Hello World,
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share five inspiring web resources from the education sector that I have curated after hours and hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox each week.
20 Principles from Psychology for PreK to 12 Teaching and Learning from the APA
This was one of my favorite resources from Teacher’s College. It was created by a group of psychologists and psychology teachers within the American Psychological Association (APA). We had to review this for one of our classes. I used this document to craft my teaching philosophy. My two favorite recommendations from this document were: 1) what students already know affects their learning, 2) acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice.
What is Deep Work? by Cal Newport
I have been a fan of Cal Newport’s writing for a while now. He has an insightful productivity blog. He wrote a book on the concept of Deep Work that he defined as “activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limits” (Newport, 2016). He described it in this brief video where he explains his understanding of the concept.
The Staffroom Podcast by Chey and Pav
I love a good education podcast and this is a really good one. It is created and run by two Canadian teachers from the Greater Toronto Area (which is why I love it). In this show, Chey and Pav, two experienced middle school teachers from the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada, take listeners through the in’s and out’s of the field of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership. Through their anecdotal, yet often comedic banter, laced with caring insightfulness, they take their audience into a conversation that is surely eye-opening and entertaining, while tackling some of the real, and ever-changing issues that exist in Education. You can access the archives for this show at this link.
3 Ways Experienced Teachers Can Get More Out of Professional Development by Michael McDowell
I remember my Associate Teacher talking to me about a professional development opportunity she co-organized with her peers where they created a list of things they wanted to study, choose to study one with a specific focus and then implemented a prototype of the same in their context. In-service professional development is often most effective when teachers take ownership of the training and have a say in the kind of training they engage in as professionals. In this article, Michael Mcdowell discusses some strategies for teachers to get more out of the in-service professional development they engage in as professionals through their career.
Learners from The Knowledge Society on Making the World a Better Place By Getting Smart Staff
In this podcast episode and article by the Getting Smart Team we get to hear the perspective of students that are using technology in creative ways to create positive change in the world and pursue the curiosities. The authors describe the students as follows in the article,
Sofia discovered her passion for biotech from a YouTube video. She loves the research that she gets to do in The Knowledge Society and, in particular, finds the mindset work useful…Naila, focused first on the attention economy, primarily with respects to issues with screen time. From there, she became passionate about sustainable energy and high-temperature superconductors. Some of what she is learning at school supports her ongoing curiosity, but it doesn’t regularly provide opportunities to take deep dives into the content that she finds most fascinating…Aaryan’s first project was using AI to diagnosis diabetes more effectively.
Abhishek
15/04/2021