Group items tagged

""Many board members noticed that you were on your phone a lot," he said. "If you can hold out on texting friends or checking your Twitter feed until the breaks, that would be great." Mission failed. Now I did feel like an idiot. But I was also quite angry. The thing is, I hadn't checked my Twitter feed for over two hours. I'd been taking notes. I walked down the hall and began to think. I realized that my friends and I are glued to our phones all day long. That's just the way we are. Phones are crucial to our identities and lifestyle. Telling people in my generation to put our phones away is not a solution. Just ask our teachers how that has worked for them. Even so, the workplace is not ready for how often we are going to pull out our phones. Rather than fight it, I think the other generations are going to have to learn to let go and adapt to us. The reality is that social media breaks take less than 15 seconds and can be re-energizing. That's less time than the widely accepted practice of taking breaks for coffee or snacks. That said, there is no denying that we will need to be mentored so we know when even a 15-second break is unacceptable. The good news is that teachers have been trying to coach us about this for years. We can learn and we can adapt, if the other generations adapt, too."

"As an administrator, whenever I walk into a teacher's classroom, one of the first things I almost always subconsciously look for is whether or not the students are engaged in inquiry. However, telling a teacher, "Your students need to engage in more inquiry," is comparable to letting a comedian know she needs to be funnier or asking a pizzaiolo to make a better dough. And, vague directives in the absence of explicit instruction typically generate anxiety. To avoid these anxieties, and for progress to actually take place, we need to drill down to the nitty gritty and be as explicit as possible. In other words, we need to be explicit about being explicit and leverage specific strategies to comfortably move forward for the benefit of our students. With these thoughts in mind, I've been obsessing over inquiry's common denominators - the strategies or drivers we should always consider when implementing an inquiry-based lesson. That being said, here are the six drivers of inquiry-based learning. And, while I don't think every lesson or activity must have all six, I do believe that once we (and our students) become comfortable with an inquiry approach, all drivers will naturally find a way into learning experiences on a regular, if not daily, basis."

"This is a selection of the best 3D printing websites, content repositories, marketplaces and search engines for free 3D printer files to download. Each lets you browse a large choice of 3D printing designs to print at home. "

"The collection of prompts below asks young writers to think through real or imagined events, their emotions, and a few wacky scenarios. Try out the ones you think will resonate most with your students.  As with all prompts, inform students that their answers should be rated G and that disclosing dangerous or illegal things they're involved in will obligate you to file a report with the administration or school counselors. Finally, give students the option of writing "PERSONAL" above some entries that they don't want anyone to read. We all need to let scraggly emotions run free in our prose sometimes."

"Have you ever considered letting your students listen to hardcore punk while they take their mid-term exam? Decided to do away with Power Point presentations during your lectures? Urged your students to memorize more in order to remember more? If the answer is no, you may want to rethink your notions of psychology and its place in the learning environment. Here are 35 critical thinking strategies, straight from the mind of Sigmund Freud."

"The familiar grumble of your stomach hits every day at 11:30 a.m. as you sink further down into your desk chair. You need some fresh lunch ideas. And oh, we've got 'em-a whopping 100 ideas on what to pack for office lunches, to be exact. Some are recipes, some are loose guidelines, and some are honestly desperate-measure fridge clean-outs that we can all relate to. For even more lunch inspiration, learn how to meal prep like a pro or check out these big batch ideas to get you through the week. If you've got a brilliant lunch idea that we missed, make sure to let us know on Facebook and Instagram. "

"Many people find mathematics daunting. If true, this piece is for you. If not, this piece is still for you. What do you think of when you think about mathematics? Perhaps you think about x's and y's, intractable fractions, or nonsensical word problems. The cartoonist Gary Larson once depicted hell's library as containing only giant tomes of word problems. You know, "If a train leaves New York…" I was trained as a mathematician, and I will let you in on a trade secret: That is not what mathematics is, nor where it lives. It's true that learning mathematics often involves solving problems, but it should focus on the joy of solving puzzles, rather than memorizing rules. I invite you to see yourself as a problem solver and mathematician. And I'd like to introduce you to the man who once invited me to the study of problem solving: George Pólya."

"Robotics for kids is an area that covers a wide range of subjects, giving children hands on experience in learning math, engineering and creative design. These robot kits for kids let you build your own robot from the ground up, and discover how moving parts fit together. Robotics kits are educational and they help develop patience, imagination and problem solving skills. Being able to build robotic toys is a past time that kids enjoy and it combines the offline and online world of apps."

"Can kids solve real life problems that affect our world? Sure! Why not? Many of you know the 7 sterile steps to PBL. How about adding a little more to the 7 steps? Here are a few ideas about how to solve real-life problems with your class."

"Drones do lots of good in the world, and the ways they can be used for good seem to be growing every day. (There's even a "UA Drones for Good" competition held in Dubai every year.) Here is our list of some of the ways that drones are being used for good right now. Know of others? Reach out and let us know on Twitter using the hashtag #dronesforgood. We'd love to see this list grow!"

"Take a look at the definition of student-centered learning, and let me know what you think: Student-centered learning (SCL), or learner-centeredness, is a learning model that places the student (learner) in the center of the learning process. In student-centered learning, students are active participants in their learning; they learn at their own pace and use their own strategies; they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated; learning is more individualized than standardized. Student-centered learning develops learning-how-to-learn skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and reflective thinking. Student-centered learning accounts for and adapts to different learning styles of students (National Center for Research on Teacher Learning, 1999)."

"Nothing matters more for economics and human living standards than innovation. It's innovation that has allowed us to cure diseases and extend life spans. It's innovation that has drastically increased the pace of transportation and communication, and ultimately it's innovation that has let most people do high-wage work rather than subsistence agriculture. What the researchers found is fascinating. They discovered that both an actual ability to invent things and early life exposure to a culture of innovation and opportunity are crucial to driving inventions. Ability itself is, of course, unevenly distributed. But in the United States, so is opportunity - with huge numbers of highly skilled children from unfavorable backgrounds seemingly locked out of pathways to careers as inventors."

"The Google Home is a $130 (£130 or AU$199) smart home speaker that showcases the artificially intelligent, voice-activated Google Assistant. It lets you set timers, control lights and thermostats, play trivia games, watch YouTube videos and more -- all with simple voice commands. Google hasn't released a full list of commands for Home, so we had to do our best to assemble and test everything we could think of. If we're missing anything, make sure to leave it in a comment so we can update the list as we go. Here's the (almost) complete list of voice commands for the Google Home so far."

"Google Arts & Culture partnered with Château de Versailles to create an extremely detailed VR tour of the iconic French palace, aptly named VersaillesVR - the palace is yours (2019). The free app, which is now available on Steam with support for Rift, Vive, and Index, takes you through the centuries-old palace, letting you inspect and learn about the UNESCO World Heritage site's many paintings, sculptures, furniture, as well as few of its gilded halls."

"My favorite math lesson ever is based on a little tool called The Sieve of Eratosthenes. (Pronounced: Siv of Air-a-tos-thin-ease). It's rare that a single math lesson can be used again and again, with students of different ages, while still having an impact. Either it's too challenging for young students, or it's boring for older students. And your students will definitely let you know when you teach them a lesson they learned the year before. But here's why I think the Sieve of Eratosthenes is different. In some ways, it's just a glorified hundreds chart. But once you and your students start seeing the patterns in this hundreds chart, it gets really interesting. No matter how many patterns you find, there's always another layer to be uncovered."

"As parents, we all want to raise kids who are smart and focused, especially in a world where digital distraction seems to be inescapable. (Even tech titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have strategies for limiting their children's screen time.) Why? Because in the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: Those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves "indistractable." Becoming indistractable is the most important skill for the 21st century - and it's one that many parents fail to teach their kids. After years of studying the intersection of psychology, technology and how we engage with it, one of the biggest mistakes I see parents making is not empowering their kids with the autonomy to control their own time. Allowing them to do so is a tremendous gift; even if they fail from time to time, failure is part of the learning process. Parents need to understand that it's okay to put their kids in charge, because it's only when they learn to practice monitoring their own behavior that they learn how to manage their own time and attention. Teach them at a young age"

"You may have heard of play. It's that thing children do - the diverse range of unstructured, spontaneous activities and behaviours. Children play in many ways, including by exploring movements, constructing with equipment, creating games, using imagination and chasing others around a playground. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises play as every child's basic right. But play is becoming extinct. Global studies, across generations, have confirmed outdoor children's play has been declining, across all age groups, for decades. Play is every child's basic right. from shutterstock.com Unstructured play improves learning and social and physical development. Providing a variety of play options, improved play access and fewer restrictions can encourage children to engage in physical activity with peers in line with their imaginations."

Dear Friend, Let me ask you a question. Are you about to take the AAPC exam for Certified Professional Coder for the first time? Or are you one of the many people who FAILED the exam the first time, and are now looking to retake the test, perhaps for the third or fourth time? It's Time To STOP Doing What's Not Working, And Get The CPC Practice Exam - Updated For 2020! CONTENTS OF THE PRACTICE EXAM:

"A year into the pandemic, the instructional sands keep shifting from in-person, to remote, to concurrent (or hybrid) and back again. And almost every conversation I have with educators regardless of whether they are classroom teachers, instructional specialists or administrators is around student engagement. Sometimes these conversations are with administrators concerned about the increasing numbers of students on the schools D-F list or with teachers disconsolate about students who won't turn on their cameras, turn in work or participate in discussions and whose attendance (virtual or in-person) is sporadic at best. All of them are asking, with some urgency, about how we can boost student engagement under these difficult and fluctuating circumstances. From my vantage point, the causes and symptoms are multi-faceted. We need to partner with students-individually and collectively-to discover the root causes and empower them to be their own antidotes."

"In a different life, I was an English teacher. In fact, I spent the first half of my twenty-four year career in education writing beside middle and high school kids. Writing workshop was my passion, and Nancie Atwell was my hero (well, she still is). Naturally, I was thrilled when my principal tapped me to design and teach an entire course specifically devoted to this endeavor. For many years, all of the kids in our middle school enjoyed writers workshop beside their core English classes, and I got to be their teacher. I loved this, and I loved teaching so much that when I stepped out of the classroom to begin doing staff development, I refused to let it go. Nearly a decade ago, I founded the WNY Young Writers Studio, a community of writers and teachers of writing. Then, I began doing a whole lot of action research. Here's what I learned: When many young writers sit down to confront flat, empty screens and pages, they experience frustration and even defeat. Wading into procedures that often feel contrived using tools that are completely intangible paralyzes them."