April 20, 2015

• As a follow up to our April 14 staff meeting, a copy of "Creating Environments That Bring Out the Best in Learners (p. 259 & 260 from Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools by Ron Ritchhart) and a copy of Profile of a Modern Teacher were placed in your mailbox.  Consider these things as you re-envision your classroom environment for the 2015-16 school year. 
  
  
• 8 Things to Look for in Today’s Classroom by George Couros (found on
  http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/5027) includes several of the 8 Cultural Forces such as Time, Opportunities, andInteractions.  
  
  
• What type of questions do you ask in your classroom?  Ron Ritchhart has found that most classrooms involve a majority of review  and procedural questions, while CoT (culture of thinking) classrooms include generative, constructive and facilitativequestions.  Check out the list of questions types here:http://ronritchhart.com/COT_Resources_files/A%20Typology%20of%20Classroom%20Questions.pdf 
  
  
•  Thought of the week: 
  "I never teach my pupils.  I only provide the conditions in which they can learn."   Albert Einstein