“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” -Lloyd Alexander
“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” -Albert Einstein
I was never more aware of how important hands-on instruction is until I taught concepts like decimals.…
“Now, go “think” about it!”
I was in a school a few weeks ago and heard this phrase being repeated by a math teacher after discussing a difficult concept with her students. I woke up the next morning at 5:30am—partly because there was a large truck backing up and beeping loudly—but mostly because that phrase had reminded me of a student I had named Reggie.…
“There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.” Warren G. Bennis
“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.” …
“A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.” -John Ciardi
“The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.”…
“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.” -Brian Tracy
“The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”…
“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” — T.S. Eliot
A few weeks ago I watched a group of first grade students use base ten blocks.…
“Once you have experienced excellence, you will never again be content with mediocrity.” – Thomas S. Monson
Are you ready to challenge yourself by trying another strategy for differentiating instruction? One that has been successfully used by many educators is tiering instruction. Tiering an assignment is using varied levels of the activity to make sure that all students explore ideas at a readiness level that builds on their prior knowledge and deepens understanding of the identified concepts.…
“I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison
When I read this quote I think of how driven Edison was by “what if” and “I wonder” type questions. Great minds have always asked questions of the world around them.
Asking questions is a natural mode of learning and growing, at the basis of human and social coordinates.…
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
Are we cultivating curiosity in our classrooms? Are we aiming to cultivate the genius potential in all of our students?…
