Top 3 Ways to Interact with Students Outside the Classroom This isn’t a revolution? Educators have been interacting with students outside the classroom for many years. Summer school/camp, email and the Internet have allowed education to be guided away from normal school hours.Nowadays It’s just easier to do. These 3 top ways to interact with students also serve as a reflection on the 21st Century classroom and ever evolving pedagogy. 1. Twitter – Instant interaction with students of the ‘social-media’ generation. From class information to the posing of questions or links to articles, twitter leads the way when interacting with students. During the recent summer exam period a host of schools and departments were posting regular tips and articles to help students with their revision. 2. A relatively simple platform that now plays a huge part in the workflow and organisation of student learning. Although not as immediate as twitter, with students signing in to the cross platform application, the effect of Edmodo has been staggering this year. 3.
It's Time to Disrupt the System - Getting Smart by Alison Anderson - For as long as I have been involved in education, the focus for finding the key to fixing education has always been about providing professional development for the teachers and administrators. The philosophy is top-down with the intent that knowledge will eventually trickle down to benefit the students. But, during one of the two ISTE Ignite sessions, I listened to the well respected “education disruptionist,” Will Richardson, sum up 19 of his bold beliefs about education in exactly five minutes. His five minutes were not just inspiring, but I heard it as a call to all educators to stop putting up road blocks and open up the classrooms and allow learning to become powerful and impact the world. There are so many things we are not doing right and, according to Mr. Richardson, we need to start asking “Why wouldn’t we…?” In the last few years, technology has invaded, like it or not, and the school experience is shifting faster than ever. It’s Time to Shift Our Focus
Study: '21st Century Learning' Demands Mix of Abilities - Inside School Research The modern workplace and lifestyle demand that students balance cognitive, personal, and interpersonal abilities, but current education policy discussions have not defined those abilities well, according to a special report released this afternoon by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science in Washington. A "who's who" team of experts from the National Academies' division of behavioral and social sciences and education and its boards on testing and on science education collaborated for more than a year on the report, intended to define just what researchers, educators, and policymakers mean when they talk about "deeper learning" and "21st-century skills." "Staying in school and completing degrees clearly have very strong effects," said James W. Pellegrino, a co-editor of the report and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Ms. Transfer in Context
July: The Ultimate Planning Period July is traditionally considered leisure time for educators and the educated -- teachers and students alike. Beaches and books, pools and picnics. And for good reason. The workload of any teacher or administrator can be difficult for those outside of education to fully appreciate. That said, there's a thin line between two months of respite and losing ground in your craft. Though it can be tempting to put the next school year off until last possible day, it doesn't have to be that way. While you likely have your own checklist for opening the school year, below are five ideas to help you stay on top of your game without completely spoiling the oasis of summer. 1) Review and Refine Instructional Design While classroom management, grading tips and collegial relationships get a lot of ink, instructional design is a teacher's real best friend. The school year itself is full of grading, reporting, refining and communication. 2) Verify Curriculum 3) Check-in with Your Digital PLN
The problem with 21st-century education Ever since 2000, educators and education reform folks have been quick to refer to “21st-century education.” For over a decade, this term has been used to describe the changing landscape for educators. What it has become is another one of the many catchphrases (e.g. “differentiation,” “rigor,” “personalized learning”) thrown around by educators, reformers and anyone, really, who feels they know enough about education to talk about it. But what do we really mean by “21st-century education?” Most people argue that we are at transitional time for education — that with the incredible rate at which technology is advancing and entering the classroom, and with the amount of information available at our students’ fingertips, educators need to change how they teach to best prepare students for the future. I have to wonder. Flipping the classroom One of the biggest trends right now is the flipped classroom model. Preparing students for the future As such, this is not a “21st-century” problem.
The 2012 A-Z List Of Educational Twitter Hashtags We got so many additions and updates to our 2011 list we thought it was time to bring you the most up-to-date list for 2012. So, without further ado, here’s the 2012 A-Z list of educational Twitter hashtags. We went through all the comments on the 2011 version , wrote down all the Twitter and Facebook updates, and compiled this list over the course of several months. What follows is our best effort to bring you the biggest and baddest list of hashtags. I’m sure we still missed some as new hashtags seemingly pop up every day. In any case, let us know what we missed in the comments or on our Facebook page! First, some background to get you up to speed on what the heck a hashtag is. First, What’s A Hashtag? Whether you’re a new or seasoned Twitter user, you likely come across confusing hashtags that probably look like a bunch of nonsense. The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keyword or topic in a Tweet. How To Hide Your Hashtag Chat From Followers Sources The Most Popular Hashtags
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: How to Use Twitter From Kindergarten to College 6.14.12 | As Twitter continues to make more inroads into academic spaces, two recent articles demonstrate its use across the educational spectrum. Both stories—a New York Times SchoolBook inside-look at a tweeting class of kindergarteners, and a ProfHacker column at The Chronicle of Higher Education on Twitter’s use in college classrooms—show not only how educators are using Twitter and social media for a great variety of tasks, but how educators are very aware of how to use them responsibly. At Public School 150, a technologically sophisticated elementary school in TriBeCa, kindergarten teacher Jennifer Aaron engages her class in a group tweeting effort three times a week. Family members of the 2012 class were encouraged to follow her private account, @JensClass, and to respond to student tweets. In the video above, Aaron explains how it works: Here’s how an edited message appeared, cut down to fit within the 140-character limit: “We added more days in school stickers.
Teachers – The 10 Stages of Twitter Stage 1 Sign up to twitter following persuasion/pestering by colleagues. Follow Stephen Fry, a famous sportsman/popstar and a news channel. Read a few tweets, don’t understand what the fuss is about and mock anyone who uses twitter. Stage 2 Overhear colleagues chatting about twitter and a great article they found. Stage 3 Think about posting first tweet. Stage 4 Upon realising you have no followers ask colleagues how to get them? Stage 5 Have a mini twitter conversation with colleague, even retweet a couple of statements. Stage 6 Practise a couple of tweets that include @names and hashtags. Stage 7 Retweet any link you find interesting as people might read them. Stage 8 Thank colleagues for introducing you to twitter, impressed with the knowledge you have gleaned and your growing number of followers. Stage 9 Reflect that twitter is an incredibly positive place and everyone is full of praise. Stage 10 (the reason for this post) When seeking opinion from a range of people, ask PLN to respond.
Educators Guide to the use of Pinterest in Education Some educational Pinners to follow This is the editor of the famous blog cool cat teacher. It has over 69 boards all with more than 600 pins. Some of her best boards include "Teaching Ideas and App", Collaborative Writing", and " Global Collaboration in Education ". This guy is one of our favourite educational writers. He has several boards covering different topics such as: Google chrome extensions, Twitter apps and resources, web2.0 tools for educators and his own personal learning network. Karen is a great educator with a huge presence online. This is an ICT specialist. Shannon has a great Pinterest page that includes some awesome boards on educational technology essentials. Shelly has one of the resourceful boards on Pinterest. Useful Pinterest Tutorials : 1- How to start using Pinterest 2- How to save Time Using Pinterest 3- How to Pin a Quote and Text to Pinterest 4- Everything you Need to Know about Pinterest