Learning Coach Corner
Volume II Issue 13
Great Things Happening in our Classrooms at South Middle School!
Culturally Responsive Teaching - The Warm Demander
Students who have teachers that are “warm demanders” do better in school, stay engaged, and make greater learning achievements. These aren’t just teachers who are authoritative or firm. They are teachers who build warm and positive relationships with students and have rigorous expectations for students’ learning. “Your role as ally in the learning partnership calls for you to know when to offer emotional comfort and care and when to not allow the student to slip into learned helplessness. Your job is to find a way to bring the student into the zone of proximal development while in a state of relaxed alertness so that he experiences the appropriate cognitive challenge that will stimulate his neurons and help his dendrites grow” (Hammond, 2015).
April is National Poetry Month/Paint Chip Poetry
Paint Chip Poetry is an easy way to teach students the power of figurative language and the shades of meaning to words. The activity begins with a visit to a home improvement store where the paint chips can be obtained for FREE! Bring them to your classroom and arrange them by color groups. Have students use the activity to write a poem using a childhood memory.
Tech Bytes: Markup in Photos
Markup (How to Markup) is a tool in iPad Photos that always annotating documents and images with various drawing and text tools.
Features:
- draw over images
- choose one of three line widths
- eight colors
- apply text in one of three fonts
- edit and align text
- apply handwritten signature
- magnifying glass tool to draw attention and zoom in
Macbooks also have this feature in Photos but of course, no touch screen.