National Engineers Week is February 20–26, 2022! What better time to engage in engineering and design thinking activities in your classroom?! Engineering and design thinking can open up a whole new world of innovation and creativity for students. National Engineers Week offers many opportunities to introduce your students to the world of engineering. Introduce them … read more »
As teachers and schools gear up for The Hour of Code (December 4-10), I think it’s really important to remind our students that coding isn’t an end to itself. It is a means to solve a problem. One way to help students understand that that is to explain where coding would fit in the a … read more »
As edtech coaches, we’re constantly looking for impactful and scalable strategies. Recently, at a PLN meeting, the challenge was to design a media literacy activity that could be completed in just 5 minutes. My immediate thought was to leverage the power of Thinking Routines – specifically, a quick, adaptable form to guide students in analyzing … read more »
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Project Zero, part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, started publishing innovative Thinking Routines designed to enhance and expand critical thinking skills for students of all ages. These powerful routines have evolved into ten categories, such as Core Thinking Routines and Global Thinking activities, promoting understanding from … read more »
Finding a resource that works for all grade levels and subjects to promote student learning is rare. Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox (reviewed here) is one of those unicorns. It offers strategies that enhance critical thinking skills in many ways that apply to real-world situations, using research-based strategies that scaffold and support student thinking. Why … read more »