To help encourage conversations and dialogue about ourselves as learners and to foster some reflection, our topic/question for the dinner table is: How do you learn best? What strategies help you learn? Be specific. Learning How to Learn (Week of 9/15/19) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
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With our first 5-day week and a ‘true’ cycle of school complete, I hope that the beginning of year nerves/jitters/kinks have been ironed out and that everyone (students, staff, families) is feeling settled in. Katie and I enjoyed a nice dinner out on Friday evening - we always feel like ‘passing ships’ during the week, so it was nice to have some time to check in, unplug, and just be. Our weekend was a relatively quiet one - I hope those who participated in Medfield Day had fun with all of the activities and energy that day brings!
Learning organizations are ‘works in progress’ and a finite end point does not exist. We need to intentionally ask questions, reflect, engage in dialogue, and assess our practices. The sampling of responses to last week’s Topic/Question below help to highlight the learning of our community, and the two posts I am sharing help to shed some light on mindsets and frameworks of thought for our day-to-day work...
Topic/Question (Week of 9/8/19): What do you do to ‘recharge your batteries’ when you feel tired, overwhelmed, or need a break?
- Lifting weights. Exercise in general works well too but lifting weights generates a unique sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
- I like to go for a run or workout.
- Take a nap
- I can take a nap. This will rest my mind and body.
- Sleep
- I read, or just lay down.
- I draw a picture to express myself, or go for a run.
- Read
- Rest
- I take a walk to the bathroom or down the hall.
- Deal with it
- I drink ice cold water.
- Quiet time
- I do things that relax me, like listening to music or read a book.
- Probably just lay down ( on bed/couch), listen to music and just clear my head
- I either just lie down and relax by listening to music or I read.
- Listen to music
- Take a cat nap...20 minutes or so
Teachers Still Believe in 'Learning Styles' and Other Myths About Cognition
by Madeline Will in Education Week Teacher
Will’s post is one I appreciate on many levels - as a learner and educator, it is important that we come back to science and research to inform our beliefs and guide our practices. It is important that we explore our practices so that we are not led by ‘myths’.
Boser said schools should provide accurate information on the science of learning through those channels, in an effort to combat these myths. But it should start in teacher preparation, he said.
"Many schools of education don't embrace the cognitive sciences," Boser said.
Yet they have a responsibility to prepare teachers to stay abreast of the current research in the cognitive sciences: "It would be weird if large swathes of American doctors believed in bloodletting," he said.
Learning How to Learn Could Be a Student's Most Valuable Skill
by Stephen Sawchuk in Education Week
At the heart of our work is the intentional act of learning, and Sawchuk’s post highlights this belief - touching on metacognition, and the process of learning as an integral skill for all students. It supports our efforts with learning skills and meaningful feedback.
Futurists increasingly predict a rapidly changing workplace in which employees will be required to update their learning frequently, and on short notice. Employers, they say, will want flexible, adaptable workers who can pick up new content and technologies quickly and efficiently.
...cognitive scientists are now beginning to stress that producing students for whom such abilities are second nature is not only a challenge of content and pedagogy, but also one of helping students be more aware of how they learn. When faced with new knowledge or an unfamiliar task to master, how should students structure their time in order to practice it? When they get stuck in the middle of a complex problem, what strategies can they deploy to get unstuck? Meadows' and her colleagues' experiences suggest that those strategies are not innate in young learners; instead, they need to be explicitly taught and reinforced.
"We talk about how degrees relate to jobs these days, and how a degree is not a guarantee of a job anymore," she said of her students. "I ask them, 'What's going to put you at the top of the stack?' And then they begin to talk about things they've never connected with education: work ethic, working well with others. In essence, you are learning to be a particular way in the world—a question-asker, how to manage yourself, and how to be a solid decisionmaker."
To be sure, no one knows precisely the recipe for producing the most prepared, adaptable workforce. But at the very least, to learn how to learn is a gift. And it may just be one of the puzzle pieces to navigating an uncertain future.
As a community of learners, it is one of my ongoing goals that we both support and challenge one another to improve our own processes for learning - enhancing our individual and collective metacognition, staying abreast on science and research, and focusing on the skills and practice of active learning. This is a goal for students, staff, and families and I will continue to ask for your help in pushing me along as well.
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Take care.
Nat