Inquiry is becoming more and more an area of interest for educators. This book attempts to explain why math inquiry makes sense, what pieces are required to do math inquiry effectively (the knowledge, skills and dispositions), and then provides a series of day-by-day lesson plans.

Brainball:Teaching Inquiry and Social Studies as a Team Sport is an attempt to clarify that not only is social studies a game, but that it is one of the most useful and powerful games that teachers and students will ever play. Games are the doing of theory, and maybe it would be a good idea to start doing social studies in every social studies classroom.

Inquiry is becoming more and more an area of interest in education. This book attempts to explain why music inquiry makes sense, what pieces are required to do music inquiry effectively (the knowledge, skills and dispositions) and then provides how to teach music inquiry in a series of day-by-day lesson plans.

What is a game? You might think of cards and dice, computers, or sports. You might even think of music or theater as games. But what about Science? Games have rules, players, and objectives, but, maybe most importantly, games are fun. People play games because they think they are "fun," and sometimes they even learn some important lessons. Classrooms are intended to teach important lessons, and sometimes people think they are fun (not nearly often enough). Brainball (Science Edition) is designed to combine the best of both worlds! Science Inquiry is the game and learning the intended outcome! Veteran science teachers Kolis and Lenz provide small step-by-step 5E's lessons and an inquiry-based sequence to guide you through that first learning experience so that you too can play the game of Brainball (Science Edition)!

This volume of the Brainball series gives the theater classroom teacher an intentional, sequenced process for creating inclusive theatre pedagogy that maximizes students' learning. In addition, the Brainball technique offers concrete forms of meaningful assessment applicable to the theater classroom, and connects easily to our newly published national standards in theatre arts education. Brainball is a purposeful and process-driven set of teaching strategies that gets students to "express their human experience through representative actions." The book focuses on creating experiences that allow students to grapple with what is going on in their lives - and then work through the joys and pains through role-play activities. This book is also an excellent resource to help guide teachers in intentionally planning to get students to develop positive dispositions, collaborative teams and supportive communities where everyone contributes and everyone has an important role.

Higher-order thinking questions (and their answers) are considered by many to be the holy grail of teaching. Teachers know when students "get it", but the question remains "How do you teach students to think explicitly and intentionally?" This book uses a series of diagrams to make thinking explicit by using students' personal experiences as the foundation for their thinking. Thinking Diagrams will help the reader move beyond understanding what metacognition is to teaching students how to understand their thinking in visual form. This book is filled with contemporary and practical insights regarding helping teachers of all levels foster classrooms rich in student thinking, creativity, and learning.

Classrooms are systems, schools are systems, and schooling in the United States is a big system. Changing any of those systems requires an awareness of how they work; what they produce; and where to apply time, energy, and resources. Current systems could be much better in meeting students' current and future needs. Student Relevance Matters: Why Do I Have to Know this Stuff? aims to clarify the most intrinsic reasons to learn, thereby bridging the gap between content and meeting student needs. This allows for compelling visions, and visions are the seed of learning. This book describes current classrooms, students, and the relationships between them through systems viewpoints one positive and the other skeptical that they are working as effectively as they might. Each content area is viewed through a lens of deep purpose and how that meets students' needs in timeframes that work best for students. Using those purposes as lenses, knowledge areas are redefined and skills provided to help make those purposes a reality in classrooms today.

Rethinking Teaching is based upon one very simple idea - teachers teach people. That very simple idea is expressed as "Teachers as Collaborative Leaders." Teachers wishing to redefine how they work in the classroom must focus on three key ideas: 1) They must build and maintain relationships with and among their students, 2) They must view Content as the foundation for personal learning (not the end product), and 3) When people change (and learn), they get to keep much of what they already know and can do. Veteran teacher Mickey Kolis provides the background information to implement those three key ideas as well as skills to make them work in the classroom. He also offers a mechanism to manage that change process: a 3 (changes) in 30 (days) model.

Inquiry is becoming more and more an area of interest for educators. This book attempts to explain why math inquiry makes sense, what pieces are required to do math inquiry effectively (the knowledge, skills and dispositions), and then provides a series of day-by-day lesson plans.

Brainball:Teaching Inquiry and Social Studies as a Team Sport is an attempt to clarify that not only is social studies a game, but that it is one of the most useful and powerful games that teachers and students will ever play. Games are the doing of theory, and maybe it would be a good idea to start doing social studies in every social studies classroom.

Inquiry is becoming more and more an area of interest in education. This book attempts to explain why music inquiry makes sense, what pieces are required to do music inquiry effectively (the knowledge, skills and dispositions) and then provides how to teach music inquiry in a series of day-by-day lesson plans.

This volume of the Brainball series gives the theater classroom teacher an intentional, sequenced process for creating inclusive theatre pedagogy that maximizes students' learning. In addition, the Brainball technique offers concrete forms of meaningful assessment applicable to the theater classroom, and connects easily to our newly published national standards in theatre arts education. Brainball is a purposeful and process-driven set of teaching strategies that gets students to "express their human experience through representative actions." The book focuses on creating experiences that allow students to grapple with what is going on in their lives - and then work through the joys and pains through role-play activities. This book is also an excellent resource to help guide teachers in intentionally planning to get students to develop positive dispositions, collaborative teams and supportive communities where everyone contributes and everyone has an important role.

Higher-order thinking questions (and their answers) are considered by many to be the holy grail of teaching. Teachers know when students "get it", but the question remains "How do you teach students to think explicitly and intentionally?" This book uses a series of diagrams to make thinking explicit by using students' personal experiences as the foundation for their thinking. Thinking Diagrams will help the reader move beyond understanding what metacognition is to teaching students how to understand their thinking in visual form. This book is filled with contemporary and practical insights regarding helping teachers of all levels foster classrooms rich in student thinking, creativity, and learning.

What is a game? You might think of cards and dice, computers, or sports. You might even think of music or theater as games. But what about Science? Games have rules, players, and objectives, but, maybe most importantly, games are fun. People play games because they think they are "fun," and sometimes they even learn some important lessons. Classrooms are intended to teach important lessons, and sometimes people think they are fun (not nearly often enough). Brainball (Science Edition) is designed to combine the best of both worlds! Science Inquiry is the game and learning the intended outcome! Veteran science teachers Kolis and Lenz provide small step-by-step 5E's lessons and an inquiry-based sequence to guide you through that first learning experience so that you too can play the game of Brainball (Science Edition)!

Let's face it: learning is a high-stakes venture. True learning - the kind that stays with students long after the grades are in - requires risk. Ownership. Change. But what does it look like for students to really understand your subject? How can you structure assignments so that Googling becomes an asset, not a threat, to demonstrating knowledge? Veteran teacher Mickey Kolis invites you to reflect on how you "do learning" in your classroom. Real-life classroom examples demonstrate how you can shift the drive for learning into students' hands - while still meeting your learning benchmarks. From making assignments meaningful to students to assessing the results, Rethinking Teaching explores key ideas for creating environments where students want to learn.

True learning-the kind that stays with students long after the grades are in-requires risk. Ownership. Change. But what does it look like for students to really understand your subject? How can you structure assignments so that Googling becomes an asset, not a threat, to demonstrating knowledge? Veteran teacher Mickey Kolis invites you to reflect on how you "do learning" in your classroom. Real-life classroom examples demonstrate how you can shift the drive for learning into students' hands-while still meeting your learning benchmarks. From making assignments meaningful to students to assessing the results, Powerful Ideas in Teaching explores key ideas for creating environments where students want to learn.