Sage Advice: Students Teach Tech Credit: Getty Images Everything. Rachel Horwitz Librarian McKinley Middle School Albuquerque, New Mexico My students have taught me quite a bit in the last six years. Chris Clementi Computer-applications teacher Mountain Ridge Middle School Colorado Springs, Colorado Last year, I had a student in my class for a couple of months visiting from Peru who spoke no English, and I speak no Spanish. Deb Putnam Art teacher Gate of Heaven School South Boston, Massachusetts Everything I've ever learned of significance about technology, I've learned from my students. What my students have taught me about technology has driven innovation in my district. Cheryl Davis District curriculum instruction Acalanes Union High School District Lafayette, California I've learned from my students that a digital native looks at problem solving in a different way than a digital immigrant. To get a whole new perspective on problem solving, I suggest talking to a high school student. Richard Baim Adobe-certified instructor John Amato
home | centerforcreativity.netcenterforcreativity.net Knowledge Networks in Education Inside thenextweb.com Photo: thenextweb.com Also Can machine algorithms truly mimic the depths of human communication? googlesystem.blogspot.ca Google Keep has recently added a few new features. Sweeping Away a Search History nytimes.com / By MOLLY WOOD YOUR search history contains some of the most personal information you will ever reveal online: your health, mental state, interests, travel locations, fears and shopping habits. And that is information most people would want to keep private.
STEM to STEAM: Art in K-12 is Key to Building a Strong Economy As the nation embarks on a new school year, education leaders from President Obama on down are facing a renewed commitment to the STEM subjects -- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics -- as a driver of innovation. And what better advertisement of the power of STEM education than the recent landing of the Mars Rover? Like the original Apollo missions to the Moon, they powerfully reveal the magic of science and engineering. Just this summer, the Obama administration announced a laudable new "teacher corps" dedicated to excellence in the STEM subjects, and as far and wide as Estonia, a new policy is spurring debate about the value of teaching programming to elementary school students. Innovation, Ingenuity and . . . Elmo? I applaud the growing and necessary focus on spurring innovation worldwide, and as a lifelong STEM student myself, I've seen firsthand the innovation that STEM education can produce. What does it mean to turn STEM to STEAM? Art and Science Reunite
The Importance of Innovation in Education—how can we help? | (written by Laurie Cowgill) The National AASL conference opened with a keynote address by Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University. He expanded on his recent book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. Wagner contends that public education is missing the mark for student success. He presented the information gleaned from his research on the skills that really translate into success for students. Some of the points that spoke to me were: It is not what we know, but how we use what we know that is important.How do we, as educators, identify what critical thinking looks like? There are schools around the country that teach true innovation in education. Mr. Libraries are the perfect place to give students the freedom to pursue knowledge and understanding on their own terms.
Program | Make-to-Learn March 13, 2013, 9am-9pm @ the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers On March 13, 2013 educators, researchers, and members of the community joined together in this invigorating one-day symposium dedicated to placing making, creating and designing at the core of educational practice. Activities included hands-on making sessions, engaging panels, renowned guest speakers, a cocktail reception and more. **Images were posted to Instagram and Flickr - or visit our gallery. MakerStations 9:00am to 12:00pm During the morning, the Make-to-Learn Symposium offered 20 tables of hands-on activities, ranging from 3D printing to crafting to hacking. Research Meeting (by invitation only) (Illinois Boardroom) 9:00am to 1:30pm Lunch Break 12:00pm to 1:30pm Opening Keynote 6:30pm The opening keynote session introduced the Make-to-Learn thematic, which featured Dale Dougherty of Make Media as the keynote speaker, and invited submissions to the Instructables Make-to-Learn Contest for youth 18 years of age and under!
Interview with Educator Heidi Echternacht Q: What do you say to educators who say they don’t have time to be more connected? Time is definitely a precious thing! An even less talked about consideration regarding connected education is ENERGY! I may have some time, but by the end of the day, my energy is generally running below zero! It’s important for people to think about the on-the-job intensity of teaching in terms of “throwing an eight-hour birthday party for five, nine, or 14-year-olds at your house and including 20 -30 children, (your child’s class size)”–and then do it again tomorrow–and then do it again the next day in correlation with reading, writing and math standards, with an added backflip of integrating differentiated and personalized birthday party experiences for each child. On the other side, I would say that teachers, as exhausted and stretched as we are, are in need of friends, colleagues and people who know what we are going through. Early childhood folks are a particularly wonderful group of people.
Digitally Interfaced Book: Paper, Graphite, Makey Makey, Scratch, and Imagination | BPS Makes As a professional artist, deepening the ways in which seemingly disparate objects and processes are interconnected through locating, and mapping their intersections has been one of the main elements of my studio practice. The Fab Lab tools and working processes create an environment that is well suited to investigating those types of intersections. In an effort to integrate Fab Lab tools centered on craft, and studio-based processes into the classroom, I have been working to implement a Mobile MakerCart at a project-based K-8 charter school. In addition to introducing craft-based physical computing projects to the children, a guiding principle behind the MakerCart is to give teachers the opportunity to develop familiarity with the MakerCart’s tools and processes in order to be able to envision the ways in which they might be able to develop their own curriculum for use in the classroom. Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig.3 Fig. 4 Below is a video documenting an initial test of the book-making process. Fig. 5
Resources and Downloads for Differentiated Instruction Tips for downloading: PDF files can be viewed on a wide variety of platforms -- both as a browser plug-in or a stand-alone application -- with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program. Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Reader. Click on any title link below to view or download that file. Resources On This Page: Lesson Plans & Rubric - Reteach and Enrich Sample materials used to teach, assess, reteach, and enrich one week's fifth grade math objective: differentiating prime and composite numbers. Back to Top Tools for Data Assessment Teachers at Mesquite meet weekly with the student achievement teacher to review the most recent assessment data and plan instruction for each student accordingly. 5th Grade Math Formative Assessment Tracking Sheet Sample spreadsheet used to track student performance on each objective. Culture Websites & Readings
Lesson Plans and Resources for Arts Integration Dance in science, pop art in Spanish, or photography in math -- there’s no end to the ways arts can be integrated into other curricula. Educators from Bates Middle School, in Annapolis, Maryland, share arts-integrated lessons and resources that you can use in your school. All teachers at Bates Middle School are expected to use arts integration in their classrooms. Science teacher Stacey Burke (right) and her colleagues share some of their arts-integrated lessons below. Credit: Zachary Fink Tips for downloading: PDF files can be viewed on a wide variety of platforms -- both as a browser plug-in or a stand-alone application -- with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader program. Lesson Plans Sample arts-integration presentations, lesson plans, quizzes, and other documents from various teachers and classes at Bates Middle School. Back to Top Professional-Development Presentations Arts-Integration Templates Blank templates for arts-integration documents used at Bates Middle School