A very interesting platform that teachers of younger students are using for them to create and share what they are doing. It seems to be more visually based rather than text based. It is free and right now has two versions, one for the classroom and another for home. It is in beta and if you sign up now it is free. Would love to hear what some of you think.
So excited to announce the Every Classroom Matters online radio show (podcast) http://bit.ly/XAozCY If you go to the site on your ipad or iphone, you can click "itunes" and it will add the show to your podcast feed or you can play it. The first show I talked to Dr. Lee Graham, a cofounder of #diffimooc about MOOCs and how colleges can actually make money giving away teaching for free. What does this model look like? It was a great conversation and I"ll be sharing more about it.
Please listen and let me know what you think and if you have a suggestion for a new show, follow the link. Thanks!
" Kristy Cooper's insanely rigorous mixed methods study, Eliciting Engagement in the High School Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Teaching Practices, published in the April 2014 American Educational Research Journal, does an exceptional job of showing what works.
Cooper, an award-winning researcher at Michigan State University with an MA and Ed.D from Harvard, examined the impact of three well-supported strategies that teachers employ to increase student engagement. As you read each summary below, try to guess which practice had the greatest impact."
Todd Finley shares the three methods and asks which has the most impact: 1) Lively teaching, 2) Academic Rigor and 3) Connective Instruction.
A fantastic must-read on student engagement that you'll want to email your staff.
Kids need first-hand engagement — they need to manipulate objects physically, engage all their senses, and move and interact with the 3-dimensional world.
We agree about “data informed, not data driven.” Data are in the saddle now, to the detriment of kids and their education. Data are being treated as objective facts, when they really are the numbers produced based on assumptions. If the assumptions are wrong, the data are useless. Our schools are now being evaluated and swamped by a tidal wave of useless data. We need to re-examine our assumptions.
I'm proud of Beth Kanter and her recent work at Gnomedex in showing people the power of social media to help important causes. It was all over twitter this weekend. Way to go Beth!
Organizations that organize these tools also ignore potential donations.
My theory is– don’t worry about getting your voice out there, or comments, or rankings, or even being invited to the right parties (inner circle) — rather focus intently on children, your vision, and leaving education better than you found it. Concentrate on helping those within your sphere of influence to make principled changes in education that is in the best interest of kids.
Any 2.1Certified citizen will tell you that this story seems pretty vanilla and is not too shocking except for the fact that, in this case, the school was the C.E.L.
We never know if we are right. There is only doing the right thing at what we hope is the right time in hopes of making the difference we hope to make.Our work? Most days it's like driving along the Pacific Coast Highway at night in the fog: You can only see the stretch of road just in front of you and even that is shrouded in fog. So we drive on, guided by faith--in the kids, in ourselves, in our work.
six hours a day of academics are enough, and kids should have the chance after school to explore other interests and develop in other ways — or be able simply to relax in the same way that most adults like to relax after work;
FDR's private school president listed these four missions for his students ranked by importance.
1) Religion 2) Character 3) Athletics 4) Academics
His president at Harvard felt and required a few basic courses and then students should take what they want.
The social science and math teachers created well rounded to keep their jobs, I could care if my layer or doctor is well rounded, me, I want success!