This was a thought provoking tweet, I found on Twitter.
Avoiding the Trap of "Q & A Teaching" | Edutopia http://edut.to/P2JD4b

It makes sense to make model quick and to the point, with a clear purpose. There is a time and place for asking questions and clarifying. The asking of questions should often be done by the students with you clarify after the modeling is done and the skill has been practiced or when conferring with a small group or individual student. When you are modeling a skill you are often exposing kids to it for the first time and they need it modeled. A good use of the teacher asking questions would be when you give the whole class a problem to solve in any subject where you want them thinking and using creativity and problem solving skills. You can Q & A after giving them time to work on it and the skills needed to solve it have been modeled. Or if you are using the problem as a way to check and see what they know before introducing a new lesson. Q & A has it time and place, don't forget that. There are many places to use it and to avoid it. I am sure lots of you have examples. This was a good concept the think about and they gave some good ideas!

This post from the Crazy Reading Ladies made me think of my youngest daughter. She decided to do karate this year. I have been wanting this for a while. She does it through Young Champions and her school. It is a very laid back approach to karate and they do not really make you work as hard as they should or could. They are not really pushing practice, hard work and focus. She enjoys it, but gets frustrated with all the above mentioned from time to time. I can tell she would like to be pushed hard and challenged more.  They gave out information for a karate tournament last month making a big deal about everyone getting a trophy just for showing up.  I did not want to pay $30 for her just to get a plastic trophy. she admitted to me that she just wanted to go for the trophy. Ugh! I want her to earn what she get and know the value of hard work and what it feels like when it pays off, and when it doesn't.


Crazy Reading Ladies: The Agony (and Ecstasy) of Defeat http://crazyreadingladies.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-agony-and-ecstasy-of-defeat.html?spref=tw

Here are a few quotes from the Divergence book series that relate to teaching!

“Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”

“But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.”

“A brave (person) acknowledges the strength of others.”

“Politeness is deception in pretty packaging.”

“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”

“Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.”

Book Shopping for Students?

Check out this blog post:  Wedding Band Shopping

This is an interesting take on helping kids find the right books for them. I would defiantly go with the employee that took the time to let me find the right fit. The reality in our classrooms is different when you are being hounded by administrators to get everything in that you are suppose to, and when you want to make sure kids are reading not wasting time. I do believe their is a happy medium where you can be the employee who takes the time, but with a little help from the other students in your classroom and other staff members. Start having students and staff create book recommendation lists and book trailers and get the whole school to really invest in the idea and remember if kids find the right books they will read, at least for a while.

Most Banned Books of 2014

What books would you keep out of kids hands?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/15/most-banned-books-2013_n_5152983.html?&ir=Education&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000023

IPAD use

As a reading teacher pulling small groups, how could you see yourself using an iPad?

Literacy, Creativity, & Play: 12 Apps That Should Be On Elementary School iPad http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/12-apps-every-elementary-school-ipad/ via @teachthought

32 Habits That Make Thinkers

by Terry Heick

The difference between students and learners is something we’ve discussed before. On the surface it’s a matter of tone and compliance, but it also has to do with purpose–why are they learning? How much of themselves are invested in the process? And does it lead to personal change, or mere performance?

So below are 32 habits–or strategies, actions, or behaviors–that can lead to that critical shift that moves students from mere students to learners who are able to think critically for themselves. Key themes? Patience, scale, and perspective.

32 Habits That Make Thinkers

1. Doesn’t always seek to please others

2. Are charismatic listeners

3. Can learn from anything

4. Ask “Why?”

5. Are comfortable with uncertainty

6. Write for their own understanding, not performance

7. Value questions over answers

8. Think laterally, endlessly connecting this to that, here to there

9. Use divergent thinking

10. Can move back and forth from micro to macro thinking

11. Read for pleasure

12. Look for patterns

13. Study the nuance of things

14. See every situation as something new, because it is

15. Ask what they’re missing or haven’t considered

16. Playfully reframe and/or improve questions

17. Relate humility to learning

18. Can instantly separate fact from opinion

19. Resist confirmation bias (analyze then draw conclusion)

20. Don’t follow crowds

21. Articulate their own thinking without prompting (often creatively)

22. Design learning pathways effortlessly–they just go

23. Socialize thinking for collaboration rather than approval

24. See learning as inseparable from living

25. Reflect for analysis rather than judgment

26. Use emotion to catalyze their intellect

27. See situations from multiple perspectives

28. Play with ideas–and the complexity within the mundane

29. Think with simplicity about simple ideas, and simply about complex ideas

30. Demonstrate insatiable curiosity for something

31. Seek to be both rational and ridiculous in their thinking

32. Show patience (by “dwelling with” questions, texts, or problems)

Adapted Image attribution flickr user nasagoddardspaceflightcenter; 32 Habits That Make Thinkers

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/32-habits-that-make-thinkers/