I’ve just finished Mitchel Resnick's book Lifelong Kindergarten. I love the way this book shares real examples of how to bring powerful philosophies to life with students, and especially that it was so relevant to the kids I work with: upper primary. I’m sharing my sketch notes of the four chapters on projects, peers, play and … Continue reading Lifelong Kindergarten
Thinking
Introducing the Learning Assets in Upper Primary
In this post I share some lessons for introducing the learning assets. Skip to the end if you're looking for those. This year my classroom co-teacher and I have been focusing on building the learning assets with our Year 4/5/6 students. As documented by Kath Murdoch in her book The Power of Inquiry (2015), learning … Continue reading Introducing the Learning Assets in Upper Primary
Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
Do you need a great cooperative game? This one will sweep them away. I play Island Survival with year 4, 5, and 6s either at the beginning or end of the year and it is always a hit! They often ask for it again. It's a great game that allows for problem solving, justification, reasoning, … Continue reading Island Survival: A Cooperative Game
Effort and Achievement Charts
Carol Dweck's work around growth and fixed mindsets has been groundbreaking for education. It has reinforced for educators that is it essential to praise effort, not intelligence. This has led to change in the way educators speak and lots of us are doing great work in the way we provide feedback to students based on … Continue reading Effort and Achievement Charts
Hexagonal Thinking
Hexagonal Thinking is a visual tool to help people make connections and organise ideas on a topic. I first learned about hexagonal thinking through the  No Tosh Lab who encourage the use of it for going from the messy idea stage of the designing thinking process to the stage where ideas are organised and ordered to work … Continue reading Hexagonal Thinking
Mrs Fintelman Teaches 