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.
Taking Classroom Tech Use to the Next Level: Specific Traits to Look For “They don’t live in Saskatoon!” a seventh-grade girl says vehemently. She’s working with her class to figure out where another mystery class is located somewhere else in the world. The two classes are competing to figure out the other’s location first. Students must work together to develop good yes or no questions to ask the other class, like the age-old car game “20 Questions.” It looks like fun and students are certainly engaged in the project. “They were practicing important skills, asking questions, problem-solving,” said one teacher. These are typical reactions to activities that use technology in the classroom, but they aren’t sufficient for Julie Graber, an instructional technology consultant for Prairie Lakes Educational Agency in Iowa. “What we’re finding is that there’s really nothing that’s helpful for moving a system in terms of knowing where am I at and where am I trying to go,” Graber said during the ISTE session. “What did they just learn?”
321 Free Tools for Teachers - Free Educational Technology Jacob Lund/Shutterstock.com Summary: Would you be interested in the ultimate list of free tools for teachers? At the following post you will find 324 Free Tools for Teachers separated in 18 educational technology categories. Enjoy! Free Educational Technology for Teachers Do you support Free Technology for Teachers? I am a great supporter of Free Educational Technology. 19 Free Tools To Create Infographics For Teachers amCharts Visual Editor This editor allows you to use amCharts as a web service. 19 Free Text To Speech Tools For Teachers AnnouncifyListen to your web. Listen Text-to-Speech Voices with the Right Authoring Tool Vendor Find, choose and compare the top eLearning Authoring Tool Companies featuring Text-to Speech Voices! 21 Free Digital Storytelling Tools For Teachers AnimotoUnlimited Videos For Educators. 15 Free Podcast Tools For Teachers 28 Free Survey, Polls, and Quizzes Tools For Teachers addpollThe easiest way to create polls, surveys and html forms... on the web.
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
Hour of Code Your browser is not supported. Please upgrade your browser to one of our supported browsers. You can try viewing the page, but expect functionality to be broken. App Lab works best on a desktop or laptop computer with a mouse and keyboard. Game Lab works best on a desktop or laptop computer with a mouse and keyboard. You may experience issues using Web Lab in Private Browsing mode. CS in Algebra curriculum and content is being deprecated. 10 Free Tech Tools & Websites Every Teacher Should Know About – National Geographic Education Blog Confession: I was a late tech adopter. I didn’t own a computer until I was in college. I couldn’t record on the VCR, and I didn’t have a smartphone until about 2009. I felt out of my league when it came to tech, and chalked it up as something the younger, more tech-savvy members of the staff would do. Several years later, as I teach my global studies course and my students explore the world in real time through their devices, I couldn’t imagine not being a to take advantage of this technology. Here are my picks for the top 10 tech tools and websites every teacher should know about! Rewordify: This user-friendly website allows you to adjust the reading level of a text. *11. What tools and websites do you use most frequently? Ed is one of our #worldgeochat bloggers. Like this: Like Loading...
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
iPads and IEPs (image from The time for reviewing IEP targets is rolling around for me and so I got to thinking about the apps that I use for my students who have additional support needs. Goals of an IEP include can reading, numeracy, writing, higher order thinking skills, digital tech and social skills. As with pretty much everything else in ed there are plenty of apps that can significantly enhance learning experiences for these students. In many cases, using tech can make tasks easier and allow for creativity and lots of inquiry. When choosing the an app consider the following: The specific needs of the student as identified in their own IEP – not all apps are suitable for all studentWhat the app is for – is it essential? Just as IEPs are individual, so too will be the apps that suit the goals of each child. I also use IEP PAL and My IEP apps for admin and evidence collection.
9 Technology Tools To Engage Students In The Classroom - 10 Technology Tools To Engage Students In The Classroom contributed by Sara McGuire, venngage.com Technology distracts students, right? Keeps them from focusing? One solution is to ban phones and computers from the classroom. Think about it–if students are growing up in a world that requires them to be tech-savvy, then shouldn’t tech play a big role in their classroom experience? 1. We’re starting with what’s likely the simplest app on the list (well–aside the from background noise strategy): Google Forms One of the best ways to engage all students in your classroom is to give students an easy (and even anonymous) way to ask questions, receive feedback, or otherwise reach out to the teacher. Whether you provide specific questions and prompts for students to respond to as an exit slip (e.g., Was there any point during today’s lesson where you were confused?) 2. 3. Kahoot! 4. This is a fun tool to gamify the classroom. 5. Immediate responses from every single student instantly? 6. 7. 8. 9.
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.
How to get started with coding in the classroom - Daily Genius This probably isn’t news, but coding isn’t just for geeks anymore. Computer based jobs are growing at a rate estimated to be about 2x faster than other types of jobs, and it is estimated that there will be a million more jobs than there are students to fill them by 2020. Currently, less than 2.4% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science. Filling this gap means that more students need to get involved in STEM subjects early on in their education. Students need to learn to code, and luckily, there are some great tools available to make coding in the classroom more accessible. And since there’s always a fight for classroom time with ever-increasing standardized tests and core curricula to address, teaching your students to code can teach students a variety of skills at once, like collaboration, logic, practical problem solving and more. That’s all great, unless you aren’t sure where to start. Do you have a favorite tool that we haven’t included here? Black Girls Code