The Best Posts On The Gates’ Funded Measures Of Effective Teaching Report The Gates’ funded Measures Of Effective Teaching released their latest studies today. There have been a few posts about it, and I’m sure there will be many more. I thought I’d get a hard start on collecting them in one “The Best…” list. Here are my picks for The Best Posts On The Gates’ Funded Measures Of Effective Teaching Report: Gates Foundation study paints bleak picture of teaching quality is from Gotham Schools. (thanks to Alexander Russo for the tip) Fire first, ask questions later? I’ve written two posts: Gates Just Releases Big Teacher Evaluation Report Great Response To Gates Report From Randi Weingarten How the Gates Foundation Spins its Research is by Jay Greene. Why Reformers Misunderstand Their Own Research is by John Thompson. This Post By John Thompson On Gates Is Candidate For Best Ed Policy Commentary Of The Year Guest Post: Here’s What Was Missing From The Wall Street Journal’s Column On Teacher Evaluation Feedback is always welcome.
Three Steps to Layering the Curriculum « How the Brain Learns: The Blog Layering the curriculum is a simple way to differentiate instruction, encourage higher-level thinking, prepare students for adult-world decision making and hold them accountable for learning. Any lesson plan can be converted into a layered unit with three easy steps (Nunley, 2004, 2006). Step One: Add some choice. Take your teaching objectives and offer two or three assignment choices as to how students can learn those objectives. Step Two: Hold students accountable for learning. A key to layering the curriculum is to award grade points for the actual learning of the objective rather than the assignment that was chosen for the learning.For example, if our objective is that students learn how to determine the area of a triangle, then points are awarded for the assignment based on whether or not the student can do that. Step Three: Encourage higher-level thinking. The C layer consists of all the objectives that have to do with the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. References: Like this:
12 Ways Teachers Are Right. The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have 34.43K Views 0 Likes In order to implement modern technology in your classroom, you better know about the important skills modern teachers must have in order to succeed. 2 Simple Ways To Use QR Codes In Education 7.84K Views 0 Likes If you have a smartphone in your classroom, you can leverage the power of the QR code! Rhee Finances One problem with the education "reform" industry is not merely that it generally looks at "education" as though it were a commodity, like soybeans, and that the problems with how we educate a great many children of our fellow citizens can be solved if we just refine the delivery systems for the product. In other words, most education "reform" proponents treat "education" as though it exists in a vacuum unaffected by the factors — like, say, joblessness and poverty — in the real world outside the classroom. (How many prominent school "reformers" have stepped up and said anything about the increasingly effective campaign by the NRA to arm public school teachers? Thought so.) Thus do we come to the second problem with the education "reform" movement — it is shot through root and branch with patent-medicine remedies pitched by for-profit grifters and hustlers. They have their own genre of richly financed propaganda, like 2010's Waiting for Superman and this year's Won't Back Down.
Video Resources for PBL and Deeper Learning I am excited to announce that Envision Schools is now Envision Education. Envision Education encompasses our schools division, with our four high-performing college prep schools in the Bay Area, as well as our consulting division, Envision Learning Partners, which is bringing professional development and coaching to schools and districts around the country. These two divisions support and are accountable to each other, and together work toward our mission of making college attendance and success a reality for students. Envision Education is now better positioned to transform the lives of students everywhere and to ensure that we are sending graduates to college prepared for that challenge. As we prepare to celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2013, we are reflecting on all of Envision's accomplishments over the last decade. I thought it would be fun to highlight a collection of videos that show our model over the last ten years. Video #1: The Four C's: Making 21st Century Education Happen
2iswgnm.jpg 615×430 pixels Tennessee lawmaker wants to tie welfare benefits to good grades A Tennessee lawmaker is pushing a controversial new bill that would tie welfare benefits to students' performance in school. Republican state Sen. Stacey Campfield last week introduced the legislation, which calls for the state to cut welfare benefits to parents whose kids don't do well in class. Critics are already panning the proposal as unfair, and one that could hurt students in the end -- but Campfield is defending his idea, which he says would force parents to take a more active role in their children’s education “We’re not asking children to re-write the Magna Carta,” Campfield told FoxNews.com Monday. But state Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the bill would “stack the deck against at-risk children.” “How does Sen. Currently, parents of children who receive welfare benefits through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program can see their benefits cut by 20 percent if their child doesn't show up for school.
Learning to learn: 10 essential skills for teachers! August 19, 2012 by NovaNews Learning to learn – an interesting phrase which holds an interesting thought, don’t you think? They are words that popped into my mind just now when I was reading the words of another: Leo Babauta: 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn. I found my thoughts getting mixed up though with the words of a colleague who had just posted a reflective comment. to successfully engage with an audience it’s necessary to feel passionate about the subject.” I admit to being taken aback a little. Is this a case of presuming that everyone thinks like me? So when I was reading the post about essential skills that kids should learn, my mind kept flicking to a list of essential techniques and skills needed by teachers to successfully teach. Passion: To successfully impart knowledge or light the flame of inspiration in students, teachers just have to feel passionate about the subject matter they are teaching. Teaching is an all-encompassing occupation. Like this: Like Loading...
Innovation – The Leadership Soft Skills | KaurSkills A summary of the role of leadership and soft skills in innovation. ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.’ - Lao Tzu There are a lot of blogs and worthy peer journals, sharing the importance of innovation in business success and survival. We all agree innovation is important, but how do we nurture innovation, as something which is integral to business process, and creates value within an organisation? Exceptional leaders and authors highlight the importance of ‘soft’ skills for successful management and leadership. Just recently, Tom Peters tweeted: ‘So called “soft” people skills drive implementation. In management practice you could: (a) Ignore soft skills or give credence to ‘soft’ skills, as a key factor to nurturing performance, teamwork, in creativity and ultimate innovation; (c) Prioritise performance targets, financial measures and delivery of products and services. Like this: Like Loading...
Don't Call Them Textbooks - Technology By Jeffrey R. Young Textbook publishers argue that their newest digital products shouldn't even be called "textbooks." They're really software programs built to deliver a mix of text, videos, and homework assignments. But delivering them is just the beginning. One publisher calls its products "personalized learning experiences," another "courseware," and one insists on using its own brand name, "MindTap." "In the early days of TV, the first things you saw on TV were radio shows, and only over time did the next format evolve for that medium," says Don Kilburn, chief executive of Pearson Learning Solutions. Major publishers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years buying up software companies and building new digital divisions, betting that the future will bring an expanded role for publishers in higher education. So far publishers produce only a limited number of titles in these born-digital formats, and the number of professors assigning them is relatively small.
A Powerful App For Every Level Of Bloom's Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy has been steadily increasing its presence in my everyday reads lately. The revised version is really speaking to a lot of educators who are using it – often in concert with a variety of technologies – to address the different levels of educational objectives. (Note: If you need a quick refresher on the basics of Bloom’s Taxonomy, check out this post). Using Apps There are a ton of apps out there that address different ideas in the Bloom’s Taxonomy hierarchy. Remembering Apps that fit into the ‘remembering’ bucket include those that improve a student’s ability to identify and recall facts, define terms and concepts, and locate information. Screen Chomp is a free app that is a basic doodling board with markers. Understanding The ‘understanding’ bucket should be filled with apps that allow students to explain concepts and ideas that they have come to understand. Applying SimpleMind is mind mapping app that students (and teachers!) Analyzing Evaluating Creating
If school isn't for collaborating, why does anyone come? If your school, and your school day, is not about students collaborating, connecting, and building knowledge and understandings together, why would anyone come? Serious question. If students want to learn in isolation; if they want to sit at a desk and work on their own stuff, occasionally checking in with an "expert," they have no reason to come to school. They can do a lot better at home, or at their local coffee shop or even the public library, where both the coffee and the WiFi connection will be better. Actually, this isn't new for most students. For years we've talked about (or we may have even been) kids who've only come to school because of team sports, or music groups, or theatre, or even hanging out at lunch. But today, far more classrooms, far more school schedules, far more assessment systems, and far, far more assignments, mimic the office in the picture above. It really doesn't matter what a company makes or does any more. No wonder nobody wants to come. 1. 2. 3. 4.