4 secrets to reading body language like an expert: How important is body language? 55% of what you convey when you speak comes from body language. In fact, when you’re speaking about something emotional only about 7% of what the other person hears has to do with the words you use. More often than not you can tell what a politician thinks about an issue just by watching their hands. In five minutes you can often evaluate people with approximately 70% accuracy… but obviously we’re wrong often, and that 30% can be very costly. What can the research teach us about better reading people’s body language? What You’re Doing Wrong In The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help–or Hurt–How You Lead the author points out a number of common errors people make. Here’s how I interpreted the findings: Ignoring context: Crossed arms don’t mean as much if the room is cold or the chair they’re sitting in doesn’t have armrests. What To Focus On What signals can and should you trust when trying to get a “read” on someone? Specifics To Look For Tags:
Five Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning Voiceover: How will today’s children function in a dangerous world? What means will they use to carve the future? Will they be equipped to find the answers to tomorrow’s problems? Teacher: When you think about traditional learning you think of a student sitting in a classroom and being talked at. Teacher: Now I imagine a lot of you are still thinking... Teacher: They are supposed to be a sponge. Peggy Ertmer: So there are a lot of different ways to approach PBL, a lot of different ways to implement it, but really it all boils down to five essential keys: real-world connection, core to learning, structured collaboration, student driven, and multifaceted assessment. Student: One of the problems in the ocean is that with the higher amount of CO2 calcifying organisms are decreasing and we’re testing to see how well life in the ocean lives without calcifying organisms. Student: --four by eight feet. Peggy Ertmer: So the second commonality is the PBL unit provides academic rigor. Student: Yes.
Project-Based Learning Research: Evidence-Based Components of Success What boosts PBL from a fun and engaging exercise to a rigorous and powerful real-world learning experience? Researchers have identified four key components that are critical to teaching successfully with PBL (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Ertmer & Simons, 2005; Mergendoller & Thomas, 2005; Hung, 2008). All of these play a role in the curriculum-design process. Schools That Work: Every student at Maine's King Middle School is issued a laptop to support the school-wide project-based learning (left). Carefully Calibrated Project Design In general, PBL projects begin by presenting a driving question, one that focuses on intended learning objectives, aligns with students' skills, and appeals to students' interests. If you are new to PBL, it's best to start with smaller projects that are already part of the curriculum (Ertmer & Simons, 2005). Define the Content. Structured Student Collaboration Two ingredients are critical for successful collaborative learning (Slavin, 1991):
Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives By Maria Popova “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve,” Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: “Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…” Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) — an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.
How We Took Flipped PD From Concept to Reality Almost everyone has heard of the concept of flipped learning by now. The related concept of flipped PD has also been gaining traction in many PLN circles lately, but often without many supporting details. The intention of this article is to begin the process of adding those details, and to introduce a new iTunes U course designed to explain the concept of Flipped PD. Today’s schools are adapting at a rate never before experienced, and as a result, the need for professional development has never been greater. Our concept of flipped PD has evolved greatly since we began nearly two years ago. Teachers are professionals and therefore should be treated as such. What we have attempted to do is to change that old mind set of sitting and getting. I’m very fortunate to work with a group of educators who noticed that with the privilege of teaching 1:1, also came the responsibility to re-define teaching and learning not only for our students, but for the adults in school as well. Fred Z.
Time to Debunk Those PBL Myths What are the myths you hear most often about project-based learning? Here are some PBL misconceptions I encounter with surprising regularity: "Projects may be fun, but they'll never prepare students for ____ [fill in high-stakes test of your choice]" "If kids work in teams on projects, one or two will do all the work and the others will coast" "PBL won't work with my students because they are ____ [fill in the challenge of your choice]" "I'll never have time to cover all my content if I spend time on projects" "Projects just aren't rigorous" "Parents will wind up doing most of the work" "We can't do PBL because we don't have ____ [fill in the technology of your choice]" Once you start listening for PBL myths, you'll hear them in the most surprising places. During a long flight recently, I was reading to pass the time. If we dispel the myths, we can concentrate on helping teachers and students achieve the meaningful learning that's possible through high-quality PBL. Projects versus PBL
The Differences Between Projects And Project-Based Learning There’s a big difference between using projects in the classroom versus project-based learning in the classroom. What are those differences, you ask? Lucky for you, friEdTechnology (great name) whipped up this snazzy side-by-side comparison outlining the biggest differences. In the visual, they describe what ‘projects’ are and how they work in the classroom. On the flip side, Project-Based Learning is a fluid technique to enhance learning that really looks nothing like projects as they’re described below. As you can see, this is quite a slanted look at how projects are different from project-based learning but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Body language, not facial expressions, broadcasts what's happening to us If you think that you can judge by examining someone's facial expressions if he has just hit the jackpot in the lottery or lost everything in the stock market -- think again. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at New York University and Princeton University have discovered that -- despite what leading theoretical models and conventional wisdom might indicate -- it just doesn't work that way. Rather, they found that body language provides a better cue in trying to judge whether an observed subject has undergone strong positive or negative experiences. In a study published this week in the journal Science, the researchers present data showing that viewers in test groups were baffled when shown photographs of people who were undergoing real-life, highly intense positive and negative experiences. The study was led by Dr. In an additional study, Aviezer and his collaborators asked viewers to examine a more broad range of real-life intense faces.