Teaching
May the Force Be With You
Star Wars fans know Yoda, the legendary Jedi Master – small in size but wise and powerful. He trained his Jedi students to think – “Mind what you have learned – save you it can.” The ability to think critically is a powerful skill. It is the force that allows us to actively analyze, synthesize,…
Read MoreTraining the Mind to Think
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein At one time, the expectation for an effective classroom climate was one where students were expected to sit quietly, listening to the imparting of knowledge – the outpouring of facts – the monologue from the teacher. Now we…
Read MoreFinding Winnie
Who doesn’t love Winnie the Pooh? He has been delighting children for decades, and his sweet nature makes us continue to adore him. However, the story of Pooh doesn’t begin with the A. A. Milne books. This story really begins back during World War I. Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian and soldier in training, sees a…
Read MoreWhat's Your Best Lesson of 2015?
What comes to mind when you think back on your instruction in 2015? Would you say you played it safe or you took risks? Did you try a strategy multiple times so you could tweak it or did you knock it out of the park on your first try? Whatever the lesson, it is worth…
Read More4 Ways to Encourage Reading
Readers are lucky people. They can travel to new worlds, embark on exciting adventures, learn the latest scientific findings, and glimpse into the past with the turn of a page. What rich opportunities reading gives us! In today’s world being able to comprehend and communicate the written word is imperative, so encouraging our students to…
Read MoreDifferentiation – What It Is and What It Is Not
In the field of education we know that one size does not fit all. Teachers must be aware of the developmental readiness, varying background knowledge, learning styles, and interests of the divers students in the classroom. Effective teachers use meaningful tasks to deliver content, modify processes, and create open-ended assessment measures to gain information and…
Read More"Somebody, Wanted, But, So": A Graphic Organizer
Writing summaries is an important skill students need to master. Summaries help students decide main ideas and separate important from less important details. The problem comes with the latter. Most students have a difficult time deciding what to include and what to leave out. One graphic organizer we like which may be used to aid…
Read MoreGood Books, Good Times
Reluctant readers…they can be hard to reach…hard to instill in them a love of reading. You’ve tried introducing them to novels, informational books, magazines, and nothing seems to work. These students read what is assigned, and that’s it. What can we do to inspire these kids? Poetry is not necessarily something you would pick up…
Read MoreWhat Makes a Favorite?
From the tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of children’s picture books, how does someone pick a favorite author or a favorite book? It’s an almost impossible task. Sometimes though it’s fun to reach back in time and find a book that was written 20 plus years ago and had almost been pushed aside, but as it’s…
Read MoreCelebrate the Read Aloud – One ERG Favorite
As ERG celebrates 11 years of growing all learners, we would also like to celebrate the joy of the read aloud. Just as music is said to “soothe the savage beast,” a great read aloud can calm a restless class. It also has the power to strengthen comprehension skills, build retention, boost vocabulary, and create…
Read More