Every Classroom Matters Episode 193 When you see an accomplished educator like Alec Couros, it is easy to think that he’s always been this way. You might believe that he’s never made mistakes. You might think that everything was perfect from day one. In this conversation, Alec takes us through his educational journey and the truths he’s learned along each step. As we listened to the show, Sylvia Duckworth and I jotted down six epic educational truths. (I put the epic in there, he wouldn’t, but I think you’ll agree, some of these insights are profound. Hat tip to Sylvia for her sketchnote below!) I appreciate Alec’s candor. I believe his journey as a teacher will inspire you like it has me. Thank you VIF Learning Center, today’s sponsor. Today’s sponsor is VIF Learning Center. VIF Learning Center has lesson plans, classroom connections and many ways for educators to connect and join classrooms to become globally connected. Click here to try out VIF Learning Center Essential Questions: Alec Couros’ 6 Epic Truths About Education Did Alec immediately know he wanted to be a teacher? How do you recognize when a moment is important to a child? What is the problem with childhood today? How can adults help? What did Alec learn about learning as he led a MOOC with educators from more than 75 countries? It takes years for master craftsmen to perfect their art. So, why do we expect ourselves (and others) to be masters the moment they enter the classroom? If we can help this generation of teachers joining our ranks persist instead of always being dissed, we might just find that many of them are great teachers who got off to a rough start. I appreciate Alec’s@courosa transparency in today’s show. As he talked, I felt like yelling "Yes, That was me!" The craftsmanship of teaching starts with another ship — relationship. We can do this. Bumps in the road don’t mean that the road isn’t worth traveling. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. The post Alec Couros’ 6 Epic Educational Truths appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Social Media Insights Twitter counts on blog posts are broken. Can you fix Twitter counts? Why did this happen? Is Twitter in trouble? Let’s not panic, let’s analyze what has happened and how we can still find Twitter counts on a page (for now.) Although Twitter announced some time ago their plan to get rid of the counts that show how many times a page has been tweeted, they turned off the service on November 20. Now, my blog and many others across the web just show a tweet button, but no count. You’re not alone. We’re all in the same boat. To make more money, Twitter wants us to use their gnip API service to retrieve Twitter counts. The only drawback — a BIG ONE — $300-500 per month to retrieve Twitter counts. That is crazy and out of reach for many of us. How Can I Find out Twitter Counts for a Page? So, here is an alternative fix to the big price tag until things get sorted out: Install the Buzz Sumo Chrome Extension Sign up for the Free Buzz Sumo Account You can now use this to see how many Twitter shares a page has if you want to see that. But Buzz Sumo says they won’t be pulling the data live. They say most of the shares happen in the first three days, so after that, they may not update their shares quite as much (due to costs.) You can’t fix Twitter counts on blog posts, but using Buzz Sumo, you can see what they are. Why Did Twitter Break Their Share Counts? Many of us have come to depend on the "social cred" of a blog post or site. When you go to a blog post and see that it has hundreds of shares, you think differently about the post than otherwise. So, why did Twitter say they wanted to "break" this. Spam. Some blame the "bots." Indeed, some sites have gamed the system and hired or had "bots" share and reshare their content. By removing the temptation, the use of bots will no longer help get more shares and perhaps make better content on Twitter in the long run. (Less spam.) Money. In the end, Twitter says they have to be "sustainable." In other words, they have to pay the bills. They claim this use was "undocumented." We didn’t make it, so we don’t guarantee it, says Twitter. In the end, they have to pay for their service. They need to monetize it. But that doesn’t explain why Facebook, Linked In, and Pinterest all provide the service while Twitter won’t anymore. Traffic. If you could imagine that every page with a Twitter counter sent a count to Twitter’s API service. I would imagine this was a lot of traffic. But, you can’t really fix Twitter counts even with the new option from gnip. Inaccurate. Twitter often argued that reshares were not truly a reflection of engagement. On this one point, I’ll agree. Often, I share tweets on my top tweets of the week that, on the surface, do not look to be popular. Due to reshares, conversations, and clicks they are popular. But, I would argue, just because these numbers aren’t an accurate reflection of engagement, doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. I agree with Stuart Thomas on Memeburn that, If Twitter’s going to thrive, as it’s shareholders need it to, then it needs to do everything in its power to keep publishers onside. Killing share counts might not see them neglecting Twitter all together, it’s too valuable for that, but it’s surely a sign that it’s not willing to compromise when it comes to their wants and desires. If this is the start of a greater trend, then Twitter may well be sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Unintended Consequences. When you break trust with your user base, you’d better watch out. I will admit that Google’s continue discontinuation and finally their cancelling of Google Reader caused me to swap to WordPress for my blog. Sure, Google has a right to make money and so does Twitter. Services always COST SOMETHING. But not giving us the option to pay a reasonable fee and cancelling the service is short-sighted. But one has to be very careful when upsetting the 1%. Klossner’s 90-9-1 principle shows that 1% of users on social media create most of the content. Nine percent are "active lurkers" with 90% "passive lurkers. The bottom line is that Facebook, Pinterest, and other platforms provide this data. Since Twitter does not, it may cause many of us to gravitate towards sharing on other social media. I’m not sure that it will be intentional. And face it, the $300-500 price tag is not an option that many average users are going to be willing to accept. Time will tell if the less spammy content on Twitter will result from killing the Twitter count button. Time will tell if people will stay on Twitter more or if they’ll naturally share on Facebook or something else more. Certainly, a whole slew of Twitter spammers are crying in their soup today, and I guess that is a good thing. Meanwhile, I’ll use Buzz Sumo and make up my mind about what I think. There’s no fix, just one Chrome extension or deep deep pockets that can fix your Twitter share button. We are yet again reminded that "free" has a price. And, for better or worse, the change will leave lots of annoyed birds out there. The post Can You Fix Twitter Counts? (and Why They Are Broken) appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters Episode 191 What is the secret to effective online project based learning? How can we get kids excited about writing? Nancy White shares how. She reflects upon two big projects. Nancy had one that worked well. She had another one that floundered. What was the difference? Apply Nancy’s principles and have better online writing today. Important Takeaways- Project Based Learning: Teaching Students to Be Great Curators How an army of retired educators made an enormous difference in student writing. The importance of the first few days of student blogging. How students can be curators. The secret of inquiry-based learning. Something Nancy says that confirms Vicki’s same experience with student blogging. Nancy White’s candid reflections on student writing apply to all online student projects. The audience is a vital part of online work. What you do in the first few days makes a big difference. Nancy’s reflection about audience aligns with my own. Building a writing community is so important. Take a moment to check out my book Reinventing Writing. I dedicate a whole chapter to building writing communities. Building an audience is a vital part of building a community. Perhaps some retired educators could help volunteer and fill a huge need for online student work. Educator Resources and Links from the Show @NancyW Students as Curators Blog Post by Nancy White Ronald Bonstetter’s Student Inquiry Paper and Chart Great quotes from the show you can share… Improve student writing by helping them become curators. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook The post Project Based Learning: Teaching Students to Be Curators appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Every Classroom Matters Episode 193 How should we be talking to children about terrorism? Did you know children under six shouldn’t be watching the news? Do you know the biggest worries of high schoolers when they hear of terrorism? Child trauma expert Dr. Steven Berkowitz helps parents and teachers understand how we talk to kids of various ages about terrorism. Now is the time to listen to and share this show before Thanksgiving family dinner conversations. Important Takeways: What the Experts Say About Talking to Children About Terrorism Recommendations for watching the news with children The biggest worries of high schoolers and how to talk to them What to say when kids ask "Will this happen to me?" How the news can cause trauma in children How teachers can help children through tough times Dr. Berkowitz is a widely quoted expert in child trauma. His advice is simple but important for all teachers to understand right now. What you say to kids matters, especially when they are upset.  This past week, I used what Dr. Steven Berkowitz taught me in this show as I talked to some upset children. I received a grateful email from a precious parent thanking me because now her child has her mind at ease. You might not think this is important, but if kids are talking, they want to talk with adults. As always, get traumatized kids help. Educator Resources and Links from the Show The National Child Traumatic Stress Network Great quotes from the show you can share… You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above. Join the Every Classroom Matters Awesome Educators Network on Facebook The post WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY about Talking to Children About Terrorism appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

November 2015 November has been a busy month. Not only are teachers using new tools, but they are struggling with burnout and old-fashioned interpersonal skills. We are needing inspiration and simple edtech advice as shown by the top blog posts here on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog and shows this month. Top 10 Blog Posts of November 2015: The Cool Cat Teacher Blog 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around Note Taking Skills for 21st Century Students Why Teachers Need to Keep Going Even When It’s Hard 5 Ways to Teach Gratitude in Your Classroom 15 Best Google Drive Add-Ons for Education How to Use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching 10 Inspirational Videos for Teachers What To Do When Someone Hates You 6 Reading Comprehension Problems and What To Do About Them 8 Great Ways to Level Up Game Based Learning in the Classroom Top Shows of November 2015: Every Classroom Matters Every Classroom Matters continues to have more than 110K downloads each month and growing (November stats aren’t in yet.) Thank you to all of you who listen, share, and share your ideas for guests on the show.  Alec Couros’ Epic Educational Truths - Alec reflects on his career as a teacher and Sylvia Duckworth draws an amazing sketchnote to go with it. My Lesson Plan is Not Working, The Kids Are Not Learning, I’m Freaking Out with Alicia Roberts Throwing Students Across the Room Doesn’t Work, This Does Classroom Management expert Steve Miletto reflects with me what could have been done differently in Spring Hill. How We Can Stop Teaching to the Test and Start Learning (For a Change) with Eric Sheninger about his new book Uncommon Learning Kid President: Kids Inspiring Kids to Change the World - This was an October Show with Brad Montague, founder of Kid President but it continued to be widely shared in November. 6 Learning Experiences You Should Give to Every Student with David Jakes as we reflect upon classroom design How Teachers Can Self-Publish Books with David Hopkins from the UK gives us a simple how-to on self publishing Improving Teaching through Student Reflections with Dean Shareski who reflects honestly about how we should have students reflect as we improve our lessons. How I Motivated my Autistic Students to Publish 63 books with Jon Smith Hip Hop Language Education: Using Rap to Teach, Really? with Jason Levine November has been a great month! We have several weeks of very hard work left in December and then we have a little break. Yahoo! I know it is silly that I’m still tired after Thanksgiving break, but that is the truth. It is the end of the grading period and final exams at my school. These are stressful times and keeping up with everything is just nuts! Thank you to the sponsors of Every Classroom Matters! We’ve had some fantastic sponsors for the show recently! If you haven’t checked them out, take a moment to look at these amazing sponsors: VIF Learning Center has fantastic lesson plans and ways for educators to connect. Lesley University has wonderful online education classes for busy teachers. Bloomz - how I’m connecting with parents this year! I love it and continue to share this one everywhere I go! Volunteer Spot - An awesome tool to connect parents, teachers, and volunteers and easily set up parent teacher conferences. Help Teaching - has a free, fantastic test maker and lots of Common Core and standards aligned resources to help you create and make resources to use in your classroom Staples - I loved doing back to school work with them. This is where I shop! (Just today I picked up my planner paper.) These organizations have support Every Classroom Matters and the mission of helping every teacher level up every day! I hope you’ll click the links, try their services, and support those who support the show! Remember, your classroom matters! Thank you to all of you who are listening! I have some new sponsors I’ll be announcing soon who are supporting the show and this blog! Thank you for making this work possible. My Blog Birthday is This Week! This week I’ll be celebrating 10 years of blogging! Time has flown and so much has happened in 10 years. I’d love to tell your stories. If you have a favorite blog post or something that helped you that should be shared, will you please share by sending me an email at vicki at coolcatteacher dot com! If you started blogging, did something cool, or had something great happen - shoot me a picture of it or share a blog post. I’m not sure what I’m going to do to celebrate and thank you all for ten great years, but I’m looking forward to hearing your suggestions!                       The post Top Blog Posts on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Great teachers self-assess. Poor teachers change nothing. Test yourself. Is your teaching solid? Don’t take for granted that students are learning. Give yourself a regular check up. Great teachers learn. They learn about their pupils. They understand their classroom.  They make it better. Great teachers become a better educator every day. I can tell a great teacher with one question. "What is the next thing you want to do in your classroom?" The great ones will immediately talk about the lessons that didn’t work. They’ll share their student’s struggles. They’ll reveal their weaknesses as a teacher. By listening to them, you might be tempted to think that they are an ineffective teacher. You’d be wrong. Ineffective teachers are some of the most self-confident ones you’ll meet. They have few things they’d change. So, they languish in mediocrity. Effective teachers are always improving, so they’re always setting their sights on new goals. They are always leveling up and trying new things. 8 Ways to Become a Better Educator Every Day 1. Take the time to reflect. Journal. Write down areas of weakness. Brainstorm ways to improve. Good practices become best practices with reflection. 2. Ask your students. Dean Shareski asks his students to give him feedback on each assignment. You can get student feedback at any point in the year. Capture all feedback in the journal where you’ll reflect. (Dean also learns a great deal from their self-assessment, even if it is more questions.) 3. Look at your results. Administrators don’t like surprises. Good teachers don’t like them either. When your class average drops rapidly — you should be figuring out why. Ask questions. Look at what you did. Figure out what students don’t know. 4. Know who you want to be. Great teachers make a "to be" list before making a "to do" list. Examine your values. Examine your behavior. How do you line up? What can you do to improve? 5. Know who you don’t want to be. You can reboot any day you choose. Most teachers have a bad day sometimes. Great teachers never make bad days a habit. Yelling. A lesson plan that failed. A disciplinary problem. It is your classroom. It is your determination to act that will make it better. Your job is to know when you’re not measuring up. Take action. 6. Seek answers, don’t find fault. You can take action. Improve your classroom. I had a class one year that became chatty in March. They would not quiet down. I told them that we’d reboot tomorrow with a new seating chart. (UK Teacher Tom Bennett gets the credit for helping me realize this.)  Although students were not happy about their new seats at first, I reminded them that we were there to learn. I’d rather be happy with learning than have students happy with me. With a new seating chart, we picked up the pace. In the end, we were all happier because we were making progress. And we made great strides. 7. Choose to change. In this podcast, Michael Hyatt talks about goals. He said that goals should not be inside your comfort zone, but in your discomfort zone. He also mentioned staying out of the "delusional zone." Greatness lies outside our comfort zone. But you’re delusional if you think there’s a perfect classroom. Yours is not. Mine is not. But the risk is usually not that we shoot too high. The problem is that some teachers don’t aim to change at all. 8. Face Your Fears I love what teacher Jon Smith says, "As teachers, we have to not be fearful of what could happen but focus on what this idea could become." I’ve heard that FEAR stands for "False Evidence Appearing Real." We fear change and trying new things, but we shouldn’t. Instead, we should fear complacency. We should fear a mindset that refuses to change. Because when we refuse to change, we refuse to learn. We give up our role as a lead learner when we refuse to change. The kids in our room are fearful every day because they are asked to learn every day. They have to see us learning too! Grow, Don’t Rot. Some teachers get tired. They think that it is easier to stay the same than to change. If you think you can stay the same, that is a lie. You can’t. You’re either getting better or getting worse. You can’t stay the same. It isn’t possible. Nature abhors a vacuum. In the South we say, "When you’re green, you’re growing. When you’re ripe, you rot." Don’t rot, dear friends. Grow. Growth is a slow, steady thing. When you learn and apply a little bit consistently, you look back and realize what a big difference it has made. Become a better educator every day. When you do, it means that you’ll be an incredible teacher after a pretty short period. All that growth adds up! One thing is sure: to not grow is to die slowly. Level up a little bit every day. Your students will be glad you did.   The post 8 Ways to Become a Better Educator Every Day appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Trends and topics on Twitter November was a busy month. Out of 758 tweets, these are the top 10 based on your retweets, shares, and click-throughs on Twitter Analytics. If you haven’t checked out Twitter analytics yet, head on over to http://analytics.twitter.com Top Education Tweets: November 2015 1. A graphic created by @ASTsupportAAli to help kids reflect on their learning Some people love this plenary review grid and are using this with classes. Although, I was tweeted by an educator yesterday who said this was another way to "put more pressure on kids." Of course, the point is well taken. Any tool can be used well or not so well, in my opinion. I’ve seen poor teachers take a great idea and completely botch it with their students. Likewise, I’ve seen great teachers make magic with a mediocre lesson plan. It comes down to the teacher. The most innovative "technology" in education today isn’t a device, it is a teacher. What a great way to have kids reflect on their learning.: https://t.co/RBtO6J2Sf3 pic.twitter.com/caObF6DBE9 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 7, 2015 2. Alec Couros’ 6 Epic Educational Truths with a Sketchnote from Sylvia Duckworth Alec’s show was listed yesterday as the top show on Every Classroom Matters in November. If you’re traveling this November, you definitely want to download this one and listen. I appreciate Alec’s transparency as he reflects on the mistakes of his early teaching career and what he is still learning. Sylvia Duckworth added her magic to Alec’s work and the result has turned into a helpful conversation about great teaching. Alec Couros' 6 Epic Educational Truths @courosa Sketchnote by @sylviaduckworth https://t.co/ssWFJ3nzdI #edchat pic.twitter.com/G0zNpY0Al4 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 23, 2015 3. 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around with Sketchnote from Sylvia Duckworth Inspired by a comment by Kevin Honeycutt on Every Classroom Matters, this post was enhanced with a rocking sketchnote by Sylvia Duckworth. This blog post was the top post of the month here on Cool Cat Teacher. It buoys my hope and thrills me that so many teachers are realizing their power to positively impact kids with their actions. Make it your goal to #flipakid every single day! 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around https://t.co/dW6lF6evQA — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 4, 2015 4. Read News Quickly with Feedly I updated this blog post about how I read the news with Feedly. This is the lesson I also use with my ninth graders. When I tweaked it, I also added a cute graphic I made in Canva. UPDATED! Read News Quickly with Feedly https://t.co/W4Dpk9C1Vq #edtech pic.twitter.com/vZJPWJHnla — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 24, 2015 5. We need students to create, not be controlled by technology Made this with Pablo, a cool tool from Buffer that lets you make a graphic with a click. I highlighted some profound text from this article, turned it into a graphic and linked to the article. Just install the Pablo extension. As you can see from the tweets so far, people tend to share tweets with graphics more than those with just text. Pablo helps you do that. Technology should assist student learning & creation rather than to control learning… https://t.co/JR3DmiIm0x pic.twitter.com/5SdgChYFp5 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 9, 2015 6. Note taking Skills for 21st Century Students This blog post was my second most popular of November. So many teachers hann Chromebooks or iPads to kids and say "take notes" but don’t understand the best way to help kids take notes. Here’s a lesson with videos I use with my students. Note Taking Skills for 21st Century Students https://t.co/u5zoR1QYNx #edtech pic.twitter.com/g2aLfnVRhv — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 5, 2015 7. George Couros’ rocked his keynote at Miami Device. Here was the most popular tweet from that session "Social media is like water. You can either let us drown, or teach us to swim." a student of @gcouros #miamidevice — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 13, 2015 8. Nancy White reflects on her students as curators Quite a bit of discussion has been surrounding Nancy’s "army of retired educators" comment as she reflected on one project that worked well and another that didn’t. Again, transparency and authenticity surround the comments that tend to trend on Twitter and educator circles. NEW! Project-Based Learning: Teaching Students to Be Great Curators https://t.co/wmimUv8qVY with @NancyW #edchat — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 20, 2015 9. 10 Strategies to Make Learning More Like a Game from TeachThought Game based learning has been a hot topic in education circles. I had a blog post in the top 10 on this topic. This tweet features a fantastic graphic from TeachThought. 10 Strategies To Make Learning Feel More Like A Game https://t.co/GcGXP9rvnQ pic.twitter.com/dVxQUKt2F6 — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 24, 2015 10. Maker Websites that are Great for Makerspaces Maker spaces rock. Many schools are building and creating them. Maker Websites That Are Great For Makerspaces https://t.co/rCIjgIe6OH — Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) November 29, 2015 Thank you, dear friends for teaching me so much. I may not respond to every tweet (it depends on the craziness of the day) but I read every single one of them. You make this list and you have chosen well! The post Top Education Tweets of November 2015 appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Sue and Mrs. Scruggs Sue’s lunch pail slung back and forth as she waited for the bus. She fingered a rip in her homemade skirt and thought it was time for another patch. Another patch? Sue looked longingly over at two of the most popular girls in her class. They were dressed stylishly as they threw their bags in the convertible and jumped in for a ride home with their boyfriends. Wishing for the life of a popular girl was a waste of time. Sue knew that. She turned her attention back to waiting for the bus so she could go home, change clothes, and feed the cows. If she was lucky, she might have time to read before the sun went down. Sue heard the clicking of heels behind her. Turning around, Sue looked into the eyes of Mrs. Velma Scruggs, her literature teacher. "Sue, I need to speak with you in my room for a moment." Sue looked towards the empty bus line wondering what would happen if she missed her bus. "It won’t take long," Mrs. Scruggs said as she took Sue’s arm and they went into the classroom just down the hall. As they eyed each other across Mrs. Scruggs’ wooden desk, Sue thought she was in trouble. "Sue, I’ve been thinking about you. I think you are a leader. You should run for student government," said Mrs. Scruggs. "I think you can win." Sue was taken aback. When they announced the elections over the intercom, Sue didn’t dream that she could even run. You only followed people you wanted to be like and no one wanted to be poor. Sue fingered the hole in her skirt again. Poor kids as leaders just wasn’t done. "I’ll think about it, Mrs. Scruggs," whispered Sue, head down. "I’ll let you know tomorrow." As she lay awake in bed that night after her prayers, Sue wondered if she should even try. Sue thought about the girl who was running for that spot - beautiful, wealthy, and always wearing the latest fashions. (Not to mention the convertible-driving boyfriend who was to die for.) The popular kids would never vote for Sue. Wasn’t this what an election was, a popularity contest? But Mrs. Scruggs thought Sue could win. And Sue thought Mrs. Scruggs was very smart. So then, instead of counting sheep, Sue started counting friends. She knew the six kids who lived under an overturned bus out of town. Their dirt floor was swept clean by their Mom every night. Sue knew kids who had fleas but couldn’t help it. Sue knew lots of country boys who would miss school to hunt rabbits or raccoons if their families didn’t have enough to eat. More than knowing them, these kids were her friends, and she respected them - every single one of them. Sue’s friends might not have money, but they each had a vote. So, the next morning as soon as the bus dropped her off, with lunch pail in hand, Sue stood in front of Mrs. Scrugg’s desk. "I’ll run," said Sue breathlessly. Then, with more confidence and a strength she didn’t know she had, she met Mrs. Scrugg’s eyes (something she couldn’t do the day before) and said loudly, "I’ll run for student government." The day was full of whispers, sideways glances, and giggles from the well-dressed crowd in Sue’s direction. But Sue’s friends supported her. They campaigned for her.  And all of them came to school the day of the election even if their cupboards were bare and their cows needed tending. They wanted her to win. And Sue won. She not only won the election, but she also won in her own mind. Sue now saw that she could set goals and achieve them. Sue was no longer limited by poverty. The voice of a society that had told her that her worth was determined by the balance (or lack thereof) in her parent’s bank account was silenced. Sue began listening to the voice of her dreams. That one conversation with Mrs. Scruggs changed everything. After saving every dime, Sue went on to Auburn University and became a teacher. In her classroom, Sue continued to have across the desk conversations with her own students, helping them see their hidden strengths and talents. During those years of teaching, Sue took a break to have three girls. Sue’s oldest daughter is me. Sue is my Mom. We could reach deep and say that my very existence is due to Mrs. Velma Scruggs tapping that teenage girl on the shoulder in the bus line all those years ago. Mom met my Dad through friends at Auburn. I am here writing these words because Mrs. Scruggs talked to Mom about running for student government. How many times does one conversation between a student and teacher change everything? As many senses as we have, we often don’t sense our own strengths - particularly when we are teenagers, and we only see that nasty pimple or the clothes we don’t have in our closet. We stack all of our have nots up against the haves of everyone else and think we’re nothing. A child who thinks he or she is nothing has missed everything beautiful and valuable about life. And that is who we are. We are teachers, and we can give children everything if we help them find themselves. Few things are more important than having these conversations with kids. Do it every day and you’ll inherit a wealth of significance. Notice things. Put yourselves into the lives of students. Teachers everywhere! Recapture your importance! The post The Power of One Conversation appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Get into Nature to Nurture "The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." Ralph Waldo Emerson One of the most beautiful things about living in the country is being able to see all the stars. You can enjoy the sky even more when you ‘ve got the right apps. 9 Super Apps for Stargazers Augmented Stargazing Augmented Stargazing is looking at the stars through a cell phone as the phone overlays constellations, stars, planets, satellites and more. Most require GPS and cellular data to work and many are quite large apps. 1 - Starwalk This is my favorite star app. I love pulling this app out at night when traveling. iOS, Google Play, Kindle Fire ($2.99) http://vitotechnology.com/ 2- Star Chart Very similar to Starwalk. iOS, Google Play (Free) http://www.escapistgames.com/apps.html 3 - Sky Guide A star track and time lapse to show you where everything will move later in the night. iOS ($2.99) http://fifthstarlabs.com/ 4- Night Sky This app also lets you know when the forecast is for clear skies. Night Sky 2 on iOS ($.99) Night Sky Lite Google Play (Free) http://www.icandiapps.com/icandiapps/apps/ 5 - Sky Safari 4 For Serious Stargazers. The upgraded versions of this app will control special wired or wired telescopes as they focus on the stars or events you’re trying to watch. You can see the night sky backwards or forwards a million years. The app also gets you a subscription to Sky Magazine. Sky Safari 4 ($2.99) with higher end versions available. http://www.southernstars.com/products/skysafari/ "Planetarium" Software All three software programs give you the option to create overlays of planets, stars, satellites and more from anywhere in the world. Use a projector and shine the sky on the ceiling to make your own planetarium. 6 - Stellarium Stellarium is a free app that you can download onto your computer. A favorite with kids. PC, Mac, Linux (Free) http://www.stellarium.org/ 7 - Google Sky Google Sky is a browser-based search engine that lets you search the sky. You can also use Google Earth and travel into other galaxies. Browser based https://www.google.com/sky/  Google Earth - http://www.google.com/earth/ (Free) 8 - Microsoft Worldwide Telescope This app is a powerhouse largely because of the academic databases that they used to create it. It also has set up instructions for creating your own planetarium using a projector and inexpensive building supplies. Windows http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ (Free) We need to raise a generation of kids whose dreams aren’t earthbound and here’s one way to start. When we go back into space, it won’t be an app, it will be us. The post 9 Super Apps For Stargazers appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

The Changing Role Of The Teacher In Personalized Learning Environments by Amy Moynihan, Ph.D. Candidate at The University of Virginia via Hanover Research Today’s students are studying and learning differently - a change confirmed by the widespread adoption of digital studying. Our recent study found that 81% of college students use mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) to study, the second most popular device category behind laptops and up 40 percent in usage since 2013. Further, research validates the use of mobile technology in education. In fact, our same study found that 77% of college students feel the use of adaptive technology helped them improve their grades. As education technology proliferates, research supports the notion that overall student achievement will improve as students gain the ability to learn at their own pace with a variety of teaching styles and formats available to them. Our research on college students presents many technology implications for districts as they prepare students to succeed in their collegiate careers - where technology is confirmed to play an integral role. As the growth of mobile technology in studying is anticipated to continue, schools, districts, and institutions need to strategize how to adapt their infrastructure, while teachers will want to consider ways to incorporate mobile learning into their curriculum. Technologically-based tools provide opportunities for students to learn both in and out of the classroom. The use of technological innovations such as cloud computing, mobile learning, bring‐your‐own‐device (BYOD) policies, learning analytics, open content, and remote or virtual laboratories provide flexibility in the personalization of learning, while also expanding learning capabilities beyond the classroom walls. Teaching our Next Generation of Learners: Innovations and Strategies Several representative examples of these innovations are highlighted below. Learning anywhere: Transforming the action of learning into a 24/7 activity through the widespread adoption of education resources available via smart phones, tablets, adaptive learning tools, virtual reality platforms, and video games. ePortfolios: Creating an electronic continuum of work that captures student performance on traditional types of assessments, as well as evidence of project-based learning, and the development of 21st century skills. Gaming to learn: Integrating play-based learning concepts to benefit cognitive development, increase students’ attention spans, and improve overall engagement. Research-based technology investments: Prioritizing data-driven evaluations of past and future technology investments by Developing front- and back-end data capture mechanisms to gather information regarding the impact of technologies on teacher effectiveness and student achievement; Using data to rigorously evaluate technology investments; and Holding vendors accountable for the teaching and learning outcomes they promote. Through the ability to mimic and improve upon in-person classroom instruction, adaptive learning platforms provide individualized instruction and assessment to each student - a feat that would be extremely difficult for teachers to accomplish in a class of 20 or more learners. Adaptive learning platforms provide instruction that is specific to individual students’ needs in a cost-effective manner. The personalized learning loop to which adaptive platforms adhere uses student data to adjust content to individuals’ specific needs, assess students to ascertain learning growth, and then use this feedback to further inform instruction. Research shows this allows classroom teachers to devote their time to subjects and students in need of additional attention. Other benefits include the frequent provision of formative evaluation, effective feedback, concept mapping, and mastery-based learning. The changing uses of technology require that teachers adapt their methods of instruction as a result of student-directed learning. In response, teachers must shift from being holders and distributors of knowledge to becoming instructional facilitators who encourage students to direct their own learning. Components of Teachers’ Shifting Roles Of comparable importance, though, are the benefits that the implementation of new technologies can have on teachers themselves. Several tools are explicitly designed to support teachers. Social learning networks, e‐portfolios, and cloud computing platforms allow teachers to virtually collaborate to discuss best practices among teachers. For example, learning analytics might help teachers assess students’ instructional needs; teachers may gather instructional content from open content sources; and personal learning networks may help teachers combine and exchange instructional strategies.While the recent changes to the K-12 education landscape are primarily technological in nature, successful implementation of these tools is dependent upon teachers. Hanover Research’s 2014 trends in K-12 education reiterate this emerging focus not just on educational technology, but also on the need to provide support systems to help teachers adopt and implement technology within the classroom. This trends analysis illuminates the rising focus on selecting and evaluating learning assessment tools to confirm their impact on student achievement. It also indicates the increasing need for benchmarking strategies to provide teachers with appropriate carve outs for collaboration time and professional development. As the Next Generation Movement continues, teachers will continue to play a critical role in the implementation and success of new and emerging technologies. The effective application of adaptive technology hinges on the ability of teachers to adapt to and thrive in these changing times. Learn more about new developments in the Next Generation Learning movement and trends in EdTech by viewing Hanover’s 2014 K-12 Education Market Leadership Report, or let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Amy Moynihan, a Content Manager at Hanover Research, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education at The University of Virginia, Curry School of Education. She also holds a M.Ed. in Social Foundations from The University of Virginia, Curry School of Education and a B.A. from Columbia University, majoring in American History.  Amy’s work experience includes serving as a Graduate Research Fellow at The Federal Executive Institute (FEI), the leading leadership development center in the federal government and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national bi-partisan nonprofit organization focused on improving the lives of children. Connect with Amy via email at amoynihan@hanoverresearch.com; The Changing Role Of The Teacher In Personalized Learning Environments; image attribution pixabay The post The Changing Role Of The Teacher In Personalized Learning Environments appeared first on TeachThought.

Cultural Exchange Program Seeks Young Adults by TeachThought Staff and Hostelling International USA Experiential learning. Cultural competency. The transformative power of travel. These are probably concepts you’re familiar with, but for 18-23 year olds from Egypt, France, Germany, Lebanon, Tunisia, and the United States, these ideals will take on a whole new meaning this summer. Through a program called IOU Respect, four individuals from each of the countries listed above will be selected to participate in an intensive two-week program dedicated to exploring one another’s cultures, worldviews, and ways of life. Held July 25-August 8, at the Yves Robert HI Hostel in Paris, France, the program is comprised of facilitated dialogue sessions, team-building projects, and group outings designed to increase participants’ knowledge of other cultures. At the same time, delegates are developing skills for intercultural communication and building lasting relationships on a foundation of appreciation, respect, and understanding. Throughout the program, participants will be facing difficult topics head-on, including religion, stereotyping, international conflict, identity, discrimination, and privilege. "IOU Respect provided a safe environment for honest and candid dialogues," explained Gina Song, a 2014 IOU Respect participant. "We discussed topics that are normally viewed as contentious for everyday conversation. We agreed, we argued, we questioned, we reflected, but throughout it all, we learned to respect." Participants are selected based on a competitive application process, in which applications are accepted through May 15.  All program costs are covered for participants, including accommodations in Paris. To qualify, candidates must be a citizen from one of the six countries listed above and 18-23 years old. This program is sponsored by Hostelling International (HI), a nonprofit organization with a global collection of more than 4,000 hostels in more than 80 countries.  Interested candidates can apply through Hostelling International USA (HI USA), the US affiliate of HI.  HI USA is a national nonprofit with a mission to create a more tolerant world, and programs like IOU Respect bring this mission to life. Cultural Exchange Program Seeks Young Adults The post Cultural Exchange Program Seeks Young Adults appeared first on TeachThought.

15 Ways To Make Testing Fun-Or At Least To Keep Your Sanity While It’s Happening by TeachThought Staff Right, so, testing. Bleh.  Let’s get through this together. In most public, private, elementary school, middle school, high school, or higher education institutions, there is some form of formal assessment-a testing window that changes the climate of the school and the tone of your day from whatever it was before, to something a bit more rigid, focused, and probably stressed. With that in mind, we thought a few tips might help get you through the testing period and ready to ease into those looming long summer mornings, afternoons, and nights. How much fun or relaxation these represent depend on who the fun and relaxation is for-students or teachers. 15 Ways To Make Testing Fun-Or At Least To Keep Your Sanity While It’s Happening Take it done day at a time. This one sounds simple, but it can help. Feel free to keep a "X days left" countdown going on in your head, but try to teach and test and administer and lead students in the moment, one day at a time. Stagger any changes. Too many changes at once-or even single changes with big impacts-can distract students, which stresses everyone, no? Work together. Every teacher has a sweet spot-food, leadership, humor, games, planning-work closely together with other teachers to make the testing window as relaxing as possible for you and for your students. Ask for help. (See above.) Change the lighting. Turn the lights off. This can be relaxing for some. Too relaxing? Hang some holiday lights. Too gimmicky? Bring in some lamps. Depending on your students, this one may not work. Changing routine-or reducing visibility-may not be a good idea. That doesn’t mean that you can’t turn off the lights yourself when the students are out of the room and turn on some Mumford & Sons. Prioritize. You may have a lot you want to do, but for the testing window, reprioritize for a smooth experience. If your principal or superintendent won’t let you, well, better to ask forgiveness than permission. Use music. Speaking of Mumford & Sons, music can focus, relax, distract, energize-whatever you need to manipulate the little guys and gals. From Gregorian Chants to meditation sounds to, well, whatever it is the kids are listening to these days, music can help. Light a candle. Cranberry, lavender can be relaxing, citrus energizing, and vanilla mood enhancing. (See more here.) Don’t try to do too much. See also, "Prioritize." Focus on the students. It’s not about you, or the school, or even the testing results; it’s about students. Education is for them, not us. Exercise after school. Or do yoga. Or Zumba. Or kickboxing. Or Xbox Fitness, Sounds crazy, but try it. Being in shape-or just getting your heart rate up every day with something other than Play games. This one can be touchy though-depending on your class, school, or other relevant circumstance, games can also be loud, distracting, and take away from assessment performance if poorly implemented. That said, done well Smart board, iPads, board games, chess, and other gizmos can go a long way to alleviate the pressure for students. Arrive at school a few minutes early. Gather your materials, arrange any necessary testing or post-testing recreational supplies, or just do your "other stuff" that testing encourages you to otherwise backburner. Offer help. (See above.) Bring food. When all else fails, eat. Pot lucks, Jimmy John’s delivery-whatever it takes, food always wins. And don’t forget-testing usually means summer is nearly here. No matter how much you love teaching, the school can exact a brutal toll on your body and spirit. The summer is a welcome respite to hone your craft, and refocus what you do and why you do it. 15 Ways To Make Testing Fun-Or At Least To Keep Your Sanity While It’s Happening The post 15 Simple Tips To Keep Your Sanity During Testing appeared first on TeachThought.

  by Terry Heick Preventing bullying is just as likely as preventing poverty, racism, or violence. If we can start from this kind of humility, we may be able to... The post The Definition Of Bullying In 2016 appeared first on TeachThought.

The Characteristics Of A Good School by Terry Heick When a society changes, so then must its tools. Definitions of purpose and quality must also be revised continuously. What should a school "do"? Be? How can we tell a good school from a bad one? This really starts at the human level, but that’s a broader issue. For now, let’s consider that schools are simply pieces of larger ecologies. The most immediate ecologies they participate in are human and cultural. As pieces in (human) ecologies, when one thing changes, everything else does as well. When it rains, the streams flood, the meadows are damp, the clovers bloom, and the bees bustle. When there’s drought, things are dry, and stale, and still. When technology changes, it impacts the kinds of things we want and need. Updates to technology change what we desire; as we desire new things, technology changes to seek to provide them. The same goes for-or should go for-education. Consider a few of the key ideas in progressive education. Mobile learning, digital citizenship, design thinking, collaboration, creativity, and on a larger scale, digital literacy,1:1, and more are skills and content bits that every student would benefit from exposure to and mastery of. As these force their way into schools and classrooms and assignments and the design thinking of teachers, this is at the cost of "the way tings were." When these "things" are forced in with little adjustment elsewhere, the authenticity of everything dies. The ecology itself is at risk. The Purpose Of School In An Era Of Change What should schools teach, and how? And how do we know if we’re doing it well? These are astoundingly important questions-ones that must be answered with social needs, teacher gifts, and technology access in mind. Now, we take the opposite approach. Here’s what all students should know, now let’s figure out how we can use what we have to teach it. If we don’t see the issue in its full context, we’re settling for glimpses. How schools are designed and what students learn-and why-must be reviewed, scrutinized, and refined as closely and with as much enthusiasm as we do the gas mileage of our cars, the downloads speeds of our phones and tablets, or the operating systems of our watches. Most modern academic standards take a body-of-knowledge approach to education. This, to me, seems to be a dated approach to learning that continues to hamper our attempts to innovate. Why can’t education, as a system, refashion itself as aggressively as the digital technology that is causing it so much angst? The fluidity of a given curriculum should at least match the fluidity of relevant modern knowledge demands. Maybe a first step in pursuit of an innovative and modern approach to teaching and learning might be to rethink the idea of curriculum as the core of learning models? Less is more is one way to look at it, but that’s not new-power standards have been around for years. In fact, in this era of information access, smart clouds, and worsening socioeconomic disparity, we may want to consider whether we should be teaching content at all, or rather teaching students to think, design their own learning pathways, and create and do extraordinary things that are valuable to them in their place? Previously we’ve assumed that would be the effect-that if students could read and write and do arithmetic and compose arguments and extract the main idea and otherwise master a (now nationalized) body of knowledge, that they’d learn to think and play with complex ideas and create incredible things and understand themselves in the process. That the more sound and full their knowledge background was, the greater the likelihood that they’ll create healthy self-identities and be tolerant of divergent thinking and do good work and act locally and think globally and create a better world. A curriculum-first school design is based on the underlying assumption that if they know this and can do this, that this will be the result. This hasn’t been the case. We tend to celebrate school success instead of people success. We create "good schools" that graduate scores of students with very little hope for the future. How can that possibly be? How can a school call itself "good" when it produces students that don’t know themselves, the world, or their place in it? So then, here’s one take on a new definition for a "good school." The Characteristics Of A Good School A good school will improve the community it is embedded within and serves. A good school can adapt quickly to human needs and technology change. A good school produces students that not only read and write, but choose to. A good school sees itself. A good school has diverse and compelling measures of success-measures that families and communities understand and value. A good school is full of students that don’t just understand "much," but rather know what’s worth understanding. A good school knows it can’t do it all, so seeks to do what’s necessary exceptionally well. A good school improves other schools and cultural organizations it’s connected with. A good school is always on and never closed. (It is not a factory.) A good school makes certain that every single student and family feels welcome and understood on equal terms. A good school is full of students that not only ask great questions, but do so with great frequency and ferocity. A good school changes students; students change great schools. A good school understands the difference between broken thinking and broken implementation. A good school speaks the language of its students. A good school doesn’t make empty promises, create noble-but-misleading mission statements, or mislead parents and community-members with edu-jargon. A good school values its teachers and administrators and parents as agents of student success. A good school favors personalized learning over differentiated learning. A good school teaches thought, not content. A good school makes technology, curriculum, policies, and its other "pieces" invisible. (Ever go to a ballet and see focus on individual movements?) A good school is disruptive of bad cultural practices. These include intolerance based on race, income, faith, and sexual preference, aliteracy, and apathy toward the environment. A good school produces students that know themselves in their own context, one that they know and choose. This includes culture, community, language, and profession. A good school produces students that have personal and specific hope for the future that they can articulate and believe in and share with others. A good school produces students that can empathize, critique, protect, love, inspire, make, design, restore, and understand almost anything-and then do so as a matter of habit. A good school will erode the societal tendency towards greed, consumerism, and hording of resources we all need. A good school is more concerned with cultural practices than pedagogical practices-students and families than other schools or the educational status quo. A good school helps student separate trivial knowledge from vocational knowledge from academic knowledge from applied knowledge from knowledge-as-wisdom. A good school will experience disruption in its own patterns and practices and values because its students are creative, empowered, and connected, and cause unpredictable change themselves. A good school will produce students that can think critically-about issues of human interest, curiosity, artistry, craft, legacy, husbandry, agriculture, and more-and then do so. A good school will help students see themselves in terms of their historical framing, familial legacy, social context, and global connectivity. The Characteristics Of A Good School; image attribution flickr user usarmy The post The Characteristics Of A Good School appeared first on TeachThought.

How Technology Changed My Social Studies Classroom by Thomas Stanley One of the greatest experiences I have had in teaching World History is to create a blended-learning class that is based on using technology with thematic learning, in-class activities, and world projects. When students can physically and intellectually wrap themselves around a subject doing real-world and simulated activities  it helps them take their learning a mile deep. The use of technology to do blended thematic learning is a great example of this type of teaching. To do this a teacher would teach all or part of their course based on the impact of such things as how technology, science, etc impacted the development of civilizations. This impact would be based on a student’s analysis of the social, economic, political, religious, family, and  educational institutions in each area of the world or time period of history. You might also approach thematic learning by helping students learn to investigate how each region of the world developed based on a study of their art, literature, and music. Another idea is to have traditional "class activities" can be made to come alive in each time period. For example, activities that are group-based can be scaffolded into interesting critical thinking exercises.  An activity might  ask the students to create their own civilizations along the early river valleys (a 2-person activity) and build into larger group activities such as whether the castles or cathedrals were the most powerful institutions during a countries middle ages. Other examples would include asking students questions like: "Did colonization drive the nation’s states or vice versa?," or "Can war be avoided?"  or "How can we make a lasting peace, "What is the nature of modern warfare and how does it impact a civilization?" Any of these types of activities can be developed to create in-depth studies into certain time periods of history and include a plethora of amazing presentations and discussions using technology. In these cases, technology allows: Collaborating in projects Curation of content Publishing of both learning products and learning process Connecting globally Finally, creating a global project that spans the entire semester or year that takes the place of the old Friday current events activity. For example, a teacher might ask students to study ancient issues that become modern problems and come up with solutions. Some exciting topics might include: the child soldier, refugees, ocean acidification, or other debatable issues. The chance to discuss or collaborate with other nations or international organizations on any of these topics is a true project-based learning activity In each of these areas there are real world outcomes at can be presented at the end of the semester. An example of this was when some of my students studied the refugee issue, selected organizations to support, and created a "Rock for Refugees" project that raised money for international organizations they selected. There are many places to find such projects that include: the UN Julie Lindsay’s, Global School, Tracy Hanson’s NGGE or Yvonne Andres’s Global School net. Each of these methods are challenging ways to teach but, amazingly fun especially if you include the use of all the resources now available to the classroom. It can even include activities with other teachers or outside experts. Thanks to the proliferation of technology the teaching of World History does and should not be centered exclusively around lecture and reading, but rather around questions and collaboration, and that’s a significant change. Done well, technology and students and inquiry and history and begin to come together to form a more powerful-and authentic-whole. With technology in the Social Studies classroom the possibilities are endless, and the real challenge comes in knowing where to begin. image attribution flickr user lefteris The post How Technology Changed My Social Studies Classroom appeared first on TeachThought.

We’re Beta-Testing A Mobile Design During July by TeachThought Staff If you haven’t noticed, it’s July and kind of quiet around here as we gear up for the 2015-2016 school year and you get a bit of respite. (In fact, you’re probably not even reading this, but we need to an ideal reader to write with in mind, so, you being the 33 year-old experienced teacher with 8 years of teaching experience and an interesting in new ways of teaching and learning in a connected society that you are, thanks for leaning in, here.) While we have a few changes upcoming we’re hopeful about, most immediately we began beta-testing a mobile version of our site on July 1st. On a desktop, you won’t notice any differences, but  you should have already have noticed if you’re on a mobile device. Or perhaps not-depends on your device, browser, and settings. Our primary goals are speed and functionality. This beta-test addresses the former while we work on the latter. We’re in the process of curating our learning models and related visuals, making teaching tools easier to find, and in general index our content better with improved search and suggested search results. For now, hopefully it scales well to your device, and loads quickly. Note, if you prefer the classic version (which is responsive, by the way), you can find the "Classic Version" link at the bottom. Click, and you’ll be swept away again to 2013. So if you love it, hate it, or are indifferent email us and let us know. Who has the time, am I right? We get it. It’s July. Do your thing. The post We’re Beta-Testing A Mobile Design During July appeared first on TeachThought.

The Learning Innovation Cycle: How Disruption Creates Lasting Change by Terry Heick Disruption is an interesting topic for the same reason that cowboys, gangsters, and villains are interesting. It’s unpredictable. Problematic. Against the grain. It’s kind of aging as a buzzword in the "education space," but it’s other-worldly powerful, and there are few things education needs more. How exactly it produces change is less clear, but I thought I’d create a model to think about. First, a quick preface. The iconic vision of disruptive innovation comes from Clayton Christensen, who uses the term to "describe a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors." "Companies pursue these "sustaining innovations" at the higher tiers of their markets because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies will achieve the greatest profitability. However, by doing so, companies unwittingly open the door to "disruptive innovations" at the bottom of the market. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill." I usually think of disruption as any change that forces itself substantially on existing power sets. This force causes transfer-a redistribution of something-market share, money, credibility, knowledge, or something we collectively value. Here, in this literal re-vision (seeing again) and neo-vision (seeing new), is where enduring learning innovation can be born. In education, most of the talk around disruptive innovation revolves around education technology, owing to the potential scale of these technologies, and desperation of education to revise itself. But innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be a matter of economics, as Christensen originally thought of the term, nor of technology, which is the most tempting angle. It can, but there are other disruptors that can lead to innovation that have little to do with either. What might be more interesting than the disruptors, then, might be the process itself. (See also, trends in education for 2015.) Consider the following: Disruptive Innovations In The Classroom Disruptive innovations in the classroom should, ideally, obliterate the classroom. Make the classroom "be" something else entirely-a physical gathering space in preparation for something else, for example. I’ve written about in the past, mostly in terms of teaching forms, trends, technology, or teaching disruptively. By design (as I see it anyway), education should be inherently disruptive. That is, the ability to think critically should theoretically change both the systems and its parts. Education and disruption share many connections. One relationship is cause-effect. Education should cause disruption of existing social paradigms, for example. And disruption of existing social paradigms should both need and create opportunity for new forms of education. It’s also a symptom. When there’s continuous disruption downstream-a classroom, for example-it can be traced upstream to something else. One goal for disruption in education should be the persistent emergence of new ideas-new learning models, new content, new strategies and thinking. Okay, enough context. To visualize this cycle below, at each stage I’ll use the idea of electricity to better illustrate what’s (theoretically) happening. A Disruption Model: The Learning Innovation Cycle 1. EMERGENCE OF DISRUPTION So, the electricity analogue-electricity has changed significantly over the last several hundred years, with many important developments-from DC power and batteries and generators and transformers, etc.-changing it in both form and function. To better understand how disruptive innovations in the classroom occur at this early "Emergence" stage, consider how ineffective and inaccessible electricity was from its early forms in the 1800s until as recently as the 1920s and 1930s. While exciting, only a very narrow minority saw its enormous potential, because really, how could you? Seeing the way electricity would change the world required you to "re-see" the world in light of electricity (as opposed to simply shoe-horning it in to one’s existing perception of things). The big idea here is that, while potent, electricity didn’t change much for the average person from Alessandro Volta’s first battery in 1800, to 1920s and 1930s. Consider that the electric refrigerator was created in 1913, and it wasn’t until 1935 that the first nighttime baseball game was played in the United States. The initial emergence of the disruptive innovation (you could think of it simply as the ‘thing that causes change’) is usually quiet and has its ultimate scale obscured (which is why, in the graphic, the circle is small and grey). Not everyone notices the disruption, or its significance. The duration of this stage of the process is inherently short because we’re talking about the initial emergence, not the full reality of. This stage is characterized by relative stability, a fixed mindset of majority, and disruptive thinking by few. It is the inattention, inaction, or misunderstanding of the disruption by the majority that begins to lead to a shift in power, as those that respond (and respond "correctly") to the disruption can grow. For a company, this could mean rapidly increasing market share. For a school district, this could mean anything from confused parents to national significance as other schools and districts look to you for leadership. At this stage, very little changes for most, and the ultimate success of any "innovation" is uncertain. As an additional analogue, you can consider mutations in the evolutionary process. The "success" of a mutation isn’t in its outward appearance, but whether it leads to a biological advantage that can be passed on. That takes time to play itself out. 2. IMPACT The electricity analogue: Furthering the analogy of electricity consider how, after an initial period of relatively quiet emergence, there was soon to be some noise. While the impact really begins occurring right away, noise is the theme of this stage of the cycle of innovation. Almost every known every industry was deeply changed by electricity, including manufacturing, urban planning, medical care, transportation, and architecture. Each of these industries had to either adjust to new circumstances, or face obsolescence. If you’re a candle maker, and you just saw your first light bulb, how do you respond? In general, the "Impact" stage of the learning innovation cycle is a bit more chaotic and exciting. At this stage, the disruption has created a mess of things-shifted perspectives, advantages, applications, resources, etc. A few examples in a school or district? Effectiveness of Existing Tools Learner & Teacher Roles Credibility of Curriculum Stability of Infrastructure Emotion of Users Pattern & Rhythm of Learning Ecologies This stage is characterized by increased emotion-excitement, hyperbole, fear, uncertainty, and binary thinking. Because of the rapidly changing circumstances, the disruption is hard to understand. It’s not clear the way that iPads will change a classroom, or adaptive learning apps should change a curriculum-or the idea of a curriculum, for example. This uncertainty can be polarizing, creating a sense of enthusiasm and new possibility in some, while others see cause for concern. This stage can also be characterized by reduced efficiency and overall stability of contexts (assessments, data, classrooms, etc.) The learning innovations that endure aren’t simply "born," but rather evolve over time as they are understood, reach tipping points, pivot themselves, or connect with other innovations to find new energy and application. 3. RECALIBRATION After Emergence and Impact, Recalibration occurs for those left standing. Those that invested in (and around the possibility of) electricity would begin to see payoff here, but this stage is less about precise design and more about broad shifting. (See 7 Shifts To Create A Classroom Of The Future, for example.) While this stage has many possible indicators, progress and potential may be its defining examples. Most significantly, the weaknesses of old thinking and tools and systems and approaches have been revealed to those paying attention. It is in this part of the cycle that the innovations and their potential become more visible than ever. As the circumstances around the innovation adapt to it, and vice-versa, any progress made can provide credibility, which encourages additional resources to be added, which can create more progress and credibility, and so on. So what might this mean for your classroom? What kinds of recalibrations? Those related to: Learning Models Curriculum Forms Assessment & Data Design Related Infrastructure (e.g., budget, school design, learning spaces, learning feedback, function of education technology) Teacher Planning & Instructional Design Process Shared Concept Of for "What School Is" 4. EVOLUTION At the final stage of learning innovation comes a period marked by intense evolution. This occurs not only as existing technologies enable subsequent discoveries, but also a growth mindset from individuals who, after seeing what’s now possible, can’t see the world any other way and insist on something different. Notice that in the model above, this circle is the biggest not only because of the length of time this stage in the cycle requires, but because the evolution is the most critical for innovation to endure. This stage might be thought of as the payoff for all of the shifting and revision and angst. It is from these previous stages that broader vision can develop, which ultimately leads to more innovation. What exactly "evolves"? A few ideas are below. Note the shift from the initial Emergence and Impact stages, from tools and individuals and emotions to systems and vision and purpose. How, Where, & Why People Learn Vision & Self-Criticism as an Industry Capacity for Imagination Human Knowledge Demands Expectation for Innovation Purpose of Education A Disruption Model: The Learning Innovation Cycle; The Learning Innovation Cycle: How Disruption Creates Lasting Change The post The Learning Innovation Cycle: How Disruption Creates Lasting Change appeared first on TeachThought.

6 Factors Of Classroom Gamification by Nellie Mitchell I was 11 the year my summer camp director transformed the regular schedule, procedures, and lingo that we were used to—into the most memorable, enriching experience I had ever encountered at that point in my life. I had no idea that he had ‘gamified’ the week; I just knew that it was the best summer ever. Instead of grouping us by numbers, we were named after the Greek alphabet. We competed daily against the other groups in volleyball, softball, kickball, and on the final night —a chariot and Olympic flame opened an epic Olympic Game contest at midnight. The director, or ‘game master’ as we were inclined to call him, even made everyone reset the clocks and watches—so we never knew what the real time was, the entire schedule was set on some sort of crazy alternate schedule. Now I realize that it probably allowed him to sleep in and us to stay up later, but we were none the wiser. Daily we played games, wrote skits, went swimming, and competed for cleanest cabins. We did all the regular stuff, but it was more fun because there were rules and boundaries and points and collaboration and competition and a clear, mutual understanding of goals and performance and criteria for success. As a student, I got to learn more about the power of ‘gamifying’ something, and what effect it had on learners. Gamification is about transforming the environment and regular activities into a kind of game. It is about creating a game out of things that are not normally thought of that way. Gamification reinforces content, but also has the potential to profoundly impact classroom management. Gamification is about collaboration and teamwork. Sometimes students are battling each other, and sometimes they are working together, but they are always learning! Gamification is a long-term, consistent series of events that require quite a bit of prep work by the teacher, but has the potential to reinforce content and engage all learners in new ways. Getting Started With Gamification I have no doubt that the camp director spent hours analyzing the schedule, creating the concept, and modifying our basic procedures to meet the needs of the game. I hope he knows how worth it his effort was. That camp experience has been in the back of my mind ever since I started teaching middle school. I teach art and I’m always looking for ways to make it more relevant, current and enriching for every student, not just the gifted artists. When the technology integration coach in my school district handed me a copy of The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game by Lee Sheldon, I was enthralled. The book was an easy read— cover to cover in just a few days. Lee Sheldon’s students are learning content through game play. College level coursework with students enrolled in a class devoted to designing video games. In the book, Lee initiates game play in the syllabus. He analyzes how he made changes to the game through trial and error over the course of many semesters. Most of the ‘gaming’ was fantasy, special terminology used to jazz up regular coursework, with plenty of buy-in from students who were interested in gaming of all kinds, from athletic competition to board games to mobile, PC, and console-based video games. After reading the book fairly quickly, and taking lots of notes, I developed some ideas for how to transform my own classroom into a gamified space in order to develop cross-curricular learning. I realized that my old game master was onto something brilliant—but it was no easy feat. (As a preface, you can read more about the difference between gamification and game-based learning here.) 6 Factors Of Success In Gamification 1. Space Think about how to transform your learning space into something that is conducive to collaboration. In my classroom, I created special zones, and rearranged the tables. Lee Sheldon suggests moving each team or group of students each week if your classroom is set up in rows instead of tables. Simple signage and clever names can help with this transformation. 2. Routines Think about classroom jobs, procedures for tardies, restroom, library, drinking fountain, pencil sharpener, etc. Figure out how to inject those basic procedures into the game. Award ‘health points’ or take them away for tardies. Rotate roles. Make them characters. Make them good or evil, or steeped in historical or mythical lore, or give them creative backstories. 3. Learning Goals No matter how engaging things are or transformative your approach, learning still matters. In fact, it is the habits students form while internalizing content that can create the most enduring change. What will they learn, and how? You don’t have to start with learning goals, but you’ll obviously need to have them to keep curricular priorities straight, and to guide any assessment processes you depend on. This is obviously a key theme of any kind of instructional design process, including the following three driving questions: What content or standards will be targeted? How they can be assessed, ideally within the gamification framework? How can you create flexible learning goals that strive to meet the needs of students of varying "content readiness," literacy levels, and background knowledge? 4. Fun Instead of using research, send your students on quests. Make it competitive. Students love to compete against each other. Look at your content from a new perspective—could two or four groups ‘battle’ over the information by presenting and quizzing each other? You can also group students for cooperative competition, or simply cooperative learning journeys. Leave no stone unturned. Create random events that impact XP or HP (experience or health points) in order to keep your students on their toes. You are the game master and you can change the rules at any time. 5. Roles Plan to have your students develop some part of the gamification, or have clear and accessible roles within the framework you’ve designed-roles that have credibility with the student. They must buy into it, or else they will never fully commit. Allow them to choose their own team names or help establish some of the random events so that they have ownership over the game. 6. Theme Gamification works because everything fits together in a way that makes sense. Use a theme related to your content, or a use a theme has terminology that reinforces vocabulary. The game master in my summer camp used Greek mythology and it was brilliant. Unforgettable! One Tool To Consider Once I had the basic idea for what I wanted to do, I realized that I would need a little help. I went in search of an online or app-based system to help me manage all of my ideas in order to implement them in a stream lined, successful, organized way. When I found Class Craft, I was thrilled. Class Craft is an incredible program that helped me transform my summer school art enrichment program into an action packed game. 5th and 6th grade boys were begging me to do more research at home—-because it was part of the battle quests I had designed. Class Craft allowed me to turn basic learning tasks into a real-world role-playing adventure. My students loved seeing their warrior or healer Avatar change as they unlocked new powers throughout the course. And they really, really loved having a pet! In a few weeks, summer school will be over and I plan to reflect on the pros and cons of the system that I designed, so that I can tweak the things that worked or did not work in my classroom. This is definitely something that could work for me during the regular school year, but thankfully, I had the chance to try it out in a short-term, smaller scale program. Reflection and modification are a big part of the gamification process. If you are considering implementing gamification into your classroom, but you do not know where to start, you might grab the book I mentioned above, or check out Class Craft. As the game master, you have the power to transform the regular schedule, procedures, and lingo that your students are used to—into a memorable, enriching experience, which just might be their best year ever. Edited by Terry Heick (which explains any persisting needs for revision and editing); 6 Factors Of Classroom Gamification The post 6 Factors Of Classroom Gamification appeared first on TeachThought.

4 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask About Mobile Learning by Justin Chando, Founder & CEO, Chalkup Untethered from desks, a tablet represents personalized learning potential for a student in ways we’re just catching up to. Truly; the promise of mobile is extraordinary. With every historical date ever needed for World History 101 suddenly contained in the back pocket of your average American eighth grader, we find ourselves in a new environment for learning. And an awesome one. As I see an increase in creative ways to keep learning alive after class, I’m interested in thinking about what we should be doing to ensure schools can reap the full benefits of mobile. Put simply, how do we do mobile learning programs right? How do we fully tap the potential of a device in the hands of a student? I’m not interested in seeing the same classes and materials we had a decade ago (but now with Chromebooks!) I’m interested in learning from classes where the introduction of a device offers a level of personalized learning and connection to school that elevates a student’s experience in ways we couldn’t without technology. On the front end of this conversation, what I’ve come up with are questions. Specifically, questions I think we should be asking at the beginning of mobile learning initiatives related to learning gains and learning culture. Here’s what I came up with. 4 Questions Teachers Should Ask About Mobile Learning In Their School What can we do with a device that we couldn’t previously? My instinct is to first talk out the basics. What do we get by adding devices to a learning environment?  This is the litmus test for ensuring we’re not adding technology just because we can. This question envisions what learning gains we can make with a device that we couldn’t without. The same assignment, activity, or exam on paper - done instead with an iPad - doesn’t seem like reaching new heights to me. Does it? How will mobile increase learning gains for students? Question number two is about learning gains. What I want to know is if we can actually create experiences with technology that will see students walk away with more knowledge applicable to the real world than they could have otherwise. With a tremendous amount of rich content available to achieve this end, I wonder where the value is in digitizing the paper versions of assignments from years past. I’d imagine to make real learning gains, we must start thinking about new types of content better suited for this vastly different educational terrain. How will devices pair with our current class culture? Closely related to learning gains is examining class culture: as we adopt devices, we adopt the ability to access dates, equations, and definitions in seconds. This isn’t an argument for doing away with exams or learning key skills, it’s acknowledging that if you or I wanted to know what year Richard Nixon was born, we’d probably pull out our phone and Google it. Why would we want a student to memorize that information? And what should we be doing instead of asking them to do that? The one thing we can’t Google are authentic experiences and meaningful discussions. I would imagine that prior to starting a mobile learning program, we’d want to consider how to balance the power and potential of new devices against the supremely important role of the educator, asking ourselves how we’ll build these experiences, devices in tow.   What will be our key indicators of success? This is a tough one. What really are the indicators of a successful mobile program? Test scores? Levels unlocked in the gamification of a lesson plan? Fluency across a range of programs? Discuss!  While I might not have answers to all of these questions yet, I like where the conversation is going. These are the topic areas we need to poke at if we want to build more impactful mobile learning initiatives. Look forward to learning more from everybody. Justin Chando is the Founder and CEO of Chalkup, the world’s first class collaboration platform. Their new app for iOS is now available; 4 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask About Mobile Learning; adapted image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad The post 4 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask About Mobile Learning appeared first on TeachThought.

30 Companies That Offer Teacher Discounts In 2016 by RetailMeNot.com It’s no secret that back-to-school shopping gets crazy expensive for teachers. If they’re not shelling out money for art supplies and paper, they’re off buying fresh clothes and shoes. Luckily, the 30 retailers below want to help. From Apple to J.Crew, these companies offer exclusive discounts on just about everything a teacher could possibly need for the new semester! As with any promo, do confirm that the deal is still in place before you order. But don’t be shy, either! If you don’t see your favorite big retailer, movie chain, museum or more listed here, give a call and ask if they participate in any teacher discounts. 30 Companies That Offer Teacher Discounts In 2016 Adobe Whether you need Photoshop or Creative Cloud, Adobe offers education discounts you should totally take advantage of. Aerosoles All that standing takes a toll on your feet. Luckily, Aerosoles will give you 15% off super-comfy shoes priced at $39.99 or higher. Apple Apple offers an educator discount. An example? You can upgrade your Mac and save up to $200, or cut up to $20 off the price of a new iPad. AT&T Wireless Check to see if you’re one of the many eligible educators that can get discounts on your cellular plan. (All cell providers offer some teacher discounts, so ask yours if you’re not an AT&T customer.) Banana Republic Show your valid teacher ID in stores to get 15% off. Barnes & Noble Take part in the B&N Educators program to receive 20% off the publisher’s list price on all purchases for the classroom. Bonus: On Educator Appreciation Days, you’ll get  up to 25% off. The Container Store Join the Organized Teacher program to get special discounts throughout the year. Keep that classroom contained! Dick Blick Art Materials With a free Dick Blick Preferred Card, you receive 10% off full-price purchases from Blick and Utrecht stores as well as discounts on bulk orders. FedEx Office Apply online for FedEx’s National Educators Discount Program, and you’ll receive 15% off most products and services at many FedEx Office locations. Half Price Books Get an Educator Discount Card to save 10% off all purchases at Half Price. Hertz Are you a member of the National Education Association (NEA)? Then you’ll save up to 25% when you’re renting a car, plus get some other perks if you book ahead. J.Crew Show a valid school ID at any J.Crew or J.Crew Factory Stores to get 15% off your purchase. Jo-Ann Get a Jo-Ann Teacher Rewards Discount Card and save 15% off your purchases. Kennedy Space Center Florida and Georgia K-12 teachers get free admission to the Visitor Complex and the Kennedy Space Center’s Educator Resource Center. Not from those states? Many museums and science centers across the country offer discounts to educators in the community, so ask! Lakeshore Learning Join the Teacher’s Club to get 15% off hundreds of in-store items. Lenovo Find discount laptops, tablets and desktop computers for your school! The Limited Flash your school ID to get 15% off. LOFT The LOFT Loves Teachers program gets you 15% off full-price purchases, special teachers-only sweepstakes opportunities and fun teacher appreciation nights! Madewell Teachers get 15% off. Just make sure to show your faculty ID! Michaels Need supplies for classroom crafts? Michaels will give you 15% off your in-store purchases every day. NEA Magazine Service If you’re a member of the National Education Association, you have the opportunity to receive more than 900 magazines at up to 85% off the cover price. New York Times Get online access to The Gray Lady for 99 cents for four weeks, then 50% off your subscription after that. (Home delivery discounts are available, too!) Office Depot Through September 1, get 25% off qualifying purchases and a free calendar filled with savings. Pets in the Classroom This awesome organization offers grants to pre-K through eighth-grade classes to help buy and support pets or aquariums in the classroom "for the purposes of teaching children to bond with and care for their pets responsibly." Just apply for a grant to get this lovely experience in your school. Redbox Get a free rental once a month with your International Teacher Identity Card. Staples With Staples Teacher Rewards, teachers earn 5% back for all purchases and 10% for teaching and art supplies. Free shipping is always included. Target If you have an International Teacher Identity Card, you get $5 off $50 and free shipping on select items at Target.com. Theatre Development Fund Hey, theater nerds, get your play on at great rates. Full-time teachers can join the Theatre Development Fund and get access to discount tickets ($9 to $47) to a ton of plays, musicals and dance performances in New York City. Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort Take that must-deserved vacation! Book online or call 1-888-828-8850 to ask for the teacher rate at Orlando’s Swan and Dolphin Resort. West Elm With a valid teacher ID, you’ll receive 15% off your purchases. Don’t forget to add National Teacher Day to your calendar. It will be May 3, 2016!  30 Companies That Offer Teacher Discounts In 2016 The post 30 Companies That Offer Teacher Discounts In 2016 appeared first on TeachThought.

The First 6 Weeks: Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students by Mike Anderson One of our primary goals at the beginning of the school year is to get to know our students. This is important for several reasons. First, the better we know our students, and the more they know we know them, the more invested they become in school. Also, a dynamic and vigorous learning environment is built on relationships. When we create strong connections with our students, we create a learning environment where risk-taking and collaborative learning can take place. Finally, the better we know our students, the better we can help craft learning experiences that match who they are. Knowing our students is fundamental to real differentiation. Several of the ideas that follow are shared in my book, The First Six Weeks of School (2nd edition). A few others come from an upcoming webinar for teachers that I am presenting on August 27th. A couple of ideas are unique to this post. I’ve offered six different ideas for getting to know our students, one for each of the first six weeks of school, but once you get past the first one, there’s no magic to the order. Consider each as an idea that might help during this foundational time of the year. Week 1: Learn Names Is there anything more important and basic than learning students’ names early in the year? Make it your goal to have all names learned by the end of the first week. There are lots of practical strategies for learning names: wear name tags, play name games, use students’ names frequently, and of course, practice-practice-practice. Week 2: Share Goals What do your students hope to gain from this school year? Have them share their academic and social goals for the year. They might all fill in a questionnaire for you to read, or you might create a bulletin board where each student shares one personal hope or dream for the year. Week 3: Get to Know Families The more we know our students’ families, the better we understand our students, and the more connected our students are with school. Make it a goal to call each family in the first few weeks of school. Share a positive observation of their student, and then ask parents/guardians what you should know about their child to best teach them. You might also consider having families fill out a hopes and goals questionnaire about their children for the school year. I’ve done this many times, and it’s incredible how much you can learn! Week 4: Birthday Cluster Activity In his incredible book about child development in the classroom, Yardsticks, Chip Wood suggests an activity to get a sense of the developmental tone of your class. Make a list of your students in order of their birthdays (from youngest to oldest) and look for the cluster of students who all have birthdays within a few months of each other—almost every class has one. This group will often set the developmental tone for the room. If the cluster is on the young side, for example, your class will likely feel young. Knowing this about your class can help you better match your instruction to the class as a whole. Week 5: Share Personal Artifacts Invite students to share simple personal artifacts that help show their interests and passions. This might happen on an "All About Us" bulletin board, in a class scrap book, or on personal wall spaces—places where each student can post work, pictures, or other small items which help share who they are. These artifacts can serve as inspirations for writing personal narrative pieces, or, if displayed around the classroom, can be a fun way to play a personal scavenger hunt game. Of course, you will learn all kinds of great information that will help you tailor units and lessons to students’ interests! Week 6: Don Graves Activity I was lucky enough to attend a workshop once with Don Graves, an educator who helped reshape the teaching of literacy, and he did this activity with us. It is a great litmus test for how well we knew our students. Week 6 is a great time to try it yourself! Here’s how it works. Create a three-columned chart on a piece of paper or on a simple table/spreadsheet on the computer. In the left column, write your students’ names in the order in which you remember them. (Just this alone is interesting. Who do you remember first? Who do you struggle to remember?) In the middle column, write down one positive thing about each student that doesn’t have anything to do with school work. (Jenny likes horses. Matt skateboards. Maria lives with her grandmother.) In the third column, put a checkmark if you have talked with each student about this piece of knowledge. This helps us recognize how well we know our students, and—perhaps more importantly—how well they know we know them! For students you struggled to remember, or for ones you didn’t know as much about, make a commitment to connect with them in the next few days. These are, of course, just a few ideas. There are lots of other ways to get to know our students and build positive relationships with them. What are some other ideas you have tried? Share in the comments on this post so others can learn from you! Have a great start to the year! To learn more about the beginning of the school year, consider checking out The First Six Weeks of School or attending my upcoming webinar, The First Weeks of School: Best Practices for Teacher. Mike Anderson is an award-winning educator (National Milken Educator Award and New Hampshire Teacher of the Year finalist) and author, whose books include The Well-Balanced Teacher: How to Work Smarter and Stay Sane Inside the Classroom and Out (ASCD, 2010) and The First Six Weeks of School, 2nd Edition. After 15 years as a classroom teacher and over six years as a consultant for a non-profit educational organization, Mike is now working as an independent consultant. To learn more about Mike and his work visit www.leadinggreatlearning.com; The First 6 Weeks: Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students; image attribution flickr user sparkfunelectronics The post The First 6 Weeks: Strategies For Getting To Know Your Students appeared first on TeachThought.

"We shouldn’t assume people know what digital citizenship is." by David Ryan Polgar and Marialice B.F.X. Curran, DigcitSummit.com Digital Citizenship is huge. Or so it seems by the countless articles we read on the topic each week. As plugged-in educators who are putting together the first annual Digital Citizenship Summit, we are swimming in a sea of amazing advice concerning cyberbullying, empathy online, public shaming, tech balance, digital tattoos, and more. To us, it often seems like everyone is well-versed in digital citizenship and everything it entails. They’re not. Planning the Digital Citizenship Summit has provided us with a great deal of insight into how the digital citizenship community, and education world at large, can better promote the concept of digital citizenship. We have been able to see firsthand the major gap in understanding between digital citizenship evangelists and the general masses, and have discovered some potential ways to decrease the gap. We can no longer assume students know what digital citizenship is. It is easy to get caught up in "echo chamber effect" online, where we are constantly surrounded by the topic of digital citizenship and then have our impression reinforced by other equally invested individuals. During our outreach, it has become apparent that the understanding level towards digital citizenship is highly concentrated in academic circles. One of our goals with planning the Digital Citizenship Summit is to increase overall awareness topic: what we have learned is that the community may need to focus more attention on adequately explaining what digital citizenship is. Why is this a challenge? The very broadness of the term digital citizenship sometimes presents an issue. Terms such as cyberbullying, tech etiquette, or public shaming are self-explanatory in nature. Digital Citizenship, on the other hand, requires a certain level of background. The definition that we have been using is from Mike Ribble/DigitalCitizenship.net: "Digital Citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible tech use." (Ed note: Here is another definition for digital citizenship.) The communication breakdown that often occurs revolves around taking that abstract language and turning it into something more concrete. The general public is widely supportive of digital citizenship once they understand what it is, but that requires quick, concrete examples that can be visualized and appreciated. The popularity surrounding Monica Lewinsky’s recent TED talk offers an illustration for the potential of digital citizenship. Everything she is discussing deals with "appropriate, responsible tech use." The more that we can connect those issues with digital citizenship, the more the general public will understand its very significance. There is an incredibly passionate community waiting to be brought together. The outpouring of support, advice, and collaboration after we announced the Digital Citizenship Summit has been incredibly heartening. People have seemingly come out of the woodwork. Which begs an important question: why were they in the woodwork? What we learned is that the the community still operates around a few particular circles (often with an influencer at the center). It is easy to think that you know the entire community when in fact you just know your entire circle. There are a tremendous amount of untapped circles that can offer their voice in shaping the digital citizenship conversation. Our goal with the Digital Citizenship Summit was to bring together those silos digitally through outreach, along with the #digcit chat (every Wednesday at 7 pm EST), and then physically on October 3rd at the University of Saint Joseph (West Hartford, CT). There should also be ways to build upon best practices. By and large, the digital citizenship community is highly collaborative and looking to share material. An educator is Florida should be able to build upon the work of an educator in North Dakota. There is a still ways to go towards working in a more collective fashion. It’s time to bring in other stakeholders. There are a wide variety of stakeholders who have an important role to play in shaping the conversation around digital citizenship. What we have learned in planning our event is that they are often not in direct contact. How do we bring together educators, parents, students, organizations, and industry? The dialogue between parents and educators, in particular, has been a major source of frustration and dispute around appropriate tech use. One lesson we have learned is that we can increase the level of understanding amongst stakeholders by doing a better job communicating the value of digital citizenship with more approachable language. We also see a need to have the different groups come together in the same location. There will be massively different opinions, but we should embrace the diversity of thought as we shape the conversation. Lastly, we have learned that there is still a significant need to bring together educators and industry. A common criticism of tech companies is that they often push out their products without adequately considering the societal impact. The digital citizenship community could offer a great deal of insight and advice towards what safe, savvy, and ethical tech use entails. Mr. Zuckerberg, tear down that digital wall. Digital Citizenship really is huge. What we’ve noticed from our struggles and successes so far with the Digital Citizenship Summit is that with increased clarity and collaboration it will only get bigger. "We shouldn’t assume people know what digital citizenship is."; adapted image attribution flickr user sparkfunelectronics The post "We shouldn’t assume people know what digital citizenship is." appeared first on TeachThought.

6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups by TeachThought Staff Grouping students is easy; creating effective student groups is less so. The following infographic from Mia MacMeekin seeks to provide some ideas to help make group work easier in your classroom. The strength of this particular graphic is in the range of the ideas. The first tip refers teachers to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development, which frames student ability in terms of a range: what they can do unassisted, what they can do with the support of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO), and what they cannot do even with support. This is different for each student, and understanding these ranges for students can help inform grouping decisions, whether you’re using a peer instruction model, ability grouping, or another approach. MackMeekin’s suggestion to consider problem-based learning in a group setting is especially useful in that it also provides a link to the design of curriculum and instruction as well, rather than merely being a grouping strategy. Students engaging in problem-based learning will themselves make unique demands on the curriculum rather than the other way around. That is, the curriculum will have to be adapted to fit the problem-based learning approach, as will the instruction and then, ultimately, the grouping itself. This highlights the ecology of teaching and learning; changes here necessitate adaptations there. 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups Create a ZPD Zone Cognitive Dissonance is Good Numbers Count Praise Give Them Something to Do Facilitate image attribution Mia Mackmeekin; This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License; 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups The post 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups appeared first on TeachThought.

What Vonnegut Might Say About Your Teaching  by Terry Heick because who else would write something like this? I’m in the middle of "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, and just finished reading "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan, and I stumbled on a magic secret about teaching I want to share with you. It’s also about physical fitness. Okay, listen. There are countless reasons to be physically fit; there are just as many ways to be physically fit. There are a lot of indicators of fitness; there are many ways that being fit can improve your life. Most people understand this, even if they don’t do anything about it. They run for so many miles, and check their Fitbits to see how well it all went. Some download apps that help them pretend they’re running from zombies because they need that kind of motivation and that’s what works for them and can you imagine an ibex needing that kind of technology? They call this jogging. They scamper up and down tall, angled earth covered in lilac and clover and soil too sloped to grow anything but lilacs and clover. They call this mountain climbing. They get together and swing their arms around in large elliptical patterns that make everyone say ooh and ahh, then they agree to meet every Tuesday night at rec center and do it again. They call this martial arts. They lift weights that are heavy-metal bars with plates on the end that are filled with collapsed stars and carbon and just enough dark matter to make them struggle, and watch their muscles swell like water balloons that are shaped like arms and legs. They call this lifting weights. They get in cars made in other countries (that were shipped there on boats made in other countries still), and drive down paved pathways that connect (in right angles) with other paved pathways (they call these roads) until their GPS tells them they’ve arrived, then they get out, carry their rolled up mats into hot studios and bend their bodies into shapes named after serpents and chairs and sweat out all their crazy in the same room so they can leave it there and go back home without it. They call this yoga. There are lots of ways to become physically fit. But being fit is only valuable insofar as it enables other things. If you’re fit you might live longer. Or feel better. Or spend less in health care. Or your back might hurt less. Or you might fit into clothes that make you feel good. Or play team sports. Or with your children when the WiFi goes out. Or lift carts of harvest in the fields when the donkey needs a smoke break. The yoga studio or muay Thai facility or gym help you live. You go to the gym and lift weights so you have more energy, or you look and feel attractive, or you might live long enough to see your great grandchildren. But did you know that some people go into those gyms just to make their muscles big-like giant flesh golems? And that’s it. They’re not taking that strength to lift cabbage, or push linebackers, or be a barrel-chested lumberjacks. They want puffy pectoral muscles that give the illusion of athletic potential, but they just use them in order to get better at lifting more collapsed stars. They lift weights to get better at lifting weights. And did you know that in some schools, teachers ladle ideas from content areas into long wooden troughs so that students might feed from them? The feed is Common Core, and all the students eat the same thing because it’s packed full of nutrients and fiber and is gluten free and free range. And when the students feed, they comment to one another about the taste and say things like "This tastes good," or "What is this? I can’t place the flavor," but they keep chewing because one day they want to be big and strong like the teachers, or their parents, or the donkeys when they’re actually working. These schools have been gamified out the wazoo, so students learn to seek the points and the letters and badges instead of questions and critical literacy and wisdom because there are no points or badges for them and besides, games are fun. Students become trained to "get good at school." To stop resisting. We push our teacher fingers against our teacher lips and say shhhhhh and so they do. They master academic content of dubious value in order to fulfill the form of a student, just as those flesh golems go to the gym just to get bigger muscles to lift more weight, those muscles never leaving the gym, and those big, beautiful minds pressing against the windows of the classrooms, dying to know something about the world on the other side. And that’s how we ran schools in the early 21st century. The post What Vonnegut Might Say About Your Teaching appeared first on TeachThought.