“Find one place in your natural world that you visit all the time and get to know it as your best friend. Let this be a place where you learn to sit still- alone, often, and quietly- before you playfully explore beyond. This will become 
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Group work… it has its benefits in the classroom and it has its headaches. But the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, and we know that collaboration is a key competency our students need for the future. We want our students to be able to collectively 
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Do you want every voice in your classroom to be heard? Do you want each voice to be valued? Do you want maximum participation for all? Try one of these strategies in your classroom to support and empower your students.*  *We love Jennifer Gonzalez from 
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“A student’s sense of belonging at school is based on the degree to which they feel connected to school, the strength of the relationships they have with educators, and the closeness of relationships they have with their peers.” (Third Path, pg. 84).  Building relationships between 
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Penny Kittle, a veteran English Language Arts teacher, argues that our students are readers and writers, and we need to teach them as such. We need to help students see themselves as writers. She says all writers need time, choice, response, vision, and expectations, and 
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Research shows that student choice within education increases engagement and ownership. It is also a factor in increasing student motivation. One effective way for students to have a choice in how they demonstrate their understanding is by using choice boards. What’s a Choice Board? A 
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What It Is The Frayer Model is a graphic organizer with four or five specific sections. It is designed to help students understand academic vocabulary or concepts. The sections have students define the term, describe characteristics of the term, provide examples and non-examples, and may 
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Anticipation Guides What It Is Anticipation guides are a type of graphic organizer. They have a list of 5-7 statements, related to the topic students are studying, and students are required to agree or disagree with the statement. Anticipation guides are used before learning and 
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Feedback is an essential component of the assessment, and learning, process. John Hattie has described feedback as “the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement” (1999). Feedback for students needs to be timely and specific, in order to move learning forward. There are many effective 
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Lectures and direct teaching have received a “bad rep” in education over the past decade or so. Echos of boredom, teacher control, and dis-engagement from students are often associated with the idea of lecturing. One imagines large lecture halls in universities where professors speak from 
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