“Information’s pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.” -Clarence Day, The Crow’s Nest
Last week I received a comment and a request from Anne, an academic coach at an Elementary school in Georgia. I first heard from Anne this August when she visited my website looking for information about differentiating instruction and using small groups in math. …
“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.”…
“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.…
“We are all functioning at a small fraction of our capacity to live full in [life’s] total meaning of love, caring, creating, and adventuring. Consequently, the actualizing of our potential can become the most exciting adventure of our lifetime.” -Herbert Otto
Since the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, I have worked with many schools to assist them in effectively planning for math instruction using small groups and differentiated strategies.…
Happy Friday! I’m on the road in Montgomery County, MD this week working with a dynamic school full of incredible educators! We’ve been busy mapping the math curriculum and creating Tabor Rotation planning guides, but I didn’t want to miss Math Game Friday, so…
“If it’s not fun you’re doing it wrong.” …
“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?…
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” -Jesse Owens
“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” -Abigail Van Buren
“What do I do with the rest of the class when I’m working with my differentiated, readiness groups on Thursday and Friday?…
“Strong teachers insist that effective teaching is neither mysterious or magical.” -S. Farr
What is it that makes a teacher strong, vital, and exceptional? What is it that separates the good teachers from the master teachers? Farr and his colleagues found certain patterns in the teachers they observed:
*Tended to set big goals for their students.…
