However talented, no one is a natural-born teacher. Honing the craft takes significant care and effort, not just by the individual, but also by the school at large. Though experience does matter, it matters only to the extent that a teacher — regardless of how long he or she has been in the classroom — commits to continued professional development to refresh his or her status as a transformational teacher. Along those lines, even after a decade in the classroom, I don’t claim to be beyond criticism — not in the least. Still, I wish to offer some advice on constantly striving toward perfection, however elusive that goal will always remain.
What Islamic Golden Age Thinkers Discovered Long before the West Sure you’ve heard of Copernicus, Fibonacci and Fermat. But what about Ibn al-haytham, al-Bīrūni, al-razi – the often uncredited Islamic Golden Age scholars who inspired and informed their discoveries? Our interactive infographic charts the discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs of the Islamic Golden…
He didn’t know it, but this student was asking for his teacher to be more of a warm demander — a key strategy for creating equity in the classroom. Warm demanders are teachers who, in the words of author Lisa Delpit, “expect a great deal of their students, convince them of their own brilliance, and…
Human beings have an astonishing ability to learn, but our motivation to do so tends to decrease with age, particularly in adulthood. As children, we are naturally curious and free to explore the world around us. As adults, we are much more interested in preserving what we learned, to the point of resisting any information — and…
Classrooms around the world have been the equivalent of open offices almost since their inception. Is this the best way? Some new research shows that schools may want to think about how the classroom affects their students. Open offices are as bad as they seem—they reduce face-to-face time by 70%: Employees at two Fortune 500…
See how families live around the world with Dollar Street Dollar Street is a project where Anna Rosling Rönnlund interview families around the world and photographed the families. This photos are used on the website to show a fictional street, where the poorest families are on one end of the street and the richer families live at…
As a teenager, Pete Etchells lost his father to motor neuron disease, and often, when the anniversary of his death rolled around, he found solace in playing video games, like hunting for the elusive Time Lost Proto-Drake in World of Warcraft. Gaming started as an escape, but over time, he found those virtual worlds helped…
