Personal project day - a PD Session

The teachers of entire junior school got engaged in personal projects on 8th Jan, where every teacher opted for its own topic and started its' quest for something which was not known to them before. The teachers worked in three session where the 1st session was searching, 2nd was planning with your partner and 3rd the presentation. The topics visited and explored by teachers were-

          1. Visible Thinking Routines-Visible Thinking is a broad and flexible framework for enriching classroom learning in the content areas and fostering students' intellectual development at the same time. Some of its key goals:

• Deeper understanding of content
• Greater motivation for learning
• Development of learners' thinking and learning abilities.
• Development of learners' attitudes toward thinking and learning and their alertness to opportunities for thinking and learning (the "dispositional" side of thinking).
• A shift in classroom culture toward a community of enthusiastically engaged thinkers and learners.

2. Differentiation-Differentiated instruction is simply providing instruction in a variety of ways to meet the needs of a variety of learners. 

• A Differentiated classroom is proactive
• Differentiated instruction is more qualitative than quantitative.
• Differentiated instruction provides multiple approaches to content, process, and product.
• Differentiated instruction is student centered
• Differentiated instruction is a blend of whole-class, group, and individual instruction.

3. Culture of thinking-A Culture of Thinking exists in a classroom when the cultural forces of that classroom are directed toward and aligned with the support of good thinking. Thinking culture are places in which a group's collective, as well as individual thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted as part of the regular day-to-day experience of all group members.

4. Authentic Inquiry- Authentic learning is a relatively new term that describes learning through applying knowledge in real-life contexts and situations.

           The four themes supporting authentic learning are:

• An activity that involves real-world problems and that mimics the work of professionals; the activity involves presentation of findings to audiences beyond the classroom. 
• Use of open-ended inquiry, thinking skills and metacognition. Students engage in discourse and social learning in a community of learners.
• Students direct their own learning in project work.

5. Use of Technology-   Use of technology is transforming the work of teacher and student, and more specifically the way the students are supported in the classroom. As schools bring more technology into their classrooms, teachers will in turn strive to put more technology in their students' hands.