Science of Ed

Happy Halloween!

May your student be calm, and may your coffee be hot.

Sending a whole lot of love to the teachers, students, and their families in Jamaica right now.

Regulation has to happen before learning can happen.

Science is a working body of knowledge not a set of facts. Science is a way of problem-solving and looking for patterns. Science is the never-ending quest to figure out how the world around us works. Perfect for teaching, if you think about it.

Teaching is hard. Science can help.

School business needs to be handled by the school. Teachers don’t need to be doing basic administrative tasks (like making copies or cutting up handouts) for school-wide things. Use office or support staff do them instead.

Let the teachers use their work time to support teaching and learning.

We can understand why the behavior happens, but that doesn’t mean it should be an excuse.

Excusing bad behavior sends the message that the behavior is tolerated.

We stand with our teachers in Alberta.

Some student behaviors can be corrected privately. However, there are times when a public student behavior needs to be corrected publicly. It isn’t about shaming. It’s about letting everybody know which lines are not to be crossed.

You pitched the tent. This is where we are going to camp.

We stand with our autistic students and colleagues.

“I am different, not less.” -Temple Grandin

Three ingredients of intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

What does this look like for students? What does this look like for teachers?

🤦‍♀️

Accommodations should be logical and easy for the teacher to meet. If not, we probably don’t have the best system in place to support the student. Either the system needs to change … or the placement.

Overburdening teachers with unrealistic accommodations in the name of inclusion isn’t the way.

This.

Get curious. Teachers, with your students. Admin, with your staff.

7 Teaching Strategies to Empower Deaf Students | Deaf Unity These 7 teaching strategies will help empower your deaf students to do their best in school and set them up for success at university and in the workplace.

September is National Deaf Awareness Month. Want to know how you can best support deaf and hard of hearing students? Check out a few of these easy strategies!

Which States Ban or Restrict Cellphones in Schools? See which states are requiring cellphone restrictions or bans in schools.

Cell phone bans are gaining nationwide traction. Currently, 31 states and the District of Columbia either have a statewide ban or require schools to have a restrictive cell phone policy. Seven other states have recommended a restrictive policy or offered incentives for district that adopt one.

History of Labor Day An official website of the United States government.

Happy Labor Day, and thank you to all the hardworking teachers and teachers’ unions out there!

When we don’t hold kids accountable for bad behavior, we send the message that the bad behavior is acceptable.

Accountability doesn’t have to be a punishment. It can be. But it definitely needs to be a response that has weight and consequence.

Kids deserve to be safe in schools.

In the United States, there are approximately 3.5 million full-time and part-time traditional public school teachers, 251,000 public charter school teachers, and 466,000 private school teachers (numbers from the 2020-2021 school year). That’s a lot of amazing experience and brainpower. Source below.

Tell me you’re a teacher without telling me you are a teacher. #firstweekofschool #iykyk #floorpencils

Consistency and conformity are not the same thing.

Consistency asks that everybody be on the same page. Conformity requires that everybody read the same script.

Most of the time in school, consistency works because it allows for cohesiveness with some wiggle room.

We need the wiggle room.

So the first step to raising helpful kids can be summed up in a single phrase: Let them practice.

- Michaeleen Doucleff, Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

They are always learning.

We are always teaching.

Time in classrooms > ice breakers
Time in classrooms > guest speakers
Time in classrooms > training on new curriculum
Time in classrooms > turn and talk
Time in classrooms > explaining the new tracking system
Time in classrooms > meetings that should have been an email

If teachers aren’t paid, they shouldn’t be working. That includes replying to emails, doing mandatory trainings, sending out welcome messages, filling out forms, and setting up classrooms.

If the work is worth doing, it should be scheduled and paid for.

Teaching can be hard. Science can help.

Hey, we need some help!

We often hear that there are studies that prove that taking a test in the same environment boosts test scores (e.g. math test in the math classroom).

However, we are struggling to find a source. Any source. Anybody have any leads?

#edusky #teachers #learningsciences

Value teachers. Value teachers and the important work that they do, each and every single day.

Teachers, from all of us here at Science of Ed, thank you. We see you. We value you. It isn’t enough, but please know that you have our utmost appreciation for the work that you do.

So how can you appreciate teachers?

Fully fund public schools. Write thank you notes. Listen and back up teachers in difficult situations. Stock office supplies that will last the full year. Make meetings that could have been an email, well, an email.