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Using ipads to teach vocabulary. In this mainstream media article, students are using Toontastic to create stories and learn new vocabulary. My students enjoy Puppetpals, another great one to use.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/18/2012
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/18/2012
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Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings - WSJ.com
Lots of commotion over Friday's wall street journal report that Google and other advertisers were circumventing Safari's privacy settings on mobile devices and computers. After being contacted by WSJ, Google disabled its code. Basically this means that Google "hacked" safari to track users. This doesn't bode well for Google and people are already talking about lawsuits, especially since Google had said that Safari allowed private browsing (on a site that has since had the language removed.)
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Jeff Bransburg has a marvelous collection of cartoons about education and technology on his board. I particularly like Innovation revisited. The internet of things is coming - learn about these new tools like pinterest.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/18/2012
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Microsoft Tag–Example Resource on E-Safety | Ray Chambers
Ray Chambers is a UK teacher doing some fascinating things with Microsoft products like Kinect and Microsoft Tag. I love this lesson plan that links with literacy, creative writing, digital citizenship. You can do this lesson yourself to see how it works. (Another great lesson plan I found on the TES site. A very global site for sharing and finding resources.)
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/17/2012
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Create a story on e-safety with use of mobile phone
This lesson has me intrigued as it uses a mobile phone and Microsoft Tag. I make sure all my students have a windows live id and a google id (using our google apps for domain) so this wouldn't be a problem for me. I like the idea of using mobile phones in esafety lessons.
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Common Core Made Easy: Session CC01
Teaching effective writing requires a lot of proofing, editing, feedback, and revision. What if you could harness the power of students, peer review, and Web 2.0 tools to supercharge your writing? You can. In addition to the traditional writing taught in classrooms, a new form of writing is here. Collaborative writing is fundamentally different from traditional essay writing in that students should know how to create content, edit, and discuss to produce authentic, collaborative work. As a teacher who coordinates wikis where thousands of students edit and co-create, Vicki can show you how collaborative content creation looks and how it aligns with the Common Core State Standards.
Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/17/2012
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Create a story on e-safety with use of mobile phone
This lesson has me intrigued as it uses a mobile phone and Microsoft Tag. I make sure all my students have a windows live id and a google id (using our google apps for domain) so this wouldn't be a problem for me. I like the idea of using mobile phones in esafety lessons.
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Common Core Made Easy: Session CC01
Teaching effective writing requires a lot of proofing, editing, feedback, and revision. What if you could harness the power of students, peer review, and Web 2.0 tools to supercharge your writing? You can. In addition to the traditional writing taught in classrooms, a new form of writing is here. Collaborative writing is fundamentally different from traditional essay writing in that students should know how to create content, edit, and discuss to produce authentic, collaborative work. As a teacher who coordinates wikis where thousands of students edit and co-create, Vicki can show you how collaborative content creation looks and how it aligns with the Common Core State Standards.
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Free online conferences are an amazing part of the new learning landscape. I'll be presenting at Eye on School Success in March on Tuesday, March 20 at 4:15 but this is the link to many different presenters at this conference. Todd Whitaker is keynoting this one and Barbara Blackburn is also presenting as well as many other great authors who I don't know personally yet.
Count the Opportunity Cost of Teacher Tasks (Big Little Thing #4)
Opportunity cost is the opportunity you give up when you or your employees work on something else. Teachers have a certain number of hours to work in a day. There is a finite limit to the number of hours they have. Do we ever consider the cost of what we're asking teachers to do?
Here are some examples:
- When a teacher spends one hour completing paperwork that no one will read.
- Attending a meeting that no one wanted to have and no measurable outcome was attained for a person who justifies his existence by having meetings.
- Putting lesson plans in an extensive format that have no measurable improvement in how the lesson will be delivered in the classroom.
- Paperwork that no one will read.
- Having teachers file paperwork.
- Forcing a teacher to use a system (like a word wall) that they don't feel applies to their curriculum and takes them away from their focus.
- Did I say PAPERWORK THAT NO ONE WILL READ, USE OR EVEN LOOK AT EVER AGAIN?
- Constantly shifting priorities into opposite directions causing a complete overhaul of classroom systems and pedagogies.
- Causing a teacher to wait incessantly for approval to move their furniture or gain approval for improving their own classroom in even small ways.
- Paper work? (Let's just call it Paper waste, shall we?)
There are many teachers who are great paper pushers and poor teachers. More commonly, there are great teachers who hate the paperwork and are in constant trouble for not turning it in.
Some poor administrators often choose paperwork over face to face supervision and monitoring of what is happening in the class. In today's world, we could video what is happening in the classroom as documentation of what is going on with a student.
Lawmakers never count the opportunity cost of putting more paperwork on schools but good administrators do. Paperwork costs money. It also costs opportunity.
Right now we need every opportunity to improve teaching in the classroom that we can get. Let's start by counting the opportunity cost and using technology to save time.
Photo credit: Big Stock
Related Posts
Big Little Thing #1: The student bathroom
Big Little Thing #2: Marry the percentages till death do you part
Big Little Thing #2: Marry the percentages till death do you part
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/17/2012
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Free online conferences are an amazing part of the new learning landscape. I'll be presenting at Eye on School Success in March on Tuesday, March 20 at 4:15 but this is the link to many different presenters at this conference. Todd Whitaker is keynoting this one and Barbara Blackburn is also presenting as well as many other great authors who I don't know personally yet.
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I'll be speaking at this conference in New Jersey in October 2012. Just booked. Edscape is the school of @NMHS_Principal - Eric Sheninger.
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Education report warns of growing teacher shortages - News - Education Executive
Teacher shortages are going to be looming in our future. Here is an article from the European Commission. The number of graduates specializing in education is falling. Honestly, I think that many are going to regret the many tirades that society has had against teachers and will realize that perhaps that we have more systemic issues than we care to realize. (Part of which is often, that poorer teachers cannot be fired, however, to blame all of education's ills on that one fact is like blaming a fly flitting in front of your eyes for the reason you ran into a house.)
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Create handwritten letters online - using your own hand writing fonts | Writing Fonts
This is a fun tool. You can upload your handwriting (mine is pretty awful) and turn it into a font. Of course, this has all sorts of issues with the authenticity of whether something was written by a person or not, however, you can do interesting things with this. (Students could as well, but I guess for now, a laser printed item looks laser printed and not hand writing, however, they could bring in something they say is a copy and it was copied and converted to handwriting font.) Just know this is there.
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Megan (luv2teach) on Pinterest
OK, so if you're looking for an amazing resource on Pinterest, Megan is it. With over 2703 followers, she's got a lot of classroom ideas for almost everything. A definite go-to person. I'm following all of her boards. If you want to see a pinterest-expert in action, this is it.
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MediaShift . Pinterest: Why What It's Not Says So Much | PBS
Nice explanation of Pinterest. There are many tools for sharing but pinterest won't even let you share if there isn't a photo on it. Photos are more important than ever. Have you learned by now? Don't let me explain it, experience it. Ask friends on Twitter to get an invitation, that is the easiest way.
"There's a point where connection becomes clutter, where the networking that seemed fun and convenient a few years ago now feels like a social uzi."
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/16/2012
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Secondary Maths Collection - Mr Collins’ Maths Sheets - Resources - TES
High school math teachers will love these sheets of word problems from the UK. They are attractive and well writtten. You can download and print them. I like how students have formulas on their sheets to help another student with their math problems. These are some of the most popular math resources from this site.
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Education report warns of growing teacher shortages - News - Education Executive
Teacher shortages are going to be looming in our future. Here is an article from the European Commission. The number of graduates specializing in education is falling. Honestly, I think that many are going to regret the many tirades that society has had against teachers and will realize that perhaps that we have more systemic issues than we care to realize. (Part of which is often, that poorer teachers cannot be fired, however, to blame all of education's ills on that one fact is like blaming a fly flitting in front of your eyes for the reason you ran into a house.)
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Primary grade - free worksheets organized on a pinterest board.
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World's Greatest (and most famous) Teachers
This is my kind of board. It talks about the world's greatest and most famous teachers including many in movies and some you may not have thought of. (Yes, I'm exploring and learning about pinterest.)
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Megan (luv2teach) on Pinterest
OK, so if you're looking for an amazing resource on Pinterest, Megan is it. With over 2703 followers, she's got a lot of classroom ideas for almost everything. A definite go-to person. I'm following all of her boards. If you want to see a pinterest-expert in action, this is it.
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There are many great teachers to follow on pinterest. Here is a board that collects anchor charts. Those of you who teach english or composition will love the ideas here.
The Age of Encouraging the Aged to stay in education (Big Little Thing #3)
Grace Adkins, 83 year old Learning Lab Leader who rides her bike 12 miles a night
Mrs. Adkins is one of the greatest teachers I know. She is head of our learning lab and close to 83. She bikes 12 miles a day, takes home the testing folders of 3 children a weekend (just to think and pray over them) and is unafraid to call anyone about a problem. I want to be like her.
If she had retired eighteen years a go, two of my own children would have missed her attention and pondering. I'm thinking of my friend Heather Davis who is getting ready to move from Beijing, China to Guatemala to teach there next year. She is 63 (and won't mind me telling) and has hit the age that one is unwelcome to stay in China if you are from another country. She has to move and doesn't want to.
Betsy Caldwell, my teacher and my children's teacher
I teach next door to Betsy Caldwell who is by far, one of the best literature teachers I've ever known. She taught me how to write (and fixed almost everything but the comma splice and my use of effect/ affect - which I'm working on still) and has produced almost 10 published authors and counting. I don't know how old she is and don't care. I hope she teaches forever. She's better than ever.
I can thrive after 65
I know that someone a while back came up with 65 as "the age" to retire and I have friends here in Mitchell County who are getting ready to retire in their 40's from the public school system and start their lives over.
Many teachers are becoming eligible to retire. (I had heard that 1/3 of Georgia public school teachers would be eligible to retire by 2021 but am looking for that source and a recent European Commission report says this is a problem overseas as well.) Push them out the door to your hurt.
Many great things come with age. I am a better teacher because of the balance of older and younger at my school. There's something about having perspective from many different people and multiple generations.
I do not like the "digital immigrant" "digital native" metaphor because I think it promotes ageism. I'm 42 and have been using computers since I was 7. That would make me native. I know a child who has never used a computer and is in the eighth grade -- what is she? It is not when you were born but what you did with your life that determines your fluency with technology or your expertise as a teacher.
Keep the welcome mat out
We may even find that some teachers retire only to find that they want to come back. There are many hurdles in education that have made it an unfriendly place for teachers who care about kids. If a teacher is retiring, do yourself a favor, and have a reflection session with that teacher to hear directly what the obstacles are to learning. See if they have any desire to volunteer. They will tell you.
And make sure they know that they are welcome to come back and volunteer, mentor, or teach again. Burn bridges with the aged and your school will suffer.
Photo Credits:
Big Stock
Big Little Thing #1: The student bathroom
Big Little Thing #2: Marry the percentages till death do you part
Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/16/2012
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TES Connect (tesconnect) on Pinterest
Here is a great use of pinterest. These teacher boards have been put together with lots of resources for teachers.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/16/2012
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kduncan - Korea-USA Spring 2012 Sociology Collaboration
Kevin Duncan's Flat Classroom certified teacher project proposal revolves around his current Korea-USA sociology project. If you want to see what students and classrooms are doing with long term relationships, look at this wiki.
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Animoto - Flat Classroom Project: Perspective Detectives
This pitch for the project Perspective Detectives by Cynthia Sandler, one of our current class of Flat Classroom certified teachers completely left me awe struck and excited. Wow! What do you think? What a history project!
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/15/2012
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TES Connect (tesconnect) on Pinterest
Here is a great use of pinterest. These teacher boards have been put together with lots of resources for teachers.
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SAT Preparation - Higher SAT Scores Guaranteed or Your Money Back | Kaplan Test Prep
Kaplan has released a free SAT turbo test. In 90 minutes, they say that you'll know approximately what your score will be on the SAT. This could be something you could do with students. They've made it so you can use your web browser and take this on the ipad. I'd like to see the output that comes at the end of it.
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Twitter / @tesConnect/tes-tweeters - Following
This is how Twitter lists are useful. You can share lists of resources. Here is a list of great twitter accounts that share free resources for teachers from TES.
Big Little Thing #2: Marry the Percentages till Death do you part
"You'll regret the day you take this course of action."
For example, Flat Classroom projects have sustained a 300% growth rate of project participants for the past few years but we stopped counting. Why? It just isn't sustainable. In the first year we had 23 students, then over 100, now over 3000 a semester just six years later.
The larger question should remain: are students learning? Are we helping teachers transform and improve their practice? The focus isn't the numbers for us. Children aren't numbers. Teachers aren't either. If we work passionately hard to help every child and classroom connect effectively then, IF THE TEACHER is willing to put in the effort, then we will accomplish something.
When you start talking about percentage increases, you'll reach a brick wall at some point and you'll kick yourself, especially when dealing with test scores which have a natural ceiling.
Additionally, if you look at how testing companies make their money, they make more money when kids have lower test scores because then their "official preparatory" content is needed. By nature, not everyone can be at the 100th percentile but they also know that educators and parents won't be happy until 100% of the kids are at the 100th percentile.
Percentages are the devil.
Big Little Thing #1: The student bathroom
Photo credit: Big Stock
Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/15/2012
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kduncan - Korea-USA Spring 2012 Sociology Collaboration
Kevin Duncan's Flat Classroom certified teacher project proposal revolves around his current Korea-USA sociology project. If you want to see what students and classrooms are doing with long term relationships, look at this wiki.
Perspective Detectives
I looked up Cynthia Sandler's email in my gmail this morning and found that on February 14, 2011 she was emailing to see if she could join the Digiteen project. I feel like I've known her for much longer. She was already incredible in her technology prowess and I'd hesitate to stake claim to any of Cynthia's excellence - she did all that on her own. But her knowledge of how to integrate global collaboration into the classroom here - just 365 days later blows me away.
Perspective Detectives
Yesterday, she pitched her global project idea to the Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Group. It was at 10 am Eastern so I was working frantically at our junior class Valentine's booth about that time, but have been taking time to review the final project designs of the teachers who have successfully made it through the course. Cynthia's video is Perspective Detectives:
Cynthia (and many of the others) nailed it. Catchy name. Clear story of why we need this project. Strong multimedia "pitching" the project to other teachers. And she also has the knowledge to know the pitfalls and challenges of creating a massive project.
Yes, we've used the draft manuscript of Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds as our training material for these teachers (as a result the book is really on its 8th or 9th version but that is a good thing.)
Time to birth new, excellent projects
The goal of our certified teacher program is the birth new projects. Some of them that really want to go global will ask us to provide them with resources and tools as part of our Flat Classroom incubator program and others will just head out and do it on their own. We're not super flashy but those who participate and excel in our projects have a very strong content knowledge coupled with an incredible work ethic.
It is hard to complete this course. It is not something you can just do in a minute or two on your spare time. The teachers go through the book, attend weekly meetings, reflect in their journals, and finally, they produce their own project proposal that they pitch to the group for feedback based upon what they've learned about project design. We want to help work through the kinks in our support group of co-learners before pitching to the world.
Can't hide my pride. To me, teaching is not about the teacher it is about seeing those you teach do incredible things. That is what it means to build a legacy. Many of you build legacies every day because you teach and share.
Just think about this. We don't give tests in our course. What is the point? But you do have to participate, engage in conversation, complete 15 challenges (the Flat Classroom 15) and design your own project. If you can do that, I think you've learned something.
Past Graduates
I have to brag on all our graduates, the class roster of graduates has some of the most incredible collaborators I've ever known so take a look at their bios.
I hope that Cynthia will find others to join with her to make Perspective Detectives a reality!
Perspective Detectives
Yesterday, she pitched her global project idea to the Flat Classroom Certified Teacher Group. It was at 10 am Eastern so I was working frantically at our junior class Valentine's booth about that time, but have been taking time to review the final project designs of the teachers who have successfully made it through the course. Cynthia's video is Perspective Detectives:
Cynthia (and many of the others) nailed it. Catchy name. Clear story of why we need this project. Strong multimedia "pitching" the project to other teachers. And she also has the knowledge to know the pitfalls and challenges of creating a massive project.
Yes, we've used the draft manuscript of Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds as our training material for these teachers (as a result the book is really on its 8th or 9th version but that is a good thing.)
Time to birth new, excellent projects
The goal of our certified teacher program is the birth new projects. Some of them that really want to go global will ask us to provide them with resources and tools as part of our Flat Classroom incubator program and others will just head out and do it on their own. We're not super flashy but those who participate and excel in our projects have a very strong content knowledge coupled with an incredible work ethic.
It is hard to complete this course. It is not something you can just do in a minute or two on your spare time. The teachers go through the book, attend weekly meetings, reflect in their journals, and finally, they produce their own project proposal that they pitch to the group for feedback based upon what they've learned about project design. We want to help work through the kinks in our support group of co-learners before pitching to the world.
Can't hide my pride. To me, teaching is not about the teacher it is about seeing those you teach do incredible things. That is what it means to build a legacy. Many of you build legacies every day because you teach and share.
Just think about this. We don't give tests in our course. What is the point? But you do have to participate, engage in conversation, complete 15 challenges (the Flat Classroom 15) and design your own project. If you can do that, I think you've learned something.
Past Graduates
I have to brag on all our graduates, the class roster of graduates has some of the most incredible collaborators I've ever known so take a look at their bios.
You can do this!
Expect to hear many more of their stories in the future. I know that many of you out there aren't able to participate in the certified teacher program and I still think you're great! Excellent teachers who are strong in content knowledge, love kids, work hard, and behave nobly will always have my admiration. Just pick up the book, join our network, and do the challenges on your own. You can do this.
I hope that Cynthia will find others to join with her to make Perspective Detectives a reality!
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/15/2012
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This online Turbotest can be taken on computer or ipad using the browser. I'd like to see the final results in it. The biggest question is that if it is that predictive, why not use this sort of adaptive test for the ACTUAL SAT. It would save time and frustration.
"To create a more efficient assessment tool, Kaplan Test Prep has teamed with Testive, an adaptive test development company, to create the first-ever adaptive 90-minute practice SAT that can reliably predict a test-taker’s score level. Using computer adaptive algorithms developed at MIT and built upon decades of academic research on adaptive testing, the “Kaplan SAT TurboTest,” powered by Testive, can help students understand their current score without having to sit through a full-length 4-hour practice exam.
The first and only computer-adaptive SAT practice test, the Kaplan SAT TurboTest creates an individualized test experience for each student by adjusting the difficulty of questions as the test progresses. If a student answers a question correctly, the test difficulty level increases. If a student gets a question wrong, the test gets easier. By adapting to the test-taker’s ability, the SAT TurboTest is able to create an accurate picture of his or her predicted performance more efficiently, using fewer questions." -
SAT Preparation - Higher SAT Scores Guaranteed or Your Money Back | Kaplan Test Prep
Kaplan has released a free SAT turbo test. In 90 minutes, they say that you'll know approximately what your score will be on the SAT. This could be something you could do with students. They've made it so you can use your web browser and take this on the ipad. I'd like to see the output that comes at the end of it.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/14/2012
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Presidents Day Collection - Resources - TES
President's day is next Monday in the United states. Here is an excellent collection of resources for students of all ages about the United States Presidents. There is also some great information for those who teach about the US government and how the electoral process works. This is perfect timing with the elections coming up. Monday would also be a good day to focus on government.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/14/2012
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5 Things Every Teacher Should Be Doing to Meet the CCSS
A popular white paper from Lauren Davis at Eye on Education for schools that are using common core.
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Chronicle of higher education must read article for anyone who works in higher education. Should courses have badges attached, or perhaps even multiple badges representing attainment of courses. The A, B, C, D, F system is set to evolve to give meaning to the learning.
"Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of "badges" to certify skills and abilities. If scouting focuses on outdoorsy skills like tying knots, these badges denote areas employers might look for, like mentorship or digital video editing. Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain—intentionally so—to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional classroom." -
'Badges' Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas ~ Stephen's Web
Stephen Downes shares his concise but to the point reflection on OpenBadges as they relate to diplomas. Read this and then move to the cited article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. This is one of those that University presidents better be reading or yes, as Stephen so aptly says "the gig is up." Expect Universal shake up in Universities in the years to come.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/13/2012
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TES collection St Valentine's Day - Resources - TES
Some excellent lesson plans, assembly ideas, and downloadables for Valentine's Day. From math to history, you'll find something for tomorrow.
Big Little Thing #1: The Student Bathroom
Tom Peters is right. You can tell a lot about an organization by looking at the bathroom. The first chapter of The Little Big Things: 163 ways to pursue Excellence, Tom says:
"To me a clean and attractive and even imaginative loo is the best..."
He's talking about retail shops and he goes on to say that a nice employee restroom is even more indicative of the pride in an organization. I'm thinking back on the school's I've visited and I think this applies to schools as well.
A nice school bathroom shows how willing you are to seek excellence and pride even in the small things. In our school, although there is sometimes drawing on the bathroom walls, we as the faculty go in there enough that if it is there, it is usually gone pretty quickly. This is so hard to deal with, especially in the elementary boys bathroom (I'm sorry but there's no delicate way to talk about this.)
Think about it, besides the cafeteria, it is the one place that every student visits every day. Some schools have "wall paper" or school news posted behind stall doors. Others have paintings and inspiration. Others are not a fit place to have a mud fight.
Take the Big Little Challenge today: Inspect your school bathrooms
But I'd like to challenge your school administration to grab your clothes pin and take the plunge (not literally, please.) Some time between classes go into the bathrooms of your school and look at them. What do they say about your students? If a visitor came in and used the bathrooms, what would they think about your school? What do they say about your school?
Letting the little things go causes big problems
I think a big thing about education today is that the big things are a problem because we as educators have let so many little things go? We let things slide because we have plenty of excuses.
If we don't teach students to clean up after themselves and if we don't get these bathrooms clean to begin with, what will the bathrooms in society look like in 20 years. We know that many parents don't teach children to keep things clean, but we should teach it in schools in a kind, but positive way.
The little things in your classroom make a big difference
For me, it is my room. I've had a clean room for a year and a half now. My equipment is in pristine condition largely because of the message I'm sending my students. In my daily routine, I schedule in a 5 minute room clean up every day and a deeper clean 15 minutes a week.
"But Vicki, the janitor is supposed to do that."
Sure, the janitor is in my room and does that. But he doesn't wipe around my electrical equipment and he certainly can't be expected to clean my desk. I get out the 409 and wipe everything down and use my microfiber cloth to get the dust off my computers once a week.
Although some students don't clean up after themselves, more of them do clean up in my classroom. It is because pride begins with me. It is such a little thing but it makes a big difference.
I'm also going to take a tip from Tom Peters and start talking about these big little things on my blog too.
Photo credit: Big Stock
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/13/2012
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NMC Horizon Report > 2012 Higher Ed Edition | The New Media Consortium
The 2012 horizon report is out. It reveals the trends for higher education in the next 1-4 years.
"This year’s NMC Horizon Report identifies mobile apps and tablet computing as technologies expected to enter mainstream use in the first horizon of one year or less. Game-based learning and learning analytics are seen in the second horizon of two to three years; gesture-based computing and the Internet of Things are seen emerging in the third horizon of four to five years. View the work that produced the report on the wiki."
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/13/2012
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Eracism 2012 - Application from Schools and Interested Educators
Debate is something that many schools have removed from their curriculum. This is a simple way to pull in debate to compete with other schools around the world asychronously using voicethread. It is free and open to middle school classrooms around the world. Here is the application form.
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asbunplugged2012 - Virtual Participants
There is a great opportunity to be a virtual participant for our Flat Classroom workshop at ASB Unplugged. Virtual participants will skype in (if possible) but if not, will participate asychronously by leaving thoughts on the wiki and interacting with participants on the Ning. This is a great way to "meet" students from other countries and participate as a full participant in the workshop while not leaving your school or home. Some teachers sign up their classes as participants. Applications due Friday, February 17, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/12/2012
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@julielindsay @coolcatteacher @Durff My book wiki 4 an in district group, in case there's use elsewhere http://t.co/WjYDKPoo #flatclass
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/11/2012
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Nerdy Greeting Really a Smart Shake - NYTimes.com
This "nerdy" handshake by two Ivy leage basketball players now in the NBA is making rounds. One player opens a book,the other flips imaginary pages, they put on their glasses and put them in their pockets -now ready to play. I like this in many ways. I'm going to study and learn and then put up my glasses and get out there and DO. (My paper or pavement post a few days back.)
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This Week In Education: EDSEC: Duncan Critiques Ideologues On Both Sides
Alexander Russo has links to Arne Duncan's most recent speech at Harvard that is making waves.
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Six-Word Essay Contest | StudentsFirst.org
The six word essay contest has 30 choices for what means to be a great teacher. Vote on your favorite.
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There is a move to have blind evaluation of student arts portfolios in Tennessee as a means of evaluating teachers. Arne Duncan endorsed the view of using this method of teacher evaluation. As a computer science teacher, I'd love this view and in fact, my school does evaluate me by the results of my students. While not all students have perfect work, you can see the rigor in what my classroom is doing with the efolios they build at the end of the year.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/10/2012
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Lesson: The History of Mardi Gras
A 5 lesson unit on Mardi Gras aligned with Illinois state standards.
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This is the best information on Mardi Gras I've found. "Calling all children to the Mardi gras." Has information on Louisiana, printables, and more.
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More Mardi Gras lesson plans. This one for younger children. You could also use this to link in a study of French words.
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Mardi Gras on the Net - Welcome to a Celebration of Mardi Gras
A Mardi Gras website for kids. If you're talking about this holiday in the US, you could use this site. It has a lot of information and recipes (but also some ads.)
Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/10/2012
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Nerdy Greeting Really a Smart Shake - NYTimes.com
This "nerdy" handshake by two Ivy leage basketball players now in the NBA is making rounds. One player opens a book,the other flips imaginary pages, they put on their glasses and put them in their pockets -now ready to play. I like this in many ways. I'm going to study and learn and then put up my glasses and get out there and DO. (My paper or pavement post a few days back.)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/10/2012
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Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds Book Review - YouTube
Aaron Maurer shares his video review of Julie's and my new book. It may not be news to you, but to hear this review moves me beyond words.
Education needs paper and pavement people
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| Pavement rubber band (Photo credit: nicolasnova) |
A paper person has read a lot of paper and perhaps written a lot of paper. He knows the theories and how things should work.She read a lot of studies and may know a lot of people. There is certainly a place for paper.
A pavement person hits the pavement every day. She is doing it. He speaks from experiences that are real and that happened yesterday or today. She is very practical.
I think that the most successful educators are paper and pavement. I know college professors who are always talking to teachers. Who are looking at research studies for practical applications. These professors care about their own teaching practice as well and are on the pavement teaching in their own class.
Paper Tigers can devour learning
When we have to be afraid is when paper rules the day. We have too much of this. WE literally have "paper tigers" (pardon the pun but it fits) who are telling us to do things in the classroom that we know won't work. I've seen lesson plans in books that I wouldn't dream of doing. All neat and tidy, I wouldn't even try it with my students.
Pavement people can be a bit more messy and kind of dirty. Their lesson plans may be messy but full of rich learning.
Misapplication of best practice
The danger of best practices is to lose the context of the teacher, student, and local school in the implementation. I may dive perfectly according to a best practice, but if I'm pointing the wrong way on the diving board, I'm going to hit the cement.
Questions for those who spend more time with paper:
- Do you have pavement in your paper? Are you reading relevant, practical examples from those DOING what you're studying?
- Are you reading across a wide variety of people doing the job (not just award winners)?
- Do you talk to or know people who do this job and listen to their thoughts?
- Are you willing to listen when people doing the tasks tell you that your paper doesn't line up with the practice they see every day?
- Do you treat "pavement" people in your profession with respect?
Questions for those who hit the pavement every day:
- Do you read paper and learn about best practice from others?
- Are you willing to integrate and learn from others?
- Do you look at the research and see what you can do better relating to that research?
- Do you know or talk to those who are "paper" experts who can help you see the big picture?
- Do you treat "paper" people in your profession with respect?
On paper... bumblebees can't fly. In the real world, they fly every day.
Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/09/2012
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Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds Book Review - YouTube
Aaron Maurer shares his video review of Julie's and my new book. It may not be news to you, but to hear this review moves me beyond words.
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BBC News - A Point of View: Mourning the loss of the written word
Is the written word gone? Is it lost? I know fore me, I have a cross pen and waterman with beautiful ink. I still write in my journal and I still write letters, although I have to admit, not as much as I used to. This is a great post to share and use for reflection and debate in your composition classes. With over 239 comments as of the writing of this, it has a lot of meat and thoughts in the comments as well.
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Why I left the business world to become a teacher
the Atlantic asked me to write about why I became a teacher. I left the business world to move into teaching. Not because I had to (I was a successful business woman) but because I wanted to. Please feel free to share your story. Here's mine.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/09/2012
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog: K-2 Project Forming Now
We're forming our first K-2 Flat Classroom project. Here are the details.
Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/08/2012
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Superhero Unit - comics in the classroom - Resources - TES
there is a reason that this resource is going viral over at Tes. This masterful set of lesson uses comic books with a wide range of writing activities: short story, informative, biography, and comic strip. You have lesson plans and instructions for how to use this. Use comics to teach biographics. Many teachers groan about teaching nonfiction. I love this.
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mr. Thorne is out of the UK. He has great phonics lessons. Yes, he has a british accent, but you could listen and redo these lessons in your own classroom if you are US.
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Colorful Convection Currents at Steve Spangler Science
I know Steve Spangler sells a lot of science things on his website, but I just enjoy him. I like how he explains things and how he uses colorful, attractive things in his science experiments. If you're a science teacher, I think you'll enjoy browsing the experiments on his website. Here is one on convection currents. He shares how to do all of the experiments, so you don't have to buy anything from him. This is a great example of how you can be helpful and people want to buy from you.
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The Impact of One - Capella University - The Atlantic
This was a fun piece that you all helped me write for the Atlantic. I asked you, my friends, on Twitter, Facebook, and Google plus about why you became a teacher. The response was overwhelming as you shared why you got into (and stay in) teaching. Your words are powerful and inspired me to be more. Thank you.
K-2 Project Forming Now
ANNOUNCING!
Flat Classroom K-2 project ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’
Note: As part of our mission, we are piloting new projects with our Flat Classroom certified teachers running as lead innovators. Our goal is to make global collaboration simple and part of what we do. We had kindergarten teachers saying they are ready and we believe them. This is a pilot project this semester and teachers may want to be a bit more proficient as this is in "pilot" mode and lots of innovation, discussions, and working out best practices with K-2 will happen at this point.
Press release, February 7, 2012
Announcing, the Flat Classroom K-2 'Building Bridges to Tomorrow' Project! Co-founders of Flat Classroom, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, are excited to be able to offer this global collaborative project to classrooms around the world. This project will run as a pilot for the coming semester, March-April 2012 and be open to Prep/Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classrooms (4-7 year old students).
Can very young students effectively connect, communicate, and collaborate in a global project? What does this look like? What products can students in mixed classroom teams co-create? What activities and structure can we design and implement to scaffold this collaboration? There are many wonderful opportunities out there already for students to connect using technology tools. However the aim in this project is also to encourage students in different places to collaborate, not just communicate, and to enhance understanding of cultures and life styles beyond the immediate environment.
We invite teachers who believe global collaboration has a place in their classroom. We invite those who want to improve digital citizenship and cultural understanding, leading to global competency amongst students and teachers. We invite teachers who have some digital fluency and access to digital tools who want to use them in meaningful ways to connect with others and learn together.
The ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ call for applications is open now! Classrooms will be selected for the pilot and announced before the end of February. Following a teacher kick-off meeting, classrooms will work collaboratively through March and April with final products and celebrations taking place late April and into May.
We are looking for teachers who are creative and able to work collaboratively to help us build a meaningful experience for the classrooms and the wider school communities. Apply now!
‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ is part of the series of Flat Classroom Projects created by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. Find out more from the Flat Classroom website, and from our recently released book, “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time”.
Application Form for Building Bridges to Tomorrow: http://tinyurl.com/flatclassK-
Flat Classroom Projects: http://flatclassroomproject.
Flat Classrooms Teacher Network: http://flatclassrooms.ning.com
Contact us: fcp@flatclassroom.org
Directors, Vick Davis and Julie Lindsay
For more about the pedagogy and benefits of adding global collaboration to your curriculum, buy Julie and Vicki's book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds from Pearson Publishing. www.flatclassroombook.com
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