For Teachers

By Althea Need KaminskeIt’s January 2021! A new year and a fresh start. Given the general stress last year between the on-going COVID-19 pandemic and the switch online learning in order to avoid exposure to COVID-19, I think it’s safe to assume that most of us were feeling pretty burned out by the end of…

While concept mapping is popular, some research has shown that creating concept maps, when students have the material in front of them, is not as effective as retrieval practice (1). Other scholars have noted that it takes time to teach students to make concept maps in order for their use to be effective at enhancing…

Despite our best intentions to stay focused, we may find our mind wandering from time to time. While there may be good reason for your mind to wander (see below!), It can certainly affect your ability to pay attention at crucial times. This week we've gathered resources on mind wandering.

For further reading on note taking, check out some of our previous posts:How Should Students Take Notes?Factors of Effective Note-Taking: Application of Cognitive Load TheoryIf you would like to read some of the research that was mentioned in the video, then check out these articles:Jansen, R. S., Lakens, D., & IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2017). An…

Online learning and teaching is the new normal in most educational institutions. Maybe your institution is taking a blended approach with a mix of online and face-to-face delivery or went all the way online teaching. Either way, with an increasing amount of teaching happening online the question is: How can we engage our students? In…

Note, APA now has two separate title page formats: one for students and one for professionals. These templates reflect the format for students. For professional papers, a running head needs to be added (though the first page does not need to say “Running head” anymore… thank goodness!) as well as an author note.When creating the…

The other interesting thing they did was changing up the conditions of retrieval practice. Some students took an open-book test, where they literally had the text sitting in front of them while they answered the questions. Some took a closed-book test (no text available), but some were in a closed/open switch task. Essentially, students could…

Quincey Farmer is an elementary teacher and administrator who has taught both domestically and abroad. He is an advocate of data-based instruction and evidence-based approaches. Quincey finds data particularly important as he transitions to a specialized role focused on identifying and nurturing academically and intellectually gifted learners in grades 3-5 and talent development in grades…

By Carolina Kuepper-TetzelWith online teaching becoming a reality for many educational institutions in the coming semester/year due to COVID-19, the questions are what the key challenges in education will be and how to overcome them. An obvious challenge is the transformation of teaching material and delivery to accommodate the online format. However, in today’s post…

by Althea Need KaminskeWhen I got married, I had no idea that my husband would become my office mate. COVID19 has affected our lives in a number of ways, one of them being that we now both work from home in the same home office. For most of my career I’ve been lucky enough to…