Blog
Issues, trends, and observations in Education
Three Traits of a Critical Thinking Culture
While Florida successfully produces palm trees, in upstate New York their tall silhouettes are limited to greenhouses. A tree-lined street in my hometown may boast poplars and pines, but the climate prevents palm trees from adding to the scene. With plants, climate...
Converting Simple Activities into Power Tools for Retention and Recall (Part 1): 4-Square
Spring is my favorite time of year. It’s sunny but not too hot or humid, and a sweet breeze invites me outside. Spring rejuvenates my soul. One spring morning, my two-year-old daughter and I decided to embark upon an agricultural...
Four Strategies that Spark Curiosity and Fuel Motivation
Research shows that four strategies spark curiosity and fuel motivation: big ideas, meaningful student choice, increased cognitive demand, and scaffolding. Here's how Foundations & Frameworks (a K-6 instructional reading program) naturally embeds all four...
Power Tools Can Make All the Difference: Introduction
I was recently reminded that power tools can make all the difference. The play cottage Nona and Pop gave our daughter sat in the garage awaiting construction. You see, my husband and I clearly recall a previous play-kitchen construction project that took three times...
What the Twilight Zone and Radishes Have to Do with Teaching
A great story compels us to curiosity by the questions it raises. On the other hand, curiosity compels us to question when we're not privy to the full story. Good teaching embraces curiosity. This brief video clip is from a recent presentation and is part of our...
Insights from a Second Grader…and a Hamster
During a classroom observation, one of the second-grade students reminded me that curiosity is worth pursuing, even when it’s not on the schedule. This brief video clip is from a recent presentation and is part of our Fueling Learning workshop.
Current Trends and Issues in Education – Q&A Part 2
Here are a few more responses to questions on current trends and issues in education, including educators in faith-based learning environments cultivating growth mindset, the connection between personalization of learning and growth mindset, and the effects of social...
Current Trends and Issues in Education – Q&A Part 1
As part of her graduate class requirement, a teacher asked my perspective on current trends and issues in education. She asked some very thoughtful questions—here are the first three of nine: What practices do you think are important for teachers, administrators and...
4 Benefits of a Vertical Alignment Initiative
Curriculum review, a process often referred to as “vertical alignment,” involves a thorough examination of topics and skills being taught. It is both a discovery and school improvement process with each discipline, such as science or language arts, being reviewed from...
Increasing Learning By Minding Mindset
The story of “The Little Engine That Could” illustrates the ideas of belief, effort, achievement, and confidence. If we connect these ideas, we notice the following relationships: belief influences effort; effort influences achievement; achievement influences...
15 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Educational Consultant
Ideas evolve daily. Some live briefly, some lay dormant, but others grow. They become a vision: This is what [my students, my school, my business, my world] would look like as a result of this idea. Soon, strategy becomes critical for moving ideology to practicality,...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Growth
Throughout childhood we are aware of vertical development. Many a kitchen wall holds the recorded history of young upward growth. As adults we may be more concerned about horizontal expansion. Thankfully the bathroom scale doesn’t generate a similar,...
Teaching Resilience: Imagination
Samantha exhales and brings her hands to the sides of her forehead. Her thoughts begin a downward spiral. “I can only get so far before I don’t know what to do next. I’m not good at writing. I never have been, and don’t think I ever will be.” Her teacher, Mr....
Teaching Resilience: Reflection
“I’m so stupid. I’ll never get this!” The message looped inside Kent’s mind, its echoes blinding him to any way forward. When his teacher came by, she assumed he was daydreaming and not giving the practice exercises any effort. A reprimand followed, Kent...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Creativity
Creativity. The word stirs and scares us. We associate it with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Barrie’s Peter Pan, Botticelli’s Temptations of Christ, and other incomparable artistic achievements. But creativity empowers more than art; it is found wherever success and...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Passion
The cluster of strangers sitting or standing closely together reveals where an airport gate’s electrical outlets are located. Most travelers follow the unwritten rule of leaving an empty seat between them and the nearest fellow traveler. (Apparently we...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Gratitude
Cooper’s hawks commonly take wing outside our windows. They are majestic birds, soaring effortlessly over the wooded terrain. Occasionally, one or two find an updraft and soar in an ascending spiral, the uplifting thermal keeping them airborne and rising. Gratitude is...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Curiosity
Curiosity gets a bad rap First there’s that whole feline demise thing, and then there’s that literary, trouble-making monkey who required regular rescuing by the man in banana-colored headwear. These are unfortunate portraits, because curiosity is constructive....
Looking Around: Creating a Learning Environment (Even Without a Teacher)
We sat, afraid to move lest we interfere with the learning and interaction we were witnessing. Children — young children — moved throughout the classroom, carrying various materials while maneuvering around tables with teapots and an occasional flower vase before...
Cultivate a Learning Mindset: Attitude
The racket was alarming—a crash, followed by my mother’s footsteps rushing down the cellar steps as she hollered my father’s name. In a rare driving mishap, my dad knocked down one of our home’s main support posts while backing into the garage. Once she established...