Authentic Learning
Reflection = Growth
“Self-reflection is a humbling process. It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things . . . then better yourself.” – Sonya Teclai The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards states, “Thinking analytically about teaching is complicated because teaching is complicated.” Teachers generally have little time for self-analysis and reflection, yet…
Read MoreNo Quick Fixes
“Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are teaching to the test. Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation materials.” Craig Jerald It’s hard for teachers to stay…
Read MoreWhat Really Counts?
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything we count, counts.” – Albert Einstein We have become a nation of numbers – driven by statistics and data. The fixation on testing, scoring, and ranking our young learners is not what really counts when it comes to learning. Randi Weingarten, the President of the…
Read MoreNurturing the "Cognitive Enterprise" of Reading
Reading has been called a “cognitive enterprise” and it happens as a result of the connection between the reader and the text. – What do I visualize? What connections can I make? Does this make sense? – Successful readers monitor their reading, use strategies for understanding, and evaluate their efforts. To comprehend a text, a reader…
Read MoreMay the Force Be With You
Star Wars fans know Yoda, the legendary Jedi Master – small in size but wise and powerful. He trained his Jedi students to think – “Mind what you have learned – save you it can.” The ability to think critically is a powerful skill. It is the force that allows us to actively analyze, synthesize,…
Read MoreWriting a Message
Writers like Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, don’t know where their characters are going or what they are going to do when they begin writing. They simply let the characters take over. Very few children are able to accomplish this though many try. Usually these stories end up rambling and without a purpose.…
Read More2 Teaching Tips for 2016
“Teachers need to be evaluators and activators.” – Professor John Hattie We hope the New Year finds you ready to step back into the classroom invigorated and energized. At ERG we believe effective teachers learn from their own teaching, so we would like to suggest two simple tips as you prepare to activate meaningful learning in…
Read More4 Ways to Encourage Reading
Readers are lucky people. They can travel to new worlds, embark on exciting adventures, learn the latest scientific findings, and glimpse into the past with the turn of a page. What rich opportunities reading gives us! In today’s world being able to comprehend and communicate the written word is imperative, so encouraging our students to…
Read More3 Ways to Build Thinkers
It was Socrates who said, “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” Meaningful learning takes place when our students are engaged and genuinely thinking – not simply spitting back facts. At ERG our focus is growing all learners, so we encourage students to question, ponder, contemplate, deliberate, reason, defend, and create. Effective…
Read MoreCalendar Math – Launch into Learning
“The only way to learn math is to do math.” ~ Paul Halmos A great way to start the day is with calendar math activities. These quick interactive sparks of learning incorporate a number of math concepts in a small amount of quality time. In a few minutes a teacher can introduce a new concept,…
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