A Brand New "Learning How to Learn" Strategy: This week my video series features music, the seventh independent learning strategy I shared during the “Learning How to Learn” Workshop I presented to parents and students last fall. Using music in a variety of ways as a study strategy yields powerful results. Especially helpful is the use of “piggyback songs.” When we take the tune of a familiar song and substitute content-related lyrics for the original lyrics, then we are using a piggyback song. About two-thirds of my students attended the hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the…
Published in
Blog
A Brand New "Learning How to Learn" Strategy: This week my video series features movement, the sixth independent learning strategy I shared during the “Learning How to Learn†Workshop I presented to parents and students last fall. Incorporating movement into what would otherwise be sedentary study sessions makes a significant impact on learning. About two-thirds of my students attended the hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.
Published in
Blog
Two Brand New "Learning How to Learn" Strategies: This week my new video series features the fourth and fifth independent learning strategies I shared during my “Learning How to Learn†Workshop: acronyms and acrostics. These mnemonic devices help students effectively learn discrete pieces of information. I hosted the workshop for my students and their families on October 26, 2011. About two-thirds of my students attended this hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.
Published in
Blog
Brand New "Learning How to Learn" Strategy: This week my new video series features the third independent learning strategy I shared during my “Learning How to Learn†Workshop: novelty. The human brain naturally remembers things that are off-the-wall, unexpected, and unusual. We can use this fact to help children learn academic content. I hosted this workshop for my students and their families on October 26, 2011. About two-thirds of my students attended this hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.
Published in
Blog
Two New "Learning How to Learn" Strategies: This week my new video series features the first two independent learning strategies I shared during my “Learning How to Learn†Workshop: 1) Flash Cards and 2) Chunking. I hosted this workshop for my students and their families on October 26, 2011. About two-thirds of my students attended this hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.
Published in
Blog
New "Learning How to Learn" Video: For the next month or two, my weekly blog series will be a weekly video series, and I will be featuring new instructional videos on YouTube. Including this week's video, I have seven videos posted on the site. This week's new video features a “Learning How to Learn†Workshop I hosted for my students and their families on October 26, 2011. About two-thirds of my students attended this hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.
Published in
Blog
Introducing My New Weekly Video Series: For the next month or two, my weekly blog series will be a weekly video series, and I will be featuring new instructional videos on YouTube. Currently, I have six videos posted on the site. The first video features two former students demonstrating the important role that revising plays in the writing process. The next four videos are part of my “Rock Your Students’ World†series and feature students demonstrating a variety of movement activities that help children learn academic content. The sixth video is the one I am debuting with this post. In this video I share a powerful way for teachers to create a favorable first impression with students and their families at the beginning of each school year.Click here to see my YouTube page that contains the six videos.
Published in
Blog
Empowering Moments (4th in an Occasional Series): We are all familiar with the expression “teachable moment†that refers to those times in class when something happens that offers us an opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to our students. Recently, I first heard the expression “learnable moment,†which basically refers to these same opportunities, but focuses on what the children are gaining, rather than what the teachers are sharing. I love both of these expressions, but I have to say that I prefer the latter because of its emphasis on the student’s perspective. In this blog series I introduce the expression “Empowering Moment.†An Empowering Moment is a classroom occurrence that affords teachers the opportunity to develop character, foster independence, and build students’ capacity for the future.
Published in
Blog
Empowering Moments (3rd in an Occasional Series): We are all familiar with the expression “teachable moment†that refers to those times in class when something happens that offers us an opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to our students. Recently, I first heard the expression “learnable moment,†which basically refers to these same opportunities, but focuses on what the children are gaining, rather than what the teachers are sharing. I love both of these expressions, but I have to say that I prefer the latter because of its emphasis on the student’s perspective. In this blog series I introduce the expression “Empowering Moment.†An Empowering Moment is a classroom occurrence that affords teachers the opportunity to develop character, foster independence, and build students’ capacity for the future.
Published in
Blog
More...
Empowering Moments (2nd in an Occasional Series): We are all familiar with the expression “teachable moment†that refers to those times in class when something happens that offers us an opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to our students. Recently, I first heard the expression “learnable moment,†which basically refers to these same opportunities, but focuses on what the children are gaining, rather than what the teachers are sharing. I love both of these expressions, but I have to say that I prefer the latter because of its emphasis on the student’s perspective. In this blog series I introduce the expression “Empowering Moment.†An Empowering Moment is a classroom occurrence that affords teachers the opportunity to develop character, foster independence, and build students’ capacity for the future.
Published in
Blog
Empowering Moments (1st in an Occasional Series): We are all familiar with the expression “teachable moment†that refers to those times in class when something happens that offers us an opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to our students. Recently, I first heard the expression “learnable moment,†which basically refers to these same opportunities, but focuses on what the children are gaining, rather than what the teachers are sharing. I love both of these expressions, but I have to say that I prefer the latter because of its emphasis on the student’s perspective. In this blog series I introduce the expression “Empowering Moment.†An Empowering Moment is a classroom occurrence that affords teachers the opportunity to develop character, foster independence, and build students’ capacity for the future.
Published in
Blog
Friday, 11 November 2011 21:50
Wrapping Up This Blog Series (Part 10 of New "Establishing a Sense of Purpose" Blog Series)
Written by
Wrapping Up This Blog Series: Over the past couple months I have described various ways in which I try to establish a sense of purpose with my students so that they understand why committing themselves to academic pursuits matters and so that they find their work meaningful and relevant to their present and future lives. Specifically, there are four main tools I use to try to establish purpose. The first is the classroom aim, a topic I focused on during Parts 2 and 3 in this series. Because the aim establishes a group’s highest priorities, drives decisions, and determines goals, it is the starting point in our efforts to establish purpose. In his book Improving Student Learning: Applying Deming’s Quality Principles in Classrooms, Superintendent Lee Jenkins describes the aim as the bull’s-eye of the organizational target.
Published in
Blog
Friday, 04 November 2011 21:50
Promoting Important Habits of Character (Part 9 of New "Establishing a Sense of Purpose" Blog Series)
Written by
Introduction to This Blog Series: Establishing a sense of purpose is one of the most important responsibilities teachers face at the beginning of each new school year. Throughout this blog series I will share a variety of ideas that I have used to help students better understand why it is important to come to school every day, work hard, and learn as much as possible. This week: Promoting Important Habits of Character (Part 9 of the Series) Over the past few weeks I have described three main benefits of having a class mission statement: 1) its ability to help teachers connect daily learning activities to important future purposes, 2) a mission statement enables teachers to establish an expectation level for student work, effort, and behavior, 3) a mission statement helps teachers build a confident mindset in our students. This week I wrap up my paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of this year’s class mssion…
Published in
Blog