Think Outside the Box

I have been off sick today and have resisted the urge to write new plans for next week. I have however become very bored and decided to try and set outlook up to check all of my email addresses. Well what a nightmare, who would have thought this would take so long. Turns out Telecom has blocked the port I was trying to access their outgoing server on so all sorted now.

It did make me think though how would the children in my class cope when faced with something they couldn't solve by using the help files in the program, how would they know to ask the question in a different way. I think it illustrates the importance of getting children to think of different ways to solve problems and find information. I use many thinking tools and teach many thinking skills in my classroom because I believe children need to learn how to look outside the box. However I don't often relate it back to real life, we have an opportunity as teachers today to help children learn how to do this and to continue to develop these skills throughout their lives rather than leaving it until they get lost in the workplace and have to quickly learn how to do it.

Anyhow, if you're interested in starting to use thinking skills and tools in your classroom this
website created by Kurwong school in Australia has a wealth of information and sample units. There are hundreds of different ways of introducing thinking into your classroom, some I have used and am continuing to learn about include Habits of Mind, MI and Tony Ryan . Spectrum Education also have a number of good books and courses available.

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