Doug Doblar

How Retrieval PRactice completes A Thinking Classroom

September 7, 2024

I just finished my fifth week of Re-Building A Thinking Classroom in Mathematics. In certain ways, it has been harder than Building the first one from scratch. At the start of last year, I didn't exactly know what a Thinking Classroom could really, truly deliver.

This year, however, I know exactly what it can deliver. My students really learned and retained a lot last year. And they kept doing so! Plenty of credit goes to the practices of Building A Thinking Classroom In Mathematics - which I did for the first time last year.

But I made another big change last year, too, and I have a feeling that it might have contributed as much or more to those results. I (more than) doubled down on retrieval practice.

August 17, 2024

I just finished my first week of Re-Building A Thinking Classroom in Mathematics. In certain ways, it may have been harder than Building the first one from scratch. At the start of last year, I didn't exactly know what a Thinking Classroom would look or feel like once I built it - I was figuring it out as I went.

This year, however, I know exactly what I want it to look and feel like. I want it to be the same comfortable, engaged, disciplined, and productive learning experience my students got last year that led to massive learning gains for the kids. With that goal to chase, there's something I did more of last week than ever before - give what-to-do directions.

ABOUT ME

I'm an award-winning teacher in the Atlanta area with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college.

I made this website to share ideas, stories, and resources from my teaching practice.