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Having Our Say Middle Grade Student Perspectives on School, Technologies, and Academic Engagement

"What Teachers Wish They Could Say To Parents"

"If you ask a student, "'Do you want to learn how to program in HTML, PHP or Android?' They'll run away," says Lapinski. "But when we say, 'Do you want to solve a problem you're passionate about, one that's relevant to you?' You reach them. Apps are the new Rock 'n' Roll." It's similar to Dean Kamen's FIRST program, which hooks kids on engineering with robotics instead for mobile apps. The resulting 50-70 hour course includes 5 steps: Identify the problem; market research; solutions through business models, technical ability and marketing models; product design; and build and test."

"A recent Fox News article asking, "So are men iPads and women Nooks?" raised my hackles….especially when the piece went on to say, "Nooks are smaller, lighter, and fit in a purse more comfortably…Conversely, iPads are big and heavy and make [the] statement: I'm into tech." (Come on, are iPads really that heavy?) "

"John F. Kennedy is often reported to have said "The only reason to give a speech is to change the world." Over the years this has been paraphrased by many speaking and training professionals. Not surprisingly, people occasionally mock this kind of statement as being just so much hubris or pomposity. "Surely," they proclaim, "not every presentation or speech is important enough to even make the slightest difference." However, when we say "change the world," we do not mean necessarily to change the world in a monumental, earth-altering, life-changing way. The operative word in that phrase is change. Affecting a change is a necessary condition of an effective speech. "A presentation that doesn't seek to make change is a waste of time and energy," says business guru Seth Godin. "

"Researchers say that the problem with "drill and kill" and other kinds of blocked study isn't just that they're boring. They also stunt student learning. "There are always two steps to solving a problem: identify the solving strategy, and then execute it," Rohrer said. "In blocked study, [students] know that this is a unit on, say, the Pythagorean theorem, so they don't need to choose a strategy. All they have to do is execute, over and over." When teachers give homework sets made up of only one kind of problem, they deny their students the chance to practice choosing a solving strategy. Later, when students are faced with a mix of types of problems on an exam, they're unprepared."

"Last year I taught third-grade math in a whole new way. Combining elements from the wildly popular sandbox game Minecraft, I had students thinking visually and creatively about mathematical models and theories that went way beyond a typical third-grade curriculum, transforming math class into what I like to call Mathcraft. Why Minecraft? I could say I am using Minecraft for a number of reasons, like how I find Minecraft enhances metacognition by increasing students' memory storage capacity. The game itself creates a relatable enjoyable experience that can be internalized and shared in a community of learners. The limitations on the working memory are minimized because the gameplay itself is an extension of our visual sketchpad. Working with students they always say, "I can see it," and when they see it they share it."

"recent Gallup poll of 170,000 Americans - 10,000 of whom were teachers - found that teaching is the second most satisfying profession (after medicine). Ironically, the same Gallup poll found that in contrast to their overall happiness with their jobs, teachers often rate last or close to the bottom for workplace engagement and happiness. "Of all the professions we studied in the U.S., teachers are the least likely to say that their opinions count and the least likely to say that their supervisor creates an open and sharing environment," said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education, at the Next New World Conference. This is a troubling trend at a time when schools need to continue to attract high quality educators. "If the perception in our country is that teaching is not a great profession to go into, we certainly aren't going to be encouraging really talented young people to be thinking about the profession of teaching," Busteed said in an interview with Stephen Smith on the American RadioWorks podcast."

"t didn't take long for Michael Godsey, an English teacher at Morro Bay High School in California, to realize that his decision to use a public radio podcast in the classroom was a wise one. It wasn't any old podcast he was introducing to his classes. It was "Serial," the murder-mystery phenomenon produced by reporter Sarah Koenig of "This American Life," which already was transfixing a wide swath of the adult population. "Even if they weren't into it, I told them it was the most popular podcast of all time, and that was interesting," Godsey says. He needn't have worried. The podcast seized his five classrooms of 10th- and 11th-graders. "I had kids cutting other classes so they could come listen to it again," he says. "Kids who were sick, who never did their homework, were listening at home." Godsey is one of a growing number of educators who are using podcasts like "Serial" to motivate their classrooms and address education requirements set by the Common Core state standards. Improving students' listening skills is one of the essential components of the new education mandates, and using audio in the classroom can be an effective way to promote listening."

"In his new book, Raising Kids Who Read, Daniel Willingham wants to be clear: There's a big difference between teaching kids to read and teaching them to love reading. And Willingham, a parent himself, doesn't champion reading for the obvious reasons - not because research suggests that kids who read for pleasure do better in school and in life. "The standard things you'll hear about why kids should read I actually don't think are very strong arguments," he says. "Because if the goal is to become a good citizen or the goal is to make a lot of money, I can think of more direct ways to reach those goals than to read during your leisure time." Willingham wants his kids to love reading because, he says, "for me it's a family value. It's something that I love, something that I find important. I think I gain experiences I wouldn't gain any other way by virtue of being a reader. And so naturally I want my children to experience that." The professor of psychology at the University of Virginia uses his new book to map out strategies for parents and teachers hoping to kindle that same passion for reading."

"In this simple but informative TED Talk, Julian Treasure offers up seven things that effective communicators must exclude from speech. This list of seven is a kind of "bad habits to avoid" list. They are not the only elements that can derail effective communication, but it is a good list from which to start. "I call them seven sins somewhat tongue in cheek," Julian says in the comments section on the TED Website. "I am not saying these things are bad or wrong, simply that they tend to make it harder for people to listen, especially when they become habits." Yes, suggesting that one avoid these behaviors always and forever can become a sort of dogma as well. However, he is right that these behaviors are for the most part injurious to our reputations, credibility, and over all effectiveness."

"Lately I've found myself squinting a bit at some of the practices and structures in teaching and learning. This squinting is less about efficiency or performance, but rather what effect each piece has-a kind of causal analysis. This is the cause, and it might have this effect. In trying to imagine what would be different if we did this instead of that, I was surprised at how education has settled one a small handful of models in light of so much possibility. Was it because we've found the magic formula, and in 2014 we're in an era of simple refinement? That we know "what works," and now it's all a matter of tweaks? That if teachers just listened and did what they were told and used #edtech and stuck to the script and if parents just read to kids and if poverty wasn't an issue and if classrooms were more inviting and we just used the data that is staring us in the face that it'd all somehow coalesce? So, this list. Other ideas for learning. I'm not saying any of these ideas are good-or even the least bit viable. I'm not saying they wouldn't be downright destructive, curiosity-snuffing intellectual abominations that'd take education back to the dark ages. I'm just wondering what would happen."

"Many teachers say the app helps them automate the task of recording classroom conduct, as well as allowing them to communicate directly with parents. But some parents, teachers and privacy law scholars say ClassDojo, along with other unproven technologies that record sensitive information about students, is being adopted without sufficiently considering the ramifications for data privacy and fairness, like where and how the data might eventually be used."

"If curriculum is the what of teaching, and learning models are the how, assessment is the puzzled "Hmmmm"-as in, I assumed this and this about student learning, but after giving this assessment, well…."Hmmmmm." So what are the different types of assessment of learning? This graphic below from McGraw Hill offers up six forms; the next time someone says "assessment,' you can say "Which type, and what are we doing with the data?" like the TeachThought educator you are."

" "Why are we okay that management hasn't seen innovation in a 100 or 50 years, but we demand innovation in every other aspect of our lives?" Jamie Notter As we continue to look at teachers, students, and learning becoming more "innovative", it is important that leadership changes. As administrators often set the tone for their district or their building, if they are saying the same, it is not likely that things are going to change in the classroom. Leadership needs to not only "think" different, but they need to "act" different. For leaders to be effective in changing a school or an organization, they need to change themselves first. It is way too easy to go a leadership conference and get ideas of things that you are going to do with your staff. What is important is changing your own practice first. So along the lines of what is happening within "pockets" of classrooms around the world, leaders must embody the characteristics that they seek. As my good friend Jimmy Casas says, "what we model is what we get.""

"Kathy Perez has decades of experience as a classroom educator, with training in special education and teaching English language learners. She also has a dynamic style. Sitting through her workshop presentation with like being a student in her classroom. She presents on how to make the classroom engaging and motivating to all students, even the most reluctant learners, while modeling for her audience exactly how she would do it. The experience is a bit jarring because it's so different from the lectures that dominate big education conferences, but it's also refreshing and way more fun. Perez says when students are engaged, predicting answers, talking with one another and sharing with the class in ways that follow safe routines and practices, they not only achieve more but they also act out less. And everyone, including the teacher, has more fun. "If we don't have their attention, what's the point?" Perez asked an audience at a Learning and the Brain conference on mindsets. She's a big proponent of brain breaks and getting kids moving around frequently during the day. She reminded educators that most kids' attention spans are about as long in minutes as their age. So a third-grader can concentrate for about eight minutes before losing interest. It's a teacher's job to make sure there are lots of quick, effective brain breaks built into the lesson to give children a moment to recalibrate. Perez says teachers must be prepared for a diverse cross section of learners with a large toolkit of strategies for teaching in multiple modalities, with many entry points to participation and content."

"December has been a busy month for us!  It's a really exciting month too!  Have you heard the saying that usually things click for kindergarten kids AFTER Christmas?  Well, I can happily say that things have really clicked for our classroom AFTER Thanksgiving.  Almost all of my students know their letters and sounds and have a huge bank of sight words that they know.  They are becoming so much more independent.  I love sitting back and watching them work.  This allows me to work with small groups or to get assessments done."

"A spike in blood pressure. A racing heart rate. Sweaty palms. For many adults, this is what they feel when faced with difficult math. But for kids, math anxiety isn't just a feeling, it can affect their ability to do well in school. This fear tends to creep up on students when performance matters the most, like during exams or while speaking in class. One reason for a kid's math anxiety? How their parents feel about the subject. "A parent might say, 'oh I'm not a math person, it's okay if you're not good at math either,' " Sian Beilock, cognitive scientist and President of Barnard College, says. "It can send a signal to kids about whether they can succeed." But new research from Beilock and her team shows that parents don't have to overcome their fear of math to help their child succeed, as long they changed their attitudes about the subject."