I often use Leslie’s video as an illustration of what a “Culture of Thinking” looks and feels like in a classroom. It is easy to see all of the cultural forces at work in this video of her teaching. Leslie’s video also demonstrates that teachers establish the culture of their classrooms right away. This video was shot the second week of school.
It is always useful to see ideas, practices, and techniques playing out in real classrooms. We can learn so much from observing each other’s classrooms and talking about the learning that we see happening. I make extensive use of videos in my work with teachers and have worked on video production since 1999 as the director of the Creative Classroom Project for Disney Learning Partnership and later on the Visible Thinking project. My new book written with colleagues Mark Church and Karin Morrison also includes a DVD with videos of classroom practice.
On this page, I will try and post a few videos that help to illustrate both good teaching as well as the principles and practices associated with the Cultures of Thinking initiative. When watching any video of teaching, one can always view it through the lens of the 8 Cultural Forces.pdf.
NOTE: VIDEOS MAY TAKE AWHILE TO LOAD
Leeland and Melyssa were two teachers followed and filmed throughout the year as they participated in the Tri-Counties Cultures of Thinking Collaborative in Saginaw, Michigan. In these videos they talk about what they expect to learn and how their involvement in the project has changed their teaching. Leeland also demonstrates the Chalk Talk thinking routine and Melyssa demonstrates the CSI: Color Symbol Image routine.
Jenny Rossi is the Cultures of Thinking coordinator and resource teacher at Way Elementary in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. To help teachers at the school learn from one another, Jenny and others made videotapes of their use of thinking routines to share and discuss amongst the staff. Principal Adam Scher was kind enough to share this video with me.
