Angela Maiers Educational Services

ASCD Inservice: Looking Beyond the "Answer"

"A Personal Learning Network (commonly referred to as a PLN) is one of the most popular ways for modern teachers to reach out and get connected to other educators, whether this means keeping in touch with colleagues and friends or making new connections with other talented teachers across the globe. The very best PLNs facilitate wonderful information sharing, learning opportunities and gateways to collaboration between classrooms. Read our recipe for the perfect PLN and start cooking yours up today!"

"The literature on educational leadership and school change recognizes clearly the role and influence of the campus administrator (the principal, and sometimes an assistant principal) on whether or not change will occur in the school. It seems clear that transforming the school organization into a learning community can be done only with the leaders' sanction and active nurturing of the entire staff's development as a community. Thus, a look at the principal of a school whose staff is a professional learning community seems a good starting point for describing what these learning communities look like and how they operate. "

"School culture should be collegial, said Sagor, where there is a focus on continuous improvement, shared responsibility, valuing contributions, and the acceptance that conflict is inevitable. "Working in teams needs to be exciting and attractive to bring the best and the brightest into our profession," he said. "When people say 'just tell us what to do,' the battle is nearly lost.""

"We want a team to think about action research as a collaborative endeavor, where principals and teachers work together to improve something over time. It's not just about gathering data, it's about working hard to improve something. Maybe you see a need to improve writing in the building, and you're going to figure out whether there's a way to take a techno-constructivist approach to strengthening students' writing skills. Maybe you feel the culture of your school is very mired in antiquated approaches to teaching and learning, and you want to build a new culture of innovation and collaboration, so you're going to develop your project around that goal."

"One of the key conceptual models of the information field is the "information spectrum," the hierarchy of data - information - knowledge - wisdom. I first learned this model from Bob Taylor, former dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, and it is explained in his book, Value-Added Processes in Information Systems, Ablex, 1986, as the "Value-Added Spectrum," (p. 6). I teach this model to almost all of my classes, especially to my undergraduate students as part of developing an "information perspective" -- looking at the world through information-colored glasses. This is the way I explain the information spectrum (sometimes referred to as the DIKW hierarchy): Data = characters, symbols, numbers, signs whose meaning may or may not be apparent. Information = data with labels or definition; data that has structure or relationships. Knowledge = collected, combined, organized, processed information for a purpose. Wisdom = knowledge over time; knowledge without thinking. "

"My latest blog prompt for my Algebra students bit.ly/P8I8gK & their responses bit.ly/NuGLKS Constructive comments appreciated" -Karl Fisch

"Every child needs to encounter frustration and failure to learn to step back, reassess, and try again."

Lets you add voice tags and annotations to pictures to tell your story. Interesting application ideas...

"Making is about realizing that you can be a creator instead of just a consumer. At its best, making allows kids to follow their own interests and passions and create something that is uniquely theirs, while applying the knowledge that they are gathering in all aspects of their life. "

"Getting the school year started right can mean calling home with a positive message, stepping out of your comfort zone or simply asking for help. The connections you make in August can serve you well through the trials of K-12 education. You never know when you're going to need help -- from an encouraging smile to a better way to assess a standard. While the Internet and social media are great, they are merely tools to connect you with the people behind all of the accounts. With so much to do, it can be easy to push collaboration back, but this can have a long-term erosive effect on your happiness in teaching. The earlier you start, the easier it becomes. "

" 375 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your iPad/iPhone (purchase), Kindle (purchase), Nook (purchase) or other devices. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to load books to your Kindle using the links below, please watch this video. This other video explains how to upload epub files to a Nook."

"Disp Recorder lets you easily record anything that happens on the screen of your iPad: navigating through the Home screens, changing options in the Settings app or working in another app such as GarageBand or Google Earth. It will even record a Keynote presentation complete with the virtual laser-pointer etc - an option for having students record a presentation of their work to share with their peers."

"Picture this: A student is at home, listening to my biology podcast and a question comes to mind, that she thinks would be of benefit to the community of fellow listeners. She wants to contribute to the podcast by asking her question in her own voice (like talk-back radio) and hear the question discussed on next week's episode. I have investigated and tried quite a number of options. Some of the best include K7, Skype Voicemail, Google Voice and iPadio and CinchCast. But none of these were ideal for the purpose. Some are expensive for students. Some are expensive for me. Some don't work in Australia (yes - I'm looking at you, Google Voice). Some are cumbersome for my purpose, and let's face it, if it takes much any effort, students won't use it). Enter SpeakPipe. A new service that is just what I've been looking for."

"A teacher's role in the classroom is to supply direction, maturity and wisdom. It is to raise questions, inspire endeavour and lay down challenges. A teacher brings purpose to the lesson. But to be effective in an iPad classroom, she must relinquish control over the tools used, allowing students to share the responsibility and joy of discovering and sharing solutions to achieve that purpose. I'm not saying that teachers are absolved of their professional responsibility for learning to use the technology. But they should admit to being learners, and not let that fact stop their students from using the device in unforeseen ways, in the pursuit of the class goals."

The purpose of this blog is to have a place to reflect and analyze the use of my "flipped classroom" method of teaching during the 2012 spring semester in my two math classes: Algebra 1 and Math Analysis Honors. My goal is to able to see what is working, what isn't, and what could use improvement as I strive to continue to help my students succeed at their highest level!"

"High Tech High began in 2000 as a single charter high school launched by a coalition of San Diego business leaders and educators. It has evolved into an integrated network of schools spanning grades K-12, housing a comprehensive teacher certification program and a new, innovative Graduate School of Education. "