Professional Learning for Busy Educators

When Thanksgiving break rolled around last month, teachers all over the country breathed a collective sigh of relief. This school year hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk, and, like most teachers, I was delighted to finally be getting a few days off and some quality time with my children. I was looking forward to big meals, cozy nights at home with my family, and lots of love, laughter, and relaxation.

Unfortunately, I know that this kind of fun and fulfilling break is not a reality for many of my students. And a couple of days into the break I couldn’t resist texting my co-teacher to chat about the same worries that plague us day in and day out.

“Do you think Jake’s parents are leaving him at home alone all day?”

“Mia complained of an earache Friday. I hope her grandmother will take her to the doctor if it gets worse.”

“Did Kira say she was going to her dad’s over Thanksgiving? She’s always so emotional after she visits him, and she’s allergic to his dog.”

'This teacher is making a difference in her students' lives, one simple Post-it Note at a time.

Excellent teachers do so much more than teach. They can be mentors, role models, guides, and even confidants. Sometimes a teacher is one of the only trusted adults in a child's life—a fact that drives home the immense responsibility educators hold in their hands.

Perhaps that's why a photo shared by Facebook user Tara Mitchell Holman has touched so many people. It shows a teacher's whiteboard with "Monday Check-in" written on top and sections underneath labeled, "I'm great," "I'm okay," "I'm meh," "I'm struggling," "I'm having a tough time & wouldn't mind a check-in," and "I'm not doing great."

High school students ask this question partly to challenge the teacher’s authority, but they may really want to know the answer.

"The teacher who changed my life didn’t get a bottle of Riesling or a gift card from the neighbourhood coffee franchise. I don’t believe my mother even sent a thank-you card. Such tokens of gratitude weren’t standard in the mid-1980s.

I thought of Mr. Doyle (like all my teachers, he had no known first name) as I joined a crowd of frazzled mothers in the greeting-card aisle at the drug store the night before the last day of school. He was my Grade 6 teacher. My school experience in rural Nova Scotia until that point had been dispiriting.

One of my first report cards noted I would be a better student if I spent as much time on my studies as I did toying with my hair and chatting with my classmates. This advice still applies..."

Teachers have long known that rote memorization can lead to a superficial grasp of material that is quickly forgotten. But new research in the field of neuroscience is starting to shed light on the ways that brains are wired to forget—highlighting the importance of strategies to retain knowledge and make learning stick.

Which TED Talks do students love? We asked TED-Ed Club Members around the world to share their favorites. Below, check out 9 great talks recommended by and for young people:

The ultimate goals of mathematics instruction are students understanding the material presented, applying the skills, and recalling the concepts in the future. There's little benefit in students recalling a formula or procedure to prepare for an assessment tomorrow only to forget the core concept by next week. It's imperative for teachers to focus on making sure that the students understand the material and not just memorize the procedures.

Here are six ways to teach for understanding in the mathematics classroom:

Kathy Digsby has been teaching elementary school for a long time. She taught kindergarten for many years, then transferred to first grade. And even though she’s approaching sixty and planned to retire soon, part of her doesn’t want to leave the classroom. Recently she’s been mixing it up, injecting choice into as many areas of the classroom as she can to engage her young learners. And it’s exciting.

“I think as teachers we feel like we have to be in control of everything in order for the kids to be okay and for them to learn,” Digsby said. A classic example is the “daily five” stations students rotate through during English Language Arts time. At one table, Digsby usually works on guided reading with a small group. Every 20 minutes, kids rotate between stations where they read to themselves, work on writing, do word work, or practice a skill on the computer. When the timer goes off students rotate, whether they’re done with the task or not.

When I (Trevor) first adopted an inquiry approach in my classroom, I discovered that when students explore a topic they are truly passionate about, amazing things happen: engagement increases, attendance and work ethic improve, twenty-first-century skills are acquired, classroom energy and collaboration are fostered, and my assessment of student understanding becomes more clear and accurate.

It's never easy seeing a student experience distress, but well-meaning adults (myself included) too quickly and too often rush to the rescue. There are times to intervene, but we must be more judicious in knowing when to let students cope with failure on their own. Otherwise, we will raise a risk-averse generation whose members lack resilience and the crucial ability to rebound from failure. To prevent that outcome, teachers and educational leaders alike must be mindful of several situations where helping hurts.

Think nothing good can come from encouraging students to use social media? Consider what these former students from Minarets and Design Science high schools in Central California are doing. I asked these students how they use social media as an academic tool and how that shaped both their high school and post-secondary success. Here’s what I learned.