Facilitating Collaborative Learning

/
Facilitating Collaborative Learning

If you’re just joining me, I’ve been posting a series of articles on the 3 Crucial Elements of Any Collaborative Learning Task. I’ve done my first deep dive into part 1 of the process: Frontload. Now we are going to jump in with the next element: Facilitate.

Read More

Tools for Successful Collaborative Learning

/
Tools for Successful Collaborative Learning

If you don’t already know by now, I am quite a fan of collaborative learning. Maybe fan isn’t quite the right term, obsessed may be more accurate? Either way, I am passionate about implementing collaborative learning into the fiber of my classroom and advocating for and equipping other teachers to use it in their classrooms as well. One of the things I love most about collaboration is that it brings the amount of talking students get to do in the classroom to an all time HIGH. Does that proposition chill you to your very core? Why would I want my students talking all the time when I spend so much time trying to get them QUIET?! And that is PRECISELY why this method is so successful, because we all know we are fighting a losing battle trying to keep students quiet all day, but also, research shows that students learn much more when they get to talk about their learning and process it with other people out LOUD.

Read More

Training Active Listeners to Become Leaders and Facilitators of Collaborative Discussions

/
Training Active Listeners to Become Leaders and Facilitators of Collaborative Discussions

Collaboration.  That infamous buzz word we hear echoing through the hallways, in the teacher seminars, professional development, blogosphere, Pinterest, it’s everywhere.  And the one primary response most teachers give when presented with implementing collaboration in their classrooms, “That all sounds great, but it sounds like too much work.” 

Read More