20 TEACHING “BIG IDEAS” of the year to get to know your students, establish routines and expectations together, and build community. This will save time throughout the year, allow for flexibility while maintaining classroom management, and smooth out transitions between activities. ‘Student-centered teaching responds to what each student knows, can do, and cares about, . Take sufficient time at the beginning . Regardless of your teaching style, predictability and support are the primary factors influencing student satisfaction, enthusiasm, and performance. and metacognitive processes with . Explicitly discuss objectives, applications/purpose, feedback on and assess the quality your students. As part of teaching them to learn, give of the questions they ask. 1.5 seconds. Allowing students more than 3 seconds of “J don’t know” answers. Avoid te their own retrieval cues. The average teacher wait time is “think-time” produces higher-order answers and reduces “cuing” students to urge responses. Encourage them to creat - Courageously try new ideas, just as you encourage your students to do. Watching you handle failure and grow from it is a powerful lesson for students. Also, though you should have deep and current knowledge of your discipline, you no longer need to be the “expert in everything.” We can and should learn from our students, as well. chunk it into 10-15 minute segments. This does not mean you but you need to “rehook” or redirect the tivities (4, 7, or 13 minutes, as opposed . When creating a lesson, have to change topics or activities necessarily, students. Using odd amounts of time for group act to 5 or 10), helps keep students on task. he students can be doing, they should be doing. As developmentally shift the responsibility for learning to the students, providing them with a and perceived adult-like roles. . Anything tl appropriate, balance of support, scaffolding, . Planning is everything. Having a good objective-based plan allows you to spend your mental energy in class observing students at work and providing descriptive and prescriptive feedback. Clear objectives also allow you to be more flexible, adjusting your plan according to student interests. . Motivation is essential for maintaining attention. Intrinsic motivation is primarily influenced by a sense of autonomy, mastery, relevance, and relatedness. Autonomy: Having choice and voice in the classroom. Mastery: Successes and continual growth; Relevance: Students should understand why they are learning something. Relatedness: Students work harder for people they are connected to.10. Content is important because you cannot think critically without something to think about. However, we are freer now to let students choose content (because we have little idea what they will need to know in the future), so give them choices as often as possible, using content as a vehicle to develop essential skills. The most important skill you can teach your students is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do. 11. In any given learning episode, students best remember what they hear first and last, and least what they hear just past the middle, If only one activity is scheduled, students are subjected to a long and less effective middle. If two or more activities are scheduled, students gain the positive impact of the novelty of multiple beginnings and endings, and are subjected to shorter middles. 12. Reflection that requires students to engage in interior or exterior dialogue increases the likelihood of long term retention. Ask students to summarize, evaluate, organize, connect, etc, after each activity and at the end of class. 13. Movement activates the brain and leaning the same information in different physical spaces increases long term retention. 14, Encourage growth mindsets over fixed mindsets. Praise effort over ability and behavior over the child. Attribute successes to effort and failures to the need for more effective strategies. 15. When in doubt, ask the students. Get frequent feedback about how they are experiencing your class. It will improve your teaching and let them know you care about them and value their ideas. Don’t be afraid to scrap an activity that isn’t working! 16. To whatever extent possible, create authentic learning experiences that relate directly to real-life application Make sure they can recognize and verbalize the purpose. 17. Students should be allowed and encouraged to collaborate. It no longer makes sense to always require students to “work on their own.” In the real world, collaboration is not cheating, it’s an expected skill. 18. Teachers should collaborate as much as possible. Not only do better ideas come from groups than from individuals, a collegial and collaborative faculty also provides amore predictable, structured, and cohesive environment that is optimal for student learning, 19. Technology for today’s students is like another hand. It is no longer something they learn about, but something they learn with. Acknowledge what computers can do better than you and what you can do better than computers, so that your time and expertise are used most effectively. rd, and nurture 20, Reflect regularly on why you have chosen to teach. Appreciate, reward, yourself so that you feel glad to be at work every day. Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously.A Few Extended Period Structures/Activities (more on website) Action Maze: Students solve a problem by making a series of decisions. Each decision provides them with feedback and insights into the situation. Alternate universe: Create a “world” (virtual or physical) to inhabit within your classroom Case Studies Committee Meeting: Class is divided into Board committees with objectives, and assigned roles, such as chair, recorder, etc. Community interviews: Students go out into the community and conduct informational interviews Conference: Students present “sessions” on specific areas in which they have become an “expert” Daniel Pink Day: Students do whatever they want related to the topic but must produce something to share by the end Debates Dramatic renditions Field Day or Olympics: Tournament of discipline-specific games Field trips Film-making Fish bowl: One group conducts holds a discussion or does an activity while the other group observes and provides feedback on the process. Then they reverse roles. (Very specific group guidelines need to be in place so feedback is supportive and constructive) “Flipped” Classrooms Gallery walk: Groups put up their main ideas around the class/campus and students visit them Guest speakers (consider other teachers, parents, Board, or community members) Interdisciplinary projects It’s their problem! Give them a real problem and set them loose Jigsaw: Groups are assigned pieces of a larger concept to study/learn. Then the groups must bring the information back and share to see the larger picture Journaling: An ongoing habit of either making predictions or setting learning goals at the beginning of class, or writing reflections or summaries at the end of class Learning Stations/ Homework menus Let it ride: Student teams roll the dice and then one student runs to the teacher for the question, brings it back to the group and answers it. If correct, they get the Points on the dice, if incorrect, they lose the number. Focus is on accuracy, not speed. Listening teams: Alternating groups of students are assigned to listen to a student speaker (or the teacher), take notes, ask questions, and then summarize the content for the class Pre-test/Post-test: Give a “quiz” (not counted for a Grade) at the beginning and end of the class so students can see how much they learned. “Spring Break” Cruise: Student projects set up around the school ~ students guide the tour group around and explain their installation (like a gallery walk expanded) Story Structure: Set class or unit up with the elements Student Panel: Similar to a dissertation defense, Student Question: Collect students’ questions/in ‘terests beforehand and build the class around th ‘Student-Teacher swap: Students design and implement the lesson tnd them Web Quest Of a story (setting, sequence, climax, resolution) but in front of peers Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Sealed toy " z P-secret enveloy i groups to solve Pes with specific problems for Ete.