Navigating the jungle of sustainability education can be daunting. Courses are increasingly demanding, and a plethora of online resources promise solutions, but few offer clear pathways. Some materials present mere silos of information – worksheets stuffed with facts, videos showcasing environmental issues, or tree plantings that don’t delve into the […]
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Guiding Students in Using Storytelling Throughout the Program
One of the most important steps in the storytelling process is the first step: helping students decide which story to tell. Not only will this affect their engagement throughout the learning process, but it will also require them to think critically about their values and recognize the importance of paying […]
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Stimulate Students’ Interest in Music with Bucket Drums
Five-gallon plastic drums make great buckets – inverted, the drums have a response head and a built-in resonator. Bucket drums can produce eight tones that correspond to the tones of a standard drum set. This versatility and low investment cost make bucket drums a fast-growing trend in music education – […]
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Using Comics to Encourage Literacy Development
As a teacher, I am always looking for opportunities for my students to be exposed to the written word and challenged in their reading. I am also constantly looking for materials to develop literacy skills. It has always been a challenge for me to creatively and intentionally approach interactions with […]
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How to Move Beyond Finding the Main Idea in the ELA Classroom
When it comes to teaching students how to read challenging informational or artistic texts, the emphasis on discrete comprehension skills such as “finding the main idea” or “making inferences”-approaches designed to transfer across disciplines-has lost ground. As we reported in our annual roundup of the most important educational research in […]
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Effective Strategies for Successful Group Work
One of my favorite reflection programs is the “Start-Stop-Continue” exercise. It encourages learners to consider the impact of what they are learning by asking about their perceived impact. The teacher or facilitator completes a lesson or sequence of instructions, then stops and asks their audience to consider what they are […]
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Collaborative Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in the World Language Classroom
A few years ago, at a professional development conference, I learned a strategy called “Quote, Quote, Mingle” from my middle school instructional coach. This strategy helps students gain knowledge by having conversations with their peers based on what they read. The more people you talk to, the more information you […]
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Using Drawing as a Powerful Learning Tool
I tell my students at the beginning of the school year that science is a descriptive discipline. The goal of scientists is to observe phenomena and attempt to accurately communicate what we observe. There is so much beauty in the world that we seldom see because we think they are […]
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Instructional Practices Based on Cognitive Science
No parent sends their children to school to put them through stress, experience anxiety, or lose self-esteem. Every educator desires that their students learn what they teach. However, both teachers and students, albeit for different reasons, must learn on their own. This is not a criticism of our education, but […]
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6 Ways to Capture Your Student’s Attention
In this article, we’ll touch on neuroscience insights about the brain’s attention-getting system. Understanding this process allows teachers to use specific techniques to capture students’ attention when introducing new topics. The brain evolved to facilitate survival. Every second, millions of sensory messages from receptors in the eyes, ears, viscera, skin, […]
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