National Engineers Week is February 20–26, 2022! What better time to engage in engineering and design thinking activities in your classroom?! Engineering and design thinking can open up a whole new world of innovation and creativity for students. National Engineers Week offers many opportunities to introduce your students to the world of engineering. Introduce them … read more »
As teachers and schools gear up for The Hour of Code (December 4-10), I think it’s really important to remind our students that coding isn’t an end to itself. It is a means to solve a problem. One way to help students understand that that is to explain where coding would fit in the a … read more »
I’ve been reflecting on our OK2Ask session about Thinking Routines and SEL skills. Specifically, with increasing student needs around social-emotional learning, I’ve been thinking about how we can make these routines even more powerful in our classrooms when it comes to learning history. I love using thinking routines because they serve multiple purposes in the … read more »
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before thousands and painted a dream of justice, dignity, and equality. His words still echo across classrooms today—but how do we help students truly hear them? On this anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, we invite educators to move beyond passive listening and … read more »
Every August 14, we observe a day of profound significance: National Navajo Code Talkers Day. This day honors the Native American soldiers who used their intricate and unwritten language to create an unbreakable code during World War II. This historical event not only showcases the elegance and power of codes, but also the ingenuity needed … read more »
As edtech coaches, we’re constantly looking for impactful and scalable strategies. Recently, at a PLN meeting, the challenge was to design a media literacy activity that could be completed in just 5 minutes. My immediate thought was to leverage the power of Thinking Routines – specifically, a quick, adaptable form to guide students in analyzing … read more »
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Project Zero, part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, started publishing innovative Thinking Routines designed to enhance and expand critical thinking skills for students of all ages. These powerful routines have evolved into ten categories, such as Core Thinking Routines and Global Thinking activities, promoting understanding from … read more »
Finding a resource that works for all grade levels and subjects to promote student learning is rare. Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox (reviewed here) is one of those unicorns. It offers strategies that enhance critical thinking skills in many ways that apply to real-world situations, using research-based strategies that scaffold and support student thinking. Why … read more »
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein A tradition since 1926, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides celebrate World Thinking Day on February 22, scouting founder Lord Baden-Powell’s birthday. The Girl Guides and Girl Scouts dedicated this day to thinking … read more »
Computational thinking (CT) is an essential set of skills required for success in the 21st Century. Wikipedia defines computational thinking as “a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways that a computer could also execute.” The four problem-solving methods are problem decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms. But what does … read more »