How Puzzles Teach Key Learning Skills

Puzzles are a great way to improve fine motor skills and enhance focus in our children. I've watched both my sons be motivated to complete puzzles - in an ever-increasingly independent capacity - with success and happiness. Whether at home with your own children or in a school-setting as an educator, try incorporating puzzles as a way of providing yet another authentic learning opportunity that will play on the kinesthetic/tactile learning skill sets.

Here's how to get started:

1. Choose a puzzle that you feel is just a little out of reach for your child. You should already have a good idea what they can handle - when it comes to an independent task and managing their level of attention - and aim just a little 'higher.'

2. Avoid the urge to jump in and help them with the puzzle when they're stuck. They will prevail and learn much more from the struggle and problem-solving skills, then the realization that you will step in whenever things become difficult.

3. Know when your support is genuinely needed. Now, in the previous tip, my intention is not to abandon the child in their greatest time of need. In fact, doing this will almost certainly lead to a complete 'shut down' and no chance of puzzles ever catching on as a 'fun' thing to do. Rather, gauge when the need for support and your collaborative efforts is required. By intervening at the right time, you are providing the scaffolding needed as an opportunity to develop their skills and comfort through the 'balanced model' of learning you are using (model=>shared=>guided=>independent).

4. Celebrate the finished product. Focus all your positive attention and energy on them when they triumphantly place that final piece and announce to the room that they did it! Take pictures, show other family members or classmates and showcase their incredible effort and success. This is their moment to shine!

5. Re-frame the puzzle challenge with a new twist. "Ok. Now that we know you can do this puzzle. How can you put it together this time, so it gets finished faster?" 

• What about starting with the outside border first? 
• What about starting by turning over all the pieces first, so they face up? 
• What if you chose the biggest objects in the puzzle and put them together first? 
• What if you chose a colour to begin with and only pieced together those pieces?

By having this guided conversation, you are modeling problem-solving strategies, goal setting, and possibly even, fostering meta-cognitive awareness.

At any rate, puzzles are a great way to reach children of all abilities in a way that supports independence and can help in the building of a positive self-concept. Your children, or even students, will love the opportunity to show their stuff and be successful.

My Evolving Educational Philosophy

What guts and confidence does it take to open ourselves up and expose our most personal views and insights for all the world to see. Education demands that we peer inside ourselves, first, and plan for learning, second. As teachers, self-assessment of what we truly hold important and that which we frame all programming and delivery decisions needs to be authentic, timely and specific; indeed, if it is to evoke needed re-tooling, re-framing and re-imaging exactly why it was that we stepped forward as our generation's "teachers."

Here is my journey so far. For me, my own education, classroom teacher experiences, professional development and life experiences have all culminated into what I can now confirm is an ever-changing journey of my own life and learning.  

THE BEGINNING: THROUGH A "TRADITIONAL" TEACHER LENS (2001)

(TEACHER'S COLLEGE)

Through my experiences as a student, I have developed an insatiable thirst for knowledge that can only grow through my future experiences as a teacher. My best teachers shared an ability to carry themselves and the material in a certain way directly to their students. I cannot wait to join the 'club' of teachers. I foresee myself placing an emphasis on critical thinking, especially on key world issues, so that my students will be able to 'decode' today's world into terms that relate to themselves and their experiences. I cannot wait to be given the opportunity to directly facilitate personal intellectual growth in the classroom through lessons, films, activities and exercises. I feel that today is an exciting time to be a teacher as resources such as the internet and personal computers have become key partners in the learning process.

THE MIDDLE: THROUGH A LEADERSHIP LENS (2010)

My Philosophy of Educational Leadership

Values and Guiding Principles

Education needs leadership. It craves direction and begs for insight. Teachers need to feel that they matter and are part of a bigger picture in the lives of their students. Without strong educational leadership, no teacher can teach to their true potential. Leaders find purpose and value in any action; whether it is a positive or negative experience. Visionary leadership is the ability to make connections that are not even there yet, and to offer possibilities that no one has thought of. However, it is the social connections that leaders make with their educational teams and staff that cultivates the audience for your school ambitions and goals as a leader.

My own personal philosophy of education is that people, intrinsically, want to better themselves. Learning and interacting are two important ways to accomplish this, and both are available through the vehicle of education.

The classroom environment is as important to a student as a home to a family member. Within these walls, students must feel safe, appreciated and welcome. Whether through the seating plan, wall posters or classroom routines; your decisions must consistently demonstrate fairness - not necessarily equality. The same is true for a staff. Fairness must emanate from your choices and actions. Your decisions must be transparent and predictable, that is how teachers become comfortable with your vision for the school and its direction as it pertains to their daily work.

Effects of my Philosophy on my Interactions

My educational philosophy guides and influences the majority of what I do and say. It is through my beliefs towards education that I foster positive relationships with colleagues and community, in an attempt to get closer to the promised land of self-fulfillment and attainment of my personal goals. Functioning as a valuable team member on a school staff is only possible through the use of the same differentiation instruction techniques we use when instructing students. Depending on the person we speak to, it is important to change our tone, change our words, or even to change our overall approach to the conversation. Our methods of reaching students are the same. No one style can reach all learners. No one approach can be successful with all colleagues.

Contemporary Issues/Theories in Education

I think that, as teachers, we find ourselves in interesting times. The current educational system in this province – and even beyond our provincial boundaries – is in disarray. Funding formulas seem unsustainable. Student enrollment is declining. Data-driven goals are placing heightened pressures on administrators and teachers alike. Caught in the middle of a technological revolution, schools find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to reaching students and motivating learners. Many teachers are learning how to implement new technologies and incorporate fresh ideas in their classroom practice, but curriculum constraints and increasing accountability to a vocal (and aware) public inhibit true change in many teachers today.

Whole shifts in the way we approach learning in a 21st century school are needed. Previous ideologies and values are being eroded and compromised by a student population that has been raised to believe, “that which they do not like, they re-write.” Online social media and web 2.0 tools have placed new perspectives on learning and the sharing of knowledge. Raising digital citizenship in our classrooms and surviving this educational crisis is only achieved through visionary and bold leadership decisions.

My Motivation to Become an Educational Leader

I want to be at the forefront of this exciting educational transition. Possibilities and perspectives emerging in academic and social discussions offer truly unique ideas in the organization and administration of schools. Having experiences as an overseas teacher, French teacher, Special Education teacher, and Junior/Intermediate teacher, have equipped me with a fused view of teaching from many different perspectives. Through my involvement with the Federation (as a collective bargaining rep and steward), I have been able to experience first-hand the overriding principles of our collective agreement and regulations and the practice of their implementation at the school level. This administrative step is the next phase of my educational journey in being a part of the new process of reaching 21st century students and teachers. It is only through direct involvement in these matters that I will satisfy my ambitions and pedagogy in the field of education.

THE NOW - THROUGH A SELF-DIRECTED/INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING LENS (JUNE 2013)

My Philosophy of Education

Students are the key. Whether it is designed authentic, learning experiences based on student need and interest; or engaging in purposeful conversations to uncover who they are and what they hold important – we need to know our audience.

Through inquiry-based learning, collaborative planning, feedback and sharing sessions, we are able to create the conditions for learning that will raise student engagement and improve student achievement.

Redefining teaching practice and constructing student-centered learning requires bold reflection and brave risk-taking. We need to expose ourselves as the life-long learners we truly are. We need to put our practice on display for ourselves and others to experience, discuss and reflect upon – if we are actually going to make the necessary changes to meet the needs of an ever-changing world.

The keys to facilitating learning for today’s students rests on our own ability to treat the daily experience as a work in progress and not a well-rehearsed presentation that we have perfected over the years.

If you want to join in the conversation of your own evolving educational philosophy and how you can make sense of it, use #engagedinmyed on Twitter. Thanks, Neil!

Self-Directed Schools - Students Without Classes

A recent article in "Professionally Speaking" (the magazine of the Ontario College Teachers) featured self-directed schools with a spotlight on two Ontario high schools that are built on this concept. These are places for learning where there are no classes; just student goals and a focus on independent work habits.


One of these self-directed schools, Mary Ward Catholic SS, explains in its mission statement that 'students flourish in a program of self-directed learning that calls on every student to be a leader in an achievement-oriented environment, and that all students can reach their highest potential through self-directed learning.' Wow. Now that seems like a step in the right direction. Differentiated instruction, multiple intelligences and preferred learning styles all rolled into one approach to educate our high school students - and in OUR province.


These are places where students come to learn with the knowledge that they are in control of how that learning will look. They set their own agendas in many ways and receive close attention from teachers who also function as their advisors. The statistics are impressive too. About 85-90% of students from the two self-directed Ontario high schools go on to attend college or university. Our provincial government's current goal is to have an 85% graduation rate in Ontario (79% in 2009) - which says nothing to the path of post-secondary education - that goal is simply to get students to finish high school not travel further than it.

Teachers at these schools are responsible for 18 students who will be in their advisory groups for their time as students at Mary Ward. This reminds me of the British system I worked in where there were Head of Year teachers who were assigned to a grade and then stayed with that grade (e.g. Year 8) all the way through until their graduation. This seemed like a good system and gave a closer bond between a group of students and one teacher who could advise, track and discipline as needed.

We don't currently have these roles in our public high schools. Guidance Counselors and Student Success teachers are in place to help students and monitor "at-risk" students; but imagine the close bond that forms between a teacher advisor and a student who is only 1 of 18 in that group (not an entire school population, or sometimes, A-K and L-Z). These self-directed schools demand face-to-face meetings with a teacher advisor to plan career paths, check academic progress and other short-and long-term planning on a continual basis. The communication between students and teacher is paramount and purposeful checkpoints are in place to ensure that students do not fall through the cracks or fall behind without a chance of intervening for their benefit. At home, student and parent are kept closely linked through the use of a wall calendar that tracks major units and assignment planning. It all sounds ideal.

So what is holding our conventional model of education in place throughout all the other high schools in Ontario? Is it too bold a step to scrap the old schematics and draw entirely new ones? It is ambitious - and scary - to begin anew in a sea of uncertainty. But it would also be liberating and exciting to walk a different road and see how it goes. Sometimes patching the problem works, but maybe we are approaching the point where there are as many patches as original parts. Why should we continue to fix the mistakes and add small parts of new ideas to the original framework? Some of these revolutionary educational ideas just don't fit inside the rows that some of our classrooms have to offer. They deserve a new environment in which to flourish and one that will command the respect of unsuspecting students as they are offered an ACTUAL new perspective to their learning. Not just some new buzz word with an international case study to cite its benefits. From the bottom-up. Students driving learning. A revolutionary idea - but not in at least two Ontario schools today.