Group items tagged

"Students perform poorly in our courses for a variety of reasons. Here are some students you've likely encountered over the years, as well as a few ideas on the type of feedback that best helps them turn things around. "

"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat

Grades K-2nd - "HappyNumbers.com is an online resource that brings math to life through high-quality graphics and animation combined with clear, simple instructions and immediate feedback. Our interactive, individualized lessons use a scaffolded approach to reinforce all aspects of elementary-level numeracy and operations. HappyNumbers is compatible with most internet-enabled devices, such as IWBs, PCs, Macs, iPads, and Android tablets."

"Polls, chat tools, and interactive quizzes provide good ways to hear from all of the students in a classroom." Another great list of resources for getting feedback from students by Richard Byrne.

With the speech-to-text tool, Dragon by Nuance, I cut the time spent on leaving feedback dramatically.

Free education resources for Teaching. Books are customizable. You can rearrange the chapters or even add, remove and edit content. Concepts -Add bite-sized lessons to FlexBooks or assign to students for independent learning. Interactive Items-Videos and multimedia simulations bring learning to life. Exercises-Enable students to track their progress with instant feedback. Teaching Materials-Get assessments, answer keys and ideas for differentiated instruction.

This is a wonderful site for designing lesson plans and collating resources to push out to an iPad app for students to access and interact with. You can put together websites, videos, audio, documents, images and instructions. You can make quizzes for your students to answer to provide you with instant feedback about how they are doing. Your students can make their own notes about the lesson from within the app. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment

This is a wonderful site for designing lesson plans and collating resources to push out to an iPad app for students to access and interact with. You can put together websites, videos, audio, documents, images and instructions. You can make quizzes for your students to answer to provide you with instant feedback about how they are doing. Your students can make their own notes about the lesson from within the app. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/id467088232 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Planning+%26+Assessment

Thoughtful article on "social capital"

I've put together two lessons for teachers who are curious about the dumb, the good, and the riskier aspects of using Twitter for educational purposes. Each short and to the point, with inescapably vivid examples....Feedback always welcome.

Cheating Justice in the Digital Age. This is a case study of what not to do when accused of plagiarism and an object lesson for everyone about the durability of the digital tattoo. Feedback welcome.

Interactive from RWT that allows students to create bios about themselves or others. After typing in info, print out and fold into a cube. Very cool. I'd love to see a customizable version. Maybe if we all make the request to RWT, they'll produce one. Scroll down the page to "Feedback" and make the suggestion. I just did!

Text2cloud is a collaborative effort to explore idea-driven writing with the web imagined as the primary destination. Engaging with the end of privacy, school violence, censorship, and the transformation of literacy, text2cloud aims to spur similar uses of multimedia for reflection, meditation, deliberation, and speculation--in sum, the introspective arts on associates with the life of the mind.

Threads on campus violence, how the loss of privacy in the digital age is transforming life on campus, and how public life is changed by the proliferation of concealed cameras. Navigational makeover introduced to improve reading experience. Feedback welcome.

See also statement by Labor Dept (http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20101436.htm) and White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/20/new-job-training-and-education-grants-program-launched) and Chronicle article at http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/2-billion-federal-program-could-be-windfall-for-open-online-learning/29167 $2-Billion Federal Program Could Be 'Windfall' for Open Online Learning January 22, 2011, 9:49 am By Marc Parry "The Obama administration is encouraging the development of high-quality immersive online-learning environments. It suggests courses with simulations, with constant feedback, and with interactive software that can tailor instruction and tutoring to individual students. It likes courses that students can use to teach themselves. And it demands open access to everything: "All online and technology-enabled courses must permit free public use and distribution, including the ability to re-use course modules, via an online repository for learning materials to be established by the federal government.... That's because the government is requiring that all work supported by the grants be made available under what's known as a "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License," which Mr. Green described as 'one of the most open content licenses that exists.'"

Play, design and share games.  Focuses on game design

a very popular web-based game design environment. Global Kids http://olpglobalkids.org/ is using it to run social benefits game design contests and badging programs. They are getting 100+ new game design entries per week. From the parents' guide: Gamestar Mechanic is currently supported by a partnership between the Institute of Play and E-Line Media. The game was originally developed by Gamelab in partnership with the Institute of Play and the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab (AADLC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Initial funding for the game and companion learning guides came from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The design of the game is based on research by some of the leading academics in the field including Katie Salen (Executive Director of the Institute of Play and curriculum author for the New York City Public School Quest To Learn) and James Paul Gee (author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy).

This site has students creating games from scratch and putting them out into the world for feedback within the Gamestar Mechanic community. Students use math, problem solving, writing skills and more to make their games interesting. I think this could be used in the classroom as a theme-based project or just to get students interested in coding.

A superb assessment resource which allows you to gain real-time feed back through tests, quizzes and even allowing students to annotate a document that you upload. Set up your quiz/test using true/false statements, longer text answers or students can draw the answer. You can setup a marking key meaning that the site will mark the answers for you and give instant data on who is correct. Your student can either have there own free account or they can access the material using a link. The site works across a wide range of devices.

A superb assessment resource which allows you to gain real-time feed back through tests, quizzes and even allowing students to annotate a document that you upload. Set up your quiz/test using true/false statements, longer text answers or students can draw the answer. You can setup a marking key meaning that the site will mark the answers for you and give instant data on who is correct. Your student can either have there own free account or they can access the material using a link. The site works across a wide range of devices.

TeachersPayTeachers® is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original downloadable educational materials, hard goods and used educational resources. Entrepreneur Webquest and Search Skills Practice http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Entrepreneur-Web-Quest-Search-Terms-Practice-876455

Linked above is a free activity, "Entrepreneur Webquest" that you may use with your students. Feedback is appreciated.

So far I've made a little extra cash selling lesson plans I've created for use with my students. Great website for resources and also for sharing your talents with other educators. Check it out and use my referral link to sign up.