Group items tagged

"It is difficult to blame our students for their failure to reflect upon their learning. The very nature of the typical school day makes this challenging for even the most committed learner. All that bouncing from experience to experience ensures that by the time they finish their day and have time to reflect, they are relying on a jumbled mess of memories. Without time to reflect immediately after a learning experience, there is little hope that we will develop in our minds a coherent cognitive schema or that we connect new learning with old in a cohesive manner." Author Nigel Coutts offers 8 elements that lend themselves to reflective learning. Includes a nice infographic of the elements.

"Between 2006 and 2008, while teaching "Ethics for Teachers" to EFL teacher trainees at "Profesorado del Liceo Cultural Británico" (Buenos Aires - Argentina ), and certainly encouraged by the inspiring discussions that were taking place at TESOL EVO workshops, I had the chance to explore the integration of student blogs into the course. Class members were invited to start their own blogs (which I then linked and followed by means of a Feevy students in turn chose to embed into their blog templates) and weekly post their reflections on assigned readings. Since the topics discussed took in sharing values and personal experiences, this seemed a perfect occasion for fostering individual expression. Serving other aims of the course - the development of interculturalism and appreciation of diversity - the weekly assignment also involved posting a comment on at least an entry made by a partner."

An interesting argument that the flipped classroom is really a stepping stone to students doing their own learning/research. Very thought-provoking about the role of the teacher in a classroom or online: "Ultimately, we have realized that three fundamental questions should drive the teaching and ­learning experience: What are you going to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to show your learning? As this new way of learning has played out over time, my students have found that they no longer need me to locate or create videos for them. They can find their own resources and direct their own learning. My goal as a teacher is to help them become independent learners, to give their learning a purpose that is apparent to them (beyond simply passing the unit exam). I prompt them to reflect on their thinking and learning while sharing stories of my own journey as a learner. I help them develop skills, such as finding and evaluating sources and collaborating with their peers."

"In this video, made while I was Tech Liaison for the Alaska State Writing Consortium, I share some ideas about teaching with Twitter and reflect on using Twitter with both local and distance students at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. "This video was created as part of an online presentation I did with, David Wicks, Seattle Pacific University, and Jason Rhode, Northern Illinois University. It was presented online for the Northwest eLearning Community January 27, 2011. We have posted more materials and links to additional videos at their Google site: Twitter in Edu." From Jacquie Cyrus, Guam.

"I was reminded that good coaching is not about dynamic coaches serving as heroic educators, but rather stems from the simple habits of connecting teachers to resources and asking them reflective questions." Excellent tips for helping teachers become better educators. Very specific, with helpful personal anecdotes.

Carla Arena's wonderful reflections on teaching, students, and world of education.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a foundation for professional development for technology integration and a common vocabulary for talking about effective uses of technology in teaching and learning.... The newly revised TIM was launched in February 2011, and features 100 classroom video example lesson plans, revised and expanded descriptions of student activity, teacher activity, and instructional settings for each TIM cell, focus pages for each characteristic and level, new professional development resources, and indices for grade levels and digital tools. The site includes 25 videos lesson examples in each of four core subject areas - math, science, language arts, and social studies. These lessons were videotaped in classrooms across Florida. "The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells. " This is an amazing resource for teacher training. TIM is easily accessbile and recommends you look at grade levels beyond your own for ideas.

Common Core and using questions and scaffolding support for an academic discussion. The Teaching Channel demonstrations also including supporting questions for teachers. Students run their own discussion.

LInks and insights from a talk at the iPadpalooza Conference 2015, Austin, TX: "Giving students websites increases motivation, reflection, and ownership of learning A blog is a type of website that includes an RSS feed (subscription) and comments (feedback loop) An ePortfolio is a structured blog or website that includes scaffolding for organizing student work Publishing on the web is not only 'the law', it builds digital citizenship and provides an authentic audience for students There are tons of web publishing tools available. WordPress powers 25% of the entire web for a reason. Many schools and districts are providing WordPress blog and website networks to every teacher and student. No two implementations are the same. Make it your own. But know there are tons of resources available."

"dive into this admittedly overwhelming list and pick the questions that most inspire you to tell an interesting story, describe a memorable event, observe the details in your world, imagine a possibility, or reflect on who you are and what you believe." Prompts are organized loosely by topic, and relate to a published NY Times story.

There are 3 ways to search this video archive -- videos by practitioners who are getting started, discipline-specific topics (including carerr and technical education), and videos for administratorseand leadership teams. Though this is a U.S.-based effort, the consideration of grading and approaches at this grading conference from 2013 should be of use to any teacher.