The Holy Grail of education is to find a way to teach more effectively, increase student learning, empower kids to connect and collaborate, make school fun, and yet not to have to sacrifice our health and wellness to do it.
Impossible?
Absolutely, not!
It’s time to stop trying to reinvent the wheel. We don’t need to create a different lesson for every day of the school year nor do we have to buy or rely on pre-packaged, scripted units of instruction or “pretty” worksheets that we find online.
The simple truth is that people get better at what they do the more times they do it. As a basketball coach, repetition was important to me. I want my players handling the ball, passing, moving, shooting, and executing the fundamentals of the game EVERY day. We don’t teach a skill to a player, have them execute it one time, and then expect them to be able to successfully perform that skill in the pressure of a game.
Oh!!! And we certainly don’t just TELL them about the skill and never have them actually do it one single time and expect them to master it.
We teach it and then we consistently give them reps while providing feedback along the way. At the beginning of the year it may take a significant amount of time each practice to go through the fundamentals but then as players get proficient and efficient…it becomes a ritual of skills that we go through quite quickly as we add on more complex concepts and more advanced skills. But, if you are on my team…you better believe you are going to do ball-handling, passing, movement, and shooting drills every single practice. Mastery comes through repetition.
As classroom teachers, we waste an incredible amount of time going from one type of lesson and/or project to another and never giving students the reps they need to master the material…nor just master the very art of learning. The fundamentals!!
If only we had a set of lesson frames that we could use over and over, switching in and out our content, that would allow students to master the fundamentals of learning and collaboration and be able to DOMINATE the required curriculum in a faster and more efficient way.
But wait, even better would be if teachers could master the use of these lesson frames and then be able to use them across the curriculum and at every grade level with only small adaptations. In other words, master the use of these with your 5th grade curriculum and when you suddenly get plopped into 3rd grade the next year…they still work! Just switch in the new content much like you can take the same beautiful picture frame and swap in and out new vacation pictures.
Let’s go one step further. What if these lesson frames were not only highly flexible, efficient, and therefore freed up time each semester for more pirate-like experiences, project based learning, and genius hour type of opportunities for students…but what if they also required WAY less prep time on the part of the teacher?????
Yikes!! This is getting good but we aren’t done!
What if they were also LOVED by students, something they looked forward to more and more as they increased their mastery of them, and allowed students to collaborate and have FUN while owning their own learning.
We don’t have to dream about it!! It is now a reality!! These lesson frames are called #EduProtocols and we have released the ultimate guide on how to use them.
Introducing The EduProtocol Field Guide: 16 Student-Centered Lesson Frames for Infinite Learning Possibilities by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo.
It.
Is.
Incredible.
How do I know when a book is going to really take off? When I see teachers tweeting out and sharing examples of how
they are using the material in their classes THE VERY SAME WEEK they get the book!!! This is a book filled with stuff you will actually DO. This isn’t a theory book. This is not a fluff book. This is idea after idea completely worked out for you based on REAL-WORLD classroom experience.
Get the book today…use these lesson frames for the rest of your teaching career. It’s that simple…and that powerful.
The amazing Alice Keeler wrote the foreword and said, “…this book is the teacher-prep program I wish I’d had!”
Additional praise:
“This is the book I’ve heard teachers begging for without realizing it.” – Matt Miller
“This book is not simply one you read; it’s one you use, and then use again.” – Thomas Murray
“This book should be given to every pre-service and current instructor as the Bible of teaching.” – Lisa DeLapo
“It won’t be long before The EduProtocol Field Guide is required reading in all teacher credential programs.” – Diana Dietz
“I have exponentially more time on my hands because I use protocols. Additionally, our classroom culture is infinitely better, and I am less stressed.” – Nate Shankles
Want to learn more about EduProtocols? Matt Miller has graciously allowed us to access his #DitchSummit video interview of co-author, Jon Corippo from winter break 2017. It is a little over 50 minutes long and there are several EduProtocols used as examples. Listen to Jon tell why these frames are so powerful, rebut some of the common pushbacks, and get you excited about how these can impact your class. The video is only available for 10 days from today (4/10). That means you have until Friday 4/20 to watch the video. (Thanks, Matt!!)
Here it is:
Okay!! Stop chasing your tail and working WAY harder than your students are working and all the while not getting the best possible results. The EduProtocol “wheel” has already been invented…it’s time to get on board and coast downhill with less effort and more speed!!
Buy The EduProtocol Field Guide HERE on Amazon or HERE on Barnes & Noble Online. Also, join the discussion at the #EduProtocols hashtag on Twitter!!
Work smarter…not harder!!!
Dave
P.S.
I’m not sure what more to say to convince you. They even included 6 Smart Starts that you can do to build the culture right from the very first week of school. For example, are you tired of seeing horrific student presentations but finding it tough to fit in the time to teach presentational skills? Wait until you see their activity called “The Worst Presentation Ever!” Imagine a fast and super fun activity where kids collaborate to shamelessly break presentational rules in a competition to create The Worst Presentation EVER!!! Fun? Heck yeah! But…uh oh!!! Sneaky sneaky sneaky!!!! In order to break the rules…they are actually learning them AND…seeing examples from their peers of why presentations suck when you break them. This whole book is GOLD. Please CLICK HERE and buy it today!
P.S.S.
Did I mention there are adaptations throughout the whole book to show how to do this stuff with early primary kids??? Yep…that’s in there, too! BUY IT HERE!!