Group items tagged

An argument for encouraging the positive criteria/skill of designing a document rather than prescriptive formatting requirements

As an instructor of undergraduate and graduate students at University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, I created a syllabus for the benefit of other college/university level instructors. I created a copy of the original syllabus for modification to use with high school students (probably juniors or seniors). I will rely on actual high school teachers to help me modify this source document. Please feel free to use, modify, and share this syllabus in your own way. Reorder the modules, add or subtract required or recommended texts and learning activities. Use your own assessment methods. If you wish to help improve this seed document, contact howard@rheingold.com and I will add you as a commenter and/or editor. 

"Most of us are in groups all the time. But are these groups learning groups? When does a group become a learning group? Can a group construct its own way of learning? Can documenting children's learning lead to new ways of learning? These are some of the questions addressed in the research project, Making Learning Visible (MLV). MLV draws attention to the power of the group as a learning environment and documentation as a way to see and shape how and what children are learning. MLV is based on collaborative research conducted by Project Zero researchers with teachers from the Municipal Preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and preschool through high school teachers and teacher educators in Massachusetts."

from Canada:  "Scientists and teachers work together to develop and deliver science units comprised of hands-on lessons on specific themes. There is a major focus on the experimental process of science. The lesson plans fit the BC Ministry of Education guidelines for Science K to 7. Opportunities are created to link lessons to other areas of the curriculum, such as math, fine arts, English and French language arts, and First Nations. Some lessons focus on issues facing society such as marine pollution, climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity, and the importance of protecting the environment and ecosystems. Thirty-three science units have been developed during the Scientist in Residence Program and are organized within four curriculum areas. More than 200 science lesson plans are available for download as PDF documents. These include lesson plans for field trips, thereby extending learning in natural environments. Please scroll down to view the titles of science units for each curriculum area, and click on science unit titles to view and download individual science lesson plans. If required by your browser, please enable Scripts to download documents from this web site. New science lesson plans will be posted on this website as they become available."

The research pane taps into Google Search directly from Google documents, so whether you want to add a cool destination to your itinerary for an upcoming trip to India or you're looking for the perfect presidential quote for a political science paper, you don't even have to open a new tab.

A blog by an art teacher in a reggio inspired school

"A striking assumption animates arguments on both sides, namely that nonfiction is seldom literary and certainly not literature. Even Mr. Coleman erects his case on largely dispiriting, utilitarian grounds: nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won't necessarily nourish the soul. As an English teacher and writer who traffics in factual prose, I'm with Mr. Coleman. In my experience, students need more exposure to nonfiction, less to help with reading skills, but as a model for their own essays and expository writing, what Mr. Gladwell sought by ingesting "Talk of the Town" stories. I love fiction and poetry as much as the next former English major and often despair over the quality of what passes for "informational texts," few of which amount to narrative much less literary narrative. What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. Most students could use greater familiarity with what newspaper, magazine and book editors call "narrative nonfiction": writing that tells a factual story, sometimes even a personal one, but also makes an argument and conveys information in vivid, effective ways."

"What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. "  Totally supports my belief that nonfiction longreads are out there on the internet and are not being taken advantage of by teachers -- enough.

A DLC blog post sumarrsing the content of 'The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)' report on video game violence in the UK. A document reviewing official government recommendations to improve children's digital and video game safety.

Here's a handy site that helps students publish three types of documents - a poster, a brochure or a newspaper.  Read Write Think's site is easy to use with an intuitive interface but its real power comes in the fact that students can save incomplete work!  The site lets a user save in a proprietary .RWT format on a usb stick or saved to a network space.  When your next class begins, that same file can be opened so it can be completed and shared as a .PDF

allows you to easily create video presentations based on documents on your computer -- and then share them. Their tagline is "presentations with emotion".... Could be good for kids commenting on their work.

Interesting read document the ways in which "education" is being reframed in this country at the peril, I think, of losing everything that is best about schools and teachers and classrooms.

essential productivity skills: Creating labels in GmailCreating e-mail lists in ContactsInstall Google Notifier to set up web Gmail as your default email client (this has saved me hours of work)Creating collections in Google Docs and organizing your filesMaking a copy of a document & saving for yourself (to edit)Sharing a collection with a group (made in your Contacts list) or a colleagueMake a Google Doc public, for linking on your class blogCheck the revision history in a Google DocCreating events in Google Calendar and setting automatic reminders via e-mailCreating repeating events in Google CalendarImporting the school's calendar into your own Google CalendarCreating a Google Reader account and subscribing to feedsCreate a bundle of feeds in Reader for each class you teachAdding feeds to folders in ReaderRecording screencasts in QuickTime

Create a unit (re)design template and/or classroom walkthrough template that will allow educators to think about technology integration within the context of student agency and higher-order thinking skills steeped in important disciplinary concepts

Heather's rubric for Graphic design. Would be good to adapt & modify for our students

This is a sign that has videos related to digital citizenship topics in a Singapore context.

re his school embarking on a Mac environment for teaching and learning - started Sept. 2010

I am looking for ideas for our K-6 teachers on what they can write about for their classroom blogs. This is NOT for student blogging ideas, but it is for teachers that have a blog they share with parents, students, and staff.

Excellent bank of ideas to share with teachers new to classroom blogging about what they could blog about.