What We Are Reading

Keri Smith is a bestselling author, illustrator, and thinker. Her books demonstrate a 'learn by doing approach', and are being used in school curriculums all over the world as a way of fostering non-traditional methods of exploration. She also teaches and conducts workshops based on her non-traditional techniques across North America. Her books include: Wreck This Journal, How to Be an Explorer of the World, This is Not a Book, Mess - A Manual of Accidents and Mistakes, Finish This Book, and Pocket Scavenger.  We have been using her books at GA as a way to get students to think outside of the box, to brainstorm, and to engage in creative play as a warm up to design Thinking exercises and applications.

Lower School Art Teacher Launches Website

Say Things With Color is the art site recently launched by Lower School art teacher Alia Tahvildaran where she blogs about projects, materials, inspirations, and good reads to help empower parents to create with their kids at home.  Educators agree that creative thinking and problem solving are critical to a student's success in school and life.  This is just one way to increase the amount of time students can practice creative play by bringing  the classroom studio home to anyone's playroom or kitchen table. When asked about the inspiration for the site, Tahvildaran reports, "I started my blog to visually archive curriculum and classroom goings-on, suggest art games and applications for kids, connect with fellow educators, and above all to empower parents to feel confident creating and discussing art with their kids at home. When you visit saythingswithcolor.com you can find a great art book to read with your children, an online art game to play, inspiration for a project, and links for my favorite art tools and materials to use in your home or classroom.

Flipped Learning in MS Mathematics

Middle School math teacher Matt Notary uses ItsLearning, our virtual learning environment to flip lessons to allow for more individual and small group work during class time.  Using SMART technology, he records 10-15 minute lessons, introducing a topic and showing sample problems. The students then watch the video at home prior to class on any device so that in class they can work through practice problems and/or extension and application problems at their own pace, with help. 

"I wouldn’t exactly say it has transformed the way I teach, but I think it has changed my perspective somewhat on how learning time can be structured both inside and outside the classroom.  I am able to be more flexible in the ways I communicate new material to students, as well as in the ways I use class time."  Notary continues, "I think the students have benefited from more interactive class time since on days when I “flip” the classroom less time is spent lecturing.  They have also benefited from having 24-7 access to the videos, so that if they want to review a topic at home or even during a study hall, they can watch the video."