10 Myths About History You Probably Believe 6. Magellan never sailed around the world. If there is a single fact that most people know about Magellan, it is that he was the first person to circumnavigate the globe. But the thing is that he didn’t. Magellan certainly tried to, but he actually died during the trip, as he was killed in the Philippines. His expedition did finish the circumnavigation, but it was led by a Juan Sebastian Elcano, not Magellan’s ghost. 7. Iron maidens – old, but not that oldSource: Antiques Torture devices became very popular exhibition items, which likely meant that the iron maiden was pieced together from other medieval devices in order to create something shocking that would attract crowds. 8. 9. So, in reality, most received a trial and were found innocent. 10. The painting that started the whole thingSource: Wikipedia The image we are familiar with comes from a 19th century painting called Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
A Quick Guide To Teaching Hour Of Code 2014 A Quick Guide To Teaching Hour Of Code 2014 by TeachThought Staff What is Hour of Code? Hour of Code is a week-long promotion of the teaching and learning of computer coding. “The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket-science, anybody can learn the basics,” said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. “In one week last year, 15 million students tried an Hour of Code. When does it start, and how long does it last? It runs December 8-14, 2014. How do I participate? Tweet about it. What resources do I need? This post will help, but also apps and platforms–Scratch, Codea, Khanacademic, Codeacademy, HopScotch, etc. When should I have started planning for this? Not today–probably a couple of weeks ago, when we should’ve shared this post. 9 Simple Ideas For Teaching Hour Of Code 5 Ideas from hourofcode.com: “1. Or, “Computer science is the art of blending human ideas and digital tools to increase our power. 2. 3. 4. Tell students, “Ask 3 then me.” 5.
Teachers: Once in a Lifetime Professional Development Opportunity Now Open! Calling all teachers—this is the moment you’ve been waiting for! We’re looking for 25 K-12 educators currently teaching in the U.S. or Canada, to join us in 2015 for an all-expense-paid, adventure of a lifetime. This field-based PD experience could take you to the Arctic, Greenland, the Galapagos, Holland & Belgium, or even Antarctica! Photograph by Susan Seubert Applications are open until January 4. Click here to learn more and apply today! Photograph by Valerie Craig Photograph by Eric Guth The Grosvenor Teacher Fellow (GTF) program is a professional development opportunity made possible by a partnership between National Geographic Education and Lindblad Expeditions. Like this: Like Loading... Related Teachers: Join us for the adventure of a lifetime Calling all teachers! In "Classroom Ideas" Six educators voyaging to the land of the polar bear Endless days. Educators on Expedition: Touch, See, Hear, Smell, and Build! In "Exploring Our World"
What is Mystery Skype? 7 steps to help teachers get started! Mystery Skype is an education game, invented by teachers, played by two classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other classroom by asking each other questions. It has totally transformed the way students learn about the world in my school. Before we dig deeper, here is a video showing Mystery Skype in Action: The best part is that it is suitable for all ages and can span whatever curriculum areas you would like. Here are 7 easy to follow steps to get your class / school hooked into learning about the world: Go to education.skype.com/mysteryskype and sign in with your Skype name, Facebook or Twitter. Once you have connected and organised a time to Skype. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.
5 Digital Parenting beliefs to kiss good-bye With so much information going around about what is and isn’t appropriate for our kids to be doing online, it is little wonder parents are confused. Whilst it is a relatively new challenge, it doesn’t diminish the need ensure to be constantly thinking about technology and devices and how they will fit in to the daily lives of ourselves and our kids. I hear lots of concern from parents, I hear lots of rules parents put in place and I hear a lot about the things parents shouldn’t be doing and the things they should be doing in order to keep their kids safe and responsible with technology and the online world. To help eliminate some of the ‘noise’…here are a few beliefs I hear, that I believe you can pretty much kiss goodbye. Their smartphone is only for making calls and texting Seriously, no kid is going to carry around the internet at their fingertips and not use it! They will learn this stuff at school My child is young, I don’t need to worry about this stuff
Maintaining Your Sanity In The Pressure Game Of Teaching Maintaining Your Sanity In The Pressure Game Of Teaching by Kay Bisaillon Editor’s Note: You may have noticed we’ve taken a slightly different approach to connected educator’s month. In addition to our connected educator coverage recently–Becoming A Connected Educator and Connected Professional Development Is Now An Imperative–we’ve also been addressing the idea of sustainable teaching as an important tangent (connected teachers being happier teachers). One year ago, I wrote the article, Why Good Teachers Quit. It was hard to write and I struggled with sharing my friend’s frustration and exhaustion. The article I shared created a conversation I was humbled to read. It also scares me in so many ways. What Can Educators Do? 1. I know that seems very basic. Find your voice. Create a conversation with your co-workers, write blogs, attend conferences and EdCamps, and continue the dialogue. Research your school board members and vote for those who you believe will bring change to your area. 2.
Contemporary educational ideas all my staff should know about Key ideas from different sources. As I look ahead to starting my new job at Highbury Grove, I’m thinking about all the conversations we are going to have about learning. To a large degree I want my teachers to be as up-to-date as possible within their own subject domains. However, in order to fuel the collaborative effort of reaching the ambitious goals we have for the school, we’ll need to establish a shared conceptual language for talking about teaching across the school as well as within departments. One of my first actions, later this week in fact, will be to buy a ton of books to stock the staff CPD library. Over the last two years, I’ve found that I can engage much better with the ideas in some of these books when I’ve seen the authors express their ideas directly – either in person at a conference or through some of the video material on the internet. However, to ensure we have strong common ground, I want to focus on a few key researcher-writers and their work: Lesson Study
10 Strategies To Help Online Learners Complete An Online Program “Successful” online learners are those students who complete their online course. “Unsuccessful” online learners either drop out of the online course or fail its requirements. As we all know, online learning suffers from much higher drop-out rates than face-to-face learning. And since most attrition occurs at the beginning of a program/course, it is important to frontload this preparation and interventions at the beginning of the course. Offer a face-to-face orientation (especially for those new to online learning).This approach allows instructors and learners to examine the syllabus; learn how to use technology, materials, and procedures; ask questions; and get to know their colleagues and instructor. You may also find valuable the article Helping Online Learners Succeed. References Burns, M. (2011). Get 2 Free eBooks Get the eLearning Industry's Articles in your inbox.
Tips for Coaching Teacher Teams I'm currently writing a book on instructional coaching teams, and although it'll be available in about a year, one coach recently emailed me with this plea: "I'm excited to hear [about your book], but I need it now! I'm really struggling with the teams I'm coaching. Can you throw me a few tidbits?" Yes, I can, and here they are. It all boils down to trust. When I first coached teams and heard that I needed to build trust, I thought, but how? There are so many tasks that teachers can engage in together -- just make sure it's structured, purposeful, relevant, and doable. Return to purpose. Purpose needs to be connected to a school's mission, vision, and goals. You have a lot of power. Don't give up. And to be honest, it happened sooner than I thought it would. This time I remembered what I'd learned in the past and remembered that people can change and that they want to connect and they want to learn. I hope those tidbits help a little.
A Beginner's Guide To Personalized Learning | TeachThought A Beginner’s Guide To Personalized Learning by TeachThought Staff There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student’s readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student’s needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, “What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?” In that context, consider the above graphic from Mia MacMeekin (who also gave us 27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding). What is personalized learning? In this way, it represents an excellent beginner’s guide to personalized learning. A Beginner’s Guide To Personalized Learning
How To Burn Yourself Out As A Teacher How To Burn Yourself Out As A Teacher by TeachThought Staff We published a post last year titled, “Why Good Teachers Quit.” Nearly 70,000+ social shares–and scores of comments–later, and it’s pretty clear that this idea (captured so well by Kay Bisaillon) is resonating with more teachers than we were aware. We’ve taken a few different approaches to the idea in the past, including 25 Ways To Reduce Teacher Burnout & Secrets For Teacher Survival, as well as The Best Teachers Don’t Do What They’re Told, as well as a recent post about “teaching differently.” So here we are again, taking another look at teacher burnout, this time trying to understand how it happens. Teacher Burnout: How To Get It Done 1. Teaching is a wonderful mix of curiosity, content, and process–ideas and data; love and numbers; soft and hard. 2. Your creativity is your spark. 3. How do you assign work? The workflow of the modern teacher is everything. 4. Teaching is a deeply human process. 5. Don’t. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
5 Things to Share With Your Teachers About Educational Technology Even today, we still have teachers across the country fighting the integration of educational technology into their classrooms. Many use similar excuses as to why they should not waste their time learning technology. The simple fact is that they typically are nervous to learn something new and possibly failing. I think everyone can understand that feeling (especially in front of our peers and our students). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. We know that technology has changed education and it is only going to continue to do so.