From left, Barranca teachers Cynthia Kuenzel, Nicole McGrane and Joline Keeler, recipients for a LAPS Foundation professional development grant. Courtesy photoLAPSF News:
Through a grant from the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation (LAPSF), three Barranca Mesa Elementary teachers took part in an online professional development class this fall called Making Thinking Visible, offered by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Joline Keeler, 4th grade, Cynthia Kuenzel, 1st grade and Nicole McGrane, 5th grade, joined other teams across the world over the 12 week course to discuss assigned readings or media clips and respond via a class/group blog as they learned about routines that help children make their own internal thinking visible. All teams had access to resources and materials developed by Harvard’s Project Zero and the research and experience of global leaders in the field of creating and using thinking routines.
During the course, all teams worked to gain skills in thinking routines that would build students’ understanding, increase engagement in the subject areas through thinking, and improve students’ thinking. Participants learned skills that can help children use the thinking routines that foster the depth of thinking required to master the Common Core State Standards.
By collaborating as a team and connecting with other teams of educators around the world, the trio has gained a framework and impetus to implement some new teaching strategies that impact their own teaching and the students’ engagement in the learning process.
“It was invigorating to watch how students adapted to these thinking routines and became more confident in their individual ideas,” McGrane said. “Students began making new and varied connections, classmates’ ideas sparked new ideas, and they were excited about building understanding and depth of ideas that wasn’t present before.”
The teachers are excited to use these new skills in their teaching across the curriculum and welcome inquiries from other teachers who would like to learn more about Thinking Routines and how to foster their use in classroom teaching.
Professional Development Grants are available through the LAPS Foundation to all district educators on semi-annual basis; proposals currently being accepted until Feb. 17 to the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation are accepted year round via the Foundation’s website www.lapsfoundation.com or by mailing a check to 1900 Diamond Dr., Suite 1, Los Alamos, NM 87544.
