Group items tagged

Fascinating and scary look about how the internet and the access to the widest range of resources imaginable, many of them beyond the scope of our individual capacities, is changing the role of classroom teacher to facilitator, and the role of pastor to facilitator through multi-site transmission of the sermons delivered by the best faith orators. Makes me wonder about WLS facilitation, too. Atlantic, Michael Godsey, march 25, 2015.

A big study by TNTP on teachers' professional development basically conceding defeat on helping teachers improve their classroom practice, especially once teachers pass the 5 year mark of experience. Sounds to me like the measures they are using to evaluate teacher improvement are too big and inflated so that individual progress cannot be observed much less evaluated for effectiveness from a reliable starting point. The other problem seems to be in recruiting teachers who are good to start off with.

Blog post by Brianna Crowley, Oct. 23, 2013 Excerpt "Then I found an online community of educators who taught in schools across the country and in classrooms ranging from pre-K to higher education. They were authors, keynote speakers, and policy advocates. This interdisciplinary and diverse community challenged me to adopt a new perspective: Rather than simply identifying problems in my district, my classroom, and the educational system, I should propose the solutions. The CTQ Collaboratory transformed my practice by allowing me to see myself as a teacher leader whose experience in the classroom should empower me to affect decisions outside of my classroom. With the support and encouragement of this teacher-leader community, I began to engage with other educator communities through Twitter, ASCD, and Edmodo. Through these networks, I found not only teachers, but principals, superintendents, and authors willing to discuss the issues I was passionate about: educational technology, educational policy, and reimagined schools"

World Education's blog and index for adult education teachers on using technology in the classroom. These are practical lessons for use in adult ed, literacy, and college transition classes. They are fun and easy to follow, but don't really build teacher networked skills - they are use when you can or want to. Good for us to refer to, but what we want to offer goes deeper and aims to guide teachers to be networked learners themselves. This site does not do that.

Blog post by Meenoo Rami, October 22, 2013. "How can you make the most of social networks? The main thing: Explore. Whether you choose to use Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, blogs, or other forms of virtual communities, read a lot and let the good stuff lead you to more good stuff (and good people). The second thing: Look for community-and if you don't find it, build it. When I realized there was no Twitter chat for English teachers, I launched (and have maintained for past three years) #engchat, which has given me many rewards for the time and effort I put into it. Every Monday night at 7 p.m, ET, dozens of teachers of English come together to discuss topics such as social justice education, teaching grammar and vocabulary, and balancing the canon with contemporary fiction in our classrooms. Even outside our Monday night chats, the hashtag #engchat helps teachers to pose questions, share lesson ideas, and exchange relevant resources with others who share similar interests. "

Great article on why more progress in the classroom isn't happening with student-centered uses of technology. June 10, 2015 Edweek, quotes Larry Cuban.

blog by Ross Brenneman, August 12, 2015 that elevates tension between student-centered and teacher-led learning and includes rationale on why people need to be able to learn informally after they finish school.

Nice Slideshare by Lyn Ross. teacher, of New Zealand, September 2013. Slide 9/29 distinguishes between 18th 19th 20th centuries and 21st century on learning and teaching focus (teacher led vs. student centered), approach (content driven vs. process driven), emphasis (knowing that vs. knowing how), and teacher role (expert and boss contrasted with fellow learner and facilitator). Are you the sage on the stage or the guide on the side?

Op ed piece by David L. Kirp, a Berkley professor. The business models that are proliferating in educational thinking and assessment does not work, and the greatest determiner of success are the interpersonal relationships of students and teachers, students and students, and teachers and teachers. Adding more and new technology has not been successful because of this. Rewarding "good" schools with merit pay while closing and punishing those in areas of poverty because they are "failing" schools without instituting known programs that engender success is a crime in his view.

Interview with Carol Dweck on the role of motivation in learning, Education World

from elearning infographics.com. Nice infographic on the 7 characteristics of a digitally competent teacher. Used this instead of the other infographic - seemed more relevant to the MAEA audience, and is simpler.

How introversion affects teachers' ability to continue in the excessive "social collaborative" environment

This paper written by George Siemens in 2008 on Learning in Networks raises issues very similar to those we are raising in our discussion at CPSquare. This paper also has implications for how the Women's Learning Studio is launched into practice in its discussion of teacher as learning atelier, concierge, etc. Google Scholar, Scopus, and open access journals offer increased access to academic resources; an extension to more informal approaches such as regular internet search and Wikipedia. Social software (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, instant messaging, Skype, Ning) provide opportunities for learners to create, dialogue about, and disseminate information. But what becomes of the teacher? How do the practices of the educator change in networked environments, where information is readily accessible? How do we design learning when learners may adopt multiple paths and approaches to content and curriculum? How can we achieve centralized learning aims in decentralized environments? This paper will explore the shifting role of educators in networked learning, with particular emphasis on curatorial, atelier, concierge, and networked roles of educators, in order to assist learners in forming diverse personal learning networks for deep understanding of complex fields.

very nice list of areas and steps to stay aware of in administering/leading a school to help students and teachers the best they can do, John Wink, principal, May 29, 2015 on his blog. Lists "leveraging collaboration" and scaffolding teachers' PD several times as steps that must be taken.

Don Kilburn/Tom Vander Ark blog post on how formative assessment made possible by technology is helping GenerationDo-It-Yourself students (and teachers?) remediate while still in high school. Pearson is behind this article (remember Barb McDonald's mention of this in a CPSquare discussion).

"The wiki leverages the Symbaloo visual bookmarking tool to consolidate helpful websites-including practice tests and Keeley learning probes-onto a single page. Along with neighboring district Gaston " Interesting use of Symbaloo as part of a structured assist for busy teachers--any applicability elsewhere?

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers), the former social studies teacher turned technology wizard consultant, wrote this January 1, 2014 blog post on his new blog Worms in the Fridge. It excels at explaining how to set up a blog on WordPress (his recommended app) to make it one's online hub or central domain. He admits that when he started FTfT on Blogger, he did not yet understand the ease or advantages of WordPress. He is humble, easy to read and follow and the content relates to the personal branding assistance we hope to provide.

article by teacher in 2012 in Baltimore Post-Examiner on why technology is so vital to learning in the classroom. "Is that how we learn nowadays? Let's say I wasn't helpful and didn't provide a definition of intensive-explicit instruction, but you wanted to know what it meant. What would you do? Google it, of course. That's the power of technology: I can learn so much about the world through my own sense of discovery. The trick for today's teachers is to instill that sense of discovery, and traditional intensive-explicit instruction will not foster that independence."

great blog post by Maryellen Weimer on why teachers need to think about learning, their own PD to start!

Education Week published online 6.10.15 on why districts put OERs to work in their schools. Commercial publishers fighting back saying that curriculum is more than content; C.P.s offer "wraparound support" for their resources to educators.