project-based learning, technology, and an enthusiastic teacher. I couldn't agree more.
When technology is deployed effectively, it can free up teachers from standing in front of the class and presenting information. We can "flip" the classroom (2) with lectures occurring at home via the Internet and rigorous project-based learning taking place in cooperative groups at school. In this environment, teachers can be guides and coaches to the students. What is more powerful in education than a student who is guided by an adult who truly cares -- someone who knows your name, who encourages you, and is committed to your success in life?
engage students as active participants in their own education,
rather than passive recipients of facts and formulas
There is no other job more important than education. It is the foundation of our democracy. By seizing on what's working, and recreating those successes from one classroom to the next, we can make it better for everyone.
“I think speech recognition is really going to upend the current [computer] interface.
“We’re at a transition point where voice and natural-language understanding are suddenly at the forefront,
Jim Glass, a senior research scientist at MIT who has been working on speech interfaces since the 1980s, says today’s smart phones pack as much processing power as the laboratory machines he worked with in the ’90s. Smart phones also have high-bandwidth data connections to the cloud, where servers can do the heavy lifting involved with both voice recognition and understanding spoken queries. “The combination of more data and more computing power means you can do things today that you just couldn’t do before,” says Glass. “You can use more sophisticated statistical models.”
But voice functionality is built into Android, the Windows Phone platform, and most other mobile systems, as well as many apps
Nuance is at the heart of the boom in voice technology
, Nuance hopes to put its speech interfaces in many more places, most notably the television and the automobile
Meanwhile, the Sync entertainment system in Ford automobiles already uses Nuance’s technology to let drivers pull up directions, weather information, and songs. About four million Ford cars on the road have Sync with voice recognition. Last week, Nuance introduced software called Dragon Drive that will let other car manufacturers add voice-control features to vehicles
“It’s astonishingly accurate,” says Brian Phelps, CEO and cofounder of Montrue and himself an ER doctor. “Speech has turned a corner; it’s gotten to a point where we’re getting incredible accuracy right out of the box
Sejnoha believes that within a few years, mobile voice interfaces will be much more pervasive and powerful. “I should just be able to talk to it without touching it,” he says. “It will constantly be listening for trigger words, and will just do it—pop up a calendar, or ready a text message, or a browser that’s navigated to where you want to go
While most characterize these sites as an inexpensive way for teachers to supplement textbook materials, some teachers may get pushback from administrators for their entrepreneurial efforts.
Seattle Public Schools' recently revised its ethics policy, with the new policy prohibiting teachers from selling anything they developed on district time, said district spokeswoman Teresa Wippel.
she learned over the years that her colleagues — and their students — are only interested in professional-looking materials that offer the kind of information and instruction they need. Teachers are able to rate items offered for purchase or distribution.
Teachers often spend their own money on classroom supplies, despite receiving a few hundred dollars a year for that purpose from their districts. Increasingly, teachers say, they are going to these curriculum sharing sites to look for materials like the ones Nannini and Jump made available because their funds go further than at traditional school supply stores.
Stephen Wakefield, spokesman for ASCD, a prominent teacher training organization that has a blog promoting ways for teachers to get help online, said no national organizations approve or rate the multitude of online curricula available to teachers. However many offer lists of places for teachers to explore, he said.
Smith says the website saves her driving time and cash, because she can buy only what she needs — not a $20 workbook filled with a variety of things.
She also likes the idea of supporting other teachers, not corporations.
Tell a trusted adult about the bullying, and keep telling until you find an adult who takes action.
Don’t open or read messages from cyber bullies.
Tell a teacher or administrator at your school if it is school related.
Don’t erase the messages—they may be needed to take action.
Protect yourself: Never agree to meet face to face with anyone you meet online.
If bullied through chat or instant messaging, the “bully” can often be blocked.
If you are threatened with harm, inform the local police.
What Can You Do
from Strategies That Work,
Mosaic of Thought, and Reading with Meaning,
this page gives you information on the six comprehension
strategies known as making connections, questioning,
visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and
synthesizing.
Here you will find a Chaucer Biography, Chaucer's Works, Quotes, Essays and Articles, as well as links to study resources and a list of books helpful for further study. All of these can be accessed from the red navigation bar at the top.
Visual learners learn best by seeing what they are being taught.
diagrams, mind maps, word webs, visuals, and other forms of graphic organizers will help visual learners get the most from your instruction. Teach students to use highlighters when going through their notes and to create flashcards when studying for tests and learning information.
Another way that color
is sometimes used to convey meaning is to differentiate items
in a list. For example, a professor may write the following: "All
assignments in red must
be completed in APA style." This poses a problem for
students who are blind and students who are color blind.
The use of color is not discouraged altogether. There are definite advantages
for other students. It is possible to meet the needs of all
of these students, as illustrated in this example:
9) Convert PowerPoint™ to accessible HTML.
10) If it's auditory make it
visual; if it's visual make it auditory.
Students who use assistive technology -
Currently, some of the testing tools have compatibility problems with
some screen reader technologies. This occasionally results in the screen
reader program crashing during an exam. A good practice would be to
have a mock exam available for students to try so that they will know
ahead of time if their assistive technology will work with your exam.
If it does not, an alternate version of the exam will need to be provided
Black and white might sound really boring, but it does make it more readable! I'm sure that we have all come across some websites with some wacky color combinations that make our eyes hurt :(
Teach students using a PC to right click on the content
they wish to print and choose print. This will allow them to print only
the content in that frame.
Use concise, meaningful text for links.
Like this: Writing
Good Link Descriptions
Not this: Click here for
information on writing good link descriptions
This website provides good suggestions for making online courses accessible for both students with disabilities and without disabilities. This website also applies many of these suggestions in its actual design!
collaborate in an online research initiative with another site or institution
create a multimedia presentation on a particular aspect of their research
Process:
Introduction:
description of the steps learners should go through
with links embedded in each step.
Resources:
list of the resources
resources embedded within the Process section,
non-Web resources can also be used
Evaluation
rubric
1 for evaluating students' work
clear goals, matching assessments to specific tasks
During the introductory stage of the WebQuest, it can be very helpful to point out three types of student examples: exemplary, acceptable, and unacceptable.
primary of which is the idea that
curriculum is a “complicated conversation.”
Pinar argues that curriculum
–
or
currere
–
is an organic idea rather than a Socraticmessage that never changes (Pinar, 2011) Teachers must discover this
currere
for themselvesthrough methods of self reflection and self discovery.
Pinar has a good grasp of the situation stating “standardization makes everyonestupid,” and “to deny the past and force the future, we teach to the test.”
What knowledge is of most worth (pg. 210)? This is a difficult question that requiresreflection into what is the most at stake for us as teachers and for our students as learners.
The conflict within this text focuses on the loss of power and privilege of teachers over the teaching profession. Pinar (2011) states, "How could we have so fallen in the public's eyethat we are no longer entitled to professional self-governance, the very prerequisite for professionalism?" (p. 69).
The inability for teachers to have a voice results in an environment in which the professionalism aspect of a professional group has been diminished to a non-existent level.
illiam F. Pinar‟s purpose in writing this book is to ask us [the student] to question this
present moment and our relation to it. In doing so, we are to question the very reason behind
what it means to teach, “To study, to become “educated” in the presen
t moment (Pinar, 2011)
Pinar vision of schooling is
to "understand, not just implement or evaluate thecurriculum" (Pinar, 2011). He urges educators to know what they are teaching. Reciting from a
text and reading from a manual is not teaching in his opinion and it‟s not teaching in ours either.
As students we are asked to brainstorm and use our imagination to picture the perfect scenario.Pinar is asking teachers to do the same
Pinar describes curriculum theory as: an interdisciplinary field in which teacher education is
conceived as the professionalization of intellectual freedom, fore fronting teachers‟ and students‟
individuality (originality), their creativity, and constantly engaging in ongoing if complicatedconversation informed by a self-reflexive, interdisciplinary erudition (Pinar, 2011)
By tying the curriculum to student performance on standardized test, teachers were forced toabandon their intellectual freedom to choose what they teach, how they teach, and how theyassess student learning (Pinar, 2011). Failure to learn has been the result of separating the
WHAT IS CURRICULUM THEORY? 8
curriculum from the interest of students and the passion of teachers.
Contemporary is referring to a person in thesame field or time period as you. Pinar is trying to emphasize that we are not all moving at thesame speed when it comes to educating middle and elementary students
Teachers are then empowered tohave a voice to influence the curriculum in such a manner that positively contributes to studentlearning. Pinar is urging teachers to take back their classroom. Take the initiative and leadwithout boundaries. Instruct without guidelines and open your mind to learning indirectly fromyour students
Students are set up to fail but it is not really their fault.
They attend school where the
system begs for learning to equate to test scores and they become “consumers” of
educational s
ervices rather than “students”
This system also encourages drop-outs becauseschools only want to teach students that have acceptable test scores which benefits the
school‟s accountability. Students do not experience an environment that places importance
on the development of ideas and critical thinking but rather the successful completion of atest.
Demonization of the teacher has been the result of the current political and economic powers have placed the teacher in an unimportant position in the educational hierarchy andassume that business leaders know more about the curriculum and teaching than the teachersknow
themselves. Teachers have become “technicians” because of school deform and are
encouraged to replace ideas and know
ledge with “cognitive skills” that will fit into the
jobsettings of the future. According to Pinar, these skills result in historical amnesia, political passivity and cultural standardization.
He invites us to become “temporal” subjects of history, living
simultaneously in the past, present, and future
–
aware of the historical conditions that haveshaped the current situation, engaged in the present battles being waged over the course anddirection of public education, and committed to re-building a democratic public sphere.