The beginning of the fall term is by far the best part of the school year as far as I am concerned. The school year is still fresh and full of optimistic anticipation of transformative learning and “AHA!” moments. The students are not too tired yet, they come to class with their homework completed and they are eager to engage in the lesson for the day. I love September!
I did not post a Friday 4 last week as I was rolling out an ambitious Professional Learning Plan with the faculty at The Loomis Chaffee School and got busy with that. If you are interested in the plan, you can see the document here. I would love to hear any feedback you might have on the plan or suggestions for additional items that could be added that you do at your school.
This week’s interesting finds:
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Why Girls Tend to Get Better Grades Than Boys Do is a pithy little piece from The Atlantic Magazine that was passed along to me by a colleague who occasionally sends me interesting articles. (One of the benefits of my job to be honest…if I do not run across an interesting piece, odds are that somebody else has and will share it with me!)
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Why Don’t We Teach the Telephone Book? uses an interesting metaphor to make an important point to all classroom teachers about what we are teaching in our classes.
- Strategies That Make Learning Last is an excellent piece by one of my favorite authors on the topic of cognitive psychology, Daniel Willingham @DTWillingham, that appears in this month’s edition of Educational Leadership from ASCD.
- A thought provoking TED Talk: Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes and a related blog post TED Talks Are Wildly Addictive for 5 Scientific Reasons.
Enjoy and have a wonderful end to your September!