Greetings from the Learning Bridges Team!
We want to provide YOU with FREE resources
and focus on special opportunities that might be helpful for your school improvement efforts.
We invite you to print the resources
that you can use in your classroom or school. We also hope you will share the newsletter
with your colleagues so that they might also receive the FREE resources. When it
is possible, we will connect the resources to your
state's content standards - whether those are
research-based instructional strategies/interventions or parent
activities.
We will feature one of the powerful online courses, an instructor, and a teaching
resource - all connected to your state standards and assessments.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
When you try an instructional strategy, share a parent activity with parents, complete
online professional development, or use one of the teaching resources, we hope you
will come back and share your
thoughts with us online. Read what other teachers have said, too!
We invite you to join our team as a Bridge to a New Way of Teaching and Learning!
Greetings from the Learning Bridges Team!
We want to provide YOU with FREE resources and focus on special opportunities that might be helpful for your school improvement efforts.
We invite you to print the resources that you can use in your classroom or school. We also hope you will share the newsletter with your colleagues so that they might also receive the FREE resources. When it is possible, we will connect the resources to your state's content standards - whether those are research-based instructional strategies/interventions or parent activities.
We will feature one of the powerful online courses, an instructor, and a teaching resource - all connected to your state standards and assessments.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
When you try an instructional strategy, share a parent activity with parents, complete online professional development, or use one of the teaching resources, we hope you will come back and share your thoughts with us online. Read what other teachers have said, too!
We invite you to join our team as a Bridge to a New Way of Teaching and Learning!
Read more
Featured Online Class - EDCI 607G How the Brain Learns
In this course, you will look at the way sensory memory contributes to learning through the three learning modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) that students use to process information. By understanding how the brain receives information, educators may also consider factors such as the social interaction and the physical environment when planning delivery of a lesson. The working memory and long-term memory are interrelated as they retain and retrieve information. Learn strategies to solidify learning and help with storage of information, such as incorporating rehearsal activities, establishing meaning and relevance, and regarding emotion as an important factor in learning.
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FREE Instructional Strategy - Concrete to Representational to Abstract
Instruction - MATH - Superior Impact on Achievement
WHAT IS IT??? This math instructional strategy has these characteristics:
- Each math concept is MODELED by the teacher with concrete materials.
- The teacher provides several opportunities for student to PRACTICE and demonstrate mastery using the concrete materials.
- The concept or skill is then MODELED by the teacher at the representational (semi-concrete) level using pictures to represent the concrete objects.
- The teacher provides several opportunities to PRACTICE and demonstrate mastery by DRAWING solutions.
- The concept or skill is finally MODELED at the abstract level (with numbers and symbols) by the teacher.
- The teacher provides several opportunities for the student to PRACTICE and demonstrate mastery at the abstract level, and then moves to a new math concept or skill.
- As the teacher moves through this process, the numbers/symbols should be used in conjunction with the concrete materials and representations drawings.
- To see this strategy modeled for: Identifying fractional parts and writing fractions using concrete materials - Grade 1 - 2 - 3...
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FREE Parent Activity - Mathematics - NUMBER SENSE - Grade 6
Standard: Understands the concepts of ratio, proportion, and percent and the relationships among them.
Ratio, proportion, and percent relationships can be fun to learn. Parents can help their child learn them using materials found at home. Learning the concepts with manipulatives first helps children to better understand these number sense concepts. Have your parents assist in learning these important concepts with checkers!
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Featured Instructor - Cheryl Hayek
What an honor to be a part of the Learning Bridges team and to have the opportunity to share a bit about myself in the Newsletter! My name is Cheryl Hayek and I have yet to find a more engaging and dynamic way to reach out to the wonderful teachers across this country than Learning Bridges has enabled me to do. I have been repeatedly amazed at how teachers tirelessly give of themselves to help our youth. It has been an inspiration to me.
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Featured Teaching Resource - Mindful Learning
Mindful Learning
101 Proven Strategies for Student and Teacher Success
Linda Campbell
"For teachers who want to use more research-based strategies but have little time, this book is a gem. The simple format, great diagrams, additional reading sources, and research-supported strategies are all time-savers for busy educators."
—Pattie Thomas, School Improvement Specialist
Talladega City Schools, AL
"This book is a teacher's toolbox, full of strategies that will strengthen student achievement. Once a teacher receives this resource, everyone in the school will want a copy!"
—Nancy Betler, Instructional Support Specialist
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, NC
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Discussion Topic - What do YOU think?
Is Merit Pay the secret ingredient for improving teaching and learning? Kim Marshall - a teacher, principal, and district administrator in Boston Public Schools for 32 years says that it is an ineffective strategy (Education Week - 12/16/09) because:
- It undermines teamwork.
- The best teachers are already working long hours, and there's no evidence that more pay will make them work harder or smarter.
- Standardized tests are instructionally insensitive.
- It takes at least 3 years of data to produce a fair value-added measure of individual teacher effectiveness.
- Raising the stakes on tests increases the urge to cheat.
- Many students are pulled out for small-group help with other teachers. There's no fair way to dole out merit pay for these students' achievement.
- You can't calculate the effect of preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade teachers on the scores of a 4th grade student.
- Half of teachers work with grades and subjects that don't have a standardized test so they wouldn't be eligible.
What do YOU think about the impact, equity, and use of Merit Pay for teachers to improve teaching and learning?
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