Making Connections

To start December on a positive note, I've decided to share some of my recent thoughts on how "Making Connections" is enhancing our learning.

• Making weekly #GoodCallsHome is one way to help our learning take on greater meaning. When we reach out and connect with the Parents / Guardians of our Learners, we are sharing the admiration, respect, and appreciation for them. Countless Parents have stated they feel more connected to school and their kid's educators after receiving these positive phone calls to home. Many of our Learners approach me after the call and say "Thank you for calling my Mom/Dad. They said they were really proud of me and hugged me".

• Getting to know, understand, and appreciate our Learners empowers educators to make the learning more meaningful to each individual. The more we understand how they learn or why they struggle learning helps us create learning opportunities that stick, are relevant, or connect to their prior knowledge.

• Tutoring Learners in other districts has enabled me to see how learning is sometimes disconnected or taught in isolation. Recently, I've been tutoring Learners at the high school or college level that share with me that they have yet to see where their current learning fits. Once I share with them the bigger picture, they have a greater appreciation for what they are learning. Let's make sure we're showing how the learning fits together by making connections. 

• We're sharing with our High School Algebra Learners in our Functions Unit how Evaluate, Graph, Solve, and Transform are relating Absolute Value Functions as well as Piece-wise Functions. For example, we're showing a Graph of an Absolute Value Function and explaining the connections between Evaluating, Graphing, Solving, and Transforming the Function. By explicitly showing the connections, the learning is more rich and the retention is deeper. 

• Our Standards-Based Learning chat (#sblchat) during the first and third Wednesday of each month is yet another way to make connections for ourselves that in turn benefits our Learners. During our collaboration, we learn from each other, we connect on Twitter with other professionals, and we take away ideas to bring to our Learners. I have appreciated the connections I've made with countless dedicated educators that frequent our chat. 

I welcome your thoughts on how you're "Making Connections" for learning!