The Art of Teaching Science If only teaching K-12 science was itself a science – assess student knowledge deficits and remedy them. This “knowledge deficit” model has been shown ineffective time and again. Most teachers already know that; it’s why they work so hard to develop lesson plans and activities tailored to their students. So here’s a new tool for any teacher who’s spent evenings and weekends trying to find a lesson that’s the perfect fit for their class: it’s called MOSART, brought to you by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Teachers know that students don’t arrive in class as blank slates, and research on students’ prior knowledge in a variety of subjects is available in the academic literature. MOSART’s multiple choice tests offer five options that are each based on cognitive science: “many items require a choice between accepted scientific concepts and misconceptions that have been well documented in the science education literature.”
The Best Educational Tool I Have In My Classroom We spend hours and hours in search of the latest, greatest, and best educational tools to help our kids. Parents are always wanting to know what they can do to help their child get ahead in the classroom. I often sit in I.E.P. meetings and/or conferences and parents ask about which website or app I recommend. I love telling them that the answer to their quest is already in their home, books . Teachers are constantly looking for the best instructional strategies to employ in their classroom. The truth is, the single greatest educational tool that we all have is simply to read aloud with our children. “What we make children love and desire is a whole lot more important than what we make them learn in the classroom. In the well known 1985 study, Becoming a Nation of Readers, it was concluded: In its wording—“the single most important activity”—the experts were saying reading aloud was more important than worksheets, homework, assessments, book reports, and flashcards.
27 Ways To Make Sure Students Pay Attention In Class Keeping the attention of your students is not easy. If you’re still in school right now (mid-June) then you know it’s downright impossible. But what if you turned the tables a bit? The always amazing Mia from An Ethical Island assembled these couple dozen ways to keep students from daydreaming or simply not paying attention. What are some of the ways you keep student minds from wandering? Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a lofty dream.. My Edmodo Journey | SteveColebourne I decided early this year to try using Edmodo with a class. I had met three VLEs during my PGCE, and I considered Edmodo to be the best fit for what I wanted. Edmodo, in my opinion, is nearly perfect for use in the classroom. It’s free, is easy to set up, and easy to use. The students can use it intuitively, as can staff. I gathered support from management and from colleagues and we decided to try a couple of terms initially, with my Year 10 Higher Maths group. My first worry was that I wouldn’t get a critical mass of students that were interested and the experiment would fail before it had even started. Over the course of the year, Edmodo has supported us to: Based on that list, I would say that my experiment has been a success, and I am pleased with the different ways in which we have used Edmodo, but that list doesn’t tell the whole story. From Christmas onwards, we had two 5-week terms, and I found that these terms passed me by before I had even noticed they’d taken place.
Why Stephen King Spends 'Months and Even Years' Writing Opening Sentences - Joe Fassler The author of horror classics like The Shining and its 2013 sequel Doctor Sleep says the best writers hook their readers with voice, not just action. By Heart is a series in which authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature. Doug McLean Stephen King brings us two new novels in 2013 -- one on shelves already, and the other forthcoming. In June, Joyland was published by Hard Case Crime, an imprint showcasing classic and contemporary crime writers in paperback editions dressed up like vintage pulps: Stylized covers feature ominous taglines, brooding private dicks, and draped-out femme fatales. Though Joyland's story is haunted by a terrifying killer of young women, the book mostly chronicles the yearning rhythms of one adolescent summer -- carny talk and plushie toys, boardwalks and broken hearts. King's second book, Doctor Sleep, which will be published in September by Scribner, is everything Joyland isn't. But there's one thing I'm sure about.
2013 Hottest E-Learning Trends Advances in technology generally define the latest trends in any industry, and the elearning industry is no different. New devices and APIs are shaping the present and future of how organizations administer and record learning. In 2013, we are starting to see how the latest technologies are making their way into formal learning delivery. The infographic below, provided by KnowledgeOne, details some of the latest and emerging trends in 2013 as they relate to elearning. Gamification - This is arguably one the most exciting developments. It will be fascinating to see where we are at the end of the year and heading into 2014. Justin Ferriman is the Founder of LearnDash, a WordPress based LMS and Learning Strategy provider.
iPads in the classroom: embedding technology in the primary curriculum | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional Last year David Andrews wrote for us about how he was using one-to-one devices in the classroom in the hugely popular blog post: An Apple for the teacher: are iPads the future in class? Here, he updates us on his progress and shares some of his favourite technology-led learning ideas. Since the start of September 2012 myself and a colleague, Chris Williams, have been trying to maximise the use of handheld technology (iPads and iPods) in year 6 in all areas of the curriculum. The potential for enhancing teaching and learning through technology has been particularly interesting: we've developed a range of apps using both iPads and iPods to engage, motivate and inspire pupils' learning in the classroom. The school's 'Apple journey' began in June 2012. Once the year 6 SATs were finished, we gave both our year 6 classes a two-week project to build a controllable vehicle. Allowing the children to work in this manner shifted the learning from teacher-centred to child-centred.
Using digital media to enhance educational transfer SmartBlogs Educational transfer is the point of education, right? If students can’t use what we’ve taught them in new, real-life situations, then we end up with students who are good at school and bad at life. Recent research from National Academies Press reminds us that one of the best ways to promote transfer is to balance students’ cognitive load while they consume or create multimedia. Every time students are presented with a new idea or situation, the following three processes happen simultaneously: Extraneous processing — This type of processing handles all of the “extra stuff” that occurs within a situation. In today’s digitally enhanced world, we often ask students to create or consume something rooted in multimedia. Check out this awesome chart from National Academies Press that summarizes 12 simple, research-based strategies for multimedia design. 1. 2. 3.
8 Tips to Power-Up Your Classroom Presentations Last month, I attended a Back to School Night for parents, sitting through presentation after presentation by teachers, some with slides that helped make their presentation a delight to listen to, and others . . . well, that's why I'm writing this blog post. The goal of a classroom presentation is to aid you in effectively conveying information in a way that allows students (or their parents) to remember what you said. Unfortunately, for some, the presentation becomes a crutch, and they begin to rely on the slides to tell their story, rather than to help them tell the story. I've been creating presentations using software like PowerPoint and KeyNote for 20 years, and I've learned a lot about how to most effectively communicate. 1. It's a common myth that better presentations use fewer slides. The number of slides in your presentation is irrelevant. In the movie Amadeus, the Emperor of Austria complains to Mozart that his music has "too many notes." Figure 1. 2. Figure 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: The 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher should Have By EdTech Team Updated on march 2, 2015 : The original list that was created in 2011 comprised 33 skills , after reviewing it we decided to do some merging and finally ended up with the 20 skills below. The 21st century teacher should be able to : 1- Create and edit digital audio Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Free Audio Tools for Teachers 2- Use Social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : A List of Best Bookmarking Websites for Teachers 3- Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill : Great Tools to Create Protected Blogs and Webpages for your Class 4- Exploit digital images for classroom use Here are some tools for teachers to develop this skill :Web Tools to Edit Pictures without Installing any softwareTools to Convert Photos into Cartoons
30+ Open Wikis Every Educator Should Know About How Students Benefit From Using Social Media 12.65K Views 0 Likes A lot of criticism has been leveled at social media and the effect it has on the way students process and retain information, as well as how distracting it can be. However, social media offers plenty of opportunities for learning and interactivity, and if you take a moment to think about it, it's not too hard to see how students benefit from using social media. 3 Tech Tips Your Grandma Could Teach You 2.02K Views 0 Likes Those who have been using technology, in some form, have a few tech tips you should know about.