Teachers Without Borders Learning Cafe

Brain-Based Learning

Sometimes when we read, questions come up.  Through discussion we can help each other gain greater clarity and insight.

(Please read what's below and add your thoughts.)

Whole-Child Assessment

In Course 1, under the “Right and Left Brain Thinking” section it says:  For a more accurate whole-brained evaluation of student learning, educators must develop new forms of assessment that honor right-brained talents and skills.  This made me think...

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Assignment 12: Effectiveness of Course 1

Congratulations on completing Course 1: Education for the New Millennium!

As you know, there are several other courses for you to choose from. However, before you begin another course, please send an email to us at: ctm1@teacherswithoutborders.org and let us know that you are ready to receive the "Effectiveness of Course 1 Survey." We ask that you complete this simple survey as your final assignment for Course 1.

We are eager to learn how to make this course even better. Thank you, in advance, for completing this survey as it will have an enormous impact for future versions of Course 1: Education for the New Millennium.

HOW TO POST TO YOUR E-PORTFOLIO:
If you would like to learn how to post your "Professional Statement" and "Imagined Classroom" documents (both from Assignment 11) to your E-Portfolio, please click here.

IMPORTANT:  SAVE YOUR STUDENTS' WORK
Save examples of your students' work as you go through these courses. You'll be glad you did. Course 5 asks you to post samples of your students' work for your final E-Portfolio.

Assignment 11:  Professional Reflections

Please prepare a final Reflection Paper incorporating what you have learned in Course 1. Follow the instructions for each part:

Part One: Professional Statement

Write a 1 - 2 page statement that responds to the following and includes these as topic headings:

What I Believe

Why I Teach

What I Teach

How I Teach

(For an example of a Professional Statement, click on the Word icon below.)

Please prepare a final Reflection Paper incorporating what you have learned in Course 1. Follow the instructions for each part:

Part One: Professional Statement

Write a 1 - 2 page statement that responds to the following and includes these as topic headings:

What I Believe

Why I Teach

What I Teach

How I Teach

(For an example of a Professional Statement, click on the Word icon below.)

File:Sample Reflection Sample Professional Statement

Part Two: Reflection

Please answer the following questions:

1) Kabir, once said, "Wherever you are is the entry point." Where are you now in your teaching practices? Where would you like to be? How will you get from here to there?

2) What do you want to keep in your teaching practices and what do you want to throw away. Why?

3) What are the challenges that lie ahead?

4) What in this course material has struck the most responsive chord in you? What idea or ideas stand out for you and stay with you now?

Part Three: The Imagined Classroom

Imagine one day in the life of a student at your school in the year 2010.

1) Using the research from this course as a source for ideas, as well as futuristic thinking you carry within your heart and mind, describe that student's day through his/her eyes from the moment s/he wakes up until s/he goes to sleep (including, of course, time spent at school and, specifically, in your class). (1-page)

Part Two: Reflection

Please answer the following questions:

1) Kabir, once said, "Wherever you are is the entry point." Where are you now in your teaching practices? Where would you like to be? How will you get from here to there?

2) What do you want to keep in your teaching practices and what do you want to throw away. Why?

3) What are the challenges that lie ahead?

4) What in this course material has struck the most responsive chord in you? What idea or ideas stand out for you and stay with you now?

Part Three: The Imagined Classroom

Imagine one day in the life of a student at your school in the year 2010.

1) Using the research from this course as a source for ideas, as well as futuristic thinking you carry within your heart and mind, describe that student's day through his/her eyes from the moment s/he wakes up until s/he goes to sleep (including, of course, time spent at school and, specifically, in your class). (1-page)

Sample Professional Statement

Assignment 10:  Starting With Your Classroom

1) Describe your classroom addressing the categories and questions listed on the previous page. ("Student Seating, Circulation, Learning Resources, and the Room Itself.") Also, filter your written description through each of the five senses - what do you see, touch, taste, smell, and hear when you're in your classroom. (2-3 paragraphs)

2) In "Assignment 7: Applying Multiple Intelligences" you were asked to incorporate some of the intelligences into your course planning. Revisit this assignment and review what you wrote. For each of the four multiple intelligences you chose, discuss how you could improve something in the physical setting of your class to enhance that intelligence goal. (1-2 sentences for each of the four intelligences you chose.)

3) "Student Seating, Circulation, Learning Resources, and the Room Itself" are four areas we've discussed. Name 2 other areas to consider in making your classroom more open to learning. Explain their importance to you.

Assignment 9: Active Reading

GOAL: To reflect on contemporary issues in education through the use of a tool known as "Focused Freewriting."

GIVE: Feedback to others on their assignments at the TWB Learning Cafe

1) Choose one article from all of the web-based articles you read on the previous page. Find a sentence or phrase within that article that captures your attention. Re-type that sentence or phrase; put it in quotation marks; and tell which article it came from. Now, use that sentence or phrase as a trigger to do a "Focused Freewrite" - 2-3 paragraphs in length.

(Note: A Focused Freewrite is when you use a phrase or sentence from something you've read as a trigger for free-form writing - that is, you write any thoughts, questions, stories that come to mind as it relates to this phrase or sentence. Focused Freewrites may end up 2-3 paragraphs in length, and sometimes you'll stick to the trigger topic and sometimes your mind will wander into seemingly unrelated places. Give yourself permission to move between "wandering" and coming back to writing about the topic.)

Assignment 8: Towards a New Intelligence

GOAL: To identify and describe a new intelligence derived from observation and experience.

GIVE: Feedback to others on their assignments at the TWB Learning Cafe

Goleman's work on Emotional Intelligence and Gardner's naturalistic, spiritual, and moral intelligences point us towards new discussions and inquiries about intelligences yet unnamed.

1) If you were to think about a capacity you have seen in others - students, friends, community members - or even in yourself, an intelligence that has not yet been identified by Gardner and Goleman, but is present, what name would you give it?

2) Once you've given a name to a previously unnamed intelligence, write a brief 4 - 5 sentence description of it.

3) Give evidence for this intelligence citing at least 1 example.

Assignment 7: Applying Multiple Intelligences

Below, please find a list of the general characteristics of students who exhibit strengths in each of the intelligences. You will need these to understand essential clues for your assignment.

Multiple Intelligences	Overview
Verbal-Linguistic - The capacity to learn through words and grammatical logic	Learns from the spoken and written word, in many forms; reads, comprehends, and summarizes effectively
Logical-Mathematical - The capacity for inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning, as well as the use of numbers and the recognition of abstract patterns	Learns through using objects and moving them about, quantity, time, cause and effect; solves problems logically; understands patterns and relationships and makes educated guesses; can handle diverse skills such as advanced math, and represent them in graphic form; works with models; gathers evidence; builds strong arguments.
Visual-Spatial - The ability to visualize objects and spatial dimensions, and create internal images and pictures	Learns by seeing and observing - shapes, faces, colors; uses detail in visual images; learns through visual media; enjoys doodling, drawing; makes three-dimensional objects and moves them around; sees forms where others do not; enjoys abstractions and subtle patterns.
Body-Kinesthetic - The wisdom of the body and the ability to control physical motion	Learns through touching and moving; developed coordination and timing; participation and involvement; role plays. Engages in games, assembles objects; acts. Sensitive to physical environment; dexterity and balance; creates new forms that move.
Musical-Rhythmic - The ability to recognize tonal patterns and sounds, as well as a sensitivity to rhythms and beats	Learns through sound; eager to discuss music and its meaning; sings and plays an instrument; improvises and interprets
Interpersonal - The capacity for person-to-person communications and relationships	Learns through interactions, social relationships; perceives feelings, thoughts, motivations of others; collaborates; influences opinions; understands in verbal and non-verbal ways; takes in diverse points of view; mediates, organizes, develops new social processes and methods.
Intrapersonal - The spiritual, inner states of being, self-reflection, and awareness	Learns through range of personal emotions; finds outlets for feelings; identifies and pursues personal goals; curious about big questions; manages to learn through on-going attempts at gathering in ideas; insightful; empowers others.

Assignment 6: One Day of Multiple Intelligences

1) Choose a lesson you need to teach in the coming week. It could be a specific lesson in math, social studies, literature, etc. Then, list the intelligence that will be your central focus for that one lesson. Why did you choose that intelligence?

2) What resources or materials will you need? What room arrangements will you need? What other things do you need to consider?

3) Develop the activity keeping your chosen intelligence in the forefront of your planning. Will students be moving, reading, drawing, acting, singing, talking to each other?

4) Is your lesson plan reaching those who are expressing this intelligence, but have not had a chance to use it before?

5) Conduct the activity by spending more time watching and guiding students than instructing them.

6) Provide feedback on the lesson. What plain observations did you make about individual students, the class as a whole, interactions and happenings that occurred - details you noticed, large actions? Make a list of 7 plain observations.

7) Choose any observation from your list, and write about it in 2 - 3 paragraphs.

Assignment 5: Critical Questions

1) Utilizing the knowledge you've gained about educational theories and approaches to learning, how would you characterize the educational systems in your community?

2) From your perspective, what positive changes in education are currently underway? What changes are needed?

3) How are you catalyzing positive change or actively participating in the process?

4) Graffiti exists on walls all over the world as part self-expression, part social dialogue. Type one question now on our community's Question Wall. Read the questions others have posted on the Question Wall. Add questions to it as the course progresses. Consider creating a physical "Question Wall" in your classroom.