The Zen of Coloring There's a NEW! feature in our Library Media Center Makerspace area! It's Coloring!I have to admit when I first heard about how coloring books for adults and teens are all the rage, I was a bit skeptical. I then did some research on the Zen of Coloring and found out that teens find coloring very relaxing, meditative, and stress relieving - perfect for middle school! What to Buy So, I got permission from my principal and bought a variety of coloring books from Amazon, a huge box of Crayons, and a passel of colored pencils. Star Wars, Minecraft, Dragons, Ocean, Hispanic, Native American, & Celtic heritage, Indian Mehndi Henna designs, Color My Fro and Luv My Hair designs... a cornucopia of creative coloring books! Nothing Fancy - I Even Upcycleda CD-R Spindle Top for the Pencils! Guidelines NOT Rules Ok, sorta like rules. Download the High Rez or poster version of this for your class or Makerspace. I have some other stuff you can take, too! Don't believe coloring can be good for you?
14 Creative Ways to Engage Students – CELT Fostering creativity can range from simple team-building exercises to complex, open-ended problems that may require a semester to solve. An instructor that presents innovative and challenging prompts will encourage students to work creatively through a problem to a solution. These creative techniques must be done in a supportive course environment with appropriate time allocated for students to discover and develop creative ways to solve a problem. Here are 14 creative ways to engage students in discussions, problem-solving, critical thinking, and more: Assumption Busting Assumption busting is particularly effective when one is stuck in current thinking paradigms or has run out of ideas. How: List assumptions associated with a task or problem, for example, that a solution is impossible due to time and cost constraints; something works because certain rules or conditions; and people believe, need or think of certain things. Brain-sketching Brainstorming Concept Mapping Exaggeration Fishbone
Kagan Structures: A Miracle of Active Engagement Cooperative Learning Lowers Anxiety Learning and using a foreign language can be stressful. In the traditional English classroom, the teacher quizzes students in front of the entire class. Students may not know the correct answer, may be apprehensive about speaking in public, or may be self-conscious about their accent. In global surveys, public speaking ranks as people’s greatest fear, beating fear of death, spiders, flying, and confined spaces. With RallyCoach and Match Mine, students are working with just one other student. Cooperative Learning Promotes Natural Language Acquisition There’s a big difference between learning about a language and actually acquiring the language. In the real world, we don’t fill out exercises on the proper use of language. Too often, language courses fail to build functional fluency. Many Kagan Structures naturally develop fluency by sidestepping the transference gap. We have developed over 200 Kagan Structures for promoting interaction in the classroom.
8 Exam-Prep Activities Students Actually Like After Christmas break students will return to school for 8 days of review prior to taking their End of Course Exams. I can give my students a review packet with hundreds of problems, but that would only lead to them giving up, sleeping, and not even trying. So below are 8 fun activities I created to motivate and engage my students in their final exam reviews. 1. Vocabulary Gallery Walk – Each student will be given a word to define and provide an example for. Students will use Sock Puppet or Go Animate to create a mini skit to define and example their word. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. These are 8 fun review games that is sure to get students motivated to review for their final exams! Visit my blog for printables, instructions, and examples!
Zing! - School Edition What Does My Free Zing Account Include? Personalized Learning Package Upgrade Only $10 a year Assign specific books to individual students, small groups of students, or an entire class Send personalized messages to individual students or an entire class Add your own eLearning teaching points to any Zing text Access a full suite of real-time data and reporting Assigning Books Promo Step into the Future with Zing! Digital libraries curated by reading level, genre, content area topic, theme, and/or reading and writing skills and strategies for grades K through 8.
Active Learning | Center for Educational Innovation Choose meaningful activities or questions Explain your rationale to students Develop a facilitation approach Gather and record feedback Choose meaningful activities or questions One of the most important aspects of active learning is choosing the activities or questions you’re going to use in class. What are the most important things students should learn from this class session? "Students from first generation or from underrepresented minorities benefit the most from active learning." - Abdi Warfa, Assistant Professor, Biology Use the answers to these questions to choose activities and questions which will give students opportunities to meaningfully engage with the material. "Students are not stupid and they're perfectly aware of when we are using meaningless, time-sucking activities in class." - Sehoya Cotner, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences Explain your rationale to students Develop a facilitation approach Keep students on task Finally, keep activities short. Wrap-up activities
Cooperative Learning Strategies Home > ELL Topics from A to Z > Cooperative Learning Strategies By: Colorín Colorado (2007) Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact, the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student. Peers learn to depend on each other in a positive way for a variety of learning tasks. Students typically work in teams of four. ContributeStay on taskHelp each otherEncourage each otherShareSolve problemsGive and accept feedback from peers Cooperative Learning for ELLs Cooperative Learning is particularly beneficial for any student learning a second language. Some Cooperative Learning strategies There are some popular strategies that can be used with all students to learn content (such as science, math, social studies, language arts, and foreign languages).
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