This post will kick around ideas based on one of two questions that I posed yesterday (Simulations In The Classroom- Two Questions). Before we dissect the first question, everyone should check out the links that Bill Chapman left me yesterday and today. He was kind enough to share the following simulations from his website: Classroomtools.com. [...]

In reading Seth Godin’s blog today (I’m Mad At Everyone), I couldn’t help but think about the way that teachers share lesson plans and lessons in the name of collaboration. The reality is that this type of cooperative work may be damaging students’ abilities to learn as well as your ability to teach. If there [...]

In a previous post, I spent some time discussing “Misconceptions of Cooperative Learning” where I talked about the need for assignments to actually show some type of cooperation. In other words, rather than just throwing a name on something, I would advocate that we actually instill the practice and teach our kids to work together. [...]

Every student I have ever had has benefited from learning how to generate sub-questions in an effort to break down complex wording and create highly complex connections between topics and ideas. I find that when students are uncertain as to WHAT the question is asking them, they simply write every possible answer known to man [...]

In another post I wrote about how assignment structure is detrimental to teaching kids “how” to think and how we are creating a generation of students that are incapable of completing a task without an assignment sheet, rubric, models, or constant guidance. I think it is important we take that one step further and investigate [...]

One of the problems with the development of project and problem-based learning is that students are given too much structure in how to complete these types of activities. It is amusing to me how we talk about how much we care about student success and preparing them for the future, but we also provide them [...]

Let’s assume, for a second, that performance pay becomes a reality in schools. Teachers are paid based upon some quantitative data that suggests student learning. Whether this is an accurate metric or not is irrelevant for the question I want us to consider. With the institution of a merit/performance pay system, do districts forego the [...]

There are any number of blog posts that discuss this topic, but I figured I would put my own up and join the fun. The easy way to prevent PowerPoint from ruining a lesson is simple: just don’t use it. Realize quickly that PowerPoint often detracts from the more important message that you are trying [...]

Dr. Kevin D. Washburn (@kdwashburn) recently posted an article on the Edurati Review that discusses thinking about thinking. Definitely read that article if you haven’t gotten the opportunity to do so. Dr. Washburn hits on a topic that I think is extremely important for us to consider. Here is an excerpt from his article: “Few [...]

In any assignment, the first Boolean search that a kid engages in should be a cognitive one. Regardless of the increase in connectivity and the ability to “Google” answers from an increasing number of electronic devices, it doesn’t eliminate the need for developing a strong frame-of-reference and ability to sort information mentally according to easily [...]