In Successful Edtech, Pedagogy Comes First—Devices Second
Ken Eastwood is the superintendent of Middletown City School District, NY, a member of our League of Innovative Schools. In terms of student proficiency, today's classrooms are more diverse than ever. We're "detracking" students previously sorted by ability. We're mainstreaming those with special needs. And we're serving more and more students who are just learning English. In these classrooms, teachers face a seemingly impossible task -- providing effective instruction to all the unique students under their care. Educational technology (edtech for short) can play a significant role in mitigating and solving this growing dilemma. An increasing amount of data around personalized educational models like "blended learning" and content-specific software suggests that edtech makes instruction in diverse classrooms more efficient. Yet these student growth gains are not reflected in most edtech implementations. So, what can be done? This recommended approach doesn't mean picking will be easy.
The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine - Dr. Brian Annan - New Zealand | Huffington Post
“We created an image of a teacher and students in a class with digital tools from which they can access families, the community, the environment and the world at large through the internet.” — Brian Annan Just Imagine schools decades from today - what will they be like? Dr. How will the school of the future be more environmentally conscious? Schools of the future will be far more focused on ecological learning for community and environmental improvement. It will take the whole schooling system along with families, communities and businesses activating their agency to make the shift towards ecological learning. “Eventually, and probably not too far away, craft work and hand writing will be on the side to look at as something a few die-hard enthusiasts continue to do but mainly humans did back then.” — Brian Annan How will the school of the future be more globally inclusive? Many schools are in the process of becoming globally inclusive. Technology is an enabler. Yes, they will. C. C.
The 4 X 4 of Personalized Learning - Part 1
Today nearly any time that you are online you are constantly provided with personalized content: music, shopping, dating services, entertainments, etc. You constantly receive content and information that are relevant to your needs and interests. And this personalization remains true even in your everyday life, away from screens: At the gym, your activities are personalized, through dashboards, data and even trainers. At the mall, if you can afford it, you can get your personal shopper; at work, you may be personalizing strategies and communications to your clients. While how we can personalize learning experiences is new, the idea of doing it isn’t. Being part of an education company that helps many school districts around the nation, with their personalized learning journey, I have learned a tremendous amount. Over the next few months I will share my key learnings about each of the four but today I wanted to start with what got me hooked - the promise of personalized learning.
Getting to know you
Literacy: SLc/E1.3 Pre-entry: SLc/M8.2 ESOL: ESOL Sc/E1.3a Level: M8, E1 Resource type: Listening and/or speaking activity, Sort or match cards A set of question words that can be used in E1 ESOL classes at the start of the year.
Preparing Teachers for Personalized Classrooms
This post first appeared on CompetencyWorks on December 5, 2016. This is the nineteenth article in the series Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders. One of the necessary steps to ensure a district is creating a student-centered culture rather than one solely driven by standards is to prepare teachers for managing personalized classrooms. Pittsfield School District provided professional coaching courses for all their teachers. Don Siviski, former Superintendent of RSU2, describes eliminating all travel and non-related professional development in order to stop doing what wasn’t working and marshalling all resources to supporting teachers to prepare for the transition to proficiency-based learning. Many schools fall into a trap in the first years in that they teach learning continuum in a rigid, linear fashion because they have been written that way. Three Things to Think About #3 Beware of how “time is a variable” can be interpreted.
first lesson | ESLGamesBox
This getting to know each other activity is simple to set up and works well for most levels above Beginner. Sketch or print out this template, I usually use two sides (10 topics). At the top of each row is a space for a topic title. Think of some topics that might be of interest to the group and write one in each box. Topics I use include: work, movies and TV, music, free time activities, whatever town you’re teaching in, sport, food, English, holidays, politics, technology, the environment, etc. Give a sheet to each student and go round the class brainstorming questions for each topic, invite students to write interesting questions on the sheet. When you have questions for each topic, put students in pairs and get them to interview each other using the question sheet. Printables interview template This is a good getting to know each other exercise for a first class with intermediate students and above. opinion cards Are you finding these conversation cards useful? Also available: themed cards
KS1 Literacy
© 3913.co.uk Drag and drop the names of the classroom items on to the picture. The name box will turn green if correctly placed. Drag and drop the names of the animals on to the picture. Find and select the letters in the correct order to make the word. © v2vtraining.co.uk The Word Wheel 2 is multimedia tool for pupils to explore and develop their skill at blending phonemes in words with clusters.WW2-lesson-outline Drag and drop the names of the fruits on to the picture. Drag and drop the names of the types of transport on to the picture. Drag and drop the names of the vegetables on to the picture. A drag and drop matching quiz based on descriptions of objects from around the home. This Alphabetical order activity is a simple to use word ordering exercise. This simple labelling activity can be used for either the Three Little Pigs or Cinderella as a backdrop for their sceneScenes lesson outline The CVC maker is a simple to use application.
