I recently presented for a group of museum educators at a national history conference. The presentation was focused around best practices in education and how to engage student audiences. The main take-away? NOT with a “I’m standing up, you’re sitting down” presentation! Indeed, rather than ‘research’ what students are looking for in a field trip, [...]

Just read an interesting article about a new Facebook app that transforms the social-networking site into a study group. Students answer “What are you working on” and the Facebook tool finds others working on the same thing. You can read more about it here. I think we can be sure that social networks are not [...]

This awesome video from Colonial Williamsburg gives a glimpse into their Junior Interpreters program, as well as what they have to offer to visitors with children. As the interpreters explain in the video, Colonial williamsburg’s Junior Interpreters know what it’s like to grow up in the past. After completing their training, these young interpreters teach [...]

It can be helpful to tactile learners to view writing as a process of constructing. A story board is a good way for the tactile learner to approach writing. A story board is a moveable idea board. It can be: the surface of a desk and a packet of sticky notes; a cork board, some [...]

This is worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch.

I just read an article from the Washington Post describing how a middle school in Northern Virginia will be piloting a voluntary program wherein students will attend single sex classes in the core academic areas. I laud this effort. Many students, both boys and girls, will – in my opinion – likely flourish in this [...]

I just read an article by Greg Toppo of USA Today. UVA cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?  Here is a question from an interview with the author: Q: After all we’ve learned about the mind and brain, why is it so difficult to make school enjoyable for students? [...]

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I understand.” – Chinese Proverb Constructivist learning, experiential learning, whatever you want to call good teaching where the student is intimately involved as meaning-maker is desirable for the development of true understanding. UC Davis has some wonderful resources for teachers, home [...]

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. [...]

Parents and teachers have differing thoughts on the definition of a ‘gifted’ student.  Is it a successful student? An early reader? An outlier? A “nerd”? Is every student gifted? Is a gifted student necessarily a divergent thinker or a great writer? Are there commonalities among all ‘gifted’ children? Certainly, we all have gifts, and in [...]