Friday, November 30, 2012

Power Pix

Wow - Two posts in two days! I know, you're super impressed, right? Ha!  I figured I would take a moment to show off my PowerPix wall and blog about it.




For me, the Power Pix are the central factor that connect WBT with core curriculum. Most of the other core ideas help to provide spectacular classroom management so that content can be taught without distraction. The Power Pix are a way to infuse brain research right into the content. The strategy revolutionizes fact memorization.

Since I teach 6th grade, I have had to create my own Power Pix. So far this year I have created 9. Three for the metric system, three for variables, and three for Earth processes. Our science standards are in flux right now due to the awaited release of the Next Generation Science Standards. Even though they are not finalized, I am using these to direct both my instruction and my creation of Power Pix.

Creating these on my own has really helped me to focus in on the core concepts that I want my kids to learn. Doing this allows me to cut out some of the extra "fluff" and add in time for more critical thinking. Learning basic concepts and getting kids to understand them at a higher level, to me, is much more important that covering a large number of topics. Creating gestures for each Power Pix also helps me to set up my five step lesson plan. In the "answer" section (step 2) I introduce the power pix gesture, then we can expand on that during step 3.



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