Katherine Bilsborough: Lesson plans – less is more You can travel without a list of course but you will avoid a few problems if you spend a bit of time planning – not a whole week though. That would be silly. A few minutes should be enough. New teachers who have had training will have been evaluated and assessed on their lesson plans. You can find lesson plan templates on the Internet too – that you can fill out yourself for your own classes. More experienced teachers tend to spend less time on lesson planning. But what the wise teachers have in common - whether they are new or more experienced - is that they understand the importance of lesson planning but are 100% practical in their approach. No more burnout – a simple guide to successful and time-efficient lesson planning Gather everything you need (course book, teacher’s book, class register, timetable, etc.) and make a cup of tea. Finally, here’s an example of one of my lesson plans – and YES!
6 Types of Play: How Children's Play Becomes More Social Play is a serious business. The pioneering developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky thought that, in the preschool years, play is the leading source of development. Through play children learn and practice many basic social skills. They develop a sense of self, learn to interact with other children, how to make friends, how to lie and how to role-play. The classic study of how play develops in children was carried out by Mildred Parten in the late 1920s at the Institute of Child Development in Minnesota. She closely observed children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and categorised the types of play. Parten collected data by systematically sampling the children’s behaviour. The thing to notice is that the first four types of play don’t involve much interaction with others, while the last two do. Unoccupied play: the child is relatively stationary and appears to be performing random movements with no apparent purpose. » This is part of a series on 10 crucial child psychology studies. Reference
Katherine Bilsborough: Lesson plans – less is more You can travel without a list of course but you will avoid a few problems if you spend a bit of time planning – not a whole week though. That would be silly. A few minutes should be enough. Pre-empting problems will bring peace of mind and when it comes to teaching, this is a major defence against burnout and work stress. New teachers who have had training will have been evaluated and assessed on their lesson plans. You can find lesson plan templates on the Internet too – that you can fill out yourself for your own classes. More experienced teachers tend to spend less time on lesson planning. But what the wise teachers have in common - whether they are new or more experienced - is that they understand the importance of lesson planning but are 100% practical in their approach. No more burnout – a simple guide to successful and time-efficient lesson planning
Which Early Childhood Experiences Shape Adult Life? | MindShift | KQED News By Maanvi Singh, NPR Most of us don’t remember our first two or three years of life — but our earliest experiences may stick with us for years and continue to influence us well into adulthood. Just how they influence us and how much is a question that researchers are still trying to answer. Two studies look at how parents’ behavior in those first years affects life decades later, and how differences in children’s temperament play a role. The first study, published Thursday in Child Development, found that the type of emotional support that a child receives during their her first three and a half years has an effect on education, social life and romantic relationships even 20 or 30 years later. Babies and toddlers raised in supportive and caring home environments tended to do better on standardized tests later on, and they were more likely to attain higher degrees as adults. Raby used data collected from 243 people who participated in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk.
Getting the right balance between adult-led and child-initiated learning | Optimus Education Blog As an early years practitioner you will know the importance of creating the right balance between adult-led and child-initiated learning. Help all children learn and develop with this guide. Adult-led activities are based on our own professional understanding of what we should teach young children and what experiences they should have. Through adult-led activities we can introduce children to new ideas, provide opportunities for them to develop their skills and ensure that they experience all areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). During adult-led learning we can feel that we are in control of the teaching we are providing. To provide high-quality experiences for young children we should aim for a balance of adult-directed activities and child-initiated activities - a third each is common. When explaining to colleagues and parents the importance of children’s self-initiated play and learning you may find it useful to use the phrase ‘the serious business of play’.
Step 1: What is a PLN? Welcome to our professional learning series on building a PLN. This series guides you step by step through the process of setting up your own PLN. The aim of this first step is to: Explain what is a PLN.Help you understand why educators create their own PLN. The following information on PLN was co-written by Michael Graffin, a relief/substitute teacher and blogger from Western Australia. You can check out Michael’s original “What the heck is a PLN” post here. What is a PLN? The word “PLN” stands for “Personal Learning Network”, and it has its origins in connectivism theory (Siemens, G. & Downes, S., 2005). Let’s take this a little further… The Personal: Having a PLN is about making connections and building personal relationships with teachers, school administrators, university professors, and experts around the world. The Learning: Having a PLN is about sharing ideas and resources, collaboration, and learning. What is a PLN Video Watch this video to learn more about what is a PLN. Your Task
Why Empathy Holds the Key to Transforming 21st Century Learning | MindShift | KQED News By Thom Markham Like other aspects of modern life, education can make the head hurt. So many outcomes, so much important work to do, so many solutions and strategies, so many variations on teaching, so many different kinds of students with so many different needs, so many unknowns in preparing for 21st Century life and the endless list of jobs that haven’t been invented. What if we discovered one unifying factor that brought all of this confusion under one roof and gave us a coherent sense of how to stimulate the intellect, teach children to engage in collaborative problem solving and creative challenge, and foster social-emotional balance and stability—one factor that, if we got right, would change the equation for learning in the same way that confirming the existence of a fundamental particle informs a grand theory of the universe? That factor exists: It’s called empathy. To make that argument requires a deep dive into the profound nature of empathy. The takeaway?
TeachingEnglish - British Council - Accueil What to consider when teaching English in large classes How many students do you teach? Do you feel that your classes are too big? Author and education consultant Jason Anderson looks at the issues and offers some potential solutions. For many of us, our classes are larger than we would like them to be. Definitions of a large class What we label a ‘large class’ depends mostly on context and expectations. In this article, we will take the midpoint between these two figures. Where teachers work in large classes today Perhaps the two continents where teachers most commonly work in large classes are Africa (especially sub-Saharan Africa) and Asia (especially the Indian sub-continent and China). This is not a uniform picture. Large classes are not unique to low-income countries. The challenges of working in large classes We can divide the challenges into two general areas: 1. 2. TLC challenges include the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. Working toward solutions to classroom problems Problem: My students aren’t motivated to speak in English.
Whole Child Development Is Undervalued The question is how to make such an approach both systemic and sustainable. Whole Person Socio-emotional, physical, creative, and cognitive capacities are deeply intertwined and equally important in ensuring a child's wellbeing, learning, and growth. (That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone studying or supporting children's learning.) Nobel laureate James Heckman, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, has shown that the non-cognitive skills emerging in early childhood are among the strongest predictors of adult outcomes. The development of these qualities, which rely on an individual's self-worth and self-control, critically outperform any other positive measures of children's long-term outcomes, whether academically or intellectually. The most impactful way of supporting such skills is associated with helping children feel in control of their learning process. Whole Communities Whole Societies
Music and Movement Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers