Assessment: Turning a Blunt Instrument Into a Powerful Learning Tool It’s ironic that assessment in schools is most often “something adults do to students,” as Rick Stiggins puts it, because all humans are highly evolved for learning, and self-assessment is a powerful tool all learners use. Whether you are trying to master a recipe, solve an equation, improve your golf swing, you continually ask yourself questions such as “Have I learned to do what I need to do?” “What did I do wrong?” Wouldn’t it be great if schools didn’t turn a finely honed learning skill that all students master to some degree (if they can read and write, for example) into a blunt instrument for institutional measurement that clearly hasn’t been working? Although my pedagogy has moved more and more toward empowering learners to take responsibility for their own learning, assessment in my courses has not heretofore strayed from comment feedback in students’ reflective blogs and in traditional grading methods. “It won’t count on your final grade at all.” Shareski trains teachers.
Social Studies Theme Units Document Based Activities World Problems and Issues Social Studies Mixed Review Practice First grade social studies questions Second grade social studies questions Third grade social studies questions Fourth grade social studies questions Fifth grade social studies questions Sixth grade social studies questions Social Studies Theme Units Life Skills Time Lines Have a suggestion or would like to leave feedback? Doing it Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary Every Monday my seventh grade English teacher would have us copy a list of 25 words she'd written on the board. We'd then look up the dictionary definitions and copy those down. For homework, we'd re-write each word seven times. Good, now you know it. Copying definitions from the dictionary we would probably all agree is not an effective way to learn vocabulary. The truth is, and the research shows, students need multiple and various exposures to a word before they fully understand that word and can apply it. Selecting Words Ah, so many words, so little time. My first year teaching, before my tenth graders began reading Lord of the Flies, I went through every chapter and made lists of all the vocabulary words I thought they'd have trouble with, so that I could pre-teach them. When I looked at those long lists, I began to freak out. Then, here's what to do after the students pick their own words: Read through them all and use the results as a formative assessment. Ranking Words The Rationale
Worksheets, Lesson Plans, Teacher Resources, and Rubrics from TeAch-nology.com The Best Free Documentary Websites I usually blog about web tools and mobile apps that we can use in education but since it is summer holidays now i am going to provide you with a list of free documentary websites that you can use to watch thousands of documentaries from different categories. Feel free to share the post with your friends and colleagues. Here is the list of some of the best free Documentary websites.1- Fandor Fandor is a website that offers over 2000 indie movies that you can watch right from your computer. 2- Sprdword Sprd word is a cool website that provides great documentary videos that you would not find in the traditional media. 3- Documentary Heaven Documentary Heaven is another free to use website that offers a various collection of documentary films that you can watch online. 4- TopDocumentaryFilms TopDocumentaryFilms is a website that offers free documentaries. 5- Human Restore 6- SnagFilms 7- Free Documentary TV Free Documentary Tv is a great website for watching free documentary films . 11- Miro
Should Kids Pick Their Own Punishments? - Room for Debate Let Them Choose Their Fate Bruce Feiler 5:32 PM KJ, I don’t know about you, but my wife and I have different approaches to raising children. I tend toward the more controlling; she tends toward the more forgiving. When I started working on “The Secrets of Happy Families” a few years ago, I stumbled on a novel solution that seemed strange at first but that has transformed our lives. We let our kids help pick their own rewards and punishments. Far from being lax, our girls turn out to be little Stalins. But hear me out. We now hold a 20-minute family meeting every Sunday in which we discuss what went well in our family this week, what didn’t go well and what two things we will work on. I’m Not Ready to Give Up My Control KJ Dell'Antonia 5:32 PM Would it work? I want my children to be just a little afraid of what I might do if they really mess up. Shouldn’t We Prepare Them for Independence? Oh, I have no doubt my children are just a little afraid of me. Take overreacting.
Super Teacher Worksheets 8 Excellent Free Timeline Creation Tools for Teachers 1-TikiToki TikiToki is a great application for multimedia timelines making . It allows its users to create stunning animated timelines. TikiToKi is very easy to use and above all its basic version is completely free . 2- Time Glider This is a web tool that lets you create, collaborate on, and publish zooming/planning interactive timelines for free.It is like Google Maps but for time. 3- OurStory Ourstory enables you to write stories, tag friends, and add media to collaborative timelines either privately or in public. 4- Capzles Capzles is a web tool I have reviewed here a couple of times. 5- Read Write Think Read Write Think has a beautiful timeline tool that allows users to add project labels and easily create timelines. 6- Xtimeline Xtimeline is a free web-based timeline that you can use to easily create and share timelines with pictures and videos. 7- TimeToast TimeToast is another great tool that allows you to create timelines and share them on the web. 8- Dipity
Shery Sandberg Says, 'Lean In,' But Is That Really the Way to Lead? - Room for Debate André da Loba In her book “Lean In,” the Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg tells women they need to jettison many traditionally female habits to get ahead — to act, in certain ways, more like men. But what if men were more like women? Sandberg notes that, even early in life, women tend to be less driven and less determined to be a boss than men. Read the Discussion »