Quantum Teaching/Learning The Hudson Community School District has adopted the Quantum Teaching philosophy.  This brain-based teaching philosophy includes many specific guidelines for creating an effective learning environment, designing curriculum, delivering content and facilitating the learning process. Quantum Teaching is about bringing joy to teaching and learning with ever-increasing “Aha” moments of discovery. Its teaching philosophy is centered on presenting content to students in engaging and energizing ways. This model strives to incorporate strategies that allow students to become lifelong learners who are responsible of their own learning. Quantum Teaching rests on this concept: Theirs to Ours, Ours to Theirs. It is Quantum’s Prime Directive, the foundational premise behind the strategies, models and beliefs of Quantum Teaching. Here’s what it means. Theirs to Ours, Ours to Theirs stresses the importance of a teacher entering a student’s world first before they get caught up in the teaching aspect. Because before a student wants to know what a teacher knows, they want to know that the teacher cares about them. It’s the way of human dynamics. Quantum Learning embodies five tenets or resident truths. They are … Everything Speaks – Everything, from surroundings and tone of voice to distribution of materials, conveys an important message about learning. Everything is on Purpose- Everything we do has an intended purpose Experience Before Label- Students make meaning and transfer new content into long-term memory by connecting to existing schema. Learning is best facilitated when students experience the information in some aspect before they acquire labels for what is being learned. Acknowledge Every Effort- Acknowledgement of each student’s effort encourages learning and experimentation If It’s Worth Learning, It’s Worth Celebrating!- Celebration provides feedback regarding progress and increases positive emotional associations with the learning. The Quantum Teaching Model is much like a symphony. There are many elements that factor into the learning experience. These elements can be put into two categories: context and content. Context is the setting for the learning experience. It focuses on the environment, the atmosphere, the foundation, and the design of the classroom. All these elements blend together, creating the learning experience. It is the goal of our district to make the learning experience a positive one. Therefore, our staff works hard to create an effective learning environment that will allow all our students a chance to learn. Content is equally important as the context. Learning occurs when skills are presented in a manner that allows a student to explore and discover the wonders of the material being taught to them. Quantum Teaching doesn’t look at teachers as being “distributors of fact and knowledge”, but rather as “facilitators who can help a child extend their learning”. By operating this way, our staff puts the ownership of learning into the student’s hand. The staff uses a design frame that drives the presentation and facilitation of content. This design incorporates the following elements… Enroll – Teacher uses moves that capture the interest, curiosity and attention of the students. Experience- Create or elicit a common experience, or tap into common knowledge to which all learners can relate. Experience before Label creates schema on which to build new content. Learn & Label- Present, sequence and define the main content. Students learn labels, thinking skills and academic strategies. Students add new content to their existing schema. Demonstrate- Give students an opportunity to demonstrate and apply their new learning. Review & Reflect- Use a variety of effective, multi-sensory review strategies and empower students to process their new content through reflection. Celebration- Acknowledge the learning. It cements the content and adds a sense of completion. Through this design, students will not only have the opportunity to learn content, but also discover their learning styles and develop some life skills that will help them take greater responsibility for the choices they make. The brain contains three major freeways for processing the stimuli that come at us from the world outside ourselves. Those freeways are visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities. It is from these freeways that we make sense of our world. For example, some people can look at something and understand it. We call these people visual learners. Others can learn by sitting down and listening to people explain something. These types of learners are called auditory learners. And, the final group of learners loves to touch things and manipulate them. These people are labeled kinesthetic learners. While most people have access to all three modalities, almost everyone has a preferred learning modality which acts as a kind of filter for their learning, processing and communication. As we stated at the beginning of this piece, it is the Hudson Community School District’s goal to create a “Theirs to Ours, Ours to Theirs “mentality within our school district. In order for us to accomplish this, we must partner with our students and their parents to create a positive Quantum-based learning experience.  So, join us as we work to “Orchestrate your Child’s Success”.