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Learner Lab: Unlocking the Science of getting better

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Learner Lab: Unlocking the Science of getting better

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Jenn Maichin

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Quick links to our most recent content

Learner Lab: Topics

Learning is a skill. One of the most important skills that we can build. In order to do that, there are 5 elements we need to understand and dig into:

All of these topics work together. The big goal of becoming a better learner is to Jungle Tiger more.

Growth mindset, understanding fear, resilience, and a better environment can help that process. We dig into these topics during our workshops.

Some of the groups that we've worked with

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The Learner Lab Home - Welcome to The Learner Lab

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Quick links to our most recent content Learner Lab: Topics Learning is a skill. One of the most important skills that we can build. In order to do that, there are 5 elements we need to understand and dig into: All of these topics work together.

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Jenn Maichin

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Yeah! You’re here! Let’s take a look at all the stuff I have for you. First, let’s get something out of the way. I’ve noticed that whenever people say the name of this site to me, they’ll trail off like this, “Cult of…” That hesitation! They don’t know how to say pedagogy. So here you

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Jenn Maichin

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BetterLesson Instructional Strategies provide ready-to-use resources and step-by-step guidance to help education professionals grow in their practice.

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Jenn Maichin

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Leslie is a 6th grade teacher at MMS

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Often times, I google activities for ideas and Pinterest or TPT pop up which always help me look at everyones views and ways of planning/ organizing their thoughts.

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I follow MANY Speech Pathologists on Instagram, this is often where I find inspiration for most activities. They often provide their little pep talks that also reassure the stresses/ worries I am having.

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I follow @jenmanlyedu I saw her at a PD conference. She always has fresh ideas and talks about her own struggles with Virtual teaching. She shares her ideas and strategies that work for her and helps share other ideas to try! (always very motivational)

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Stephannia kabanakis

Since this is my first year teaching  AP CSP I was told to join a Facebook group and they have Been so helpful! It’s such a community where teachers share ideas and projects that they are working on and where they find different lessons! In addition, on how to introduce new concepts in different ways!

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I also ask other teachers in my department if I am stuck on a concept or idea on how to introduce something. Kuri, Bonnie  and Sabrina are the real MVP to me this year :)

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I search the topic or skill and look for inspiring posts/ ideas.
-Ann Aguila

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Mineola and George Couros opened my eyes last year to Twitter.  I get ideas from Mineola teachers, as well as teachers that I've never even met, off Twitter.  Everyone is always willing to share and help.  I love to see what the younger grades are up to and I'm so happy I've had so much experience with the upper grades.  I spiral what I've learned into the middle school classroom.  I love following the Pre-K teachers and even bring their lessons into my own home.  Life is journey of learning.  I know this may a little morbid sounding, but my little Sicilian grandmother would always say, in Italian, "I'll rest when I'm dead."   That's how I feel about learning.   - Teresa Eng

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I love talking to my colleagues. I also love to branch off and speak with teachers outside of my content area and grade level.

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I don't particularly follow a certain person on Youtube, but youtube is a great place to go when you are in need of help with teaching/learning a Math concept. It's packed with videos upon videos of content that teaches me different strategies in how to introduce topics into my classroom.

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TPT provides a great opportunity for teachers to see concepts in a new way that may be helpful for their students. Whether it's lessons, visual representations, graphic organizers, or even classroom management strategies, teachers come together to help each other out by providing resources that have been effective for them and their students.

- Tracey Hanes

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I use Pear Deck whenever I want to make ordinary lessons a bit more engaging and interactive for students. I follow Pear Deck on Twitter and they are always offering new and creative ideas regarding how to use the platform to promote student success and engagement. I especially love playing Flashcard Factory on Pear Deck to make studying more interactive, student-centered, and collaborative. I also find success using Pear Deck as a Google add-on in Slides to make typical lessons interactive to boost student participation.

-Tracey Hanes

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As a new teacher in Mineola, I find it especially helpful to follow Mineola teachers across all the grade levels on Twitter. I find new ideas regarding how to integrate the district mission statement into lessons, as well as creative ideas on how to engage students in general. Being able to share and utilize resources with colleagues in the district makes me feel like I'm a part of a welcoming school community, which has been helpful in itself!

-Tracey Hanes

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I was given this article by my cooperating teacher on my first day of student teaching. It has been one of the most important articles I have ever read. It is not an article for ideas/strategies on teaching, but rather something to live by. It is my go to on a hard or long day. A day where I feel overwhelmed, or I feel as though I have been surrounded by too much negativity.  I suggest this reading to all other new teachers because it will give you a  whole new perspective!

"Find your marigold and stick close to them".

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Welcome to your first year of teaching. This year will test you more intensely than just about anything you've done up to now. It will deplete all your energy, bring you to tears, and make you question every talent or skill you thought you had. But all these tests, if you approach them the right way, will leave you better and stronger than you are today.

Advice is available everywhere you look, and some of it is very good. Still, with everything you have to do right now, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all. And the fact is, a lot of those tips won't work very well if you fail to follow this one essential rule:

Surround yourself with good people.

By finding the positive, supportive, energetic teachers in your school and sticking close to them, you can improve your job satisfaction more than with any other strategy. And your chances of excelling in this field will skyrocket. Just like a young seedling growing in a garden, thriving in your first year depends largely on who you plant yourself next to.

Many experienced gardeners follow a concept called companion planting: placing certain vegetables and plants near each other to improve growth for one or both plants. For example, rose growers plant garlic near their roses because it repels bugs and prevents fungal diseases. Among companion plants, the marigold is one of the best: It protects a wide variety of plants from pests and harmful weeds. If you plant a marigold beside most any garden vegetable, that vegetable will grow big and strong and healthy, protected and encouraged by its marigold.

Marigolds exist in our schools as well - encouraging, supporting and nurturing growing teachers on their way to maturity. If you can find at least one marigold in your school and stay close to them, you will grow. Find more than one and you will positively thrive.

Few teachers will be lucky enough to be planted close to a marigold - being assigned to one as a mentor, co-teacher, or team leader will be rare. You will have to seek them out. You can identify them by the way they congratulate you on arrival, rather than asking why anyone would want this godforsaken job. Or by the way their offers to help sound sincere. Or just by how you feel when you're with them: Are you calmer, more hopeful? Excited to get started on a teaching task? Comfortable asking questions, even the stupid ones? If you feel good around this person, chances are they have some marigold qualities.

Once you've identified your marigolds, make an effort to spend time with them. Having a hard day? Go to your marigolds. Not understanding how to operate the grade reporting system? Go to your marigolds. Confused by something the principal said at the faculty meeting? Marigolds. They may be on the other side of the building, out of your grade or subject area, or otherwise less convenient to reach than others. If your school is especially toxic, you might have to find your marigolds in another school, or even online. Make the effort. It's worth the trouble.

While seeking out your marigolds, you'll need to take note of the walnut trees. Successful gardeners avoid planting vegetables anywhere near walnut trees, which give off a toxic substance that can inhibit growth, wilt, and ultimately kill nearby vegetable plants. And sadly, if your school is like most, walnut trees will be abundant. They may not seem dangerous at first. In fact, some may appear to be good teachers - happy, social, well-organized. But here are some signs that you should keep your distance: Their take on the kids is negative. Their take on the administration is negative. Being around them makes you feel insecure, discouraged, overwhelmed, or embarrassed.

WALNUT TREES ARE POISON. Avoid them whenever you can. If you don't, they will start to infect you, and soon you'll hate teaching as much as they do.

Doing this may be a challenge: Your supervisor might be a walnut tree. You may be co-teaching with one. You might work on a whole team of walnut trees, spending hours with them every week. Touching base with your marigolds will help flush out the toxins that build up from contact with the walnut trees. On top of that, simply identifying certain co-workers as walnut trees can help dilute their power over you. If I'd had a label I could mentally place on certain people in the schools where I worked, they would have had far less of an impact on me.

So in the spirit of identification, here are some common walnut tree varieties to look out for:

Kid-Hatin' Kate, who will snort every time you share a positive anecdote about your students. Spend enough time with her and you'll believe every single one of them is a lying, cheating little sneak and you're a fool if you think otherwise.

Retirement Dan, who regularly reports on how many years he has left before he's "outta here." He then adds with a chuckle that you have about thirty, right? Dan will find your enthusiasm about school "cute," but will then tell you to "just wait...it'll wear off."

Twenty-Page Tina, who sets impossibly high standards for her students and brags when kids fail. You had your kids write a five-page paper? Tina assigned twenty. Your mid-term had fifty questions? Tina's had a hundred and fifty, and only a dozen kids passed it. The students say her exams are the only ones they ever have to study for. After talking to Tina, you'll feel the urge to triple your kids' workload and add at least ten trick questions to your assessments, just to get your average down.

Badass Bobby, who overhears you talking about your students acting up in class and says, "They would never try that crap in my room." Whenever you leave a conversation with him, you go and scream at your kids.

Hattie-Who-Hates-the-Principal. Self-explanatory.

Lawsuit Steve, who sees you touch a student's forearm and says you better watch out. He "had to give up hugs years ago" and is always reminding you to "be careful."

My-Time Margaret, who counts the number of minutes she got for lunch, complains about serving one more day of car-rider duty than anyone else, and knows precisely what time she's legally required to be in the building each day (not a minute earlier).

And Good-Old-Days Judy, who hates anything new and never fails to mention how much better things used to be.

Be especially vigilant during PDs, when you'll find yourself in a veritable forest of walnut trees. It will be the worst when the presenter asks you to perform some task - read student work, for example - in groups. The trees will slowly turn toward the center, leaves rustling, snarky comments dropping off their branches like walnuts whacking the table. It won't matter how potentially interesting the activity might be, as soon as they huddle up it will be snark, snark, ugly, ugly, hate, hate. When this happens, recognize that you are surrounded, hold tight to your roots, and remember your marigolds.

Your search for marigolds will yield imperfect results: Not everyone is all-marigold or all-walnut tree. There will be some in the building who just make you happy - go to them for a mood boost. Some who aren't terribly good at the teaching part, but love the kids to death - seek them out when you need to be reminded of how much you love them, too. Others will take care of you - encourage you to rest, slack off a little, not beat yourself up. And some who are intensely into the craft, who always have a great strategy on hand and keep up on current research - they can really help you stretch your abilities. Learn who has what marigold qualities and get what you can from each of them.

Finally, try to find some compassion for the walnut trees. Their toxicity comes from a place of real pain, and they themselves probably fell under the influence of the walnut trees who came before them. Plus, it's not like their complaints have no basis in reality. Teaching is a ridiculously hard job, some say almost impossible.

Before you climb that peak, you'll need to choose a sherpa to escort you through the trek. The first option is Walter Nutt, who starts by asking why in the world you'd want to do something like this. He describes the many others who have died trying to do this climb, how sick you'll get, how people have polluted the trail, all but destroying what was once a pristine and beautiful mountain. The second option, Mary Gold, congratulates you on your courage, sits down with you to map out some important strategies, and finishes off by saying It's a crazy-hard, mammoth task, but you know what? We're going to kick that mountain's ass.

Who do you want leading you up that peak?

Find your marigolds and stick close to them. Grow big and strong. Kick that mountain's ass. ♦

Download a PDF of This Article
You may want a copy for yourself or to give to your Marigold (something from the Marigold Collection in our shop would make a great gift!). To download your own copy, click here to sign up for our mailing list, and the PDF will be on its way to your inbox.

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Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers

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Advice is available everywhere you look, and some of it is very good. But a lot of those tips won't work if you fail to follow this one essential rule.

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I follow an account called @itsmoniquesworld. This is an account of a kindergarten teacher. I get a lot of classroom management ideas from her, anchor charts, as well as engaging songs to use with my students.

I also follow #prek @pocketofpreschool and @engaginglearlylearners for a lot of activity ideas as well as resources that they create and sell on their TPT accounts.

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I love talking to my colleagues, mentor, and coach, because they all have so many creative ideas to give me as veteran teachers that I would have never thought of.
I also talk a lot with other teachers/friends I have previously worked with. I enjoy talking with these people because since we are all in different districts, we share new things we each learn with each other.

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I follow a lot of people in Mineola, especially the Pre-k teachers from last year so that I can get ideas on activities they did.
Some other accounts I also follow are @weareteachers @longislandprek
@cultofpedagogy @SELearningEDU
@teacher2teacher

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Pocket of PreK
Pinterest
Twitter

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I joined a few Pre K groups:
The Pre K Spot
Pocket of Pre K
The Creative Curriculum

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I follow a few first grade groups on Facebook (the First Grade Creative, First Grade Rocks and Fundations) that are very helpful.  I also get great ideas from our grade level planning sessions.  The first grade team at Hampton has been amazing!

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Janine Miller

I follow First Grade teachers on Instagram and collaborate with other First Grade level team members. One account in particular that has been a great resource is @thefirstgradecreative. She creates bitmoji classrooms and has other resources for all subject areas.

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Melissa Sephton

I like to use teacherspayteachers.com, and pinterest to get some inspiration sometimes! I love using these 2 websites the most because the teachers from these sites offer such creative ideas that can go with ideas I have in mind for potential lessons. Aside from these websites, I like to ask other experienced teachers in my department what they have done to teach a specific skill that I am looking to teach as well. It is very helpful for me to ask for others' opinion in my department, and I feel like I also build community with my colleagues when we collaborate on ideas.

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I follow several music teachers on instagram. One being @thetunefulbeatfulartfulteacher. She posted several different lesson ideas for teaching music during covid. I also appreciate that she discusses how hard things are right now and when she gets frustrated with things. It reminds me that everyone has rough days.
Amy Yencharis

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@maniacsinthemiddle 6th grade science teacher

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Ben Abbate
Middle School Physical Education In-person and Virtual

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District Instructional Leader

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Pre-k teacher at Meadow Drive
@Ms_Amendoeira

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Kindergarten Dual Language Teacher at Meadow Drive :)

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Art at Meadow Drive
@MissRubinArt

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Pre-k teacher at Meadow Drive
@nicolevella11

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@MelissaSephton

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@CoachWienclaw
Mineola High School
PE/Health

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First Grade Virtual at Hampton Street

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@healy_elisabeth

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Brenda Silverman
Grade 4 Dual Language
Jackson Avenue School
@BrendaSilverman9

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Maggie Hardiman- Pre-K teacher at Meadow Drive

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@misskeblish Meadow STEAM

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@MsSosa322

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@msmckeveny

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@MissHanes_MMS

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Sarah Miller Fourth Grade Teacher @ Jackson

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@msysmusicians

K-2 music at Hampton and Meadow

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I'm in a facebook group called "Teaching in 2000-2021 Creative Ideas" !

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@RHenryMinEoLA (I'm woefully inactive though...)

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@JenKrol

Virtual 5th Grade Math & Science :)

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@MrsZahralban

Virtual 5th grade Humanities & Social Studies

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@_Ms_Pereira_

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Twitter- @Fenty_SS

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@MissCawley102

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@ereganmineola

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@theconsciouskid -- Education through a critical race lens (has good childrens book suggestions!)

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@teachandtransform

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DL kindergarten
@MrRiveraMineola

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@mrshdvorak

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I want to get better at organizing my mind when I am lesson planning, learning to not over-do it or over-work myself, as I often over think and over plan.

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I use this website a lot of differentiating for my students and also for any extra work or enrichment activities

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Great freebies and handouts to help aid in phonics decoding. Geared to young readers but definitely helpful for interventions of some sort.

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@MsZappallaMMS

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I follow as many Mineola teachers and administrators as possible; I love seeing what is going on across grades, disciplines, and schools.

For Classics-related content and ideas, I follow:

AIRC Roman Culture - @SaveRome, @CarolineLawrence (author of The Roman Mysteries), Roman Archaeology News (@RomArchable), @Caecilius_CLC (Official account of the textbook I use), @GettyMuseum, @metmuseum, @MagisterCraft (Latin teacher & Minecraft educator), @gcouros, Excellence Through Classics (@etclassics), the American Classical League (@ACLClassics)...and many more!

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@Ms_Jahelka

Following: @JonGordon - positivity

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Twitter

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ms_sais
4th grade co teach at Jackson

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Prof. @ Teachers College

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@ms_rodriguez4

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Book: Teaching Music with a Passion -Peter Boonshaft

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Book: Teaching Music with a Passion -Peter Boonshaft

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Believe it or not, the AP Chemistry Facebook group is amazing! The experienced teachers are all so helpful and willing to share their ideas and documents. It’s great!

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My Twitter handle is @RaguzinSci

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My Twitter handle is @MineolaMagistra

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I follow Magister Craft for his amazing Latin Minecraft videos.

For Bitmoji fun, I use YouTube as my go to place for tutorials and shared docs for Where's Waldo Bitmoji slides.

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National Association of School Psychologists

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National Association of School Psychologists

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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NASP Practice Model

The NASP Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services, also known as the NASP Practice Model, represents NASP's official policy regarding the delivery of school psychological services. The model was updated as part of the NASP 2020 Professional Standards revision and builds on the success of the 2010 standards in advancing the comprehensive role of school psychologists across the country.

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) represents and supports the profession of school psychology by advancing effective practices to improve students' learning, behavior and mental ...

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I follow the American School Counselor Association page for updates/ideas.
-Nicole Lebowitz

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We create practical, timely, affordable professional learning to help educators and instructional leaders provide students with a modern, equitable, and quality education.

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My Twitter handle is @mrsadamski1

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Phet Simulations is a website that has a ton of visual simulations for almost all science concepts. It helps students visualize hard to see concepts in chemistry that deal with really small atoms/molecules/particles. One of the hardest parts for students in chemistry is being able to conceptualize what is happening. These simulations help students understand and see models easier.

Steve Raguzin

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I follow many AP chemistry teachers on YouTube and I encourage my students to watch their videos, too! Some of my favorites are Tyler Dewitt and Bozeman science.

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I use this website to find project inspiration  for The MS Fab Lab. It has a lot to choose from relating to technology, art, stem, etc.
-Adrianna Guidetti

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Step-by-step

We make it easy to learn how to make anything, one step at a time. From the stovetop to the workshop, you are sure to be inspired by the awesome projects that are shared everyday.

Made By You

Instructables are created by you. No matter who you are, we all have secret skills to share. Come join our community of curious makers, innovators, teachers, and life long learners who love to share what they make.

A Happy Place

Making things makes people happy. We can't prove it, but we know it to be true. Find your happy place, and join one of the friendliest online communities anywhere.

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We make it easy to learn how to make anything, one step at a time. From the stovetop to the workshop, you are sure to be inspired by the awesome projects that are shared everyday. Instructables are created by you. No matter who you are, we all have secret skills to share.

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wholeheartedschoolcounseling

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@MsReyes308

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A great resource for both in class and virtual created by Mr. Greg, a creative kindergarten teacher!