Increase student motivation; don’t limit it to inside the four walls of your classroom! Every standard, topic, or target should connect back to a real world purpose – otherwise, why teach it? To increase student motivation, give learning purpose with a HUGE emphasis on a student’s learning experience. Through a lesson theme, you can give learning a purpose and answer the … Read More
Using Community as a Motivational Tool for Students (Video)
FULL TRANSCRIPT Hey guys! It’s Rae. I wanted to do a quick blog post about how to motivate students in the classroom by utilizing community in your classroom. I’m sure as you know, I am so passionate about bringing my community into my classroom, and I find that teachers that I collaborate with often tell me, oh no, they don’t … Read More
3 Ways to Prepare for Personalized Learning
Personalized Learning is possible. As you continue reading more research and hearing about the amazing things going on in education, I would bet you’re starting to see a lot of stories and info on personalized learning. The basic philosophy is pretty simple; give students what they need, when they need it, and allow them to explore curriculum in ways that … Read More
Let’s Talk About Trash Compactors and Curriculum Compacting
What does a trash compactor have to do with curriculum compacting? (Well, isn’t that an odd way to start an educational blog?) In pondering how I was going to explain curriculum compacting to you, I started thinking about trash compactors. If your name is Luke and you have a special connection to the force, you may be more familiar with … Read More
College Readiness is Not an Excuse for Bad Teaching.
What about college readiness? I hear this from time to time during workshops as we discuss things like lesson structure, homework, grading, student ownership, or even multiple attempts on assignments. Whenever an educator wants to continue doing something like lecturing all the time, or scold and punish a student for forgetting a pencil, they say: “we need to prepare them … Read More