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...
12 Interesting Ways To Start Class Tomorrow 15 Interesting Ways To Start Class Tomorrow by Terry Heick Ed note: this post has been updated and added-to from a 2013 post You love teaching, your love your classroom, you love your students (most of them), but you’re tired. This doesn’t mean you’re not willing to work, but it makes the fountain of good ideas run a bit dry at times, especially towards the end of the year. So here are 15 ways to start class tomorrow. 1. All students stand in circle. Also, pouting or talking during counting results in elimination from future rounds. 2. 60 Second Talk Students are chosen to give 60 second talks on anything, from self-selected topics they are passionate about, have specific expertise in, etc., to topics given from teacher. 3. Debate Beyonce versus Rihanna, colored pencils versus crayons, recent EU accusations against Google, self-driving cars versus light rail and bicycles, or the best way to break up with a girlfriend or boyfriend. 4. 5. Tweets are short, quick, and to the point. 6. 7. 8.
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?
4 Easy, Non-Academic Ways to Increase Student Achievement - Inspiration4kidz There is quite a bit of recent research pointing to the idea that psychological interventions in learning environments can have a great impact on achievement. Eric Jensen summarizes some of this evidence in his article Your Students’ Number One Life Skill. While the idea of social emotional learning is complex, there are some easy ways to implement these ideas in the classroom and they can have an enormous impact on student success. 1. Make it clear that mistakes are a natural part of learning and not an indication of intelligence. 2. Implement a system that acknowledges behaviors like persistence, self-control or curiosity. I want to acknowledge that some classroom management strategies rely on extrinsic rewards. 3. 4. None of these strategies are brand new or especially innovative but I don’t think that there is an understanding of just how dramatic the impact can be on student achievement when these small interventions are used.
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.