Using digital tools to make a difference SmartBlogs Quick question: If you wanted to make a difference in the world when you were a kid, how did you do it? For me, “making a difference” meant setting up a lemonade stand at the end of the driveway and selling Dixie cups full of sweet goodness to raise money that I would send off to the causes that I cared about. And while I really enjoyed the entire process, I didn’t make significant change in the world. Even as an adult, “making a difference” usually meant delivering food to a homeless shelter or serving meals to the needy on Thanksgiving — and while both of those practices made a difference in the local community, both of those practices had a limited impact on life beyond my town’s boundaries. Things have changed for anyone who wants to make a difference today. Need some tangible examples of how children are using digital tools to raise their voices and support their causes in public ways? Here are six: The lesson for teachers is a simple one, isn’t it?
Positive attitude toward math predicts math achievement in kids -- ScienceDaily For the first time, scientists have identified the brain pathway that links a positive attitude toward math to achievement in the subject. In a study of elementary school students, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that having a positive attitude about math was connected to better function of the hippocampus, an important memory center in the brain, during performance of arithmetic problems. The findings will be published online Jan. 24 in Psychological Science. Educators have long observed higher math scores in children who show more interest in math and perceive themselves as being better at it. The new study found that, even once IQ and other confounding factors were accounted for, a positive attitude toward math still predicted which students had stronger math performance. 'Attitude is really important' "Attitude is really important," said Lang Chen, PhD, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
50 Useful Apps For Students With Reading Disabilities Whether you’re the parent of a child with a reading disability or an educator that works with learning disabled students on a daily basis, you’re undoubtedly always looking for new tools to help these bright young kids meet their potential and work through their disability. While there are numerous technologies out there that can help, perhaps one of the richest is the iPad, which offers dozens of applications designed to meet the needs of learning disabled kids and beginning readers alike. Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle. Helpful Tools These tools are useful for both educators and students with reading disabilities alike, aiding in everything from looking up a correct spelling to reading text out loud. Speak It! Fundamentals Reading Writing Spelling
Stress for success A pounding heart. Tense muscles. Sweat-beaded forehead. The sight of a coiled snake or a deep chasm might trigger such stress responses. These physical reactions signal that the body is prepared to deal with a life-threatening situation. Many people, however, respond this way to things that cannot actually hurt them. The uneasiness we feel when we think about, anticipate or plan for non-threatening events is called anxiety. The good news: Anxiety experts have a number of techniques to help people control such overwhelming feelings. Why we worry Anxiety is related to fear. Fear is what kept our ancestors alive when a rustle in the bushes turned out to be a lion. Our species developed its fight-or-flight response to deal with real threats, such as a lion that our ancestors might have encountered on the savanna in Africa. Philippe Rouzet/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) That fight-or-flight response is how the body prepares to deal with the threat at hand. Reducing a mountain to a molehill
7 Ways to Transform Your Classroom Background: This is a blog post I originally wrote for a presentation on Classroom 2.0 Live! It is based on some ideas sparked in another post, Transformative or just flashy educational tools?, which only had 6 suggestions, but David Warlick inspired the 7th in his comment. The 7 aspects below, were developed when principal Stephen Whiffin and I were conceptualizing some of the important aspects we would be exploring at our new Inquiry Hub school, (more on the school here and here). Note that in both the blog post and the accompanying slide show, each section includes an inquiry question that educators can persue to extend their own learning. (Give learners choice.) Inquiry based learning is a key tenet of the Inquiry Hub. Which of these resources will help you develop more inquiry based lessons? (Give learners a voice.) When students explore their interests in-depth, they will often discover insights worth sharing with others. (Give learners an audience.) Connect | Create | Learn
Why “Googling It” Is Not Enough Big Ideas Culture Teaching Strategies Thinkstock Has the Internet changed the way students conduct research? Yes, and not always for the better, reports to a study released last week by the Pew Research Center, “How Teens Do Research in the Digital World.” According to a survey of more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers, “research” for today’s students means “Googling,” and as a result, doing research “has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.” While teachers in the survey acknowledge the benefits of the web for students—great depth and breadth of information, material presented in engaging multimedia formats, and the opportunity to become self-directed and self-reliant researchers—many of them express concern that easily-distracted students with short attention spans are not developing the skills required to do deep, original research.
Eight Ways to Use Video With English Language Learners This blog was co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski. This post is excerpted from their new book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels. "I like the way you use videos with us -- you get us moving, talking, writing and speaking. The problem is you make us think too much." -- "John," one of our English-Language Learner students We can think of far worse things a student might say to us, and John's comment demonstrates our perspective on using video with English-Language Learners (and, for that matter, with all students) -- research and our experience show that it can be a very effective learning tool, but it has to be used as an active one. The word "active" comes from the Latin "actus," which means "a doing, a driving." Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 1. Describe what you see: Who is doing what? 2.
Response: Celebrating our Students' Good Writing - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo {*style:<b> <i>(Note: This is the first post in a multi-part series on teaching writing) </i> </b>*} Katie Ciresi asked: This series is a companion to last year's five posts on Helping Our Students Become Better Readers . I'm "kicking off" with guest responses from three educators: Mary Tedrow, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey. Mary Tedrow, NBCT, has taught high school English for 24 years in Winchester, VA. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey are professors in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University (Fisher is also a classroom teacher at Health Sciences High & Middle College), and have authored books on several topics, including literacy, RtI, and formative assessments. {*style:<i>Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2007). </i>*} Thanks to Mary, Doug and Nancy for contributing their responses. Please feel free to leave a comment sharing your reactions to this question and the ideas shared here. Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post.
Take one sheet of paper and really get to know your pupils | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional A one-page profile is exactly what it says on the tin. It's one page of information which has three questions. What do others like and admire about you? What is important to you? And what support do you need? The pilot worked so well that we soon found ourselves introducing one page profiles across whole year groups and then across the whole school. I want to stress that this is not just another paperwork exercise. I cherish the conversations I can have in the corridor with our children now that I know who loves ballet and who plays cricket. So how do we use the profiles through the school year? The making of one page profiles slots neatly into different aspects of the PHSE curriculum and during the spring term, when the children work on the SEAL (social and emotional aspects of learning) unit Good to Be Me, they are revisited and updated. Introducing one-page profiles hasn't all been plain sailing. But in late 2010 Ofsted inspectors visited. Plain one page profile
Response: Teaching Science By "Becoming A Learner" - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo (Note: This is the third post in a four-part series on teaching science. You can see Part One here and Part Two here) Two weeks ago I posed this question: What is the best advice you would give to help an educator become better at teaching science? I've been posting various guest responses in this four-part series, and invite readers to share their comments, too. Part One appeared last Monday, and featured advice from Dr. Today, three educators respond to the question -- high school physics teacher Frank Noschese, middle school science teacher Paul Cancellieri, and Steve Spangler well-known teacher-trainer and creator of science multimedia tools. Though I'm not a "regular" science teacher, I have always used science in teaching English Language Learners. Response From Frank Noschese Frank Noschese teaches physics at a public high school in New York. Learn from other teachers Being able to collaborate with (or at least bounce ideas off of) other teachers face-to-face is critical. "YES!"
Technology Integration for Math Engagement » Math Stations and Screencasting on the iPad We started our math station activities today. How these look will vary throughout the year; today they were able to ‘move’ from activity to activity while staying at their own table. The first two stations provided students with directions on how to finish two different projects that we had started previously. The first station was our Order of Operations Clock Project. Found the idea through this blog post, “What Time Is It?” The second station involved correcting their prime factor chart, shown below. Station three had the students watch a short screencast on how to find the greatest common factor. Here is the GCF Video: Station four provided the students with four practice problems. And, finally students will reach station five. This is my first year to implement math stations, yet I am already excited for it and believe it fits in with our standards-based grading.