Thursday Thoughts March 24

Tonight's blog is a huge milestone for me. This is my 100th blog! What started as a way to share information, feature best practices and spotlight staff members, has turned into a labor of love. I don't take my job or the responsibility of helping staff members grow, lightly. Several people have told me that they look forward to the weekly blogs and some have even joked that they know to look for it around 10:00 pm each week. I can't say how long I will continue to write a blog or if the content will change, but I will say that on at least 100 occasions over the past few years, I have been able to do what I love. Through this blog, I have been able to recognize the hard work that you are doing, give you things that you can put in your teaching toolbox for future use and speak from my heart. While we don't always have good days, I truly believe that there is at least one good thing that happens each day. Thank you for giving me a reason to find something good in my day at least 100 times over the last couple of years. I will be taking a break from the blog next week, but I will be rested and ready to share on April 14th.

Staff Spotlight

This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Megan Barnes. Taking over a class well after the school year begins is quite a challenge. The expectations that students, parents, the grade level and administrators have can be overwhelming. Megan stepped in and took the time to get to know her students and her team. She keeps students engaged at high levels and works hard to provide them with new challenges. She loves math and science and her passion shines through in the creative activities that she plans. You will often see her students coding with their class robots Dash and Dot. Students in her class are buzzing about and excited about learning. Megan, thank you for the work you are doing with students.

Personalized Learning

5 Ways To Help Students Ask Better Questions

Teach Thought

by Terry Heick March 21 2016

There’s nothing I care more about than students, and there are few things I think can serve a student better than being able to ask the right question at the right time.

In “Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers,” I said that “Questioning is the art of learning. Learning to ask important questions is the best evidence of understanding there is, far surpassing the temporary endorphins of a correct “answer.” And while I sometimes disagree with things I say after hearing or reading them later, that still holds up.

Questions are causes and effects of learning.

I saw the above graphic a few months ago while I was researching question-formation strategies. That post is still about 2/3 finished but after that long, I thought it made sense to share this graphic to kind of frame that content whenever I finally get off my keister and get it together.

Warren Berger shared it last year on edutopia, so I thought I’d help build on it by adding some strategies for each of the ideas. Note: Berger is the author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power Of Inquiry To Spark Breakthrough Ideas (affiliate link), a worthwhile read for any educator or parent, if not grade 10+ student.

If you have any you’d like to add to the mix, take to the comments, or head on over to edutopia’s original post and contribute there.

5 Ways To Help Students Ask Better Questions

1. Make it safe.

Use write-arounds, exit slips, or backchannel discussions for sharing questions.

2. Make it cool.

Publish the best questions. Have a question hall-of-fame. (I used to take huge post-it notes and hang them all over the walls and write great questions I over-heard during class–called it “intellectual graffiti.” Students loved re-reading these–especially students from other classes who’d ask “Who asked this? Who said that?,” and were often floored at my responses.)

3. Make it fun.

Create a concept-map of the short and long-term effects of a great question. Write them on post-cards and have students #hashtag instagram or twitter posts holding said cards. (Here’s an old but still mostly useful post–1oo twitter tips for teachers–with related ideas.)

4. Make it rewarding.

Give actual points for good questions. Help them ask great questions about their own lives, and create “assignments” where they have to follow-through somehow on that inquiry.

5. Make it stick.

The more authentic and non-academic the great questions are, and the more often they’re revisited (naturally and authentically), the more they will stick.

Exciting things are happening with PBIS! Check in with Andrea and Erin to learn about the blacktop project!