edutopia I remember how, as a new teacher, I would attend a professional development and feel inundated with new strategies. (I wanted to get back to the classroom and try them all!) After the magic of that day wore off, I reflected on the many strategies and would often think, "Lots of great stuff, but I'm not sure it's worth the time it would take to implement it all." We teachers are always looking to innovate, so, yes, it's essential that we try new things to add to our pedagogical bag of tricks. But it's important to focus on purpose and intentionality -- and not on quantity. So what really matters more than "always trying something new" is the reason behind why we do what we do. What Research Says This leads me to educational researcher John Hattie, who wrote Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of K-12 children. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Collaborating with Colleagues
Explore the world without leaving your classroom | Teaching in the Primary Years Article written for Education Today Classrooms in the 21st Century should not be confined by its four walls. Technology allows teachers to create learning experiences for their students that enable them to be immersed in locations all over the world, all without leaving their school. These experiences bring learning to life, engaging and motivating our students to inquire and wonder about the world in which we live. We live in a world that is continuing to be flattened by the accessibility the internet and technology brings. As teachers, we converse with our students about locations and landmarks from all around the world. Google has created a variety of technologies that enhance teaching and learning by allowing students to explore and have experiences all around the world. My favourite tools include; Google HangoutsGoogle Maps (Google Views) Google MyMapsGoogle Art Project Google Expeditions Google Hangouts Google Hangouts are fantastic. Google Hangouts on Air record your Google Hangout.
Empowering Student Relationships With Media Debates over children and media use are nothing new, but the technologies by which children primarily interact with media have changed significantly. Most guidelines related to "screen time" were developed when television was the dominant media, but new technologies are making us question the value of older research. In its most recent report on the subject, the American Academy of Pediatrics makes reference to "important positive and prosocial effects of media use," and a call for expanding media education programs in schools. While more dedicated media education in schools would be great, it is little more than a pipe dream in the current climate of low budgets and high-stake tests. It is therefore incumbent on individual educators to help students interact with media in ways that are critical and empowering. A New Taxonomy Image Credit: Josh Weisgrau Consume At the lowest level, we have consumption. Curate This is followed by curation, or "Why are you watching this?” Create Critique
Study Skills Guide: Improve Reading Comprehension Skills Good reading comprehension comes only with practice. The basic aspects of reading, such as word recognition, phonetics and fluence, can be mastered in just a few years. However, throughout this process reading comprehension must be emphasized. Students may be able to eloquently repeat the words that the see on a page all day, but without reading comprehension skills, they're unable to fully understand the content, predict what will happen next, recognize characters, gain insight or understanding to build upon, or relate what they're reading to their own life's experience. Sadly, classrooms across the United States have students who struggle with reading comprehension. Students frequently enter college without understanding how necessary good reading comprehension skills are for academic success. Pre-reading survey Before reading a text, complete a pre-reading survey for a brief summary of it. Define your purpose Read the text Take notes or highlight important concepts Post-reading review
A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction Introduction Does effectively teaching 30 students in one classroom require teachers to develop 30 lessons, one tailor-made for each student? Or should teachers “aim for the middle” and hope to reach most students in a given lesson? The answer is not simple. While most would agree it is impractical to try to individualize every lesson for every child, research has shown that teaching to the middle is ineffective. It ignores the needs of advanced students, often leaving them unchallenged and bored, while it intimidates and confuses lower functioning learners. What is Differentiation? Simply stated, differentiation is modified instruction that helps students with diverse academic needs and learning styles master the same challenging academic content. How to Start Four planning steps set the stage for effective differentiated instruction. Vary Materials Nonfiction and fiction, written at a variety of reading levels. Vary Process Vary Assessment Conclusion References Good, M. View Full Article
Pearson Prentice Hall: eTeach: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension by Patricia Babbitt Introduction Most Effective Strategies Practical Applications of Reading Strategies Summary Resources Remember the adventures that lived and breathed between the pages of a really good book when, as a young reader, you slipped away undiscovered into your own magical world? But surprise need not lead to a permanent state of frustration. Theoretically speaking, if the daily reading curriculum uses research-proven methods, students should develop skills for comprehending the text. Comprehension monitoring Cooperative learning Graphic organizers Story structure Question answering Question generating Summarization Multiple Strategy Comprehension monitoring Reading activities can be divided into three categories, depending on when they take place: pre-reading, reading, and post-reading. Pre-reading: Collecting and defining vocabulary terms from the text will assist students in understanding words that otherwise may interrupt their reading. Cooperative learning Explain why….
Are Teachers of Tomorrow Prepared to Use Innovative Tech? Getty Images With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school. A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences. But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. At the same time, the report concludes that those who have the biggest influence on new teachers — veteran educators — don’t always embrace new ways of using technology to engage students. Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers. Teachers-in-training say coursework focuses on technologies that help a teacher stay organized, rather than ways to engage students. Related
Why Finland has the best schools The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States.” Following his recommendation, I enrolled my 7-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu, Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border. OK, I wasn't just blindly following Gardner — I had a position as a lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland for a semester. But the point is that, for five months, my wife, my son and I experienced a stunningly stress-free, and stunningly good, school system. In Finland, children don't receive formal academic training until the age of 7. Unlike in the United States, where many schools are slashing recess, schoolchildren in Finland have a mandatory 15-minute outdoor free-play break every hour of every day. But what if the opposite is true? “Do you hear that?”