Take 5: Student Attention, Relationship Building, Civic Education, the Homework Debate, and Classroom Design

This week's post is all about being student centered. How can we increase student attention to classroom tasks, build relationships with students, and increase their advocacy skills? Moreover, this post delves into research about the never-ending homework debate. The numbers are in... the question is now what do we do with them? Lastly, we close with a look at classroom design over the past century, with an eye on where we are headed. So kick up those feet (after all, it's summer,right?) and Take5.

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How to Get Kids to Pay Attention by KQED's Mindshift really caught my attention (no pun intended) because of it's exploration of meaningful research. Getting kids to pay attention is so essential to any teaching practice and we can use all of the help we can get. This article is worth the read.

As a middle school teacher, with 130+ students I always struggle to build relationships with each of my students. Time is the enemy. I came across this innovative approach outlined by educator Todd Finley on the Edutopia blog and plan on implementing it next year. 

The Civics teacher in me was captivated by this New York Times article, entitled In The Age of Trump, Civics Courses Make a Comeback. Perhaps the relentless emphasis on STEM to the detriment of the social studies has reached its high water mark. Regardless of your politics, I hope you'll agree that an engaged populace is essential to the ongoing success of our democracy. 

My colleague, Kara, brought my attention to this short, but watch-worthy video on homework. It provides a lot of info, which in my mind should challenge all of us to think about homework - in terms of our own classrooms and our school communities. 

Lastly, in Century Old Decisions That Impact Children Every Day, NPR's Anya Kamenetz dives into the world of classroom design and the trends behind the decision-making that define our children's learning spaces (and our teaching spaces). 

So what's catching your eye in the world of education this summer? We'd love to hear from you!

-Corey