How Do You Make Learning Permanent?

Hello families!

What an inspiring week.  Sometimes just being with your children is so inspiring.  Gaby and I have noticed that a lot of work is happening, and the level of work is becoming so amazing.  The children are really challenging themselves and are turning finishing work that they have spent much time perfecting.  Here are some of the finished illustrations for our songs and poems book:

 Illustration by Tennacee for One Green Jelly Bean

Illustration by Henry for Here Comes the Sun

Illustration by Ocean for September

Illustration by Connor for October

Also, start looking for the equations they have been writing and solving about the number 3.  This has been very fun.  Some friends are challenging themselves with addition and others are challenging themselves with subtraction.  For many friends this means getting the symbols (- + =)connected to their correct meaning so that the equation does in fact say what they mean.  And they have been using their creativity to show the math involved.  This makes them rather humorous. What, math, fun???

This week I had the privilege of attending the annual California Charter School Conference.  I went to a few seminars that were inspiring!  I wanted to share some information from one that was given by Kristen Mitchell from Coastal Academy.  Her presentation was called Making Learning Permanent: Simple Strategies for Dynamic Results. 

One of the key pieces of knowledge that she offered from her experience as a teacher were her 5 ways to make learning permanent.  She was talking about the importance for children to be in charge of their own learning and actively engage with the information they are learning about. 

Her 5 ways to make learning permanent are:
1.  Children explaining things in their own words.
2.  Children writing about it in their own words.
3.  For children to "do" or "draw"- meaning use other modalities to show what they know.
4.  To teach the topic to someone else.
5.  To sing the knowledge in song form, especially one that they have created themselves.

I could go on and on about other elements she spoke about, but I wanted to give you these simple steps as food for thought.  She had found that when children interact with learning in these five specific ways they will retain it.  This was important for her because she was explaining how she had had years where children did well in class and "got all the answers right" but then did not really remember much after this.  And if they did, they would parrot it back to the teacher, but not be able to use it or make it their own. 

One of the biggest indicators she spoke of was the ability to state your opinion, back it up and then debate or defend an idea with your reasoning.  If children show that they can do that about a given topic, it is probably because they have their knowledge in their brain, rather than regurgitating it.

Interesting stuff, eh?  Please feel free to come to me if you want to talk more about my experiences at the conference!  It was great to be there with so many people who are working to make schools better!

I hope your week is going well.  Have a nice evening, Jennifer