Group items tagged

Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement.

Basically, feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal.

Effective coaches also know that in complex performance situations, actionable feedback about what went right is as important as feedback about what didn't work.

An Internet-enabled device for every teacher and student in the country. Universal broadband access for homes and schools. Those, along with an embrace of cloud computing, openly-licensed educational materials and open source technologies are part of the new education technology recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

An Internet-enabled device for every teacher and student in the country. Universal broadband access for homes and schools. Those, along with an embrace of cloud computing, openly-licensed educational materials and open source technologies are part of the new education technology recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

The 124-page document lays out an ambitious agenda for transforming teaching and learning through technology. Much of the plan emphasizes "21st century learning," and competencies that, according to the Department of Education, include critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication.

In 1970, the U.S. had the highest rates of high school graduation in the world, now it has one of the lowest.

now around 75 percent, which puts America 23rd out of 28 countries surveyed.

They are mentors, coaches, motivators, and lifelong sources of inspiration to their students.

There seems to be some confusion in several places on the net about whether you have to “cite” (the way some students say acknowledge) clip art or not in a paper. This question has arisen because the writer cannot find a rule in their style guide about it, or because they see many others using clip art without noting the source.

Google Earth: FREE With Google Earth for iPad, you can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world's population and a third of the world's land mass. You can swipe with two fingers to adjust your view to see mountainous terrain.

GeoWalk HD: $2.99 AU We are all used to the idea that encyclopedias are pretty boring and usually too overloaded with information, that's why we decided to squeeze the most essential and exciting info about our planet into a brief, informative and illustrative 3D Fact Book to explore the world in a playful way.

National Geographic World Atlas: $1.99 AU National Geographic World Atlas HD utilizes the highest resolution images, providing you detail, accuracy, and artistic beauty normally found in wall maps and bound atlases. Preloaded with 3 different styles of world maps with an internet connection, you can continue zooming through continent-level maps into Bing maps - close enough to see your home!

She would thrive after being asked: “What do you want to learn?” “What do you want to read?” “What matters to you?” And then taking her answers and the curricular outcomes and designing a learning plan that incorporated all of this, plus embedded technology.

So often in education we focus on the wrong things. Test scores. Marks. Awards.

We need to start with why

the solution to the education reform that teachers are looking for, could quite possibly be ... Project-Based Learning.

 If students are engaged in PBL, they can begin creating an ePortfolio in order to demonstrate their learning and understanding of standards, rather than testing for them.

When teachers integrate Project-Based Teaching, they are providing the opportunity for differentiated learning, rather than differentiated instruction.  "Differentiated learning shifts the responsibility for the learning to the learner (where it belongs)"

three-year initiative to fund an instructional system and 24 online courses--a "complete, foundational system of instruction" to be developed by Pearson--covering K-12 English/language arts and K-10 math. One course will be provided for each grade level. Four of those courses--two in each subject area in the early to middle high school grade levels--will be contributed as free and open resources through Gates Foundation funding "with the intent of widening access and spurring innovation around the Common Core,"

the courses will be "designed to engage and motivate" students and will incorporate social networking, gaming, video, and simulation, coupled with assessment and teacher professional development, both online and blended.

Conning said the initial group of courses will be made available in 2013, "before the Common Core Standards are implemented." She also said the courses will be field-tested in a variety of districts beginning in the late fall with some individual units. The complete system of courses is expected to be completed in December 2013 and ready for the 2014-2015 school year,

Today, children are going online at an increasingly young age; therefore this book aims at introducing concepts of modern technology in their daily vocabulary and activities. Whilst this activity book offers children from 4 to 8 years of age 30 pages of fun and games, it also leads them to sharpen their basic language and mathematical, social and cultural skills. It gives them a glimpse of the impact modern technology can have on their everyday life. Above all it offers an opportunity for parents and teachers to sit together with their children and discuss these important issues. Although the activity book was created in such a way that young children can enjoy and do the games alone, many of the exercises do have a deeper level. The booklet endeavours to encourage parents and teachers to talk about topics such as privacy and modern technology with their children and pupils starting from a very young age as these issues undoubtedly already play an important role in their lives. The table on page 4 offers parents and teachers an overview of the themes that are touched upon and the exercises that go with them. Additional information can be found at www.saferinternet.org. We encourage you to read these guidelines as they will provide more sample information about the pedagogical objectives behind each game and the messages the children will hopefully pick up

“It doesn’t seem like there’s the emphasis on cursive handwriting today that there was when I was in school,” said Lisa Donohoe, Shelby’s mom.

“We do have a curriculum for cursive handwriting as part of our SLEs (Student Learning Expectations),” said Mary Ellen Maske, executive administrator for elementary education for the Cedar Rapids school district.The district uses the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting curriculum, which introduces cursive handwriting in third grade, and practice in fourth and fifth grades.The goal is 10 to 15 minutes of cursive handwriting instruction each day

Iowa is among 42 states and the District of Columbia, to have adopted the Common Core State Standards for English, which omits cursive handwriting from the required curriculum.

QUESTIONING HOMEWORK The growing movement against homework in the U.S. challenges the notion that the amount of homework a student is asked to do at home is an indication of rigor, and homework opponents argue that the increasing amount of “busy work” is unnecessarily taking up students’ out-of-school-time. They argue that downtime, free play, and family time are just as important to a child’s social and emotional development as what happens in school. Some research has shown that too much homework has “little to no impact” on student test scores. Other research on how brains work challenges the common method of asking students to practice one discreet skill at home. Overall, there’s a push to reevaluate the kinds of work students are being asked to do at home and to ask whether it adds value to their learning. If the work is repetitive or tangential, it may add no real value, and teachers across the country are starting to institute no-homework policies. Even principals are starting to revolt and schools are instituting “no homework” nights or substituting “goals” for homework.

the Iowans marched over from the right to anchor the left flank.

The 2nd Kansas rushed forward, and alongside the Iowans doggedly held their ground. After 20 minutes of back-and-forth probing, the Southerners fell back.

troops from the 1st Iowa