Learning
In the Woods
From the desk of Alice… When I was a child, I played outside any chance I could. These were the days before home computers and 500 TV channels, so playing outside was actually more fun than being inside on most days. There were some woods behind our house that my sister and friends and I…
Read MoreRelationships Count
“It is the teachers who have created positive teacher-student relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.” – Dr. John Hattie After years of extensive research on student learning, Dr. John Hattie found that the relationships teachers share with their students have a greater effect on their academic growth…
Read MoreMirror Mirror On the Wall
“Mirror, mirror on the wall. What did I learn after all?” Reflection is a vital piece of the learning puzzle. Unless we examine what we learned and how we learned it, we don’t know what worked well and what needs to be tweaked. The end of the year is a natural time to look back…
Read MoreSharing Ideas
Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes. (Peter Senge) This is what we do as teachers…help one another, be it our students or our peers, grow as individuals and as professionals. We do this by sharing what we know…
Read MoreNew Avenues to Better Teaching
This month ERG has focused on Instructional Leadership and Peer Coaching. In one of our recent newsletters it was noted that ” Leadership in education is about learning – and not just the empowerment of student learning. As instructional leaders, teachers assume a wide range of roles to support the learning needs of students –…
Read MoreLooking at Fixed and Growth Mindsets
What is a mindset? A mindset is a set of beliefs about your intelligence, talent, and success. It determines how you interpret and respond to given situations. Is there more than one type of mindset? Yes. After decades of research Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University determined there are two basic mindsets. One is fixed…
Read MoreLet's Think About It
How many times a day do you think about how you process information? If you’re like the majority of people, the answer is rarely. However, every time we make a decision or learn new information we are thinking about our own thinking. This is known as metacognition, and metacognitive strategies are what we use to…
Read MoreTraining the Mind to Think
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein At one time, the expectation for an effective classroom climate was one where students were expected to sit quietly, listening to the imparting of knowledge – the outpouring of facts – the monologue from the teacher. Now we…
Read MoreDialogue Not Monologue
Mind Frame 5: Teachers engage in dialogue, not monologue – John Hattie Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning Research has shown that teachers talk between 70 and 80% of classroom time. Traditionally a monologue flows from the teacher and then the students are asked to complete a task to demonstrate their understanding. From…
Read MoreTalk about the Learning
The work Dr. John Hattie, the author of Visible Learning, is inspiring. His thought provoking research focuses on the factors that have the greatest impact on learning and Hattie advises, “Know thy impact!” When student learning is visible to the teacher – the teacher grows and makes sound instructional decisions that impact student learning. When…
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