Group items tagged

A lament on the Common Core Standard's reinforcement of the 5-paragraph academic essay, and a call for the teaching of more authentic types of writing. S. L. Davis's list is long, and sparks a lively comment on the purposes of writing.

Gives ideas on how to select a movie, how to use online learning, and some teaching tips.

"The invention of the LMS (Learning Management System) was a mistake. And here I'm not going to make the same frustrated argument made numerous times before now that LMSs are limiting structures, that their interface and functionalities control how teachers teach online (although those things are true). The LMS was a mistake because it was premature. In a world that was just waking up to the Internet and the possibility of widely-networked culture, the LMS played to the lowest common denominator, creating a "classroom" that allowed learning -- or something like learning -- to happen behind tabs, in threaded discussions, and through automated quizzes. The LMS was not a creative decision, it was not pushing the capabilities of the Internet, it was settling for the least innovative classroom practice and repositioning that digitally. As a result classes taught within its structure generally land with a dull thud. No matter how creative and inspired the teacher or pedagogue behind the wheel, the LMS is no match for the wideness of the Internet. It was born a relic -- at its launch utterly irrelevant to its environment and its user." Very thought-provoking article on how digital pedagogy really differs from just "teaching online."

This is an excellent compendium of how to do "close reading" which in fact means re-reading for various purposes. Teachers can teach how to read on multiple levels--vocabulary, metaphor, main ideas--and how these inter-relate, with an eye to how this can lead to writing a thoughtful, original paper. This blog is well worth following for help with pedagogy and teaching high school and academic learners.

"Knowmia Teach http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teach/id527216211?mt=8 Free; Designed specifically for teachers; Integrates directly into Knowmia.com (publish a lesson with the push of a single button); Organize lessons with steps/slides; Draw using shapes, multiple pens (with your finger), text tools, laser pointer and much more; Animate graphic elements on the screen by using two fingers (moving, scaling and rotating them); Integrate videos as part of a lesson (coming soon); The only iPad tool to allow face recording while capturing a lesson (coming soon); Imports images, drawings, and Adobe Acrobat files (coming soon); Integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net and Gmail for transferring files (coming soon)" $2.99 Great tool for the iPad; see more info at the iTunes store.

Peer teaching as a way to use technology to allow students to show what they learned and confirm their ideas. Older students tutor younger ones. A thorough lesson plan that includes communication skills and audience-oriented presentation plans.

A review of M. Levine's Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success: ""There's probably no better example of the throttling of creativity than the difference between what we observe in a kindergarten classroom and what we observe in a high school classroom," she writes in Teach Your Children Well. "Take a room full of five-year-olds and you will see creativity in all its forms positively flowing around the room. A decade later you will see these same children passively sitting at their desks, half asleep or trying to decipher what will be on the next test.""

This is a teacher training simulation/game that helps recreate the realities of teaching. A European Lifelong Learning Programme project. The trainee contols and avatar that interacts with student avatars in a virtual classroom where a series of situations arise that challenge pedagogical skills. The first example deals with teaching biology.

A nice scoop.it blog with lots of technology for teaching links. Not oriented specifically to language learners and teachers, but there are many great content-based nuggets, and Amy updates frequently.

Shows how and why to use video of yourself during teaching practice to determine how to grow as a professional. Uses only a Flip camera and a tripod.

See related article on using photos to read and write. Photos can be used to inspire writing, but also teach/practice syntax. For example, ask not just what details are seen in the picture (e.g., descriptive writing, universal present tense), but predict what will happen in the future (future aspect, conditionals).

The TeachingChannel has some beautiful, professionally edited videos on how to teach different things (not specific to ESL/EFL) - the techniques are what is important. Each video has discussions by the teacher, classroom shots showing the students at work, and excellent Lesson Objective and Questions to Consider in the sidebar. Very valuable for teaching training in techniques, classroom management, and ways to approach subject matter in a student-centered approach. These would all be very adaptable to ESL/EFL environments.

The targeted audience of this website is high intermediate and advanced ESL learners, and in particular TOEFL test takers. This website focuses on teaching how to write an argumentative and opinion essay. It provides information on argumentative essay structure, teaches about two different essay layouts and supports them with examples, explicitly describes steps of argumentative essay writing process, gives a number of model argumentative essays, demonstrates two sides of an argument, and has 70 argumentative essay topics, and 155 TOEFL writing topics. -- From Lena Shvidko

"So , as educators and teachers, you would be asking yourself how to ethically use images without having to worry about the copyright issues.Well the answer is very simple you will have to use images licensed under GFLD or Creative Commons especially this latter as it has images that can be used in teaching materials, blogs, wikis, ..ect. How to find such kind of images is what the guide below is all about. It walks you through the different steps on how to locate images licensed under Creative Commons . It contains illustravie snapshots and is ideal for use with your students. The guide is just two pages long but has everything you will need to teach your students about how to get free images in Google Image."

Detailed lesson plan to get students to use animated RSA style movies to learn and teach each other. Good way to get some critical and creative thinking into your lessons.

One teacher explains how to teach thinking skills. A nice build up, e.g., from concepts to topic sentences, observation to finding patterns and drawing conclusions. Starts with magazine advertising as a short path to larger works.

This looks like a very useful application to make pdfs more interactive and useful as teaching tools: "Turn your vision into reality by creating your own version of an existing PDF or textbook. Give it a dynamic touch, jot down notes, add video/audio clips, and discuss materials with your readers within your interactive content. Use Active Textbook to learn, teach or simply share your documents online - it's easy! "

Using tools that are appropriate for the task is one theme of this blog post, but it is also a good explanation of SAMR and how to "walk up" to teaching beyond repetition and substitution. Uses an American history lesson as an example

A compilation of math post with links to great sites for teach math. Several of these are detailed videos describing key standards in the common core by grade level. Some are how to teach items, others virtual manipulatives, lessons plans, ways to brush up on a subject or use flipped learning.