Month: June 2016
Inquiry Based Lessons Require Flexibility
by Starr Sackstein
Students are splayed out on the floor, dripping into the hallway. Notebooks are scattered and laptops are in laps or on tabletops, as student meaningfully collaborate to develop ideas.
The tables and working environments have been adjusted to meet the needs of each group. It’s noisy, like an eight on a scale of one to 10; but it’s purposeful noise. If you isolate the conversations, you can hear the independent thought process of each student in a group and can even map out the trajectory of the progress.
Often the best learning happens in the messiest environments, but despite appearances, those classrooms take a ridiculous amount of sculpting and nuance.
Pacific Standard|Stories That Matter
Why Should We Save the National Parks?
In a provocative, heartfelt collection of essays, author and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams makes a passionate argument in favor of America’s national parks—“breathing spaces for a society that increasingly holds its breath.”
By Jeffrey Zuckerman