http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/829279
Related: IBJourney: A Beautiful Wordless Story About the Power of the Imagination by Maria Popova Watercolors and whimsy for hearts of all ages. Journey (public library), the debut children’s book by illustrator Aaron Becker, is a charming and empowering wordless story about a lonely little girl who finds herself in an imaginary world and learns to bend it to her own imagination by drawing with a magical red marker. Partway between Alice in Wonderland and Little Boy Brown, between contemporary Disney movies and the ancient Arabian Nights, Becker’s breathtaking watercolors tickle those most timid parts of even our grown-up selves, the parts that still believe in magic, cherish wonderment, and long for the spirit of adventure.
The Best Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress (You might also be interested in The Best MATH Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress) I know “The Best…” list has a very awkward title, but I couldn’t think of a better one. In our Family Literacy Project we provide home computers and Internet access to immigrant families. What’s New in Evernote Web Clipper Capture articles to read later The Evernote Web Clipper will automatically detect the article on a page and create a beautiful rendering of it inside your Evernote account. You can expand or shrink the selection using the grab bars. Clip simplified articles
Creative Classroom Tools: genius hour After much research and planning, I am thrilled to introduce my 5th grade reading group to GENIUS HOUR! Genius Hour is a project-based learning activity that allows students to explore their own passions; it encourages creativity in the classroom and promotes inquiry, perseverance, problem solving, and innovation, among other lifelong skills. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. Introducing Genius Hour (Passion Based Inquiry Projects) October 3rd was our last #geniushour chat (click here to learn more about Genius Hour) on twitter. We had a fantastic conversation and some great ideas were shared. Since that chat (click here to see all archived chats), I have had a few more people ask me about how to introduce Genius Hour. So I thought I would compile a list of all the wonderful strategies that were discussed. Here it goes…
Using Gallery Walks for Revision and Reflection One of the Eight Essential Elements of Project Based Learning is Revision and Reflection. This important element enables learners to improve their work through the use of feedback from multiple sources – peers, teacher, and expert. However, giving and receiving feedback from others can be tricky. It can take time, and the giver might not know how to frame his or her feedback, both in terms of content and tone. 5 Terrific Web Tools to Create Academic Digital Portfolios January 5 , 2014 Digital portfolios are great ways for students to showcase their work and keep track of their learning. There are now a wide variety of web tools that allow users to easily create digital portfolios and share them with others. In a previous post here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning I featured a few of these tools and today I am adding more to this list. 1- Pathbrite
The Research Behind Choice and Inquiry-Based Education Updated: I’ve updated this post and page since publishing my most recent book about student choice. I’d love for you to add resources you’ve found in the comments section of this post so I can add them to the list! Since experimenting with “Genius Hour and 20% Time” in my class a few years ago, I’ve been fascinated by the research and history of this practice in education and the business world. This has led me down a long road to eventually writing Inquiry & Innovation in the Classroom (published by Routledge) on inquiry-driven education and choice-based learning experiences.
20 tips for putting Google's 20 percent time in your classroom 2 innovative educators share tons of tips for creating innovative, inquiry-based classrooms in only one day a week Originally pioneered at places like 3M and HP, Google’s vaunted 20 percent time, which lets employees spend a full one-fifth of their time on passion projects, has spawned everything from Gmail to Google News. Now it’s gaining ground among educators who are carving out a chunk of their already-limited time with students to work on innovative inquiry-based projects that resonate on a deeper, personal level. Why I Abandoned Genius Hour Genius hour is an amazing concept that children respond to because they get to learn about any topic they choose. I had a few rounds of Genius Hour last year and the kids thought it was awesome. On Fridays, the question was always, "Are we doing Genius Hour today?"
The Hexagon of Proof Following up on the work of Serra and De Villiers, and in the spirit of recent discussions about the success Bloom's Taxonomy has had in penetrating classrooms, I present the Hexagon of Proof. There are six components to the Hexagon of Proof. Learning is a messy affair that doesn't follow any sort of strict hierarchy, so a math classroom should involve all six of these aspects of proof. Still, if teachers find that their students are having trouble proving things in some area in math, students may benefit from time spent disagreeing over or debating some related mathematical propositions. The idea is that the reasons that are needed for proof can be developed through a variety of contexts that kids are more familiar with, such as arguing with each other over something controversial. Once a reason have been exposed, though, the reason can have a life of its own in a proof.
5 Fun Easter Activities for the Classroom - Australian Teachers Blog When in the classroom I love using Tony Ryan’s 'Thinkers Keys' as great way to encourage creativity, in both thoughts and production of content. As Easter approaches we thought it might be nice to highlight a few ‘Keys’ that encourage such creativity amongst students – and might inspire you to try a few of them in your classroom. Activity 1 - The B A R