Creating Expert Learners in Our WELS Classrooms

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Written by Dr. Kari Muente

It is a challenging time to be a teacher. As our WELS classrooms are becoming more academically, culturally, and linguistically diverse, tension is rising between curriculum and instruction. Federal and state mandates are requiring students to pass tests, which leads to a more fact-based curriculum, while 21st-century learning encourages the engagement of students in more critical thinking skills.

As our classrooms become more diverse, students are challenging the traditional instructional design framework with their various backgrounds, cultures, and learning abilities. Diversity of learners, or the exceptional learners, require teachers to engage in more inclusive instruction and practices. Teachers struggle and even feel inadequately equipped in designing and delivering inclusive instruction to engage and train all their students to become expert learners (De La Paz, 2005; Minarik & Lintner, 2016). Inclusive instructional practices require not only close teacher involvement but instructional support for all learners. Continue reading →

If You Build It, They Will Learn

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Written by Professor Alan E. Uher

Defining Background Knowledge
In order for learners to learn, they need to have something—knowledge, experience, or a combination of both—to which they can connect new learning. Researchers refer to this something as background knowledge, pre-existing knowledge, or prior knowledge. Marzano (2004) claimed, “What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relative to the content.” As educators muse over myriad decisions to plan and present meaningful lessons, they must avow to activate student background knowledge to ensure student learning. Continue reading →

Welcoming Your New Teachers

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Written by Professor Jonathan Schaefer

WELS schools all over the country are receiving new teachers on their faculties. These teachers are well trained and enthusiastic.

During their first year on a faculty, they have several questions, one of which is, “What am I teaching?” That question includes things like curriculum, procedures, and ways the school operates.

Another question involves, “How am I going to teach? How do I bring my own style to get to know and engage my new students?” Continue reading →

Foster Teacher Collaboration with Micro-Credentials

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Written by Dr. John Meyer

What are the teachers at your school talking about? Schools where teachers talk positively about ways to improve teaching and learning are more successful than those that complain about students and parents (Ronfeldt, Owens Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom, 2015; Gruenert, 2005). Principals and teachers can use micro-credentials as a tool to create the kind of positive, professional collaboration that improves student achievement (Crow & Pipkin, 2017).

Micro-Credentials: Formal Recognition for Informal Learning
Earning Micro-Credentials is a way that teachers can receive formal recognition for skills learned informally. After all, teachers are constantly reflecting on and improving their practice. They experiment with new approaches learned through books, articles, inservices, and conferences. These new skills become effective teaching strategies in a teacher’s toolbox. But such competencies don’t show up in credits or clock hours. Micro-credentials give teachers a way to receive formal recognition for their skills from a respected institution, including colleges like the University of Wisconsin, MIT, Penn State, and Martin Luther College. Continue reading →

21st-Century Skill Development

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Written by Matthew Moeller

21st-Century Education
The fundamental issue is not of new versus old education nor of progressive against traditional education but a question of what, if anything whatever, must be worthy of the name Education. John Dewey, 1897 (Nutbrown & Clough, 2014)

Are the educational activities that we design for our students worthy of the name education? Are we preparing our students for success as employees and citizens in the 21st century? Reflecting on these questions and determining what needs to be changed in our classrooms and schools can be uncomfortable, messy, exhausting, and complicated, but it is a tragedy to prepare students for a future that doesn’t exist. Continue reading →

STE(A)M in Early Childhood Education

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Written by Anne Marquardt

STEM. STEAM. STREAM. Which of these recent educational buzzwords can you decode? At first glance these acronyms—which stand for Science, Technology, Reading (or Religion), Engineering, the Arts, and Math—look like mnemonic devices for remembering the facets of classroom curriculum. Digging deeper, however, we find that STEM education is designed to make natural connections between curricular content and students’ preconceived notions about how the world works. Students who are engaged in real-world problem solving investigate science and engineering concepts, apply mathematical knowledge, and use the arts and technology to meet their goals. They creatively introduce solutions, refine their thinking when ideas fail, and construct new understandings of the world (Ansberry & Morgan, 2017). Continue reading →

Formative Assessments Using Technology

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Written by Michael Plocher

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Assessing learning is an important part of teaching. Whether in a traditional classroom, confirmation class, Sunday school, or other learning environment, purposeful formative assessments can raise standards of achievement (Black and Wiliam, 1998). Popham (2008) and Ainsworth (2015) also tell us that formative assessments are a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they are currently doing rather than using it to gather information for letter grades. The cycle of teaching new information, figuring out who understands the content, and planning for how to reach the student who does not, happens in a variety of educational settings. Using traditional methods of conducting formative assessments can be time-consuming, provides limited temporary information, and can produce results that can be difficult to interpret. Continue reading →

Supporting Play in the Preschool Classroom – FAQ’s

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Written by Jennifer Mehlberg

Providing play for preschoolers is essential. In the article “The Importance of Play in the Preschool Classroom,” I mentioned examples of the important learning that occurs as children play in the early childhood classroom.

We may be left with a few lingering questions. How do I best support children’s play? What do I do?

There are a few things to consider as we set up a learning environment to best promote play. Continue reading →

How Much Digital Postage Do You Pay?

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Written by Dr. Jeffrey C. Lemke

Your church and school likely have regular mailings that go out to families and prospects. These mailings carry important announcements, prompt critical action steps, and develop a unified direction for your ministry. Mailings and postage are built into our organizational budgets. Since the days of Martin Luther and the invention of the printing press, the power of mailings as a communication method has become universally understood.  Continue reading →

The Importance of Play in the Preschool Classroom

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Written by Jennifer Mehlberg

A visitor walks into a preschool classroom one morning and sees several children playing in the block area. They’re working together on a large structure resembling a zoo. They’ve used a variety of blocks and other building materials to construct individual pens for different animals and several buildings, some of which have roofs on top. A path of milk bottle caps weaves between the pens. The children’s hands and bodies are busy, and they converse with each other as they organize, direct, modify, and extend their play plan. Continue reading →