Go Forth and Have A Fantastic Year

Welcome back to all our In The Know followers. I thought that sharing the article below, sourced from Edutopia, would be a great way to start our 2014 year. Although it was written in August last year for the start of the USA school year  it is just as relevant to us.It is a fantastic article,giving guidelines on how to have our "best year" ever as a teacher.The article also recommends the book "Buddha's Brain:The Pratical Neuroscience of Happiness,Love and Wisdom" by Rick Hanson.We do have a copy in the ISC.It explains how our brains are wired to negative experiences and that we can retrain our brains to focus on the positives in our day.

To read the Edutopia article, click on the image below.

 

 

 

 

The articles below are also worth looking at for the start of the new teaching year.I particularly liked the Habits of The Mind one.

 

Habits of The Mind To Promote Teacher Happiness

25 Things Successful Educators Do Differently

 

Students @ the Centre

As part of our 2014 curriculum goals, all teachers will be using

•  explicit learning intentions and success criteria in all of their lessons.
•  student data to know students
•  feedback to improve stuednt learning

These goals aim to make learning "visible", a concept developed by John Hattie, Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute.According to John

Visible Learning and Teaching occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and help them become their own teachers.

 John Hattie has conducted much evidence based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.His findings showed that feedback is one of the most important factors in effective learning, followed by students' expectations and trust built by the teachers with their students.

 

Although the video below goes for 30 minutes, I hope you can find the time to watch the interview with John as it helps explain "visible learning" concept

 



This earlier slideshare from John's visit to a Wollongong School is also worth a look.

Visible Learning from St Mary Star of the Sea College

The ISC  currently has two of John Hattie's books in the Teacher Reference Collection.Also visit the ISC libguide called the Thinking Curriculum to access The Visible Learning  website