The Best Places On The Web To Find Documentaries (Non-YouTube) If you’re not as lucky as us (our school district has unblocked YouTube for teacher accounts), I thought having a list like this would be useful. You might also be interested in The Best Sites For News & History Videos That Won’t Get Blocked By Content Filters (At Least, Not By Ours!). Thanks to several folks on Twitter for their recommendations, including @joefinkelstein, @EdDarrell and @justinstallings. I hope readers will contribute more suggestions. Here are my choices for The Best Places On The Web To Find Documentaries (Non-YouTube): I’ll start off with suggesting you see a post by Richard Byrne, where he recommends five places to see online documentaries for free. PBS American Experience Archive TeacherTube As always, feedback is welcome. If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
How to Differentiate Instruction How to Differentiate Instruction What's All the Hype? Unfortunately, our images of school are almost factory images, so school is very standardized. But kids don't come in standard issue. Effective teachers have been differentiating instruction for as long as teaching has been a profession. What The Research Tells Us About Differentiate Instruction There are three bodies of research worth mentioning. 1) Brain-based Research 2) Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences 3) Authentic Assessment Brain-based Research on Learning Research on the brain has been used to inform educational practice for many years and is becoming more and more popular. Other valuable links on this topic can be found at: Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences Learning styles research is predominantly used to understand learning preferences that students use to receive and/or process information.
Barefoot In the head A few year ago, I was a bit curious about how well learners can evaluate each other. I designed a small experiment to find out. It goes like this: Take a group of learners, say 15 in number, in a classroom. Give everybody 15 sheets of paper and ask them to write their names on the top right corner of every sheet. In other words, you have conducted an examination without making a question paper and without having to mark a pile of answer books. I tried this for three years in the course I teach on Educational Technology for M.Ed. In the meanwhile, I thought you might like to try....
Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction Resources >> Browse Articles >> Utilizing Technology Featured Author: Mrs. Kelly Tenkely is a technology teacher in a private school. One of the major benefits of using technology in the classroom is the ability to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student in every lesson. Below you will find website suggestions that address the different learning styles in your classroom with the help of technology: Verbal-Linguistic These learners enjoy learning through speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Websites to encourage learning for Verbal-Linguistic students: 1. Allow students to express themselves creatively with words 2. Capture student voices with audio, text, pictures, and video 3. A free online word processor, and presentation tool 4. Students can podcast (voice recording) online. 5. – Students can create stories or mini-movies Logical-Mathematical
Eight Ways to Use Video With English Language Learners This blog was co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski. This post is excerpted from their new book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels. "I like the way you use videos with us -- you get us moving, talking, writing and speaking. The problem is you make us think too much." -- "John," one of our English-Language Learner students We can think of far worse things a student might say to us, and John's comment demonstrates our perspective on using video with English-Language Learners (and, for that matter, with all students) -- research and our experience show that it can be a very effective learning tool, but it has to be used as an active one. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 1. The class could start off by watching this New York Times video about a father grieving his son's death from gang violence: 2. 3.
Strong Readers All:Catching Readers Up Before They Fail Carol E. Canady and Robert Lynn Canady On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, one-third of U.S. 4th graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading. That's the good news. But what about the two-thirds of students who didn't read proficiently in 4th grade? For students who enter school with below-average language development, a one-year gain in reading achievement for each year in school is simply not enough to catch up. It Can Be Done So how can we ensure this acceleration in reading achievement? Beverley Manor Elementary School in Staunton, Virginia, adopted such an approach. Building on this success, additional programs using early literacy teams are currently being piloted in other schools in Virginia as well as in six schools in Georgia, Ohio, and Tennessee. Where to Start Identify a Literacy Coach Create an Early Literacy Team Group Students in Early Literacy Groups Schedule Literacy Instruction Intervention, however, doesn't end after grade 2. How It Works
A Step-by-Step Guide to the Best Projects Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, is a 100 percent project-based learning school. They are part of the New Tech Network of schools and their approach has yielded remarkable results, including a 98 percent graduation rate, with all of their graduates accepted to college. The success of their PBL approach is largely attributable to the fact that their process is designed to stimulate student inquiry. Additionally, their process can be applied to any project in any subject, which means there is a consistent approach across grades and subjects at Manor. We followed a sophomore world studies class through a three-week project called Controlling Factors, created by teaching partners Mary Mobley (English) and Michael Chambers (world history). Here is a breakdown of key steps, with some examples from Mobley and Chambers's project: What do you think about this Schools That Work story?
What’s the Best Way to Practice Project Based Learning? By Peter Skillen Project Based Learning can mean different things to different people, and can be practiced in a variety of ways. For educators who want to dive in, the good news is that a rich trove of resources are available. In order to create your own definition and practice, here are some parameters to consider. This diagram, enhanced by the critical eye of Brenda Sherry, can help you figure out what’s important to you and your students. We like to think with the frame of continua rather than dichotomies simply because things are rarely on or off, black or white, ones or zeroes. You could likely add other dimensions to consider as you build your own understandings and beliefs. Who is in control? Who is asking the question to be investigated in the project? If the projects are collaborative in nature, you may wish to consider the amount of interdependence that students have with one another. Is the content a rich, deep problem space or is it a more narrowly focused content area?
10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete Flickr: Corey Leopold By Greg Stack So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not. 1. At Northern Beaches Christian School students learn everywhere. 2. 3. 4. 5. Corridors at Machias Elementary are used for informal learning 6. 7. 8. Learner Centered Classroom at Riverview Elementary School. 9. 10. Greg Stack is an architect for NAC Architecture and specializes in developing best practices for the planning and design of educational environments.
Hip-Hip Hooray for Summer! Three Tips to Spark Your Learning When I was a kid, some of the things I enjoyed most about summer were swimming and banana splits! Yes . . . you heard right. Banana splits! They were my fave summer treat for many years, and I will always remember them with great fondness. In my opinion, if we decide to do summer learning at all, it should be fun, meaningful and engaging. So today, I offer you three tips on how to do some summer learning and still keep those banana splits coming! 1) Attend Free Webinars Professional Development can take many shapes. 2) Join a Summer Book Club We frequently talk about the importance of summer book clubs for our students, but don't often enough choose to do one for ourselves. 3) Jump into a Month-Long Article Read Last week Doug Rice, a blogging buddy from the business world, shared a post called Small Business Article Reading Schedule. Summer learning can be as much fun as a tasty banana split with a cherry on top, or as dreary as a rained out ball game. Now it's time to share yours!