Group items tagged

An inspiring homegrown message of how one teacher can inspire passion, joy, and love of learning in students. Would be great as an opener for e keynote, or possibly in use for PD workshops.

"The world is changing and that is nothing new. To quote a great prophet, "It was always burning, since the world's been turning." But the rate of change coupled with the explosion of data and media means that information from and about the world around us has turned from a manageable stream to a continual barraging flood. We can either give our pupils the skills to set up a self-sustaining hermitage in a mobile signal black spot, or we can provide them with the managed explosure and then skills to assess and deal with what is being hurled at them."

"Metacognition is widely accepted as "thinking about thinking", often inspired by the work in the 1970s of John Flavell, and its impact in educational circles cannot be denied. Indeed, John Hattie concluded that Metacognitive strategies have a positive impact score of D=0,69 - just outside the top ten of the most effective pedagogical strategies available to teachers - when sustained in the classroom. Additionally, the Educational Endowment Foundation advocate that Metacognition provides a 'high impact for low value', being easy to implement. Furthermore, Singapore's education system implemented Metacognition into their mathematics curriculum in the early 2000s, and their results speak for themselves."

"The Education Secretary has today urged all schools to eliminate their use of single use plastics by 2022. Damian Hinds has called on senior leaders in schools to stop using items such as plastic bags, straws, bottles and food packaging in favour of sustainable alternatives, and invited them to start a conversation with pupils about the effects discarded plastics have on the environment and wildlife."

"Recorded at BETT2018 in London, in this episode we speak to Joachim Horn from SAM Labs, as well as Rohan Mahimker from Prodigy Game about what it takes to build and sustain a successful EdTech company."

"I have always believed that reading has a significant impact on our understanding and appreciation of the world. As both a life-long passionate reader and an experienced English Language Arts teacher, I have witnessed first-hand the impact that reading has on the ability of learners in terms of comprehension, grammar, empathy, confidence, vocabulary and expression. This has however, only ever been phenomenological through informal observations in the classroom, and in an effort to incorporate sustained silent reading (SSR) as a regular, valid and essential practice, I have embarked upon this research in order to determine the impacts that daily reading has on middle-school learners, not only in terms of English Language Arts, but also across the curriculum."

"A lot of schools have jumped on buzz words such as metacognition, mindfulness, mindset etc. There is obviously great merit in all these strategies, however as Carol Dweck has emphasised, in a lot of cases these methods are not always understood by school leaders leading to them not being integrated effectively and sustained. These theories are not fads but in many schools, they don't give these methods the planning, time and evaluation that is required for success of any strategies that will benefit learning. Schools are looking for a quick fix and so latch on to 'new, exciting and popular theories'."

"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

What if we applied the psychology of what makes technology attractive to students...to our face-2-face practices in the classroom? Using this idea, instead of using more technology in the classroom, why not design the traditional human / face-to-face classroom experience to be more like what makes technology so engrossing to modern students? Do these principles sound familiar... Deliver information in bite sized chunks, Create mental models, Use short stories to help process information, Learning happens and is remembered through repetition, People are motivated by Progress and Mastery, Sustained attention lasts 10 minutes, and the use of Progressive Disclosure. Progressive Disclosure an interaction design technique often used in human computer interaction to help maintain the focus of a user's attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload. This improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand. Here are 100 little articles that could have big implications in the classroom.

Very interesting article about Silent Sustained Reading.

This incredible post by Beth Kanter is a must read for anyone in IT or working with web 2.0 and professional development. Understanding the intrisic value of a newcomer is so important for anyone working in these feels. Newcomers have more power now than they could ever imagine. Newcomers, speak out and give your opinion. The power is in your newness and guess what, if you wait till you're an "expert" then you're just like all the other experts out there. Also, it is better to be a newcomer than a latecomer!

The importance of a newcomer

Take the Engaged Learning Challenge-what are your "keys" to keeping and sustaining student engagement?

Collaboration versus Cooperation in networked environment.

Great site that lets you search for recycling centers and what they accept in your area. Also includes other resources and information about recycling, including problems that people can have when recycling.

The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Loris Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach to teaching their children. They felt that it is in the early years of development that children are forming who they are as an individual. This led to creation of a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum.