5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom’s Taxonomy by Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education Admit it-you only read the list of the six levels of the Taxonomy, not the whole book that explains each level and the rationale behind the Taxonomy. Not to worry, you are not alone: this is true for most educators. But that efficiency comes with a price. Many educators have a mistaken view of the Taxonomy and the levels in it, as the following errors suggest. And arguably the greatest weakness of the Common Core Standards is to avoid being extra-careful in their use of cognitive-focused verbs, along the lines of the rationale for the Taxonomy. 5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom’s Taxonomy 1. The first two or three levels of the Taxonomy involve "lower-order" and the last three or four levels involve "higher-order" thinking. This is false. The only lower-order goal is "Knowledge" since it uniquely requires mere recall in testing. Furthermore, it makes no sense to think that "Comprehension" - the 2nd level - requires only lower-order thought: The essential behavior in interpretation is that when given a communication the student can identify and comprehend the major ideas which are included in it as well as understand their interrelationships. This requires nice sense of judgment and caution in reading into the document one’s own ideas and interpretations. It also requires some ability to go beyond mere rephrasing of parts of the document to determine the larger and more general ideas in it. The interpreter must also recognize the limits within which interpretations can be drawn. Not only is this higher-order thinking - summary, main idea, conditional and cautious reasoning, etc. - it is a level not reached by half of our students in reading, as I noted in my recent post on the sad results in literacy assessment over the past decades. And by the way: the phrases "lower-order" and "higher-order" appear nowhere in the Taxonomy. 2. "Application" requires hands-on learning. This is not true, a misreading of the word "apply", as the text makes clear. We apply ideas to situations, e.g. you may comprehend Newton’s 3 Laws or the Writing Process but can you solve novel problems related to it - without prompting? That’s application: The whole cognitive domain of the taxonomy is arranged in a hierarchy, that is, each classification within it demands the skills and abilities which are lower in the classification order. The Application category follows this rule in that to apply something requires "comprehension" of the method, theory, principle or abstraction applied. Teachers frequently say, "If a student really comprehends something then he can apply it." A problem in the comprehension category requires the student to know an abstraction well enough that he can correctly demonstrate its use when specifically asked to do so. "Application," however, requires a step beyond this. Given a problem new to the student, he will apply the appropriate abstraction without having to be prompted as to which abstraction is correct or without having to be shown how to do it in this situation. Note the key phrases: Given a problem new to the student, he will apply theappropriate abstraction without having to be prompted. Thus, "application" is really a synonym for "transfer". In fact, the authors strongly assert the primacy of application/transfer of learning: The fact that most of what we learn is intended for application to problem situations in real life is indicative of the importance of application objectives in the general curriculum. The effectiveness of a large part of the school program is therefore dependent upon how well the students carry over into situations applications which the students never faced in the learning process. Those of you familiar with educational psychology will recognize this as the age-old problem of transfer of training. Research studies have shown that comprehending an abstraction does not certify that the individual will be able to apply it correctly. Students apparently also need practice in restructuring and classifying situations so that the correct abstraction applies. Why UbD is what it is. In Application problems must be new; students must judge which prior learning applies, without prompting or hints from scaffolded worksheets; and students must get training and have practice in how to handle non-routine problems. We designed UbD, in part, backward from Bloom’s definition of Application. As for instruction in support of the aim of transfer, the authors soberingly note this: "We have also attempted to organize some of the literature on growth, retention, and transfer of the different types of educational outcomes or behaviors. Here we find very little relevant research. … Many claims have been made for different educational procedures…but seldom have these been buttressed by research findings." 3. All the verbs listed under each level of the Taxonomy are more or less equal; they are synonyms for the level. No, there are distinct sub-levels of the Taxonomy, in which the cognitive difficulty of each sub-level increases. For example, under Knowledge, the lowest-level form is Knowledge of Terminology, where a more demanding form of recall is Knowledge of the Major Ideas, Schemes and Patterns in a field of study, and where the highest level of Knowledge is Knowledge of Theories and Structures (for example, knowing the structure and organization of Congress.) Under Comprehension, the three sub-levels in order of difficulty are Translation, Interpretation, and Extrapolation. Main Idea in literacy, for example, falls under Interpretation since it demands more than "translating" the text into one’s own words, as noted above. 4. The Taxonomy recommends against the goal of "understanding" in education. Only in the sense of the term "understand" being too broad. Rather, the Taxonomy helps us to more clearly delineate the different levels of understanding we seek: To return to the illustration of the term "understanding" a teacher might use the Taxonomy to decide which of several meanings he intended. If it meant that the student was…aware of a situation…to describe it in terms slightly different from those originally used in describing it, this would correspond to the taxonomy category of "translation" [which is a sub-level under Comprehension]. Deeper understanding would be reflected in the next-higher level of the Taxonomy, "interpretation," where the student would be expected to summarize and explain… And there are other levels of the Taxonomy which the teacher could use to indicate still deeper "understanding." 5. The writers of the Taxonomy were confident that the Taxonomy was a valid and complete Taxonomy No they weren’t. They note that: "Our attempt to arrange educational behaviors from simple to complex was based on the idea that a particular simple behavior may become integrated with other equally simple behaviors to form a more complex behavior… Our evidence on this is not entirely satisfactory, but there is an unmistakable trend pointing toward a hierarchy of behaviors. They were concerned especially that no single theory of learning and achievement- "accounted for the varieties of behaviors represented in the educational objectives we attempted to classify. We were reluctantly forced to agree with Hilgard that each theory of learning accounts for some phenomena very well but is less adequate in accounting for others. What is needed is a larger synthetic theory of learning than at present seems available. Later schemas - such as Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and the revised Taxonomy - do nothing to solve this basic problem, with implications for all modern Standards documents. Why this all matters. The greatest failure of the Common Core Standards is arguably to have overlooked these issues by being arbitrary/careless in the use of verbs in the Standards. There appears to have been no attempt to be precise and consistent in the use of the verbs in the Standards, thus making it almost impossible for users to understand the level of rigor prescribed by the standard, hence levels of rigor required in local assessments. (Nothing is said in any documents about how deliberate those verb choices were, but I know from prior experience in New Jersey and Delaware that verbs are used haphazardly - in fact, writing teams start to vary the verbs just to avoid repetition!) The problem is already on view: in many schools, the assessments are less rigorous than the Standards and practice tests clearly demand. No wonder the scores are low. I’ll have more to say on this problem in a later post, but my prior posts on Standards provide further background on the problem we face. Update: Already people are arguing with me on Twitter as if I agree with everything said here. I nowhere say here that Bloom was right about the Taxonomy. (His doubts about his own work suggest my real views, don’t they?) I am merely reporting what he said and what is commonly misunderstood. In fact, I am re-reading Bloom as part of a critique of the Taxonomy in support of the revised 3rd edition of UbD in which we call for a more sophisticated view of the idea of depth and rigor in learning and assessment than currently exists. This article first appeared on Grant’s personal blog; Grant can be found on twitter here; 5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom’s Taxonomy; image attribution flickr user langwitches The post 5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom’s Taxonomy appeared first on TeachThought.

Reform? Innovation? How About Shared Understanding by Terry Heick Okay, 100 words. The word "reform" needs to go away. Its tone reflects the kind of thinking that led to a system that itself reduces knowledge to standards, students to data, and K-12 itself as "college & career-prep." Reform is an opaque word that doesn’t say-or commit to-anything. Its closed and private and massive. It also fails to capture the imagination that is at the heart of humans. Its tone is not the tone of learning. Instead of seeking reform, its younger, hipper cousin innovation, or its rebellious older sibling disruption, what about common language in pursuit of shared understanding as a fertile soil for communal growth? The post Reform? Innovation? How About Shared Understanding? appeared first on TeachThought.

Math In The Real World: 400 Lessons From EconEdLink by TeachThought Staff NEW YORK, NY (February 19, 2015) Based on many of the same skills and concepts, math is a natural complement to economics and personal finance; and yet, they are rarely taught in conjunction with each other in our nation’s schools.  The Council for Economic Education (CEE) looks to bridge that gap with their new online resource for high school teachers.  With the support of sponsors Verizon, Moody’s and the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation, CEE has developed Math in the Real World as a free and convenient tool to integrate math with economics and personal finance. Part of EconEdLink, CEE’s free online teacher resource, Math in the Real World contains interdisciplinary lessons aimed at teaching personal finance and economic concepts in a mathematical context.  Math in the Real Worldincludes lessons that range from "Break-Even Analysis" and "Profit Maximization" to payday loan expenses and building good credit.  Math in the Real World lessons are aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math and national standards in personal finance and economics. Lessons include activities, simulations and other tools that use current technology that promote active learning. "As a former math major in college, I am excited that we can bring practical real-life lessons into the classroom to engage kids in three of my favorite subjects," said Nan J. Morrison, CEO and President, CEE. "Integrating math with economics and personal finance, Math in the Real World’s lessons offer an effective way for high school teachers to cover a wide range of skills and concepts." The California Council on Economic Education, one of CEE’s national affiliates, recently piloted the materials with high school teachers: "Outstanding. I especially like to attend workshops where I can instantly take materials home and implement them," said one of the participating teachers.  Another raved about its online accessibility, adding that, "its connections with other subjects will be so helpful" in her classroom. Other Information Many economics and personal finance concepts overlap with math curriculum, but economics and personal finance teachers are not trained to teach complex calculations and formulas, and math teachers may not focus on the personal finance and economic applications. A new CEE resource, Math in the Real World, brings together the expertise of math teachers and economics teachers to create interdisciplinary lessons that teach important personal finance and economic concepts in the context of math lessons including: Earning Credit: How can math help me analyze how my financial decisions today impact my credit score, interest rates and the cost of major purchases in the future? Inflation & Unemployment—Is There a Correlation: How does inflation correlate to unemployment? Cost: Rates of Change: Why is marginal cost a better metric than average cost in the decision making process? Profit Maximization: How can we use calculus to determine the level of output to maximize profits for a business?? How Expensive are Payday Loans? (or The High Cost of Quick Cash): How do you determine the total cost of a payday loan? Break- Even Analysis: How would an entrepreneur decide whether a business is likely to be profitable? Math in the Real World lessons are aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math and national standards in personal finance and economics. Lessons include activities, simulations and other tools that use current technology that promote active learning. Math in the Real World includes 22 lessons that will be published over the next nine months. Math In The Real World: 400 Examples, Lessons, & Resources The post Math In The Real World: 400 Lessons From EconEdLink appeared first on TeachThought.

What Is Problem-Based Learning? by TeachThought Staff What is problem-based learning? One definition, if we want to start simple, is learning that is based around a problem. That is, the development, analysis, and thinking towards a problem drives student learning forward. We’ve been meaning to write a kind of beginner’s guide/primer to problem-based learning for, oh, about 18 months now and haven’t yet, so Mia MacMeekin’ss graphic here is going to have to do. And luckily enough, it’s a nicely done visual that provides a useful starting point to make sense of this learning and teaching strategy. The graphic eschews Mia’s usual squared, grid approach for something a bit more linear and comprehensive-an 8-step sequence to designing problem-based learning in your classroom. It offers a slightly more specific approach than our model for inquiry-based learning we created last year. 8 Steps To Design Problem-Based Learning In Your Classroom 1. Start with a real-life problem 2. Map it out 3. Prototype, prototype, prototype 4. Be creative 5. Think global 6. Join a challenge 7. Set goals 8. Create learning moments You can read more about learning models and theories in our 21st Century Dictionary for Teachers.   8 Steps To Design Problem-Based Learning In Your Classroom The post 8 Steps To Design Problem-Based Learning In Your Classroom appeared first on TeachThought.

The Inconvenient Truths About Assessment by Terry Heick 1. In terms of pedagogy, the primary purpose of an assessment is to provide data to revise planned instruction. It should provide an obvious answer to the question, "What next?" What now?" 2. It’s an extraordinary amount of work to design precise and personalized assessments that illuminate pathways forward for individual students-likely too much for one teacher to do so consistently for every student. This requires rethinking of learning models, or encourages corner-cutting. (Or worse, teacher burnout.) 3. Literacy (reading and writing ability) can obscure content knowledge. Further, language development, lexical knowledge (VL), and listening ability are all related to mathematical and reading ability (Flanagan 2006). This can mean that it’s often easier to assess something other than an academic standard than it is knowledge of the standard itself. It may not tell you what you want it to, but it’s telling you something. 4. Student self-assessment is tricky, but a key matter of understanding. According to Ross & Rolheiser, "Students who are taught self-evaluation skills are more likely to persist on difficult tasks, be more confident about their ability, and take greater responsibility for their work."  (Ross & Rolheiser 2001) 5. Assessments can obscure more than they reveal. If the assessment is precisely aligned to a given standard, and that standard isn’t properly understood by both the teacher and assessment designer, and there isn’t a common language between students, teacher, assessment designer, and curriculum developers about content and its implications, there is significant "noise" in data that can mislead those wishing to use the data, and disrupt any effort towards data-based instruction. 6. You see understanding or achievement or career and college-readiness; students see grades and performance (e.g., a lack or abundance of failure) (Atkinson 1964). 7. Self-evaluation and self-grading are different. "Self-evaluation" does not mean that the students determine the grades for their assignments and courses instead of the teacher. In this paper self-evaluation refers to the understanding and application of explicit criteria to one’s own work and behavior for the purpose of judging if one has met specified goals (Andrade 2006). 8. If it’s not married to curriculum and learning models, it’s just another assignment. That is, if the data gleaned from the assessment isn’t used immediately to substantively revise planned instruction, it’s at best practice, and at worst, extra work for the teacher and student. If assessment, curriculum, and learning models don’t "talk" to one one another, there is slack in the chain. 9. As with rigor, "high" is a relative term. High expectations-if personalized and attainable-can promote persistence in students (Brophy 2004). Overly simple assessments to boost "confidence" are temporary. The psychology of assessment is as critical as the pedagogy and content implications. 10. Designing assessment that has diverse measures of success that "speak" to the student is critical to meaningful assessment. Students are often motivated to avoid failure rather than achieve success (Atkinson 1964). 11. In a perfect world, we’d ask not "How you do on the test," but "How’d the test do on you?" That is, we’d ask how accurately the test illuminated exactly what we do and don’t understand rather than smile or frown at our "performance." Put another way, it can be argued that an equally important function of an assessment is to identify what a student does understand. If it doesn’t, the test failed, not the student. 12. The classroom isn’t "the real world." It’s easy to say invoke "the real world" when discussing grading and assessements (e.g., "If a law school student doesn’t study for the Bar and fail, they don’t get to become lawyers. The same applied to you in this classroom, as I am preparing you for the real world." 13. Most teachers worth their salt can already guess the range of student performance they can expect before they even give the assessment. Therefore, it makes sense to design curriculum and instruction to adjust to student performance on-the-fly without Herculean effort by the teacher. If you don’t have a plan for the assessment data before you give the assessment, you’re already behind.  14. Every assessment is flawed; the more frequent, student-centered, and "non-confrontational," the better. It’s tempting to overvalue each assessment as some kind of measuring stick of human potential. At best, it’s an imperfect snapshot. 15. It’s tempting to take assessment results personal; it’s not. The less personal you take the assessment, the more analytical you’ll allow yourself to be. 16. Confirmation bias within assessment is easy to fall for-looking for data to support what you already suspect. Force yourself to see it the other way. 17. Assessment doesn’t have to mean "test." All student work has a world of "data" to offer. How much you gain depends on what you’re looking for. The Inconvenient Truth About Assessment The post The Inconvenient Truths About Assessment appeared first on TeachThought.

Teaching Art, Or Teaching To Think Like An Artist? by TeachThought Staff Be creative. Curious. Seek questions. Develop ideas. Play. These ideas are familiar to modern educators, as they represent a kind of polar opposite to the standardized and industrialized form learning has taken on-or is at least perceived to have taken on in the current era of accountability. It was an interesting then to see these questions lead into a broader one: Should we teach art, or teach students to think like an artist? Should we teach history, or teach students to think like an historian? While this implies that you can’t do one without the other, if we assume for a moment that can’t do both and have to choose, where would our priority be? We’ve asked a similar question before: Are You Teaching Content, Or Teaching Thought? The video below from Cindy Foley frames that idea through the "content area" of art, asking the question, "Should we be teaching art, or teaching students to think like artists?" In our estimation, this is one of the key questions facing education-a connected learning endeavor-in the 21st century as we shift from teaching content to teaching habits, process, and thinking. Foley identifies three habits artists consistently demonstrate. 3 Habits Artists Demonstrate 1. Comfort with Ambiguity 2. Idea Generation 3. Transdisciplinary Research You can hear Foley explain the concept more fully in the TED Talk below. The idea extends way beyond art, right to the core of education as an icon, process, and tool of social improvement and wisdom. "What is the purpose and value of Art education in the 21st Century? Foley makes the case the Art’s critical value is to develop learners that think like Artists which means learners who are creative, curious, that seek questions, develop ideas, and play. For that to happen society will need to stop the pervasive, problematic and cliché messaging that implies that creativity is somehow defined as artistic skill. This shift in perception will give educators the courage to teach for creativity, by focusing on three critical habits that artist employ, 1. Comfort with Ambiguity, 2. Idea Generation, and 3. Transdisciplinary Research. This change can make way for Center’s for Creativity in our schools and museums where ideas are king and curiosity reigns. Cindy Meyers Foley is the Executive Assistant Director and Director of Learning and Experience at the Columbus Museum of Art. Foley worked to reimagine the CMA as a 21st century institution that is transformative, active, and participatory. An institution that impacts the health and growth of the community by cultivating, celebrating and championing creativity. Foley envisioned and led the charge to open the 18,000 sq. ft. Center for Creativity in 2011. In 2013, the museum received the National Medal for Museums in recognition of this work. Foley guest edited and wrote chapters for Intentionality and the Twenty-First-Century Museum, for the summer 2014 Journal of Museum Education. In 2012, Foley received the Greater Columbus Arts Council Community Arts Partnership award for Arts Educator. She was a keynote speaker for the OAEA (Ohio Art Education Association) 2012 Conference. She is on the Faculty of Harvard University’s Future of Learning Summer Institute. Foley is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and The Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Museum, she was with the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Wexner Center for the Arts." Teaching Art, Or Teaching To Think Like An Artist? The post Teaching Art, Or Teaching To Think Like An Artist? appeared first on TeachThought.

What Is A Personal Learning Network? by TeachThought Staff What is a personal learning network, or rather a Personal Learning Network? How about a Professional Learning Network? In the video below, Marc-André Lalande offers a concise, useful definition that simplifies the idea from hashtags and movements and social engagement and badges and, well, all the buzzwords you hear, into a clear explanation that works not just within education, but any field. "A Personal Learning Network is a way of describing the group of people that you connect with to learn their ideas, their questions, their reflections, and their references. Your PLN is not limited to online interactions, but it is that online, global interactive part that really makes it special. It is personal because you choose who’s part of that group; you choose if you want to lurk-just check out what people are saying-or if you share; because you choose when to do so, and how to do so." In that way, a Professional Learning Network, then, is a natural extension of the way people learn-by connecting with others who have shared interests, ideas, or resources. If the internet was, at one point, one-way-a user "logs on" to search for information or share an opinion, then "logs off" because they’re "finished"-a more progressive view could be that connectivity is omni-directional and multi-facted. We connect with different people with unique expertise using varied tools for authentic and constantly changing purposes. Interestingly, that view will continue to change as technology evolves. That is, we view and define connections in light of potential for and degrees of connectivity. What Is A Personal Learning Network?  The post What Is A Personal Learning Network? appeared first on TeachThought.

7 Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying by Paula Green, Antibullying Advocate If a child is expressing anger or anxiety after going online, it might be one of the signs he/she is being cyberbullied. Cyberbullying is becoming a burning issue both for parents and teachers. Kids spend around 3 hours online and use cell phones 80% of the time, making it the most common medium for online bullying. Cyberbullying is the same as traditional bullying but if traditional bullying stops, when the school ends, for online bullying there is almost no escape. Unfortunately, many kids torment and harass each other using the internet via computers and smartphones. So you have a full picture, we listed top cyberbullying facts and ways to prevent it below. 7 Surprising Cyberbullying Statistics 45% of children admit they have experienced bullying online More than 40% say they have become the bullies’ target 70% admit they have witnessed cyberbullying 50% of children admit to be scared of their online bullies 92% of cyberbullying attacks are held through chatting and commenting on social media websites Cyberbullying victims are 3 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide Only 2 in 10 victims will inform their parents or teachers of online attacks McAfee chief privacy officer firstly reported about the problem in 2012. In her interview she claimed that 1 in 10 kids are experiencing cyberbullying without parents knowing. If you are suspecting your child is being bullied online, below is a list of things you can do to stop or prevent it. 7 Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying 1. Talk Every psychologist will tell you that the best way to help your child or student is to have a conversation first. Be patient and ask a child about the problem in general: what is cyberbullying, does he/she know someone who is being bullied, what children should do if notice acts of bullying. This way you will see how much your child is involved in the situation and which side he/she is on. 2. Use celebrity card Modern children are the same as we used to be. They choose role models and follow them in every way. Now they choose singers, sportsmen and actors. Nowadays, a lot of celebrities are supporting cyberbullying victims. Many of them post numerous comments against online bulling on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Demi Lovato Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are the most popular teen singers who talk about this problem out loud. 3. Monitor online activity Luckily, cyberbullying has one advantage: you can notice it and save the evidence. If taking their phone away is not an option, you can install iPhone monitoring app Pumpic. It allows monitoring social media activity, including Facebook and Instagram, view all text messages (even deleted ones), call logs and general online behavior. You can block and control the child’s phone remotely through PC or personal cell phone. 4. Engage parents and youth Create a community for adults and pupils to send a unified message against cyberbullying. Establish a school safety committee that will control and discuss the problems of online bullying. You can create policies and rules, including cyberbullying reporting system. It is important to make the main objectives known to parents, school and children.   5. Build a positive climate School staff can do a big deal to prevent cyberbullying.  As a teacher you can use staff and parents meetings and even send newsletters. Use your school website to create a page and forum, where parents can discuss the problem. You can also engage bullies and victims by giving them mutual tasks, so they can try to see each other from a different perspective. 6. Volunteer in the community As a parent, you can prevent bullying by working in the community. With your experience on the ground, appropriate strategies can help identify the victims and redirect bullies’ behavior.   7. Restore self-respect Remember that the ultimate goal is to protect and restore the victim’s self respect. Act thoroughly; fast decisions can only make things worse. Talk to someone about the problem before responding. Collect the evidence and join with parents or teachers to figure out the possible best choice to stop cyberbullying among children. Mrs. Green takes a big part in NY anti-bullying campaign for young leaders. Right now she works as an independent contributor for Pumpic.com; image attribution flickr user workingword The post 7 Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying appeared first on TeachThought.

6 Tongue-In-Cheek Tips For Helicopter Parents That Help Too Much by Anonymous Practicing Teacher That Cares We’ve all been there. We’ve worked a long grueling day only to come home and find out our child has a project due the next day. We’ve argued and threatened punishment over said project. We’ve been too tired to argue over said project. We’ve sent them to bed while we "helped" our child on said project. What parent hasn’t, right? But as "the grader" we also recognize their work from your work. We work with your child every day. We see their work. We know their handwriting. We know how they think, much like you do. But different.In a way, we are an extension of you when it comes to recognizing your child for what makes them them. So before you start that next project, here are some things to think about-6 tips from teachers to parents to help them pass of their work as that of their child. 6 Tongue-In-Cheek Tips For Helicopter Parents That Help Too Much 1. Use their handwriting-or rather, let them use theirs We know their handwriting as well as you do. So at least have them recopy the information in their own handwriting if you’re not going to type it out. Think of this as their punishment for waiting to the last minute, for making you "help" with the project, for depriving you of your R&R. 2. Mistakes, done well, can imply authenticity Ease up on the grammar. When was the last time you read your child’s work? Let me reassure you, grammar (subject/verb agreement, homophones/homographs, and run-on sentences) keep us busy all year long. Even with their progress, there’s always more to do. So think imperfect sentences that show promise, but shortcomings-nothing awful, but the syntax should parallel that of their peers’, not Shakespeare’s. Or better yet, have them paraphrase what you wrote. Your planning and their polish. Teamwork! Pro Tip: To avoid the above, Google "student writing samples" to get some ideas of the kinds of errors to include. Pro Tip #2: Pro Tip: Do not overdo this part-it can backfire. 3. Use their vocabulary level, not yours This isn’t a college level assignment. You won’t impress us with your vocabulary-well you might, but that’s bad. Stunning vocabulary and spelling and editing overall only makes us more suspicious. Or proud-depends who did it. So, refer to that text language image you saved on Pinterest a few months ago and add in some creative letter combinations along the way. Look at it as a way to save you time while you’re writing. 4. Don’t get too ambitious with materials Now we know you are dying to bust out the crayons, colored pencils, construction paper, and glue but let us assure you all you will need is a pencil and paper- lined paper that is. While color is often a requirement for projects-they make bulletin boards look better-students will commonly forego the points just to "be done" with the project. And copy paper? Who wants to get up and walk to where that is located? Lined paper will be just fine. If you can’t stop yourself from adding color, go with markers. No student would be caught dead with a crayon or colored pencil. Markers are where it’s at these days. Also, definitely be careful with the 3D printers, wearable technology, and the like. Expensive, and the ambition can be a dead giveaway if it doesn’t match that of the student’s. 5. Be careful with names and titles Whose paper is this? Don’t write their full name. A first name only will suffice. They are the only "Johnny" in the world, right? And the class period and date? Now you’re just sending red flags all over the project. A creative title! While it’s also often a required element for the project- it never happens. As for titles, think simple. If the project is on the topic of myths, just title it "My Myth"; an essay on Abraham Lincoln? "My Essay on Abraham Lincoln" works. The same Lincoln essays titled "The Great Emancipator’s Enduring Relevance In A Digital World" makes us wonder. 6. Don’t deliver it to class yourself At least them drag it on the bus; adds a grit-factor, and can "wear" the project/paper/assignment some to make it look more authentic. You should have plenty of time to practice these tips as we head into the crunch time of the year for project completion. Keep in mind we’ve been there. Many of us probably do it out of learned behavior; our parents did it for us, so we do it for our children, and the cycle carries on. But even with the best of intentions, the note home asking if you "helped" will be just as awkward for us as it will be for you. With love and admiration to all parents from all teachers, keep fighting the good fight. 6 Tongue-In-Cheek Tips For Helicopter Parents That Help Too Much; image attribution flickr user vancouverfilmschool The post For Helicopter Parents That Help Too Much appeared first on TeachThought.

"If that’s where they are, it’s where I must be, too." by Dawn Casey-Rowe, Smartphone Owner And User Of Analog Clocks Analog clocks, cursive, Roman numerals, map reading. Memorizing times tables, dates, and battles. These skills were part of my K-12 curricula. They may soon go the way of quills and inkwells in favor of apps, gadgets, GPS. Maybe they should. It’s a debate many are having. Just what do students need? "We don’t need that anymore," they complain when I teach something "old-school." With one click of the phone, kids solve complex problems, Google their research, collaborate with others, and share out their results to the world. The way they learn is changing. The way I teach should be, too. "What time is it, Miss?" a student asked. "Time to get a watch." It’s my standard response. Sometimes I say, "Time to do your work," "Time to change the world," or "Time for coffee." There’s a big, big clock on the wall. No one is incapable of turning around to look. The truth comes out. "I don’t know how to tell time on those clocks." Nothing in education shocks me anymore. "How do you know what time to leave?" I asked. "My phone." Until recently, schools were in the business of confiscating phones-the one tool connecting students to all the world’s learning.  Students got detention as a reward for higher-level learning. Adults would say, "They don’t need phones. They’ll just text."  I watch the former phone-takers. They’re on social media during meetings and conventions. I’ve never seen a reason to indict kids. Thankfully, phones are allowed in my school and many others now. Long before they were, I saw a group of students crowded around one in class. "What are you doing?" "Looking up census data." Another time I caught a student on Skype-an education felony. "My cousin’s helping me fix this infographic." One day, I saw a phone propped up on a desk. A group FaceTimed in a missing member. He was at the airport. His plane had been delayed and he wanted to be in class.  Maybe these kids were on to something. I want students to have the ability to connect each other and experts in real-time and learn. I’m teaching students to build networks with top people in their field-many of whom are one tweet away. Eventually they will convert this knowledge into careers. This is important. Students may have up to seven careers in their generation-many of which they will have to build themselves. The phone in students’ pockets is a tool they need for connecting and building. It is more powerful than my first three computers combined. With it, they can conquer the world. I no longer have the problem of "She has our group’s work and she’s absent" because "she" can be texted and "they" were supposed to share out their files on Google drive anyway. Their phones can solve the problem of information, distance, and time. With it, they can create networks and empires more powerful and far-reaching than the Roman empire. And even though most of us pay a few hundred dollars for a smartphone that brings us status, the truth is, in most countries, you can get a decent one for fifty to seventy-five bucks. Today, many parts of the world and certain demographics are skipping right to mobile phones. Desktops and laptops are for old people, teachers, and dinosaurs and first-world nations where we have the luxury of switching back and forth. Students are born into a world that heads right to the phone. They look at platforms without an iPhone app with suspicion. Heck, I’m starting to, too. A gradebook without integration or a mobile app? An education platform that can’t be used on a smartphone? Inconceivable! Nearly a crime! I recently took a call with a rep from an incredible company-one whose product I would have used daily until I discovered they didn’t have mobile capabilities. The response was shocking. "Can’t you just get a laptop cart or go to a computer lab?" "No. My students have phones. Thank you very much for your time." Successful companies do not design products for the audience they think exists-they create things that solve problems for the one that really does. My students are attached to their phones. It’s their intellectual and social life support system. If that’s where they are, it’s where I must be, too. The availability of mobile phones is changing the world. It’s not only in schools that students turn first to their phones-many parts of the world are skipping right to mobile. People are developing local economies, creating microbusinesses, forging connections, and bringing opportunities that never before existed-all on their phones. This episode of venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz’ a16z podcast shows the impact of mobile technology on Myanmar, a nation formerly cut off technology entirely. It’s a story that is easy to apply to education. The education landscape often seems less the center of national innovation and more like the developing world both in terms of policy and infrastructure. The difference is that developing nations are get technology for the first time and begin innovating and using it. Our students have always had technology, we’ve just taken it away. If the White House ConnectEd initiative is successful, every school will be connected to high speed internet. This has the potential to produce real learning.  We’ll get rid of the "tech graveyard," because students will use their phones and devices, stocked with apps that help them learn best instead of standing around broken and antiquated machines in schools stocked with things nobody wanted to use to begin with for which someone paid. We will be improving efficiency one-hundred fold by increasing responsibility, teaching digital citizenship that will carry over into a solid professional career, and getting rid of things nobody needs. So, I ask the question "What do students-and teachers need? How do we deliver?" Do kids need cursive? Do they need Roman numerals? Calculus? Map reading skills? I have to admit I’m partial to such things, even being a tech lover. But still, we need to have the conversation-which facts should be memorized and which Googled then applied? Everything’s changing. We need to be ready for that change, and in most cases, lead and direct it for the benefit of our students. I remember the phone-store kid who talked me into my first touch-screen phone. "Trust me, you won’t need the keyboard," the kid said. The thought of letting go of the keyboard frightened me. How would I use the phone? He was right. I didn’t need the keyboard. I evolved. "Always trust the kid," I thought. I started wondering what else I didn’t need. So I ask my students, "How do you want to learn?" They want their phone. Their phones are their pencil, their calculator, their database, their notebook. The phone is the secret weapon kids will use to rule the world, in lieu of its design limitations or cracked screen. Anyone at the cutting edge of education or technology knows this. It’s not the end all or be all, but it’s a start toward allowing kids to access the technology they need and will use in on a day-to-day basis in their lives. And in most parts of the world, the cost is under a hundred bucks. "If that’s where they are, it’s where I must be, too."; image attribution flickr user Kārlis Dambrāns The post "If that’s where they are, it’s where I must be, too." appeared first on TeachThought.