
On this Giving Tuesday, I am gifting you several learning opportunities to read, learn, and connect.
Gift #1: Stevey Wyborney’s Esit-Mysteries Do you love to teach math? Do you love to engage your students in rich talk around and about math? Then these esti-mysteries are for you. Esti-mysteries combine estimation and math mysteries in the form of clues to make a great activity for your students. For the folks in our lower school. you may remember the splat math that our wonderful math specialist shared last year; well, esti-mysteries come from the same guy! As of mid-November, Wyborney created the 51st esti-mystery. While the ones I have looked through may seem geared toward elementary school, I can easily see these being modified with more advanced math concept clues. I can also see students creating their own and sharing with their peers. So, put on your thinking cap and start solving these mysteries.
Gift #2 Tech Tools that Harness Retrieval Practice As you might recall (recall is a form of retrieval), I have written numerous times about Pooja Agarwal and retrieval practice as a way of solidifying and helping learning to move from short term to long term. Here is just one of those posts. Anyway, in today’s share, Agarwal lists the tools you can use in your class to help with retrieval practice. One of the ones I personally enjoy is Quizizz (you can read more here) because it allows you to shuffle questions (and responses) and shuffling questions, especially when they are on different concepts or even topics, is known as interleaving which is another way of helping students remember and learn the information.
Gift #3 Speaking of the brain, this next gift is 8 Ways to Create a Brain-Friendly Classroom Back in 2009, Judy Willis came to do a 2-day workshop at our school on learning and the brain where she offered strategies for teaching that aligns with the way the brain learns. It was quite interesting and I still remember a number of teaching strategies like change colors (novelty) when writing notes on the board (or projecting) so it activates the reticular activating device and brings attention back to what you are saying, do something different (novelty and unexpected) when you are about to say something important, etc. In this recent article co-authored by Willis, she offers more ways you can create a stress-free environment that is conducive to learning for your students and their brains.
Gift #4 A live webinar with Lucy Calkins. When I was a classroom teacher, Lucy Calkins was my idol. I read all her books, attended her summer workshops on writing and reading, and religiously did a reading and writing workshop in my classes. Those were the days. Well, next Tuesday, December 10, at 2:00PM ET you can participate in a webinar with Lucy Calkins where she will be discussing reading and writing instruction to support achievement in schools.
Gift #5 13 Unexpected and Fun Geography Lessons to Enhance your Curriculum Hear fun ways different teachers use geography to help their students learn about the world beyond their classroom. Mystery Skype anyone? #GridPals? #Epals?
Gift #6 Civics 101: A Podcast and when I say, “podcast” I am talking about more than 150 episodes on everything civics related like impeachment, how to run for president, the Federalist and anti-federalist papers, and around 147 more. Each episode comes with a transcript, the full episode, several audio clips, and more. It’s really a history teacher’s jackpot. If you check out their educator’s page, you will find a link to graphic organizers you can have your students use while listening and other ways to use these podcasts to enhance learning. You’re welcome!
Gift #7 DITCH SUMMIT Last but not least, DITCH Summit is coming! Everyday from December 21-January 8 a new video will be released with an interview between Matt Miller, the host of the summit, and his guest of the day. DITCH Summit is where I first heard Pooja Agarwal speak and she will be presenting again at this year’s summit along with Toney Jackson, Omar Lopez, Austin Kleon, and more. It is all virtual and all free. Each video comes with related notes, links, documents, and you can get a professional development certificate, and more. Like years past, the summit is only open for a limited time so sign up and get ready to learn.
For more articles, videos, tools, and more, read the Shipley PLN Lower & Middle School Edition.