Curriculum Contemplations
Your One-Stop Shop For Curricular Happenings for November
New Teacher Development For every Inning
ELA ELABORATIONS
Question: How can I foster a culture of grappling in my classroom so that students learn to enjoy taking on the challenges in the curriculum?
“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
There are two important messages embedded in this quote by Maria Montessori. The first is that students should have the opportunity to try things and to puzzle through challenges independently or with peers. In other words, they shouldn’t always be “taught” how to do things before they try them, and they shouldn’t be bailed out at the first sign of struggle, because engaging in a productive struggle is how we learn.
Teaching Without Talking (or, Houston, We Have a Tension)
MATHEMATICAL MUSINGS
Teaching Fractions with Understanding: Part-whole Concept
What Febreeze Can Teach Us About #OBSERVEME
One of Robert Kaplinsky's favorite takeaways from the book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business was the origin story of the odor removing spray: Febreze.
He begins by sharing how it was accidentally created by a chain-smoking Proctor & Gamble scientist. The day that scientist discovered it, he went home only to have his wife think he was cheating on her. The reason was that he didn’t smell like cigarette smoke so she thought he had changed his shirt and had something to hide. The reality was that the liquid he had worked on had splashed on his shirt and removed the order!
If Math Is The Aspirin, Then How Do You Create The Headache?
Several months ago, Dan Meyer asked us, “You’re about to plan a lesson on concept [x] and you’d like students to find it interesting. What questions do you ask yourself as you plan?”
There were nearly 100 responses and they said a great deal about the theories of learning and motivation that hum beneath everything we do, whether or not we’d call them “theories,” or call them anything at all.
- “How can [x] help them to see math in the world around them?”
- “How can I connect [x] to something they already know?”
- “How can I explain [x] clearly?”
- “What has led up to [x] and where does [x] lead?”
You can throw a rock in the math edublogosphere and hit ten lessons teaching [x]. They might all be great but I’d bet against even one of them describing some larger theory about learning or mathematics or describing how the lesson enacts that theory.
Without that theory, you’re left with one (maybe) great lesson you found online. Add theory, though, and you start to notice other lessons that fit and don’t fit that theory. When great lessons don’t fit your theory about what makes lessons great, you modify your theory or construct another one. The wide world of lesson plans starts to shrink. It becomes easier to find great lessons and avoid not great ones. It becomes easier to create great ones. Your flywheel starts spinning and you miss your highway exit because you’re mentally constructing a great lesson.
Click Here to read the rest of Dan's Blog
Click Here to Access Dan's Directory of Mathematical Headaches
SCIENTIFIC SOLILOQUIES
Early Childhood Robotics: A Lego robotics club inspired by Reggio Emilia supports children’s authentic learning.
From Interest to Identity: Creating & Nurturing STEM Kids in Middle School
Adding Math to Science
COMMUNAL CONVERSATIONS
ELL ESSENTIALS: Equity For Language Learners
Everyone uses language to learn mathematics. Paying close attention to the needs of students who are learning English as a second (or third) language is crucial so that we can modify lessons to accommodate those needs. The Equity Principle requires that we accommodate differences in our diverse student population to help everyone learn mathematics (NCTM 2000).
About 10 percent of the nation’s public school students are English Language Learners (ELLs), and every year this percentage increases (NCELA 2007). Although language arts is probably the most challenging subject of their school day, mathematics is likely a struggle for these
students as well. In fact, achievement data show that ELLs are not performing at the same levels in mathematics as their native English-speaking counterparts (NAEP 2007).
TECH TOOLS YOU CAN USE: Screencast-O-Matic
- Simple interface, ease of use
- Able to record screen&webcam simultaneously
- Easy to save video, share the video online or to their hosting site
- Paid version is cost effective ($15/year) and is equipped with editing features like onscreen drawing and zooming tools
- Click Here to learn more about Screencast-O-Matic
Teachers that use technology such as the screencasting tool to help their students pick up the lessons find that it’s easier for students to work at their own pace and makes it easier for them to interact in a techno world they have been brought up in.
There’re many free screencasting tools on the market to make teaching cost-effective, and meets both your needs and that of your students. But keep in mind that free tools often come with limitations like time limit, lack of editing features, etc.
Key Features for Screencast-O-Matic:
TEACHING & LEARNING DEPARTMENT
Tammi Baushka - Literacy Program Specialist
Rebecca Ridge - Literacy Program Specialist
Julia Lindberg - LAD Program Specialist
Kristel Foster - LAD Program Specialist
Maggie Hackett - K-12 Math & Science Director
Frank McCormick - Instructional Technology Coordinator
Email: maggieh@susd12.org
Website: susd12.org
Location: 2238 East Ginter Road, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: (520)545-2000
Facebook: facebook.com/SunnysideUSD
Twitter: @SunnysideUSD