Tag: learning
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Keep nurturing ‘questions’ in children!
What if children can ask questions for a purpose? What if they ask questions that allow them to gather information? What if the questions children asked are relevant and necessary for their cognitive development? What if the questions children ask, help them achieve some change in knowledge? These are profound questions. Profound for children’s ability…
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Keep duality!
Chinua Achebe once spoke about dualities in a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers. He was reflecting on a proverb from the Igbo culture which states that ‘wherever something stands, something else will stand beside it.’ Achebe noted that it meant that there was no absolute anything. He stated that ‘if there is one point of…
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Keep happiness in mind!
For this past thanksgiving, though a quiet one, we kept happiness in mind. Like the shirt my second son wore, we all choose happiness. With so much going on in the world, so much to be thankful for, happiness is a necessity. The promise of happiness seems more urgent to me these days. On the…
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Keep kindness!
I observed my kids playing together the other day. One of them has a knack for collecting things. He collects specific things and like to know that they are by his side always. They same goes for the toys he plays with. He prefers for his toys to be in order. But what happens when…
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Keep being dry as pinecones!
We took a walk around Forest Park yesterday. The weather in Saint Louis this time of the year is unusually beautiful for a Fall/Winter and perfect for a walk in the park. One thing we saw all around the park were pinecones. There were lots of them all around and fun object to pick and…
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Keep gratitude in mind!
I am always a little bored with demonstrations of greetings during the holidays. Demonstrations like, similar text messages that often begin on Thanksgiving and end, at least during the holidays, on New Year. They rely on the same things, the same promises, the same wishes, even the same prayers. I am sure you got a…
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Keep what you know first!
Books that read like poetry are my favorite. Especially for my children. Enter this classic book ‘What you know first,’ by Patricia MacLachlan written in 1995, with engravings by Barry Moser. It is one of my unique finds from a trip to our local thrift store. I’m probably one of a handful of moms who…
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Keep letting kids ask ‘why’!
Why is the sky blue? Why are clouds white? Why do clouds even start with the letter C? These are common questions my three year old asks every day. He is not alone. Many kids his age get to the bottom of things by asking questions. Yet by the time kids reach middle school, they…
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Keep taking risks!
We all know life is too short! It is! Here is another kicker, your tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. It isn’t. So choose to fight for what matters, even if it is risky. Today I had to fight for the right to keep 2 dear colleagues. I took a risk on them last year and it has…
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Keep fostering an inquiry mindset!
I love to talk. It’s presumably why I easily gravitated to a career in teaching. But ever since I started teaching a course I absolutely love, I have learnt first hand why teaching isn’t about lecturing or talking. It’s about students themselves asking questions of subject matter and me guiding them where possible to come…
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Keep co-learning about dinosaurs!
My children are at the age where dinosaurs are their best friends. Not only do we read all sorts of books about dinosaurs, but thanks to Forest Park, there is a dinosaur park they love to visit every weekend. The other day they drew maps about how we went from our house to the park.…
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Keep building confident learners in 1st grade!
I came across a statistic recently on why reading by the end of third grade matters. It matters for success in high school and beyond. It matters because it’s the crucial point when children start using reading to learn other subjects. It also matters to mitigate delays in language and social emotional development in early…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 