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Why I started reading storybooks to my older students
Sheilamary Koch EducationWhen I was a preschool teacher, reading to my students daily was a requirement for the school’s ELL program — well-supported by a bin of illustrated storybooks in the classroom. But as I began teaching progressively higher grade levels, the amount I read to them progressively decreased. By the time I was teaching ninth-graders, the storybook bin had disappeared from the classroom and I’d stopped reading story books to my students all together — except for one time.
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The importance of career and tech education in today’s schools
Brian Stack EducationOn the afternoon of their certificate ceremony from the Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter, New Hampshire, a couple hundred soon-to-be Career and Technical Education (CTE) graduates from my high school as well as some of the surrounding high schools filed into the school cafeteria for what they thought was a pizza party and a raffle drawing for a new pair of workboots from the local Timberland corporate office. This was a follow-up to the survey that Timberland gave students a month earlier, asking for their shoe sizes. What happened next shocked not only the students, but also the teachers and administrators of the CTE school.
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The importance of self-reflection when teaching English learners
Erick Herrmann EducationSchools all over the United States have released students and teachers for the summer break, and teachers are beginning to decompress from the hectic schedule of the school year. Hopefully, they are also taking some time to relax and spend time with loved ones. During this break, it is critically important that teachers take some time to consider the school year that has just closed, and think about what worked in terms of educating English learners as well as what they might do differently next year to improve their instruction.
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Should the K-12 model be based on competency?
Bambi Majumdar EducationA new report released by iNACOL, "Levers and Logic Models: A Framework to Guide Research and Design of High-Quality Competency-Based Education Systems," shows an urgent need for a competency-based framework for K-12 ed. It presents logic models to help practitioners understand how competency-based education (CBE) can impact education. There is a rising awareness of CBE. Schools and district administrators are realizing that they need to equip students better for the digital business world.
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Strategies to plan for the school year ahead
Aileen Miracle EducationPlanning is a passion of mine. Through my Kodaly levels, I learned so much about long and short-range planning, and how to best develop plans that could meet all of my daily, monthly and yearly goals. When I begin my planning for the next school year, I first start with song lists, which for me is a grade-level list of songs, listening pieces and books cross-referenced by concepts, skills and extensions.
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Teachers share games that keep students moving — and learning
Sheilamary Koch EducationWhen I recently surveyed ESL and ELL teachers on their favorite games to play with students in class, most of the games recommended involved moving around the classroom or playground. One reason is these activities are most frequently requested by students — who unsurprisingly are attracted to what’s best for their well-being and learning. Among research that backs up what these children seem to know are multiple studies conducted by Terrence Dwyer that show exercise improves academic performance, classroom behavior and social skills.
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How a great coach makes a teacher excel
Savanna Flakes EducationThere are cultural changes in how children behave and navigate the learning experience, how standards are approached and have increased in rigor, and how technology can be integrated into the classroom. Thus, every teacher deserves a great coach. Countless research studies by Jim Knight shows that coached teachers were more effective in implementing new skills than just stand-alone professional development, and their students did better academically and emotionally.
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Scandinavian countries top happiness chart: What’s their secret?
Dave G. Houser Civil & GovernmentFor about six months of the year, Finland has only a few hours of light per day and endures temperatures well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It also has one of the world’s highest tax rates. Nonetheless, Finns are the happiest people in the world according to the 2018 United Nations’ World Happiness Report — and their Nordic neighbors aren’t far behind in the rankings. By contrast, the United States is in a period of happiness slippage, fading from third place to 18th in the last two years.
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Linguistic change: Implications for teaching
Douglas Magrath EducationWhy study linguistics? Teachers and learners need an understanding of applied linguistics to better understand how languages work and the processes of L1 and L2 acquisition. In this article, I will discuss historical reasons for language change. As I’ve written previously, ESL instructors need to understand how languages work to be better able to serve the student population. Language is what makes us human, and it's something no other creature has.
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Can creativity be taught — and untaught?
Sheilamary Koch EducationRecently, my husband and I held a toy-making workshop with recycled materials in a primary school. While everything the kids made was brilliant, we both couldn’t help but notice that the lower primary students attempted wilder and more imaginative creations than the upper primary group. The younger students were also more persistent in making seemingly impossible toys hold together—whatever it took. Interestingly, our casual observations align with research conducted 50 years ago by George Land.
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