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Of course, some computer skills are valuable, like keyboarding, creating multimedia projects, manipulating programs they'd use in life and school,

"They can run an iPhone like a champ, or the iPads we have here at school. But they're not that exposed to keyboarding skills or using the mouse to move something up and down on a screen."

said her students have been honing their keyboarding skills while using an online curriculum for computer coding.

Using an online math program, they learn to move and click a mouse, and cut and paste text. As they move through the grades, they add more skills, integrated into their core-content study, Ms. Warr said.

"If we were trying to teach the tech skills in isolation, there would be a huge pushback [from teachers], but we integrate them into other subjects," Ms. Warr said.

But because the Smarter Balanced assessment expects more "writing in one shot" online, he's encouraging teachers to shift their "quick writes" to the computer, he said.

1st graders are starting with a free online game called Dance Mat, where they pick out letters one at a time, and work up to typing their names, Mr. Decker said. In 2nd grade, students begin using an online program called Type To Learn three times a week. Third and 4th graders continue it twice a week, and by 5th grade, it's down to weekly.

"Don't smile till November," because that's what she was taught in her teacher education program.

make better teachers

So why does teacher education only give you theory and theory and tell you about standards and tell you about all of these things that have nothing to do with the basic skills, that magic that you need to engage an audience, to engage a student?

content and theories with the absence of the magic of teaching and learning means nothing.

And if we could transform teacher education to focus on teaching teachers how to create that magic then poof! we could make dead classes come alive, we could reignite imaginations, and we can change education.

2. We should consciously and visibly work toward grit with our students

3. Teaching the whole child means ensuring that a student’s preparation goes beyond the 3 R’s

Ten Practical Implications for Teaching to Develop Agency

Young people from every background deserve teaching that enhances their agency.

Awareness that success in life requires agency is not new. However, we have tended as a society to treat its development as mostly a family and community responsibility, not a focus for policymakers, curriculum developers, or teacher preparation programs.

Empirical findings in the report are mostly consistent with what conventional wisdom would predict

The Tripod 7Cs Components

five categories of noncognitive factors related to academic performance:

Students’ perspectives concerning the teaching they experience can be valid and reliable indicators of instructional quality

teaching predicts a variety of agency related-factors that help prepare a student for success in school and life. These include the emotions, behaviors, and motivations that the student enacts in the classroom, in addition to the development of conscientiousness, future orientation, and growth mindset.

For happiness, learning, and high aspirations, we need high performance on multiple teaching components.

agency helps human beings fit into the environment, solve problems, develop and communicate our identities, and plan for the future. Therefore, it is fundamentally important that parents and teachers help to inspire, enable, and focus agency by the opportunities, instruction, and guidance they provide.

3. Start with a sophisticated student-centered culture.

4. Make collaboration as powerful in school as it is in life.

5. Understand that PBL cannot be done alone.

Some would argue that grit is inherent in Albert Bandura’s research on self-efficacy, and that resilience is also part of i

tackling grit in my classroom and school.

Read Books About Grit

Talk About Grit

Share Examples

elp Students Develop a Growth Mindset

rol Dweck from Stanford University teaches us that students who have a growth mindset are more successful than those who think that intelligence is fixed. 5. Reframe Problems Using stories and examples from Malcom Gladwell's book David and Goliath, we talk about "desirable difficulties." Students need perspective about problems to prevent them from giving up, quitting or losing hope. 6. Find a Framework I use Angela Maiers' Classroom Habitudes as my framework. The KIPP framework specifically includes grit as one of its seven traits. Find one that works for your school and includes clear performance values. 7. Live Grittily You teach with your life. Perhaps that is why Randy Pausch's Last Lecture and David Menasche's Priority List resonate. These teachers used their own battle with death itself as a way to teach. But you don't have to die to be an effective teacher. Our own work ethic yells so loudly that kids know exactly what we think about grit. 8. Foster Safe Circumstances That Encourage Grit Never mistake engaging, fun or even interesting for easy. We don't jump up and down when we tear off a piece of tape because "I did it." No one celebrates easy, but everyone celebrates championships and winners because those take grit (and more). We need more circumstances to help kids to develop grit before they can "have it." Tough academic requirements, sports and outdoor opportunities are all ways to provide opportunities for developing grit. Verena Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer of CANeLearn says: One of the best ways to learn about grit is to focus on outdoor education and go out into the wild. Grit is about not freaking out, taking a deep breath, and moving on. 9. Help Students Develop Intentional Habits Read about best practices for creating habits, because habits and self-control require grit. 10. Acknowledge the Sacrifice Grit Requires Grit takes time, and many students aren't giving it. In their 2010 paper "The Falling Time Cost of College", Babcock and Marks demonstrate that, in 1961, U.S. undergraduates studied 24 hours a week outside of class. In 1981, that fell to 20 hours, and in 2003, it was 14 hours per week. This is not to create a blame or generation gap discussion, but rather to point out the cost of being well educated. We are what we do, and if we study less and work less, then we will learn less. Educators Need Grit Now we as teachers just need the grit to do whatever it takes to turn education around, and that starts with hard work and our own modern version of true grit. Teaching it and living it is now front and center in the education conversation. Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher's Profile Sign in or register to post Sign in to vote! (3) The Educational Benefits of GritThe character traits of determination, adaptability and reflection add up to a critical 21st century skill.<< Previous Next >> Learn More About Education Trends Latest Reconnecting Adults With Playful Learning A New Must-Read for All Educators Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers What Is Personalization, Really? 20 Top Pinterest Tips Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher Computer Fundamentals, Computer Science and IT Integrator from Camilla, GA follow: http://www.facebook.com/coolcatteacherhttp://www.twitter.com/coolcatteacherhttps://plus.google.com/+VickiDavishttp://www.youtube.com/coolcatteacher/http://www.linkedin.com/in/coolcatteacher/http://www.pinterest.com/coolcatteacher Related Tags: Education TrendsCollege ReadinessResilience and GritCharacter EducationAll Grades In This Series T

In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better.

A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. This exposure to authentic skills meets the second criterion for meaningful work—an important purpose. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for students to assess themselves.

Formalizing a process for feedback and revision during a project makes learning meaningful because it emphasizes that creating high-quality products and performances is an important purpose of the endeavor. Students need to learn that most people's first attempts don't result in high quality and that revision is a frequent feature of real-world work.

In addition to providing direct feedback, the teacher should coach students in using rubrics or other sets of criteria to critique one another's work. Teachers can arrange for experts or adult mentors to provide feedback, which is especially meaningful to students because of the source.

When students present their work to a real audience, they care more about its quality. Once again, it's "the more, the better" when it comes to authenticity. Students might replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals—but even better, they might create real products that people outside school use.

No Child Left Behind demands that after one year of enrollment, ELLs must take statewide assessments, and the results must be integrated into the school's accountability measures. Enrolling large numbers of adolescent ELLs can put the school at risk of failing to make adequate yearly progress.

In these times of increasingly meager resources in which schools are paring down to essential programs and making contingency plans to deal with statewide budget cuts and federal program funding reductions, adolescent ELLs are often viewed as an unwelcome presence in schools, a drain on the limited resources available. Increasing the challenge is the reality that many immigrant adolescents enter secondary schools with a triple whammy—little or no English, interrupted or limited formal schooling, and limited literacy in any language.

There is no more diverse learning cohort than that grouped under the term adolescent English language learner. Although many of these students are newcomers (immigrants who arrived within the past five years), others have always called the United States home.

now, for example, that 57 percent of adolescent learners classified as limited English proficient were born within U.S. borders and thus are second- or third-generation residents (Batalova, Fix, & Murray, 2007). These students have often achieved oral proficiency but lag behind in their ability to use English for literacy and content learning for reasons that may be only partly related to second-language status—for example, mobility and switching between language programs (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007).

Some immigrant students arrive in the United States with fully developed academic literacy in their native language and a strong record of academic achievement in their home countries. Filip, for example, entered U.S. schools in 9th grade after having attended a high-level academic school in the Czech Republic. Within two years, he had gained a command of academic English and was performing above grade level. Contrast Filip with Ben, who emigrated from the Sudan at age 16 after experiencing the trauma of civil unrest and a severe interruption in formal schooling, which resulted in a limited foundation in literacy in any language. Rosaria, unlike either Filip or Ben, is a U.S.-born English language learner. Although her home language is Spanish, at 17, her social language outside the home is English. However, her writing exhibits many of the linguistic differences of an immigrant English learner, and she reads at the 5th grade level.

Such reforms must also take into account the particular context of each school—its demographic profile, existing program models, community culture, and so on. With this caveat in mind, a number of principles and practices support improved achievement for adolescent ELLs as well as for their native-English-speaking peers.

there is surprising agreement in what constitutes best practice for adolescent English language learners. It is up to school leaders to implement the school reforms that work and to think outside the traditional boxes that have restricted the achievement of these students.