I’m dating myself by saying this, but when I think of the band They Might Be Giants I think of the songs Particle Man and Birdhouse in Your Soul. These days, teachers everywhere are using videos by this offbeat band to teach their kids about science. The song below, called Roy G. Biv, teaches about [...]

This is worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch.

Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:

Do you happen to have an auditory / musically inclined learner who is learning to read? (I do.) If so, try using books with a lot of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration in them. Auditory learners are ‘tuned in’ (literally) to sounds and patterns in sound. Plugging into this strength in their learning style can enhance [...]

I just stumbled upon a learning styles quiz at Edutopia. It is interesting because it classifies intelligence according to the categories naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and verbal-linguistic. I found the results surprising because I have always ‘seen myself’ as a visual learner – and have read that, overwhelmingly, people are visual learners. [...]

The worst case of this “fear” that I’ve ever witnessed: a fourth grader who would actually pull his hair out when given a writing prompt. The child was an otherwise strong student – and particularly verbal – so I could not imagine that he had nothing to say (everyone has something to say). The ‘format,’ [...]