TEST How David Foster Wallace Taught Students To Respond To One Another’s Writing by Terry Heick One of my favorite genres of writing is the essay, and one of my favorite essayists is David Foster Wallace. Wallace-or DFW if you’re okay with that-was equal part non-conforming, angst-ridden rebel and submissive lover of formal language and all of its rules and sentence-diagramming splendor. He was Jay Z and Strunk & White and Mark Twain all rolled into one, which made his writing a dizzying mix of all that as well. Footnotes paragraphs, paragraphs pages long, novels a thousand pages long. Essays about tennis and state fairs and corn and hip-hop and academia and depression and cruises and the depressing and mesmerizing nuance of human existence all part of his muse. With this kind of diverse background, his maniacal love for grammar and word choice and the precision of syntax and the right word fits right in, especially if you see language as a way to place rules on the species that has a way of bending them spectacularly. Language is a sort of caging and framing of the mind, which would annoy anyone who sat down and thought about it for long enough; it is somehow both volatile and impossibly sedate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, DFW also dabbled in the teaching of writing. His mother also a professor, he was a TA at the University of Arizona in 1987, an adjunct professor at Emerson College in 1991, and most recently teaching English 183D Pomona in 2008 College. Recently, an anthology of his work was collected in the form of the David Foster Wallace Reader, a book I didn’t know I couldn’t live without. A sample? DFW explaining the idea of creative non-fiction. "Creative also suggests that this kind of nonfiction tends to bear traces of its own artificing; the essay’s author usually wants us to see and understand her as the text’s maker. This does not, however, mean that an essayist’s main goal is simply to "share" or "express herself" or whatever feel-good term you might have got taught in high school. In the grown-up world, creative nonfiction is not expressive writing but rather communicative writing. And an axiom of communicative writing is that the reader does not automatically care about you (the writer), nor does she find you fascinating as a person, nor does she feel a deep natural interest in the same things that interest you. The reader, in fact, will feel about you, your subject, and your essay only what your written words themselves induce her to feel. So often students are taught how to write, but not why, and certainly not what’s possible. And if you read DWF long enough, if you find nothing else, you’ll find a timeless index of what’s possible when your focus is on the craft of writing. Teaching Students To Respond To One Another’s Writing Among the sections is one on teaching, which I was surprised to find (being that there’s an entire section devoted to it, and his interest in formal education rarely surfaced in his writing). While the "DFW Syllabus" is better-known (we’ll look at that another time-Google it if you’re curious), in the reader is also included a series of questions to act as a guideline for students to respond to one another’s writing. It is both academic and authentic; it is practical and thoughtful; it is focused on writers, and on readers. In short, it acts as a wonderful distillation for DFW in general, and a potentially tool for you to consider as you teach the craft of writing in your own classroom. Helping students respond to one another’s writing in a meaningful way isn’t easy at any grade level. More than anything else, he focused on specific elements of the craft of writing in a way that is very personal. Are the ideas interesting? Is language unclear? Does the writer seem to be doing this or this. Your partner really needs you for this, etc. I hope, then, you find DFW’s approach to writing response useful. "The David Foster Wallace Reader November 11, 2014 Specs and Guidelines for Peer-Review Missive 1. Identify what appears to be the present draft’s thesis or overall point. If you aren’t sure just what it is, list the most likely possibilities. 2. Tell the author whether her thesis is interesting to you or not. Like, whether it adds anything substantive to your own reading(s) of the novel(s) in question. If it doesn’t, you might suggest ways to make the thesis more interesting. 3. If, on the other hand, the overall thesis seems to you implausible, or unconvincing, or if you can see serious objections to it that the author hasn’t addressed, tell her about them. 4. Describe, in no more than one short paragraph, the overall argument that’s advanced in support of the thesis. If this seems impossible, explain why—try to identify areas you find confusing or unclear. 5. Identify two parts of the overall argument that seem comparatively strong/persuasive/effective. 6. Identify two parts of the overall argument that seem comparatively weak/unpersuasive/ineffective. 7. Does the author use any abstract terms or phrases (e.g., "despair," "gender," "happiness," "discover who she is") whose precise meanings in the paper aren’t clear to you? 8. Tell the author how well the draft’s parts fit together. Is she doing a good job of moving the reader coherently from one part of her argument to another? If not, try to identify some places where you get disoriented or couldn’t figure out where in the discussion you were. 9. Tell the author whether her use of quotations from the novel(s) and or secondary sources seems effective. Do some of the quotations seem stuck in merely to satisfy the "Research" requirement? Are any quotations unnecessarily long? Are quotations introduced well, woven smoothly into the author’s own prose, or do they just seem to hang there awkwardly? If you’re already conversant with MLA format, are the quotations cited correctly? 10. Identify (in the margins of the draft if not in the letter) any basic syntactic errors you spotted that violate the Dept. Format and Style Sheet, or that have been covered in class during the semester. (Since final drafts that contain these sorts of errors will be severely penalized, you have a chance to do your partner a real service here.) 11. Keeping in mind that the author will have five days to revise this working draft, give at least two general suggestions for making the paper better." TESTThe post How David Foster Wallace Taught Students To Respond To One Another’s Writing appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST A Useful Reading Comprehension Tool To Simplify Text by TeachThought Staff Need a reading comprehension tool to simplify texts for students? Something practical, along the lines of our "How To Google Search by Reading Level," and Conversion Chart For Reading Level Measurement Tools? You may find some use in rewordify. In short, you copy/paste text to be "simplified," and it does its thing. It attempts to simplify the text at the vocabulary level (as opposed to syntatical, structural, or idea level). Nonetheless, when vocabulary is the barrier, it does the trick. The replacements don’t always do what they should-simplify the text to make it more readable for struggling readers, or students reading beyond their natural level. Sometimes the definitions are themselves confusing, as they add an additional cognitive movement the student has to make, internalizing this now sterile definition back into some kind of meaning. In our brief use, we’ve found it useful in the right circumstance. You can’t copy/paste a chapter from a book and hand it to a child to read as a "modified text" that has been "personalized" for them. It’d simply make a mess of the text, and likely ruin the reading experience. What you can do, however, is use it to simplify short excerpts for individual readers, or for a whole-class read. You can also let students use it themselves as they will, or as a model of how passages can begin to be deconstructed. The developers explain the features of rewordify: Work with all your documents in one convenient place Edit and delete your documents Make any document public, so anyone can find it from the search box Make any document link-only, so people need a link to view it Make any document private, so people need a password to view it Save vocabulary lists Keep track of what words you’ve learned, are learning, and want to learn, and more! A Reading Comprehension Tool To Simplify Text TESTThe post A Reading Comprehension Tool To Simplify Text appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 25 Alternatives To "What’d You Learn In School Today?" by Terry Heick You try to fake it, but it limps right out of your mouth, barely alive. "What’d you learn in school today?" In a single sentence, all that is wrong with "school." First, the detachment-you literally have no idea what they’re learning or why. (You leave that up to school, because that’s what school’s for, right?) Which means you know very little about what your children are coming to understand about the world, only able to speak about it in vague terms of content areas (e.g., math, history). Then, there’s the implication-they don’t talk about it way that they’ve been moved or impressed upon or changed but in the rarest cases; you have to drag it out of them. And there’s also the matter of form-you ask them, as if a developing learner will be able to articulate the nuance of their own learning to make for a conversation that will do anything but make it seemed like they learned nothing at all. So what to do? Well, that idea of form has some legs, doesn’t it? Show me. Demonstrate it. Let’s look at some artifacts that show thought and affection. Let’s see the impact of your work and effort. That’d actually make a pretty good post in itself. But let’s stick to the old questions-on-the-car-ride-home or over-the-dinner-table format. What are some alternatives to "What’d you learn at school today?" Here are a few ideas. 25 Alternatives To "What’d You Learn In School Today?" When did you notice yourself most interested and curious today? Was there a time today when you were especially confused? How did you respond? What is one thing that was hard to believe? Not confusing, but surprising? If you were more ____ today, how would it have impacted the day? When were you most creative today? Tell me one fun thing you learned, one useful thing you learned, and one extraordinary thing you learned. What does a successful day at school look like to you? Feel like? What sort of different reasons do your friends go to school? Who worked harder today, the teacher or the students? How else could you have learned what the teacher taught? How do your teachers show they care? What do you know, and how do you know it? What would you like to know more about? What is the most important thing you learned today? The least? Tell me one chance you took today, and how it ended up. What is one thing you learned from a book? What is one thing you learned from a friend? What is one thing you learned from a teacher? What still confuses you? What is something you say or heard that stuck with you for some reason? Based on what you learned today in ______ class, what do you think you’ll learn tomorrow? Tell me three facts, two opinions, and one idea you heard today. What should you do with what you’ve learned? When did you surprise yourself today? What’s stopping you from being an (even more) amazing learner? A few readers chimed in with their own alternatives! Drew Perkins: "What great questions did you ask today?" Heather Braum: "What did you discover?" Heather Braum: "What surprised you?" Heather Braum: "Where did you travel to?" Eoin Linehan: "Why are you learning that?" Eoin Linehan: "How do you know you are learning?" Kristine Kirkaldy: "What did you learn/do that made you smile today? Mrs. Moore: "What was your favorite part of school today?" Amanda Couch: "Tell me your favorite moment at school today." Deb Gaskin: "If you had been responsible for the lesson, what would you have emphasized or done differently? Why?" Robin Smith: "what was your "good" for today? What was your "bad"?" Laura Cobb: "What did you improve today?" Laura Cobb: "What challenged your thinking?" Laura Cobb: "How did you contribute to other student’s learning?" Jackie Gerstein: "What touched your heart today?" Jackie Gerstein: "Did you experience anything at school that motivates you to make a difference in the world?" Jackie Gerstein: "Did you experience any "aha’s" today - understanding or seeing something differently than you previously had?" Jackie Gerstein: "Did you experience any moments of full enjoyment in learning today? If so, when and how?" Jackie Gerstein: "Did you invent or create anything new today?" 25 Alternatives To "What’d You Learn In School Today?" TESTThe post 25 Alternatives To What’d You Learn In School Today? appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Assessment: Why Item Analyses Are So Important by Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education As I have often written, the Common Core Standards are just common sense - but that the devil is in the details of implementation. And in light of the unfortunate excessive secrecy surrounding the test items and their months-later analysis, educators are in the unfortunate and absurd position of having to guess what the opaque results mean for instruction. It might be amusing if there weren’t personal high stakes of teacher accountability attached to the results. So, using the sample of released items in the NY tests, I spent some time this weekend looking over the 8th grade math results and items to see what was to be learned - and I came away appalled at what I found. Readers will recall that the whole point of the Standards is that they be embedded in complex problems that require both content and practice standards. But what were the hardest questions on the 8th grade test? Picayune, isolated, and needlessly complex calculations of numbers using scientific notation. And in one case, an item is patently invalid in its convoluted use of the English language to set up the prompt, as we shall see. As I have long written, there is a sorry record in mass testing of sacrificing validity for reliability. This test seems like a prime example. Score what is easy to score, regardless of the intent of the Standards. There are 28 8th grade math standards. Why do such arguably less important standards have at least 5 items related to them? (Who decided which standards were most important? Who decided to test the standards in complete isolation from one another simply because that is psychometrically cleaner?) Here are the released items related to scientific notation:   It is this last item that put me over the edge. The item analysis. Here are the results from the BOCES report to one school on the item analysis for questions related to scientific notation. The first number, cast as a decimal, reflects the % of correct answers statewide in NY. So, for the first item, question #8, only 26% of students in NY got this one right. The following decimals reflect regional and local percentages for a specific district. Thus, in this district 37% got the right answer, and in this school, 36% got it right. The two remaining numbers thus reflect the difference between the state score for the district and school (.11 and .10, respectively).   Notice that, on average, only 36% of New York State 8th graders got these 5 questions right, pulling down their overall scores considerably. Now ask yourself: given the poor results on all 5 questions - questions that involve isolated and annoying computations, hardly central to the import of the Standards - would you be willing to consider this as a valid measure of the Content and Process Standards in action? And would you be happy if your accountability scores went down as a teacher of 8th grade math, based on these results? Neither would I. There are 28 Standards in 8th grade math. Scientific Notation consists of 4 of the Standards. Surely from an intellectual point of view the many standards on linear relationships and the Pythagorean theorem are of greater importance than scientific notation. But the released items and the math suggest each standard was assessed 3-4 times in isolation prior to the few constructed response items. Why 5 items for this Standard? It gets worse. In the introduction to the released tests, the following reassuring comments are made about how items will be analyzed and discussed:   Fair enough: you cannot read the student’s mind. At least you DO promise me helpful commentary on each item. But note the third sentence: The rationales describe why the wrong answer choices are plausible but incorrect and are based on common errors in computation. (Why only computation? Is this an editorial oversight?) Let’s look at an example for arguably the least valid questions of the five: Oh. It is a valid test of understanding because you say it is valid. Your proof of validity comes from simply reciting the standard and saying this item assesses that. Wait, it gets even worse. Here is the "rationale" for the scoring, with commentary:   Note the difference in the rationales provided for wrong answers B and C: "may have limited understanding" vs. "may have some understanding… but may have made an error when obtaining the final result." This raises a key question unanswered in the item analysis and in the test specs. Does computational error = lack of understanding? Should Answers B and C be scored equal? (I think not, given the intent of the Standards). The student "may have some understanding" of the Standard or may not. Were Answers B and C treated equally? We do not know; we can’t know given the test security. So, all you are really saying is: wrong answer. Answers A, B, C are plausible but incorrect. They represent common student errors made when subtracting numbers expressed in scientific notation. Huh? Are we measuring subtraction here or understanding of scientific notation? (Look back at the Standard.) Not once does the report suggest an equally plausible analysis: students were unable to figure out what this question was asking!!! The English is so convoluted, it took me a few minutes to check and double-check whether I parsed the language properly:   Plausible but incorrect… The wrong answers are "plausible but incorrect." Hey, wait a minute: that language sounds familiar. That’s what it says under every other item! For example: All they are doing is copying and pasting the same sentence, item after item, and then substituting in the standard being assessed!!  Aren’t you then merely saying: we like all our distractors equally because they are all "plausible" but wrong? Understanding vs. computation. Let’s look more closely at another set of rationales for a similar problem, to see if we see the same jumbling together of conceptual misunderstanding and minor computational error. Indeed, we do: Look at the rationale for B, the correct answer: it makes no sense. Yes, the answer is 4 squared which is an equivalent expression to the prompt. But then they say: "The student may have correctly added the exponents." That very insecure conclusion is then followed, inexplicably, by great confidence: "A student who selects this response "understands the properties of integer exponents…" - which is of course, just the Standard, re-stated. Was this blind recall of a rule or is it evidence of real understanding? We’ll never know from this item and this analysis. In other words, all the rationales are doing, really, is claiming that the item design is valid - without evidence. We are in fact learning nothing about student understanding, the focus of the Standard. Hardly the item analysis trumpeted at the outset. Not what we were promised. More fundamentally, these are not the kinds of questions the Common Core promised us. Merely making the computations trickier is cheap psychometrics, not an insight into student understanding. They are testing what is easy to test, not necessarily what is most important. By contrast, here is an item from the test that assesses for genuine understanding: This is a challenging item - perfectly suited to the Standard and the spirit of the Standards. It requires understanding the hallmarks of linear and nonlinear relations and doing the needed calculations based on that understanding to determine the answer. But this is a rare question on the test. Why should the point value of this question be the same as the scientific notation ones? In sum: questionable. This patchwork of released items, bogus "analysis" and copy and paste "commentary" give us little insight into the key questions: where are my kids in terms of the Standards? What must we do to improve performance against these Standards? My weekend analysis, albeit informal, gives me little faith in the operational understanding of the Standards in this design, without further data on how item validity was established, whether any attempt was made to carefully distinguish computational from conceptual errors in the design and scoring- and whether the tentmakers even understand the difference between computation and understanding. It is thus inexcusable for such tests to remain secure, with item analysis and released items dribbled out at the whim of the DOE and the vendor. We need a robust discussion as to whether this kind of test measures what the Standards call for, a discussion that can only occur if the first few years of testing lead to a release of the whole test after it is taken. New York State teachers deserve better. This article first appeared on Grant’s personal blog; Grant can be found on twitter here; image attribution flickr user anthonypbruce; Assessment: Why Item Analyses Are So Important TESTThe post Assessment: Why Item Analyses Are So Important appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 4 Ideas For Motivating Adolescent Male Readers By Kenny McKee It’s no secret that state and national assessments continue to indicate that boys lag behind girls in the area of reading. The gap tends to grow larger as students enter adolescence. It’s also no secret that many teenage boys dislike reading — in class or at home. Just ask a high school teacher…or a teenage boy. While it’s not true that all teenage boys dislike reading, there is a growing trend of many becoming unmotivated readers. Obviously, students who are resistant to reading are unlikely to get better at it. Here are four ideas for motivating adolescent male readers. 1. Focus On The Now Oftentimes, teachers emphasize the importance of reading skills or reading content by saying, "You will need this for the test," or "You will need this for college," or "When you get to the real world, you’ll need to be able to do this." Well, students are living in the real world right now, and, for the most part, they have real concerns about their lives that they want to solve. Many boys (and teenagers overall) like to know how learning impacts their lives in the moment, and they are generally not concerned with how schoolwork relates to an unclear future. Focusing on the future can lead to procrastination, since, to young men, the future seems a long time away (Smith & Wilhelm, 2002). Also, teachers can lose focus on students’ needs in the present. We can make the reading we choose for whole-class instruction more motivating by relating it to the "here and now." Survey your students to determine what they want to learn, and select reading materials aligned with their interests. Have students create products, presentations, or skits from their reading materials. Many boys will readily engage in activities that ask them to create something meaningful or to perform for their peers. Also, consider designing inquiry units where students research answers to questions that concern teens, such as "Is the senior year of high school necessary?" or "Is love really all you need?" Weaving literature and informational texts around such topics can motivate many students, especially if students have some voice in what the inquiry topics will be. 2. Use A Variety Of Text In some schools, there is a narrow view of what constitutes literacy. Even with the adoption of Common Core State Standards that emphasize informational text, the primary focus of secondary English language arts classes, especially in high schools, is often the study of literature. Boys engage in many other forms of literacy that traditionally are not valued by teachers. Since many boys do not read teacher-privileged literary fiction texts at home, many of them classify themselves as non-readers, even if they do extensive reading from the Internet, magazines, and newspapers (Cavazos-Kottke, 2005). One solution that can have tremendous positive effects on motivation is incorporating self-selected reading as part of the English language arts classroom. Conferring with students individually over self-chosen reading provides opportunities to validate and support boys’ independent reading. Once you have learned a bit more about your male students’ reading preferences, you can find texts with similar genres, themes, or topics to include in whole-class reading. You can also better select texts for a classroom library. 3. Set Them Up For Success Many boys need to feel like they can accomplish a task in order to even attempt it. Thus, goals must be perceived as achievable in order for boys to feel competent. The most-motivating activities offer success and demonstrate evidence of growth (Cleveland, 2011). Scaffolding and differentiation strategies can contribute to developing a sense of competence. For example, many teachers use Newsela, a site that allows the user to alter the reading complexity of recent news stories. Students can even self-select their own readlng levels based upon factors such as familiarity with the topic, their reading purpose, and their comprehension. Another option for students is using social scaffolding techniques such as Say Something. Students can select reading partners and then take turns reading, frequently stopping to discuss their comprehension of the text. Sentence starters can be used to help students initiate those conversations. 4. Use Male Reading Role Models Many educators believe that a "Boy Code" that stems from an absence of positive male role models, the massive influence of the media’s distorted images of masculinity, and the fear of being labeled "feminine" impacts reading motivation. Because girls generally develop literacy skills at an earlier age, many boys perceive reading as a feminine activity. This perception leads to some boys shunning reading. Since they do not participate in school reading, they become less proficient at it, which perpetuates their lack of motivation (Cleveland, 2011). Male reading role models are important for infiltrating the beliefs of the "Boy Code." Many people point to the under-representation of males in the teaching profession, especially in English classrooms, as a factor giving the "Boy Code" more power. Some studies have found that bringing successful men into schools helps. Some evidence of this claim is that boys in wealthier districts generally report reading more often and have higher reading assessment scores because their fathers are likely to have jobs where literacy is valued. These boys are more likely to view literacy as a masculine trait (Sadowski, 2010). Especially for boys living in poverty, it is important for male educators to discuss their reading and the importance of literacy in their lives. In addition, having successful and influential community members share the ways they use reading can be enlightening to young men. Kenneth McKee is a literacy and instructional coach with Buncombe County Schools in Asheville, NC. He is a 2014 ASCD Emerging Leader. To learn more about his work, follow him on Twitter (@kennycmckee) or visit his website kennycmckee.com; 4 Ideas For Motivating Adolescent Male Readers; image attribution flickr user gammarayproduction TESTThe post 4 Ideas For Motivating Adolescent Male Readers appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST A Beginner’s Guide To Personalized Learning by TeachThought Staff  There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student’s readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student’s needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, "What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?" This is a student-centered approach, and is built around the idea of recognizing the vast differences in students-not just in terms of literacy or schema, but an authentic need to know. In that context, consider the above graphic from Mia MacMeekin (who also gave us 27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding). It frames the idea of personalized learning around the who/what/where/why/when series of questions, and then separates things again into three categories: What is personalized learning? How to personalize learning Examples of personalized learning In this way, it represents an excellent beginner’s guide to personalized learning. The fact that it’s highly visual and limited to brief questions and examples makes it all the more readable, shareable, and fun. Give Mia’s site a visit, and let her know what you think! A Beginner’s Guide To Personalized Learning  TESTThe post A Beginner’s Guide To Personalized Learning appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Teacher Selfie: Have You Seen Yourself Teach Lately? by Paul Moss, paulgmoss.com Video your teaching, and see what really happens in your classroom. That is my exhortation to you, from a recently converted disciple of such professional development. I don’t mean for the sake of observing student behavior, although you will see some incredible things at times, but more so to measure your skill in creating a classroom culture of challenge, and curiosity, where intrinsic motivation and independent learning are the primary focus. A major focus for all schools now is the idea of progress. At all times students must be seen to be progressing. Traditionally, such progress is measured through assessment, in both formative and summative modes. Whilst this approach is incredibly powerful, it does not present the whole picture of a student’s movement. The process of a student arriving at a learning objective is equally important, and powerfully enlightening in terms of planning. 9 Questions To Guide You Watching Yourself Teach Videoing allows me to see if I am simply feeding the students info, or if I am guiding them to finding and discovering it. The distinction is massive, and has great implications for the notion of what constitutes effective learning, yet it took observations of my videos for the levels and ratios of both styles to become apparent to me. It took videoing to present observation of my skill in addressing these vital questions: How much I have set up a culture of independent learning? How good are my questioning skills? How much do I ‘open’ up students’ minds with pertinent and differentiated questions? How much do I allow the students to ‘find’ the answers to questions themselves? How much do I let students breathe with a challenge, before I step in? How much do I use wait time effectively? How good am I at supporting the transition to learning like this? How well do I tie in the learning objective with the tasks presented? How much do I encourage an environment of curiosity about the learning, why it is being undertaken, and how it links to other areas we have been focusing on? When I first watched myself back I realized that these considerations were alarmingly lacking. And while I have had to really take stock of my teaching skill in implementing such ideals, there was and still is another thing getting in the way of making such pedagogy a smooth and seamless experience. I think I know what it is. When watching the videos it is strikingly clear that the students are not used to such a learning culture. Many of them have great difficulty in making progress on their own. They seem to have fallen into a pattern of passively learning material, completing exercises with little connection to anything other than the moment, and worst of all, easily giving up when the challenge is ostensibly too difficult (often at the very first moment of difficulty). The consequence is that often I have had a classroom with an overwhelming vibe of student angst and annoyance at not being told the answers, and not being able to complete tasks quickly. At times students have literally challenged my teaching credentials. Many times I gave in to such disharmony. In hindsight, and ironically, I gave in too easily. However, as I have evolved and learnt to be patient in the method, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the students are slowly becoming more independent, and fighting that little bit harder to achieve an understanding of a task. Recording Lessons For Teacher Professional Development Whilst I still have a long way to go before I could say that I’ve mastered the process, I have experienced enough feedback to validate the paradigm. What is clear is that when I am successful in creating the culture of challenge, the students are able to transfer knowledge with more skill, and seem to be truly engaged in learning. When they push through the barriers and see that they actually can do it, they feel a sense of ownership with their progress. And then the silver lining reveals itself in all its glory: it’s all without me having to extrinsically motivate the class in any way. The students just don’t need it. They actually don’t even want it. They know they’ve worked it out; they don’t need me to say so. And for the ultimate reversal, they actually vent their disappointment if I jump in too quickly with help. Then the classroom takes on a different vibe entirely: students suddenly seem thirsty! For me, videoing has become an enormously useful measure of progress, as I can easily recall a series of videos to demonstrate how students and myself have made progress in learning in the classroom. I can see how my style has evolved to address the questions above. I can see how the students are adapting to the style, and how much more they are engaged, verbally, mentally and physically, with peers and on their own. These are videos that I could show inspectors. Whilst the road has not always been easy, like what I tell the students all the time, nothing any good and worth fighting for ever is. I am fortunate and thankful that my current school, Marine Academy Plymouth, has the insight to encourage such an approach to professional development. Does your school? Teacher Reflection: Have You Seen Yourself Teach Lately? TESTThe post Have You Seen Yourself Teach Lately? appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Learning Theories: Jerome Bruner On The Scaffolding Of Learning by Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor, Plymouth Institute of Education In this post, we explore the work of Jerome Bruner on scaffolding of learning. This is a simplified interpretation of the theory, so if you wish to learn more, please read the original works. The Theory Bruner’s theory of scaffolding emerged around 1976 as a part of social constructivist theory, and was particularly influenced by the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky argued that we learn best in a social environment, where we construct meaning through interaction with others. His Zone of Proximal Development theory, where we can learn more in the presence of a knowledgeable other person, became the template for Bruner’s model. Bruner believed that when children start to learn new concepts, they need help from teachers and other adults in the form of active support. To begin with, they are dependent on their adult support, but as they become more independent in their thinking and acquire new skills and knowledge, the support can be gradually faded. This form of structured interaction between the child and the adult is reminiscent of the scaffolding that supports the construction of a building. It is gradually dismantled as the work is completed. In a very specific way, scaffolding represents a reduction in the many choices a child might face, so that they become focused only on acquiring the skill or knowledge that is required. The simplistic elegance of Bruner’s theory means that scaffolding can be applied across all sectors, for all ages and for all topics of learning. How It Can Be Applied To Education It is important for teachers to provide opportunities for children to constantly learn new things. Some of those may be highly complex and will require support of a very focused kind. Teachers need to be aware of the developmental state of each of the children in their care, and should provide scaffolding that is appropriate. Although this may not be possible to do on their own, teachers can improvise and provide scaffolding through other support, including the use of other adults such as teaching assistants (para-educators) parent helpers, or more knowledgeable other children within the classroom. As children gain in confidence and competence in a particular areas, teachers might place them in groups to extend each other’s learning further. It’s also important that teachers recognise when a child is at the point where they begin to learn independently, and decisions can be made to set them free from the scaffolding. Reference Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S. and Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, 17(2), 89-100. This post first appeared on Steve’s personal blog; image attribution wikimedia.commons TESTThe post Learning Theories: Jerome Bruner On The Scaffolding Of Learning appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST This Will Revolutionize Education  by TeachThought Staff "The job of a teacher is not to deliver information. It is to guide the social process of learning. The job of a teacher is to inspire, to challenge, to excite their students to want to learn." To those at the forefront of progressive education-really, most teachers we’d think-this isn’t a new idea. But it’s starting to spread, evidenced by a recent video from science video blog and YouTube channel Veratasium. The video (bravely?) takes on the big, stubborn field of education, specifically the sticky topic of ed reform. They were curious why, in lieu of better and better technology that continues to impact other fields, there is little improve in education. They didn’t think it was the inertia of the industry itself; not too little edtech, nor poverty, nor standards or standardized testing. The Motion Picture, The CD, Tablets, MOOCS Their conclusion? Our focus is wrong. While technology is useful, it’s only useful insofar as it promotes engagement with clear learning goals within a well-designed process. Animations, they explain, can be powerful, but aren’t inherently so. They’re only "better" than a static image or a conversation if their weaknesses (e.g., lack of text, inability to slow or stop the animation, unclear learning goals, etc.) are mitigated. Their line of thinking is that education continues to focus on the wrong things-things outside of the learner’s heads rather than within them. We focus on replacing teachers instead of celebrating them, or training them for new roles. The result is redundancy, inefficiency, and mediocre performance. "I think it is instructive that each new technology has appeared to be so transformative. You can imagine, for example, that motion pictures must have seemed like a revolutionary learning technology. After all they did revolutionize entertainment, yet failed to make significant inroads into the classroom. TV and video seem like a cheaper, scaled back film, but they too failed to live up to expectations. Now there is a glut of information and video on the internet so should we expect it to revolutionize education? My view is that it won’t, for two reasons: 1. Technology is not inherently superior, animations over static graphics, videoed presentations over live lectures etc. and 2. Learning is inherently a social activity, motivated and encouraged by interactions with others." So what will actually, finally, without a doubt "revolutionize education"? They never really come to a single conclusion, which seems to be the point. There isn’t a single thing, technology or otherwise. Engaged students in a social setting under the care of an inspiring teacher seems to be their ultimate response. You can see the video below. TESTThe post This Will Revolutionize Education appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Experiential Learning: Just Because It’s Hands-On Doesn’t Mean It’s Minds-On by Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education I recently visited Thetford Academy in Vermont (one of the few and interesting public-private academies in New England) where they have a formal and explicit commitment to "experiential learning." So, the leaders of the school asked me to visit classes that were doing experiential learning and to talk with staff at day’s end about it. I saw some great examples of such instruction. I visited the design tech course (see photos) and the class on the Connecticut River where students were learning about soil types prior to a wetlands field trip. I also spent the previous day at the Riverdale School where all 9th graders were learning the skills and habits of innovation and entrepreneurship as part of a cool new project headed by John Kao, former Harvard Business School innovation guru. (I am a consultant to the Edgemakers project). Below are some pictures from the "Design a better backpack exercise" that started the work of the day. Just because it’s hands-on doesn’t mean it’s minds-on. But the gist of my remarks at Thetford was to propose caution. Just because work is hands-on does not mean it is minds-on. Many projects, problems, situations, and field trips do not yield lasting and transferable learning because too little attention is given to the meta-cognitive and idea-building work that turns a single experience into insight and later application. Years ago when I worked as a consultant at School Without Walls in Rochester NY (one of the first really interesting alternative High Schools to emerge from the 60s and a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools), they put it very succinctly in their caution about all the independent projects students routinely did. If you were going to learn carpentry to build a chair, then "The learning is not the chair; it is the learning about learning about chairs, chair-making and oneself." I have also often used the following soccer example, because it makes the same point beautifully and practically. Merely playing the game over and over need not cause understanding and transfer. It takes a deliberate processing of the game experience, as summarized in the powerful approach used by my daughter’s high school coach a few years back. Instead of talking on and on at players at half-time, Griff asked 4 key questions of players: What’s working for us? What’s not working for us? What’s working for the other team? So, what do we have to do in the 2nd half? My daughter (now a starter at Stony Brook University) has often remarked that Griff was really the only coach through HS that taught her to ‘think soccer’ and it paid off in her growth and the team’s success. As a coach of soccer, baseball, and Socratic Seminar, I learned this lesson the hard way many times myself. I often over-estimated student understanding as to the purpose of activities and assignments, and the important learnings from the experiences. My teaching became far more focused and effective when I forced kids to be metacognitive and reflective about what had been achieved against goals. So, for example, 30 years ago I used a variant of Griff’s questions towards the end of each Socratic Seminar: What have been the highlights? What have been the rough spots? What do we now understand? What do we still not understand? Whose voices didn’t we hear? Why? With the Thetford staff I prompted a focused discussion in a 2-part exercise: What is the difference between effective and ineffective experiential learning? What are the key indicators to look for in judging whether your attempt at experiential learning is working? (Hint: mere engagement is NOT sufficient.) You might try this exercise locally. The answers are not surprising but worth committing to. One of the most frequent answers is a clear and specific sense of purpose, linking the activity to the WHY? question - We’re doing this because… We’re learning this because… etc. The other common answer is that the activity needs to be processed in terms of what was and wasn’t learned. (It is key that students explain this independently. Many teachers think that just because they may have said something about purpose at the start that therefore students can answer these questions later on. It is often not the case.) A third optional part of the exercise is to share examples of the most powerful experiential learning in one’s own experience as a learner to provide a check and to go beyond the earlier answers. I always ask all kids when I visit class the three questions at the heart of this caution: What are you doing? Why are you doing it? What does this help you do that’s important? Alas, many kids do not provide adequate answers. And that’s why we need to worry about merely hands-on learning - even as hands-on learning is vital for making abstractions come to life. This article was excerpted from a post that first appeared on Grant’s personal blog; Grant can be found on twitter here; Experiential Learning: Just Because It’s Hands-On Doesn’t Mean It’s Minds-On; image attribution flickr user nasagoddardacademy TESTThe post Experiential Learning: Just Because It’s Hands-On Doesn’t Mean It’s Minds-On appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST #twitterchat: Why Teachers Like Learning Models by TeachThought Staff Recently, #cohort21 hosted a twitter chat on a topic near and dear to our hearts: learning models and frameworks. We have our own ideas about what they’re so important, but this isn’t about us, is it? This being 2014, the #twitterchat conversation, of course, quickly turned to SAMR and TPACK, and educators shared their favorite versions, how they used them, and what future needs in the space might be. Archived twitter chats make for wonderful quick reads, and can include some gems (the Starbucks analogy, for example), so, here you go. #twitterchat: Why Teachers Like Learning Models, all in one place. #twitterchat: Why Teachers Like Learning Models [View the story "Cohort 21 - Frameworks and Action Planning" on Storify] #twitterchat: Why Teachers Like Learning Models TESTThe post #twitterchat: Why Teachers Like Learning Models appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST When Student Writers Learn That They Must Make Their Audience Care by Terry Heick That a reader doesn’t have any interest in what they’re reading would be a pretty harsh assumption to make. But it’s an idea David Foster Wallace felt was important to get across to writers right off the bat, as he did in the following course description for his now-famous English 183D. "English 183D is a workshop course in creative nonfiction, which term denotes a broad category of prose works such as personal essays and memoirs, profiles, nature and travel writing, narrative essays, observational or descriptive essays, general-interest technical writing, argumentative or idea-based essays, general-interest criticism, literary journalism, and so on. The term’s constituent words suggest a conceptual axis on which these sorts of prose works lie. As nonfiction, the works are connected to actual states of affairs in the world, are "true" to some reliable extent. If, for example, a certain event is alleged to have occurred, it must really have occurred; if a proposition is asserted, the reader expects some proof of (or argument for) its accuracy. At the same time, the adjective creative signifies that some goal(s) other than sheer truthfulness motivates the writer and informs her work. This creative goal, broadly stated, may be to interest readers, or to instruct them, or to entertain them, to move or persuade, to edify, to redeem, to amuse, to get readers to look more closely at or think more deeply about something that’s worth their attention. . . or some combination(s) of these. Creative also suggests that this kind of nonfiction tends to bear traces of its own artificing; the essay’s author usually wants us to see and understand her as the text’s maker. This does not, however, mean that an essayist’s main goal is simply to "share" or "express herself" or whatever feel-good term you might have got taught in high school. In the grown-up world, creative nonfiction is not expressive writing but rather communicative writing. And an axiom of communicative writing is that the reader does not automatically care about you (the writer), nor does she find you fascinating as a person, nor does she feel a deep natural interest in the same things that interest you. The reader, in fact, will feel about you, your subject, and your essay only what your written words themselves induce her to feel. An advantage of the workshop format is that it will allow you to hear what twelve reasonably intelligent adults have been induced to think and feel about each essay you write for the course." The Selfishness Of Writing In the unparagraphed and sweeping take on nonfiction as a genre (specifically creative nonfiction, a nascent but non-digital term), Wallace took on the idea of the writer-reader relationship, and immediately clarified the goal of creative nonfiction: to communicate. Sounds standard, but this is an important distinction. The goal of writing (at least in this narrow genre) isn’t self-expression, where you grab a microphone and talk to a crowded stadium. Rather, creative nonfiction is about communication. Relaying this idea to this audience for this purpose, and without their skill and affection, no one may ever care. What is the definition of creative nonfiction? DFW describes is as "a broad category of prose works such as personal essays and memoirs, profiles, nature and travel writing, narrative essays, observational or descriptive essays, general-interest technical writing, argumentative or idea-based essays, general-interest criticism, literary journalism, and so on." In short, nonfiction, usually prose, that is somehow playful with the form-the opposite of academic writing. There is overlap between creative nonfiction and the way students treat social media. Social media is a bit like a high school locker but turned inside out. This is what I love, this is what I want others to see about me, this is what I’m feeling. I. Me. Mine. My. Myself.  Consider the smashing contrast, then, between this digital narcissism, and what Wallace saw as the function of creative nonfiction-to "instruct… or to entertain…to move or persuade, to edify, to redeem, to amuse." One is for me, the other is for you. The form is just a strategy. Unfortunately, when students are conditioned-whether through premature praise, social media, or simply youthful innocence-to believe that someone beyond their mom or teacher might be genuinely interested in their ideas, belief system, and any communication of the same-it erodes their empathy with the reader, and limits the power of their writing. They’re tricked right from the beginning into thinking someone is waiting at the end of the line. They learn to write for teachers, grades, or, worse, "self-expression." And they absolutely need-and deserve to-express themselves. But writing everything as if everyone cares is an impossible position to communicate from, and sets the student up for all kinds of problems, from tone to research, diction to supporting details, theme and thesis to syntax and idea organization. The whole writing process is different when you’re writing to someone that you assume cares. It’s the principal that guides Apple’s marketing-that is, an historically minimal and minimalist approach-because people want their products, it changes how they market them. Conclusion Genius may come from selfish expression that has little regard for "demographics" and is simply done for the sake of the "thing" itself, but the other side of that is that writing is really, really hard. Great writing is great work. The sooner we can get students to buy into the idea that readers may not care about what they write, the sooner they can be humbled into a genius mindset that connects themselves, their topic, their audience, and the tools of a writer’s craft as a matter of careful design, because that’s what writing is. Image attribution flickr user woodleywonderworks; Creative Nonfiction: If Students Wrote As If No One Cared TESTThe post When Student Writers Learn That They Must Make Their Audience Care appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST A Quick Guide To Teaching Hour Of Code 2014 by TeachThought Staff What is Hour of Code? Hour of Code is a week-long promotion of the teaching and learning of computer coding. "The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket-science, anybody can learn the basics," said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. "In one week last year, 15 million students tried an Hour of Code. Now we’re aiming for 100 million worldwide to prove that the demand for relevant 21st century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries." When does it start, and how long does it last? It runs December 8-14, 2014. How do I participate? Tweet about it. Blog about it. Help other teachers with it. Or better yet, teach students code in some way, shape, or form yourself. What resources do I need? This post will help, but also apps and platforms-Scratch, Codea, Khanacademic, Codeacademy, HopScotch, etc. When should I have started planning for this? Not today-probably a couple of weeks ago, when we should’ve shared this post. So we’re both to blame. Let’s move on. 9 Simple Ideas For Teaching Hour Of Code 5 Ideas from hourofcode.com: "1. Explain The Big Idea Of Hour Of Code To Your Students Explain it in a simple way that includes examples of applications that both boys and girls will care about (saving lives, helping people, connecting people, etc.). Try: "Think about things in your everyday life that use computer science: a cell phone, a microwave, a computer, a traffic light… all of these things needed a computer scientist to help build them." Or, "Computer science is the art of blending human ideas and digital tools to increase our power. Computer scientists work in so many different areas: writing apps for phones, curing diseases, creating animated movies, working on social media, building robots that explore other planets and so much more." Video games are another excellent way to introduce students to the idea of code, as they are created with code. Or have them right-click any webpage using Google Chrome to see the code that makes simply surfing the web possible. 2. Test The Hardware The best Hour of Code experience will be with Internet-connected computers. But you don’t need a computer for every child, and can even do the Hour of Code without a computer at all. Test tutorials on student computers or devices. Make sure they work properly (with sound and video). Preview the congrats page to see what students will see when they finish. Provide headphones for your class, or ask students to bring their own, if the tutorial you choose works best with sound. 3. Direct students to the activity Write the tutorial link on a whiteboard, or share through social media. Find the link listed on the information for your selected tutorial under the number of participants. hourofcode.com/co Tell students to visit the URL and start the tutorial. 4. Problem-Solve Together When your students come across difficulties Tell students, "Ask 3 then me." Ask 3 classmates, and if they don’t have the answer, then ask the teacher. Encourage students and offer positive reinforcement: "You’re doing great, so keep trying." It’s okay to respond: "I don’t know. Let’s figure this out together." If you can’t figure out a problem, use it as a good learning lesson for the class: "Technology doesn’t always work out the way we want. Together, we’re a community of learners." And: "Learning to program is like learning a new language; you won’t be fluent right away." 5. Plan For Early Finishers What to do if a student finishes early? Students can see all tutorials and try another Hour of Code activity at code.org/learn. Or, ask students who finish early to help classmates who are having trouble with the activity." 4 Additional Ideas From Us 6. See the Khan Academy’s Hour of Code resources! 7. Ask others in your building See if anyone else in your building has experience with Hour of Code, or coding in general, and ping them for ideas. 8. Don’t be afraid to keep it simple You don’t have to let students design their own social media platforms for Hour of Code to be considered a success. Set some basic goals for Hour of Code, and go with it! 9. Reflect, Reflect, Reflect After the lesson, ask the students how it went. Have them summarize and visualize what they learned, and then identify next steps for continued learning! Teaching The Hour of Code FAQ Ed note: Minus a very few minor additions we’ve made, this information was taken directly from the  website, and can be read in greater detail there. "When is the Hour of Code? Anybody can host an Hour of Code anytime, but the grassroots campaign goal is for tens of millions of students to try an Hour of Code during December 8-14, 2014, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. Is it one specific hour? No. You can do the Hour of Code anytime during this week. (And if you can’t do it during that week, do it the week before or after.) Why computer science? Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path. See more stats on Code.org. How do I participate in the Hour of Code? Sign up to host an Hour of Code event here and start planning. You can organize an Hour of Code event at your school or in your community — like in an extracurricular club, non-profit or at work. Or, just try it yourself when Dec. 8 arrives. I don’t know anything about coding. Can I still host an event? Of course. Hour of Code activities are self-guided. All you have to do is try our current tutorials, pick the tutorial you want, and pick an hour — we take care of the rest. We also have options for every age and experience-level, from kindergarten and up. Start planning your event by reading our how to guide. Do I need computers for every participant? No. We have Hour of Code tutorials that work on PCs, smartphones, tablets, and some that require no computer at all! You can join wherever you are, with whatever you have.Here are a few options: Work in pairs. Research shows students learn best with pair programming, sharing a computer and working together. Encourage your students to double up. Use a projected screen. If you have a projector and screen for a Web-connected computer, your entire group can do an Hour of Code together. Watch video portions together and take turns solving puzzles or answering questions. Go unplugged. We offer tutorials that require no computer at all. How can I make an Hour of Code tutorial? If you’re interested in becoming a tutorial partner, see our guidelines and instructions. We’d like to host a variety of engaging options, but the primary goal is to optimize the experience for students and teachers who are new to computer science. Do students need to log on using an account? No. Absolutely no signup or login is required for students to try the Hour of Code. Most of the follow-on courses require account creation to save student progress. Where is the tutorial with Anna and Elsa? It is now published on Code.org/learn. We hope you enjoy it! Which activity should I do with high school students? Across all ages, we recommend trying one of the beginner tutorials on Code.org/learn to start, such as the tutorial with Angry Birds or with Anna and Elsa. A high school student should be able to finish one of these in 30 minutes and can then try a more advanced tutorial in JavaScript, such as KhanAcademy or CodeHS. I am doing Scratch for Hour of Code, but what if my students have iPads rather than laptops? Scratch doesn’t run on tablets. If your students are young, they can use the ScratchJR iPad app (for early-readers). If you look at the tutorials on Code.org/learn, you can find other tutorials that work on iPads - from Code.org, Tynker, Lightbot, or CodeSpark." A Quick Guide To Teaching Hour Of Code 2014 TESTThe post A Quick Guide To Teaching Hour Of Code 2014 appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Every Classroom Is A Team And Every Teacher Is A Coach by Molly Bruzewski, Ed.S. In this current atmosphere of accountability, educators are often challenged with balancing the time it takes to participate in enriched activities that involve student engagement and academic excellence. There is often a war of words waged between teachers when it comes to expectations and what good classroom engagement should look like. We often see two opposing teams in our staff meetings. Team 1 has educators that are passionate about "getting to know their students." They are welcoming, smile during the first days of school, and have relatively few classroom rules and procedures. There is a laissez faire atmosphere about "doing business in class." By the very nature of the school environment, an assumption is made that students will get the education bug by osmosis, and that student learning is something outside of them. Team 2 has an equally passionate group of educators. This group loves their areas of expertise and launches into the school year with plans strapped down and resources ready to be disseminated. Their entire year accelerates as though they are on the mission to Mars. An assumption made by this group is that students are "there to learn, period!" They assume full responsibility for every student’s achievement in the classroom, but they don’t have time for the warm and fuzzy stuff. Team 1 and Team 2 are at a standoff! These teams have similar outcomes at the end of the school year. They are playing catch up because they didn’t "get through everything" for a variety of reasons. They are burned out.  They have exhausted a case of lozenges trying to get students’ attention. They can’t wait to see students go home for the summer. And what about evaluations? Team 1 scored high on student engagement and developing relationships with students and parents; Team 2 scored high on academics and classroom management. But, what did they learn from one another? The pressure is intense for both teams to produce, and they sit across from one another in faculty meetings. So how do we capitalize on the strengths that they bring to our staff? How do we develop a culture in our classrooms and buildings that promotes a climate of respect for all on one hand, while at the same time raises student achievement on the other? It begins with leadership. If we think about it, football programs have an offensive team, a defensive team, and special teams. Though they are different teams, the objective for each team is clear - they are on the same team and are in the game to win. They have different roles, patterns and plays. The players are selected for specific positions on offense and defense because of their size and talent. What if the football coach treated the offense and defense as two separate teams that had no relationship to the other? What if the offense or the defense played like they didn’t need the other? How successful would that team be? The principal and other building leaders are similarly situated to capitalize on the best from the philosophical teams in their building. It’s time bring them to the table for a strategy meeting. Step 1: Modeling Assume the Head Coach role. With the talent you have assembled, take advantage of their unique abilities and mold them into a team. Begin developing a playbook and define what you want to see in classrooms. Simultaneously, model the types of behaviors you would like to see your staff engaging in with their students. For example, greet staff and students with a handshake and smile when they walk in the building for the day or during regular class passing time. Learn their first and last names, their likes and dislikes, and what motivates them to be in the building on a daily basis. As the coach, provide opportunities inside and outside of school time for staff to socialize and become a community. For example, if your objective is for teachers to be engaging, inviting and to build a sense of community in their classrooms, then pull out your Playbook and employ the talents that  Team 1 brings to this conversation. Ask them to "develop the plays" to launch at the next staff meeting. These gatherings are ideal opportunities to begin building your community idea. Get teachers on their feet while Team 1 facilitates the icebreaker and community-building activities and conversations. As you embark on this mission, you understand that without balance your efforts could be undermined. Therefore, community-building strategies need to be coupled with conversations around quality routines and procedures. To begin, model a few routines that you consider appropriate for the flow of business as the school day gets started. For example, if things get hectic first thing around teacher mailboxes, and your preference is for teachers to be in their classrooms or in the hallways greeting students as they arrive, come up with strategies that will alleviate the commotion and facilitate a positive workflow. Demonstrate there are a variety of ways to get business done that promotes order and honors everyone. Then pull out your Playbook and put Team 2 to work. The strengths of Team 2 are procedures and productivity. Have them demonstrate some of their main classroom procedures and facilitate conversations around strategies that all could live with. This conversation at staff meetings should be given equal weight. There needs to be a balance when we discuss building community and developing routines and procedures. Developing positive relationships plays a critical role in the socialization of the whole child - especially for our students. We have a unique opportunity to model what good relationships look like, and appropriate ways to treat one another as friends and colleagues. At the same time, routines and procedures are integral for workflow. They set expectations and parameters so students know how to accomplish things on their own. As you build your team at the beginning of the school year, be diligent to employ these strategies throughout. Be consistent and set the expectation that you want students to get to know one another in a similar fashion - because every classroom is a team and every teacher a coach. Teams work together to succeed. Everything we do is based on this first practice, modeling. In part 2 tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the idea of clarifying expectations, and how that impacts the "team" approach of student achievement. Molly Bruzewski, Ed.S. is an education consultant in Michigan. Her expertise is in curriculum mapping and assessment, classroom instructional strategies, online teaching and learning, and she serves as a Great Expectations (GE) methodology instructor. Bruzewski is passionate about teaching excellence and believes GE provides a comprehensive approach to student success in all classrooms.   References Modeling - Playbook Practice 1; Speaking in Complete Sentences - Playbook Practice 2; Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy, November, 21, 2008, The BLOG, Huffington Post; The B.E.S.T. Literacy Connection, The Power of Speaking in Complete Sentences, Sarah Whitt, Feb. 13, 2012; Whole Group Instruction - Playbook Practice 3; Education Week BLOG, Finding Common Ground, 5 Reasons You Should Flip Your Leadership, Peter DeWitt, July 6, 2014; image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad; Student Achievement: Every Classroom Is A Team And Every Teacher Is A Coach TESTThe post Every Classroom Is A Team And Every Teacher Is A Coach appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 10 Sample Student Learning Objectives For The Teacher That’s Not So Sure About This Hour Of Code Thing by TeachThought Staff You keep hearing about this hour of code thing, but you’re not a "hacker," and aren’t real comfortable with teaching what you don’t know. Especially when it relates to technology and its fundamental programming. You know this is some kind of "coding week." You’ve seen our tips for integrating coding into the classroom. Now what to do? Turn students loose with Scratch or Codea or Kahn Academy? Well, maybe. Self-Directed Learning is a core learning fluency in an age of access. But if you need something a bit more specific-lessons plans and walkthroughs and all-below we’ve 10 Sample Student Learning Objectives For The Teacher That’s Not So Sure About This Hour Of Code Thing 1. Students will define "coding" as both a noun and verb, and explain-as crudely or precisely as they are able-how code works. 2. Students will compare and contrast code to poetry and cooking recipes. 3. Students will identify the pros and cons of self-directed learning as it relates to learning code. 4. Students will identify three unique resources for teaching themselves to code. 5. Students will locate and explain two different coding communities, and how they can help that student learn coding. 6. Students will identify three coding apps that work for them, and explain why that app works for them better than another. See here, for example. 7. Students will identify and define three html tags, and explain what each does. 8. Students will create three two-dimensional figures, and 1 three-dimensional figure. 9. Students will name 3 "basic coding" projects, and 3 "master coding" projects, and give examples of each. (Think shapes, bouncing balls, and basic web pages, vs multimedia pages, apps, and video games, etc.) 10. Students will analyze a simple web page for its fundamental structure. 10 Sample Student Learning Objectives For The Teacher Not So Sure About This Hour Of Code Thing TESTThe post 10 Student Learning Objectives For The Teacher Not So Sure About This Hour Of Code Thing appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 4 Coding Resources From The Khan Academy by TeachThought Staff The Hour of Code-or rather, week of code that is itself composed of hours-began yesterday. There are, according to the HoC website, 75004 individual events happening worldwide, which is stunning, and good news if you believe in digital literacy. With that in mind, below is information for coding resources from the Khan Academy. "Beginning (December 8th), millions of children in tens of thousands of classrooms across over 150 countries will be trying out code as part of Computer Science Education Week. We want to amplify this effort. Last year, 15 million students tried computer programming for at least one hour during Computer Science Education Week on Khan Academy and other platforms. The Hour of Code is a global movement by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries through a one-hour introduction to computer science and computer programming. Learn about the simple steps you can take to prepare your class for an hour of code the includes easy to understand interactive talk-through demonstrations fun coding challenges and a creative final project. Hour of Drawing with Code: This hour teaches your students to program using JavaScript, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. They’ll use JavaScript to program drawings, finishing with a fun draw-a-wild-animal project. This tutorial requires good typing skills and a keyboard. Recommended ages: 10+. Hour of Drawing with Code Blocks: This is a variant on the first tutorial, but students get to drag and drop blocks of JavaScript code instead of type. Recommended for younger students and students on tablets. Recommended ages: 8+. Hour of Webpages: This hour teaches your students to make their own webpages using the basics ofHTML and CSS, finishing with a holiday greeting card. Your students need good typing skills and a keyboard to program in HTML/CSS. Recommended ages: 10+.​   Hour of Databases: This hour teaches the fundamentals of databases, which are how apps store data about users and content. Your students will use SQL to create tables, insert data into them, and do basic querying, finishing with a project to create a database for an imaginary store. Your students need good typing skiils and a keyboard to program in SQL. Recommended ages: 12+." 4 Hour Of Coding Resources From The Khan Academy TESTThe post 4 Coding Resources From The Khan Academy appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube by TeachThought Staff As both hardware and software design improve, the possibility of mobile learning is increasingly accessible. Video is undoubtedly at the core of a modern mobile learning experience. (As opposed to, say, an early 20th century "mobile" experience that was likely hands-on, place-based, and experiential.) To actually be useful beyond the cool-video-as-a-writing-prompt-every-once-in-a-while stage is going to require smarter tools. Teachers need to be able to capture, upload, download, edit, slow down, speed up, annotate, curate, share, and otherwise "own" video content so that is fully merges with everything else. With that in mind, below are 25 of the best resources for teaching with YouTube. Some are web-based, some are apps, and others are guides or tips. Let us know in the comments what your favorites are that we might’ve missed! 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube ︾ 3.31kviews 25items 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube Listly by Terry Heick 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube   Follow List   Embed List   Share 1  SafeShare.TV - The Safest Way To Watch and Share YouTube videos. Not only does SafeShare.TV remove distracting and offensive elements around YouTube videos, but it also allows you to crop videos before sharing them. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 2  21st Century Classroom: YouTube @ Kent-Meridian High School Learn about how one teacher, Mike Christiansen, a 9th grade social studies teacher at Kent-Meridian High School in Kent, WA, uses YouTube in his classroom to... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 3  YouTube for Schools - YouTube Share your videos with friends, family, and the world 0 likes Comments Relist Share 4  Education Whether you're doing research for a project, need help with homework, or just want to learn something new, YouTube EDU features some of our most popular educ... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 5  quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, Viddler, Vimeo and more quietube: Video without the distractions. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 6  Copyright Law: What Teachers Need to Know By Ken Schlager Intellectual property has emerged from the legal backwater to become major news, with frequent high-profile cases of individuals and companies being prosecuted for the illegal use and distribution of copyrighted material. While teachers enjoy many exemptions under copyright law, the classroom does not shelter all uses. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 7  YouTube Capture Create beautiful movies on the go with YouTube Capture 2.0. Start recording in a snap, then edit and share videos of any length right from your phone. Features: * Capture the moment: Start recording instantly * Stitch together an unlimited number of clips as you build your story * Trim and rearrange clips right from your phone * Add a soundtrack from your music collection or YouTube’s audio library * Touch up videos with color correction and stabilization * Upload to YouTube and share on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter - all in one step 0 likes Comments Relist Share 8  Pocket: Save Articles and Videos to View Later Pocket has been named one of the best apps for iPhone and iPad by the App Store. Over 12 million people use Pocket to easily save articles, videos and more for later. With Pocket, all of your content goes to one place, so you can view it anytime, on any device. You don’t even need an Internet connection. Don’t lose track of the interesting things you find by emailing yourself links or letting tabs pile up in your browser. Just save them to Pocket. WHAT CAN I SAVE? Save articles, videos, recipes, and webpages you find online or from your favorite apps. If it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet or computer, even when you’re offline. Perfect for commutes, travel, and curling up on your couch. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 9  TubeChop - Chop YouTube Videos TubeChop allows you to easily chop a funny or interesting section from any YouTube video and share it. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 10  YouTube Doubler | Mashup Helper YouTube Doubler: Twice the Fun - Play 2 YouTubes at Once 0 likes Comments Relist Share 11  YouTube to mp3 Converter Download your favorite YouTube videos as mp3 files without registration. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 12  Creator Academy - YouTube Creator Hub Creator Academy Programs and tools Support Working together 0 likes Comments Relist Share 13  YouTube Creators - Google+ YouTube Creators - Learn, share, and engage with YouTube and other YouTube Creators! - If you're a YouTube Creator, you've come to the right place to engage with other creators, learn more about what YouTube's been up to lately, and get tips from our live Hangouts with creators as they 0 likes Comments Relist Share 14  Working Together - YouTube YouTube Creators Program 0 likes Comments Relist Share 15  EducationOnAir This website contains all the information you need to find and take part in Education On Air sessions on Google+: Live Hangout Schedule 0 likes Comments Relist Share 16  Teaching With YouTube: 197 Digital Channels For Learning Teaching With YouTube: 197 Digital Channels For Learning If you don't have a YouTube channel as an education provider, there's a good chance you're behind... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 17  Welcome to the School of You | teachem 0 likes Comments Relist Share 18  Create and delete playlists A playlist is a collection of videos that you or another user has created. Find a group of videos that you like? Maybe a few of your favorite songs, or highlights from your local sports team? Need to organize the content that you've created to share with your audience? 0 likes Comments Relist Share 19  GifYoutube brings you this awesome Animated GIF. wp5vR is an animated gif that was created from https://youtube.com/watch?v=-ZcQmXu2004 for free on GifYoutube. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 20  YouTube Teaching Videos Pins about YouTube Teaching Videos hand-picked by Pinner Jill Kuzma | See more about social thinking, social skills and video clip. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 21  http://www.teachertube.com/ 0 likes Comments Relist Share 22  How To YouTube Your Classroom YouTube is popular. How popular? 0 likes Comments Relist Share 23  The Official Educator's Guide To YouTube YouTube is a goldmine for content. Yes, it's also a goldmine for trash and whimsy, but more than anything it's a kind of circus-mirror reflection of culture. Which should make it useful to teachers. Below is a the official YouTube guide for educators put together by YouTube (Google), and it's actually very good. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 24  Annotations Explore this site for more information on creating content for YouTube. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 25  Using Enhancements - YouTube Help If you're on your computer, you can make tweaks and add effects to your videos directly on YouTube! You won't need to reupload the video, and your video's URL, view count, and comments will st 0 likes Comments Relist Share View more lists from Terry Heick 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube TESTThe post 25 Of The Best Resources For Teaching With YouTube appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Learning Is The Ultimate Disruption by Terry Heick It is the work of a school to join members of a community to one another. That this doesn’t happen naturally isn’t surprising. Matters of curriculum, instruction, and assessment are often alien to the home, the life, and the natural thought processes of most students. Academics are a different kind of language than people speak naturally. Teachers, units, tests, behavior plans, attendance rosters, proficiency, standards, letter grades, edtech, and more are the collective tools and jargon of education. Yet, these end up being the very same terms we use to communicate learning success with and through. This naturally brings the school into conflict with the home, and vice-versa, so that they seem constantly at odds. The underlying assumptions, I assume, of content standards is that if students master them, their lives will be improved. This is usually framed under the "college and career readiness" slogan, four words that describe why students should go to school and what they’re preparing for while doing so. What, then, is the most ideal relationship between the student and the curriculum? What should curriculum "do" for a student? What should learning alter, question, or produce? Ferguson, Missouri The events in Ferguson, Missouri, of suffering and gnashing of teeth and collective failure, were entirely predictable. Continuing a pattern surfacing most recently in Compton in 1992, Detroit of 1967, Watts in 1965, et al. These aren’t "cultural events" or "teachable moments," but, shared failures of pedagogy and curriculum. Think about it. What in your current curriculum, as it exists now, would keep "Ferguson" from happening? And not the "civil unrest" part, but the conditions that seem to demand it? If what we teach doesn’t, by design, erode the circumstances that lead to racism, ecological disasters, religious intolerance, the collapse of financial markets, poverty, child trafficking, bullying, or any of our most recent challenges, are we okay with that? This isn’t about teaching social justice as a class, but rather shifting the what and the why of student learning. An introspective education speaks naturally to Ferguson on equal terms. The best learning is organically preemptive. Our cultural failures are failures of memory. Teaching For Cultural Memory If culture refers to the practices and patterns of a group of people that share a place, time, heritage, or other fundamentally human thing, then cultural memory would be the tendency and capacity to recall those events within those spaces that brought us all collectively to where we are today. Ferguson happens when our cultural memory fails; our cultural memory fails when we turn away from one another. Legacy is a pattern of remembering, retracing, and reinforcing what brought us here, with whom, and how we might best use this space and our skills and experience to do our best work. Literature, art, history, husbandry, land use, agriculture, architecture, music, food, family place, and more are all acts of reflection. Our capacity and tendency for such reflection directly through storytelling and traditions are acts of communal reflection. Culture. What We Know & What We Do With What We Know Sources of authority and self-image; images of race, and image of one’s self as a member of that race; a sense of history, and a sense of one’s place in that history-these are terms that education deals with whether it does so by design or not. Curriculum and learning models; what they learn and how they learn it. One is important as a matter of knowledge, the other a matter of practice. On a cultural level, this becomes what we know, and what we do with what we know. Culture, then, isn’t just a "part" of learning, or some nebulous background for understanding. When learning doesn’t grow from cultural positions, historical terms become ahistorical omissions, literature becomes mere stories, and math becomes a non-stop sequence of skills of dubious value, all gathered beneath the Cheshire Cat grin of academia. It is challenging to design learning experiences that bring people closer together, and help a student realize their truest self. The relation, currently, between schools and communities is unclear. If this is true, then education isn’t broken, as we keep thinking, but what is broken is our collective image of what education is. The strength and clarity of our cultural memory are the purist and most revealing effects of authentic learning. It is the work of a culture to recognize itself, and hold on to what it considers valuable. When we turn away from our past, we turn away from ourselves, and the results are predictable. Forgetfulness is a kind of ignorance, a power-set of its own. But learning is the ultimate disruption. Learning Is The Ultimate Disruption; image attribution flickr user baltimoreheritage TESTThe post Learning Is The Ultimate Disruption appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST Letters Of Recommendation Take Time. Plan Accordingly. by Dawn Casey-Rowe, Writer of Letters of Recommendation My box is filling with recommendation requests. Every time I finish, more sneak in. "Miss, did you finish my recommendation?" emailed Student Number One. No, because you didn’t ask me. Student Number Two said, "The deadlines snuck up on me. Would you be able to write me a recommendation in the next two days? I’d be eternally grateful to you." That’s no way to get a great recommendation. If I’m writing about you, you want me happy, overjoyed with life, not grumpy and overloaded at the last minute. Recommendations are time consuming. The better my mood, the better your recommendation. Maybe you asked nicely but didn’t follow up with details about what you’ve been up to when you’re not busy doing my homework.That forces me to say something like "He’s a good student." The last thing you want is something generic. That’s the kiss of death for getting selected for anything. A seasoned writer of recommendations can be the edge you need in a situation where the recommendation is actually being read. "Actually being read?" you ask. That took you off guard, didn’t it? The truth is resumes and recommendations aren’t always read, so you have to back them up with some good old fashioned relationship-building. We’ll get to that later. But first, let’s hear from an expert on resumes. "Oh, I deal them out into two piles, ‘maybe’ and ‘no.’ I spend ten seconds reading each of them," said my brother, the unofficial expert I interviewed five years ago for no particular reason. He read a lot of resumes and recommendations at his job. After a while, he said, it gets dull and every person starts to look the same. If you’re going to be dealt into piles along with the rest of humanity do you need recommendations at all? Why would you go through all the trouble to ask for one? Simple-recommendations aren’t all about the letter, they’re about building your organic network and having people on your side. Students forget I have a life outside of school. I might just be able to further your career. I might introduce you to a professional who can help you or find you a mentor for your project or life. Having letters of recommendation in your file isn’t always enough-you should aim to keep the good people on your side. That’s the ultimate goal. It’s the people you least expect who will help you on the road to success. Never underestimate or forget this fact. "But I just need a letter for college," you say. Fine. I’ll give you a letter for college and we’ll worry about building your success network some other day in another article. If all you want is a recommendation, then take heed. Follow these tips. Teachers & Students: 6 Letter Of Recommendation Tips  1. Plan ahead Give the recommender at least a two week notice. Respect the recommender’s time. The busier the person is, the more time he or she will need to write you a quality recommendation. 2. Ask nicely and set clear expectations Ask nicely, whether by email or in person. Tell the recommender exactly what you need. If you need more than one recommendation over time, set that expectation, "I was hoping to get a letter for my file and use your name as a reference for a job interview." 3. Make it easy for the recommender Follow up with a short email with bullet points highlighting the details of the recommendation. Include any necessary addresses, the name of person to whom it must be sent, and mention deadlines. 4. Market yourself When you follow up with your recommender, be sure to include a few bullet points about your accomplishments, especially things the recommender might not have known. This will help the recommender write a glowing and specific recommendation about you. Generic recommendations serve zero purpose. Colleges and jobs easily disregard them. Put yourself in a position to stand out. 5. Convert the recommendation Follow up with colleges and hiring managers after the recommendations are sent. Don’t let your resume or recommendations be another in the pile. When applying for colleges, use social media to follow, like, and interact with colleges. Be enthusiastic and give yourself every advantage-make that recommendation come alive by providing the world with a glimpse of the real person behind it. 6. Thank the recommender. Follow up and show the recommender you truly appreciate the time spent on your behalf. An email, in-person thanks, or phone call is appropriate depending on your relationship with the person. Today, recommendations come in all shapes and forms. Society is heading more and more toward ratings and public recommendations. Even though you may need a good old fashioned letter of recommendation, don’t underestimate the power of a public recommendation on a network like LinkedIn. Ask someone you know to connect with you and give you a short recommendation. Remember, recommendations are not about what’s on the paper-exactly. They’re more about building a network, having people who support you in your corner. As a student, this is one of your first professional lessons. Feeling comfortable interacting with people on a professional level is a skill. Building a strong network is a necessity and a gift that comes with experience. Great recommendations are simply a byproduct of those relationships. Don’t make me hate you at recommendation time by dumping last-minute requests for letters you don’t really need. Follow the six steps above and make them matter. When you follow the steps, you’ll be surprised at how many people are willing to help you-not simply by writing recommendations-but by guiding you toward the future you want as well. Teachers & Students: 6 Letter Of Recommendation Tips; Letters Of Recommendation Take Time. Plan Accordingly; image attribution flickr user shordzi TESTThe post Letters Of Recommendation Take Time. appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST One Person Dug This Cave: What Craftsmanship Is Capable Of by TeachThought Staff When a person brings craft, motivation, and affection to bear on an idea, incredible things are possible. This is an idea we, as educators, try to impart to students. The success of this depends on whether or not they are ready for that kind of a message, and whether or not we’ve given them the tools and space and inspiration to make it possible. One man, tired of creative conflicts and rejection, turned inwardly, and spent the better part of ten years alone to etch art and space for light out of a cave in New Mexico, which was recently shared on boredpanda.com. An official summary can be seen below. You can learn more here. Cavedigger Documentary: What Craftsmanship Is Capable Of "Ra Paulette digs cathedral-like, ‘eighth wonder of the world’ art caves into the sandstone cliffs of Northern New Mexico. Each creation takes years to complete, and each is a masterwork — like Gaudi buildings turned inside out. But patrons who have commissioned caves have cut off nearly all of his projects due to artistic differences. And Paulette’s obsession is taking a toll on his personal relationships. Fed up, Paulette has chosen to go deeper — to forgo all commissions to create his own Magnum Opus, a massive 10-year project." Cavedigger Documentary: What Craftsmanship Is Capable Of TESTThe post So A Man Got Annoyed And Dug A Cave appeared first on TeachThought.

TEST 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 by TeachThought Staff This post was sponsored by CK-12, a non-profit foundation that creates and aggregates high quality curated STEM content. What are the best apps for your classroom? The best little bits of software to use tomorrow, in your school, to make your classroom go? This is, strangely, not a frequent topic for us. We are more interested in helping you push your classroom towards something unrecognizable-something that reflects the extraordinary change the world has seen but many public schools have somehow resisted. Something that centers students, helps them learn what’s worth understanding, and then equips them-and you-to make that learning happen. But what if that’s not your bag? What if you have a classroom and standards and tests and pressure and walkthroughs and parents and IEPs and 504s and classroom management issues and bandwidth problems and Draconian district filtering and that’s just the way it is? What then? This is the reality that, if statistics don’t mislead, most of you face on a daily basis. The good news is, there is a lot you can do in a traditional, top-down, "high-pressure" school or classroom. The apps below represent 52 (which conveniently works out to about one per week if you want to try them that way) of the best apps for your classroom. There are apps that help teachers gather data, scan exams, contact parents, promote research, keep notes, share documents, or even flip your classroom in 2015. Let us know in the comments any that were what-were-they-thinking-missing-that-one? examples. 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 ︾ 7.82kviews 52items 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 Listly by Terry Heick 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015   Follow List   Embed List   Share 1  CK-12 studyNow! studyNow is an intuitive app designed by CK-12 Foundation that helps students learn, do homework, and research for projects . The app helps students find and learn K-12 content in an easy and intuitive manner. Students can now learn at their own pace and in their own way (Video, Interactive Objects, Read, etc.). Teachers can use this app to help keep their kids engaged within the class room and find supplemental material for their class. The app can also be used as a companion tool to the CK-12 site (www.ck12.org). 0 likes Comments Relist Share 2  WISE W.I.S.E (Wireless Interactive Scanning Examinations) is an application that grades and stores multiple-choice quizes, tests, and exams, on your mobile device. It condenses a wealth of information and powerful processing technology into the palm of your hand. Cutting edge assessment has never been easier. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 3  Questia Library - Scholarly Sources for Writing Research Papers, Essays and Homework • Quickly find credible books, scholarly articles and topics for your research papers • Read full-text books and articles within the app • Save what you are reading for future access in a project folder • Search and read fluidly and seamlessly with Questia’s easy-to-use display 0 likes Comments Relist Share 4  Encyclopædia Britannica The complete Encyclopaedia Britannica - the world’s most trusted reference source, enhanced for your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. 1 likes Comments Relist Share 5  Amazon Kindle - Android Apps on Google Play The Kindle app puts over a million books at your fingertips. It's the app for every reader, whether you're a book reader, magazine reader, or newspaper reader-and you... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 6  Doceri Interactive Whiteboard Combining screencasting, desktop control, and an interactive whiteboard in one app, you’ll never have to turn your back to the class or audience again. Create a lesson or presentation, insert images, save and edit your project and record a screencast video you can easily save or share. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 7  Evernote - Android Apps on Google Play You're on the path to something big - Evernote is where you do the work to achieve it. Write notes of all types, from short lists to lengthy research, and access the... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 8  TeacherKit - Class Organizer, Teacher Planner, Gradebook, Assignment List, Attendance and Student 's Grade Tracker Over a million educators worldwide trust TeacherKit with managing their time and activities. TeacherKit helps you organize classes and students easily. Create a seating chart, record attendance, log behavior, and track grades all with few taps. TeacherKit lifts the headache of routine administration, allowing you to focus on what really matters to you - teaching. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 9  ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s an amazingly simple app that anyone can use, no matter how young or old! 0 likes Comments Relist Share 10  Schoology Managing education is tough enough without also having to host your own website. Schoology hosts your website, your content, and your files. Best of all, it connects you with your students to help improve outcomes. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 11  Khan Academy We cover a massive number of topics, including K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even the humanities with playlists on art history, civics, and finance. 1 likes Comments Relist Share 12  Nearpod The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' iPads, iPhones, iPods or Macs. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 13  School Circle The one and only School Circle mobile browsing app makes checking all your favorite Marine Corps humor pages on Facebook easier than ever before! Simply open the app, tap on any icon, and instantly see the most recent posts from your favorite pages to include JTTOTS, PBF, Senior Lance Corporal and more! 0 likes Comments Relist Share 14  Educreations Interactive Whiteboard Educreations is a unique interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool that's simple, powerful, and fun to use. Annotate, animate, and narrate nearly any type of content as you explain any concept. Teachers can create short instructional videos and share them instantly with students, or ask students to show what they know and help friends learn something new. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 15  Kahoot! - Android Apps on Google Play Like a "Playstation for education", Kahoot! is a game-based educational platform that leaves your students begging for more. With a refreshingly new take on introducin... 1 likes Comments Relist Share 16  One Call Now - Android Apps on Google Play Now it's even easier for One Call Now clients to communicate with members of their school, business, religious or sports organizations. Quickly record and send mes... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 17  YouTube Get the official YouTube app for iPhone and iPad. Catch up with your favorite channels, enjoy the world’s largest music collection, and share easily with friends. Watch the latest videos and playlists on the couch or on the go. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 18  Microsoft PowerPoint The real Microsoft PowerPoint app designed for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Now PowerPoint presentations look great on your tablet and phone. When you edit or create presentations, you can be confident that they will look exactly how you want across PC, Mac, tablet and phone. PowerPoint has the familiar Office look and feel along with an intuitive touch experience, so you’ll be up and running in no time. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 19  OneDrive for iOS • Automatically upload photos and videos to OneDrive using Camera Backup. • Browse all your OneDrive files and files shared with you. • Share files by sending a link in email or getting a link to copy and paste. • Move, delete, and rename files, and create new folders. • Open your OneDrive files in other apps, including Office apps. • Quickly get to documents you've recently opened. • Search for your files and folders. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 20  Drawp for School - Create. Learn. Collaborate. • Create rich mixed media content in-app. • Swipe to share or collaborate. • No need to worry - all your work is automatically saved. • Cloud storage lets you access all your work at home or at school. For more information refer to our privacy policy: http://www.drawpforschool.com/school/web/privacy/ 0 likes Comments Relist Share 21  Minecraft - Pocket Edition Pocket Edition includes Survival and Creative modes, multiplayer over a local Wi-Fi network, infinite worlds, caves, new biomes, mobs, villages and lots more. Craft, create and explore anywhere in the world so long as you have hands spare and battery to burn. 0 likes Comments Relist Share 22  iTooch 5th Grade Science - Android Apps on Google Play With more than 1,652 activities, iTooch 5th Grade Science is a fun way of practicing and learning Science for fifth graders. It is, by far, the largest collection o... 0 likes Comments Relist Share 23  The Sandbox EDU The Sandbox EDU is the perfect educational game for the "Maker" in you and your child. Specifically adapted for kids ages 6 to 12 and developed with classroom teachers as a complementary version of the popular game, The Sandbox (played by over 13 million people worldwide), The Sandbox EDU features original educative content supporting the experiential learning of science, technology, art and music! 0 likes Comments Relist Share 24  Stick Around by Tony Vincent & MorrisCooke Play, design, and share sorting and labeling puzzles! Stick Around comes with an assortment of puzzles, including ordering decimals and classifying rocks. It's the player's job to drag the stickers from the tray to their correct spots on the background before time runs out. 1 likes Comments Relist Share 25  Prezi Create and share beautiful presentations • Create basic prezis from scratch using your iPad • Create prezis online and finalize them using your iPad • Zoom into any detail or pull out to show the big picture • Follow your predefined path or move about the open canvas freely 1 likes Comments Relist Share View more lists from Terry Heick 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 TESTThe post 52 Of The Best Apps For Your Classroom In 2015 appeared first on TeachThought.

5 Strategies For Better Teacher Professional Development by Joel Zarrow Just as a teacher has to create conditions that support and encourage student success, school districts have to support teachers’ professional development. Today, professional development runs the gamut from one-shot workshops to more intensive job-embedded professional development, which has teachers learn in the day-to-day environment in which they work rather than getting pulled out to attend an outside training. However, the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education report, "Teaching the Teachers," notes that most professional development today is ineffective because it neither changes teaching practices nor improves student learning. Professional development for teachers can fall short in numerous ways, including: Too many (and sometimes conflicting) goals and priorities competing for teachers’ time, energy, and attention. Unrealistic expectations of how much time it will take schools and teachers to adopt and implement goals. Professional development training events that are inappropriate in size, scope, or structure to support learning new ideas or skills. Gathering 100 teachers into one room for a training event will never give them the time they need to reflect on the material, ask questions, listen to their peers, or go through activities to enhance their comprehension. Lack of support for teachers’ implementation of new instructional practices. Research shows there’s an implementation gap in teachers’ professional development. They may learn, understand, and agree with a new idea or technique presented in a workshop, but it’s hard for them to implement that idea without ongoing support. Failure to provide teachers with feedback about how implementing new skills impacts student learning. How Districts Can Turn Professional Development for Teachers Around Just as every student learns differently, teachers have many different learning styles and face a variety of circumstances in the classroom. The CPE’s report asserts that any professional development initiative must recognize that "teaching is inherently complex and nuanced" and promote the empowerment of teachers via professional learning communities. According to the report, effective professional development offers: Ongoing instruction for a significant duration of time. Continual professional development gives teachers time to learn and implement new strategies. According to the report, studies have concluded that teachers may need as many as 50 hours of instruction, practice, and coaching before a new teaching strategy is mastered and implemented in class. Support for teachers during the implementation stage. According to "Student Achievement Through Staff Development," teachers take an average of 20 separate instances of practice to master a new skill, and this number may increase if the skill is exceptionally complex. Providing support addresses the challenges associated with changing a classroom practice. Active learning opportunities for teachers. These activities can include readings, role-play, open-ended discussions, live modeling, and classroom visits. While many forms of active learning help teachers decipher concepts, theories, and research-based practices in teaching, modeling the new practice has been shown to help teachers understand and apply a concept and remain open to adopting it. 5 Strategies For Better Teacher Professional Development School districts can improve the effectiveness of their professional development for teachers by following these basic guidelines: Keep it simple. Each year, identify and focus on one or two instructional priorities — effective instructional practices that the district wants teachers to learn, refine, or improve. Ideally, districts should select the priorities with input from the teachers themselves. They should clearly communicate these priorities and expectations throughout all levels of the organization. Organize all available district support to help teachers implement these instructional priorities. Our organization believes that introducing teachers to a new way of teaching reading or writing without the proper follow-up support only confuses and frustrates the teacher. School districts should make a deliberate effort to support teacher implementation of instructional priorities through training events, coaching, principal observation, staff and grade-level meetings, and evaluation systems. But ultimately, the best professional development comes from teachers teaching one another. If schools can establish a collaborative, intellectually stimulating environment for teachers, that’s a place where children will learn. Create a feedback loop to help teachers monitor implementation. Once districts define the outcomes they want to achieve, they should use teacher observations and student data to provide teachers with information about whether changes are having an effect on student achievement. Teachers may need help learning how to conduct related assessments, analyze and interpret the data, and adapt their instruction in response to the data. Realize that change takes time. Too often, districts work on something for a year, then revamp their priorities and launch a whole new set of goals for the next year. Administrators must realize that teachers will still need support when implementing changes the second year. At the end of the day, teachers, districts, and parents all want the same thing: to improve student learning. But many teachers simply aren’t equipped with the professional development they need to make real changes in their classrooms. Districts can’t hope for sweeping improvements by sending teachers to workshops and seminars a few times a year; teachers need continual professional development with active learning opportunities, feedback, and support built right in. Children’s Literacy Initiative is the premier national nonprofit working with teachers to transform instruction so children can become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. CLI focuses on early literacy in urban schools and districts. Joel Zarrow is the executive director and can be reached at jzarrow@cli.org; image attribution flickr user globalpartnershipforeducation The post 5 Strategies For Better Teacher Professional Development appeared first on TeachThought.

Dealing With A Difficult Parent by Terry Heick You’d heard about this parent from other teachers. That this parent was a handful. Rude. Combative. Aggressive. Even litigious. In response, you worry, if just a little. You have enough to deal with, and butting heads with an angry parent-especially one angry just because-doesn’t sound like fun. You don’t get paid enough for that hot mess. So you keep calm and hope to ride the year out. Maybe they won’t call. Maybe they’ll skip parent-teacher conferences. You’ve even considered grading their child a little easier just to avoid the hassle of it all. We’ve all been there. Nothing can solve this problem, but there are ways to take the edge off so that you can open up the lines of communication and deal with the parent on equal terms so that they’re child has the best chance for success. 12 Ways To Deal With A Difficult Parents 1. Reach out first Be pre-emptive. Reach out with a positive message to start off on the right foot. 2. Don’t patronize And when you reach out, be authentic. Don’t pretend to be their best friend, nor should have that "nipping problems in the bud" tone. Don’t worry about "holding your ground" either. Just reach out as an educator to a member of your own community. You’re not selling them anything, and they’re not selling you anything. You’re both dutifully and beautifully involved on either side of a child. 3. See yourself No matter how important the education of a child is, realize you’re simply a single cog in the life of that family, no more or less important than keeping the lights on, their job security, food and shelter, or any other reality of daily life. 4. Give them something Not an object-a "handle" of some kind to make sense of the learning process. Something they can make sense of and understand and use when they speak to their child about education. Something less about the game of school and more about learning, curiosity, and personalization. (See here, for example-alternatives to "What’d you learn in school today?") 5. Involve them Keep your friends close and your…difficult parents…closer. Ask them to take on an authentic role in the classroom. Ask their opinion. Allow them to have a voice or show leadership. Give them a role in what their child learns. The fact that a parent has approaching zero authentic role in the learning process of their children is part of our challenge as educators. Help them find one. 6. Put them in a position to succeed Just like a student, put the parent in a position to succeed. They may not have had a good experience in school, either as students, with siblings of your student, etc. Give them a reason to believe that you have the best interest of the family at heart-and that includes them. 7. Don’t judge them, or "handle them." Meet them on equal terms. For all of our overly-glorified differences, most people are fundamentally the same. We respond to pain and threats differently, and have unique ethical systems, but it’s easy to place yourself above someone even if you think you’re not doing exactly that. 8 Establish a common ground An old sales technique. A favorite athletic team-or dislike for a rival team. A personal philosophy. Your own struggle as a person. Something to humanize yourself, and establish the overlap between yourself and the parent. 9. Focus on the work This is the opposite of teaching and learning, where you focus on the human being (the student). In conferences and communication with parents, you can both see the child and what’s "best for them" very differently, but academic work has a chance to be more objective. Focus on the work and academic performance, and what you and the parent and siblings and other teachers, etc., can do to support the student in their growth. Even in the midst of difficult conversations, always do your best to steer the focus back on the work, and the child themselves. The former is data/evidence, the latter the reason for the data/evidence. 10. Give them reason to see beyond the grade book This is partly the problem with letter grades. So reductionist. It’s easy to look at a grade book and both start and finish the conversation there. If that’s all they see, have a look at your curriculum and instruction, and see if you’ve given them ample opportunity to do otherwise. Talk less about missing work, and more about the promise and possibility of their child. Help them see that the school year is a marathon, not a series of sprints. 11. If all else fails… If you have to, call for reinforcements, and document everything. Never feel bad about having another teacher in the room with you if you feel like a parent will be aggressive and you’re simply not comfortable with it. Better to depend on solidarity and hope than your own personal strength. And document everything. Stay on top of grading, feedback, behavior management, missing assignments, your tone, sarcasm, etc. Document every call and email. Save exemplar work. Document differentiation, personalization, and other individual efforts in pursuit of the best interest of the student. Whatever you do, no matter your analysis of the proximity between apples and trees, don’t hold the difficult parent "against" the child, even subconsciously. 12. Take it personally, then don’t If you have a "difficult parent," and in spite of your best efforts it all falls apart, I’d say don’t take it personally but it’s hard not to. So fine-internalize it. Own it. Talk to colleagues (better than a spouse, whose emoptional reserves you may want to save for more pressing issues in education). Cry if you need to. And then let it go. Dealing With A Difficult Parent; 12 ways of dealing with a difficult parent. The post Dealing With A Difficult Parent appeared first on TeachThought.

Clarifying Expectations With Clear Communication by Molly Bruzewski, Ed.S. Ed note: This is part 2 on strategies that promote a team approach to academic achievement and high-performance teaching. Part 1 was Every Classroom Is A Team And Every Teacher Is A Coach. Strategies 2 and 3 appear below. In the same way that students appreciate teachers who articulate their expectations and model them consistently, our staff appreciates it from us. The availability of data reports around student achievement is providing us with opportunities for success like never before. True, these reports often have us zero-in on deficiencies in student learning, but as the Head Coach, you take that data and rally your team. You ask, "Is there one specific thing we can do to raise student achievement across the curriculum; across our teams regardless of our classroom philosophies?" If the ultimate goal for every student in your building - whether in elementary, middle or high school - is to become a contributing citizen and be fully employable, begin with this end in mind. Your data are showing that students have communication deficiencies. Rally your teams and begin to dig in. As you scan the literature and websites for essential skills for employees, among the top skills is the ability to speak and write effectively. Research demonstrates that written language proficiency follows oral competencies. Would it benefit you to zero-in on developing a plan around speaking in complete sentences? To begin, get your Playbook out, identify some strategies that anyone could use in their classroom, and begin to model what that might look like. Staff meetings are a great place to set the stage to launch this practice. If you choose to embark on this mission, is it possible to stir up controversy if you expect staff and students to speak in complete sentences? In 2012, President Obama was close to being called an elitist because he insisted on using complete sentences every time he spoke publicly. Strategy 2: Complete Sentences Are Complete Thoughts Children develop the ability to communicate in complete sentences between the ages of two and three. Developmentally they are ready. But in today’s hectic home life, and in our ever-increasing "texting" generation, many of our students are working from a deficit when it comes to their ability or their tendency to communicate verbally and construct complete sentences. In her BLOG, The B.E.S.T. Literacy Connection, Sarah Whitt cites research done by Dr. Kathy Cooter of Bellarmine University around the "mean length of utterance (MLU)." The mean length of utterance by students is tied to their aptitude and ability to write and express themselves. In many schools, teachers are the "main violators," as they use approximately five words per sentence, and often without the inclusion of challenging or academic vocabulary. Therefore, find websites that provide strategies for modeling speaking in complete sentences. And, when addressing someone who asks why we would "practice" speaking in complete sentences, you may reply, "That is a great question, Teacher A. This isn’t a practice we have focused on. You’re right about that. I have been guilty of not being intentional about speaking in complete sentences, as well. However, we need to model our expectations and speak in complete sentences because our students are the ultimate beneficiaries. Thank you for asking!" This second practice is an intentional one. We often do not pay attention to our communication with students, nor with one another. But, it comes back to our first practice, if we want to see this done well, and if we want to raise the academic caliber of our students, Educators Model. Strategy 3: Pulling It Together With The Whole Group Instruction at any level is tricky. Whether an administrator or teacher, our audience is in a constant state of flux. We are constantly competing for their attention. Advertisers employ a variety of rules for getting your attention - the rule of 151 or the rule of seven, for example - indicates the number of times people must hear a message before they understand or act. This means that the first time you "deliver" information to your audience, it doesn’t mean they have heard it. Therefore, pull out your Playbook, invite members from Team 1 and 2 that you have witnessed getting students to process information well, and invite them to plan with you. To start, you may choose to model 21st Century learning. In Education Week’s BLOG, 5 Reasons You Should Flip Your Leadership, author Peter DeWitt recommends that building leaders begin to flip their meetings by covering the announcements and less critical information through a simple podcast or webcast. You may also add a hook to your message by introducing "what is to come" at the next staff meeting and provide a preview. Set the stage and provide literature to support where you want to take you team. Next, if you know that the information you have to discuss at your next meeting will take about 40-45 minutes, and you have one hour for the whole meeting, plan your strategies carefully. Get your facilitators to help you with the processing activities to be used throughout the meeting. When you get your group face to face, with your selected facilitators, model "teaching to the whole group." What is your message? What do you need to share? Balance your message with processing time, allowing the group to turn and talk, or ask questions, to clarify. Vary the processing activities for the purpose of seeing them implemented in classrooms. Provide teachers with the resources and guidelines on how to use them. As you teach to the whole group, remember the first practice - Educators Model. Use strategies you would like to see your staff engage in as they teach. Make the strategies universal and easily adaptable to any learning environment. Teachers love strategies - especially ones they can use in their classroom the very next day. Remember, student achievement is a Team Sport. It takes all teams collaborating around common goals to ensure their success. Molly Bruzewski, Ed.S. is an education consultant in Michigan. Her expertise is in curriculum mapping and assessment, classroom instructional strategies, online teaching and learning, and she serves as a Great Expectations (GE) methodology instructor. Bruzewski is passionate about teaching excellence and believes GE provides a comprehensive approach to student success in all classrooms. References Modeling - Playbook Practice 1; Speaking in Complete Sentences - Playbook Practice 2; Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy, November, 21, 2008, The BLOG, Huffington Post; The B.E.S.T. Literacy Connection, The Power of Speaking in Complete Sentences, Sarah Whitt, Feb. 13, 2012; Whole Group Instruction - Playbook Practice 3; Education Week BLOG, Finding Common Ground, 5 Reasons You Should Flip Your Leadership, Peter DeWitt, July 6, 2014; image attribution flickr user vancouverfilmschool; Clarifying Expectations With Clear Communication The post Clarifying Expectations With Clear Communication appeared first on TeachThought.