How Student Centered Is Your Classroom? In the education world, the term student-centered classroom is one we hear a lot. And many educators would agree that when it comes to 21st-century learning, having a student-centered classroom is certainly a best practice. Whether you instruct first grade or university students, take some time to think about where you are with creating a learning space where your students have ample voice, engage frequently with each other, and are given opportunities to make choices. Guiding Questions Use these questions to reflect on the learning environment you design for students: In what ways do students feel respected, feel valued, and feel part of the whole group? Balancing Teacher Roles So let's talk about that last question, and specifically, direct instruction versus facilitation. Facilitation: open-ended questioning, problem posing, Socratic seminar, and guided inquiry Direct instruction: demonstration, modeling, and lecturing Coaching: providing feedback, conferencing, and guided practice
The Spag test is a hoax. Many Year 6 teachers coming back to school after the break may well be fed up and anxious about the Spag Test. 1. In January 2013 on this blog, I wrote a series of blogs about grammar for your use. These aren't for children. 2. Please note, this section has no references, no evidence. 3. That's how policy is being made by this government. 4. As an exercise, if you are interested in language, you might like to keep a note of these 'legitimate alternatives' in spelling, punctuation and grammar as you read newspapers, text books, fiction and the like. 5. So the Spag test will be used to build in failure. 6. If we're really interested in helping young people to understand language and to find out what is or is not appropriate, then language has to be treated in the same way as we might teach any other human activity: investigate it and explore why and how people are saying or writing this or that. Language proceeds through 'agreements' between its users. 7. 8.
The New Art of the Possible | Knowledge Insights Embracing new technology and having an open and curious mindset is the key for not only growth but survival in every industry today. I cannot think of one industry that has not felt the distributive effects of new technologies and the rate of social adaptation. I deliberately don’t call it adoption as this is a term for “Systems of Record”. We now have “Systems of Engagement” (thanks Geoffrey Moore) and they are defined by our social interaction and creativity. I recently read a fascinating post by Ayelet Baron that brilliantly encapsulates the essence of what we are seeing. Ayelet asks these disruption questions: Are you in a dying industry? In her vision of the future of work and the blurring of industry lines, Ayelet makes a comparison between what’s happening in the music industry and publishing. Here is Ayelet’s full post: Debra Fox Like this: Like Loading...
6 Ways to Honor the Learning Process in Your Classroom Roughly put, learning is really just a growth in awareness. The transition from not knowing to knowing is part of it, but that's really too simple because it misses all the degrees of knowing and not knowing. One can't ever really, truly understand something any more than a shrub can stay trimmed. There's always growth or decay, changing contexts or conditions. Yes, this sounds silly and esoteric, but think about it. In fact, so little of the learning process is unchanging. Design, engineering, religion, media, literacy, human rights, geography, technology, science -- all of these have changed both in form and connotation in the last decade, with changes in one (i.e., technology) changing how we think of another (i.e., design). And thus changing how students use this skill or understanding. And thus changing how we, as teachers, "teach it." The Implications of Awareness The implications of awareness reach even farther than that, however. The Learning Process: From Theory into Practice 1.
Foundation Subjects with a Twist - the IPC - Sway Grantham Firstly, as is always the case, these are my own opinions and experiences based on a teacher in a classroom. I am not senior management so those aspects of the implementation and organisation are beyond my knowledge. In September my school started in International Primary Curriculum (IPC), something that we’d been preparing to do for a while. This curriculum focuses of cross-curricular teaching through topics covering the National Curriculum skills and learning objectives over a two year rolling cycle. The structure on the curriculum begins with an ‘entry point’ this is a hook to get the children interested and excited about the new topic. The curriculum then progresses through a series of ‘tasks’, or lessons, moving through the subjects in groups. The IPC states that each week there is 8 hours of curriculum content to be covered which can be tricky when juggling other curriculum areas. One of the biggest criticisms staff have in school is resourcing the IPC.
Wisdom Networks! Opportunity? What? Why? Where? How? | Wisdom Networks Wisdom Networks crowd create Network Society and accelerate the Wisdom of Crowds (r)evolution for health, education, equity market, innovation, organisations, countries and regions. Everyone can see and act on every “thing”, everywhere, anytime. Telewisdom accelerates “The Shift” to the next stage of economic development by organising people, processes and things across the “Internet of Everything”. Opportunity? The reality is that global startups are created fast – sometimes in a weekend sprint. What? Wisdom Networks organise the wisdom and effort of the community by exchanging wisdom (knowledge plus action) between people via mobile devices. THE SHIFT! Information is everywhere, but there is no wisdom. Where? Social networks achieved global telewisdom in social communities in 7 years. How? Wisdom Networks put all 6 elements of wisdom in the cloud (not just 2) and come “Over the Top” (OTT) to aggregate and provide telewisdom for every thing in the “Internet of Everything”. Next steps?
Education Week This post is by Libby Woodfin, a former teacher and school counselor and the director of publications for Expeditionary Learning. It's not as easy as you might think. Teachers have many tools at their disposal that can facilitate deeper learning--long-term projects, hands-on activities, and, often, new technologies. You'll often find find deeper learning in that context, but not always. You also may find deeper learning in the context of a more traditional classroom environment. So how do you know if it's deeper learning? With the right set of instructional choices, students take control of their learning. Deeper instruction that challenges students In the video we see students wrestling with the themes in Macbeth--not unusual in high school English classes. Challenge is at the heart of deeper instruction. Deeper instruction that engages students Engagement is not a gimmick; it doesn't require shiny objects (e.g., technology) to make it happen.
A word from Ruth Merttens on the Draft Programme of Study for Primary Maths In the past few months you will have heard about the draft Programmes of Study for the new curriculum which the government released for a period of pre-consultation before the formal consultation early in 2013. As a member of the small group advising the DfE on primary mathematics, author of Abacus and Hamilton plans, and as a teacher working with actual children in real classrooms, I am completely aware of both the implications and the challenges represented by such a drastic shift in coverage, content and expectation. What are the key changes in the draft Programme of Study for Maths? It goes further in that there is quite a bit of new content, such as addition and subtraction of fractions, which, up until now, has been regarded as the province of ‘secondary maths’. How can we start to prepare for this new curriculum? So how can we prepare to implement the new curriculum whilst also maintaining our commitment to existing, accessible and inclusive mathematics teaching? P.s.
Surviving the Ups and Downs of Social Movements Those who get involved in social movements share a common experience: Sometimes, when an issue captures the public eye or an unexpected event triggers a wave of mass protest, there can be periods of intense activity, when new members rush to join the cause and movement energy swells. But these extraordinary times are often followed by long, fallow stretches when activists’ numbers dwindle and advocates struggle to draw any attention at all. During these lulls, those who have tasted the euphoria of a peak moment feel discouraged and pessimistic. The ups and downs of social movements can be hard to take. Certainly, activists fighting around issues of inequality and economic justice have seen this pattern in the wake of Occupy Wall Street. Many working to combat climate change have encountered their own periods of dejection after large protests in recent years. After intensive uprisings have cooled, many participants simply give up and move on to other pursuits. The Moyer map
Less Is More: The Value of a Teacher's Time This past weekend, I had the privilege of being part of a panel at the Maryland State Education Association's Education Policy Forum with 2014 National Teacher of the Year Sean McComb, Maryland Teacher of the Year Jody Zepp, and educator-turned-influential radio host Marc Steiner. We convened in front of policymakers, superintendents, and other thought leaders. It sounded title-rific until we actually started talking about the profession we love and lead. One of the first questions we were asked was: "If you could build a school, what would it look like?" The Unseen Work Yet the best investment that seemed most tangible to the policymakers right in front of me was time. If I started a school right now, I would restructure school time nationwide. Seats shifted, because the talking points always fall into similar arguments: Students need more time with teachers. More Time to Plan Some of the effective uses of time that I've seen include: A Better System