This week I’m presenting a workshop focused on reading and supporting students as they interact in classes. Do you ever wonder how or if students read the 200-300 pages of materials assigned a week across all their classes? Why do students have difficulty answering questions about course reading, even if they’ve read the materials? This…
Several years ago, I was explaining to a colleague the challenges I was having in teaching my class on content area reading and writing. For those that are not literacy educators, this is a class that is taught to (primarily) middle grades and secondary teachers across different content areas (math, science, social studies). In this…
I believe the best questions are naive questions because they sometimes set you off on a different path. Incredibly naive questions “work” because they lower defenses. They allow us to put aside stock answers. They help activate prior knowledge and sometimes get to the root of the situation. Questioning enables us to innovate, solve problems,…
As AI (artificial intelligence) take over many aspects of our lives, people are wonder about the role of machine learning in education. The classroom is no stranger to online teaching and adaptive software and this trend is speeding up as a result of the coronavirus. With schools closing down and universities moving exclusively into remote…
Learning strategies refer to methods that students use to learn. A learning strategy is an individual’s way of organizing and using a particular set of skills in order to learn content or accomplish other tasks more effectively and efficiently in academic and nonacademic settings. These may range from techniques for improved metacognition to better studying…
If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success. James Cameron This quote from Cameron looks at goal setting, and innovation. As we develop goals and identify opportunities for innovation, sometimes we’re stuck in thinking about what could, or should be. We allow self-doubt in to muddle our…
In 2016, I joined the One Side Project Challenge. The project brought together a number of creators from around the globe, created a private space for idea generation, and an online publication for us to share project updates. For my project, I wanted to identify/create a space where educators in Pre-K up through higher ed…
This idea is framed differently in various places, but the most concise version comes from Tony Robbins. Robbins states: We’ve all been put to sleep by somebody who’s told us all these wonderful facts that didn’t matter because information without emotion is not retained. Emotions in learning Emotions play a large part not only in garnering attention, but…
In our daily interactions, we often try to consider what elements combine to create real “wisdom.” The challenge is that wisdom is what we call a mental construct. That is to say that it is something that exists only in our minds. Other constructs include motivation, creativity, and intelligence. Mental constructs are hard to consider, yet…
This statement comes from military and police parlance and usually indicates a focus on mobility and dexterity in operations. Combat and conflict often center on mobility. If you move too fast, you can be outflanked. If you move too slow, you can be pinned down. The best course may be a cautious, thoughtful understanding of planned moves.…