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MIT’s BLOSSOMS video library has over 100 math and science lessons designed by diverse master teachers from around the world, available at no cost to schools. Each 50-minute interactive lesson mixes video instruction with problem solving and critical thinking activities. Teacher’s guide, handouts and add’l resources provided. Lessons are searchable by CCSS and Next Generation standards. Topic clusters include lessons for Astronomy, Botany, Chemistry Mole, DNA, Environmental Sustainability, Evolution, Newtonian Physics, and Probability, among others.
Interested? See https://blossoms.mit.edu
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Teaching Channel Back to School Starter Packs
The Teaching Channel is a GREAT resource for seeing effective teaching and learning in action. To help teachers prepare for the start of school, the Teaching Channel has also developed downloadable checklists organized by grade band to help both new and veteran teachers get off to a good start with Classroom Setup, Lesson and Unit Planning, Class Culture, and Self-Care. Visit https://www.teachingchannel.org/back-to-school-teacher-resources Note that you’ll need to register for a free Teaching Channel account to access this resource. The Thomas Tallis school in London has developed and published a set of school/teacher-friendly materials to guide instruction and assessment based on the OECD’s document: Progression in Student Creativity in School. This document identified 5 creativity habits of mind: Inquisitive, Collaborative, Persistent, Disciplined, and Imaginative. The Tallis school’s habits page features posters explaining each habit of mind, a pedagogy wheel, and an assessment wheel to help students reflect on progress in developing their Habits of Mind. The pedagogy toolkit is a particularly rich source for teachers on how to engage students in each habit.  Small cues of connection and inclusion can be powerful ways to communicate to kids that they ‘belong’ in advanced classrooms or programs. These cues are particularly important for populations historically marginalized by advanced learning programs in schools, including students of color, students with disabilities, and English learners, for instance.
PERTS out of Stanford has developed great materials for teachers that provide strategies for promoting belonging, along with other mindset-focused topics, with students. You can access these materials here. Our 2016 conference keynoter Lisa Van Gemert has a collection of free downloadable resources for teachers. Some examples of resources include:
Have a great free teacher-friendly online resource you want to share? Take a minute now and email your suggestion to watg@watg.org using subject line TOOLS TO USE TODAY. Please include the name of the resource and the link along with your name and school/district/organization (so that we can credit the suggestion!) Ian Byrd is at it again! Each week subscribers get a free list of five links to interesting images, articles, and videos to share with their class.
A recent list included Hand Drawn Circles (tricks for drawing perfect circles by hand), sculptures from an Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China, renditions of Arabic words, illustrated to match their literal meaning, a Tokyo art installation of hanging numbers, and a video of a Hawaiian lava flow into the ocean. Kids can use the resources on the list to ask questions, make connections, share ideas - - all in the name of building a classroom culture of curiosity. Curious?! Visit http://puzzlements.co! Have a great free teacher-friendly online resource you want to share? Take a minute now and email your suggestion to watg@watg.org using subject line TOOLS TO USE TODAY. Please include the name of the resource and the link along with your name and school/district/organization (so that we can credit the suggestion!) (Note: WATG does not endorse specific products and programs. This column is for informational purposes only.) This one is an oldie but a goodie! Consultants at Iowa Area Education Agency 267 created a site to help busy teachers design performance assessments that really measure what's valued and that incorporate higher order thinking skills. These higher order skills include those that extend and refine knowledge (e.g. comparing, classifying, abstracting, analyzing perspectives) and using knowledge meaningfully (e.g. problem-solving, historical investigations). Each skill is linked to a page with strategies and graphic organizers for teaching the thinking skill/reasoning process and rubrics/checklists at different levels (e.g. for K-2 students, older students, teacher). Here’s a piece of the rubric for the thinking skill of “Induction”:  Check out the full site here:
https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/curriculum/instruction/complex-thinking-skills-reasoning Have a great free teacher-friendly online resource you want to share? Take a minute now and email your suggestion to watg@watg.org using subject line TOOLS TO USE TODAY. Please include the name of the resource and the link along with your name and school/district/organization (so that we can credit the suggestion!) Last month, we shared a way to view the progression for English Language Arts standards. This month, we’re sharing Math standards progressions. These tools can be so useful for planning for learners along a continuum within the standards!
For the Standards for Mathematical Practice, the state of Washington has developed a document to describe expectations and look-fors along a grade level continuum. For Mathematical Content Standards, check out the Achieve the Core web site’s FOCUS documents, identifying the progression of focus leading to success with algebra. Also have a look at Ohio’s Critical Areas Progression document for a more detailed explanation The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction developed a great interactive tool for viewing the progression of English Language Arts standards. So useful for planning for learners along a continuum within the standards! You can select the ELA standards you want to view (A), select the grade range (B), and highlight the differences in expectations as the standards progress from one grade level to the next.  The resulting view provides teachers with a ready guide for differentiating tasks. The show more links provide further detail about each grade level expectation.  North Carolina has also created a similar interactive view of standards progressions for Disciplinary Literacy (reading and writing) in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects. Fewer enhancements, but still helpful!
 At this year’s WATG conference, Drs. Susan Assouline and Pam Clinkenbeard presented information about acceleration. The University of Iowa’s Belin-Blank Center has published a review of the most current and informed research and thinking on this topic, entitled A Nation Empowered.
The purpose of A Nation Empowered, the follow-up to A Nation Deceived, is to inform educators, parents, and policymakers of current research on acceleration, how that information has been applied to educational policy throughout the nation, and how educators can use the findings to make decisions for their brightest students. Volume 1 (73 pages) summarizes the research on acceleration and features stories of accelerated students and their families. Ideal for administrators, parents, and others who need a brief, clear introduction to acceleration. Volume 2 (282 pages) is a thorough report of what we have learned from over 50 years of educational research on acceleration and gifted students. Eighteen chapters provide an in-depth, wide-ranging look at this underused intervention. Recommended for educators, parents, researchers, and anyone looking for specific information on acceleration's effectiveness. Both volumes are available for purchase or can be downloaded in pdf format at no cost at: http://www.idealsolutionsmath.com/Ecomm/Product/Default.aspx |
Tools to Use TodayNote: WATG neither endorses nor recommends specific products and programs. This column is for informational purposes only. Archives
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