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Melody Smith

On the Record: Commitment - 1 views

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    Reflections about commitment to mission
Jaime Dial

So I gave Up Punishment and the Kids Still Behaved - 2 views

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    I think this is the way to go. It does not always work but I have seen changes in kids who were motivated to learn and therefore straightened up their own behavior. It is amazing how fast a child can get their work done when they think they will miss something in the classroom that they want to do.
Lisa Elifrits

Educational Leadership:Teaching Screenagers:Publishers, Participants All - 2 views

  • our résumé is becoming a Google search result, one that we build with the help of others and that requires our participation
  • A student's "branding" effort may take many forms
  • It starts with a school and classroom philosophy of sharing, with the idea that without sharing, there is no education (Wiley, 2010). A culture of sharing doesn't mean just providing content for others to read and learn from; it means sharing to connect with other people with whom we can learn as well. (See "Moving Students Online: First Steps for Teachers.")
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  • But the purpose of posting these artifacts online is not just to publish—it's to connect with others who might be interested in and learning about the same topic.
  • By the time they leave high school, students should be "Googleable"—that is, able to find themselves online—associating their full names with their best work for a global audience to see.
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    Publishers, Participants All Will Richardso
Lisa Elifrits

Educational Leadership:Giving Students Ownership of Learning:Footprints in the Digital Age - 0 views

  • t's a consequence of the new Web 2.0 world that these digital footprints—the online portfolios of who we are, what we do, and by association, what we know—are becoming increasingly woven into the fabric of almost every aspect of our lives.
  • n short, for a host of reasons, we're failing to empower kids to use one of the most important technologies for learning that we've ever had.
  • One of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.
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  • Our students must be nomadic, flexible, mobile learners who depend not so much on what they can recall as on their ability to connect with people and resources and edit content on their desktops, or, even more likely, on pocket-size devices they carry around with them.
  • Our teachers have to be colearners in this process, modeling their own use of connections and networks and understanding the practical pedagogical implications of these technologies and online social learning spaces.
  • with an understanding of how transparency fosters connections and with a willingness to share our work and, to some extent, our personal lives. Sharing is the fundamental building block for building connections and networks;
  • we must make these new ways of collaborating and connecting a transparent part of the way we deliver curriculum from kindergarten to graduation.
  • Middle school students should be engaged in the process of cooperating and collaborating with others outside the classroom around their shared passions, just as they have seen their teachers do.
  • Googled well
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    Googled Well, How to build your PLN
Sean Nash

How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write - WSJ.com - 0 views

  • new forms, such as blogs and Wikipedia.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Both blogs and wikis are more than just new "tools." In my opinion, they have created even new genres of communication.
  • Every word in that library will be searchable. It is hard to overstate the impact that this kind of shift will have on scholarship.
  • Every word in that library will be searchable. It is hard to overstate the impact that this kind of shift will have on scholarship.
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  • two key developments: the breakthrough success of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader
  • The magic of that moment in Austin ("I'm in the mood for a novel -- oh, here's a novel right here in my hands!") also tells me that e-book readers are going to sell a lot of books, precisely because there's an impulse-buy quality to the devices that's quite unlike anything the publishing business has ever experienced before.
Sean Nash

Incorporating Words Into Images | nashworld - 0 views

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    Most would agree that "A picture is worth a thousand words." Perhaps strangely, allow me to make the case that sometimes there is also value in distilling those thousand words into a scant few. This little post is a bit of practical sharing meant to point to two things: a cute little iOS application, and a few quick examples of its practical use. Oh, and really, I wouldn't be doing it here if it wasn't worth at least a handful of words as well.
Sean Nash

Another Thousand "Whoa" Moments | nashworld - 2 views

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    whoa moment |wō| exclamation Informal in usage. Used to indicate a scope of reactions to a learning experience ranging from basic cognitive connection and mild surprise to profound respect and awe. Often uttered momentarily due to a lack of ability to define an experience at the time. Whoa moments often spur deeper future connections and learning along the original topic.
Jaime Dial

Return to Sender -- THE Journal - 2 views

  • "If you meet someone who tells you his interest is science, ask how much technology he uses," Knezek says. "If he says, 'Not much,' you know that person is a student or a teacher in our school system. If you meet someone who is interested in communications who doesn't use a lot of technology, same thing. I guarantee you it's either a teacher or a student."
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Wow again. This quote is a killer.
  • students are told while in school to turn off the very mobile devices that are so integral in today's workplace and are typically unable to access expertise outside the classroom.
    • Jaime Dial
       
      I am glad we are moving to a point where we are getting away from this practice.
  • Although some progress has been made in moving toward more project- and team-based learning, students continue to be pulled out of that setting when the time arrives to take assessments.
Jaime Dial

Return to Sender -- THE Journal - 0 views

  • "We need to teach students to be discriminating consumers of information. Can they vet information, pull together different materials, and demonstrate their constructed new knowledge? That's the mother lode."
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Another huge point here.
  • is the way K-12 deploys technology in instruction, which is generally inadequate, disjointed, and poorly thought out--or not thought out at all
  • too many districts invest in technology with neither a long-term vision for how it will be used nor any definition or measurement of success.
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Wow. All true.
Jaime Dial

Return to Sender -- THE Journal - 0 views

  • what's required of schools is not developing within students a whole other skill set, but simply teaching them to apply to a new arena the ones they already have
    • Jaime Dial
       
      A key point. Often times we get caught up in thinking this has to be more on the plate. It's not. It's about shifting our focus a little.
  • K-12 graduates should understand how to use it to define and break down a problem, look into how similar problems have been solved, and design and implement a solution. In communicating that solution, they should be skillful not merely at typing a Word document but also at telling a compelling story through an interactive multimedia presentation.
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Love the "compelling story" part of this quote.
  • "Today's students could be technologically literate as well as great communicators in traditional settings," Knezek says, "but get the socks beaten off them by someone who has learned to communicate in a digital setting."
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  • While many schools have taken the step of asking students to use digital media in assignments, few are teaching them strategies for doing it well
  • Fadel and others concerned about the tech skills of the future workforce also emphasize the importance of information and communication technology literacy: a working knowledge of computers and the applications that run on them--everything from e-mail and spreadsheet tools to statistical analysis packages--along with the ability to learn new ones rapidly.
  • "There is a skill to typing the right question into the search engine and knowing how to discriminate between different sources of information."
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Huge. We don't teach this enough.
Jaime Dial

Return to Sender -- THE Journal - 0 views

  • "Even if all students mastered core academic subjects, they still would be woefully under prepared to succeed in post secondary institutions and workplaces, which increasingly value people who can use their knowledge to communicate, collaborate, analyze, create, innovate, and solve problems."
    • Jaime Dial
       
      This reminds me of the work we are doing in our department with regards to the 21st Century Learner model. We have all of these pieces included. Very reaffirming.
  • High-tech companies are increasingly looking for new hires whose skills go beyond mastery of core content-
  • Work readiness is no longer just about the three R's; now it's also about turning information into knowledge through Web searching and vetting. It's about developing effective multimedia presentations. It's about seamlessly using digital tools to collaborate and problem-solve.
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Huge statement here.
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  • While these so-called "soft skills" have been considered important for some time, he explains, they need to be taught differently if K-12 graduates are to thrive in the tech-infused job sectors they will enter upon graduation
  • communicate electronically, including the nuances and etiquette of text, e-mail, and Web interactions.
  • they also need to be taught how to
Jaime Dial

Reading the Reader | Academic Commons - 6 views

  • The heart of Critical Inquiry is annotation. Students annotate anything they feel is important, confusing, surprising, or inconsistent; anything that connects to previous texts, classes or experiences, or anything that generates a strong positive or negative response. Students annotate with pen or sticky notes. Using their annotations, students generate questions. These form the basis for class discussion and assignments. This process is particularly productive with “inconsiderate texts”--texts that are difficult for reasons such as poor organization, difficult vocabulary, or unfamiliar cultural assumptions, i.e., the type of texts often encountered in their studies.
    • Sean Nash
       
      For me, this paragraph alone provides enough impetus to push for an embrace of smart annotation across curricula...
    • Connie Weidmaier
       
      students have a hard time critically thinking on the MAP - difficult vocabulary, unfamiliar context
  • Reading is the active construction of meaning.
    • Sean Nash
       
      Constructivism in a nutshell...
    • Terri Johnson
       
      Completely agree with this statement. Reading is not and should not be passive.
    • Kris Larson
       
      Agree Terri, especially content reading! I told my students that again today.
  • e is no inherent meaning in the words or marks themselves, meaning can only arise at the nexus of what the reader brings
    • Diane Kretzinger
       
      Alright I got 
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  • Unlike writing or speaking
    • carole honeycutt
       
      I agree.
    • Jenny Brown
       
      me too!
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Your both crazy! :)
  • There is no
    • carole honeycutt
       
      If only we had a tool that would do this!
  • mechanism to open their heads and see which neurons are firing while they are reading.
  • we still wouldn’t know how to interpret what we were observing
    • Jaime Dial
       
      I think this is very difficult for many educators, especially at the secondary level.
  • understanding cannot take place.
    • Connie Weidmaier
       
      Reading for meaning - we have been teaching that since kindergarten!
  • read them reading. But that is precisely what I am asked to do: it’s my job to shift the focus from product to process and look at the connections between the two.
    • Terri Johnson
       
      This is an awesome article.  It  is amazing how the environment can affect how I can process and read.  I admit, I cannot process well at Pear.
    • Diane Kretzinger
       
      Okay I can post my thoughts but we are assuming that I have something to say so I will just write something  :)
    • Connie Weidmaier
       
      Nice job Diane!
  • Pre-reading is the foundational stage. If the reader does not have the background knowledge (the schema) to reference the vocabulary, ideas, allusions, etc.; if the reader is unengaged; if the reader has little direction or purpose for the reading; if the circumstances under which he or she is reading the piece are non-conducive--in other words if the reader has no context for or commitment to the text
    • Christie Leigan
       
      This is why book choice is so important!
  • Electronic annotations confirm what research tells us about proficient readers, that they 1) clarify their purpose for reading; 2) activate relevant background knowledge; 3) allocate attention to the important ideas; 4) evaluate content for internal consistency and compatibility with prior knowledge; 5) self-monitor to verify comprehension; and 6) draw and test inferences.
    • Jaime Dial
       
      Interesting. I never thought of annotations as a way to tell whether or not a student is a proficient reader.
  • These comments reveal the student doesn’t have the background knowledge to make sense of the letter.
    • Rusty Schneeflock
       
      hello
  • e student recognizes Washington as a
  • These comments reveal the student doesn’t have the background knowledge to make sense of the letter.
  • MS Word offers an important added bonus that paper and pen never will: the ability to make auditory comments as well as written ones. Asking students to annotate orally can help ESL learners, students with disabilities, or simply reinvigorate the process. Students can easily produce multimedia readings of texts and readings that mirror more traditional think-alouds.
    • Lisa Elifrits
       
      I really see this being useful in the classroom.  
  • The proficient reader recognizes when reading is succeeding (metacognition) and has a coping mechanism for when it fails (fix-up or problem-solving strategies).
  • I decided to bring the Critical Inquiry techniques to computer-mediated learning by using Microsoft Word’s comment feature, an easy and powerful tool for annotating texts.
  • Students were placed into my Academic and Critical Reading classes when they failed the reading placement test. These students were ESL students, weak test-takers, uncomfortable with computers, had learning disabilities, were alliterate, older, and/or returning students. Most were unprepared for the rigors of academic literacy. The class followed the Critical Inquiry method developed by the SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) Department of Brooklyn College, CUNY. Critical
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    Reading is the active construction of meaning. Because there is no inherent meaning in the words or marks themselves, meaning can only arise at the nexus of what the reader brings to the text, the text, and the situation within which the text is placed.
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    Reading is the active construction of meaning. Because there is no inherent meaning in the words or marks themselves, meaning can only arise at the nexus of what the reader brings to the text, the text, and the situation within which the text is placed.
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    Reading is the active construction of meaning. Because there is no inherent meaning in the words or marks themselves, meaning can only arise at the nexus of what the reader brings to the text, the text, and the situation within which the text is placed.
Jaime Dial

Alfie Kohn: "But I Need to Assign Homework! Look at All I Have to Cover!" - 1 views

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    Interesting take from Alfie Kohn with regards to homework in today's schools.
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    I think I really agree with this article. Robin Jackson said at our PD that if you find the big pieces that need to be covered and do the rest when/if there is time, the outcomes will be much greater and the material learned will be mastered not just rote memory. Teachers can't expect homework to teach what they did not get taught. Homework should only be an opportunity to practice what they have been taught. Thanks for sharing.
Lisa Elifrits

Joy of Pi | Pi Links - 1 views

    • Lisa Elifrits
       
      My first year of teaching, I went all out on PI day.  I even got permission from administration to have an assembly.  We raised money by "PI"ing a teacher in the face.  Students were challenged to memorize digits of pi and compete against each other.  We also wrote digits of pi on pieces of paper and posted them in the hallways for students to understand that "PI" is never ending!
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