home

Imagine Your Class Reinvented -Table Talk- Tour the rooms and the resources I posted so the essential components are understood for gathering your students around tables. Expose yourself to the Common Core and STEM essentials. The Common Core State Standards emphasizes instructional shifts. For example, in ELA students will engage in rich and rigorous evidence based conversations about text. In mathematics students will deeply understand and can operate easily within a math concept before moving on. They learn more than the trick to get the answer right. They learn the math. Ask yourself, can my rearranging of my classroom space make a difference? Here are two examples that may spur you on to make the leap. Allowing students to talk! I gathered videos that will showcase the historical Harkness Table theory and secondly a sample of teachers and students showing STEM in action. 1. The Harkness Table Watch: "SNAP" "Beating the System" "Our Pedagogy" The ideas shared by fellow educators and students can be instilled in our classrooms. media type="custom" key="23723648" media type="custom" key="23723690" Ms. Moore [English instructor] is a really big advocate of communicating, making eye contact, getting whatever your thoughts are to the class. That's what happens in the best **Harkness** discussions, when all people at the table are fully engaged. . . I like the way the teachers run the classes. It allows students to take the role of carrying the discussion. They occasionally interject an idea, which lets us sort through anything we don't understand." — [|Eb, senior] Brian Mullgardt [history instructor]states that discussion based teaching (also called the “Harkness method,” after the oval discussion tables designed to facilitate conversation) challenges students to sit at the center of education, making meaning of new information together, talking, listening, and ultimately //thinking//. While some schools have relied on the method for many years, others, like mine, have not. In such cases, introducing this style of learning, in which no student can hide, can be difficult if students aren’t used to it, and making sure it’s productive also presents challenges. However, once included in a curriculum it allows students to more deeply understand material and think for themselves.

media type="custom" key="23919502" align="center"

The Amazing Harkness [|Philosophy] Collaborative Learning [|Resources] 2. STEM Connected Learning STEM in Action!

media type="custom" key="23919612" align="left"

Gathered Ideas to implement student discussion and sharing If you have tables, here is a simple way to keep them clear of book and tools. Easy Accessible Student Supplies media type="custom" key="24680646" Notice the room between tables for students to walk, sit, or stand while working on projects. (middle school) Another idea for storing students' resources for easy access. Collaboration Table Ideas and settings. Middle school drama

Using Texture and Color Innovate, Engage, Going Deep

The Connected Classroom using Skype, Facetime, or videoconferencing technology. Connected to the world through videoconferencing by building innovation together. RESEARCH: This document was written many years ago but the findings are SIGNIFICANT for us TODAY! "A study on desk arrangements" "A study on Collaborative Groups"