Articulating an Impact on Student Learning by Elizabeth Burns, Assistant Professor, School Library Program, Department of Teaching & Learning, Darden College of Education, Old Dominion University The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in December 2015, positions school librarians as Essential Personnel and provides potential dedicated funding to effective school libraries–IF we make them understand why school librarians matter. ESSA falls short, however, of identifying what characterizes an effective school library program. School systems follow the new norm in education: accountability is standardized in the evaluation process. When we discuss the multiple ways library program is critical to student learning, school librarians should: Looking to ESSA requires us to carefully and intentionally articulate the librarian’s instructional roles and the expertise required in an effective program. Traditional library statistics are one way school librarians can demonstrate an effective school library program. Tags: ESSA
Teaching sustainability cross-curriculum In partnership with the Department of Education's Environment Education Centres we have developed a suite of free teaching resources that address the Sustainability Cross-curriculum Priority and use a student-centred, project based methodology. These resources are linked to the NSW Syllabus and Australian Curriculum and are structured for student group tasks. Learning for sustainability seeks to enable and empower students to make decisions and take actions that contribute to creating a sustainable society and ecosystem. Project based learning allows student to develop knowledge and understanding from multiple subjects and helps them apply this in the context of their school, classroom or local environment. The Sustainability Action Process (SAP) provides this and is a preferred pedagogical approach for teaching sustainability as well as an essential set of knowledge and skills for students to learn. SAP has five steps: Primary years 3 to 6 Secondary years 7 to 10
EnglishPlay Reviews The dream to have a learning tool that can help ESL/EFL learners to study in a stress-free learning environment and especially to practice pronunciation/speaking has been a burning one since we started our teaching profession as ESL teachers. It took many years for us to realize that ambition thanks to the advancement of emerging technologies. We are proud to offer you a unique learning opportunity that none of any other ESL/EFL learning programs and/or websites that we are aware of can have. Our unique learning opportunity includes: Technology-assisted speaking practices: Allow learners to learn and practice speaking in a stress-free setting.Play to learn: Many of our learning activities are game-based learning, meaning that you can still learn a lot while playing our “games”.A variety of learning activities are designed on the self-regulated learning approach to prepare learners for lifelong learning. We are looking forward to having you in our learning program.
4 Ways Technology Can Simplify Learning Your grandma may have told you that she walked to school every day uphill, barefoot and in the snow. But with the way technology has changed education in the last few years, we have a feeling you’ll soon be regaling your students with tales about how tough you had it. It wasn't that long ago, after all, that students had to lug heavy backpacks jammed with textbooks to school every day and teachers had to (gasp!) New technology not only makes lesson planning and teaching easier, it also simplifies learning. 1. By using technology to build interactivity into your lessons, you'll be able to easily track student progress and encourage student growth. 2. It's still amazing to us that a little bitty tablet can hold hundreds of books. 3. It's pretty obvious to anyone who has been in a classroom for more than, say, 10 minutes that students who are engaged behave better. 4. You're teaching 20 different students—each a unique learner with unique skills and talents.
The Top 10 Reasons Students Cannot Cite or Rely On Wikipedia 10. You must never fully rely on any one source for important information. Everyone makes mistakes. All scholarly journals and newspapers contain “corrections” sections in which they acknowledge errors in their prior work. And even the most neutral writer is sometimes guilty of not being fully objective. Thus, you must take a skeptical approach to everything you read. The focus of your search should be on finding accurate information and forming a full picture of an issue, rather than believing the first thing you read. 9. 8. In March 2009, Irish student Shane Fitzgerald, who was conducting research on the Internet and globalization of information, posted a fake quotation on the Wikipedia article about recently deceased French composer Maurice Jarre. Fitzgerald was startled to learn that several major newspapers picked up the quote and published it in obituaries, confirming his suspicions of the questionable ways in which journalists use Web sites, and Wikipedia, as a reliable source.
15 STEM YouTube Channels for Energizing Flipped Learning Flipped learning in the STEM classroom can be fascinating and fun. As you may know, YouTube—a flipped learning marvel in its own right—features many custom user channels designed specifically to cater to the needs of STEM teachers and learners. Below are 15 of the coolest and most popular STEM YouTube channels you’ll find. Have fun exploring, learning, and flipping out over STEM. 1. SciShow SciShow explores the unexpected. 2. Numberphile is a channel that features many creative and interesting videos about the world of numbers, created by Brady Haran. 3. STEM Education is committed to making a difference in the lives of underprivileged children, particularly girls, by empowering them through STEM learning. 4. Unique among STEM YouTube channels, VSauce was created by the entertaining and informative Michael Stevens in the summer of 2010. 5. TED Talks has got it all, including many fascinating videos with a strong STEM focus. 6. 7. 8. Who says science can’t be art? 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Find FREE and OPEN Online Courses Find FREE and OPEN Online Courses FREE online materials of entire courses (syllabus, presentations, assignments, and assessments) published by select universities are available for you. Simply click on a major topic heading and browse through the MERLOT collection of Free Online Courses. Open Education Consortium: A Worldwide Collection of Free Online Course Curriculum Higher education institutions around the world have been posting their curriculum for entire courses online and providing people permission to freely use and to use for free the open courseware. FIND Open CourseWare by Language: FIND Open CourseWare by Provider: Heres a few quick links to OCW provided by other higher education institutions Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative Navigate the list of subject areas to find the courses you want UC Berkeley – WebCastsUse the search engine to find relevant courses Washington State Colleges Open Course Library Review the course listUtah State UniversityReview the course list
Go High-Tech In Your Classroom for Free As much as you'd love to have unlimited funds to buy technology for your classroom (iPads for everyone!)—it's probably not possible in light of recent budget cuts. But that doesn't mean you can't expose your students to cool software, gadgets, games and more. Sign up for free trials. Knowledge Quest | AASL
Using Math Apps to Increase Understanding From content consumption to content creation, there are many ways to use mobile devices with students. They can create how-to videos for authentic audiences, explain their thinking through screencasting, or use scannable technology in the math classroom, for example. Mobile devices can also be used to help students practice foundational math skills and build their math fluency. You might decide to use an app on this list as part of an intervention plan or add it to a newsletter for families. In order for students to tackle the multistep word problems they’ll be asked to solve as early as elementary school, they need to have mastered addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts. Operation Math (iOS $2.99, Android $1.99) This app turns your students into spies who travel around the world on different missions. Sushi Monster (iOS free) Scholastic’s app offers children multiplication and addition problems.
Using Drama to Liven Up Your Lessons Why use Drama in Lessons? Drama isn’t just a subject, it’s a very powerful technique for adding interest and engagement to your lessons. But it’s often also one that some teachers steer slear of with the challenges of organising it and the potential for disruption. So I delved into our course archives and adapted this guidance written by our Lead Consultant for English and Drama Kevin Piper. Drama has a number of advantages as a tool in the classroom. It: Explores human experienceInvestigates specific examples through chosen framesExploits the human ability to respond to storiesHas its own language of space and gesture etc which can be more relevant for exploring personal issuesCreates a distancing effectIncludes both real and symbolic interactionThe search for the most appropriate form of expression is also a search for meaning Basic techniques Wondering what dramatic techniques will work best in your lesson? A Possible Working Method Are they clear? Recording Progress Give a short talk.
20 Simple Ideas for Teaching Math to a Classroom of Multi-Level Kids One of your kids is ready for multiplication and one can't quite count the fingers on one hand. Sound familiar? Kids begin school with a wide range of skills, and that can make it tough to plan lessons that can help every child in your classroom thrive. Here are 20 quick differentiation ideas that we hope will spark a few simple solutions for your classroom. Integrate math into every part of your day.