Spring is finally here, and with it comes a time of renewal and growth in both nature and education. As we watch the flowers begin to bloom and the trees turn green, we are reminded of the potential for new beginnings and growth in our own lives. This is especially true for our education journey, as we continue to learn and develop new skills. Spring is the perfect time to reflect on our progress thus far and set new goals for the remainder of the academic year. It is a time to renew our commitment to learning and embrace new opportunities for growth.
In the world of education, spring represents a time of renewal and revitalization. It is a time when students and educators alike can take stock of their accomplishments and set their sights on new challenges. Whether it be learning a new subject, mastering a new skill, or simply finding new ways to approach old problems, spring is a season of endless possibilities. So let us embrace the spirit of the season and continue to grow and learn together. With the right mindset and a commitment to success, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
Be well!
-Peg, Suzanne, and Dan
Notability
Notability is a notetaking platform that allows you to combine text, handwriting, and other media to create visual notes. It also has a PDF annotation feature and sharing options. It does this seamlessly through integrations with apps like Google Drive. It also features a visual and audio comment module for better team collaboration.
Book Creator
Book Creator is a web app version of the popular Book Creator for iPad app. It remains an intuitive tool for creating all sorts of books: comic books, journals, manuals, study guides and more. Teachers will find it a great way to enhance their lesson materials and study support, while kids will respond well to the app's creative opportunities within all subjects.
READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGY: How can we help students improve their real-time comprehension strategies?
In this Review of Educational Research article, the authors assert that students around the world are “strikingly poor” at metacomprehension – monitoring their understanding as they read texts and predicting what they will remember. This is a big problem for teachers, because if students are overconfident about comprehension as they read, they won’t go back and re-read or ask questions to fill gaps and figure out what they don’t understand. The result: disappointing student achievement.
So what strategies actually boost student comprehension in real time?
- Students write a summary after reading several texts (not after reading each one);
- Students sketch a concept map, diagram, and mind map as they read, or afterward;
- Students generate keywords capturing the gist of the texts after reading several;
- Students explain to themselves the new information contained in the texts;
- Students take practice tests and see what they thought they understood but didn’t;
- Students read texts with some letters deleted, forcing them to focus more on meaning;
- Students take a comprehension test that aligns with what they expected to be tested on;
- Students re-read the texts after a short delay.
LESSON CLOSURE STRATEGIES- Using the closing minutes of class to consolidate learning
https://www.edutopia.org/article/10-powerful-ways-to-end-your-lessons/
In this Edutopia article, author/educator Andrew Boryga describes ten ways to check
for student understanding and wrap up learning at the end of a lesson:
• A two-dollar summary – Each word is worth ten cents, so the challenge is for students
to sum up what they just learned in just 20 words – perhaps including certain words.
Alternatively, students are asked to explain key concepts as they would to a first grader.
• Six-word headlines – Pairs of students summarize the most important idea or concept
they learned in six-word newspaper-like banner headlines. Alternatively, each student writes
their own headlines and then they work on combining them, or the whole class collaborates to
formulate a single headline.
• Rock, paper, scissors – In this variation on the familiar game, students identify rocks
– the hardest parts of the lesson – paper – distilling the main idea – and scissors – less-
important material they believe could be trimmed and discarded.
• Clear and cloudy – In an exit ticket, students write what was clear about the lesson
and what they’re having trouble understanding.
Find out more strategies in the article!
Cool ways you can use CHAT GPT in your classroom
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with the chatbot. The language model can answer questions and assist you with tasks like composing emails, essays, and code.
Fine Tuning Flipped Learning
In this EdSurge article, Jeffrey Young summarizes a recent study on the efficacy of
“flipped” instruction (students watching a video of the instructor’s lecture for homework and
using class time to engage in discussions and activities).
John Hattie, a co-author of the study, says that many teachers encounter problems with flipped learning when students don’t watch the videos, or watch them at double speed, and arrive in class unprepared to engage in active learning. A key factor in successful flipped lessons is motivating students to want to watch the video, and providing some type of beginning-of-class assessment to ensure they actually watched it.
The researchers believe the most effective way to use the flipped model can be summarized as fail, flip, fix, and feed:
- Students are given a challenging problem on material they haven’t studied yet and most
of them fail to solve it.
- They’re given a video explaining the concept and are motivated to watch it outside of
school so they understand the problem.
- The instructor uses class time to fix misunderstandings, with a mix of short lectures and
student activities.
- Students are assessed on their understanding and get feedback.
Find out more about this in this article: EdSurge article on Flipped Learning
Jaxon's Science Lab
In this video, 2nd Grader Jaxon, from Ms. Rocks and Mrs. Malone's class, explains how volcanos work. Could he be the next Bill Nye??
Summer Chopped Salad
As the weather gets warm, I LOVE to eat a nice salad sitting outdoors. Over the years, the chopped salad has become my favorite, mainly because I like to eat with spoons - I know...it's a weird quirk. But a chopped salad allows you to get a nice composed bite of everything all at once. So good!