9 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2017
    1. an accelerated group because they came into the room and started something rather than just sitting down and socializing.

      I don't know if I would find this person to be an expert observer if this is their comment in all fairness. From my perspective, this is simply a good classroom routine that is running effectively. It looks like this with my standard level classes, special needs classes, and extended classes. If the students know the structure and expectation they will perform.

    2. 10- and 11-year-olds who are experienced in chess are able to remember more chess pieces than college students who are not chess players.

      The best chess player on my last schools chess team was a second grader. Note: The team didn't technically play against players younger than 5th grade! This student was beating students 3+ years older than him. Amazing!

    3. Specifically, masters were more likely to recognize meaningful chess configurations and realize the strategic implications of these situations; this recognition allowed them to consider sets of possible moves that were superior to others.

      I work within the IB framework and the highest levels of achievement (level 7-8) require being able to understand and work within an "unfamiliar context". This can only be achieved and understood with lots of practice with the familiar. This example is definitely relatable to my teaching context.

    4. Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort.

      This ability is critical if the teacher desires to be a learning facilitator in an inquiry based classroom. The ability to allow students to explore conjectures and open ended activities with intentional learning objectives still achieved takes good subject knowledge of what you are "teaching".

    5. Instead, the teacher must actively inquire into students’ thinking

      It's critical to get to know your students and where they are at

    6. The understandings that children bring to the classroom can already be quite powerful in the early grades.

      I think this highlights the critical factor of getting to know your students. Their, interests, goals and prior knowledge. KWLs and google forms can be great for this. What other ways are people out there gathering student data to help drive their teaching and learning practices in the class?

    7. Teacher C classroom

      Students get excited about their learning when they have more ownership over it.

    8. who is most capable of learning—can powerfully affect the quality of people’s lives.

      Aren't all "capable of learning" when given the appropriate material, timing, tools and encouragement/motivation? - See "Growth Mindsets" and "Mathematical Mindsets" books. The key is illustrated below - effective instructional practices are essential!

    9. the goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge that allows people to think productively

      The development of skills is the pathway to problem solving in the future. Just learning how to reproduce a formula or memorize a date will not help students in the real world - However, having access to the tools to promote better thinking and problem will go farther