Connexions - Sharing Knowledge and Building Communities Toolkit Essential Questions These are questions which touch our hearts and souls. They are central to our lives. They help to define what it means to be human. Most important thought during our lives will center on such essential questions. What does it mean to be a good friend? If we were to draw a cluster diagram of the Questioning Toolkit, Essential Questions would be at the center of all the other types of questions. All the other questions and questioning skills serve the purpose of "casting light upon" or illuminating Essential Questions. Most Essential Questions are interdisciplinary in nature. Essential Questions probe the deepest issues confronting us . . . complex and baffling matters which elude simple answers: Life - Death - Marriage - Identity - Purpose - Betrayal - Honor - Integrity - Courage - Temptation - Faith - Leadership - Addiction - Invention - Inspiration. Essential Questions are at the heart of the search for Truth. Essential Questions offer the organizing focus for a unit.
How to Get Hesitant Teachers to Use Technology In my consulting as well as administrative technology work, I am often asked the same questions by different schools and officials. One of the most common is: “How do you get teachers who are hesitant or resistant to use technology?” I am keenly aware that many of my colleagues are not, for various reasons, gung ho about educational technology. And it’s interesting. Quite often, the teachers who are hesitant to adopt new technology are great — in fact, amazing — educators. In my role as tech advocate, I habitually find myself trying to coax these established educators to use new tools and incorporate new methodologies. 1. If you’re working with veteran educators, this is especially important. Instead, try this: observe what they do in the classroom that’s made them successful and build out from there. 2. If teachers express a want or need for technology in the classroom (a particular browser, program, hardware, etc.) accommodate them! 3. 4. Teachers are not done at three o’clock. 5. 6.
Free. Open-source. Peer-reviewed. High-quality textbooks for your college course. - OpenStax College Free. Open-source. Peer-reviewed. High-quality textbooks for your college course. An Easy Choice for Faculty Built to standards that faculty expect. Learn More >> The Right Price for Students The perfect price for a student budget: free. Learn More >> An Institutional Standout Looking for ways to make your institution stand out as an affordable alternative? Learn More >> 6 Great Videos on Teaching Critical Thinking Critical thinking is a skill that we can teach to our students through exercise and practice. It is particularly a skill that contains a plethora of other skills inside it. Critical thinking in its basic definition refers" to a diverse range of intellectual skills and activities concerned with evaluating information as well as evaluating our thought in a disciplined way ". Critical thinking is part and parcel of what is called critical theory and hence critical literacy. 1- A Quick Guide to 21st Century Critical Thinking Skills for Teachers2- What Does Critical Thinking Mean in Education3- Great Critical Thinking Poster for your Class4- 7 Great iPad Apps to Improve Kids Critical Thinking5- A Clever Tip to Easily Develop Students Critical Thinking What we have for you today is a great series of videos on critical thinking. 1- Critical Thinking Part 1: A Valuable Argument 2- Critical Thinking Part 2 : Broken Logic 3- Critical Thinking Part 3 : The Man who was Made of Straw
A Must Have Checklist for Teaching with Technology So you decided to give technology much more room in your teaching this year. Well, we are glad you decided to do so and we are even happier to offer you help ( for free ) to better integrate it into your classroom instruction. In fact no two wise educators would ever argue over the importance of technology in education, but the how, when and why(s) of such use is where views differ and discussions heat up. Technology does not offer ready made recipes for teachers to use with their students. Below is a great flow chart created by Sue Leon Jones ( I found it through Shelly Terrell ) that will be of great help to you when using technology in your classroom. Click on the image to access the original checklist Free ebooks - Project Gutenberg 10 Interactive Lessons By Google On Digital Citizenship 10 Interactive Lessons By Google On Digital Citizenship Added by Jeff Dunn on 2012-07-22 YouTube has a firm place in the current classroom. From Khan Academy’s videos to YouTube EDU and beyond, there’s a reason all these videos are finding a home in schools. In an effort to help keep the ball rolling, Google just launched a set of 10 interactive lessons designed to support teachers in educating students on digital citizenship. Google (which owns YouTube) built the lessons to educate students about YouTube’s policies, how to flag content, how to be a safer online citizen, and protect their identities. Below is a list of lessons, and the recommended flow for delivery. Or you can download the Full Teacher’s Guide or the Full Set of Slides in PDF . The killer feature for this curriculum is the extra features that come with each video. Category: Videos Tags: digital citizenship , guide , How To , presentations , Videos You may also like Second Grader Shows How She Uses Evernote For Fluency 4 Comments
12 Things You Should Never Do When You Teach Online 453 Flares Twitter 133 Facebook 249 Google+ 36 LinkedIn 35 inShare35 453 Flares × You are never alone when teaching online. As a writer and teacher, I’m here to share my experiences and insights so that you will not hit the ground. We all know there are a lot of great articles out there on the web that talk about what you should do when you teach online. Here are 12 things I recommend that online teachers do not do: 1. There are a number of things folks need to know when they log-in to your online course for the first time. Sometimes getting this information out of an online classroom is like running an obstacle course. 2. Learning assessments, however they are put together, need to be relevant to the material at hand, and they need to move the learning process forward. About 100 years ago when I was doing my masters in higher education, I took a course from the test construction Prof in my department. 3. But you don’t have to go to extremes to kill enthusiasm for your online course. 4.
160 Free Textbooks: A Meta Collection Free textbooks (aka open textbooks) written by knowledgable scholars are a relatively new phenomenon. Below, find a meta list of 200 Free Textbooks, and check back often for new additions. Also see our online collection, 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. Art History A Textbook of the History of Painting by John Charles Van Dyke, Rutgers Biology Anatomy and Physiology – Edited by various profs at OpenStaxBiology – Edited by various profs at OpenStaxBiology Pages, John W. Business and Management Business Ethics by Jose A. Chemistry Chemistry, Grades 10-12, Created by the FHSST Project (Free High School Science Texts)Chemistry Virtual Textbooks by Stephen Lower, Simon Fraser UniversityCK-12 Chemistry (Grades 9-12) by multiple authors. Classics Computer Science & Information Systems Earth Science CK-12 Earth Science for Middle School by multiple authors.Earth Systems, an Earth Science Course (Grades 9-10). Economics & Finance Education Electrical Engineering Engineering History Languages
S.O.S. for Information Literacy