely complete by the age of 6, we now know that our brains are malleable and continue to change dramatically well into our 20s. This has profound implications for learning throughout the school-age years.
The Tyranny of Being On Task
I remember when I was first teaching and was getting ready for my first official observation and evaluation. I was very nervous. My principal had told me she would be looking for a classroom where students were on task. Heaven forbid that any students were off task.
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Oakley recognizes that “many educators are not at all comfortable with or trained in neuroscience,” so she breaks down a few key principles that teachers can use in the classroom and share with students to help them demystify the learning process. 1. The Hiker Brain vs. The Race Car Brain Start by teaching students the difference between focused and diffused thinking, says Oakley. When the brain is in focused mode, you can get started on the task at hand.
