Teachers and Teaching (Part II: Teaching)

What should we truly be teaching teachers about their profession today? What would this look like?

 Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta): Transforming schools for deeper learning.

Carolyn Strom: Teaching and the role of differentiated instruction.

Facilitated discussion (Tim Fish): What is an independent school “teacher of the future?” How do we ensure that independent school teachers are the best of the best? What can schools do to better support them?

From Jal Mehta (@jal_mehta):

Theory of deep learning: purpose, meaning, play spiral back. Follow coaches to learn to develop skill while playing, before play, and in planning.

What assumptions do we make about higher order reasoning and thinking in our learners lacking in basic skills? Don’t underestimate learners. Bloom’s taxonomy not meant as a ladder; think of it as a web.

From Carolyn Strom:

PD should be targets as should learning. Parallels are strong. If I don’t know how, what is a pathway for success?  How might we learn by experience and by doing? What is we collaborate to learn, grow, and customize learning.

How might we team, as teacher-learners, to learn more about one learning difference, to become an expert on serving children with this need? What if we collaborate, observe each other and our children, and use student work as data? How might our actions and learning change?

How do we take action to serve all learners in our care? What learning is needed to help empower teachers personalize learning for every child?

I am honored to be an invited participant as NAIS gathers a group of expert educators, psychologists, and thought leaders at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss advances in the science of learning and what it tells us about teaching, curricula, and schools on May 19-20 for its fourth Deep Dive: NAIS Explores the Science of Learning and 21st Century Schools.