Group items tagged

New campaign to stop the exclusion of pupils with Autism

"The practice of excluding students from schools is set to be placed under scrutiny with plans announced that the number of exclusions is set to be reported publicly in school league table data. The intention is to stop so-called "off-rolling", where schools remove difficult or low-achieving pupils. On average about 2,000 pupils are excluded from school each day - with 40 being permanently excluded."

Here is the video recording of the skype interview with Professor Boyer's World Regions class at Virginia Tech. I blogged about this Sunday. If you're studying Burma you'll want to watch this exclusive interveiw.

Here's another contest that may interest you. If you join TES Connect, you'll be entered to win $125US (equivalent of 100 British pounds) in Amazon vouchers. You can also download my 8th grade portfolio and other resources I've put exclusively on TES' website.

Tom Bigglestone, who explores the benefits of Philosophy for Children (P4C). Chris Healey, who write about homework in the digital Age. John Pearce, advocates that teachers pledge a pedagogical oath. James Abela gives us a global perspective, writing about his experience in Thailand. Andy Knill waves the flag for the SOLO Taxonomy. UKEdChat Exclusive feature asked teachers what jobs they do if quit the profession. Martin Burrett tells of various highlights observed at BETT this year. Sharon Jones debates how debating can benefit pupils. David Moody shares some Stickmen without Arms! Tina Watson explains how she supports pupils to fill the blank pages. Leon Cych gives tips on how to produce professional video and audio with pupils. We review the book "The Philosophy Shop", edited by Peter Worley.

This New York Times article on the Open Content Alliance is an essential article for librarians and media specialists to read. It is also important for those following the fight for information and control of that information. In this case, the Open Content Alliance wants to make books that they scan available to any search engine while Microsoft and google are aggressively approaching libraries for exclusive access to their content. (which could be rescanned by another later, possibly.) Librarians and media specialists should understand this... when will people approach schools to scan annuals or student produced works? Maybe that is a while off, but for now, be aware that it is probably inevitable.

An overview of the Open Content Alliance versus Google and Microsoft battling to take control of the content housed in libraries.

Students work with authors, editors, and illustrators in exclusive workshops designed to guide them in developing their skills. 

FREE online social bookmarking community made exclusively for K-12 educators.

"The NFER Assessment Hub, which has been designed to help school practitioners build their confidence with classroom assessment, offers a host of free support written by NFER's team of assessment researchers with teaching backgrounds. This support includes a collection of short-read articles which introduce various aspects of classroom assessment, as well as an exclusive new practitioner guide series titled 'Brushing up on assessment', due to be released weekly throughout October and November. From guidance on understanding assessment policies to tips on making the most of assessment data, the guides will offer valuable insight and advice to support practitioners in delivering an assessment approach that is right for their pupils and their school."

"We often talk about the challenges of teacher recruitment and retention, about new initiatives and political landscapes, but day in, day out, teachers and schools are delivering exceptional teaching and most of it is invisible. Ross uncovers, celebrates, analyses and disseminates best practice in teaching. This is supported by case studies and research undertaken by Ross in ten primary and secondary schools across Great Britain, including a pupil referral unit and private, state and grammar schools, as well as explanations from influential educationalists as to why and how these ideas work. Ross explores the issues of marking and assessment, planning, teaching and learning, teacher wellbeing, student mental health, behaviour and exclusions, SEND, curriculum, research-led practice and CPD."

"School officials focused exclusively on bullying prevention efforts might want to consider the findings of a new study showing the highly damaging effects of multiple forms of victimisation on school climate. The study, published in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, measured the impact of polyvictimisation - exposure to multiple forms of victimisation - on school climate at the middle and high school levels. Results show that bullying, cyberbullying and harassment were significantly associated with decreases in perceptions of school safety, connection, and equity."

Some days I'm a visual learner, some days I'm kinaesthetic, other days I like to listen and soak it all up.... The styles exist - that's true; they're not mutually exclusive as one of the previous commentators said; they lead to 3-dimensional learning though - the important point is, I believe, that we need to balance the approaches we take when teaching a class. Mix it up, challenge, don't do the same old, same old. The impact of VAK approaches - the anecdotes you refer to, Steve - probably owes its success to giving learners a variety and the recognition that there is more than one way to skin a cat i.e. we don't need to teach things the way they always were taught.

"Kara Swisher August 2, 2011 at 11:08 am PT According to multiple sources close to the situation, Ning has been talking recently to a large pool of companies about selling itself, including Google and Groupon, as well as to a number of private equity companies. Interest has been both incoming to and outgoing from Ning. The talks around the fate of the high-profile social networking platform - co-founded by Silicon Valley icon and investor Marc Andreessen - are still early and might not result in a sale, although a number of sources said the company was being valued at up to $150 million. That price is well below previous loftier valuations for Ning and would mean only a break-even for investors, who have put close to $120 million into Ning since it was founded in 2004."

In order to ensure the relevance and influence the ongoing enhancement of user ICT provision and the associated awards, Digital 2010 (the regional digital skills partnership for Yorkshire & Humber) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority jointly commissioned Sero Consulting Ltd in spring 2008 to undertake research in ICT User skills. The focus was exclusively on the vision for ICT user skills in 2013 - referenced as 'Next Generation User Skills' - taking account of: * Skills that all employers will need, which they may not currently recognise - including web presence, information productivity, market research, infrastructure management * Skills that people (especially young people) will already have, but which may not be recognised or accredited * Generic occupational skills that people will need - such as remote working, online communication, information research, lifelong learning and, not least, management of their digital environment * Essential skills for living and learning in a digital age - including communication, accessing public services and underpinning personal econfidence

While this article starts out about a lawfirm in Birmingham UK that is going to "track down people who make anonymous comments about companies online" it becomes an amazingly poignant article on the very nature of the Internet today and the push pull between anonymous commenting and accountability of the commenter. Push pull between free speech and online identity and brand protection. One person in this article claims that this sort of thing is the sign that the "wild west" of the INternet is coming to an end. Oh dear, I hope someone invents a new one if somehow anonymous commenters are now going to risk such! Also love the article's discussion of the Streisand effect wherein Barbara protested the sharing of some photos of her eroding beachfront which caused a stir and more people looking at the photos than if she had left it alone. This article is going to be a must read for Flat Classroom students and would be great for college-level discussions as well.

Excellent overview of Rupert Murdoch's taking on of Google and that they should not index his sites, even though he can easily opt out of indexing, that they are somehow demonetizing his work by searching since he wants to "reduce his audience to those who will pay" not "increase his audience." This is a fascinating read and case study for those following Fair Use.