Group items tagged

"If you've ever complained about the way things are in schools today, now's your chance to stop talking and start acting by participating in the Reinventing School Challenge. The challenge is a program that begins with a simple mission: Encourage life-long learning, promote alternative learning environments and equip learners with 21st Century skills. It takes a fresh and different approach to school reform in the following ways. Inviting the whole community to get involved. Giving the community a framework to collaborate and fashion solutions for their own school communities. Providing a platform to present, share and celebrate what's possible and what really works."

"Ever suffered through a presentation packed with tiny text, read aloud word by word? Experts agree: content narrowed down to one idea per slide is way better for an audience's comprehension (and sanity). While this can be a challenging exercise for some, Haiku Deck makes it easy. Here are some quick pointers on simplifying communication - and a fun two-minute challenge:"

"Ever suffered through a presentation packed with tiny text, read aloud word by word? Experts agree: content narrowed down to one idea per slide is way better for an audience's comprehension (and sanity). While this can be a challenging exercise for some, Haiku Deck makes it easy. Here are some quick pointers on simplifying communication - and a fun two-minute challenge:"

"Visuals are mentally processed 60,000 times faster than text. That's one reason why Haiku Decks are so visual -  so your content is easily understood and remembered. Here are a few quick pointers for effective visual communication, and a fun two-minute challenge for you to try."

Having parents take part in our classroom blog turns the blog into a learning community. Here is the post I use to introduce Family Blogging Month.

"It's challenging enough to manage a traditional learning environment where the curriculum is handed to you, and meetings are set, and you're simply there to manage; adding more ingredients to the mix seems like asking for trouble. But the truth is, it's becoming increasingly difficult to educate children in the face of such radical technological and pedagogical progression. The good news is, many of the elements of a progressive learning environment-e.g., digital literacy, connectivism, and play-conveniently, and not coincidentally, work together. And better yet, collectively they can reduce the burden on those managing the learning because they place the learner at the center. While it's possible to tack these ideas on to a traditional classroom, and then sit back and wait for the clouds to part and the sun to shine brilliantly, you'll likely be waiting a while. These aren't single tools to "try," but news ways to think about how learners access media, how educators define success, and what the roles of immense digital communities should be in popularizing new learning models. None of it is really complicated-it just requires new thinking."

"The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is pleased to offer Route 21, a one-stop-shop for 21st century skills-related information, resources and community tools. To get started, take a tour or explore the P21 Framework. "

23 sessions archived from this year's Discovery Educator's Network virtual conference. Check them out!

"159 stories of 137 internationalized U.S. schools connecting with 98 countries."