Spring Branch ISD

"The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. New research provides insights into what happens in our brains when curiosity is piqued. The findings could help scientists find ways to enhance overall learning and memory in both healthy individuals and those with neurological conditions."

"Personalized learning requires teachers to become co-learners and release their iron grip on the learning process. It requires districts to trust principals, principals to trust teachers, and teachers to trust students. It requires a great deal of conversation about what real learning is and why it matters. engaged-students2This student-driven approach to learning allows kids to explore what matters to them, to build things that don't work and to figure out why. It requires them to form opinions and justify them based on solid evidence. And it requires adults who care and can speak carefully and honestly into the lives of kids. All learning should be formative. "

"Sharing learning is powerful because it makes students' learning relevant beyond their own classrooms."

"what students say is the best assignment they have had this year. "

"Blogging can support the strategies, techniques and approaches to facilitate the learning in your classroom no matter what grade level, age group and subject area. Blogging supports four primary areas: Reading Writing Reflecting Sharing"

"A group of junior high and high school students in Cambridge, Mass., are part of an experimental education program that aims to prove they're capable of solving real-world problems early with the help of 3D printers, Arduino and group collaboration."

"Whatever you do the first year will be a trainwreck (compared to the nice and tidy sit-and-get PD). So from the beginning, everyone should be aware that it's all a work in progress-just like the profession itself. Perhaps the greatest potential here is in the chance to personalize professional development for teachers. The above ideas are too vague to be considered an exact guide, but an "exact guide" really isn't possible without ending up with something as top-heavy and standardized as the process it seeks to replace-or at least supplement. Instead focus on the big ideas-personalizing educator training through self-directed and social media-based professional development."

"The growing access to knowledge, information, people, and tools that our students are getting demands a shift in how we think about the work they do in school."

""We saw how the best practices we were witnessing could inform a really transformative school model," Healy said. Here are their 6 chief take-aways from what they saw and learned about schools that work.

We need to develop more learning opportunities where students constitute the actual evaluators for the work itself. Imagine if students, teachers and others evaluate and provide feedback to determine the effectiveness of a student's creation: Develop an 60-second speech to be shared with the student council and three advertising posters to be copied and placed around school to decrease bullying. Your work will be evaluated according to our rubric by the students in our class, outside professionals and me - as the teacher. These are the experiences that push learning beyond a one-way conversation between student and teacher. They demystify the assessment process and allow each student to be a creator and simultaneous evaluator, providing multiple experiences for students to recognize and apply the criteria for quality"

"Know-how is where the difference lies"...Along w "so,what & "why-buy" (and not just with #Twitter Literacy) http://t.co/kiWzdDOgkU #edchat

"The Buck Institute for Education commissioned the cutting-edge advertising agency, Common Craft, to create a short animated video that explains in clear language the essential elements of Project Based Learning (PBL). This simple video makes the essential elements of PBL come alive and brings to light the 21st Century skills and competencies (collaboration, communication, critical thinking) that will enable K-12 students to be college and work-ready as well as effective members of their communities."

" Four Steps for Jumpstarting Global-Collaboration Projects"

Instead of painstakingly building local majorities, they attempted 2 compel entire populations. http://t.co/bWjeteFQYK #scalefail @sewilkie