Group items tagged

Why technology matters for out students. May be useful for a faculty meeting, PD session, etc.

"In short, I'm constantly nudging students to think more deeply, but I never really challenge the dogmas of the Church of the Right Answer. I'm a good, rule-abiding cop, in a city where the rules are sometimes grossly unfair. That doesn't always satisfy me. Some days I don't want to nibble at the edges. I crave a more radical assault: a reformation, a new religion. Some days, I want a Church of Learning." For use in a faculty meeting/at a PD. This would be a great activity for IB schools when discussing how best to implement/discuss IB grades. - In HCPS/at Moody do we "worship" at the Church of the Right answer or the Church of Learning? What structures are in place at the school/county level that helped you generate your answer? - Are Moody's students and parents more likely to "worship" at the Church of the Right answer of the Church of learning? What evidence do you see to support you opinion? - What structures can we implement in individual classrooms/at a school level in order to preach the Church of Learning vs. The church of the Right answer.

literacy ideas form HCPS fall PD Not sure if you ES folks have access to this

Don't know if anyone else has this this, but it looks interesting. You can request the resources to be shared with you - I did for Moody. I will check out the resources when I have a chance and share what I find.

""I think competitive character people don't want to be manipulated constantly to do what one individual wants them to do," Popovich said, "It's a great feeling when players get together and do things as a group. Whatever can be done to empower those people."" Applications for classroom and for our job as ITRTs. ...and I just love Popovich.

Best Slate Article Ever? You decide

"Technology, the Law and Education October 19, 2013. Chickahominy MIddle School, Mechanicsville 9 am- noon ​Join Jon Becker and friends for a thought-provoking presentation and small-group discussion. This event is free of charge, but space is limited and registration is required.  ​More and more educators are finding creative ways to integrate technology into the teaching and learning process.  Sometimes, though, those teachers are stymied by legal or regulatory roadblocks.  In some cases, the laws and regulations are applied properly.  However, in many instances, laws and regulations are misinterpreted and/or misapplied.  At this workshop, attendees will have an opportunity to explore, discuss and bust some myths around issues at the evolving intersection of educational technology and the law."

"For the non-innovators, everything gets in the way.  But for the general innovators, the main barriers are learning challenges and contracting constraints.  The big finding is that for the novel innovators, there are no external barriers." I like this article a lot and I think I will use it in a faculty meeting. Ask the teachers to create a list of barriers to good instruction. After they come up with a ton of stuff, have them read the article for shock value. Then, discuss.

"Solving a math problem means unfolding a mystery, enjoying the pleasure of discovery. But in every geometry lesson that year, I blundered along and blurted out the secret. With a few sentences, I'd manage to ruin the puzzle, ending the feast before it began, as definitively as if I'd spat in my students' soup. Math is a story, and I was giving my kids spoilers." This post speaks directly to math, but can be applied to any content. When we provide students with the answers rather than developing lessons that let the students ask (and answer questions), we take the fun out of learning.

"When we sit down to try thinking up new ideas, it doesn't feel like we're connecting things. It feels like a strain-like you're trying to create something out of nothing. But the truth is, ideas really do come from connections." Intereresting article that can be applied to the way teachers plan AND the experiences that students have in the classroom.

""That's why the goal of school has to be automaticity," my dad concluded. The Sunday morning roads were empty, and we'd nearly made it home. "Take learning your times tables. You've got to know them cold so that you can go on to finding common denominators, or reasoning about algebraic functions, or whatever. You need each task to become automatic before you can move onto the next intellectual step."" Humorous, yet enlightening take on math class, which can be applied to school in general. What is more important for us to teach students so that it becomes more automatic? Should we make facts automatic? Or should we instead focus on skills and thought processes that can be quickly applied to many scenarios in a variety of contexts?

"Set up a surprise, such that resolution of that becomes the lesson that you intended. Anything that makes students ask the question that you plan to answer in the lesson is good, because answering questions that haven't been asked is inherently uninteresting." This article discusses how to create lessons that provoke student interest and prime them for your lesson. We all know that it is important to have a good introduction or a "hook" for a lesson, but this concept goes one step further. A hook that provides too much information leads to waning engagement. The goal is not just to get the student interested, but to make them curious and ask questions that we plan to answer on that day. Although this particular blog post and the examples within are math related, this technique can be implented in any content area.

"Should schools be mirrors of society, or should they be places apart? With Greenfield, I come down for the latter. Schools have an opportunity to take students' minds in new directions, and they've only got 1,000 hours each year to do it.  " Interesting read. Yes, time is limited, but appropriate use of technology can help to "take students' minds in new directions," often in directions that might not be possible without the use of technology.

"Students asking questions and then exploring the answers. That's something any good teacher lives for. And at the heart of it all is curiosity."