Born to Learn Blog

The Born to Learn blog contains a series of short vimeo clips concerning the nature of learning.
These videos touch on many important aspects of why students find difficulty in today's classroom.

Our brains are hardwired to seek out learning from the understanding of the big picture to then put together an understanding of how all of the details fit.  However, in an attempt to meet expectations of high stakes testing and demand for grades and control of classroom management, many classrooms today are based upon rote learning, scripted lessons and formulaic teaching.  Value is not placed upon the process of learning but instead is focused on finding correct answers, to take a test and get a grade.  To little time is spent in problem solving and participation in the learning, while most time is spent in repetitious and methodical rote learning.

Like anything learning is about being in the moment.  The best time to learn is when our brains are open, willing and able to comprehend the material in a means acceptable to our past knowledge and current abilities. We actually learn best when we are challenged to stretch our minds without fear of failure nor artificial constraints.

We learn best when we are allowed to model the processes in style similar to the moments of play we enjoyed as a child, no matter what our age.  We desire the interactive nature of play to understand how things fit. It is important for us in the learning process to see others engaged in the process and model what we see.

For more from Born to Learn  http://vimeo.com/user6241489 

 

Quizlet - Great Online Tool

Although I am an advocate of project based learning and utilizing education that serves the multiple intelligences, there are some basic skills, ideas and concepts where learning comes down to rote memorization.

I use a very practical,useful and intutitive site online to provide flashcards to assist students with that material which must simply be learned through memory and rote skills.

Quizlet (http://quizlet.com/) is a wonderful site for educators and students to create and use flash cards to provide learning and study opportunites for vocabulary and definitions, formulas, terms, elements and symbols, etc... etc...

Educators and students alike can create their own databank of flashcards for any content area. Sets of flashcards can be assigned to specific classes or students or they can be made public for anyone registered with Quizlet's use.  For most content and subject areas there are vast amounts of pre-made flashcard sets produced by both students and teachers available for public use.

Quizlet provides opportunities for students to learn, review and practice at their own pace, through a variety of options built in to the Quizlet program.   Students can work through the flashcards one side at a time or both sides simultaneously.  Once students feel comfortable with the material they can check their understanding through a learning tool where they must complete the information from the opposite side of the card that they are being shown.  Students can also test themselves with a Quizlet generated test based upon the information in the flashcard set.

Students can also learn and practice through two games, scatter and space race.  Scatter provides both sides of the flash cards randomly placed on the computer screen.  Students must move the partners together to make them disappear. My students enjoy scatter on the SMART Board where they can compete with each other for the best time to remove all the terms.  The space race game is completed by typing in the correct answers before the clue slides off the screen.

Quizlet, provides great options for both students and teachers to tap into those concepts that must simply  be processed through repetition and rote memory.