Top, Right - Psychology students used skills and concepts they learned in class to analyze a crime scene!
After applying for and winning a grant (The Innovative Learning Grant), I was able to write and build my very own escape rooms for the classroom! Lockboxes, puzzle ciphers, invisible ink... talk about engaging and creative!
Escape rooms are fantastic skill builders. There is a strong element of teamwork and communication. If you want to succeed and escape you must work together! In addition, the puzzles and clues in escape rooms promote higher order thinking in the human brain.
I love to celebrate diversity first and foremost as a teacher. As an educator, my classrooms have every type of person and I want to shine a light on them all.
Variety is the spice of life as they say and that is how I am as a teacher. There are consistencies of course but I also throw in more interactive tasks throughout the year, including the Industrial Revolution Project where students must invent something that will change the future! A student example is above.
One of the most important skills as an educator is to make the content relevant to the students' lives. If it's real to them, they will develop a much deeper understanding. Part of this process is allowing the students to develop their own identity in the classroom. One task we do is have students create their very own nations, flags and all! This allows them to understand the process people went through in history to create new nations and fight for independence.