6 Professional Opportunities for Learning More About Classroom Design! 6 Professional Opportunities for Learning More About Classroom Design Back to school is always an exciting time filled with rich opportunities to learn and share with colleagues, grade level teams, and friends in your professional learning network. Because of the extremely busy time of year, this post will be short and to the point. Tonight, I'm hosting two opportunities for professional learning. I'll share that information below (during the Twitter chat, I'll even be giving away two interactive white board systems and a document camera - compliments of the fantastic company, IPevo)! My first post for the back to school year on Scholastic pushed live this morning, and I'm hosting a NEW challenge on ClassroomCribs.com with two of my dear friends. Innovations & Conversations with Steven W. Join Steven for the next installment in the series. Tuesday, August 19, 7:00p.m. #TeacherFriends LIVE Chat on Twitter Time: 9pm Eastern tonight - August 19th 2014 on Twitter 3 Quick Classroom Design Tips
The Dos and Don'ts of Classroom Management: Your 25 Best Tips Posted 08/20/2014 1:55PM | Last Commented 03/29/2016 9:48AM Classroom management is a delicate balancing act often learned through experience and trial-and-error experimentation. Whether you're a new or experienced teacher, having strategies for effective classroom management is essential for creating positive, successful learning spaces (and staying sane!). In this presentation you’ll find 25 tips for managing your classroom. Without further ado, here are the Dos and Don'ts of Classroom Management: Your 25 Best Tips: Each classroom is different, so please come back and share what you've learned and what works for you! NOTE: If you're having trouble viewing the presentation, click here to view it directly.
Rethinking the Classroom – Research Educators, researchers, and students are discovering the benefits and advantages of cooperative, active, and engaged learning. Classroom spaces that support such a shift in teaching and learning have lagged behind. A significant opportunity exists for maximizing learning opportunities and creating meaningful experiences by rethinking the classroom experience. “Learning is not a spectator sport…[Students] must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives. Getting and keeping students engaged is perhaps the most important step in creating a successful learning outcome. An article on cooperative learning in higher education in Change magazine offers compelling evidence on the benefits of collaborative learning and teaching methods. A study by the National Training Laboratories found that the more active the teaching and learning methods, the higher the retention rates. What We Know Therefore Challenge Solution 1. 2. 3.
8 Ways For Teachers To Save Time In The Classroom 8 Ways For Teachers To Save Time In The Classroom by Lila Daniels, onlineschools.com Teachers think about a lot during the course of a school day — from planning lessons tied to the core curriculum to making sure Jimmy gets home on the right bus. One thing teachers often do not think about is saving themselves time, but they should. You may feel like it’s just one more thing to add to your plate. Here are 10 ways to save your valuable time: 1. Organized correctly, technology really can make your life easier. The major difference between the two is price. 2. Learning management systems are a good way to employ a blended learning strategy. Search YouTube for dozens of videos on blended learning topics, including tutorials, discussions and real-life examples. 3. Some teachers harness the power of lesson planning sites to save time. 4. We’re not talking about your actual, physical desktop. Use a system that makes sense to you. 5. 6. Not all solutions are technology based. 7. 8. Teaching Time
Google Opens Classroom, Its Learning Management Tool, To All Teachers Back in May, Google announced the limited preview of Classroom, a tool that aims to make it easier for teachers to stay in touch with their students and to give them assignments and feedback. Google says more than 100,000 educators from 45 countries signed up to try it since then. Today, it is throwing the doors wide open, and anyone with a Google Apps for Education account can now use the service. Classroom, which is now available in 42 languages, gives teachers access to a content management system that allows them to post updates and homework assignments, add and remove students from their classes, and provide them with feedback (including grades). The service is free for schools as part of the Google Apps for Education suite. Classroom is only one of Google’s many initiatives to get schools to use its services (over using Apple’s or Microsoft’s offerings, for example). With Classroom, Google closes the loop.
Flexible Classrooms: Providing the Learning Environment That Kids Need Providing the Learning Environment That Kids Need Flexible classrooms give students a choice in what kind of learning space works best for them, and help them to work collaboratively, communicate, and engage in critical thinking. Since implementing flexible classrooms, Albemarle County Public Schools have noticed that: Their students' grades have improved.Their students seem happier and more engaged.Their students are participating more and having more invigorating conversations. Giving Students a Choice in How They Learn "From day one, I've said, 'You may sit anywhere you like as long as you're safe in our classroom,'" says Katie Collins, a Woodbrook Elementary School second grade teacher. Becky Fisher, the director of educational technology at Albemarle County Public Schools, is interested in learning about the thinking that drives student choice. She painted the picture of walking into a classroom and seeing kids: Lying on the floorSitting at low tables on their kneesStanding up
10 Benefits Of Blended Learning For Teachers [Infographic] - Blended learning–the mixing of eLearning and face-to-face learning–is a natural response to the growing accessibility of eLearning, and the continued need for a human component, and the existing infrastructure of countless brick-mortal educational institutions. In fact, blended learning is as much as compromise as it is an experiment to see how well this whole learn-by-computer thing works. But while much attention is given to the impact on students and academic performance, little thought is given for how it impacts teachers as professionals. The following infographic does exactly that, offering up 10 perceived benefits of blended learning on the teaching profession, including better information, team teaching, more time with students, and expanded opportunity for leadership.
Academic Sponge Activities To put your rough days into perspective, here is a teaching story that is equal parts nightmare and exemplar, adapted from Alan Newland's personal account in The Guardian. When he was a first-year teacher in Hackney and Totenham, Newland found his sixth graders to be challenging to the extreme. Before their Thursday swim lesson at a local aquatic center, he repeatedly warned his kids not to jump into the pool before the swim instructor arrived. But before he could undress in the locker room, six students were screaming, giggling, and frolicking in the pool. "Out! Back on the bus, students were incensed. How do you turn something like that around? Newland went home defeated and angry, on the verge of quitting. "When you go in there this morning, tell the whole class you are going to do two things: First -- you are going to apologize to all those children you punished who didn't deserve to miss their swimming lesson. What is the underlying cause of the problem? Demoralized? Sponges
Meet 4 Teachers Who Took Classroom Design to the Next Level - A.J. JULIANI Wow, what can we say! This past summer we decided to start a learning space design challenge on ClassroomCribs.com to highlight all of the amazing “cribs” that you have designed for students. Instead of just “aesthetics” we focused this challenge on brain-friendly learning spaces that promoted deep learning and engagement through design. And we were blown away by the response! Over 4,000 educators have joined our Classroom Cribs learning community and many of you sent in videos of your learning space as part of the challenge. Together, Erin Klein, Ben Gilpin, Tom Murray, and myself watched all of the challenge entries with a focus on brain-friendly design and non-traditional learning environments. This month we will be featuring 30 of the learning spaces during our “30 Days of Design” on the ClassroomCribs.com blog. Announcing Our Grand Finalists Each of our finalists have gone above and beyond in designing their learning spaces. Here are the finalists! Mary Wever, 3rd Grade Teacher Awesome!
27 Classroom Management Strategies To Keep Things Fresh 27 Classroom Management Strategies To Keep Things Fresh Classroom management is as much about instructional design and relationships as it is rules and discipline. Though there are certainly exceptional situations, in general the more you’re having to hold them under your thumb, the more likely it is adjustments are necessary elsewhere. We recently shared on of Mia Macmeekin’s graphics–one thematically similar–when we published the visual “27 Ways To Respond When Students Don’t.” A nice follow-up to that collection are the following strategies that you can add to your teacher tool-belt. While you probably already have a nice foundation of go-tos to work from–physical proximity, ignoring the misbehavior, redirecting, eye contact, intentional seating, engaging instruction, a relationship-first approach, and others–you can never have enough classroom management strategies to keep things fresh. Oh–and check out our two favorite sets of classroom rules while you’re at it.