Three Useful Growth Mindset Resources As I’ve written on many occasions in this blog (The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset”) and in my books, I think the concept of a “growth mindset” can be very helpful in the classroom. Here are three important new resources related to a growth mindset that I think teachers will find useful: First, you might remember my post from a few days ago, New Study Shows That Teaching About “Growth Mindset” Works At Large Scale – Or Does It? In that post, I shared a new paper that had just come suggesting that teaching a 45 minute lesson on the growth mindset can have have a positive impact on students and, for the first time, showed that it could work on a large scale. One helpful reader did leave a detailed comment, which I’d encourage you to read. we did find evidence that mindset interventions help underachieving students — and those students are very important from a policy standpoint. In one, students summarized the scientific findings in their own words.
Pedagogy Before Technology? Has there ever been a more exciting time to be a teacher? There is certainly more choice and opportunity, with access to tools that were merely an idea a decade ago. Global interconnectivity through technology has transformed the world of work. Offices are paperless; conferences are virtual and information is shared instantly. This is the real world; the future for our students. So how do we make the link? However, we seem to be embroiled in a period of political meddling, which irrespective of motive, is a distraction and is causing disruption for teachers and students. ‘Pedagogy first’ is of course a truism that you would struggle to find a teacher disagreeing with. Consider terms like ‘flipped learning‘, ‘transformational feedback’ and ‘MOOCs‘. Let’s take ‘flipped learning’ as an example. The pedagogy behind ‘flipped learning’ is that the teacher will tailor a content based resource specific to their learners. We are all learners. Consider the ‘Feedback Loop‘. Image credit
Character Education: Developing Effective Programs Recently, "What Matters Most: A Newsweek Poll" (Newsweek, 1997) polled 506 parents of children ages 0-3 years and asked them about their most important goal as a parent. The most common response, given by 48% of the parents, was making sure their child grows up to be a moral person. Unfortunately, this goal is becoming harder for parents to achieve. The difficult task of raising moral children is compounded by other forces in the lives of children and parents (e.g. culture, media, peers, etc.) that promote unethical, immoral, and self-focused behavior. In fact, the conduct of United States youth during the last 20-30 years has been marked by two trends: (a) a rise in destructive behavior, and (b) a rise in self-destructive behavior (Wynne & Hess, 1987). Development Theories Kohlberg Lawrence Kohlberg is likely the most well known moral theorist; his name is synonymous with moral development. Kohlberg's model is compiled of three hierarchical levels, each containing two stages. Selman Rest
Moral and Character Development Citation: Huitt, W. (2004). Moral and character development. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. A. Introduction As previously stated in the section related to desired student outcomes (Huitt, 1997a), in my opinion there are three major issues in the education of young people today. The following two definitions provide examples of a normative view of character: "engaging in morally relevant conduct or words, or refraining from certain conduct or words" (Wynne & Walberg, 1984); "a complex set of relatively persistent qualities of the individual person, and generally has a positive connotation when used in discussions of moral education" (Pritchard, 1988). In general, character, good or bad, is considered to be observable in one's conduct (Walberg & Wynne, 1989). Character Education in the United States In terms of defining good character, educators stated that this should include developing: Impacting Moral and Character Development Hyde school.
4 Keys to Designing the Classroom of the Future -- THE Journal Classroom Design | Feature Page 3 of 3 4 Keys to Designing the Classroom of the Future When it comes to PD, LaMaster cautioned administrators against the assumption that younger teachers will pick up all the tech tools they need on their own. "Some people think that anyone under the age of 26 magically knows how to use all this stuff, and use it in an interesting manner, but that has not been my experience," she said. Curriculum Comes First For Klein, the classroom of the future is only worth creating if it supports the fundamental mission of teaching students. But the story has a happy ending. Klein concluded, "Ultimately, you really need to think about the design and layout of your space and how that can support your curriculum, Then you can start thinking about how to outfit your infrastructure and what devices you might need to enhance the curriculum." About the Author Greg Thompson is a freelance writer based in Fort Collins, CO.
List of 40 FREE Educational Websites According to webometrics, there are more than 17 000 universities, but getting a degree in many of them is quite costly. Many students around the world(and their families) get into big debt or have to work over sixty hours a week in order to afford an education. Two thirds of the US college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt, with an average of over 27 000 USD per person. "With mass education, it turned out that most people could be taught to read and write. Isaac Asimov died in 1992, but if he could see the opportunities that the Internet is giving us in XXI century he would probably grin from ear to ear. Enough with the words, here is a BADASS list of over 40 educational websites: ALISON - over 60 million lessons and records 1.2 million unique visitors per monthCOURSERA - Educational website that works with universities to get their courses on the Internet, free for you to use. Related: Source:i Heart Intelligence
4 Principles Of Student-Centered Learning 4 Principles Of Student-Centered Learning by TeachThought Staff A Definition of Student-Centered Learning In our view, student-centered learning is a process of learning that puts the needs of the students over the conveniences of planning, policy, and procedure. Like any phrase, “student-centered learning” is subjective and flexible–and only useful insofar as it ultimately supports the design of learning experiences for students. With that in mind, here are 4 principles of student-centered learning to consider as you design curriculum and instruction. Space CreativeDynamicMobileEmotionally safeCognitively agitating Place That honors their historyThat stirs their enthusiasm & curiosityThat they connect with in fundamentally “non-academic” waysThat reflects their needsThat they believe they can impact Voice In assessment & curriculum forms (e.g., PBL)That grows as their understanding doesThat reflects who they really areIn classroom conversationsIn local community & around national& global events
Happy Teaching, Happy Learning: 13 Secrets to Finland's Success - Education Week Teacher Published Online: June 24, 2014 By Sophia Faridi Most educators have probably found themselves wishing for a simpler solution to the hardships and inequities of the U.S. education system. I recently got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the Oppi Festival in Helsinki, Finland, with a group of seven U.S. educators to learn more about the Finnish school system and the lessons it might offer. During the trip, our group had the chance to visit several innovative schools. The teachers and students that I observed were happy. It made me wonder: “What makes school in Finland such an enjoyable experience for students and teachers?” Students in Finland work together frequently, and the material they study is important to them. —Sophia Faridi 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. In Finland, schools emphasize play, and students are encouraged to play during the school day all the way through high school. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Students in Finland appear happy, engaged, and invested in their work. Web Only
VAK Learning and Communication Style Eye Movement Chart Neurologists tell us that the eyes are the externalization of the brain. That is, the way one moves their eyes when accessing information can tell us a great deal about their learning and communication styles. These neurological patterns are set by the age of eight and reflect the internal sensory processing preferences (learning strategies), of the individual. These eye movements cross barriers of culture, gender, and language and are highly observable. You might use this to: • Detect a Judge’s VAK learning style and persuade them more effectively than your opponent; • Get a read on how a jury is receiving your message; • Improve communications with a colleague or spouse; The eye chart below is an internationally recognized Neurological Eye Chart that lays out the movement patterns of eyes through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (feeling) neural network patterns. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Total Results: Kinesthetic___ Visual____ Auditory____
Top 5 presentation tools for teachers and learners #mytop5 Published on May 11th, 2014 | by Mark Anderson PowerPoint. It is much maligned and certainly has its place in the education world. Even advances with Apple’s Keynote with Keynote in the cloud are a step forward, however, I would argue that we as educators should seek to set a higher bar on the way we present materials. Subjects and even schools can be branded to create a unified and streamlined sense of belonging for the learners, however this can take time and cost a lot of money. 1 – Haiku Deck – This is available as an app and now as a web tool. Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app 2 – PowToon – This is a lovely little animation style presentation tool, which really helps to engage learners in creating a whole presentation, not just about creating words on a slide. 3 – Slid.es – In many ways this is similar to PowerPoint, but has a very polished professional look. 4 – Presentation in G drive. There you go, 5 tools to help polish your presentations.
4 Great Rubrics to Develop Students Presentations and Speaking Skills February 20, 2014 Looking for some rubrics to hone in your students presentation skills ? The rubrics below will definitely be of great help. I came across these materials on Discovery Assessment in an article written by Dona Criswell and I really liked them specially that they cover different grades. However, it should be noted that these rubrics are the property of Bucket Institute of Education, a leading source on project based learning materials and for some reasons the download link Donna provided is not working so I am hoping you will be able to have rough idea of how to create your own rubric based on these samples here. 1- Presentation rubric for grades k-2 click here to see a larger version. 2- Presentation rubric for grades 3-5, click here to see a larger version. 3- Presentation rubric for grades 6-8, click here to see a larger version. 4- Presentation rubric for grades 9-12.