What Makes Teachers Great, From The Perspective of a 10th Grader This article was written by Noa Gutow-Ellis, a high school sophomore in Houston, Texas. She’s passionate about all things related to the Arab Spring and 21st Century Education. As an 8th grader, Noa gave a TEDx talk about the power of social media. Everyone can think back to their years as a student and recall at least one teacher that stood out as a truly outstanding teacher. 1. Whether cheering for us on the field or applauding our curtain call, students appreciate teachers that show us they not only care about how we’re doing in their class, but out of it, too. 2. The best teachers are not always the ones teaching the core classes. 3. My 6th grade Life Science teacher was an incredible teacher. 4. I had an unforgettable teacher during my freshman year of high school. In the end, the best teachers aren’t always the ones doling out the best grades.
Fiona Got Her Voice Back….Twice! – IPAT ND Assistive Technology Blog Odds are that in your lifetime, if you do not need assistive technology (AT), someone you know and/or love will. The need for AT may be due to many different issues such as a repetitive stress injury, limited movement due to Multiple Sclerosis, injuries related to a severe car accident, or a memory loss due to dementia. Sometimes that need is only temporary, but it can make all of the difference in the world. Just ask Fiona! “My name is Fiona.
7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning Big Ideas Culture Teaching Strategies Flirck:WoodleyWonderworks Every educator wants to create an environment that will foster students’ love of learning. Because the criteria are intangible, it’s difficult to define or pinpoint exactly what they are. But one group is giving it a try. Researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the Innovative Learning Environments project to turn an academic lens on the project of identifying concrete traits that mark innovative learning environments. Their book, The Nature of Learning: Using Research to Inspire Practice and the accompanying practitioner’s guide, lay out the key principles for designing learning environments that will help students build skills useful in a world where jobs are increasingly information and knowledge-based. “Adaptive expertise tries to push beyond the idea of mastery,” said Jennifer Groff, an educational engineer and co-founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign. Related
29 Ways to Stay Creative Superhero designed by Moriah Rich from the Noun Project Being in the zone means that you’ve become so absorbed in the activity at hand that it’s impossible to concentrate on anything else. It’s when code seems to flow from your fingertips, when words seem to fly out of your pen, and when your stylus seems to take on a life of its own. But a common misconception about the zone is that it’s some some elusive, magical place. 1) Give a shit about what you’re doing. There are several factors that influence our ability to get into the zone, chief among which are focus, energy, no distractions and music. Read the rest of Rue’s blog post on how to remain in the zone here. Related: Not Too Hard, Not Too Easy: Finding Flow In Your Work
Reflective Teaching Questions: A Challenge For Teachers Reflective Teaching Questions: A 30-Day Blogging Challenge For Teachers by TeachThought Staff We’ve talked about “reflective teaching” before, and shared ways to be a more reflective teacher as well. Well, September is Reflective Teacher month at TeachThought, and in celebration some folks from our facebook team have created a blogging challenge for you to take, share with your colleagues, and use as reflective tools for growth. So, beginning September 1st, you’re on the clock. Details Blog for the 30 days of September, 2014, using the prompts below.We’ll share a handful of posts per day, but we can’t share them if you don’t send them to us–@teachthought! Day 1 Write your goals for the school year. Day 2 Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. Day 3 Discuss one “observation” area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation. Day 4 Respond: What do you love the most about teaching? Day 5 Day 6 Explain: What does a good mentor “do”? Day 7 Day 8
Schools: Faculty ASHA Schools Conference We handpicked speakers who are dedicated to supporting school-based SLPs. Read on to learn more about these dynamic presenters. Kenn Apel, PhD, CCC-SLP, is professor and chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He teaches in the area of school-age language development and disorders with a special emphasis on literacy skills. Financial Disclosures: Royalty, Learning By DesignSpeaker received financial compensation from ASHA for the contents of this presentation. Nonfinancial Disclosures: None Heather Bupp, JD, is ASHA's director of ethics and ex officio to the Board of Ethics. Heather is a 1990 graduate of Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, DC, where she has been adjunct faculty for many years. ASHA staff ASHA Board of Ethics ex officio Laura Young-Campbell, MS, CCC-SLP, is a Fellow of ASHA and the coordinator for the Special Interest Group on school-based issues (SIG 16).
Study Shows How Classroom Design Affects Student Learning As debate over education reform sizzles, and as teachers valiantly continue trying to do more with less, a new study suggests that it might be worth diverting at least a little attention from what’s going on in classrooms to how those spaces are being designed. The paper, published in the journal Building and the Environment, found that classroom design could be attributed to a 25% impact, positive or negative, on a student’s progress over the course of an academic year. The difference between the best- and worst-designed classrooms covered in the study? The study was conducted over the 2011–12 academic year, with 751 students in 34 classrooms, spread across seven primary schools in the seaside town of Blackpool, England. So what did they find? Read more here. [Hat tip: Wired] [Image: Brain and Board via Shutterstock]
Second Half Survival: 4 Tips to Get You from January to June We have entered the second half of the school year, and many of you are probably surprised that you've made it this far without killing someone. Those are very natural feelings, but you might not be able to last the rest of the school year if that's where your mind is at the moment. After ten years in the classroom, I've put together what I think are some excellent tips for making it through the second half of the school year in one piece -- and not in jail. See which of these strategies can make the next six months a piece of cake in your classroom. 1. This may one of the hardest things you can ask yourself to do. 2. For some reason, asking for help is viewed as a sign of weakness or ineptitude. 3. Sometimes we keep frustrations and fears bottled up and then ruin an entire summer break trying to deal with them. 4. One of the best things I've ever done is reflect on my teaching on a regular basis.
What makes great teaching? – expert views | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional Popular teaching methods, such as lavishing praise on pupils and grouping students by ability, are not based on evidence and can harm student development, a report has found. The Sutton Trust examined 200 pieces of research on what makes great teaching, concluding that some common practices have no grounding in research while other less popular approaches can be effective. The report found that the two most important elements of great teaching were the quality of instruction and how well a teacher knew their subject. Different methods for evaluating teaching were also examined, including lesson observations and getting students to rate their teachers. Let’s praise children – low self belief is a cancer in the classroom The report has some excellent advice for teachers as they continue on that never-ending journey of professional development. Low self-belief is like a cancer in the classroom; if left unchallenged it will grow until it seems almost incurable.
Frequently Asked Questions about Augmentative and Alternative Communication What is AAC? AAC stands for "Augmentative and Alternative Communication." AAC is used by people who some of the time or all of the time cannot rely on their speech. For example, a child who has not yet developed understandable speech might use a speech output device to produce words. But, as his speech becomes clearer, he may only need to use this device in some situations. AAC defined: The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines AAC as an area of clinical practice that attempts to compensate (either temporarily or permanently) for the impairment and disability patterns of individuals with severe expressive communication disorders (i.e., the severe impairments in speech-language, reading and writing). Are there prerequisites to use AAC? There are no prerequisites to use AAC. For more information: How does my child's cognitive age relate to his/her learning to communicate? What is meant by aided versus unaided forms of communication? For more information: Not necessarily.
20 Tips To Promote A Self-Directed Classroom Culture 20 Tips To Promote A Self-Directed Classroom Culture It’s an age-old saying, “Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.” What separates good teachers from the excellent ones? So how do you cultivate a culture of “I can…” in your classroom? 1. The more I study education and psychology, the more convinced I become that failure is one of the most important tools for learning. Failure can be the doorway to great accidental inventions. 2. Curiosity is what propels a young child to venture away from the safety of his/her mother to explore the environment. 3. Students who have a platform and a voice feel more empowered than those that don’t. Teaching students how to disagree and debate respectfully helps them to develop their own internal voice – something that is crucial when there aren’t hordes of people patting you on the back later in life. 4. Terry Heick writes about the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Be Friends with Failure Sources cited! I discovered the baby concept on AJATT.com– a blog devoted to language acquisition. Check it out! Would you like to have this comic as a 18 by 24 inch poster? CLICK HERE! Put it on your wall to remind yourself that it’s a healthy and natural thing to make mistakes.