Office Chat: Importance of Quality Children’s Literature

Now you may be wondering about the connection between children’s literature and teaching and learning online. With apologies to Malcom Knowles, it is my belief that we can benefit greatly by investigating how successful teaching and learning occurs with any population. Here Kelly Andrus of the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate and Professional Studies discusses issues related to reading and the importance of using visuals to help those students having problems with text-only books.

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Office Chat: Culturally Responsive Teaching

I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Kavatus Newell today about Culturally Responsive Teaching. In this interview Dr. Newell explains that culturally responsive teaching is a method for differentiating our instruction to facilitate learning for students of differing cultural backgrounds.  Just as we can enhance learning by incorporating visuals for visual learners and multimedia for auditory learners, we can assist students from diverse cultures by creating an inviting environment in which to learn.

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Office Chat: Differentiated Instruction

It is often beneficial to step back from our current processes and look at what we do through the lens of others - from a different perspective. Just as inventions developed for space exploration have been adapted for use in our daily lives we in distance learning can benefit by looking into the common practices of educators in other areas.

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