Connect, Share, Learn. It has been an incredible journey since I decided to become a connected educator back in March of 2009.
As I sit here writing this post, I cannot help but reflect on the positive changes that have taken place at my school and with me professionally. Through connected learning and sharing, I have become better equipped to lead change at New Milford High School and to begin to transform the teaching and learning process. All one has to do is read this blog to experience what I am talking about.
Make no mistake; the knowledge, resources, ideas, strategies, and feedback that I receive from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) have had such a dramatic impact on me as an educational leader. As a transparent leader, I have been able to share this journey with thousands of educators from across the globe. When we take the time to connect, share, and learn we are opening our minds to endless possibilities to improve our schools and ourselves.
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Recent School Reform Articles & Posts. Top Education Next Articles of 2011! Learning or Learning on time? The classroom is a busy place for a teacher.
In high schools, every block means roughly 30 more students, each bringing his/her own strengths, weaknesses, interests, personalities, etc to the class. We know that each student is unique, will learn in different ways and at different rates, but too often we make a generalization and refer to them as our 'English 9 class' or our 'Block G class'. Likewise, because we are faced with the organizational challenge of working with so many students we put expectations on our students that they will all learn at roughly the same pace. Too often, the unintended consequence is that we emphasize 'learning on time' instead of what we should emphasize...LEARNING! This post focusses on a few assessment practices that educators can implement within a busy 'class' that will embrace each student's individuality and support... The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online. This “The Best…” list requires a bit of an explanation.
I’ve already posted The Best Websites For K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement. That list primarily contains links to sites that provide direct writing instruction. And I’ve also posted several lists of Web 2.0 tools where writing is a key feature to using them, including The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows, The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations, and The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online. I thought, though, that it would be useful to create another list of the best places where the primary purpose is just to write, and which make it interesting and easy for English Language Learners and other students to do so. The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System. Finland’s education system is touted by many as one of the best, if not the best, in the world, and its students consistently score at or neat the top of international tests (you might also be interested in The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery) .
What, if anything, can we in the United States learn from what they are doing? Here are my choices for The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System (please feel free to suggest additional articles I should include): Learning from Finland:How one of the world’s top educational performers turned around from The Boston Globe Imagine a nation with excellent schools by Ken Bernstein. Ken’s posted a similar article at Daily Kos, which has a ton of comments. What can we learn from Finland? Finnish Envy by Paul Thomas In Teachers We Trust: An Interview with Finnish Education Expert Reijo Laukkanen at Learning First Why do Finland’s schools get the best results? *promote good education! Dan Rather Reports On Finland’s Schools. The 21st Century Teacher.
Share a link. Why The Future Of Work Will Make Us More Human. Jobs are not only being outsourced to people other countries, but they are being "othersourced" to automated workers.
Jared Weiner, a futurist and consultant at Weiner Edrich Brown, notes that we’ll see more white-collar jobs lost to software algorithms, intelligent computers, and robotics. While automation has already had a significant impact on manufacturing, we are just beginning to see the impact of artificial intelligence on the traditional professions. He notes that the financial services industry is becoming increasingly othersourced, and is experiencing a modern industrial revolution of its own. According to Weiner, “those jobs are not going to return – they can be done more efficiently and error-free by intelligent software.” Industries that undergo this transformation don’t disappear, but the number of jobs that they support changes drastically. Since 1970, manufacturing jobs as a percentage of total employment have declined from a quarter of payrolls to less than ten percent.
Kathycasey.
Maths. Flipped Classrooms. Teaching and Learning. Leadership skills. 21st C Tools. Project Based Learning. Reflection.