Group items tagged

"What is iObservation? iObservation is an instructional and leadership improvement system. It collects, manages and reports longitudinal data from classroom walkthroughs and teacher observations. Teacher growth and leadership practices inform professional development differentiated to individual learning needs for every teacher and leader to increase his/her effectiveness each year."

"Walking into one of our four STEM classrooms at Huntingdon Area Middle School, you won't see students working quietly on worksheets. They'll be huddled up in small groups, collaborating, brainstorming, critically thinking about how to solve the world's problems. The expertise of four diverse teachers from different disciplines created a project-based, rotation model that has given middle school students a new realization that skills they learn in a classroom can be found in real-life situations, not just on a test."

"It has always been my contention that if you love your subject and teach it well, your students should do well in the final exam. Yesterday, a member of the audience (whose name I unfortunately failed to catch) stated that it has been found that the students of teachers who teach in an inspirational way achieve better results than students of those who teach to the test. This chimed with Bruce Dickson's observation, based on 50 years in education, that inspirational teaching turns pupils on."

"After six years of study, a national panel of prominent scholars has concluded that there's not enough evidence to suggest that teachers who take alternative pathways into the classroom are any worse­-or any better­-than those who finish traditional college-based preparation programs."

Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven, and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it "looks like" in the classroom. We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project.

"Effective Instructional Strategies for a Model Classroom ... The Curriculum Project provides K - 12 educators with training, materials, and software designed to bring about increased levels of student success. Our instructional strategies and emphasis on the implementation of state standards help teachers to refine their practices to provide differentiated experiences for learners of all types."

"Teaching a new language to non-native speakers may be one of the most challenging educational jobs out there, so ELL teachers can use all of the help they can get! Thankfully, many excellent resources for ELL and ESL exist online, from full-service websites to reference tools and communities, all designed to make the task of educating ELL students just a little bit easier and more effective."

"Asking questions is very much a part of the learning process and there are ways in which we can use educational technology to support this. It is surprising therefore to see that the way questioning is handled in schools and colleges seems to have changed little in the last fifty years. Up and down the country, you will still see learners asking questions by first raising their hand and waiting for the teacher to acknowledge them. Is this the best way? "

Loved this quote form the article ... "Primary school students who used them for a year became instructors for teachers who had not used the gadgets before. One prep class actually created an instructional DVD to be used by staff explaining and demonstrating how to operate a (hi-tech) whiteboard," Mr Light said."

"Texting can be a teaching tool. That's what some believe. So, for subjects ranging from Spanish to science, from homework help to exam reminders, teachers around the country are beginning to allow students to text in class."

"Joining in the effort to keep students engaged in the classroom, Microsoft on April 30 announced a new addition to its PowerPoint software that allows students to participate in classroom presentations. The best news: It's available free of charge. The new tool, called Mouse Mischief, allows teachers to add multiple choice, yes/no, and drawing questions to their presentations. Students then use any computer mice (any device from the school will work) to answer these questions. The tool also allows for whole-class or individual student responses."

"This site was created by Dr. Alice Christie to share an exciting new approach to teaching and learning. Enabled by Web 2.0 tools, GoogleTreks™ allows teachers and students to synthesize information in one easy-to-use map that places text, pictures, audio files, video files, and much more in one central location."

If you had three wishes for STEM education, what would those be? These are three of my priorities: Classrooms would be places of exploration, creativity, and discourse. Learning would be meaningfully connected to the world outside the school walls. Teachers would be prepared and empowered to design engaging STEM curricula and assessments. If those are your wishes as well, then here's some encouraging news!

According to veteran PBL teacher Don Wettrick, "Nothing is better than a project that gets community buy-in." He says connecting students with an authentic audience is key to driving engagement and helping students relate what they are learning to the real world: "My top two goals are to help students find great opportunities [for real-world problem solving], and then cheerlead them to a great audience."

"According to Balltzglier, the program involves: * I- I choose my book. * P- Purpose "Why am I reading this?" * I- Interest "Do I like it?" * C- Comprehension "Do I understand what I am reading?" * K- Know "Do I know most the words?" "Then we put the lesson to music with song, dance, and motions," the teacher added. "This helps make the lesson stick."

"Phil Bird's excellent post on using Google Streetview a while back jogged my memory about a lesson I sometimes do with students when the sun is cracking the flags and the classroom gets too hot to want to stay indoors for the full session."

"Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of literacy, curriculum and instruction, and educational reform. In the first part of our interview, Heidi exposes the pitfalls of American literacy instruction and explains what we can do to improve it."