Not Child's Play

Ever ask your students to represent their thinking with a cartoon? It's definitely not child's play. A worthy challenge, it can be fun too.

 "Inside a Cartoonist's World" by Liza Donnelly

What do learners pay attention to?

source

This past July, SHIFT published their 10 most effective engagement strategies for e-learners. However, they seem quite applicable to any type of classroom.

Based on our teaching experience, our top five favourite go-to engagement strategies were
1. stories
2. visuals
3. emotions
4. controversy
5. contrast

Which ones are your favourites? And to switch things up, what would you like to try next?

For more information and resources linked to each strategy, click here.

5 Ways to Make Stuff Stick?

At our ATA PD day last week, Rick Smith shared strategies from his presentation 50 Ways to Leave a Lecture.

We appreciated this slide for its use of differentiation and its potential for tiering. It highlights some of those strategies and the five modalities teachers can use to pause the lecture and have students interact with the material presented. In other words, five ways to make stuff stick.

Inquiry Minds Want to Know...

Source (and great resource): What Ed Said Blog

     "Inquiry is the process of finding answers to questions. The skills of science inquiry include asking questions, proposing ideas, observing, experimenting, and interpreting the evidence that is gathered.
     An inquiry may be...based on a question brought to the classroom by a teacher or student; or it may arise out of an activity, an interesting observation, an unexplained event or a pattern that appears worth pursuing." ~Alberta Education Science Curriculum Front Matter (c) 1996
     And speaking of the unexplained...what makes the world's largest volcano invisible?

But is there a format for teaching inquiry? Or a procedure that could be used as an anchor project? Consider using the F.E.R.A. cycle...

F-FOCUS on a topic generating interest and engaging a student's background knowledge.
E-EXPLORE objects, organisms and scientific phenomena that build on that prior knowledge.
R-REFLECT on observations and data, revisit prior ideas and develop or refine explanations.
A-APPLY understanding of science concepts to new situations and prepare to repeat the learning cycle.
-strategy developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center 

P.S. Get your "science fix" here.

Minute Earth - A Useful Resource...

Take a minute and explore the fascinating Science and stories of this Earth we call our backyard. The Minute Earth YouTube Channel has various videos that might complement many lessons (and links to other educational YouTube channels as well).

Video: It Works

 

Want to hook and hold your students? Video almost always engages. Ted-Ed has many examples, including this one on verbal irony that could be used with an English Language Arts lesson or even a lesson on bullying. Ted-Ed has ready-made or adaptable lessons based on videos. Enjoy. (And we mean that--no sarcasm intended.) 

Igniting Curiosity...

Remember the science-in-a-crate program? The program has been redesigned by MindFuel. Formerly The Science Alberta Foundation, MindFuel ignites curiosity, critical thinking and imagination in youth around the world. Combining innovative digital resources and real-world experiments, MindFuel creates programs designed to help educators ignite a passion for science in students of all ages. Click the link above for more information.