Dean/AP Corner

Involve me and I'll Learn...

For a moment, think about a time you learned something new, whether it was a physical activity, like skiing or something more home-bound, like baking bread from scratch. How did you learn how to do it? Did you watch the Olympics or Food Network and take notes on what people did? Did you then use those notes to write the steps down and suddenly-- you were capable of skiing or bread making? Would these steps actually help you learn how to do either of these activities?

Recently, I was reading teacher blogs, and I came across this podcast on how students learn. It's called, "To Learn, Students Need to DO Something." Although this is not new to any of us, and across the school, I have seen our students doing quite a bit, the podcast did make me reconsider some of the ways we think about guided and independent practice. 

We all know that student engagement in learning and classroom management go hand in hand. When students are excited and engaged in purposeful learning, they are focused and need far fewer redirections. She has a number of suggestions for small activities that can easily be implemented into any of our lessons to bring that joy, engagement and sticky learning factors back. For instance, she talks about using anticipation guides to build excitement and implementing different discussion strategies to engage students in purposeful conversation. 

Check out the podcast below when you have a moment: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/do-something/?fbclid=IwAR1pkKMm_CKRLtQHeQzuMQfxC7e6bDRCloDf_-GG1WBZ2CCpYLGCLpxWMZE 

Photos from the week:

Ms. Guzman's students discussing Form and Function during designated ELD!

Noticing and Wondering in Ms. Rodriguez's class.

Two of our 3rd graders sharing their portfolios during our Celebration of Learning!

Ms. Saenz's students experimenting with different senses using mystery boxes during ELD.

One of our students sharing her learning with her parent during our 3rd Grade Celebration of Learning!