40 Ways to Let Your Passions Shine Through Your Le. You're a teacher. But you're also a person—with passions and interests and talents that go above and beyond the classroom. Here are forty fun ideas on how you can let your own passions shine through your lessons—and in doing so; ignite similar passions in your students.
If you love sports: - Use sports facts to teach statistics. - Show motivational clips from sports stars as warm-up activities. - Integrate kinesthetic activities into lessons to mix up learning styles. - Talk about your school's sports teams and—if you can—use real stories (like about #23's game-winning dunk on Friday night) to illustrate concepts. - Play games in class that relate to learning. If you're a history buff: - Use historical artifacts—everything from photos to ticket stubs to books—as props in your lessons. - Show YouTube clips from The History Channel in class to introduce material. - Turn your classroom into a "museum" and decorate your walls with pictures and articles that pull your students into history.
The Connected Culture. The longer you pretend. The Age of Common Sense. In the Information Age we are in dramatic need of some intelligence to it all. Information is everywhere, but where is the common sense? Does all the stuff make sense? In the 1990's we all hit WalMart and the mall with our credit cards and started organizing our stuff only to realize that we didn't need all that stuff.
Our closets were overflowing, our waistlines were growing, and our debt was showing. When the Internet came along we started shopping online, racking up more debt all the time and losing ourselves in the wonder of the new library of Alexandria for hours at time. Then, we connected with friends and thought that more was more again and the more friends we had online somehow the more legacy we had.
Now, we can connect via our cell phones and smart phones. We can stream, find, connect, and remind ourselves 24/7 to do more and be more. When Kip turns me loose to blog, he says "do your stuff" and that is often what it is -- stuff. Making sense So many people blame everyone else. Building Within the Box. It has been a little bit more than a week since I returned home from the annual ISTE conference in San Diego. This will be the first of many reflective posts I write as I have many takeaways rattling around in my head.
One of the highlights of the conference for me was listening to Sir Ken Robinson speak as part of the keynote and then as part of a Q and A follow up. Now, I won’t get into the horrible job other panelists did, but Sir Ken mentioned something that stuck with me during his Q and A. At some point during the Q and A Sir Ken made a statement basically stating that teachers often have more freedom than they willingly exercise. Essentially, we complain about all the restrictions and “boxes” we are placed in but we don’t push the limits and see what we can actually do. In fact, he stated that teachers can actually do more innovative and new things within their current environments than they are often willing to try or think they can. “Why?” Can Make Change Possible.
As principals, we're not afraid to ask a lot of questions when we don't know how to do something. But what happens to the questions when we discover how to do it? They stop, don't they? If we think we already know the right way to do something, or worse, it's the way we've always done it, how open are we to learning a better way or even a different way? We aren't, are we? Think about the educators in your building. Do you have a “why” guy or gal? I'm not talking about the much dreaded “why”-ner whose questions often lead to - Why is this more work for me? As principals, it's time we embrace the “why” guy or gal.
I truly believe as principals, it's our responsibility to build a strong partnership with the “why” guy or gal to challenge our assumptions about what we actually think we know. Lessons Learned. As I complete my thirteenth year as an educator, I would like to share thirteen lessons learned throughout my time as a teacher and/or principal. 1.
I’ve come to realize great educators take responsibility for their own learning rather than waiting for the school district to tell them when and what to learn. 2. Great educators take responsibility for student learning and believe wholeheartedly that failure to reach mastery is not an option. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. What lessons have you learned? Stay connected, Shawn. Learning Visually « Living the Dream. Infographics work in the classroom because they grab students and allow an entry point to learning — and because they sum up pages and pages, even chapters, of information that would take a reader hours to process. Interactive infographics make kids want to immediately start clicking around to see what’s what.
For a teacher who prioritizes an inquiry-driven classroom, that’s a great starting point. Infographics and Data visualization are not just for consumption though, teachers and students can also challenge the learning process by creating original graphics for themselves. Go here –> Consuming the information is one portion of the equation when discussing data visualization. Sometimes you look at a piece and think, what the heck is that supposed to be telling me!
There are elements of design to evaluate as well as functionality/clarity of purpose. . … classroom examples of consumption graphics. The “You Matter” Manifesto in Education. One of the underlying but often unspoken themes of this blog is the idea that the individual matters in this crazy, hectic, techno-centric world. Teachers matter, students matter, administrators matter, higher education faculty matter, adjunct instructors matter, online educators matter, and the individual out there seeking a place in the world also matters. This hidden agenda in the writing on Education Unbound was the reason that Angela Maiers’ You Matter Manifesto immediately demanded a post in this space. Maiers, a former classroom and university teacher and now the owner and lead consultant for Maiers Education Services, has started a movement to make people who otherwise feel insignificant believe that they matter (Maiers, About). 1. YOU ARE ENOUGH "Do you even realize how much difference you can make?
You don’t have to be rich or famous; there is no age limit or specific skill set to acquire. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Wake up, teacher. « Love, life & language learning. It’s happening. and it’s happening now – there’s no future perfection to wait for. All there is, and all there ever will be, is here and now. I used to think the real aim of professional development was to wake up the ideal future teaching self that was sleeping inside me.
One day, by a process of trial and error, I would allow it to thrive and blossom. One day, perhaps. In some way, it was true. However, what I then became to realise was that the ideal teacher self wasn’t something to wait for, nor was it something to save until it was ready. It was, always has been, there - available in each present moment I lived through. The present moment is the only real opportunity to be as perfect, as ideal, as we possibly can. Professional development and perfection are happening right now, hand in hand. By reflecting, observing, learning, contemplating, experiencing, imagining new possibilities, creating, enjoying and doing one’s best, we can be the best we can now. Like this: Like Loading... What Will The Ed Tech Revolution Look Like?
During the past 40 years, accounting for inflation, we have nearly tripled the amount of money we spend per student in public K-12 education. It was roughly $4,000 in 1971, and last year amounted to $11,000 per student. Over that same period time, our students’ math and verbal test scores have remained unchanged. I am no Warren Buffett, but I can comfortably say to you that that is a lousy return on investment. In an increasingly competitive world, it is clear that our education system--as currently designed--isn’t sustainable. In a perverse way, I believe federal and state budget cuts will help focus us on doing things differently and more efficiently.
Similar to the consumer tech revolution, this ed tech revolution will take some time and happen unevenly in waves. First Wave (0 to 5 years from now): A Change in Perception At School: In spite of all the media coverage about seniority-based firing decisions, the teaching work force is actually getting younger. A Six-Point Checklist for Education Innovators. This blog is an excerpt from the book Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World, published June 2012 by Solution Tree.
Whether innovators are drumming up new business ideas or hard at work solving community problems, they share certain characteristics. They tend to be action-oriented. They know how to network. They're willing to take calculated risks. They look ahead, anticipating benefits that others might not have imagined yet. They work to overcome obstacles. If you're a teacher looking for opportunities to bring innovation into the classroom, start by considering your own strengths and weaknesses as an innovator. Are You Action Oriented? Taking action is a hallmark of innovators. In the classroom, a take-action teacher recognizes opportunities. Do You Know How to Network?
Educators who are determined to unleash their students' innovative capacities show another common characteristic. Are You Willing to Take Risks? Can You Look Ahead? 10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete. Flickr: Corey Leopold By Greg Stack So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not. Looking around most school facilities — even those that aren’t old and crumbling — it’s obvious that so much of it is obsolete today, and yet still in wide use. 1. COMPUTER LABS. Students are connected to the Internet everywhere except in school.
At Northern Beaches Christian School students learn everywhere. 2. 3. 4. 5. Corridors at Machias Elementary are used for informal learning 6. 7. 8. Learner Centered Classroom at Riverview Elementary School. 9. 10. Greg Stack is an architect for NAC Architecture and specializes in developing best practices for the planning and design of educational environments. Create the Environment. I had the amazing opportunity to speak to the Alberta School Boards’ Association (ASBA) and share some of the work that we have been doing in Parkland School Division, and some of the things that I see happening around the world with innovation (here are some of the links that I shared throughout the presentation). As an educator who works with schools and central office, it was a great opportunity to talk to the leaders of our schools and share the changes we are seeing in society and technology, and how we need to leverage this to prepare kids for not only their future, but in reality, their present.
As my first year in the role of Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning, I have openly struggled with what this position is and what I need to be doing. This is something that is totally new to our school division and is probably a unique role to schools, although we are seeing that similar positions are being created. From: Learn together. A Commitment to Digital Learning. New Milford High School proudly joined 37 states, 15,000 teachers, and over 2 million students on February 1 for the inaugural Digital Learning Day. This day, however, was not really much different than any other day at NMHS as we have made a commitment to integrate digital learning into school culture for some time now. As Principal I am proud to state that many of the pedagogical techniques, learning activities, and tools described in the rest of this post are consistently in use on a daily basis across all content areas.
The reason for this is that we have put a premium on creating a teaching and learning culture that better meets the needs of our learners while enhancing essential skills such as collaboration, communication, creativity, media literacy, and global awareness. Below I have summarized some of the pre-planned activities that my teachers planned and had their students engaged in on Digital Learning Day.
Image credit: In Ms. In Mrs. Mrs. 10 ways to be a great teacher. I recently read a blog post by one of my favorite bloggers, Vicki Davis. Vicki is known by many as "@coolcatteacher. " The title of the blog post is 10 ways to be a terrible teacher. After reading the list I found myself agreeing with many of Vicki's points. In an effort to be reflective, I thought about flipping the blog post around and considering ways to be a great teacher...
Here are my 10 ways to be a great teacher: 10 - Great teachers pick and choose their battles. If everything is really important and a top priority, then nothing is really important or a top priority... 9 - Great teachers are rarely behind their desk and are rarely sitting down. 8 - Great teachers are not afraid to apologize and admit to their failure or mistakes. 7 - Great teachers are extremely reflective and take their job personally. 6 - Great teachers are excellent conversationalists. 5 - Great teachers can always justify and explain a decision they made or something they did that affects their students. 4 Ways Technology Helps To Diversify Education. Written by Jonathan Trent— Writer for NextUC.com, providing expertise in everything from Microsoft Lync to video conferencing to online collaboration software. As technology advances, a greater number of countries are embracing the use of it in classrooms. While the U.S. is moving in that direction there seems to be some hesitation in deciding what technology should be used.
Other countries are focusing on how to integrate it while we determine if we should. Here is a list of four ways technology is changing the face of education. More Accurate Assessment Traditionally assessments are given to determine a student’s proficiency in a subject. Clear, Realistic Simulations and Models While some things can easily be explained in a classroom or by using textbooks, some concepts are easier to understand if the children can see them. The World At Their Fingertips Class Size The use of technology in classrooms may be the answer to the problem with class size. Related: Evernote for Educators.
This is why teachers leave teaching. 20 Things New Teachers Need to Know. “Pithy and Trite” What Makes Good Teachers Great - ASCD Annual Conference 2012. 10 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have. What is a 21st century teacher? » The Tool is Not the Problem…Are We? Upside Down Education. 30 Goals 2012. Stop Telling Me Technology Engages. The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools.
What makes a good learning technologist? 7 Habits of Highly Effective Tech-leading Principals. What is an ed-tech leader? Nothing is more important than teaching compassion | Teacher Network Blog. #Unexpected : MrMacnology.