Peggy's blog

“A grounding in the arts will help our children to see; to bring a uniquely human perspective to science and technology. In short, it will help them as they grow smarter to also grow wiser.” - Robert E. Allen – Chairman and CEO, AT&T Corporation

Music is a language of its own. The language of music and the technicalities of music composition may seem daunting and scary to teachers without much of a music background. Understanding, reading, appreciating, and writing music are skills that take years of training and practice to hone. The Gateway to 21st Century Skills has a variety of unique ideas to help you integrate music into your teaching in the context of different subjects and themes.

Every book has the unique opportunity to take its reader on a fantastic voyage, bringing them into a world they have never seen before. This opportunity can also allow books to take readers into subjects and places that some parents and teachers might prefer to avoid. Unfortunately, if that book is censored or banned, a student’s opportunity to learn important lessons from that book is cut short.

The goal of bringing any new innovation into the classroom is to improve the quality of learning in that classroom. Innovations can help lessons be more fun, encouraging students to become engaged with the material. Innovations can make lessons memorable, leaving students with a better recollection of the material later. Innovations can also make a teacher’s job a little easier by encouraging active, student-led learning rather than passive learning. The innovation trend we are talking about this week is using iPads and other electronic devices as learning tools in the classroom.

There are plenty of studies showing the importance of physical activity to overall health, regardless of a person’s age. Teachers should consider adding a physical component to their everyday activities, if only for the sake of creating the habit of an active lifestyle. Newer research on the link between the mind and body has found connections between physical activity and brain function, giving teachers even more incentive to find simple, creative ways to include movement each day in school.

The arrival of spring can mean spring fever for both teachers and students. Teachers have the tough job of keeping students interested and engaged in the midst of spring break, standardized testing, and the countdown to the end of the school year. Even as the year is winding down, teachers have plenty of opportunities to bring valuable learning to their students in unexpected ways. This week’s theme on the Gateway is the human body, a topic that can be adapted to many different subjects and grade levels. A study of the human body can include different types of activities including active games, art, writing, and scientific investigations.

Service learning is an essential component of modern education. Schools have a unique opportunity to help students understand that they are capable of changing their communities and the world. I have worked with one charter school that dedicates one Friday each month to service learning. On these service-learning days, students learn about issues or problems in the community and are given a hands-on opportunity to do something about it. Students learn a lot by using what they have studied for an important and real use.

"It seems that for success in science or art, a dash of autism is essential" - Dr. Hans Asberger

Increased awareness of autism combined with a rising number of people identified on the autism spectrum has brought attention to the benefits and challenges of mainstream education of students with autism. People with Asberger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism (both on the autism spectrum) can be very intelligent and are often outperforming their peers academically. This academic success can be overshadowed by the social problems and “awkwardness” that frequently accompany the disorders. If teachers can help these students overcome social obstacles, these students will be in a much better place to succeed.

Although the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is a perfect reason to bring the topic into your classroom, doing so is easier said than done. As spring arrives, many teachers are scrambling to cover all the topics they are required to cover by the end of the year. Breaks and standardized testing take up even more class time, so adding in an entirely new and unrelated topic is a luxury most teachers can’t afford. In a perfect world, teachers would be able to intertwine the topic within the subjects they are trying to teach before the end of the year. In the real world, it takes a long time to integrate a new topic into tried and true lessons, and it’s easier to stick to the lessons from previous years.

As I sat here choosing resources about real world math, I thought about "the" question students ask every year: "When will I ever use this math in my life?" As a student, I’m sure I wondered the same thing, but when I think about it now, I have a hard time thinking of a part of life that is not touched by one form of math or another. Math has a funny way of sneaking into every corner and crevice of life, and good math teachers make sure their students can recognize the math in the world around them.

What wonderful model of diffusion can send your students into gales of laughter, can be released from anywhere in the classroom, and can be supplied by each student around 15 times a day? If you haven’t guessed yet, contemplate these two literary greats: The Gas We Pass by Shinta Cho and Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray. Flatulence is hardly a topic you think about when planning what to teach. It’s a topic that can come up…er…unexpectedly, and this week’s featured resources will help prepare you to take full advantage of this and other gross topics that may come up unexpectedly in your classroom.