Most schools will say that they want students to have an understanding of their world as a whole, but they seldom look at topics with an interdisciplinary focus. Why? It is easy to find reasons why this disjointed approach to learning happens:
· Some argue that there is so much content and so many skills to be learned in each discipline that they don’t have time to integrate subjects.
· Others say that the each discipline has a body of knowledge and skills that should stand on its own and not be muddied by the intrusion of other disciplines.
· Secondary educators say that there is insufficient common planning time to combine their efforts to teach an interdisciplinary course.
· Still others say that the whole system is geared toward separate subjects and to break out of this would require a monumental effort.
· Others are guided by “the tests,” which are presented by separate disciplines.
The ultimate goal for the study of any subject is to develop a deeper understanding of its content and skills so that students can engage in higher-level thinking and higher- level application of its principles. When students dig deeper and understand content across several disciplines, they will be better equipped to engage in substantive discussion and application of the topic. They will also be better able to see relationships across disciplines.
They organize students into interdisciplinary teams and coordinate lessons so that what happens in math, science, language arts, and social studies all tie to a common theme. Many times these teachers team-teach during larger blocks of time.
Advocates of this more holistic approach to curriculum argue that it helps students:
Of course, digging deeper doesn’t fit well in the time frame that most schools use. It takes time to link content across several disciplines, and it may be difficult to squeeze a learning activity into a 40-minute period. To change the method of learning will mean changing more than the curricula. The school structure, including the schedule and methodology will also need to change.
To prepare our students for an integrated world, we need to break out of the separate-discipline mentality and develop more holistic and problem/project-based approaches. Many have tried to do this, and it isn’t easy.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
If you're a faculty member, you've spent the last few weeks preparing your syllabus for the spring semester. You've updated the document and added a little to it. This latest round of edits may have pushed your syllabus another page longer - most now run about five pages, though nearly every campus has lore of some that exceed 20.
Lamentations about syllabus bloat started emerging about seven years ago in moods ranging from nostalgia to bemusement to curiosity to irritation to full-blown ideological critique. Based on 20 years of serving on curriculum committees and working with academics across the disciplines on teaching, I agree that, yes, the typical syllabus has now become a too-long list of policies, learning outcomes, grading formulas, defensive maneuvers, recommendations, cautions, and referrals. As a writing-center director who has encouraged instructors to add a pitch for tutoring services, I'm complicit.
This is a critical point. Allowing middle class families to pick and choose where there kids should go without valid reasons (i.e. work) can hurt high poverty schools.
Residential poverty tends to be concentrated, and successful school integration requires either a district with enough socioeconomic diversity within its boundaries or a group of neighboring districts which, when combined, have enough diversity to facilitate an interdistrict integration plan.
ndividual success stories and a review of research suggest that it is possible, by offering all students a single challenging curriculum, to reduce the achievement gap without harming the highest achievers (Burris, Wiley, Welner, & Murphy, 2008; Rui, 2009).
In the middle grades, students at City Neighbors start their day with half an hour of highly specialized, small-group instruction called intensive. Intensive provides an opportunity for extra support or enrichment in different subjects, allowing teachers to meet different students' needs while still teaching most of the academic time in mixed-ability classrooms.
Sounds like an intervention block, something many buildings have or are looking at.
small but growing number of schools are attempting to boost the achievement of low-income students by shifting enrollment to place more low-income students in mixed-income schools. Socioeconomic integration is an effective way to tap into the academic benefits of having high-achieving peers, an engaged community of parents, and high-quality teachers.
A 2010 meta-analysis found that students of all socioeconomic statuses, races, ethnicities, and grade levels were likely to have higher mathematics performance if they attended socioeconomically and racially integrated schools (Mickelson & Bottia, 2010).
Research supporting socioeconomic integration goes back to the famous Coleman Report, which found that the strongest school-related predictor of student achievement was the socioeconomic composition of the student body (Coleman et al., 1966).
nd results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics show steady increases in low-income 4th graders' average scores as the percentage of poor students in their school decreases (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).
a number of studies have found that the relationship between student outcomes and the socioeconomic composition of schools is strong even after controlling for some of these factors, using more nuanced measures of socioeconomic status, or comparing outcomes for students randomly assigned to schools (Reid, 2012; Schwartz, 2012).
Rumberger and Palardy (2005) found that the socioeconomic composition of the school was as strong a predictor of student outcomes as students' own socioeconomic status.
Socioeconomic integration is a win-win situation: Low-income students' performance rises; all students receive the cognitive benefits of a diverse learning environment (Antonio et al., 2004; Phillips, Rodosky, Muñoz, & Larsen, 2009); and middle-class students' performance seems to be unaffected up to a certain level of integration.
A recent meta-analysis found "growing but still inconclusive evidence" that the achievement of more advantaged students was not harmed by desegregation policies (Harris, 2008, p. 563).
he findings suggested that, more than a precise threshold, what mattered in these schools was maintaining a critical mass of middle-class families, which promoted a culture of high expectations, safety, and community support.
istricts have chosen to let school boundaries reflect or even amplify residential segregation.
Free K-12 educational videos … organized. Tens of thousands of excellent, educational videos in a huge, intuitive directory. Organized, reviewed, rated, and described by teachers. Ideal as a supplement to a curriculum or for independent study. Designed for teachers, students, parents, homeschoolers, educators … and all life-long learners!
Control, whether by threats
or bribes, amounts to doing things to children rather than working
with them. This ultimately frays relationships
The alternative to
bribes and threats is to work toward creating a caring community
whose members solve problems collaboratively and decide together how
they want their classroom to be
grades in particular have been found
to have a detrimental effect on creative thinking, long-term
retention, interest in learning, and preference for challenging
tasks
good values have to be grown from
the inside out. Attempts to short-circuit this process by dangling
rewards in front of children are at best ineffective, and at worst
counterproductive
Children are likely to become enthusiastic,
lifelong learners as a result of being provided with an engaging
curriculum; a safe, caring community in which to discover and
create; and a significant degree of choice about what (and how and
why) they are learning
Unfortunately, carrots turn out
to be no more effective than sticks at helping children to become
caring, responsible people or lifelong, self-directed learners
"Many educators are acutely aware that punishment and threats are counterproductive. Making children suffer in order to alter their future behavior can often elicit temporary compliance, but this strategy is unlikely to help children become ethical, compassionate decision makers. Punishment, even if referred to euphemistically as "consequences," tends to generate anger, defiance, and a desire for revenge. Moreover, it models the use of power rather than reason and ruptures the important relationship between adult and child."
I agree...While I don't want technology to overtake my classroom, I do want to engage students as much as possible, and I'll use technolgy when it's easy to manage/use and effective.
I feel that our plan right now is to throw a bunch of software applications and hardware at us and let us figure it all out. Not working for me. I need to take one thing at a time and really learn it before I can use it in my classroom.
Diigo is a social network, Gary. The types of discussions you have on here, the learning that you do, that's why we need to be involved in the personalized professional development social networking can give us.
laptop, projector, and internet access.
I recommend investing in low cost laptop carts so students also have devices
If you click on the link just 2 lines below this highlight ('over here') there are clues on how to use wikis in teaching. In Chemical Education, we have been investigating using these both to teach and to build an online living text. See Laura Pence's talk at http://www.softconference.com/llc/player.asp?PVQ=GEDM&fVQ=EKKJFJ&hVQ= (may require ACS membership). Contact me if you are interested in how other chemists are using them.
make the class a welcoming place instead of a dreaded one.
more time to reflect on what they learn
The teachers [who] are still using overhead projectors should be run out of town!
more practical, hands-on experience and not just lectures and homework
where they can experiment, discuss, and reflect on what they observed, and then redo the activity.
teacher who engages them in learning rather than constantly ‘telling’ them what they should learn, and a curriculum that explains the ‘what’ and ‘why’ and connects it to their lives.”
This shouldn't be an issue, but I don't like the word "sunset" either in that it implies a need to start over, from scratch. Perhaps it should be stated that certain pieces will be reviewed and re-considered for a formal signing again in 2 years, after evidence is presented.
Are teachers really "waiting to receive a curriculum from the DOE"? That seems ridiculous. Aren't we all working on improving the work we already do and infusing the CCSS into our learning objectives? Has there ever really been a full curriculum handed to teachers?
It is insincere of you to take none of the responsibility for this. Seriously...the union's innocent? Where is your concession?
w evaluation system for every district in the state, pointed out that hundreds of other districts have precisely these provisions, and that such provisions do not prevent the districts from getting rid of teachers who don’t measure up
put on the table a two-year “sunset” provision that would have negated the effects of the evaluation process
We are now working on a framework of best practices that the Education Department can use as part of the training system it must outline to King by Feb. 15 if it wants to avoid the loss of even more state and federal funds.
But if we are going to be successful, we will need people on the other side of the table who are interested in creating a system that will truly help teachers improve, not in leaving a legacy of blame.
Adaptive Curriculum's award winning instructional solution builds middle and high school Math and Science mastery through dynamic and interactive learning. Incorporating rich multimedia, real-world scenarios and proven research-based pedagogy, Adaptive Curriculum's digital lessons are created to engage today's 21st Century learners and prepare students for post-secondary pursuits. AC Math and AC Science complements existing curricula through state standards, Core, NCTM, NCTA and textbook alignments. It is easy and flexible for whole or small group or individual instruction, and provides real-time feedback, progress reporting and assessment.
DIY Lesson plans and materials for K12 and above. Very cool platform. Example project:
USE MAKEY MAKEY TO DESIGN A VIDEOGAME CONTROLLER
Students design and make controllers with clay, Play-Doh, bananas, or whatever they desire and link their controller through circuits to their laptop with this innovative circuit board kit.
GRADE LEVEL: 4-9
Created by
Agustin Molfino
Curriculum Writer
PLATFORM TYPE LIKE SHARE
"In a brave new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know.
Browse and search OER Commons to find curriculum, and tag, rate, and review it for others."
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.
What truly makes an education valuable: the effort the student puts into it.
Unlike a car, college requires the “buyer” to do most of the work to obtain its value. The value of a degree depends more on the student’s input than on the college’s curriculum.
Yet most public discussion of higher ed today pretends that students simply receive their education from colleges the way a person walks out of Best Buy with a television.
If colleges are responsible for outcomes, then students can feel entitled to classes that do not push them too hard, to high grades and to material that does not challenge their assumptions or make them uncomfortable.
This point is made succinctly by an apocryphal story about a university president who said this to new freshmen each year: “For those of you who have come here in order to get a degree, congratulations, I have good news for you. I am giving you your degree today and you can go home now. For those who came to get an education, welcome to four great years of learning at this university.”
Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves -- who can take initiative and be the solution to problems. They need people who can build trust and get along with others, and solve complex challenges in teams without much supervision.
"Partnerships between schools and parents in educating the whole child, which includes developing both the character strength and the competencies required to really succeed in the 21st Century."
A.B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People -- a set of universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society, organization, or family. I take no credit for these principles. I simply organized, sequenced and articulated them. These principles include 1) taking personal responsibility and initiative, 2) getting clear about what's important to you and setting goals, 3) putting those priorities first and being disciplined, 4) seeking mutual benefit in all interactions with others -- the golden rule, 5) seeking to understand others from their perspective first before making your point, 6) valuing differences and creating third-alternative solutions to problems that are better than "my way" or "your way," and 7) taking care of and renewing yourself in all four areas of life -- body, mind, heart and spirit.
The approach is inside-out, with the teachers and administrators learning, living and modeling the principles themselves first, and then, at the most basic level, integrating the principles into their teaching every day. There is no new curriculum. The principles of effectiveness are creatively woven by teachers into every subject -- reading, math, history, science, social studies, art, etc. From the moment they walk into the school each day until the final bell rings, the children soak in their adult leaders' belief that they are leaders of their own lives, have unique talents, and can make a difference.
We don't define leadership as becoming the CEO or the few percent who will end up in big leadership positions. We are talking about leading your own life, being a leader among your friends, being a leader in your own family. Leadership, as one school put it, is doing the right thing even when no one is looking.
The world has moved into one of the most profound eras of change in human
history.
Recently I have been contemplating how we might define inquiry. Like many terms in education, it is often used in multiple contexts and has a range of meanings attached to it. Coming to agreement on what inquiry is, requires negotiating seemingly divergent understandings. If we are to avoid oversimplifications and dichotomous thinking, we need to explore these multiple perspectives and find a balance point.
STEM and STEAM--challenge to aim for more integration cross-disciplines.
