Group items tagged

"The Common Core Learning Standards describe the importance of teaching students how to comprehend informational text. They are asked to read closely, make inferences, cite evidence, analyze arguments and interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text. Primary source documents are artifacts created by individuals during a particular period in history. This could be a letter, speech, photograph or journal entry. If you're looking to integrate social studies into your literacy block, try out one of these resources for primary source documents. "

"The folks at Twisted Sifter shared a really cool compilation of maps this week in their article "40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World." These cool maps gave me a chance to reflect on the world from different perspectives and I wondered how awesome some of these conversations would be in the classroom. The Twisted Sifter post was a great reminder, especially here at the beginning of the next school year, that educators have a responsibility to share other perspectives around the world and invite those perspectives into the classroom. In fact, it's one of the seven College and Career Readiness Capacities that are the umbrella over the entire ELA Standards document. This capacity asks that students come to understand other perspectives and cultures."

"At Harriet Tubman Elementary in Newark, New Jersey, 5th grade teacher Yvonne Copprue-McLeod teaches a lesson about reading comprehension and answering open-ended questions using textual evidence. Ms. Copprue-McLeod's strategy for her lesson is to have students work in groups, using specific details from the text to draw inferences and answer questions about the main character in the text. This lesson is aligned with multiple 5th grade Common Core ELA standards (RL.5.1, RF.5.4, SL.5.1, SL.5.4)."

"Ever since Twitter introduced its live streaming service, Periscope, earlier this year, educators have become enamored. It's not hard to understand why. The video app is integrated right into your Twitter account and boasts an impressive number of education applications, from broadcasting a riveting unconference discussion for a global audience to impromptu blended learning for students. But while opportunities abound, so do privacy and other concerns."

"Fall has arrived, school doors have reopened for many students across the USA, and quite a few educators face a fresh and potentially daunting assignment: Teach STEM."

"Edcamp "unconferences" have shattered the traditional model for professional development, and they're catching on as a way for educators to share their ideas and expertise in an informal, collegial way."

" People have so many different reasons to join the education field -- what inspired you to become an educator? Perhaps you feel a desire to give back to the community, or you relish the intellectual challenge, or perhaps the simple reward of seeing a student smile every day is your motivation. But I suspect that for many people, an encounter with an inspiring educator might have been the spark that led to this career path. Read on for more video profiles of inspiring teachers across the country and their stories."

"Companies are spending billions of dollars on TV, print, and digital advertising to swing us towards their products and services. (Source) You know those TV shows your students just can't get enough of? Those shows could not have gotten "on the air" if it weren't for plentiful commercials. Today's television programming is made possible by those advertisers. (The exceptions are Public TV and premium commercial-free cable networks, like HBO.)"

"Editor's Note: Michael Podraza, Principal at East Greenwich (Rhode Island) High School, is on a mission to share and implement new ideas in education that will engage and empower students, educators, and school communities. This video looks at the planning and practice of a month-long experiment to model collaboration and risk taking by the school's leadership team."

"Editor's Note: Through video observation, collaborative planning, and candid, constructive criticism, California high school math teachers Mike Fauteux and Rose Zapata have devised a formula to improve their practice and increase student achievement. After Edutopia produced this video, Mike and Rose, who teach at Leadership Public School in Hayward, CA, shared their insights with me about how to create a successful team teaching partnership."

"Animal dissection is one of the most controversial topics in science education. Scientists, teachers, animal rights activists, and parents and students all have a opinion about whether animal dissection is necessary or even educational. But despite strong arguments on both sides, it remains a core part of many schools' biology curriculum."

"Not all that long ago, the term "mobile learning" implied laptop computers and mobile carts that were wheeled from classroom to classroom. Now, as a growing number of students carry smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices that can connect to the internet wirelessly through a cellular as well as a Wi-Fi connection, the definition of "mobile learning" is expanding-and with it, the possibilities inherent in the term."

"For all the ink that has been spilled regarding the issue of differentiated instruction, little has been said about differentiated assessment. There is no doubt that students come to school with a variety of backgrounds and learning needs, and Carol Ann Tomlinson (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006) and others (e.g., Stefanakis & Meier, 2010; Fogarty & Pete, 2010) have documented the importance of the issue and the potential success of the results."

"BIE has created free materials - "FreeBIEs" - such as planning forms, student handouts, rubrics, and articles for educators to download and use to design, assess, and manage projects."

Excellent post by Steven Weber! Provides links to worthwhile reads and resources related to digital citizenship

Public Radio clips - Great for students - includes lesson plans

""We need a really strong, powerful question," he says to a couple dozen fourth graders at John B. Russwurm PS 197, an elementary school in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. The students, who are scattered cross-legged on the floor of the classroom, eagerly shoot their hands into the air. Mitra calls on a boy in a t-shirt. "Let's hear your question.""

"Dear school leader, Really tired of ho-hum, sit-n-get professional development? You've been there, done that. Why not take control of your own learning? You are the lead learner in your classroom, aren't you? Do you model for your staff and students that you are a learner first and foremost? Embark on a user-generated learning experience, and you won't regret it. But where to begin? Dr. Kristen Swanson is an accomplished educator who truly understands the power of learning communities and networks. She has served as a classroom teacher, educational technology director, and college instructor. She's an active blogger and tweeter and a founding member of the Edcamp Foundation. Her book, Professional Learning in the Digital Age: The Educator's Guide to User-Generated Learning, is a must-read for educators today and belongs on a small shelf with other valuable connected learning resources like The Connected Educator and What School Leaders Need to Know about Digital Technologies and Social Media."

"Sprinkled throughout the newly reauthorized version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act are references to an instructional strategy that supporters think has enormous potential for reaching learners with diverse needs. The next thing to do, those proponents say, is getting more educators to understand just what it means. Called universal design for learning, or UDL for short, the strategy encompasses a wide set of teaching techniques, allowing multiple ways for teachers to present information and for students to engage in lessons and demonstrate what they know.