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What is an Ecosystem? How is this like a learning community? 

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What is an Ecosystem? How is this like a learning community? 

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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows.

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Collaborative Learning in Action identifies and explains the great variety of teaching strategies and the 'structures' in which they operate. This text is underpinned by a view of learning that involves teachers and students engaging in meaningful collaborative dialogue.

Strategies include: questioning, discussing, brainstorming, problem solving, role playing, simulating, explaining, narrating; the use of activities such as 'thinking hats', 'thinker's keys', games, moral dilemmas and value clarification; participation in exhibitions, projects, excursions; the use of graphic organisers and technology. The text also explains the practical implications of the work of Bloom, Gardner, de Bono, Taba, Michaelis, Pohl, Ryan and Suchman.

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Amazon.com: Collaborative Learning in Action eBook : Brady, Laurie: Kindle Store

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Jacqueline S. Thousand has been a teacher educator since 1981 and has more than 20 years of experience in training teachers and providing technical assistance to schools to create inclusive educational experiences for children from preschool through high school. At the University of Vermont, she coordinated an early childhood special education teacher preparation program and one of the first Inclusion Facilitator graduate programs (1986-1996) in the United States. As the coordinator of the Vermont Homecoming Project in the early 1980s, she was a pioneer in developing instruction and curriculum modification strategies for including students with moderate and severe disabilities that came to be the staples of inclusive practice in the 1990s. With her move in 1996 to California State University San Marcos, she coordinates a teacher credential program that endorses graduates as general and special educators, thus enabling them to advocate for and support students with disabilities as either classroom teachers or special educators. In addition to directing the college's special education credential and master's programs, she continues her commitment to community development by working with leadership and staff of local schools to restructure special day class programs and move the teachers and students in these classes into the mainstream. She also works closely with families to make inclusive education communities a reality. She sits on the editorial boards of a number of professional journals and is past co-editor of Teacher Education and Special Education. She currently serves on the International Board of TASH (formerly The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps), an international advocacy association of people with disabilities, their family members, other advocates, and people who work in the disabilities field. Dr. Thousand has authored numerous books, research articles, and book chapters on practical how-to strategies for meeting the needs of all students in general education; adapting curriculum, instruction, and assessment; collaborative teaming; and creative problem solving.

Richard A. Villa, Ed.D., has worked with thousands of teachers and administrators throughout North America and the rest of the world in developing and implementing instructional support systems for educating all students within general education environments. Dr. Villa has been a classroom teacher, special education coordinator, pupil personnel services director, and director of instructional services. He has authored more than 70 articles and book chapters regarding inclusive education and has co-edited three previous books for teachers, administrators, and parents: Restructuring for Caring and Effective Education: An Administrative Guide to Creating Heterogeneous Schools (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1992), Creativity and Collaborative Learning: A Practical Guide to Empowering Students and Teachers (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1994), and Creating an Inclusive School Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, (1995). He has presented at numerous national and international conferences and is known for his enthusiastic, humorous style of presenting.

Ann I. Nevin, Ph.D., earned her doctoral degree in educational psychology in 1970 from the University of Minnesota with Maynard C. Reynolds, one of the pioneers of the mainstreaming movement. As a scholar and teacher, Dr. Nevin is passionately committed to discovering what educators, parents, advocates, and students can use to improve academic and social success of students who are difficult to teach. Since 1968, she has been involved in university-level experimental teacher education programs (e.g., in 1969, she collaborated in the development and evaluation of the Vermont Consulting Teacher Program; since 1979, she worked with consulting teachers to replicate the Johnson and Johnson cooperative group learning model for students with special needs). Since 2000, she has collaborated with public school administrators and mentor teachers to empower special education interns to teach self-determination skills and student-led individualized education programs within the K-12 curriculum. Most recently, Dr. Nevin collaborated with technology experts, continuing education programs, and various interdisciplinary faculty to create, implement, evaluate, and redesign graduate-level classes in special education for teachers to learn entirely over the Internet.

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Creativity and Collaborative Learning: The Practical Guide to Empowering Students, Teachers, and Families, Second Edition

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Creativity and Collaborative Learning: The Practical Guide to Empowering Students, Teachers, and Families, Second Edition [Thousand Ph.D., Jacqueline, Villa Ph.D., Richard, Nevin Ph.D., Ann] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Creativity and Collaborative Learning: The Practical Guide to Empowering Students, Teachers, and Families, Second Edition

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A Teacher's Guide to Igniting Deep and Joyful Learning Across the Day

"We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. They provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional.

Play is serious business.

Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to:

optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning

teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset

bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day.

"We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional.

Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.

(click any section below to continue reading)

In Depth

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky was a proponent of the idea that children learn best when we build on their strengths, but accomplishing this can sometimes feel a bit frustrating. As we struggle mightily to develop kids' stamina to ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes of reading and writing, we watch these same children deeply engaged in play during recess and choice time for long, extended periods. So while we firmly believe in building on children's strengths, it can be frustrating when we find ourselves limiting the time we give kids to do what we know they do best: play.

Perhaps, we need to look at play from a different perspective; if the feeling of active movement toward a goal is what we call work, then play is the work of children. In fact, it is the work and the art of childhood: the essence of learning, discovery, and creating. In play, learners are developing ideas, taking on and assigning roles, collaborating, crafting the environment and deciding when to change it, developing and negotiating rules, and being active listeners. If play is the work of children, then to build on kids' strengths, we need to ask, "How can we infuse an abundance of play and the crafting the environment and deciding when to change it, developing and negotiating rules, and being active listeners. If play is the work of children, then to build on kids' strengths, we need to ask, "How can we infuse an abundance of play and the principles of play across the curriculum?"

Reviews

"Some of the book's most powerful advice about play pertains just as much to adults working with children as it does to the children. Play is a mindset. The role of play in the classroom doesn't only improve kids' learning lives; it makes teachers' lives that much more joyful, purposeful, and sustainable.."
- Elizabeth Moore, at Two Writing Teachers
Read the entire review

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"We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. They provide a host

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RPPL brings together professional learning (PL) organizations and researchers who study teacher learning to identify the features of PL that improve students' classroom experiences, well-being, and academic growth, with a specific focus on students from historically marginalized groups.

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The Research Partnership for Professional Learning

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RPPL brings together professional learning (PL) organizations and researchers who study teacher learning to identify the features of PL that improve students' classroom experiences, well-being, and academic growth, with a specific focus on students from historically marginalized groups.

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What will it take to create truly contemporary learning environments that meet the demands of 21st-century society, engage learners, and produce graduates who are prepared to succeed in the world? What skills and capacities do teachers and leaders need to create and sustain such schools? What actions are necessary?

Bold Moves for Schools offers a compelling vision that answers these questions-and action steps to make the vision a reality. Looking through the lenses of three pedagogies-antiquated, classical, and contemporary-authors Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Marie Hubley Alcock examine every aspect of K-12 education, including curriculum, instruction, assessment, and the program structures of space (both physical and virtual), time, and grouping of learners and professionals. In a new job description for teachers, Jacobs and Alcock highlight and expound on the following roles:

self-navigating professional learner,

social contractor,

media critic and media maker,

innovative designer,

globally connected citizen, and

advocate for learners and learning.

With thought-provoking proposals and practical strategies for change, Bold Moves for Schools sets educators on the path to redefining their profession and creating exciting new learning environments. The challenge is unprecedented. The possibilities are unlimited.

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Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments

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Amazon.com: Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments: 9781416623052: Jacobs, Heidi Hayes, Alcock, Marie Hubley: Books

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Everybody learns differently - and everyone needs variation. We believe that learning spaces need to support different ways of learning and developing skills for the 21st century.

Our design of spaces is based on six principles that connect learning situations to the physical framework. Each describes a constellation for the learners' focus and interaction.

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Learning Spaces Need to Enable and Motivate Every Learner

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Everybody learns differently - and everyone needs variation. We believe that learning spaces need to support different ways of learning and developing skills for the 21st century.Our design of spaces is based on six principles that connect learning situations to the physical framework. Each describes a constellation for the learners' focus and interaction.