Group items tagged

"Do we regularly review our subject knowledge? Can you be a great teacher if you're not a subject expert? How much weight do school leaders give to subject knowledge in terms of CPD & budgets? This is a conversation for all, whether you're new to the profession or you've seen more exam specs and curriculum initiatives come and go than seems even viable!"

Researchers at the University of Tennessee list out several myths about learning. The premise that everyone starts with the same base of knowledge about a particular subject, everyone learns at the same pace, everyone learns best by listening, everyone will bridge naturally from theory to application, everyone should learn on his or her own rather than in collaboration and learning is the transfer of knowledge from a teacher to a passive learner results in excessive telling or lecture. "We don't remember information totally; we reconstruct the way information connects to [other] information,"…"That means learners have to reconstruct the interconnectors or forget what they've learned in a short time. The stuff you remember is what you use to make the interconnections." FUN can play a great role in making the interconnections or associations.

Blooms Taxonomy Pyramid Bloom's Taxonomy defines six different levels of thinking. The levels build in increasing order of difficulty from basic, rote memorization to higher (more difficult and sophisticated) levels of critical thinking skills. For example, a test question that requires simple factual recall shows that you have knowledge of the subject. Answering an essay question often requires that you comprehend the facts and perhaps apply the information to a problem. I wish to promote the analysis the subject matter, perhaps by having students break a complex historical process or event into constituent parts. I particularly want students to organize and present pieces of historical evidence it in a new way, to create or synthesize an argument. In order to do so, students must evaluate evidence, making judgments about the validity and accuracy of primary sources.

"In his new book, Professor Keith Taber reassures practicing and training science teachers, as he explores a range of issues faced by secondary school educators and discusses strategies for teaching the nature of scientific knowledge, making practical work effective and challenging young scientists. Throughout the academic prose, Professor Taber reflects on the nature of scientific knowledge in science education encouraging creating narratives, challenging misconceptions, and exploring principles of constructive teaching. The book continues with exploring specific challenges, such as teaching electrical circuits to lower secondary school students, along with a chapter dedicated to supporting gifted students who excel at the subjects."

Terry Freedman from the UK makes some great points about expertise in Computing. This is particularly relevant in the UK where every student age 5 and up is expected to be taught programming in school. (Wake up world.) Terry says: "Some Principals and Headteachers think that a good way around the problem of teaching computing is to not worry about whether teachers have subject knowledge at all. "All we need are facilitators", they say, "while the kids can teach themselves and each other." This is, as any teacher knows (or should know), easy to say, less easy to do, and not altogether the most desirable thing to do even if you can do it. However, just in case your school happens to be "led" by one of the aforementioned Headteachers, here are some arguments you may want to use. I think that any one of them should suffice, and all of them together make for a cast-iron case." Read more... this is a topic that will be increasingly discussed in other countries.

Free online magazine for teachers, featuring articles on Minecraft in the classroom, Project based learning, subject knowledge, value of field trips, and using GPS to enhance learning.

n order to introduce the concepts of the game to young children and really show off the educational value, Wizards of the Coast has released The Heroes of Hesiod, a free, stand-alone adventure with everything you need to play in a downloadable PDF. Anyone who has played D&D remembers the countless books you needed, the debating of the rules, and the general confusion that came with the open-ended game play. This made the learning curve steep and the age requirement high. The rules for The Heroes of Hesiod, however, are stripped down to the core and basic enough for its six-and-older age group. It takes about thirty minutes to play and, depending on what concepts you want to emphasize, can reinforce a variety of subjects from mathematics to leadership to creative thinking. Even if you've never played D&D you can easily play this with a group of kids. It requires no prior knowledge of the game whatsoever.

"Following the success of our previous online conference, and in line with the frustrations around the COVID-19 virus, we are pleased to announce that we have moved our plans for the 2020 UKEdChat Online Conference forward to June 2020. The conference has proven a great platform for continuous professional development (CPD) and we are lining up some great video presentations based on: pedagogy, classroom management strategies, practical learning, assessments, improving subject knowledge and so on."

"Debating societies may seem to be the preserve of Oxbridge and private schools, but there is a place for debating in classrooms everywhere, argues Gemma Jones Debating societies may seem to be the preserve of Oxbridge and private schools, but there is a place for debating in classrooms everywhere. From 'Why William Won the Battle of Hastings' to 'causes of the First World War', history is a natural subject to use debates to deepen knowledge in lessons. However, across the curriculum there is scope to engage the pupils in a structured debate to challenge misconceptions, structure arguments and encourage independent study. Additionally, participating in debates can develop confidence and public speaking skills."

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

This has got to be the funkiest instant poll, quiz, response site around. Create questions, quizzes and polls with optional uploaded images for participants to complete in real time from a computer or mobile device. The users access the quiz by using a pin code. The 'question master' gets the data back instantly and it is stored on the site or can be downloaded. This is superb for checking the knowledge of children in your class or that your audience is still awake. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Got this email from a teacher Hi Vicki- I love your blog, tweets and contributions to flipboard! I am a teacher at a local school district charter high school and appreciate your zeal for teaching and learning. I am not sure if you have heard about Kahoot! but wanted to ask you to check it out by following it on Twitter or watching a few youtube videos of Kahoot in action. I have no financial investment in it or any reason for recommending it other than how much we are enjoying using it at our school and how valuable a tool I believe it to be. Questions can be entered by students or teachers and pictures can be uploaded to each question to add visual appeal. The students can use computers, smart phones, tablets and don't have to have an account- they just log in to kahoot.it and then join the interactive quiz. Everyone gets so involved and passionate and it is great for reviews before tests or for supplemental instruction. The results can be viewed on a spreadsheet and provide formative assessments. It can be used for any ages and any subjects. I am so jazzed about this great new tool and hope you will be too. https://getkahoot.com Kathryn Lewallen Payson, AZ Payson Center for Success High School

Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art is a show to overturn such expectations. It leads the visitor - a bit like some erstwhile explorer - on a creative adventure around the back of that flat piece of paper we think of as the world. Drawing on the finest collection of maps on this planet - the British Library has more than four million to choose from, the vast majority of which are only very rarely, if ever, put on public display - the exhibition sets out to make clear that these pictures are about far more than mere physical description. They are a series of subjective images, each shaped by the beliefs and desires, the ambitions and prejudices, the passions and anxieties of its period.

Those are some of the capabilities known as "21st-century skills" - what everyone from CEOs to President-elect Obama says that today's students need for their fast-changing future. In a knowledge economy, the reasoning goes, the ability to articulate and solve problems, to generate original ideas, and to work collaboratively across cultural boundaries is growing exponentially in importance. The challenge for schools is to find ways to shift from traditional rote learning and teach these skills, while still doing due diligence to the three R's. The good news about 21st-century skills, advocates say, is that they can be integrated into core subjects.