The Air Force Collaboratory 3 Excellent Tools to Create Interactive Posters and Visuals for Your Class February 1, 2014 Interactive visuals are great learning and teaching materials to use with your students in the classroom. From explaining difficult processes to visual brainstorming, interactive graphics are a good way to consolidate students learning and promote their comprehension. Below are three of the web tools I would recommend for creating interactive visuals, I know there are several other titles to add to this list but the ones below are, in my view, more student-friendly and simpler to use. 1-Thinglink I love this web tool. 2- PiktoChart This is another wonderful web tool to create interactive visuals and posters for your Class. 3- Glogster Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or Glogs.
Why Is It So Hard to Change How We Teach Math? Teaching Strategies Educators have been talking about changing the traditional way of teaching math for a long time, but nothing seems to change. Elizabeth Green’s New York Times Magazine article digs into why it has been so hard for U.S schools to effectively implement changes to math pedagogy, and just how far American students have fallen behind as a result. A lot of it comes down to ensuring teachers are comfortable with the new methods, she writes: “In fact, efforts to introduce a better way of teaching math stretch back to the 1800s. Related Explore: Common Core State Standards, math How Students Can Create Animated Movies to Teach Each Other | Jordan Collier Posted by Jordan Collier on January 16, 2014 in EdTech | ∞ In addition to learning our content and curriculum standards, today’s students also need to be able to do the following effectively: collaborate with one another, synthesize ideas, create content, communicate ideas clearly, and use technology. A great way to accomplish all of these learning goals is to have students create movies of classroom content (i.e., textbook) to share with each other. About a year ago, I came across this blog post to learn the ins-and-outs of using RSA-animate style movies in the classroom. Wouldn’t it be great if your students created similar videos to share with their class? Having students create RSA-animate style movies is a fun way to teach content– by having the students become the teacher. Here’s how students in your class can create their own animated movies to share… Chapter Notes (Day 1) After all the groups have been formed, assign each group a section from your textbook. Rough Draft Sketches (Day 2)
Freebies for Science Teachers GeneEd Added: Jul 14, 2017 Revisit the National Library of Medicine’s GeneEd for new resources. To access the new materials, click on the Topics tab, go to Top Issues in Genetics, and select the links Genetics, Behavior and Identity, or Precision Medicine. Project-Based Learning vs. Problem-Based Learning vs. X-BL At the Buck Institute for Education (BIE), we've been keeping a list of the many types of "_____- based learning" we've run across over the years: Case-based learning Challenge-based learning Community-based learning Design-based learning Game-based learning Inquiry-based learning Land-based learning Passion-based learning Place-based learning Problem-based learning Proficiency-based learning Service-based learning Studio-based learning Team-based learning Work-based learning . . . and our new fave . . . Zombie-based learning (look it up!) Let's Try to Sort This Out The term "project learning" derives from the work of John Dewey and dates back to William Kilpatrick, who first used the term in 1918. Designing and/or creating a tangible product, performance or event Solving a real-world problem (may be simulated or fully authentic) Investigating a topic or issue to develop an answer to an open-ended question Problem-Based Learning vs. Problem-based learning typically follow prescribed steps:
Students most effectively math working on problems that they enjoy, not drills or exercises Students learn math best when they approach the subject as something they enjoy, according to a Stanford education expert. Speed pressure, timed testing and blind memorization pose high hurdles in the youthful pursuit of math. "There is a common and damaging misconception in mathematics – the idea that strong math students are fast math students," said Jo Boaler, a Stanford professor of mathematics education and the lead author on a new working paper. Boaler's co-authors are Cathy Williams, cofounder of Stanford's YouCubed, and Amanda Confer, a Stanford graduate student in education. Curriculum timely Fortunately, said Boaler, the new national curriculum standards known as the Common Core Standards for K-12 schools de-emphasize the rote memorization of math facts. While research shows that knowledge of math facts is important, Boaler said the best way for students to know math facts is by using them regularly and developing understanding of numerical relations. Role of the brain
Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains iStock By NPR Staff Teens can’t control impulses and make rapid, smart decisions like adults can — but why? Research into how the human brain develops helps explain. In a teenager, the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls decision-making, is built but not fully insulated — so signals move slowly. “Teenagers are not as readily able to access their frontal lobe to say, ‘Oh, I better not do this,’ ” Dr. Jensen, who’s a neuroscientist and was a single mother of two boys who are now in their 20s, wrote The Teenage Brain to explore the science of how the brain grows — and why teenagers can be especially impulsive, moody and not very good at responsible decision-making. “We have a natural insulation … called myelin,” she says. This insulation process starts in the back of the brain and heads toward the front. “The last place to be connected — to be fully myelinated — is the front of your brain,” Jensen says. Interview Highlights On why teenagers are more prone to addiction Copyright 2015 NPR.
Americans’ increasing distrust of science — and not just on climate change Albert Einstein delivers a lecture at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the auditorium of the Carnegie Institute of Technology Little Theater at Pittsburgh on Dec. 28, 1934. (AP) Eight in 10 Americans believe science has made life better for most people, but they still don't trust scientists — and/or aren't aware of their consensus — on many of the most important science-related issues of the day. And that goes for far more than just climate change. And it includes plenty of Democrats too. A new Pew study comparing the attitudes of scientists and the public shows wide gaps between the two when it comes to climate, food that uses genetically modified organisms and pesticides, research using animals, and also the threat posed by the fast-growing world population. There's an even bigger gap when it comes to GMOs. Chris Mooney has more details. And actually, on some of these issues, Republicans are more in line with scientists.
Failing Forward: 21 Ideas To Use It In Your Classroom Failing Forward: 21 Ideas To Help Students Keep Their Momentum by Terry Heick “Failing Forward” is a relatively recent entry into our cultural lexicon–at least as far has headlines go anyway–that has utility for students and teachers. Popularized from the book of the same name, the idea behind failing forward is to see failing as a part of success rather than its opposite. So what might this look like in your classroom? Failing Forward In The Classroom: 21 Ideas To Help Students Keep Their Momentum 1. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “Your design work on the app blueprint is coming along nicely. 2. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “Your first two drafts didn’t work so well, huh? 3. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “How did your audience respond to your ideas? 4. How does this promote failing forward? 5. How does this promote failing forward? Say: “This essay was well-conceived; loved the clear purpose here, so you got full points for your initial execution.
For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters MartinaK15 By Will Richardson We’re halfway to school when my 14-year-old son remembers a homework assignment he forgot to do for biology class. “Something big?” It’s happened before, many times, in fact, that “it doesn’t matter” response when it comes to work both of my kids are doing in school. That’s an especially frustrating reality for me because in my travels to schools around the world I see lots of examples of “work that matters”; high school kids in Philadelphia designing solar panels for hospitals in the African bush; middle school kids in San Diego writing books about their local ecosystems and selling them in local stores; primary school kids designing a new classroom wing being built at their school outside of Melbourne, Australia. “Work that matters” has significance beyond classroom walls; it’s work that is created for an authentic audience who might enjoy it or benefit from it even in a small way. Are these kids outliers? Still, we can start small, can’t we?
What Students Really Need to Hear | affectiveliving It’s 4 a.m. I’ve struggled for the last hour to go to sleep. But, I can’t. Yet again, I am tossing and turning, unable to shut down my brain. Why? Because I am stressed about my students. This is what students really need to hear: First, you need to know right now that I care about you. Here’s the thing: I lose sleep because of you. Before I tell you why, you should understand the truth about school. The main event is learning how to deal with the harshness of life when it gets difficult — how to overcome problems as simple as a forgotten locker combination, to obnoxious peers, to gossip, to people doubting you, to asking for help in the face of self-doubt, to pushing yourself to concentrate when a million other thoughts and temptations are fingertips away. It is your resilience in conquering the main event — adversity — that truly prepares you for life after school. But, you shouldn’t be worried about the fact that you will face great adversities. So, do yourself a favor: Step up. – C.
Are Your Students Engaged? Don’t Be So Sure By David Price It might be time we re-thought student engagement. Are we measuring the right things? Are we taking disengagement seriously enough? January is a time for resolutions. Perhaps educators, in 2014, need to resolve to better understand student engagement, challenge the myths around it, and make it a higher priority in their relationships with students. Let’s deal with the issue of the importance of engagement first. But for these findings to translate into actions, we have to re-think what we mean by engagement. Myth #1: “I can see when my students are engaged.” Don’t be so sure. “But why didn’t any of your teachers spot this?” He replied, “I learned how to fall asleep with my eyes open.” Students are learning to modify their behavior in class so that they appear to be engaged while, in reality, they’ve intellectually checked-out. Myth #2 : “They must be engaged — look at their test scores!” Myth #3 : “They must be engaged — they’re having fun.”