I am a questionologist. If you’ve never heard the term before that may be because I made it up. I needed a word to describe what I do: I study the art and science of questioning. My work focuses on why and how the simple act of asking questions can
Minute by minute, our world as we know it is changing before our eyes. Faced with such tremendous uncertainty, imagine what this feels like to our children! How best can we support them? For starters, we must be adaptable and recognize that academics are far less important than offering solace and hope so that we encourage social connections
It was finally my turn. It was my time to walk the campus and the stage. It was my time to be the upper, upperclassmen. And it was finally my time to hear people say that I had “senioritis”. I was excited. I was ready, and I might have even been a little
After the initial panic and confusion, it seems that people are settling in. Zoom classrooms are up and running. Teachers, parents, and students are slowly moving into a rhythm after spending countless hours working out technology kinks, lighting, microphones, curriculum design, and finding space in
We have spent the last weeks watching many schools close their doors–some for the rest of this semester—to control the number of COVID-19 infections. I am excited to see our society’s strong commitment to public health. As many of us teachers face the daunting task of serving our students by transitioning to online instruction, most for us the first
With the prospect of schools being out for a while, I will review some of the Visible Learning influences that may help understand what really matters and what does not matter as much. First, does it matter that students are not in the physical place called school? There is a body of research on the effects of losing school time, but
From the series: Developing Students’ Ownership of Learning—from a Distance, too! Over the past several years, we have worked together with our colleague John Hattie to identify key practices that help students develop ownership of their learning. We believe that students can—and should—become their own teachers. And we believe that teachers
Two weeks ago many of us were in classrooms running authentic projects or around tables planning rigorous and engaging PBL experiences for students. All that came to a sudden halt in the wake of COVID-19. I have been so inspired by the informal crowdsourcing that I have seen across
Over the past few weeks our world has plunged into what we’ve been calling, ‘The New Normal’. With social isolation and social distancing becoming the identified method for flattening the curve of COVID- 19, school districts across the globe have been tasked with finding ways that continue to
Mackenzie Wright, a classroom teacher who recently completed her Master’s in Library and Information Science, shares her treasure trove of distance learning resources. See a note from Mackenzie below. Information professionals are tasked with the duty of continuous provision of resources for their patrons, especially as