Students Ask Authentic Questions

Presenter: Sara Rich

Facilitator: Miki Ambrózy

Description: Sara Rich used a short sequence from her Social Science class to show how students are guided towards asking meaningful, authentic questions about the subject. She modeled an “investigation” that uses a Google search to establish what’s a reliable source.

Feedforward: Sara’s use of technology (document reader) makes it possible for all the students to work at the same pace, resulting in the common understanding of the given sequence or knowledge. Her delivery is enthusiastic, well-paced. The content was clear because of chunking: she breaks down what is expected into recognizable steps.

Capers Restart | Documentation & Fun

Presenter: Miki Ambrózy

Facilitator: Sara Rich

Description: Miki Ambrózy used paper frames (“viewfinders”) to show how the world is rendered two-dimensional every time we take a photo, paint or draw reality. Participants of the session had to reconstruct the exact position where photos were previously taken in the classroom, by standing in the same location and composing the same image.

Feedforward: The session sparked a few ideas on the skill of focused observation (science), perception and subjectivity (advisory), the relationship between seeing the part of something or the whole picture and how our eyes (and minds) get used the automatic response (maths).

Tom Ryan implemented the idea in his science classroom when he documented learning while working on vision & density:  Observation of Phenomena

Capers Picnic

Thanks everyone for the positive encouragement and constructive feedback.
We look forward to continuing CAPERS next fall!

Time for Feedback & Forward!

If you have participated in a Capers session we are welcoming you tomorrow (Friday, June 7), at lunchtime in MC4, even if you just drop in for 5 minutes. If you haven’t yet participated, come along to listen in to our conversations!

We ask you to share your compliments and suggestions for improvement for the continued efficiency, fun and learning in our best-practice sharing sessions!

Bring a snack to share or take a snack to taste!

Why? So as not to end up like this (contributed to staff by Jonathan):

See you there!

Sara, Steph & Miki

Inspired by Objects That Tell Stories

Presenter: Steph

Facilitator: Miki

Description: Steph used her own experience of being inspired by the book titled A History of the World in 100 Objects to engage us during the session. She kicked off the demo session by naming the strategy she was about to use to make us learn.

We were asked to look at an object and invent its story – relying only on our imagination. Having done so, she elicited our versions before moving on to revealing the real stories behind them.

Feedforward: The demo clearly showed to several of us the power of engaged, purposeful listening: having drawn us in by letting us imagine first, we were eager to know the real stories of the objects. A magical way to make facts stick in our mind!

L’apprentissage des langues avec des jeux!

Présentateur: Joy

Facilitateur: Sara

Description: Nous avons commencé par apprendre les couleurs et les types de cartes. Joy nous a appris le vocabulaire de base nécessaire pour jouer en utilisant à la fois le mouvement et le visuels. Avant le début du match, nous étions hors de nos sièges et en riant. Puis vinrent les bouchons de champagne! Nous avons tous commencé avec quatre cartes, et nous pourrions passer une carte à la fois vers la gauche, jusqu’à ce que quelqu’un a eu quatre d’un genre. Cette atmosphère de FUN encouragé les débutants comme moi to RISK IT ALL and make the effort to speak French.

Forgive me for this terrible version of French, but I so desperately wanted to impress Joy, I couldn’t help myself!!  Forgive me, gods of language learning, for I have sinned with google translate!!!

EduCorps, a personal passion project

Presenter: Sara          Facilitator: Miki

Description: Sara highlighted her journey in teaching through three stories.  Developing a relationship with local teachers in Kinshasa inspired her to, after three years at the American school, move to Goma to work with local teachers full time.  Then, she taught at Coney Island Prep, in Brooklyn, where she had a great experience getting instructional coaching.  The combination of these experiences led her to found a non-profit called EduCorps.  This organization is committed to providing professional development and coaching for teachers in conflict ridden areas.   This is definitely Sara’s personal passion project, and working on it inspires her both in and out of school.  Here are ways to get involved:

Help EduCorps find graduate student researchers!
Stay in touch by liking the EduCorps Facebook page!
Join the book study of Unmistakable Impact!

Interpreting Poetry

 

 

 

 

Presenter: Sophie

Facilitator: Miki

 

Description: Sophie engaged us all in interpreting a French poem, in a medium that best fit our prefered learning style.  Before reading, we had the opportunity to read the descriptions at three different tables.  The first table was geared toward those who love learning through movement, the second table learning through sound and music and the third table through drawing.  Sophie then read aloud the first stanza of a beautiful poem, and gave us time to create an interpretation with a team working in our prefered medium.  A fabulous way to encourage and remind us to not only get kids thinking about their prefered learning style, but give them opportunities in our classes to engage with that prefered medium.

 

 

 

Concentric Circles

Presenter: Tom    Facilitator: Sara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Description: Tom shared with us a graphic of concentric circles.  He modeled his model, talking us through the different ways he uses these circles while we practiced filling in our own circles of main ideas, details, and our own personal thoughts and questions.  As we discussed in the cozy area, the circles are not only a great note taking strategy but also a fantastic planning tool.

Inch Worms & Grasshoppers

Presenter: Cate

Facilitator: Sara

 

 

 

Description: Cate taught us the value of being explicit about our approaches to working.  She led us through a brief series of math problems followed by a shockingly diverse sharing sesion of how we each approached the problems.  It was fascinating to hear people describing estimation strategies like, “Oh you know, well 96 is around 100 and 47 is almost the same as 50, so I know the answer is somewhere around 50.”  This was a grasshopper. “Well I did it differently! I wrote the exact numbers down, lined them up vertically, subtracted from right to left, carried the 1… and the answer is 47.” This was an inchworm.  After the sharing of each approach, Cate made us feel proud of our differences.  We moved on to the cozy area for our discussion, exploring who we each are as learners and teachers.  There was inspiration in the air, whirling around the excitement and power of knowing ourselves better and knowing our students better.