The eLearning Guild: A community of practice for eLearning designers, developers, and managers What’s deep learning & how do you do it? So, deep learning. What’s all that about then? I’ve just been dipping into Evidence Based Teaching by Geoff Petty and then cross referencing his advice with Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham. Geoff, in his wisdom, has decided that deep learning is better than what, for want of a better term, we shall call shallow learning. If knowledge pools on the surface of our brains and fails to seep through what can, especially on a Friday afternoon, seem like an impermeable membrane then we won’t really understand how stuff links together. It is, therefore, fairly self-evident to suggest that deep learning or knowledge, or whatever you want to call it, is desirable. Hang on, I hear you cry, doesn’t Prof Hattie say on page 204 of Visible Learning, Every year I present lectures to teacher education students and find that they are already indoctrinated with the mantra “constructivism good, direct instruction bad”. Why should this be? Impressed? Like this: Like Loading...
Text Connections by PCI Education Text Connections - The intervention course that gives reading a whole new meaning! TextConnections is a full-year course specifically designed for adolescents who have mastered basic phonics and decoding skills, but lack solid comprehension and critical-thinking skills. TextConnections: focuses on comprehension skills and strategies with support from vocabulary, fluency, writing, and independent reading instruction has clearly stepped-out lessons to make it easy to teach reading at the secondary level includes research-based, engaging, interactive instruction that brings success and reading back into the lives of striving adolescent learners Text Connections Units provide a variety of texts across subject areas: Strand by Strand... Comprehension Because comprehension is the end goal of reading, TextConnections focuses instruction on the cognitive and metacognitive strategies proven to help students become successful, independent readers and critical thinkers. Vocabulary Fluency Writing
National College online network On 1 April, the National College merged with the Teaching Agency to become the National College for Teaching and Leadership. The new agency has two key aims: improving the quality of the workforce; and helping schools to help each other to improve. Find out more about the new agency. We can help you to develop as a leader and achieve your career goals. Whether you're taking on your first leadership role or are an experienced and successful school or children's centre leader, we have something for you. We also offer professional development for chairs of governors and school business managers. Professional development opportunities One of the most powerful ways of achieving improvement is through collaboration and we offer many opportunities for school and early years leaders to provide and receive support. Find out about becoming a teaching school or being designated as a national, local or specialist leader of education. Support for schools and early years
National Hands-on Science Institute What is it exactly that we are supposed to be preparing pupils for? As with anything, the answer to the above question depends entirely on who you ask. And, also depending on who you ask the answer may well be anything from strident soundbites to mumbled confusion. I’ve recently finished reading Ken Robinson’s Out of Our Minds and it’s pretty obvious, despite the enthusiasm of his legions of fans that SKR is no clearer than anyone else. After a shockingly lengthy introduction (8 chapters) he finally arrives at some sort of conclusion in his ninth (and last) chapter. So, what does he conclude? Really. The answer to education's woes? I’m sorry for the sarcasm but quite frankly, I feel cheated. Despite the lack of any real ideas, SKR does at least point out that what we’re currently preparing students for doesn’t actually exist anymore. In order to prepare students for the jobs they will actually be doing, Godin says that schools should only teach students to do two things: Is he correct? My job is to teach and to ensure students pass exams. Related posts
Printable Flash Cards for Vocabulary Words-with Photographs Sluggish Sluggish audio/easy/sluggish.mp3 adjective lacking energy; inactive Our cat is sluggish during the day. sluggish.jpg Gush Gush audio/easy/gush.mp3 verb to flow out forcefully, often in large amounts Water gushed down the waterfall. gush.jpg Predicament Predicament audio/easy/predicament.mp3 noun a difficult situation The animal was left in a predicament. predicament.jpg Weary Weary physically or mentally exhausted The programmer was so weary that he fell asleep on the job. weary.jpg Ruffle Ruffle audio/easy/ruffle.mp3 to raise (feathers) The macaw ruffled its feathers. ruffle.jpg Expedition Expedition audio/easy/expedition.mp3 a journey or voyage made for a specific purpose The scientists made an expedition to Alaska to study wildlife. expedition.jpg Wrath Wrath fierce anger I was the victim of his wrath. wrath.jpg Grove Grove audio/easy/grove.mp3 a group of trees without undergrowth We came across a small grove. grove.jpg Hulking Hulking audio/easy/hulking.mp3 so large as to appear clumsy A hulking rhino stood before me. Immerse
Education World Forum 2013, London AASL Announces 2011 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning « INFOdocket From ALA: At the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2011 Annual Conference in New Orleans, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced the 2011 Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning. In its third year, the list of websites honors the top 25 Internet sites for enhancing learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their teacher collaborators. The list is considered the “best of the best” by AASL. Here’s the 2011 List (Annotations by AASL) Media Sharing Tagxedo Dazzle your project with these word clouds. Kerpoof Explore, create, and design at Kerpoof. Aviary Create logos, web templates, screen captures, edit your photos and more at Aviary. Nota Connect, collaborate, and co-create in real time! Digital Storytelling PicLits If a picture is worth a thousand words, then let this site provide the picture to inspire your words. Zooburst Add a new dimension to storytelling, reports, and presentations with ZooBurst’s digital 3-D tool. Myths and Legends Spicy Nodes
Using observation to sharpen your behaviour management It's easy to get stuck in a groove with behaviour management: we become accustomed to our routines, which is why we call them routines after all. This is how we often work as teachers; we scamper into a place that offers us the illusion of security and, unless we are vigilant, we become residents there, rather than tourists. Here are some simple ideas for shaking up your assumptions, and actually getting better at behaviour management rather than simply treading water. 1. This is one of the best things you can do with your training time. 2. Talk to them about what happened, and ask for their perspective on what happened. 3. Take away perhaps two, three central resolutions or techniques from the lesson, not any more - no one can implement too many novelties into their routine simultaneously. If you want to take it up a level, why not have yourself filmed and then see how you actually teach, as opposed to how you think you do. Useful resources to help with effective observation