June Starkey, PhD

Learners who develop grit, heart and skill require opportunities to learn to write!

In my Great Brain Learning classroom I teach learning strategies and metacognitive awareness skills as much as I teach grammar, syntax, vocabulary, voice and argumentation in French and English writing, thinking, and speaking.

Why?

Because the leaders we need in the next generation require the ability and wisdom to communicate effectively and clearly, strategically and pragmatically. The art and science of engagement is modeled, taught, and practiced but AI will never do the learning for us. Technology-supported learning? Absolutely! 💯 Technology as a replacement for learning and the pursuit of understanding? Absolutely not – because writing is ultimately about so much more than performance. 💃🏻

 The challenge is to equip teachers with tools to teach metacognition from Kindergarten on up. Building solutions for learning -and teaching- requires curiosity, passion and teaching. Seeing students’ struggles and correctly diagnosing the evidence-based strategies that will help them become confident, articulate thinkers and writers (writing = thinking on paper) IS a human enterprise supported by tech. I therefore ardently support professional development for teachers so they can lead the critical conversations around what teaching writing needs to look like with and for every learner in every classroom.