Rigorous Alignment to Enhance Retained Learning – Landing the Plane

Teaching personnel have always spent many hours designing learning for those in their care. Most of the time they hit the mark. Unfortunately, other times they do not. This is ok because FAILing is always a First Attempt In Learning, as long as there is development, and we encourage this through valid risk-taking. With an … Continue reading Rigorous Alignment to Enhance Retained Learning – Landing the Plane

Successful Literacy/Numeracy Instruction using Organic Learning

Some may assume that our Organic Learning Cycle is another version of an inquiry model. The truth is that it is purely a 'learning model'. Indeed the cycle is designed to help pose, find and solve problems in an inquiry sense, but the model just as brilliantly aligns itself with explicit/guided instruction, and in particular, … Continue reading Successful Literacy/Numeracy Instruction using Organic Learning

Student Metacognition: Using a Competency Rubric to Assess Deep Learning

We are all aware of the dependency on the quantitative collection of student learning and the high stakes associated with it - externalised testing which results in funding, which is tied to further data collection. The cycle continues and grows moss along the way. What about the emotional connection to learning? Can we put a … Continue reading Student Metacognition: Using a Competency Rubric to Assess Deep Learning

Learning through Hexagonal & Triangular Thinking

So effective learning is effective learning. Visual representations of learning are a powerful way to extract, externalise and extrapolate knowledge into a tangible form in order to make meaning and 'connect the new with what we already knew' (Borthwick 2016). Hexagonal thinking is a process that we use with our learners, young and old, to both convey … Continue reading Learning through Hexagonal & Triangular Thinking

Hexagonal Curriculum Mapping: It Works!

In schools today there are many conflicting agendas that add pressure to the planning and delivery of a quality curriculum that directly meets required syllabus Outcomes. Consciously and competently developing contemporary learning skills is also at the forefront as educators desire to not only use ‘best’ but also ‘next’ practice strategies to build and enhance … Continue reading Hexagonal Curriculum Mapping: It Works!