Here’s a good video on perception for teachers of IB Theory of Knowledge classes:

 

Q & A Collections: Brain-Based Learning is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column.

It includes links to all my posts from the last four years on Brain-Based Learning – in one place!

Here is an excerpt from one of them:

© 2008 anthony kelly, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

Close reading is a phrase and technique known by just about any teacher trying to apply the Common Core Standards (see The Best Resources On “Close Reading” — Help Me Find More).

And visual images can also function as the “texts” on which we can also apply close reading strategies.

Here are some of the best resources I’ve found providing suggestions on how to do just that – feel free to add to this list in the comments:

Ed Week shared this fantastic lesson from the Teaching Channel today (if the video doesn’t show below because of problems with the embed code, you can go directly to their site here):

10 Intriguing Photographs to Teach Close Reading and Visual Thinking Skills is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Close Reading Constable’s “The Hay Wain” and Turner’s “The Fighting Temeraire” is from Used Books in Class.

Frank W. Baker’s site is fantastic, and you can read his four-part Middleweb series on this topic here.

The National Archives has a well-known photo-analysis worksheet.

Trevor Bryan has created a nice visual on analyzing visuals building on ideas from the great book, Falling In Love With Close Reading.

Analyzing Primary Sources: Learning From Images has an excellent series of guiding questions that could be used to close-read any visual image. It was created by the Barat Education Foundation.

© 2013 Newtown grafitti, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

TNTP has just come out with a big report announcing what every teacher who has had to go to a district-mandated professional development session knows — most PD is a waste of time.

And TNTP, being the “school reform” organization that it has shown itself to be time and time again in the past, continues that pattern by making this finding another excuse to primarily dish up their usual recommendations of what should be done instead (it does included a few decent ideas, but mostly ones that will just make things worse). As Tom Loveless wrote in this tweet:

@Samfr @TNTP It's good up to the recommendations.But the recs are unsubstantiated. We need more and better evidence of what works.

— Tom Loveless (@tomloveless99) August 4, 2015

You can read more about the report here:

Study: Billions of dollars in annual teacher training is largely a waste is from The Washington Post.

Is PD Behind Teacher Improvement? Maybe Not, Analysis Cautions is from Education Week.

Inside the New TNTP Research: Is Teacher Training Just An Expensive Waste of Time? is by Matt Barnum.

I wonder why so many researchers, and so many school districts, don’t consider the crazy idea of asking teachers what we think would be most helpful to us?

You might also want to check out The Best Resources On Professional Development For Teachers.

Last week, I posted Video: “What if America Was Never Colonized?” It was a video from great YouTube Channel I discovered reviewing alternate history scenarios. They are perfect for use as models when we do our annual “What If?” history projects in class (see The Best Resources For Teaching “What If?” History Lessons).

Today, the creators of that channel announced the addition of a brand new channel called Geography Hub. This new one doesn’t appear to have anything to do with Alternate History. Instead, it looks like it will target interesting Geography-related questions. I think it could be useful in my ELL Geography class – obviously, depending on how their future videos end up looking.

Here’s an introduction to the new channel, followed by its first Geography video:

 

 

What do you think of them?

Here’s a new interesting video from Thoughty2:

 

Teaching grit, wanting to quit: A Year of Chaos Tests Veteran Preschool Teachers is a special feature from St. Louis Today that was shared on Twitter by Katie Osgood.

The article demonstrates that Social Emotional Learning Isn’t Enough and exposes that those who advocate a “Let Them Eat Character!” perspective on SEL are not doing our students, their families, or their teachers any service.

SEL has its place, and also has to be kept in its place.

Here’s an excerpt from the article: