Pasi Sahlberg: What if Finland's Great Teachers Taught in Your Schools?

Many governments are under political and economic pressure to turn their school systems around for higher rankings in the international league tables. Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Finland are commonly used models for the nations that hope to improve teaching and learning in their schools.

In search of a silver bullet, reformers now turn their attention to teachers, believing that if only they could attract "the best and the brightest" into the teaching profession the quality of education would improve. This presentation argued that just having better teachers in schools will not automatically improve students' learning outcomes.

Lessons from Finland and other high-performing school systems suggest that we should also protect schools from prescribed teaching, toxic accountability, and unhealthy competition, so that all teachers can use their professional knowledge and skills in the best interests of their pupils.

Watch this video from a WISE Conference in 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERvh0hZ6uP8&t=229s

Choice Boards

Choice Boards are graphic organizers that display several different squares. The individual squares have different activities on them. All the activities are created to achieve the same learning goal. However, the students have a choice. They can decide which activity or activities they want to complete. The teacher must first identify the students' interests, preferences, and even levels of readiness. From there, the teacher will design the board to cater to visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic learners. The students can decide how they want to learn based off their individual interests and learning styles. 

Different Types of Choice Boards

·       Standards-align boards

·       Strategy-Specific boards

·       Thematic boards

·      Review boards

·      Practice boards

Choice Boards use interesting as well as challenging activities to accomplish a learning goal. Choice Boards stimulate learning by catering to the students' various learning styles. The students are more likely to engage in the activities if they find them to be interesting. Choice Boards are a great differentiated instructions strategy because it provides the student autonomy for how they want to learn.

Brought to you by: Madeleine@NU  

What Learning Will Look Like in 10 Years

The education system within Ontario has made many changes in the decades since inception that were implemented to evolve with the ever-changing way that we live as a society. School was originally designed to prepare children to be assembly workers and therefore having students sit in rows, stay seated the entire day as well as work independently were highly encouraged. 

This has changed immensely given that students in today's classrooms are collaborating, practicing their creative and critical thinking in addition to school being the social foundation for many students. With that being said, the approach to schooling was forced to change seemingly overnight because of the global pandemic. Students and teachers were required to learn and work in a virtual environment which brought its own set of obstacles and challenges to overcome. For many, this experience made it abundantly clear how children require social interaction and hands-on learning to grow in school. 

Let's look at the ways that education is expected to change in the next decade: 

1.     Greater Emphasis on Technology – As mentioned above, the education system was designed to prepare children to enter the workforce when they became adults. Given the changing landscape of the job market, it is expected that technology will be woven into learning even more. This change will see further coverage of technology, software, automation among other topics to the standard curriculum. 

2.     Anytime Learning – With the emergence of virtual learning, there will now be a focus on providing students with learning at their fingertips. These could be modules and lessons that are able to be accessed outside the classroom and can be completed at their own pace. 

3.     Collaborative Environment – Students will be further encouraged to collaborate with their peers to guide their own learning. Something as simple as the classroom setup will start to change as students are being told to work within their groups for many of their projects and assignments. 

 

There are so many potential changes that occur in the years to come – these are just a few guesses! Overall, the importance of having an involved and engaged teacher will still exist. 

Perhaps even to a greater scale. 

Thanks,

 

Katherine @ NiagaraU

 

References:

https://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/education/discover-education/the-future-of-learning-and-teaching-big-changes-ahead-for-education

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a great strategy to use not only for teachers but students as well. It is easy for humans to get distracted, taking just 5 minutes of your day to participate in a mindfulness activity can benefit individuals greatly. 

One day, I would like to have 5 minutes of mindfulness in my classroom everyday. There are multiple ways to include 5 minutes of mindfulness in our daily routine such as, writing in a journal, stretching and my all time favourite, meditation. 

In the summer I was a camp counselor and every week we would have a mindfulness activity with the children. I have linked the YouTube video below of the children's favourite meditation.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ_wdeog5Ek

Brought to you by: VanessaF@NU

CLASSROOM WALL DISPLAYS

One thing that is very exciting about a future career in teaching primary/junior grades is the idea that I can decorate the walls with fun colours and displays! I see videos all the time of teachers decorate their white boards with a calendar, daily schedule, assignment due dates, etc., but they make it look so intriguing. However, sometimes all the displays on the wall can actually overwhelm the students. Maybe there is too much information or too many colours and can act as a distraction. I wanted to look at the dos and don'ts of wall displays in classrooms, and how we can use them to motivate the students to learn.

While many teachers actually have good intentions with their wall displays, they often act as a distraction, or even sensory overload for the students. Having a surplus of information about course content can make the students feel like they are overwhelmed with work and could impede on the students' learning abilities rather than help keep them organized. Classrooms should not be plain and boring because that does not help to facilitate learning either, but they should not contain too much visual stimulus where they may feel they have a difficult time ignoring it to do their work.

The best way to decorate rooms is to display student work, avoid clutter, include visual aids, avoid displaying student scores/grades, and to let in natural light. We have learned through our classes that it is very beneficial to the students to display their work, as it will allow them to feel a sense of accomplishment and motivate them to continue performing at their best. They are also more likely to remember the material when they are constantly reminded of it.  Additionally, you should always keep at least 20% of the walls clear so it does not seem too cluttered and distracting. Too much on the walls contributes to disorganization and overwhelms the students. Instead, you may choose to continuously swap out decorations and displays monthly to keep it fresh and motivational. Visual aids (i.e., anchor charts, maps, and diagrams) are okay to use, but also may prove to be distracting for the students. These can be put up after a lesson to reinforce learning but may need to be taken down after they are no longer helpful. Finally, letting in natural light gets the students awake, alert and ready to learn, while students who are exposed to classrooms that have the blinds always closed and dim lighting can feel tired or lazier.

This display is personalized to the month and displays important information in a fun and simple way.  

This is an example of something that could be put up after a lesson, but may act as a distraction for students if it is left up for long.                 

This classroom has a lot of good elements, for example, the display of student work, the 'happy birthday wall' and the natural light. However, it is so much display that it would be a huge distraction for the students. The future of teaching has to include different ways to gage the students attention and make it a fun and interesting learning environment. Paying attention to detail and the small things around the classroom is a great way to go about creating this environment. 

References

Gabrielli, M. Classroom displays secondary. [Online image]. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/13862711344654510/?d=t&mt=login

Heavily decorated classrooms disrupt attention and learning in young children. [Online image]. (2014). Association of psychological science. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/heavily-decorated-classrooms-disrupt-attention-and-learning-in-young-children.html/comment-page-1 

Terada, Y. (2018, October 24). DOS and don'ts of classroom decorations. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/dos-and-donts-classroom-decorations. 

User5765101582365. [@kschmid4]. (2021, November 1). November is here. #teachersoftiktok

[Video]. TikTok. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8HPcyaK/

Courtesy of: SabrinaP@NU

Education.com - An Activity, Game, and a Worksheet

WORKSHEET   5th Grade |  Math Division Riddle In this fun worksheet, your child will solve 15 division problems then use the code to solve the riddle. Download now

GAME   5th Grade |  Reading/Writing Sentence Building: Homophones In this game, your child will demonstrate understanding of different similar-sounding words by selecting the correct choice for each sentence Play now

ACTIVITY   5th Grade |  Science How to Make a Bouncy Ball In this activity, your child will make bouncy balls while learning how polymers are made. Download now

Educational Website: GoNoodle

           GoNoodle is an online educational website for children between the ages of three to fourteen (those from preschool to grade eight) and is a great tool to use in the classroom. This is because it can assist teachers in providing their students with brain breaks (i.e., small pauses between lecture time) (GoNoodle, n.d.). Not to mention, GoNoodle can be used to help teachers with classroom management and social-emotional regulation and can aid in the promotion of physical activity. To use GoNoodle, all teachers have to do is create a free account. Once the account has been created, they are to select an avatar (i.e., a class champ) that will represent their classroom (GoNoodle, n.d.). For instance, teachers can select from McPufferson, Flo Yo, and Flappy Tuckler (GoNoodle, n.d.). These avatars are great as they encourage teachers and students to constantly complete various GoNoodle videos to see how their avatars will change and evolve over time. This is because each time a video is viewed, their avatar grows a little, and the goal is for the class to grow their avatar completely (GoNoodle, n.d.). Once this happens, the class starts all over again and selects a new avatar to be their class champ.

           Moreover, when using GoNoodle, teachers can select from a wide range of videos that last anywhere from two to ten minutes (GoNoodle, n.d.). In having these small time frames, teachers are easily able to play videos before, during, or after their lessons to engage and motivate their students. GoNoodle videos are also broken down into various categories of dance, workout, stretch, freestyle, sports and exercise, and mindfulness (GoNoodle, n.d.). Depending on what a teacher would like to accomplish, such as energizing their class, they can select videos from the appropriate categories. GoNoodle also provides a separate section where teachers can play holiday-themed and special event workout videos for their class. For instance, they have videos that specifically focus on birthdays, the first day of school, wintertime, and Halloween (GoNoodle, n.d.). Since the website has many videos to choose from, teachers should have no issues in selecting a video for their class. 

            With that said, I have seen GoNoodle being used in a grade five/six classroom setting. The students always indicate how they love using this interactive website as it allows them to move around and be silly. They further state how they enjoy using GoNoodle for small breaks as it gives them time to pause from their learning and help them refocus their mind on the task at hand. As a teaching candidate, my views are the same as my students; however, I also appreciate how GoNoodle has videos that are in line with the educational curriculum. This is because they have videos that support and reinforce topics being taught in math, language, science, social studies, health, Spanish, music, and reading (GoNoodle, n.d.). Ultimately, I believe that GoNoodle is an excellent resource for the classroom, and it is something that I will be using with my future students.

To check out GoNoodle, click on the following link: https://www.gonoodle.com/

References

GoNoodle. (n.d.). GoNoodle. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/product-reviews/gonoodle

Courtesy of Jasman@NU