The first five minutes of class matter. The first five minutes of class afford students the buffer period they need to align three tangled and overlapping mindsets to put forth their best possible effort.
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Researcher and educator Harry K. Wong found that students require about five minutes at the end of the period to reflect on, process, and ultimately synthesize their learning. One simple way to accomplish this is with Exit Tickets.
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For students to adapt new information to their long-term memory, we need to start by unburdening their working memory. So, how do we unburden working memory? Well, we establish routines.
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I believe that a personalized, progressive approach to education should strive to leverage student proclivities and be responsive to student voice, but I also don’t believe that a progressive, personalized philosophy is a permission slip to eschew systems of accountability.
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Let’s not be pollyannaish – Middle School is an inescapably challenging time; but, St. Francis is an undeniably special place and across all four divisions there is one shared throuhgline: the student-teacher relationship.
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The disconnect between our intention and students’ interpretation of our feedback is one that is actually very common, like shockingly common. So, as educators, what can we do about it?
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When we think of collecting feedback, we should think of it as a jumping-off point to fuel dialogue with students, as opposed to something we mull over in private or with colleagues alone.
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As educators, our efforts should be focused on creating conditions for students to take ownership of their goals, rather than our doing it for them. One simple way for us to do this is by leveraging our daily learning targets.
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