Study Hacks - Decoding Patterns of Success - Cal Newport On Sam Harris and Stephen Fry’s Meditation Debate February 19th, 2019 · 44 comments A few weeks ago, on his podcast, Sam Harris interviewed the actor and comedian Stephen Fry. Harris, of course, is a longtime proponent of this practice. What sparked the diversion in the first place is when, early in the conversation, Fry expressed skepticism about meditation. Typically when we find ourselves in a chronic state of ill health it’s because we’ve moved away from something natural that our bodies have evolved to expect.Paleolithic man didn’t need gyms and diets because he naturally exercised and didn’t have access to an overabundance of bad food.Mindfulness mediation, by contrast, doesn’t seem to be replicating something natural that we’ve lost, but is instead itself a relatively contrived and complicated activity. Harris’s response was to compare meditation to reading. I wonder, however, whether Fry should have persisted. Read more » Minimalism Grows… February 8th, 2019 · 31 comments Read more »
LearnersCloud Blog: Flipped classroom: 60-second elevator pitch I recently attended a school in the North West to discuss the uses of mobile learning in supporting GCSE revision. As the conversation unfolded it turned out that teaching staff were not just interested in the independent applications of mobile technology but also what it could offer classroom teaching and learning. After a short discussion to identify their school’s particular requirements, a colleague referenced the flipped classroom. The meeting was a success and we are currently working in partnership with the school on several projects, including a pilot scheme to trial flipped learning. Please note: This should be regarded as a basic definition of the flipped classroom; it is not intended to offer a comprehensive account. The easiest way to define a flipped classroom is to think about it in comparison to a traditional class In a traditional class students usually get first exposure to course content inside the classroom via direct instructions from their teacher. Author:
BetterExplained | Friendly lessons for lasting insight. We’re Going 1:1 with iPads Image from ergatron.com Can you hear my excitement already? You read that right…we are going 1:1 with iPads in all of our preschool through 5th grade classrooms in our elementary school. Since I have learned from so many other blogs about integrating technology I plan to share our learning here, but also hope to get input from others on questions that we have. Here’s what led up to this 1:1 decision: We are a small district with preK-12 all in one building, which allows us to share technology even though we still function as separate schools in our three separated wings. Our District Tech Team put in a lot of work this year exploring schools that have gone 1:1 to see what works, what didn’t, etc. So, now that the decision was made, what’s next? Each classroom will have an Ergatron charging case. I think that’s it for logistics. If your school or classroom has gone 1:1 are there any logistical issues that you encountered that we should know about?
Career Advice, Education Advice, Life Advice by Marty Nemko How to Support My Teachers with our 1:1 Initiative? In my last post I shared that we are going 1:1 with iPads in all of our preschool through 5th grade classrooms in our building. Now, my question is how can I lead/support my teachers to use them in meaningful ways to transform learning? We are fortunate to have an Instructional Media Specialist that is extremely helpful in supporting teachers to try a new tool. This past year I did go into a few different classrooms with the iPad cart to “borrow a class of guinea pigs” to try out new apps that I had learned about from my Twitter PLN. In my Friday Focus post each week I have also included a section called “Blogs, Pins & Tweets…Oh My!” Over the summer I hope to continue to learn and answer this question: What else can I do to encourage, support and lead teachers with the iPads? Start a wikispace this summer to start adding resources/ideas to. Where will I keep finding my ideas to share with teachers? Please share if you have any ideas to help me!