Group items tagged

"By engaging teachers and the technology integrationist in conversations about the curriculum, specific class dynamics and capabilities of the technology, we are now able to talk about what we would like to do, the tools best suited for that purpose, ways to tweak units or lessons, and what is not working. This collaborative, co-teaching model has allowed for us to find connections across content areas, classes and our district. We all recognize how much is gained when we are allowed to really talk about our curriculum and our students, and this model allows for that creative, collaborative time to work through complex and interesting questions and ideas about integrating technology effectively. "

"A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting meeting with about 25 instructional designers from UBC, where we discussed design models for hybrid learning, defined as a deliberate attempt to combine the best of both face-to-face and online learning. "

"In many schools, project-based learning happens in isolated cases: in certain teachers' classrooms here and there, or in the contexts of specific subjects. But for students to benefit from project-based learning, ideally it's part of a school's infrastructure - a way to approach learning holistically. For one quickly growing network of schools, project-based learning is the crux of the entire ecosystem. New Tech Network, which was founded 15 years ago, is taking its school-wide project-based model to national scale. The organization, which offers a paid program for schools to use its model, began with a flagship school in Napa and has grown to 120 schools in 18 states, most of which are public schools."

"Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Teachers are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. Moreover, teaching can be an isolating profession - one that dictates "custodial" time with students over "collaborative" time with peers. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach."

"The following is an excerpt from the book Every Child, Every Day: A Digital Conversion Model for Student Achievement, published by Pearson. Edwards is the superintendent of Mooresville (NC) Graded School District (MGSD), whose districtwide 1-to-1 program earned it the 2012 Sylvia Charp Award. "

"I decided to use the teacher console on Diigo to create groups for each of my classes. I used handouts and tips from Bill Ferriter's Digitally Speaking Wiki to get everything set up and explain to the student how I wanted them to find, annotate, and share resources and information. (I highly recommend Bill's resources. They saved me a ton of time.) The students had used Diigo for research on a project during a previous school year so I thought with Bill's handouts and the boys' previous experience we were in good shape to begin. I soon learned differently. We have a 1:1 laptop classroom and the boys have a natural tendency to head straight to Google any time they have a question, but it was obvious after the first day that they weren't finding the quality resources they needed. Additionally, some boys still didn't know (or forgot) how to share to a group while others didn't know how to write a quality annotation. I had assumed too much. They needed what Mike Kaechele calls a "teacher workshop" on searching for information and on how to use Diigo. They needed me to model what they should do."

"The ParentCamp experience, by design, is a hybrid "unconference" opportunity for parents and teachers to come together and model the four core beliefs highlighted in Beyond the Bakesale by Anne T. Henderson, et al. The experience levels the playing field, putting all stakeholders in a circle for actual, face-to-face discussion about what is best for kids. It's important to understand the difference between a traditional conference and the unconference feel we worked to bring to ParentCamp. "

""Just as rigor does not reside in the barbell but in the act of lifting it, rigor in reading is not an attribute of a text but rather of a reader s behavior engaged, observant, responsive, questioning, analytical. The close reading strategies in Notice and Note will help you cultivate those critical reading habits that will make your students more attentive, thoughtful, independent readers." Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst In Notice and Note Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst introduce 6 signposts that alert readers to significant moments in a work of literature and encourage students to read closely. Learning first to spot these signposts and then to question them, enables readers to explore the text, any text, finding evidence to support their interpretations. In short, these close reading strategies will help your students to notice and note. In this timely and practical guide Kylene and Bob * examine the new emphasis on text-dependent questions, rigor, text complexity, and what it means to be literate in the 21st century * identify 6 signposts that help readers understand and respond to character development, conflict, point of view, and theme * provide 6 text-dependent anchor questions that help readers take note and read more closely * offer 6 Notice and Note model lessons, including text selections and teaching tools, that help you introduce each signpost to your students. Notice and Note will help create attentive readers who look closely at a text, interpret it responsibly, and reflect on what it means in their lives. It should help them become the responsive, rigorous, independent readers we not only want students to be but know our democracy demands."

"In cooperative learning, students work together, think together and plan together using a variety of group structures designed along an instructional path. This dynamic learning model breaks with the dusty forms of frontal teaching that often create classrooms of "lonesome togetherness" -- students who may sit together but live worlds apart. Cooperative learning creates what Daniel Goleman calls "cognitive empathy," a mind-to-mind sense of how another person's thinking works. The better we understand others, the better we know them -- pointing toward (among other virtues) greater trust, appreciation and generosity. "