Let’s say four friends decide to do some fall fishing. All four have varying degrees of experience and success with fishing. For this particular outing, however, one individual, Aaron, is better prepared than the others. His grandfather owns a cottage on the lake, and he has fished here far more often than his friends have. So when they get out on the water, the others will naturally ask Aaron when they have questions about depths, structures, and baits. But they will also share their own ideas about fishing in these conditions.

As a novelist, I love sensory details: the red scarf, the crumbling cookie, the scent of coming rain. They’re just words, but they can take us away to other places. The right sensory details allow readers to encounter the writer’s experience as if it were their own. Using the Five Senses The different senses are weighted individually, bearing unique effects. Understanding how a particular sense impacts the reader can help the writer create specific effects: Seeing is believing: People trust what they see.

I just read three brilliant blog posts by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, in which he identifies three parts of our human brains: The primate brain (cortex) focuses on connecting with others. The mammal brain (limbic system) focuses on approaching rewards. The reptile brain (brain stem) focuses on avoiding harm. Though we like to think of the primate brain as the foremost part (after all, primate means “first”), many believe it was the last part of the brain to develop. It is also the last part to receive signals from the spinal cord. So Dr.

So you’ve heard of the 4 C’s—critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating—but how are you supposed to teach your own subject and the 4 C’s? The good news is that the 4 C’s help you teach your subject. They aren’t content. They’re skills for gaining content. Here are 3 simple steps that use the 4 C’s to help students learn your subject: Step 1: Prompt Critical and Creative Thinking After introducing and modeling a new concept, prompt students to think critically and creatively about it. Assign a 5-minute activity that students complete individually.

Untitled DocumentThough you may be unfamiliar with the inquiry process, you use it every day. For example, imagine that you need to go grocery shopping: You start with questions: “What do we need? What do we want for dinner this week? What could I fix quickly when I get back?” You open cabinets, check pantries, grill family members. You make a list, clip coupons, consider specials, decide how much money you can spend. You go to the grocery store and cruise aisle to aisle. You consider prices, ounces, brand names, varieties.

Conceptual blending is a strategy that businesses use to inspire creative thinking, but it can also help your students think about and engage any topic. What is conceptual blending? Conceptual blending is combining two dissimilar concepts and using creative thinking to work out the dissonances. Here’s an example: “How can we make our workplace more like a playground?” At first, you might ask—why would anyone want the workplace to be more like a playground? Work is work. Play is play. The two concepts don’t blend.

Zurijeta /Shutterstock.com Some very clever people are using fun to solve social problems. The approach is called “Fun Theory,” and it’s tackling all kinds of social ills. For example, Kevin Richardson suggests creating a “speeding lottery.” Cameras that catch speeders can also recognize those who obey the speed limit. Speeders pay fines into a pot, and those who obey are entered into a lottery to win the pot. Check out the speeding lottery video. Fun! The mayor of Bogota, Columbia, has his own approach to speeding.

You may have heard colleagues talk about their PLNs—their personal learning networks—or you may have one of your own. But just what is a personal learning network, and why is it so helpful for educators? What is a PLN? A personal learning network consists of the people, places, and things that help you learn. By definition, every lifelong learner has a PLN, whether the person realizes it or not. Also, every person who has a PLN is a lifelong learner. Let’s imagine, for example, that you are a relatively new teacher.

Photo by flattop341 You may have never tried project-based learning, or you may teach in a purely PBL environment. Whatever your background, you’ll find that PBL can be a powerful instructional approach. Here are ten reasons why. Adult life is project based. Most tasks that adults complete are projects, from simple duties like doing laundry and baking cookies to major endeavors like finding a job or renovating a home. Adults rarely listen to lectures, take notes, and pass tests. Instead, they take on projects.

Photo courtesy of thepurplefreak from Flickr Creative Commons. Do you know what a mouse potato is? It’s a person who spends too much time staring at a computer screen. Mouse potatoes are the couch potatoes of the 21st century. In fact, Merriam Webster just added the term mouse potato to its august dictionary. Perhaps you know a few mouse potatoes. Perhaps you are one. But just learning the term mouse potato suddenly makes you think about how much time you spend in front of the computer. That’s the power of vocabulary. It enables thinking.