QUESTIONING SLIDES
Check out the resource-rich slides that our KMR Teacher Leaders prepared for their Questioning presentation. There's so much good stuff here!
QUESTIONING SLIDES
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One of the teacher leaders I work with, Rebecca Arlander (social studies teacher from Washington Middle School), recently did a presentation on Questioning for our KMR Reflect, Learn, and Teach course. She used photos and WRAITEC question stems to demonstrate how she helped students develop their own questions and activate critical thinking skills.
I'm currently teaching an after school literacy class and wanted to adapt the photo idea to increase critical thinking, so I started looking for more resources, and I found THIS! The New York Times collaborates with Visual Thinking Strategies to bring teachers one cool, uncaptioned photo a week and an opportunity to have students engage with one another about the photo. Teachers ask 3 simple questions:
The conversation that results is magical. I am having so much fun looking through all the images in this series to find good ones for my students! There's also a slide show of 40 favorite images that you can check out. Learn how other teachers use the photo-of-the-week for inspiration. "Mommy, I have grit and a growth mindset!," said my seven year old son Daniel as we drove home yesterday. "Really?!! Tell me more about that! Can you give me some examples?" And there started an in-depth conversation (that continued today) about what it meant to have grit. It meant that he didn't give up on a math problem even when it was "challenging," that he would believe that he could rather than couldn't get a bigger kid than him "out" in that frustrating game of summer fun dodgeball, that he knew that he had to "stick with it" no matter what. Daniel told me that "grit" was the word of the month in his classroom, and that everyone not only talked about what it was, but practiced it too. I had chicken skin and was overcome with gratitude. I could talk about grit and having a growth mindset for days on end, but it was at school where he would need it most. It's there that he'll be stretched and challenged in sometimes-uncomfortable ways, and it's there that he'll need to push through the darkness to get to the light. It's at school where he'll need to know that mistakes are to be learned from and that there is no such thing as a perfect anything, because there is always room to grow. It's at school where his classmates and teacher need to know that, too, and support and cheer one another on through the "hard stuff." Teachers, let's let grit be our word of the month, too. Let's teach it and practice it and live it. Teaching is complex, and certainly challenging as we make hundreds of decisions every day, stress over how to get done everything that needs to get done, and how to make right every wrong that sneaks up on our students. When all of that overwhelms you, try thinking... (and this comes directly from Mr. K's 2nd grade chart above): *What am I missing? *I'll use some of the strategies that I learned... *This may take some time and effort *I can always improve so I'll keep trying *Mistakes help me learn better *I'm going to figure out how (my colleague) does it so I can try it out, too Need even more inspiration? Here is a previous post that I wrote on growth mindset, and check out these 75 quotes to encourage growth mindset and Angela Lee Duckworth's amazing Ted Talk, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance." Honolulu District's Health and PE Resource Teacher, Denise Darval-Chang, shared some valuable resources with us at our January New Teacher Orientation. Please check out these links. Keep your students moving and healthy! Here's also the link to learn about her amazing lending library! * An Apple a Day * Go Noodle * Want Smarter, Healthier Kids? Try Physical Education! -Paul Zientarski TEDxBend * Is there a Relationship Between Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement? Positive Results from Public School Children in NE US * A Longitudinal Examination of the Link Between Youth Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement * Health Teacher Can you devote an hour next week to helping your students dive into coding?
December 5-11, 2016 is the week designated for coding, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Check out these resources: Hour of Code Activities DISNEY Hour of Code Activities (I'm going to do this MOANA one with my children!) On November 17th, two Roosevelt High school veteran teachers hosted a wonderful session on questioning and discussion strategies integrating technology. They shared how they used strategies/tools such as Google Classroom, Socratic Seminar, Quizlet, and other strong questioning and discussion techniques to keep their students engaged and thinking at deeper levels. Below is Kazuyo's presentation, which she gave me permission to share with you. Here's an additional resource on Socratic Seminars- a neat video showing Socratic Seminar in action and including resources such as rubrics and scoring guides.
We had a wonderful professional learning session on Google Classroom on November 15th. All of the teachers who attended left excited and prepared to open their Google Classroom doors to their students.
As far as additional support, I found an AMAZING compilation of Google Classroom resources. Check it out HERE! Some of the lower elementary teachers were wondering how Google Classroom could be used for our youngest learners. Check out these lower elementary ideas- I just love them! * Google Classroom for 1st Grade * Using Google Classroom in Kindergarten Of course, there's hundreds ideas on Pinterest as well, and I know you have some of your own. Please share how you use Google Classroom in the comments below! I haven't seen any reason to download the Snapchat app and get into yet another crazy social media fad...
Until today! Heard of Booksnaps? Have the kids use their Snapchat apps to snap photos of powerful text and respond to the selection using those awesome Snapchat images and captions. Have them share the snaps and then save and talk about them. Brilliant, right?! Learn more about #Booksnaps HERE and then try it for yourself! Here's my first booksnap on a page from my summer book club book, Teach Like a Pirate, by Dae Burgess. SHOUTOUTS to rockstar veteran teachers Jamie Kumashiro and Caroline Tolentino (from Roosevelt High School) and Kristen Esposito, Amanda Jones, Kelly Sutcliffe, and Sheila Bierwert (from Jefferson Elementary) who hosted Student Engagement professional learning sessions for KMR's Beginning Teachers in October.
The sessions were lively and engaging, with lots of strategies shared! Some of the key points that were made: * Build relationships with your students! KNOW them and you will KNOW what motivates and engages them * Give students the opportunity to MOVE! Movement is motivating! * Give students opportunities to COLLABORATE often! * Offer students CHOICE! Students will feel empowered and OWN their learning when they have the power of choice. Reluctant learners. We've all had them in our classes- their heads are down on their desks, they don't turn in work or participate in discussions, you can't seem to keep their focus...these children are the ones who keep us up at night with those questions swirling around in our heads. What is going wrong that I can make right for them? How can I reach them? How can I ignite them? Here are some easy-to-read resources for strategies to help our reluctant learners (and you!): 20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners 5 Ways to Engage Reluctant Students Heart Over Head: Motivating Reluctant Learners I love this short video showing a teacher using a "wingman strategy" to reach his reluctant students: The Wingman: Engaging Reluctant Students (1:44) Check out one of my favorite short videos- How Youth Learn: Ned's GR8 8 It reminds us of "eight powerful conditions of learning that can change everything for students." It's a must-see! |
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