Raising a Moral Child Photo What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example, research suggests that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and become more motivated. Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority for most parents. Despite the significance that it holds in our lives, teaching children to care about others is no simple task. Are some children simply good-natured — or not? Genetic twin studies suggest that anywhere from a quarter to more than half of our propensity to be giving and caring is inherited. By age 2, children experience some moral emotions — feelings triggered by right and wrong. Many parents believe it’s important to compliment the behavior, not the child — that way, the child learns to repeat the behavior. But is that the right approach? Continue reading the main story
12 questions for the 21st century SmartBlogs The global village and the flattened world are no longer the arcane ideas or metaphors of academics and scholars. Nor is global warming an invention of ideologists with a political agenda. They are as real as the security guards in our schools and the poverty that stalks too many children in the world. As our climate changes and borders and boundaries of all kinds blur, I offer the following questions to help educators ground the coming year with a renewed sense of resolve and hopefulness. And above all, the conviction that we are all global citizens of a crowded planet requiring all the goodness, understanding and stewardship we can generate. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. There are no right answers here. David Penberg is an urban and international educational leader.
RSCON 2014 We hope you were inspired by the Reform Symposium Free Online Conference (RSCON) events that took place July 10-13th. The online global event featured 50+ presentations, 11 keynote speakers, 3 panel discussions, and a tech/app swapalooza. Our plenary, Dean Shareski, began the conference by challenging us to spread joy in our practice. Our keynotes came from 9 countries and our presenters from over 15 countries. Topics included mobile learning, gamification, differentiation, writing web tools, passion based learning, maker education, teaching english language learners, demand high teaching, Chess, puppets, Minecraft, digital portfolios, and much more! Two of our keynotes were students who started their own companies and one of our presenters was a 10 year-old Youtuber who walked us through machinima and Mindcraft. If you missed any of the sessions, find all the recordings here, Here is important information: Thank you for attending!
Teaching Presentation Skills with Ignite I know that, in my project-based learning classroom, students did presentations all the time for a variety of purposes. One of the key components of a PBL project is the 21st-century skill of presentation or communication. We know that this presentation can take on any number of shapes, from something formal to a podcast or even a poster session. Ignite is a specific genre of presentation. Ignite is similar to PechaKucha, where you have 20 slides that change every 20 seconds. Final Product An Ignite session can be a great final product for a PBL project or another unit of instruction. Practice and Scaffolding Although you might demand a more lengthy or formal presentation as a final product, an Ignite presentation can serve as a great scaffolding tool. Teaching Instead of droning on with lengthy lectures, as a teacher you can use Ignite presentations to get important content or skills across to students. Ignite can be a great presentation tool to support your classroom and students.
I ordered a Double Double, and I received an Experience | Pam Ross I was in a bad mood. My infant son was sick, I wasn’t feeling well, and I was trying to juggle the regular day-to-day activities (work and personal). I decided to go through the Tim Hortons drive-thru for some salvation…a double double, hot coffee hug. Little did I know, I was going to receive more than my usual customer service experience. I admit that I have certain expectations and compromises when I order through ANY drive-thru. My expectations are as follows: - Reasonably fresh food.- Beverages are hot or cold (as intended) not room temperature. - Customer service is fast, and acceptable.- The order that I receive is the order that I placed – at least 90% of the time. My compromises are as follows: - Sometimes you get the older fries that taste like cardboard. - Sometimes customer service is less than acceptable. - The server can’t hear me. - I can’t hear the server. - I may drive away with an order that was meant for the next car. I had an experience that day.
20 Innovative Education Technology Pinterest Boards Pinterest and education go hand in hand. If you haven’t started using the popular social bookmarking site, you may want to give it a try during your break this week. What better time to discover new and exciting resources from teachers, admins, and students around the world? See Also: The 20 Best Pinterest Boards About Education Technology We try to keep a regular flow of Pinterest boards on Edudemic. Below is a list of all the education technology boards submitted to Edudemic over the past few months. Want to add your Pinterest board to the list? Don’t forget to check out the Edudemic Pinterest boards where you can keep track of all the stuff we’re up to. The 20+ Education Technology Pinterest Boards I thought it might be fun to take a screenshot of what some of the boards look like at the time of this writing. (Click the title or image to view that particular Pinterest board) F-I-T In Class Stanford EdTech Maintained by the Office of Innovation & Technology. Alan Natachu Fiske Class
Lean In | Bailey & Derek's Daddy “We also need to keep in mind that schools serve a need other than learning.” Peter DeWitt If we truly believe this do our actions reflect this belief? Or like a bumper sticker, is this one of those mantras that we claim is important to us, yet always remains in the rear? I do not know the answer to these questions, but I do know that in our attempt to make our schools a better place, we have become so focused on the what that we have begun to neglect the who. And while the what is important, it should never take precedence over the who. We have forgotten how to be close. We have stopped leaning in. And in our effort to better connect, we are not connecting. We can communicate with our students via Skype, Google Hangouts, Voxer, etc. Lean in! Are most of our interactions with staff about instruction and data and teaching? When we meet with parents are we telling them about their child or are we trying to learn more about their child? Do we keep our distance because we are afraid? Like this:
Best of 2012: Visionaries, Organizations, and Innovations Changing the Way We Learn | Education on GOOD In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson took the TED stage and delivered what is now the most viewed TED talk of all times. With wit and humor, and in less than 20 minutes, he dissected the modern educational structure, and asked a question few have dared to ask: Are schools killing our dreams? He argued that creativity needs to be instilled in education, and with that, sparked a movement. Four years later, he returned to the TED stage, this time with a new question around human potential. As we're nearing the year's end, let us celebrate the visions, organizations, schools, and people who are on a mission to update our educational architectures. 1. "Our goal was to give the best teachers in the world a voice and a platform" said Marc Mertens, CEO of Seso, the design firm that collaborated on the development of TED-Ed. 2. "We're building a model of hybrid learning where offline, collaborative project work complements online learning. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Illustration by Corinna Loo
Teaching versus Learning Let's take a walk down memory lane...During my fourth year teaching I remember sitting in a MEAP debriefing meeting with my fellow fifth grade teachers. I sat at the table and we went through the entire item analysis. It was a tedious process that was designed to have us adjust what we were doing in the classroom. What I reflectively remember is the conversations. I remember our principal sharing what areas we did not do well. I remember saying, "I taught that!" Truthfully, we could not have been more wrong. First, the old school approach: I must cover everything! This week's big idea is focusing on student learning. First, I hope you watched Becky DeFour, if you didn't please check it out. Second, are you a lone ranger or a team player? Third, let's state the obvious: EVERY STUDENT CAN SUCCEED! - 80% or more of your students must learn through Tier 1 General Ed. - Our intervention groups must only be focused on ESSENTIAL STANDARDS, with no more than five students per class.
only me lol jah live jah live These Tween Girls Created An Android App For The Blind A group of six grade school girls in Los Fresnos, Texas took it upon themselves to solve a problem for blind kids. They built an app for them. The app, Hello Navi, first came from the imagination of a particular girl in the group, Grecia Cano. She says her heart went out to the blind students in her school who had a hard time figuring out how to get around. The girls 6th grade science teacher, Maggie Bolado was inspired to get the girls involved in building the app after seeing a tweet from the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. She says she simply asked which students were interested in learning how to build an app and these six girls came forward. The challenge invited the interest of over 1200 applicants, but it turns out navigation for the blind was a winning idea. The girls didn’t have any coding experience themselves so a group of programmers from the MIT Media Lab helped the girls put the app together. Hello Navi unnamed-4 unnamed-2 unnamed-3 unnamed-5
me and Leah me and my golden girl Leonie