Digital Portfolios: The Art of Reflection
Too often, conversations about digital portfolios center on the tools: how to save, share, and publish student work. Mastering the technical component of digital portfolios is critical, and students do need an opportunity to showcase their work to a broader audience. However, when we let the process of curate > reflect > publish serve as the sole focal point, digital portfolios become summative in nature and are viewed as an add-on at the end of a unit, project, or activity. For digital portfolios to be truly valuable to both teachers and students, they need to provide insight into not only what students created, but also how and why.
A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation
A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation by Terry Heick When researching student motivation and gamification late last year, I came across the most comprehensive gamification framework I’ve ever seen. Developed by gamification expert Yu-kai Chou, it was an ambitious effort that distinguished black hat gamification (which is “bad”–think Farmville and Candy Crush) from white hat gamification (which is “good”–think Minecraft or even an ACT score).
Blooms Taxonomy Questioning Poster
Hey guys! Here is a free Bloom's Taxonomy Poster from Suzy Deasy. It's great to use to help remember the right questioning to ask your students during a lesson!
Digital Portfolios: The Art of Reflection
A few weeks ago, I met with a group of educators to discuss their observations from a series of learning walks in classrooms. They found that though students could accurately tell them what they were doing, they struggled to articulate what they might be learning. In response, I suggested building reflection into the daily routine.
Sensory Systems that Make up the Learning Hierarchy of a Strong Academic Foundation - Integrated Learning Strategies
This article contains information regarding important sensory systems and the learning hierarchy that comes from developing each one. Affiliate links are included for your convenience. Whether a child is using his or her hands to write, ears to listen, eyes to read, or their entire body to play sports, they can execute and learn best when they are active and using all of their senses to the fullest. When a child’s brain directs the body to sequence and perform motor tasks this is called motor planning. The ability to motor plan relies on adequate functioning of all the sensory systems. In the learning sphere, a child must build on sensory input from many different sensory systems to fully unlock his or her learning potential.
Professional Learning That Matters
10 Keys to Making Professional Learning Meaningful By Samantha Cleaver Chances are, as you look at your calendar of scheduled professional learning days, you aren’t overcome with excitement. Traditionally, teacher professional learning has ranged from the good (the workshop that’s actually hands-on), to the bad (the never-ending PowerPoint presentation), to the ugly (remember that one presenter…). But, as the Common Core State Standards become the norm, the new standards and the expectations around problem solving and critical thinking are prompting a new look at teacher development. In the process, more districts and schools are thinking of ways to make professional learning meaningful and engaging.
Wanna Know If Students Are Learning? Ask Them These 4 Questions
It can be a struggle to best help students understand what they are learning or for students to articulate their learning in meaningful ways. This was especially difficult for me starting out in on my teaching journey. Based on how I had been taught to be an educator the best ways to know if students are learning was to give them a test. If they failed, it was their fault and they needed to do better next time. It took me a long time to learn that in the process of learning the teacher and the student need to be partners.
Digital Portfolios . . . Making the Learning Visible – Teaching and Learning With Heart
As promised, here is my second post about Making Learning Visible and Digital Portfolios . . . Forgive me for any technical problems, or the lack of digital craftsmanship; I am still learning. As an administrator and classroom teacher, I find myself in a wonderful position to make some important differences in how we communicate student progress and make learning visible. I have decided it is time to share my journey in communicating my students’ learning using FreshGrade, an online student digital portfolio system.
35 Educational Resources to Encourage Inquiry & Inventive Thinking
This is a sponsored post. I’ve scoured the internet, including all of my favourite social media sites, to bring you a fantastic collection of online inquiry and inventive thinking resources that I know will inspire and motivate both you and your students. The collection includes Lego, science, practical activity ideas, engineering, videos, animation, technology and a tonne of fun facts – so there is sure to be something for everyone! Sean Kenney Lego Certified Master Builder’s YouTube Channel: Best-selling author and artist, Sean Kenney, uses LEGO toys to build anything and everything you can imagine. CSIRO Crest: CREativity in Science and Technology (CREST) is an Australian non-competitive awards program supporting students to design and carry out their own open-ended science investigation or technology project.
Examples of learning intentions
The learning intention is expressed in terms of knowledge, understanding and skills, and links directly with the relevant curriculum document. The design of learning intentions starts with the answers to these questions. What do I want students to know?What do I want students to understand?What do I want students to be able to do? A certain challenge exists for teachers in translating the knowledge, understanding and skills of a published curriculum into learning intentions whose language is accessible to their students, but time spent on this preliminary step is in itself excellent professional learning.
The Reflective Student: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part 2) – Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas
reflective student Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It’s not something that’s fostered in school – typically someone else tells you how you’re doing!
The Other 21st Century Skills: Educator Self-Assessment
Chartkamp–I think I understand what you are saying, but in any scenario, someone, or something will spur the impetus for learning to occur. We could have a toddler go about and learn the world from scratch, but I don’t think anyone would say that is as efficient and as effective as a “parent” facilitating, or at least providing for a safe environment. And the better the parent, the more effective the toddler will be at contributing to the learning within the community as he/she progresses.
