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Teaching, learning

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Education is the Key to a Better Future, But… Becoming a better writer is a never-ending process of self- learning and discovery.

Education is the Key to a Better Future, But…

This is my conclusion after reaching 100 Medium posts. I started to write a piece per week more than a year ago. The reason I do it is simple: I love the opportunity for “self-learning” that an online platform offers. In a fast-changing digital world, it’s essential to continually “test” yourself and reflect on what it is that you are doing. I am a teacher.

The responses indicate that most of us agree that in an age of “smart machines,” education must change. Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba), for instance, made it very clear recently during the World Economic Forum that we must teach the next generation to perform the tasks that technology cannot do. I really believe that education must change. We don’t teach our students the capacity to self-study and self-learn.

Digital technologies

21st century learning. Engagement from Technology Use Is Different Than Engagement from Learning. Modern Learning with Modern Tools. We are a tool using species.

Modern Learning with Modern Tools

Our use of tools defines us and our survival now and in our past, is dependent upon our capacity to discover, invent and use tools. Our use of tools has always been a driver of change and innovation. From earlier times the way that we live has been shaped by the tools that we had at our disposal and the affordances which came with them. Once our survival needs were met through our use of tools, once we were able to construct shelters, protect ourselves from the insults of weather, wild beasts and marauding neighbours, our use of tools became connected to our productive capacities.

This remains the same today. The exception to this rule seems to be within certain aspects of learning. We do have some seemingly magical tools for cognitive work at our disposal today. For generations, the calculator was the gold standard for making mental work easy. The modern student will tackle the highest realms of mathematics armed with tools like ‘PhotoMath’. Play it again, sir. – Matthew Esterman. How often do we get to replay our lessons in order to improve them?

Play it again, sir. – Matthew Esterman

I don’t know about you, but at best I could say in over 10 years of teaching that Lesson X might be repeated once in the following semester. More likely, once the following year. I’ll teach that lesson on the role of women in Ancient Egypt or that lesson on analysing medieval sources or that lesson on historians’ arguments about the nature of Stalin’s Russia as a totalitarian state. Maybe, if I get the same timetable. Maybe, if I get a similar class of students. Hope is Not a Strategy. In high school, I played football for four years and loved the game.

Hope is Not a Strategy

I had a chance to play at the post-secondary level, but an injury to my knee and a lack of passion for the game when compared to basketball, led me to some different choices. After high school, my friends and I would play Tecmo Bowl, and eventually, Madden on the Sega Genesis. It is amazing how much I didn’t know about the game when I actually played it in person (clock management, when to call plays and why, and other fundamental coaching games).

But when I played the video game, it actually taught me a lot about the strategy that I didn’t know about. For the first two years of my teaching career, I coached football, which I know I wouldn’t have had a clue to do if I didn’t play football as a video game. 6 Things I Didn't Know About Blended Learning (and 1 I Did) Julia Gitis is a Product Manager at Edmodo.

6 Things I Didn't Know About Blended Learning (and 1 I Did)

She taught at Leadership Public Schools in Richmond, CA and serves on the board of East Bay Innovation Academy in Oakland.

Teaching

Learning. Professional Learning. Assessment. Activities for class. PBL. Whatisschool. EdTech. Modern Spaces for Contemporary Learning. Think back to how you felt after the last day you spent at a conference or course.

Modern Spaces for Contemporary Learning

If things went well you probably came out feeling enthused by new ideas but also exhausted and fatigued in ways that you don’t after a regular day at work. If the presenters have done their job well and you choose your workshops wisely, the day should have been full of learning that resulted from you having to think. Days like this should work our brains hard and it should be no surprise when we are fatigued by such an experience.

Conferences bring other fatigue inducing factors. A change of routine, the temptations offered by the catering and day under artificial lighting. Now imagine you are student in a traditional classroom; a student in one of those classrooms that looks just like classrooms did in the 1800s. 8 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers From History's Greatest Educators. The following inspirational quotes for teachers are from some of history’s most profoundly influential educators.

8 Inspirational Quotes for Teachers From History's Greatest Educators

Whether they be related directly to academia or not, the fact is all the people below taught us all something incredible that exists beyond the classroom. Their words touched both hearts and minds. Life lessons, and not just classroom lessons, abound here. After all, preparation for life is at the heart of every classroom. Please enjoy these powerful inspirational quotes for teachers and the messages embedded in them.

Anne Sullivan Macy, the famous companion and teacher of Helen Keller, knew a thing or two about perseverance. School Blogging. Learning Theories and Models summaries - Educational Psychology. The ‘teacher’ in ‘teacher librarian’ – Thoughts, sometimes outbursts – Medium. Earlier this week, through Twitter, I became acquainted with Lisa Hinchliffe, Professor/Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction in the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an affiliate faculty member in the university’s library school.

The ‘teacher’ in ‘teacher librarian’ – Thoughts, sometimes outbursts – Medium

While perusing her writing, this paragraph resonated with me: Careful consideration to constructing the learning environment and not only focusing on teacher performancehas been a mantra for my instructional design practice since then. 3 Strategies for Continual Learning. Schools have been thrust into the fast lane of change.

3 Strategies for Continual Learning

Teachers are working to make changes and adjustments on many of the things they do. Expert explains how our schools could do better. A renowned education expert has spoken out where Australia’s education system is going wrong, and what can be done to improve it.

Expert explains how our schools could do better

Speaking at the annual Ann D Clark Lecture to more than 700 teachers and principals in Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta on Tuesday night, Finnish education expert, Dr Pasi Sahlberg, said the success of his country’s schools is based on more than academic achievement. “It’s not about human capital, or what teachers know, or how well they can teach. It’s about social capital and how teachers engage with one another and the students,” he said.

“The culture of the school is most important. I would spend more money on developing social, collaborative, and networking skills among teachers themselves.” Why School Sucks (hint: it’s not because it’s “boring”) Read the title. Now notice that I said school, NOT education. Yes, there is a difference. 5 Questions to Ask Your Students To Start the School Year. Schools are about more than learning; they are about experience(s). They help shape us in our present and future and those experiences stick with us long past our time as students. Everyone’s a Teacher, Everyone’s a Learner – George Couros – Medium. Parents: the best students to have in your class – notosh – Medium. Our firm has been working with Teresa and around 25 of her teachers in this regular school to transform the way teachers teach and learners learn.

We’ve been helping students see how they can design their thinking for any given purpose, and achieve more by taking on the responsibility for learning. It sounds easy, but this kind of teaching is hard work. It means teachers have to build up some capacity in students to use mental and collaborative toolsets that empower them to work stuff out for themselves through trial and error.

It also means creating more immersive learning environments — where the content is more than the textbook and teacher — even when the physical environment of the classroom remains, well, traditional. So to ask parents to come in when you’re in the middle of learning how to change your teaching practice in such significant ways takes guts.

As with every country these days, it seems the curriculum is just as constraining as ever. Schools as Problem Solving Communities: Education Through Righting Wrongs. What would it look like to re-imagine schools as problem solving communities? In reading about Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard from 1869 to 1909, I came across several wonderfully thought-provoking quotes including the following: Nobody has any right to find life uninteresting or unrewarding who sees within the sphere of his own activity a wrong he can help to remedy, or within himself an evil he can hope to overcome. 4 Things We Need to Always Remember in Education – George Couros – Medium.

Education is an extremely tough profession. Spend any significant amount of time in a classroom or a school, and you will see how complex the profession is, and the many roles that educators serve in the work that they do. Each year, it is only becoming more and more complex. With countless initiatives, either new or outdated curriculums, higher public scrutiny, the job can be overwhelming. That being said, there are some things that we always need to remember that can help us navigate the complexities of the work that we do as educators.

Education is the answer. It almost doesn't matter what the question is, really. Sal Khan: Let's teach for mastery. A Devil’s Dictionary of Educational Technology – Medium. In the dark spirit of Ambrose Bierce, let us consider new definitions of familiar terms. Applying Design Thinking in 4 Different Ways in Schools – Medium. The 9 things every teacher should know. Quotes to Provoke Technology-inspired Teaching and Learning - Read Write Respond. Flickr photo shared by mrkrndvs under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-SA ) license. How to Connect Data to Effect Meaningful Change. The Pitfalls of End-of-Level Testing. 5 Non-Negotiables of Professional Development. This post was originally published on Cooper on Curriculum. Running any form of professional development can be a daunting task, whether it is at the district level, at a conference, etc. You are a global educator. It's time to start thinking like one.

Building collaboration skills today means building global collaboration skills. Ideas. This weeks posting comes from Melbourne and the Project Zero Conference. Classroom Rules and Classroom Focus – Mrs. Harris Teaches… I love the rules that are implemented by all the teachers at my school. E-learning in higher education. Are computers in class a scandalous waste of money? 3 things I wish educators knew about their own kearning. 10 Things Every Educator Should Start Doing Today.

What Should Come First, Training or Professional Development? Principal: What happened when my school ended useless homework. Learning or Teaching? — The Synapse. Beyond Engagement: Making School Personal — The Synapse. Are Great Teachers Bad Teachers? Radical Pedagogy — Solidarity for Slackers. Modern Learning: Not For Our Past But Their Future — The Synapse. 10 Ways Teacher Planning Should Adjust To The Google Generation.

Creating the Conditions for Innovative Teaching and Learning – A.J. JULIANI. The 4 Cs of Learning — Student Voices. 10 Commandments of Innovative Teaching. The Active Learning Classroom: 8 Essential Elements. Looking ahead. 8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On. In 20 Words: Modern Schools Today. 12 Silent Saboteurs Of Innovation In Education. Hands Up — Bright. Tables turned; students are teaching the teachers. Constructing learning in the digital age. 26 Questions Every Student Should Be Able To Answer. Re-imagining school. The Human Side of School — The Synapse.

How Could — and Should — Schooling Look in 2030? — Bright. Top 9 Quotes About Teaching. School Change: Palliative Care For a Dying Institution? — The Synapse. Common Core Math is Not the Enemy — Math Memoirs. The Ten Commandments of Questioning in the classroom. The Future of K-12 Education. Studio Schools: Career-Focused Secondary Education.

How to Teach Effective Listening Skills. Are You Powerless? The Difference Between Pedagogy, Andragogy, And Heutagogy. Can Lord Of The Flies Help Bridge The Gap Between Math And English? — Bright. Five reasons your school’s NOT transforming. 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher. Carole Dweck revisits the growth mindset. Learning from PowerPoint: is it time for teachers to move on? This is How Some of America’s Best Teachers Spend Their Time — Bright. There’s no app for good teaching. LEARNING LEADING CHANGE: "Tech doesn't improve student results - study" - why news reports like this are damaging (and missing the point). The 40 Best Quotes About Learning We've Heard.

20 Collaborative Learning Tips And Strategies For Teachers. Charter schools would only make our school system’s problems worse. Annotating PDF’s is a Bad Lesson Plan. Teacher and the Machine — Bright. The Inside-Out School: A 21st Century Learning Model. Let’s Give “Soft Skills” a Name That Sticks — Bright. Eight rules for cover lessons (from a frustrated supply teacher) How Twitter has changed me as an educator. Teaching how to think is just as important as teaching anything else. Teachers want better feedback. Curing My Classroom Jitters — Bright. Teaching the Emoji Generation: 12+ Activities & Resources. Weapons of maths destruction: are calculators killing our ability to work it out in our head?

The World is Changing — School Must Change Too. Sir Ken Robinson: Creativity Is In Everything, Especially Teaching.