Creating a Personal Success Plan - A Sensible Alternative to Standardized Tests Though people are very different, each with their own passions, talents, interests, and abilities, in traditional school settings, most students are all given the same path and grouped with others by date of manufacture. At the age where youth are entering college or the workforce, many have never been given the opportunity to find what they love. This is because for many students, school fosters dependency learning and a false sense that if you just keep doing as you’re told, it will eventually pay off...even though there may never be time to figure out where it is you actually want to go. This holds true not only for students dissatisfied with school, but also for students with high achievement like Amy, Carlie, Jessica, Maria and this insightful Valedictorian who felt high school robbed her of this opportunity. Upon graduation, she took her diploma and hit the road literally and went on an adventure to make up for lost time and explore who she really is and what she loves.
Top 10 Most Influential Scientists - Top 10 Lists | Listverse This is part one of what will be a two part series on the most influential scientists in history. While these are not technically the “greatest” scientists, there is bound to be some overlap as the contributions that many of these men and women made to science are among the most important. Be sure to tell us who you think should be on the future list – we already have our second ten, but it might lead to a third or fourth. Marie Curie “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” Polish physicist and chemist, Marie Curie was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the only person honored with Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the first female professor at the University of Paris. Alan Turing “Science is a differential equation. English mathematician and logician, Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.” Charles Darwin
Writing to Explain: Creating How-to Scripts and Demonstrations David Ahntholz for The New York TimesHeather Poole, a flight attendant from Los Angeles, demonstrated how to pack enough for a 10-day trip into a single standard carry-on.Go to related slide show » Overview | What are the qualities of good expository writing? What is process analysis, and how can it help us write for clarity? In this lesson, students examine and evaluate a Times slide show that explains how to pack 10 days’ worth of clothes in a carry-on suitcase. Materials | Student journals, computer with Internet access and a projector, copies of the handout Warm-up | As students enter, ask each to them to write instructions for doing something that can be done in the room with available materials, such as tie a shoe, make a paper airplane, do a dance move, play a basic game like duck-duck-goose, and so on. Then discuss what happened. Now that nearly every airline is charging baggage fees, travelers are motivated to pack as efficiently as possible. How-tos: General Explanations:
Don't Pay for Technology: 25 Freebies for Students Jun 29, 2009 In today's economic climate, paying for technology isn't prudent, and for some students, it isn't even an option. Fortunately, there are plenty of freebies on the web that can help with document creation, research, writing, storage, collaboration, studying and more. Document Creation Zoho Office - Zoho Office is an amazing suite of web-based productivity and collaboration tools. Research and Writing Schoolr - This meta search engine combines other academic search engines to make research faster and more efficient for students. Online Storage and Collaboration ADrive - Offering more than 50 GB of free storage, ADrive is one of the best places to upload and store files online. Study Help and Web-Based Learning Mindpicnic - Mindpicnic is helping to revolutionize the way students learn by providing free courses and study materials online. Miscellaneous Tech Tools
Digital Bloom's Taxonomy I was looking through my Twitter stream this morning and came across a tweet from Jennifer LaGarde about a digital Bloom's Taxonomy. (Edited to add - this site seems to no longer exist but it is where I got the graphic originally.) I am always looking for new tools and ways to build critical thinking so I checked it out. I wanted to share since I know in our district we have some Essential Standards training coming up next week and some of you might have the same in the near future. What tools do you love and which part of the pyramid would you add them to?
Frayer Model The Frayer Model is a vocabulary development tool. In contrast with a straight definition, the model helps to develop a better understanding of complex concepts by having students identify not just what something is, but what something is not. The center of the diagram shows the concept being defined, while the quadrants around the concept are used for providing the details. Tom March :: Thesis Builder - The Original Persuasive Essay Maker ElectraGuide is a tool that wants to help high school students: find a topic (see example topic questions?)create a good thesis statement (see an example?)and generate an outline (see an example?) Let's get started! What's the topic you want to write about? What's your main opinion on this topic? What's the strongest argument supporting your opinion? What's a second good argument that supports your opinion? What's the main argument against your opinion? What's a possible title for your Essay? Once you are happy with your thesis statement,you can crank out a quicky outline by clicking the button below.