Group items tagged

"Are you tired of delivering the same old lectures on the same subjects year after year? Are you using the same lesson materials over and over and wishing you could make learning in your classroom more interactive? While lectures and lessons can be informative and even "edutaining" when delivered with passion and good materials by knowledgeable experts, sadly many traditional lectures and lessons are boring, and even worse often ineffective. The good news is that the Web is loaded with great free tools that can enable teachers to bring a sense of fun and engagement to their lessons"

"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. If you're increasingly tired, prone to the Sunday night blues, and have had your July's excitement increasingly replaced by a sense of dread, teacher burnout could be the reason why."

" I've spent a lot of time lately reflecting on the way I teach literacy in my classroom and about the ways that the digital text I often use to teach now is inherently different from the text I used to teach reading ten years ago. In an earlier post, I talked about some of the ways that I think using digital text in shared reading, such as when reading projected blog comments or tweets, is actually superior to the traditional text we have long used. Even if you are not convinced that digital text can work better than traditional text, it is difficult to argue that digital text is not here to stay or that it is not becoming increasingly important. It is and will be a significant part of our students' lives both now and in the future. If this will be true, it only makes sense to begin to teach children strategies for reading this new form of text."

""If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve," Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: "Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…" Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) - an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A "fixed mindset" assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can't change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A "growth mindset," on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness."

"Our new policy allows our students to use their cell phones in the mornings, during hallway transitions, and at recess. More details can be found below but we here at MHMS want to come to the kiddos from a standpoint of… WE TRUST YOU! We trust you to make good choices. We trust you to follow basic guidelines, good manners, and common sense. We trust you to be an ethical member of our community and to choose civility"

"Much has been said about growth mindset and grit this year and for good reason. When learners begin valuing growth and learning over grades and the production of perfect final works, great things happen. When they're able to persevere, even through moments of frustration, they typically meet with success. It makes sense that teachers are compelled by these topics, and I'm grateful to those who have brought these conversations to the forefront. Even as people debate their origins and share cautionary tales about interpretation, we're learning much that can influence practice in critical ways. For instance, I often wonder if human beings are naturally inclined toward these dispositions. I also wonder how much of what we do inside of schools inadvertently compromises their development. What would we need to do in order to help them thrive-organically?"

"The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning started as a series of blog posts written by Jordan Shapiro with support from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the Games and Learning Publishing Council. We've brought together what we felt would be the most relevant highlights of Jordan's reporting to create a dynamic, in-depth guide that answers many of the most pressing questions that educators, parents, and life-long learners have raised around using digital games for learning. While we had educators in mind when developing this guide, any lifelong learner can use it to develop a sense of how to navigate the games space in an informed and meaningful way."

"This post was motivated by my return to the north and the frigid temps. I realized on the second leg of my travels that no one was even remotely happy about anything. They were all connected to another world with a pair of headphones or earbuds, tuned out and removed. I love to fly and it used to be a very social activity and rather than be disappointed I threw myself into a happy app kind of mood and this is the result. My other intention was to point anyone with children toward exceptional downloads laden with abundant and diverse content for their children. Not just to keep them sharp when away from school and traveling, but go-to apps that are always an educational delight! Here is my list of 12 developers whose apps make for HAPPY learning; they are sure to develop your child's/student's sense of joy and wonder."

"Will Smith once told a story from his childhood in which his father broke down the brick wall at his business and told him and his brother to rebuild it. It took them a year, but they finished the job and learned a powerful lesson contained within a memorable metaphor. He explains, "You don't set out to build a wall. You don't say 'I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built.' You don't start there. You say, 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfect as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day and soon you have a wall." This story from Will Smith captures the very essence of the Slight Edge philosophy that we will discuss in this article. Applying this idea within the classroom will help students develop a strong long term sense of accomplishment that is necessary to achieve their goals."

"There is a certain magic found in rolling up your sleeves and tackling a project head on, an undeniable sense of empowerment that results from solving problems and manifesting big ideas. In essence, that's the soul of the maker movement - creative individuals from all walks of life united by an insatiable desire to improve the world around them. Although synonymous with 3D Printing, it extends far beyond a single technology or buzzword. Truth be told, the maker movement represents the instinctual drive of our species to ascend ever upwards: to innovate, design, and construct a better tomorrow. "

"My objective with this wide-ranging set of skills, and involving the community so closely in their development, is to give kids the chance to practice whatever makes them passionate now and feel encouraged -- even if they're obsessed with making stuff exclusively with duct tape. It's crucial that kids learn how to be passionate for the rest of their lives. To start, they must first learn what it feels like to be simultaneously challenged and confident. It's my instinct that we should not try to introduce these experiences through skills we value as much as look for opportunities to develop them, as well as creativity and literacy, in the skills they already love. MAGICIANS CRAFT ILLUSIONS THAT BAFFLE THE SENSES AND CONFUSE OUR REASONING. THEY PLAN LIKE SCIENTISTS, BUT PERFORM AS ARTISTS. ONLY THROUGH LONG AND DISCIPLINED PREPARATION DO THEY SUCCEED. It's difficult to predict which skills will be valuable in the future, and even more challenging to see the connection between our children's interests and these skills. Nothing illustrates this better than Minecraft, a popular game that might be best described as virtual LEGOs. Calling it a game belies the transformation it has sparked: An entire generation is learning how to create 3D models using a computer. Now, I wonder, what sort of businesses, communication, entertainment or art will be possible? Cathy Davidson, a scholar of learning technology, concluded that 65% of children entering grade school this year will end up working in careers that haven't even been invented yet. I bet today's kids will eventually explore outcomes and create jobs only made possible by the influence of Minecraft in their lives. Why take any chances and build your dream house with blueprints alone? The Minecraft kid could easily make a realistic 3D model of one for you to walk through before you build. That's why DIY treats Minecraft as a tool, not a game, and encourages our members to use it to pursue art, architect

"Recently I have been inspired by listening to some great speakers at some of the Apple events I have been privileged to attend.  Bill Rankin in particular spoke a lot of sense and it got me thinking about how education needs to adapt to the changing world. The traditional style of education is based around content, teachers deliver the content and students learn it.  This is changing, slowly, but it is getting there.  Schools are starting to focus on the context, what does the information mean in the world that they live in? The next stage for me has to be creation."

"I have been exploring sketch-noting and brain-doodling lately and thought it would be a great vehicle my students to think, process, and organize information.  I started off with a class discussion and asking my students what they find challenging about note-taking.  Many of them shared that they found it hard to keep up with the speaker, and others said that they sometimes wrote so furiously that they couldn't understand their own handwriting when it came time to study for the tests.  Others shared how they found it difficult to make sense of their notes.  Sketch-noting seemed a great way to address some of these issues.  Introducing it through sample images of sketchnoting from Google images and sites like Sketchnote Army was a great way to start.  For more tutorials and ideas of places to start with doodling, I went to Brain Doodles."

"To me, the single biggest myth that we must correct is thinking that Mobile Learning is only about learning via mobile devices. It makes sense to think that Mobile Learning is only about Mobile but to me this is essentially the opposite of what is true."

"Nearly two in five children have used a tablet or smartphone before they could speak in full sentences, according to a new report. Conducted by family advocacy organization Common Sense Media, the study found that 38% of children under the age of 2 have used a mobile device for playing games, watching videos or other media-related purposes. In 2011, only 10% had."

"Not too long ago, tablets and smartphones were largely viewed as educational scourges - mere distractions responsible for dulling minds and derailing productivity. Now, instead of being shunned completely, these devices are embraced as invaluable tools for meeting the complex, often hard to define needs of digital natives. Undoubtedly, wearable technology is destined to follow suit. The 2015 Horizon Report agrees, predicting the widespread use of wearables throughout the entire spectrum of modern education. Still, considering our senses are already overloaded with 1s and 0s, reluctance to embrace yet another digital medium is understandable. However, as this piece will explain, the potential benefits are simply too tremendous to ignore."

"If we are to be completely honest with ourselves, the concept or theory behind computer science in the curriculum is not new, well not within Early Years Education. If we stop and think for a minute, what is happening when we code? We end up with - Problem Solving. Plain and simple……Computer programmers, computer scientists……solve problem! Our young learners spend every day solving and overcoming problems and obstacles. As educators, we set up scenarios, we pose problems and we guide the children towards finding strategies. These challenges are often in Maths and Science lessons but we sometimes see them in Physical Education and language classes too. We always strive to relate these problem solving skills to contexts, it makes sense if children can relate to real life scenarios. And this is where coding fits in."