What if You Only Had 5 Minutes to Inspire a Student? - Finding Common Ground First impressions are important. We know this. We've heard about it in commercials and read about it in books. The statement, "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression," is a popular statement that is ingrained in our psyche. In an excellently written Education Week Teacher commentary, Pernille Ripp wrote that "most of us make our biggest mistake on our very first day." "Sure, I laughed with the students and made noises about our "class community." As a former teacher, I can relate to Pernille's commentary. But what about the days after that? The very first impression we make with students is the most important but every day we have the opportunity to make a first impression...on their learning. At least that is what Mark Barnes thinks. Let's face it, we can all relate. What Perinille Ripp and Mark Barnes are both pleading with educators to do is involve the students in an authentic way. What is a Five-Minute Teacher? In Visible Learning, Hattie writes,
A letter to my students and parents about the 20% Project | I teach. I think. If new technology doesn't simplify your life, change it or dump it. A little over a year ago our school switched from Moodle to Haiku for our LMS program. I'm really happy with Haiku, and I think many of our teachers are seeing the benefits. The assessments and gradebooks have saved me a lot of time, and I love how well they're all integrated. When I am building an assessment or managing my grades, I don't mind the time it takes for Haiku to authenticate me. Last year at Fall CUE, I attended Lisa Highfill's workshop on flipping the classroom.
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TwHistory The Myth About Homework Sachem was the last straw. Or was it Kiva? My 12-year-old daughter and I had been drilling social-studies key words for more than an hour. It was 11 p.m. Our entire evening had, as usual, consisted of homework and conversations (a.k.a. nagging) about homework. She was tired and fed up. As the summer winds down, I'm dreading scenes like that one from seventh grade. Subscribe Now Get TIME the way you want it One Week Digital Pass — $4.99 Monthly Pay-As-You-Go DIGITAL ACCESS — $2.99 One Year ALL ACCESS — Just $30!
What Connected Learning Truly Promotes Might Surprise You Technology has entered society like a massive, happy storm, and left few things unaffected. It was only a generation ago that technology took the form of cordless phones, cable television, and the soul-deleting wizardry of the digital clock. Today there are mobile supercomputers shrunk down to the size of an index card in the pocket of students, a staggering reality that’s easy to take for granted. Computers in your pocket. What this means for education is, well, that education needs to be rethought. Or at least rebooted. Continuing to teach in the stretching shadow of technology while only dealing with it through glimpses and gimmick is an awkward arrogance we may be dealing with for some time to come. Of course it’s true that this is happening for adults as well. And this is all happening through technology’s overarching talent–the ability to connect. Access The simplest way technology connects students is through access. Dialogue is the most immediate effect of access.
Progressive Education Spring 2008 Progressive Education Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find By Alfie Kohn RELATED PUBLICATIONS: * "What to Look for in a Classroom" (table) * "A Dozen Basic Guidelines for Educators" (list) If progressive education doesn’t lend itself to a single fixed definition, that seems fitting in light of its reputation for resisting conformity and standardization. Talk to enough progressive educators, in fact, and you’ll begin to notice certain paradoxes: Some people focus on the unique needs of individual students, while others invoke the importance of a community of learners; some describe learning as a process, more journey than destination, while others believe that tasks should result in authentic products that can be shared.[1] What It Is Despite such variations, there are enough elements on which most of us can agree so that a common core of progressive education emerges, however hazily. It’s not all or nothing, to be sure. What It Isn’t Why It Makes Sense Why It’s Rare 1. 2. 3.
Super Teacher Tools Ten Things I've Learned in Going Project-Based It's a few days before Christmas and I expect a challenge. Students will be checked-out or hyper. However, to my surprise, they are fully engaged in a project that combines reading, writing, global awareness and critical thinking. I've mentioned before that this year has been challenging. However, I am realizing that my students excel when I approach a subject with a project-based framework. In past years, I started with a full project-based approach. Here are some things I've learned over the last few years as I've transitioned toward a more project-based approach: Students need to be a part of the planning process.
Why (And How) Teachers Should Start Using iTunes U Courtesy: maconstate.edu With so many schools adopting the use of iPads I find it strange that we aren’t hearing more about the incredible opportunities available in iTunes U . Well I suppose it isn’t that strange given that schools in the early stages of transitioning to an iPad platform are extremely busy and learning one more thing can seem overwhelming. Trust me, I understand that, but I believe if you were to learn one more thing it should be about the power of iTunes U. The first and likely most exciting benefit of iTunes U is the multitude of incredible classroom resources at your disposal. When I think of the potential of iTunes U, the first thing that comes to my mind are the incredible communities that developed around SMART board users. An important consideration to think about is that the individuals creating these courses are cutting edge classroom teachers. I would love to take a minute to highlight a few courses that I am extremely proud. Solar System Ecosystems Presidents
Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques Many students are being left behind by an educational system that some people believe is in crisis. Improving educational outcomes will require efforts on many fronts, but a central premise of this monograph is that one part of a solution involves helping students to better regulate their learning through the use of effective learning techniques. Fortunately, cognitive and educational psychologists have been developing and evaluating easy-to-use learning techniques that could help students achieve their learning goals. In this monograph, we discuss 10 learning techniques in detail and offer recommendations about their relative utility. We selected techniques that were expected to be relatively easy to use and hence could be adopted by many students. To offer recommendations about the relative utility of these techniques, we evaluated whether their benefits generalize across four categories of variables: learning conditions, student characteristics, materials, and criterion tasks.
MasteryConnect Eases Common Core Alignment, Instruction & Tracking Email Share December 25, 2012 - by Tom Vander Ark 4 Email Share Three years ago Doug Weber and Mick Hewitt had left a web design agency and were consulting on a social network in Japan. Goble wasn’t alone. Trenton asked Doug and Mick, “Can you make this easier for me on the web?” In 2009, they launched the beta of MasteryConnect to make it easy for teachers to create and share Common Core aligned assessments, to score assessments quickly and return feedback to students, and to track student progress. In 2011, MasteryConnect launched a free community for teachers with premium services for schools and districts, a Common Core App for iOS, Android, and Windows 8. MasteryConnect is now the largest social networking site for formative assessment. The visual performance tracking provides teachers and administrators real time information on what students know and who needs help. This two minute video explains how MasteryConnect works in a nutshell.