Tweet Critical thinking is one of those terms that is bantered around quite often when talking about the skills students need for the 21st century and to excel in academic pursuits, life and work. Yet, it’s probably one of the toughest set of skills to define, model and teach. Critical Thinking includes good problem solving Read more »
Tweet Every lesson in the classroom tells a story. Whether it’s the story of how rain evaporates, how dinosaurs became extinct or how the seasons change, everything can be framed in a narrative. In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that supports teaching with a storytelling method. What’s more is that you can couple this Read more »
Tweet In Temple Grandin’s inspiring speech on TED.com titled “Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds,” she talks about how – as an autistic mind – she sees and thinks about the world around her in pictures.1 Grandin describes the minds of children and adults on the autism and Asperger spectrum as being Read more »
Tweet Throughout history schools have been the place to go to if you wanted access to information and learn from experts. Whether imparted by a teacher or assigned readings from classroom textbooks, schools have historically been the place to get access to information and to learn the “right” answer. Teachers and students have traditionally lived Read more »
Tweet So your students have sat down at their computers to begin brainstorming. They have a main idea in the center of their screens and maybe they’ve started to RapidFire® every concept that comes to mind on the topic. Soon their screens are full of words, pictures and symbols that represent their thoughts. This visual Read more »
Tweet It’s widely understood that visual learning can improve students’ comprehension, retention and critical thinking in the classroom. Yet, you can’t just throw any visual learning activity into an assignment and expect enormous results from your students. These visual learning tools, be it graphic organizers, compare and contrast diagrams, plot summaries or character analysis webs, Read more »
Tweet Improving education ultimately comes down to supporting our teachers and helping them develop and expand their methods of teaching as the world evolves and the demands of educating our youth change. To me, this means giving teachers the fundamental building blocks and tools to prepare students for the 21st century. Yet, what are those Read more »
Tweet In his State of the Union address last January, President Barack Obama put education at the top of the agenda. These themes for education reform and change have rippled through the nation with his recent campaigns for the Race to the Top.1 There’s a great deal of talk about technology integration, 21st century skills, Read more »
Tweet Educators understand the importance of the entire writing process. They know that proper pre-writing, planning and outlining improve students’ overall writing proficiency. This is why students are often required to show that they’ve moved through these steps by turning in an outline with their completed essay. Yet, how often do your students – underestimating Read more »
