Happy Friday! This week many of you returned back to your classrooms and students following the holiday break. Our old friend, Winter, celebrated our return in fine fashion by blowing a little snowstorm our way. Did you see the weather reports last night? At one point, the entire state of Michigan was completely covered by the storm! Many schools around the state are closed today, and their students are undoubtedly enjoying the snow day – my own kids included!
Personally, I love to use snow days as time to search for inspiration and flesh-out new ideas. And there was no shortage of inspiration on the web as I compiled this week’s roundup of education articles. So, grab a mug of your favorite hot beverage, wrap up in a warm blanket, and settle in to read today’s snow day edition of Ed Links!
What is your favorite way to spend a snow day?
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I find anything to do with brain research to be particularly fascinating, so I loved this piece from The Guardian: How to Use Brain Science to Engage Students After the Holidays. I’m sure the ideas listed here apply equally to snow days.
Also particularly relevant following the holidays (or a snow day): 20 Ways to Get a Noisy Classroom’s Attention, from te@chthought.
This week on the IEE Blog, Blake Pratt, one of our Targeted Learning Coaches, wrote How to Encourage Student-Led Learning in Your Mathematics Classroom. In his post, he references the following article from the New York Times: Why Do Americans Stink at Math? I wanted to share it with you again as it contains fantastic insights into mathematics instruction.
Gwen Kelliher, our Coach Support Specialist at IEE, sent me two pins for education strategies she found on Pinterest. I thought they were so great that I wanted to share them with all of you: Grudgeball… A Review Game Where Kids Attack! and Great Review Activity – Graffiti Wall. What type of education content do you like to see on Pinterest?
This week on Edutopia, Ross Cooper gives us 5 Strategic Tips for First-Year Administrators. Every one of these are fantastic strategies for building rapport with your team.
I loved this post by Brian Sztabnik, also on Edutopia: The 8 Minutes that Matter Most. Here, Brian outlines how to maximize a lesson’s opening and closing minutes to keep students captivated and engaged.
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That wraps up today’s snow day edition of Ed Links. Stay warm and have a great weekend! We’ll see you again next week!
