One idea brought up by several speakers this year is a hybrid grades-free way of evaluating students. In each case, it included a high-bar pass/fail approach to class assignments, with a final, more regular grade for the entire semester.
One of the speakers who presented what he called a “Not Yet” grade was “digital ethnographer” Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State University. That’s his photo at the top.
He told the crowd that they had to inspire “wonder” in their students in order to get them to learn as much as possible. Some key quotes from him:
“Low standards/high stakes are the opposite of what you want.”
Group items tagged
No classrooms and lots of technology: a Danish school's approach - The Globe and Mail - 58 views
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"The first thing that stands out upon arrival at Hellerup School, where 640 students between the ages of 6 and 16 study on the former site of the Tuborg brewery in Denmark, is the absence of a fence separating the school from the street. Inside, there is no office to greet visitors. Instead, small shoes litter the floor and children of all ages sprawl on couches doing homework, play foosball or run about the open space that substitutes for classrooms. "
There's a map for that - 41 views
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The Royal Canadian Geographical Society reports on how students can explore the history and geography of Canada using maps that weigh 45 kilograms and cover half of a school gym!
PBS LearningMedia - 70 views
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Free PBS video and lessons for use in classroom
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The resources look great. I've noticed some are not available in Canada for download.
How about no grades for classwork? It might happen in some North Texas classrooms this ... - 52 views
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“The new divide will be between those with wonder and curiosity and those without.”
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Keynote speaker George Couros is a what’s called a “division principal” back home in Canada. He’s a blogger and author who is all about encouraging creativity and change in public education with an emphasis on taking advantage of digital tools. He told the conference that that it’s foolish to deny students use of their smartphones and other digital tools in the classroom — and even on exams. In 2015, being able to figure out what information is relevant is more important than memorization when most facts are a click away, he said.
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"The new divide will be between those with wonder and curiosity and those without." "The world only cares what you can do with what you know," Couros said. He said he clashed with a teacher back home who complained that his approach would let students Google up the answers for her exams. His response: "If I can look up the answers to the questions on your test on Google, your questions suck."
for the love of learning: Grading without Grading - 18 views
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Joe Bower, a 6th grade teacher in Canada, shares the email and response from Alfie Kohn he sent in 2006 describing how he grades without grades. In the comments at the bottom, many others share their approaches and struggles.
http://www.contactnorth.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/resources/ten_guiding_principles_-_e... - 1 views
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"We have a set of guiding principles, which has informed our planning and served our network well over the past number of years. Many of these principles, at least the ideas themselves, did not originate with us but were gleaned from a variety of sources. We did, however, synthesize these ideas into a coherent set of principles and provided our own explanations and clarifications."
Pacific Animation Meteo - 18 views
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How the weather is developping in real time on the Pacific East Coast
BBC News - How Chinese babies and Mid-East pizza tip US markets - 17 views
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his year in the US, milk futures leapt 26% and butter prices 62%
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As a result, there was usually an oversupply of milk products on the market, Levitt says.
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US and European governments stored excess dairy products
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5 factors that affect global market price
How to Fix the Schools - NYTimes.com - 1 views
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Teachers — many of them — will continue to resent efforts to use standardized tests to measure their ability to teach.
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Tucker, 72, a former senior education official in Washington, is the president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which he founded in 1988. Since then he has focused much of his research on comparing public education in the United States with that of places that have far better results than we do — places like Finland, Japan, Shanghai and Ontario, Canada. His essential conclusion is that the best education systems share common traits — almost none of which are embodied in either the current American system or in the reform ideas that have gained sway over the last decade or so.
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His starting point is not the public schools themselves but the universities that educate teachers. Teacher education in America is vastly inferior to many other countries; we neither emphasize pedagogy — i.e., how to teach — nor demand mastery of the subject matter. Both are a given in the top-performing countries. (Indeed, it is striking how many nonprofit education programs in the U.S. are aimed at helping working teachers do a better job — because they’ve never learned the right techniques.)
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On what's wrong with our education system
21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada - YouTube - 21 views
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Good promo video by New Brunswick schools designed to provoke thought and conversation. Particularly notable quotes: "The top ten jobs today didn't exist in 2004." and "Many skills learned in public schools today will be obsolete by graduation." I have some thoughts on this at http://tannervision.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-brunswicks-view-of-21st-century.html
Public Photograpy Is Not a Crime - 0 views
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it is not a criminal offence for individuals to photograph or film police officers as they go about their duties, and that police officers are not allowed to confiscate a person’s camera or recording equipment (including phones), force them to delete images, or otherwise prevent them from taking photographs or filming in public places.
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Subject to certain very limited constraints, it is not a crime in Canada for anyone to do any of the following things, and it is a violation of their Charter rights to prevent anyone from doing so: photographing or filming in any public place, or in any private place to which the public is admitted, and publishing those pictures and films, taking pictures of or filming in any government site other than “restricted access areas”* photographing or filming police officers in public, as long as the photographer/filmmaker does not obstruct or interfere with the execution of police duties. While everyone has a reasonable expectation of privacy in certain circumstances, police officers have no reasonable expectation of privacy as they go about their duties.
Scholastic Canada Education-Teaching Tip of the Month * January 2012 - 21 views
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the power of compelling questions that drives deep interest, understanding, caring, and the application of 21st century skills.
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During a whole group inquiry, students gain competence by being guided through the process and develop necessary skills and tools to aid in self-initiated inquiries. Often students don't have the necessary background knowledge to pose their own questions or lack understanding in identifying a question worthy of investigation so the large group approach is essential when getting started.
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Begin by examining your curriculum and identifying a topic that you think will be interesting to students.
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Getting Started with Inquiry Learning in Your Classroom
News, Toronto, GTA, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Canada, World, Breaking - thestar.com - 1 views
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This site has a lot of news stories about homeless people.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - Robocow - 31 views
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This site has some flash animations. My favorite are the two Robocow animations in which a robotic cow encounters various forms of point source and non-point source pollution problems and demonstrates how to correct them. The kids love these ones and they make for great conversations.
GLOBE Canada - 0 views
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shows local schools and monitoring program and how k-12 schools participate. Also identifies northern tech advisors.
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