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John Evans

Middle School Maker Journey: Students' First Impressions of "Digital Shop" | Edutopia - 1 views

www.edutopia.org/...irst-impressions-kevin-jarrett

edutopia makered

shared by John Evans on 07 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • John Evans on 07 Oct 15
     
    "The big day was upon us. Hundreds of man-hours of preparation. Thousands of dollars invested in equipment and supplies. An untested, unproven design incorporating materials not usually found in schools. How would students react? Would we achieve our objective: creating a student-centered, flexible learning space that inspires creativity, curiosity, and wonder?"
John Evans

Digital Domain - Computers at Home - Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...11digi.html

digitaldomain computers educational NYTimes

shared by John Evans on 12 Jul 10 - Cached
  • MIDDLE SCHOOL students are champion time-wasters. And the personal computer may be the ultimate time-wasting appliance. Put the two together at home, without hovering supervision, and logic suggests that you won’t witness a miraculous educational transformation.
Reynold Redekopp

The Atlantic :: Magazine :: What Makes a Great Teacher? - 7 views

www.theatlantic.com/...7841

education teacher great effective

shared by Reynold Redekopp on 10 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Right away, certain patterns emerged. First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them: “They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’ When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing. Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls. But when Farr took his findings to teachers, they wanted more. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah. Give me the concrete actions. What does this mean for a lesson plan?’” So Farr and his colleagues made lists of specific teacher actions that fell under the high-level principles they had identified. For example, one way that great teachers ensure that kids are learning is to frequently check for understanding: Are the kids—all of the kids—following what you are saying? Asking “Does anyone have any questions?” does not work, and it’s a classic rookie mistake. Students are not always the best judges of their own learning. They might understand a line read aloud from a Shakespeare play, but have no idea what happened in the last act.
  • Reynold Redekopp on 10 Aug 10
     
    Overview of the Teach for America program results. Great teachers set big goals for students, constantly look for ways to improve, involve students and families, maintain focus on goals and plan relentlessly.
John Evans

ScienceFix - Science Fix - 4 views

www.sciencefix.com

science blog teaching education demos technology Physics

shared by John Evans on 01 Dec 10 - Cached
  • I made ScienceFix.com to share my favorite demos that I do in my middle school science classes.  
John Evans

Welcome to EverestQuest - 0 views

everestquest.com/index.htm

everestquest reading MY SY ELA

shared by John Evans on 19 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Welcome to the official Web site for the 2001 American-Canadian Mt. Everest Expedition, brought to you by Touchstone Energy. This educational Web site is designed for teachers and students in elementary and middle school grades.
John Evans

Education Week: Research Shows Evolving Picture of E-Education - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...26research.h28.html

e-learning e-education virtual schooling article

shared by John Evans on 25 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Online classes may be a relatively young instructional practice for K-12 schools, but experts already generally agree on one point: Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools.
  • Studies of state-run virtual schools show, for instance, that the courses tend to draw students at the extremes of the academic spectrum—advanced, highly motivated students looking for academic acceleration, and students who are struggling in regular classrooms
  • Not surprisingly, the students with the best academic records in online classes tend to be in that high-ability group, according to experts in the field. But some new research also finds that online courses are beginning to score more successes with the lowest achievers­—possibly because many are high school students who see the online courses as a last chance to earn enough credits to graduate.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Ferdig says the large numbers of academic go-getters taking online classes could account for some of the rosy findings in the first wave of studies of online coursetaking, since highly motivated students are likely to fare well in any academic environment. But later studies controlled more carefully for students’ academic differences at the starting gate and continued to find learning gains.
    • John Evans
      John Evans on 25 Mar 09
       
      Interesting findings.
  • “It isn’t something that’s only for bright kids or only for kids who are well below grade level, because it may not work for many of them, either,” says Saul Rockman, the president and chief executive officer of Rockman et al., a San Francisco research group.
  • Rockman says his research suggests that succeeding in an online course is “more a matter of learning style.” Is the student an independent learner, for instance? Does he or she struggle with reading and writing?
  • Building in student-support mechanisms helps keep less academically motivated students from failing or dropping out of online classes, according to researchers.
    • John Evans
      John Evans on 25 Mar 09
       
      This sounds like the key aspect for success. Teachers who are already building this into their classes either by responding to emails, online chats or setting up an atmosphere that encourages chatting within the context of their course, often late at night amongst students only, are seeing this success. Ex. Darren Kuropatwa's SH Math class blogs
  • “Whether that’s 24-hour technical support, tutorial support, parental vigilance, or face-to-face site coordinators or mentors,” Cavanaugh says. Mentors and site coordinators seem to be especially linked to marked improvements in student results in large high schools, she adds.
  • “The mentor plays an important role in making sure Johnny or Susie logs in to the course on a regular basis and provides a point of contact for the instructor,” says Jamey Fitzpatrick, the president and chief executive officer of Michigan Virtual University, which currently enrolls 15,000 students, mostly in middle and high school
  • Some of the early studies emerging from the database helped dispel some concerns about potential detrimental effects of online coursetaking on students’ social development, according to Ferdig. Very few online students, those studies showed, took electronic classes full time. Rather, they combined virtual schooling with traditional courses. The studies also showed that students communicated regularly online with teachers and classmates.
  • Cavanaugh, of the University of Florida, says there is also a “general consensus”—if not air-tight research findings—that the more interactive the courses can be, the higher their success rates.
  • Ongoing studies are also beginning to look at whether so-called “hybrid” or “blended” courses—classes in which only 30 to 70 percent of the instruction takes place online and the rest is in person—are any more successful than all-electronic versions
    • John Evans
      John Evans on 25 Mar 09
       
      ala Dean Shareski (@shareski) and Alec Couros (@courosa) courses
  • “In general,” Russell says, “I don’t think this body of research [on online education] is totally developed at this stage.”
  • John Evans on 25 Mar 09
     
    Online classes may be a relatively young instructional practice for K-12 schools, but experts already generally agree on one point: Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools.
John Evans

100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know published by Houghton Mifflin Company - 0 views

www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/...100freshman

freshman vocabulary mifflin houghton list

shared by John Evans on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Does your vocabulary measure up? A confident command of a growing vocabulary is one of the best indicators of achievement in school. Building on the success of the popular 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know, the editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries are pleased to introduce a new list of words geared toward the reading level expected of high school freshmen. With its attractive format and thoughtful word selection, 100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know will spur students to add new words to their vocabularies as they make the important transition from middle school to high school.
John Evans

edublogs: Fresh research showing the damage of filtering 'real world' technology - 0 views

edu.blogs.com/...ing-real-world-technology.html

edublogs filtering research learning

shared by John Evans on 12 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Students in schools around the world find that their research, creativity and learning potential is seriously curbed by filtering and lack of use of their own mobile and gaming devices in schools. This comes from research spanning the Americas, brought to my attention by its author, Research Consultant Kim Farris-Berg
  • "In 2007, [filtering] was high school students’ number one obstacle to using technology at their schools (53 percent). For middle school students, two obstacles tied for the greatest barrier (39 percent each): “there are rules against using technology at school” and “teachers limit technology use”. It’s likely that when students face obstacles to using technology at school, they also face obstacles to inquiry-based learning opportunities which can include online research, visualizations, and games."
  • "Students reported that other major obstacles to using technology at school are not being able to access email accounts and slow internet access. Perhaps these are the reasons why just 34 percent of teachers communicate with students via email. Teachers are certainly online; just not with students. Ninety percent of teachers, parents, and school leaders use email to communicate with one another about school."
John Evans

More and More, Schools Got Game - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009010301556.html

washingtonpost education simulations teaching article

shared by John Evans on 05 Jan 09 - Cached
  • As Net-generation teachers reach out to gamers, classrooms across the country are becoming portals to elaborate virtual worlds.
  • But lately, researchers and educators say sentiment toward gaming is changing. Advocates argue that games teach vital skills overlooked in the age of high-stakes tests, such as teamwork, decision-making and digital literacy. And they admire the way good games challenge players just enough to keep them engaged and pushing to reach the next level
  • if ( show_doubleclick_ad && ( adTemplate & INLINE_ARTICLE_AD ) == INLINE_ARTICLE_AD && inlineAdGraf ) { placeAd('ARTICLE',commercialNode,20,'inline=y;!category=microsoft;',true) ; } The Pew Research Center reported in September that 97 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 play video games, and half said they played "yesterday."
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • A new generation of game designers is borrowing from the sophisticated platforms and stunning graphics that captivate students for hours after school. They hope to channel the kind of feverish determination students exhibit when stealing a car in Grand Theft Auto and redirect it toward more wholesome pursuits, such as algebra.
  • Compelling games can help schools compete for students' attention, advocates say, even as many teenagers are tackling complex projects on the Internet in their free time.
  • Private foundations and the National Science Foundation have contributed millions of dollars to developing or studying games. The U.S. Education Department awarded a $9 million grant in September to a New York-based education firm to develop games for the hand-held Nintendo DS to weave into middle school science lessons
John Evans

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/age-technology-will-richardson

edutopia willrichardson article PLN network collaboration

shared by John Evans on 16 Dec 08 - Cached
  • Her response blew me away. "I ask my readers," she said. I doubt anyone in the room could have guessed that answer. But if you look at the Clustrmap on Laura's blog, Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference, you'll see that Laura's readers -- each represented by a little red dot -- come from all over the world. She has a network of connections, people from almost every continent and country, who share their own stories of service or volunteer to assist Laura in her work. She's sharing and learning and collaborating in ways that were unheard of just a few years ago.
  • Welcome to the Collaboration Age, where even the youngest among us are on the Web, tapping into what are without question some of the most transformative connecting technologies the world has ever seen.
  • The Collaboration Age is about learning with a decidedly different group of "others," people whom we may not know and may never meet, but who share our passions and interests and are willing to invest in exploring them together. It's about being able to form safe, effective networks and communities around those explorations, trust and be trusted in the process, and contribute to the conversations and co-creations that grow from them. It's about working together to create our own curricula, texts, and classrooms built around deep inquiry into the defining questions of the group. It's about solving problems together and sharing the knowledge we've gained with wide audiences.
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  • Inherent in the collaborative process is a new way of thinking about teaching and learning. We must find our own teachers, and they must find us.
  • As connectors, we provide the chance for kids to get better at learning from one another. Examples of this kind of schooling are hard to find so far, but they do exist. Manitoba, Canada, teacher Clarence Fisher and Van Nuys, California, administrator Barbara Barreda do it through their thinwalls project, in which middle school students connect almost daily through blogs, wikis, Skype, instant messaging, and other tools to discuss literature and current events. In Webster, New York, students on the Stream Team, at Klem Road South Elementary School, investigate the health of local streams and then use digital tools to share data and exchange ideas about stewardship with kids from other schools in the Great Lakes area and in California. More than learning content, the emphasis of these projects is on using the Web's social-networking tools to teach global collaboration and communication, allowing students to create their own networks in the process.
  • Collaboration in these times requires our students to be able to seek out and connect with learning partners, in the process perhaps navigating cultures, time zones, and technologies. It requires that they have a vetting process for those they come into contact with: Who is this person? What are her passions? What are her credentials? What can I learn from her?
  • Likewise, we must make sure that others can locate and vet us. The process of collaboration begins with our willingness to share our work and our passions publicly -- a frontier that traditional schools have rarely crossed. As Clay Shirky writes in Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, "knowingly sharing your work with others is the simplest way to take advantage of the new social tools." Educators can help students open these doors by deliberately involving outsiders in class work early on -- not just showcasing a finished product at the spring open house night.
Andy McKiel

Arcademic Skill Builders - 3 views

www.arcademicskillbuilders.com

math gaming

shared by Andy McKiel on 22 May 08 - Cached
  • John Evans on 22 May 08
     
    Our educational video games offer an innovative approach to teaching basic academic skills by incorporating features of arcade games and educational practices into fun online games that will motivate, intrigue, and teach your students.
  • Rob McDonald on 26 Apr 09
     
    Arcademic Skill Builders are research-based and standards-aligned educational games that offer an innovative approach to teaching basic academic skills. We incorporate features of arcade games and educational practices into fun online games that will engage, motivate, and teach your students.
  • Andy McKiel on 14 Jan 10
     
    Great browser-based math games for early/middle years students
John Evans

NASA MathTrax Homepage - 8 views

prime.jsc.nasa.gov/mathtrax

math mathtrax nasa resources homepage technology

shared by John Evans on 03 Mar 10 - Cached
  • MathTrax is a graphing tool for middle school and high school students to graph equations, physics simulations or plot data files.  The graphs have descriptions and sound so you can hear and read about the graph. Blind and low vision users can access visual math data and graph or experiment with equations and datasets.
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