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!

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Featured Online Class - EDCI 607F Motivating Students

EDCI 607F Motivating Students

How does motivation affect learning and how do educators play a role in student motivation? Why is it that with some students, little effort on the part of the teacher is required to get them going and focused on a task? This course explains the different approaches to motivation, including behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and sociological perspectives, thereby broadening participants’ understanding of motivation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, usually considered divergent ideas, often come together to drive behavior. Participants will look at these and other factors that engage students in learning, such as interest, emotions, self-schemas, goal setting, and empowerment.

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FREE Instructional Strategy - Math - Measurement and Geometry - Grade 3

Math - Grade 3 - Measurement and Geometry: Estimate or determine the area and volume of solid figures by covering them with squares or by counting the number of cubes that would fill them.

Do your students guess without thinking? Do they know how to estimate to be able to tell the "reasonableness of an answer"? Providing children with the opportunity to experience reasoning in a fun way gives them background knowledge to apply to estimation activities. This estimation strategy can be adapted to many different situations to fit your expected learning outcomes.

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FREE Parent Activity - Language Arts - Grade 4

Standard: Language Arts: Reading: Literary Response and Analysis - Grade 4

Identifies recurring themes across literary works

What is a theme? It is an abstract idea which is expressed through a work of art. A landscape painting might express beauty. A song might be about love. The story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" portrays the author's opinion about honesty.

When children can identify the theme of a story, they can begin comparing and contrasting the themes in multiple stories. This brain-compatible parent activity will help children to identify and categorize themes so that they can begin to compare them.

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Featured Instructor - Dr. Michael Black

I have taught students in grades PK - graduate school. My public school experience includes both regular and special education classroom experience. I have also served as a middle school principal, superintendent of schools and as an educational consultant with a Regional Service Center in Texas.

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Featured Teaching Resource - What Every Principal Should Know About Culural Leadership

Both research based and rich with examples, this second volume of a seven-part series will instill confidence in new principals and renew the enthusiasm of veteran administrators. Its straightforward insights and proven best practices make it a one-stop resource for harnessing the power of school culture to boost morale and achievement while fostering a successful learning community school-wide.

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Discussion Topic - What do YOU think?

Can EQUITY be achieved with competitive funding? With competitive funding being provided to states and districts for improving teacher effectiveness (Teacher Incentive Fund) and school reform (Race to the Top) there is a question of whether funding provided by taxes paid by all citizens will serve all students. Will students from poor, rural, or small schools become losers because they lack the resources to apply for competitive funding? Will competitive funding of education create even wider disparities in services to our diverse learners? Will this new funding stream provide models that will improve education for all students eventually? What are your thoughts for the impact in YOUR school and classrooms?

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