Field trips are few and far between since the beginning of the great recession. Our school even gets special consideration in our region by the Georgia H.S. Athletic Association because we are just SO far from other schools of our size! So here is a list of apps from the folks at Edutopia that will allow our students to travel virtually from the halls of Congress to the forests of our national parks.
Edutopia's List of Virtual Field Trips
Monday, January 6, 2014
Chew On This
Maybe it is because the season of eating is coming to a close, or maybe it is because I am forty something and my fat jeans are tight, but most likely because I have been on vacation long enough to actually have the time to focus on my food... but eating has been on my mind lately... GMO's, sustainable agriculture, pesticides, antibiotics, organic, genes... If I didn't have children of my own, I probably wouldn't be so interested, but lately food has become more a passion. Just what are my kids putting in their bodies? Can't get my family to buy in to my new food craze (I won't tell you what my nine year old said hummus looks like). Maybe you will have more luck!
Anyway, TED has a series of talks called "Chew On This." I haven't watched all of them yet, and you would definitely want to preview them before you used them in a classroom, but I have found the ones I have viewed fascinating. Enjoy!
Chew on This
Anyway, TED has a series of talks called "Chew On This." I haven't watched all of them yet, and you would definitely want to preview them before you used them in a classroom, but I have found the ones I have viewed fascinating. Enjoy!
Chew on This
2014 Inspirational Video
This six minute video has "gone viral" on the Internet. So much so, that I can't figure out where it originated (see - good reason to include a credits page, right?). Sports focused. (It is pretty inspiring if it makes me want to go exercise!) Could be used to cover life in general, however.
Inspirational Video
Inspirational Video
The Power of Writing
Each year our students participate in an essay contest called "The Laws of Life" sponsored by the Rotary Club. I have read some powerful pieces of writing that have resulted from this endeavor. This article below talks about how writing and editing about your life might help people feel more in control of their lives. For my English teachers...
Editing Your Life Story
Editing Your Life Story
Video Projects to Try with Your Students
Looking for a way to work on your students' presentation skills? Here are some great ideas from We Are Teachers website...
Why dictate that your students use Powerpoint when there are so many cool digital presentation tools available today? No, you don’t have to know how to use them all… students are capable of teaching themselves if given the opportunity. You tell them what you want in the way of content – then let them get creative with the “how” part. Check out this list of alternatives from The Digital Shift...
Alternatives to PowerPoint
PS. If you don’t believe me about the students teaching themselves, check out this article… It’s really worth your time...
TED Talk Review
Thanks to Sheri for finding this gem... If she weren't a math teacher, I think she would make a great math librarian :)
How to Fall in Love with Math
How to Fall in Love with Math
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Every Child Every Day
I have been reading Every Child, Every Day by Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville, NC - a district which has a one-to-one laptop program (they refer to it as a “digital conversion” program). This district has made some pretty amazing gains in its students’ academic achievement over the past few years. Below are quotes that I gathererd while reading that I want to share....
“Although we rank 100th in the state of North Carolina out of 115 school districts in per-pupil funding, in 2012, we ranked 3rd in the state on our district graduation rate (90 percent, up from 64 percent in 2006) and 2nd in test scores (89 percent composite), ahead of districts that spend at least $1500 more per student.”
"The laptop is kind of a teacher that is always willing to help you." - Middle School Student
So far, some of the books that Mr. Edwards quotes in his text are:
All Systems Go & The Six Secrets of Change – Michael Fullan
A New Culture of Learning – Thomas and Brown
Drive – Daniel Pink
Brain Rules – John Medina
Building Leadership Capacity in Schools – Linda Lambert
"Why would I need to feel a bump on a globe to know that mountains are high when I could video chat with someone who live on that mountain and learn not only about it height but its climate, economic opportunities, and indigenous animal species?" - Mooresville High School student
"Today's students are connected to a wide variety of online opinions and information, and these connections facilitate two important kinds of thinking in our classrooms. It is vitally important to promote dialogical thinking by students - to familiarize them with the diversity of views on a particular topic and help them understand where the different views are coming from. It is equally important to promote dialectical thinking - to help students realize that what is true today may not be true in the future. When students' perspective grows, they become more capable of formulating opinions, more adaptable to different circumstances, more understanding of complex issues, and more able to find realistic solutions to problems." - Mark Edwards p. 94-5
"Success in a digital conversion classroom depends more than ever before on the talent, initiative, and skills of the teacher... Our goal was that our teachers would no longer be lecturers surrounded by books but would become "roaming conductors" of learning. We began to transition from having the teacher stand in the front of the class to our current teacher as facilitator model... Teaching in our digital conversion initiative requires a significant evolution in design methodology and pedagogy. Teaching students who have a portal to the world at their fingertips and want to use exciting tools and work on personal interests requires teachers to make significant changes. They must move away from whole group didactic static sets to directing and assisting individuals and small groups, interspersed with presentations, discussions, and teacher-directed activities." - Mark Edwards p. 97-99
"We get much more than what's on the tests - not only the 'what' but the 'why.' We get many perspectives on whatever it is that we are learning, and this 'why' knowledge seems to stick better than simply memorizing the facts." Mooresville High School student
“I’m doing the best teaching that I‘ve ever done. We’ve learned to use digital resources to pinpoint intervention, so accuracy and precision have become a huge means for improvement. I could never go back to how I used to teach. It was a bunch of guessing and hoping.” – Mrs. Thompson, 4th grade teacher
“ ‘Precise intervention’ is how we describe our instructional process, now that we rely on digital formative data. In my past experience as an educator, re-teaching to the whole class was a very common way to try to make sure that students were learning. This time-consuming and teacher-intensive process had little impact on student improvement since it did not take into account individual differences. Similarly, hand grading was the norm, often delaying the feedback process for weeks and having minimal effect on student performance.” - Mark Edwards p.126
“Although we rank 100th in the state of North Carolina out of 115 school districts in per-pupil funding, in 2012, we ranked 3rd in the state on our district graduation rate (90 percent, up from 64 percent in 2006) and 2nd in test scores (89 percent composite), ahead of districts that spend at least $1500 more per student.”
"The laptop is kind of a teacher that is always willing to help you." - Middle School Student
So far, some of the books that Mr. Edwards quotes in his text are:
All Systems Go & The Six Secrets of Change – Michael Fullan
A New Culture of Learning – Thomas and Brown
Drive – Daniel Pink
Brain Rules – John Medina
Building Leadership Capacity in Schools – Linda Lambert
"Why would I need to feel a bump on a globe to know that mountains are high when I could video chat with someone who live on that mountain and learn not only about it height but its climate, economic opportunities, and indigenous animal species?" - Mooresville High School student
"Today's students are connected to a wide variety of online opinions and information, and these connections facilitate two important kinds of thinking in our classrooms. It is vitally important to promote dialogical thinking by students - to familiarize them with the diversity of views on a particular topic and help them understand where the different views are coming from. It is equally important to promote dialectical thinking - to help students realize that what is true today may not be true in the future. When students' perspective grows, they become more capable of formulating opinions, more adaptable to different circumstances, more understanding of complex issues, and more able to find realistic solutions to problems." - Mark Edwards p. 94-5
"Success in a digital conversion classroom depends more than ever before on the talent, initiative, and skills of the teacher... Our goal was that our teachers would no longer be lecturers surrounded by books but would become "roaming conductors" of learning. We began to transition from having the teacher stand in the front of the class to our current teacher as facilitator model... Teaching in our digital conversion initiative requires a significant evolution in design methodology and pedagogy. Teaching students who have a portal to the world at their fingertips and want to use exciting tools and work on personal interests requires teachers to make significant changes. They must move away from whole group didactic static sets to directing and assisting individuals and small groups, interspersed with presentations, discussions, and teacher-directed activities." - Mark Edwards p. 97-99
"We get much more than what's on the tests - not only the 'what' but the 'why.' We get many perspectives on whatever it is that we are learning, and this 'why' knowledge seems to stick better than simply memorizing the facts." Mooresville High School student
“I’m doing the best teaching that I‘ve ever done. We’ve learned to use digital resources to pinpoint intervention, so accuracy and precision have become a huge means for improvement. I could never go back to how I used to teach. It was a bunch of guessing and hoping.” – Mrs. Thompson, 4th grade teacher
“ ‘Precise intervention’ is how we describe our instructional process, now that we rely on digital formative data. In my past experience as an educator, re-teaching to the whole class was a very common way to try to make sure that students were learning. This time-consuming and teacher-intensive process had little impact on student improvement since it did not take into account individual differences. Similarly, hand grading was the norm, often delaying the feedback process for weeks and having minimal effect on student performance.” - Mark Edwards p.126
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)