Teacher Tips: PD Moments
6 Steps to Student Motivation
Every classroom teacher struggles with how to best motivate students to become eager learners and to develop ownership of their success.
Activity Rich, Academically Poor
I recently came across an article which paraphrased the description of activity rich and academically poor classrooms. It reminded me of classrooms that I would observe, in which I noted students happily engaged in games…
Blank Space
Empty space in television or radio programming creates disinterest and impatience on the part of the viewer/listener. Therefore, programmers make sure to keep programming moving quickly from one topic to the next.
Build in a Gap
The world in which we currently live is quite reactionary. Every comment, every action, every tweet or video, seems to be require an immediate reaction. Everyone seems to be entitled to react and respond immediately to posts
Class Size and Student Achievement
There has been a lot of discussion about the impact of class size on student achievement. No doubt, there is a greater burden on the classroom teachers as the class size creeps up, which means more parents to deal with, more grading, and more differentiation etc. But does a larger class size actually impact achievement?
Classroom Management 101
Classroom management is a topic on the minds of most teachers. There are some teachers that seem to have a natural ‘knack’ to creating, well-run, organized, and interference-free classrooms. The rest of us…
Creating a Safe Classroom
Well known educator, Chaim Ginot, said, “the biggest impediment to learning is the fear of failure.” No student wants to take a huge risk to volunteer or be called on in class only to make a foolish mistake in front of his peers.
Dealing with Procrastination…Today!
All teachers, but certainly if you teach middle or high school classes, have likely been frustrated by students delaying completing work or projects, and waiting for the last possible moment to prepare for an exam. Not only do these behaviors create understandable teacher frustration but…
Deep Thinking
In an era where questions can be answered by Google or by asking Siri, the amount of “deep thinking” and true analysis that we see in students is becoming rare. Teachers are finding students unwilling or unable to contemplate an issue, analyze a problem, offer solutions, and evaluate a response.
De-Stress Brings Success
We know that multi-tasking most often results in less than optimal results. When students can focus on one task, they have a higher degree of success. This idea is certainly true when the student is experiencing any personal stress or anxiety.
Don’t Get Beaten by the Bell
I feel that every teacher has had the experience—more than once—of rushing to complete the lesson after the bell has rung or recess has begun. You need those extra two or three minutes to quickly complete the lesson as planned…
Four Impactful Studies
I recently came across four distinct and somewhat disparate research studies which, when gleaned together, form an interesting insight into attention and self-reflection. These studies were mentioned in Deep Work, by Cal Newport.
Impacting True Student Growth
As a classroom instructor, your critical student interactions generally fall into one of three categories. The most common is the typical classroom setting, with the teacher instructing, modeling, or leading a class activity with the whole class. A second interaction …
Lesson Musts
When asked, veteran classroom teachers will likely be able to offer a long list of vital components to include in a lesson. No doubt, there are many elements of “must haves” to be included in a lesson.
Levers of Differentiation
All teachers experience the spectrum of backgrounds, abilities and skills of the students’ sitting in their classroom. Teachers who have the ability to “differentiate” their lesson can be somewhat more successful in making sure all the students are learning.
Managing the Duldrums
In my experience, this is the time of year (February) when teachers tend to feel a bit of lackluster energy and even some burnout. There are few holidays, if any, until spring break, curriculum requirements become stressful, it is still mid-winter, and our students too, are expressing their burnout in their own teenage ways!
Mirrors & Windows
One of the important gifts we lost with the influx of portable technology in our lives, is the beneficial use of the down time at our disposal. Before we had cell phones at our disposal, we had time to pause, think, and reflect.
Practice, Practice!
Brain researchers and educators have discovered that several types of practice are necessary to be able to learn, embed, and retrieve learning. The first step of learning something new, be it content knowledge or a skill, is to encode it into the short-term memory.
Practices that Count
In a study discussed in November 2019, 32 instructional classroom practices were studied and analyzed to find out which ones had the greatest impact on student achievement. Take a moment before you read on to see if you can list the practices you have found most necessary and impactful on student achievement.
Research on Reading
Pretty much all educators can agree on how essential reading skills are to student success, self-esteem, and cultural literacy. Where there has not been agreement, is how to best teach reading, which strategies are more effective than others, and, of course, the continuing battle between the “whole word” vs phonics approach to reading.
Spinning Out of Control
It has long been the opinion of teachers that an effective strategy to help manage an individual student's attention or symptoms associated with ADHD is to give them a stress ball, rubber band, paper clip or some other manipulative.
Starting Off Right!
Experienced teachers have likely employed “seat-work” strategies right at the beginning of the class or lesson. I have heard these techniques being referred to as “sponge” activities or “Bell work.”
Thinking Out Loud
One of the more effective techniques that is underutilized is what I call “unpacking your thinking.” This simple but important technique has the teacher talk out and verbalize the instructional steps to a problem or question. It makes the invisible cognitive process…
Tough Grader
Are you an easier grader or a tough grader—and does it make a difference?
What is your Grading Recipe?
I remember the first time I realized that our grading system was a problem. It was a faculty meeting and we got into a discussion about grades