New Guide Offers Assessment Tips for the Classroom Recently, I watched a team of ninth-graders share their vision for a city of the future. They had clearly done their research, investigating everything from the politics of ancient Athens to the principles of sustainable design in the 21st century. They summarized their findings online and then took their learning a step further to design a 3-D model of their ideal city. As their classmates and teachers gathered around the scale model, the young urban designers pointed out the innovative features of their metropolis. If we hope to offer students more real-world learning experience like this one, we need to be willing to reconsider how we assess learning. PBL Strategies I've organized these tips to follow the arc of a project-first planning, then active learning, then culminating event, and, finally, reflection. Project-based learning and authentic assessment are made for each other. Big Questions Ahead style="margin-left: 20px;"> Click here to download the guide, and then pass it along!
Facilitating Knowledge Work With Social Collaboration Traditional definitions often define collaboration as a team who coordinates their efforts in order to achieve a known objective. Social collaboration, on the other hand, is about collaboration in a broader sense. It is about people collaborating as an enterprise and contributing to a shared purpose by directly and indirectly helping each other achieve goals. Whether we are having a conversation that clarifies a certain issue on a blog, updating information on a community wiki or answering a question on a micro-blogging platform, we are in fact collaborating. Although this kind of collaboration is often indirect and quite subtle, our contributions can help individuals, teams or the entire enterprise deal with major challenges. There are many use cases for social collaboration — coauthoring content, using a wiki or collecting feedback via a blog, to name a few. We need to start sharing and turning content into social objects. The Social Object Sharing Information Finding Information
Planner PARCC aligned Educators, this is your chance to decide on the texts you will teach as you prepare your students to be thinkers and doers. Note to Readers 11.05.13 Since this post was first written, the PARCC Aligned ELA Common Core Curriculum & Assessment Planners have been updated to include audio files and drop-down toolboxes for user friendliness. They have also grown to include additional space for entering instructional objectives and teaching notes as well as including pop-up boxes that display the grade-level standards as teacher work to build their plans. I have been working with due diligence to help teachers make sense of the marriage between the PARCC Frameworks released first in the Fall of 2011 and updated in the Fall of 2012 and the most recent significant release of PARCC Assessment information, the Assessment Blueprints released on April 30. The result….a quarterly planner that integrates the guidelines of the PARCC Frameworks and the Assessment Blueprints. Top Portion: Instruction
printable coloring pages on Etsy, a global handmade and vintage marketplace. Reverse Instruction: 21 slides, 5 minutes This is a five minute presentation I am making today as part of an NAIS 3 hour workshop, Becoming A School of the Future: The conversation continues. The slides themselves are almost entirely image driven; my talking points for each slide are below. Notes on slides: Slide 2. (NB: I love this particular photo of a lecturing teacher, but the teacher in question actually lectures rarely and is one of my school’s best practicioners of reverse instruction). Slide 3. Slide 4. Slide 5. Slide 6. Slide 7. Slide 8. Slide 9: Flip teaching entails teachers redeploying the content delivery, whether through using the free resources of Khan Academy, MIT, and other such sites, or, and this is just as important, by making their own lectures available for studentsvia podcast, vodcast, webvideo, Slide 10 and narrated powerpoints. Slide 11. Slide 12. Slide 13. Slide 14: And for more ability of teachers to work closely to support students. Slide 15: Ditto Slide 16. Slide 17. Slide 18. Slide 19. Slide 20.
Download and Convert Files? I Can Do That! Home » Free Webtools Do you need a free tool to convert file formats or download videos from the internet? Look no further. Zamzar is the tool for you If you're having trouble viewing files or you need to download a file but need it in a different format, then you need Zamzar. To use Zamzar simply upload the file(s) to Zamzar that you wish to convert (100mb or less). Looking for another site similar to Zamzar? Media converter uses the same basic principal as Zamzar- convert your files for Free! If you like this tool, you'll love SimpleK12's newest eBook: "Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011" Sign up by entering your email below (or find out more about the eBook here) As a teacher, do you think file converters are useful? - Kimberly Share this post with your friends and colleagues:
PBLU - Project Based Learning resource for Educators PBLU is a site I just found that is a new online social network of educators who use Project Based Learning in their classrooms. It is officially launching this summer and will provide free online courses (2 weeks long) and project ideas for teachers to use. It will have resources, links, help, and ways to connect with other PBL educators. Some of the classes they will be offering include: How to Launch the Project • How to Create a Project Calendar • How to Manage the Project • How to Grade the Project • How to Showcase Student Work • How to Get PBL Teacher Certification Project Based Learning is an excellent way to teach students content, along with other important skills like teamwork, communications, critical thinking, and problem solving. Sign up to be notified when it launches: Related: Project Based Learning resources, getting started help, and more 10 Important Skills Students need to be Successful in the Future
Reactions Let's start with the idea of a chemical reaction. Reactions occur when two or more molecules interact and the molecules change. Bonds between atoms are broken and created to form new molecules. That's it. When you are trying to understand chemical reactions, imagine that you are working with the atoms. 1. When a refrigerator or air conditioner cools the air, there is no reaction in the air molecules. 2. 3. Mars: Why is Curiosity Looking for Organics?
Supporting Project Team Formation for Self-directed Learners | CELSTEC Printer-friendly versionPDF versionTitle: Supporting Project Team Formation for Self-directed Learners Authors: Spoelstra, Howard; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Sloep, Peter Abstract: The outcomes of project-based learning can be optimized if team formation experts assemble the project teams. Description: Spoelstra, H., Van Rosmalen, P., & Sloep, P.
Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011 Home » Free Webtools What better way to ring in the new year than with some new FREE tech tools! Please join us in this special new year's kickoff as we share what's new in the EdTech UNconference and technology integration tips and tricks for your classroom. What: Live online webinar - "Hidden Webtools for 2011 PLUS What's New in the EdTech UNconference" When: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Eastern Time, USA Who: All are welcome, but space is limited. Cost: Free! How to Enroll: Click here to register, or copy and paste the following URL: Join us as we reveal our brand new eBook, "Hidden Webtools: 11 Tools for 2011". Kimberly Warrner, the EdTech UNconference Chair and Grace Dunlap, Technology Integration Team Member, will pick their favorite webtools for teachers and explain: What the tool isThe basics of using the toolApplications for classroom use So, please join us as we kick off 2011 in true #EdTech Style.
How (And Why) Teachers Should Get Started With Blended Learning Blended learning is quite simply one of the most overused terms to describe the current state of education’s relationship with technology. However, it fits. Blended learning is marrying the influx of technology with the learning principles that are proven to work. It’s a powerful combination if done properly. That’s why this new-ish term is, as stated just a few sentences ago, such an overused term. Because it’s important! So how does your average everyday teacher get started with blending up your learning? See Also: How Teachers Are Using Blended Learning Right Now Why yes! Source: Digital Learning Now