I'm most excited by reading about cooperative learning again.  A huge focus of my education coursework in college was how to effectively have students work in groups.  This was something that I did on a daily basis when teaching in Chicago (as part of TFA).  When I moved to Los Angeles, I started teaching at a more traditional school and I followed the lead of veteran teachers and did not implement group work strategies. I've been thinking about how I want to change my classroom instruction for next year, and cooperative learning is at the top of my list.  My students are incredibly competitive with each other; everything is about who is going to what college.   I want them to learn to work together and care about the success of everyone around them.  The students at my school are also really over-scheduled.  They never have time to form study groups outside of school, which the upper-level AP students really need to do.  I would like to have a large percentage of class time be dedicated to students studying and solving problems as a group. I need to figure out one key aspect of cooperative learning and that is, "students are rewarded as a team, but graded individually." I have to figure out a type of reward my high school students would be interested in that is not grade based.  Probably food?  

One of my strengths is providing graphic organizers and developing study strategies with my students.  I have a really comprehensive class website where students can access many different types of materials.  They can watch videos, read text, review notes, see example problems, and look at study guides.  When I get feedback from my students I always hear that they really appreciate the clarity and organization of course materials and course content.  

Hi Phillip - I agree that children's personal and cultural experiences should be used as an asset to their learning. I really enjoyed the article this week called Learning Lakota.  I took a class in college called Native American studies, and I remember being absolutely astonished to learn about the forced cultural assimilation.  We read a lot of literature written by Native American authors about their experience in boarding schools and how they felt when their hair was cut and they were forced to wear European-American clothing.  It was terrible. It was interesting to read the Learning Lakota article to see how Native literature is being taught on Indian reservations to help students connect, develop, and learn at school. 

Hi Evan - I like the idea of study groups before a test. Thanks!