Powerful Learning strategies focuses on three drivers: Strategic Instruction, Authentic Engagement, and Connecting and Contributing.
Student Agency in the Classroom Giving students the power to be involved in their own learning, or “student agency,” in the classroom means giving them ownership of their learning. When students are given choice, they show the following traits: Choice and Decision-Making: Students talk about how interested they are in something, what they like, and how they can make their learning...
3 Authentic Strategies To Take to Your Classroom to the Real World There are ways to take your classroom to the real world by making the classroom a real-world setting, where students make real-world decisions with real-world consequences. 3 strategies serve as steppingstones to get you where you are ready to jump headfirst into authentic learning in your classroom. SIMULATIONS SOLVE REAL-WORLD...
Table of Contents Effective Feedback Effective feedback needs to be reviewed as just right, just in time, and just for me. It can nourish unprecedented growth in learning for all students. O’Connell and Vandas, authors of Partnering With Students Building Ownership of Learning, deconstructed feedback by synthesizing research and best practices into an easy acronym, using the word feedback...
Learning Progressions: A Pathway for the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Clarify Learning Progression Clarify learning progression within standards is a critical first step for teachers and students to share ownership of learning with students, according to Mary Jane O’Connell and Kara Vandas, authors of the Partnering with Students Building Ownership of Learning book. O’Connell...
What is Cyber Bullying? Cyberbullying encompasses harassment using digital means such as social media, emails, and texting. Navigating the pervasive digital landscape requires a nuanced understanding of how these behaviors manifest and the effects they produce. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying exploits the widespread reach and anonymity afforded by the internet. This new dimension...
Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders Collaborative Relationships for Learning Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning In their book, Partnering with Students, authors Mary O’Connell and Kara Vandas provide strategies for better collaborative relationships of learning. Collaborative relationships for...
I am sure many educators have heard this before: Many students who disrupt learning are actually struggling academically, and would rather be seen as “the bad kid” than as “the stupid kid.” Educators know how important engagement is for student learning, but how do you meet the goal of education “prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives”? Authors Laura Greenstein...
SEL 101 What are Core Competencies and key setting? Effective SEL Teaching Practices In their book, Building Blocks for Social-Emotional Learning, Tracy A. Hulen and Ann-Bailey Lipsett introduce ten SEL instructional practices you can use to teach and integrate social-emotional skills into academic and social settings throughout the school day: Transitions Student goal setting SEL daily...
Empower Student Learning Why Empower Student Learning So Important 6 Truths came about when I read Spencer and Juliani use the Louis Braille story to focus on giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests, and future. Louis Braille as a young kid was trying to make some holes in the leather using a sharp-pointed tool called an awl. According to John Spencer and A.J...
Bullying in Schools Bullying and Glasses in Schools Bullying often happens at school, and children who wear glasses are common targets. It can be verbal, physical, or both, and it often happens at school according to NVISION. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 49 percent of children in grades four to 12 reported being bullied by other students at least once...
Mind and Skill Sets Practice Mind and Skill Sets Shape Classroom Culture Classroom Culture What is a Learner-Centered Classroom Culture? Practice mind and skill sets shape classroom culture by teachers involving students in what it means to belong to the group, how they act as a group, and how they adjust their behaviors when they are not meeting their goals as a group. A goal for learners is...
Framework for Student Agency Build Framework for Student Agency What is an Agency? Bill Zima, author of Mindsets and Skillsets for Learning: A Framework for Building Student Agency, defines agency as the perceived ability of the individual, based on his or her capacity, to shape his or her life. You might wonder what does this look like in a classroom? Zima gives these scenarios: A kindergartner...
Using Student Choice to Support Motivation Chase Nordengren, author of Step into Student Goal Setting book, writes ‘no matter how your classroom is designed or how much authority you exercise over students, they always retain the most important decision: the choice to engage in learning.’ It got my attention. Many educators face this dilemma of how to engage students in learning. My question is...
Introduction To build better rubrics, it needs to be high quality. According to Karin Hess, author of “6 Key Questions to Better Rubrics”, 3 important qualities of a better rubric are: Describe learning expectations Frame actionable feedback to advance student learning Accurately evaluate student progress over time Creating a better rubric is more than slapping expectations on a...
Focus on Learning Introduction To build commitment to learning in students, you need buy-in from students and staff with school vision, values, and goals. School functioning as Professional Learning Communities uses their mission, vision, values, and goals as successful businesses use Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal (BHAG). Jim Collins (2001), author of Good to Great. states, “a BHAG is “a huge...
Learning Something New Learning Something New Defined Learning something new or inquiry-based learning is about triggering curiosity and tailoring your curriculum to what your students are interested in. Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of the article “What the Heck is Inquiry-Based Learning?“. notes Inquiry-Based Learning puts a new perspective on an age-old topic. Wolpert-Gawron...