A weekly collection of education-related news from around the web.

An Immersion (“Reactive”) Approach To Teaching Writing

“What if we over-plan teaching writing? What if we plan for the wrong problems? What if lengthy lessons or time teaching deprives students of valuable experience? What if action should precede explanations? And what if all learning start with dialogue?”

Systems Thinking In Lesson Planning: On Cataloging Lesson Activities

“How do veterans approach planning? I reflected on past conversations. Some teachers scratch the daily topic in a blank book and just teach. Others write detailed plans year after year, filling shelves with binders. Everyone else falls between extremes. Each group started from precedent, but while some relied on internal memory, others externalized it. And […]

“101 Random Lesson Plans” – A Thought Experiment

“Teaching, I realized, doesn’t happen within a vacuum like college lesson plans. Instead, it happens nested within courses, within schools, and within communities. As my thought experiment spiraled outwards, I thought about planning from an informational standpoint. I generalized and distilled my ideas to the following: 1. All subjects have fairly predictable, content-specific activities. 2. […]

If Band Class Were Standards Driven [Humor]

“”Now we are going to practice changing our dynamics. We will get louder, move towards a strong forte, then back to a piano. Understand?” she asks… A hand shoots up. “Miss–,” the student begins, “can we play another note today? Maybe a song?” Suddenly her face flashes red. She slams her baton down, then aims […]

Issues

Every week I send out articles I encounter from around the web. Subject matter ranges from hard knowledge about teaching to research about creativity and cognitive science to stories from other industries that, by analogy, inform what we do as educators. This breadth helps us see our work in new ways.

Readers include teachers, school leaders, university overseers, conference organizers, think tank workers, startup founders, nonprofit leaders, and people who are simply interested in what’s happening in education. They say it helps them keep tabs on what matters most in the conversation surrounding schools, teaching, learning, and more.

Peter Nilsson

Subscribe

* indicates required