Posts Tagged ‘learning’
Building Readers
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” —Kate DiCamillo I love to sit on the carpet with a small group of young readers and examine a simple predictable book. These emergent texts open the door to reading for my kindergartners.…
Read MoreSparking Comprehension
“To learn to read is to light a fire, every syllable that is spelled is a spark.” – Victor Hugo There is such a poetic beauty to Hugo’s words and I so wish to fan those flames in my young readers. This is my goal during guided reading –…
Read MoreIt Starts With Wanting to Know More
“Look at the map. Which is bigger in area, Greenland or Australia? Ah, Greenland you say. I traced the outline of Greenland and Australia and cut them out. Let’s look. How can we compare? Right. One way is to put one country on top of the other. You see Greenland is indeed larger. Now check…
Read MoreAgain
“Again!” He pushes the book back into my hands. “Again, Ms. Sylvan, AGAIN!” We’ve read this one four times already today. “We’ve read this one so many times! Would you like to pick a different one this time?” “NO! THIS ONE! AGAIN!” Again. This one. Nothing else will do. If you work with…
Read MoreEmbrace the Mess
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end!” – Robin Sharma I am living proof that learning is messy. While rushing through my Saturday morning chores, I hurriedly threw the laundry into the machine. There were just a couple more towels than usual – and I didn’t want…
Read MoreConfessions of an Old Teacher
When I was a kid I idolized my teachers. I thought they knew everything and I wanted to be one of those people who would lovingly impart knowledge to the masses. I wanted to be an educator. Diploma in hand and great aspirations in mind, I set out to teach. I was going to…
Read MoreTurning the Table
“I’ve taught you everything I am to teach you this year. I’ve taught you new content and strategies to use to understand that content. Now it’s time for you to choose what you would like to learn more about and use what I’ve taught you this year.” How does this sound to you? Interested? Here’s…
Read MoreReflection = 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 MoreMath Stretches
Runners stretch before a race, so that their muscles are warm and ready to perform at optimum levels. Just like those athletes, our students need to warm-up to get their brains focused and ready for quality thinking and learning. Math Warm-ups are an important component of Laney Sammons’ Guided Math framework. When we give our…
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