Teachers
I believe that teaching is an art. Though the landscape of “good teaching” is varied and diverse, I believe that good teaching can be learned. Pedagogy and teaching practice can be honed through experimenting with new ideas and approaches until some new balance is found that works for the teacher in that moment.
Below I have compiled some of the most influential ideas and resources that currently inspire my teaching practice.
The Art of Teaching
Growth Mindset
Being Smart Isn't Always a Good Thing
News article with follow-up questionsGrowth Mindset Quiz - with scores
Retrieval Practice
Mindsets and Retrieval Practice
My introductory workshop for students. Teacher's notes are in the comments.Poll Everywhere - embed interactives into your presentations
Interleaving
Trauma-Informed Education
Start here to learn about how experiences shape brain development
This free course is an outstanding way to become trauma informed. It will transform your thinking and inform your interactions with others.
Memory
These two episodes of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History are truly essential listening. He forces you to rethink how memory works.
This powerful and entertaining episode of this American Life presented by author Michael Lewis echoes very similar ideas in a completely different, beautiful and thought provoking way
This one doesn't talk directly about memory, but I find that it logically follows the podcasts above very well.
Ultimately, if we have the power to shape our own memories, then the stories we choose to tell ourselves about our experiences are that much more important in shaping not just our future, but also our past.
If these ideas excite you, go watch the movie Big Fish
Narratives and Storytelling
It seems to be universally understood that the human brain is primed to gather, and retain information most effectively through storytelling. As educators I can think of almost no skill more important than improving your storytelling abilities. Likewise I think it is valuable work to organize materials and ideas in courses as much as possible into a cohesive narrative.
Learn more about the powerful tool of story telling
More Interesting Research:
High Expectations
Some must reads!
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” - Elizabeth Gilbert
Sand Talk:
How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
Words cannot adequately describe the importance of this book.
“After three of four years of schooling, the nucleus basalis, which forms sharp memories in the brain, falls into disuse and decays. This is the part of the brain that makes learning so effortless for small children, and it is always activated in undomesticated humans. But neuroplasticity research has shown that damage to the nucleus basalis can be reversed by reintroducing activities involving highly focused attention, which results in massive increases in production of acetylcholine and dopamine. Using new skills under conditions of intense focus rewires billions of neural connections and reactivates the nucleus basalis. Loss of function in this part of the brain is not a natural stage of development--we are supposed to retain and even increase it throughout our lives. Until very recently in human history, we did.”
- Tyson Yunkaporta
Science Teaching Resources
Check out the loaded Resources Hub at ACEE.
Also check out their pages on
Curriculum Links to Sustainability Education and Action,
and the many other ways that they support teachers
Points of Inspiration
Though this podcast episode talks about addressing pain in the field of medicine, I find that nearly all of it maps directly onto education. Both pain, and learning are biopsychosocial phenomena.
