Three Ways We Can All Become Better Teachers
When we think of a teacher, we often think of our childhoods and desks, and the person at the head of the classroom. But in many ways all of us are teachers in so many aspects of everyday life. Whenever we want to educate someone about something, or help them understand our perspective or point of view, drawing from the craft of teaching can be helpful. In Building a Better Teacher, Elizabeth Green draws upon years of interviews and research as an education writer and CEO of Chalkbeat to make the case for why teaching is a craft and that it can be taught to anyone. First, recognize there are no “natural born” teachers Elizabeth writes: “Even those charged with training teachers—the ones who, by definition, should believe teaching can be taught—believe the natural-born-teacher narrative.” Next, focus on a “learning culture” rather than any “best practice” The way to get better may stem from the Japanese concept of jugyokenkyu – or the constant process of trial, error, and improvement.
21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning
Welcome to this first in a series of PBL Mania Posts. For the next few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning by hosting a webinar at Edtech Leaders Online, and by presenting a PBL session at the NICE Conference in Chicago. In this post I will introduce you to some awesome places on the web containing some of the very best PBL resources. Before reading, please take a moment to subscribe to this 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. You will not want to miss this series or future posts involving STEM, Flipping the Classroom, Technology Integration, Common Core, and 21st Century Skills, So Sign Up Now! Welcome to the land of PBL knowledge. BIE – BUCK Institute BIE – Also known as the BUCK Institute for Learning. BIE Videos – What Is PBL Video – A great collection of videos that demonstrate PBL and its best practices. BIE FreeBies – What a wonderful collection of documents perfect for PBL. West Virginia Teach 21 PBL Learning Reviews
10 Important Skills Students need for the Future
The future. What do our students really need to know and be able to do to succeed in future education and careers? Content is a part of what they need to know. Standardized tests test content knowledge and some skills. There are huge debates raging over standardized testing, curriculum, and the like. But what it is that students really need to know for the future. Content is important to a point. I learned many of these skills in college because even 20 years ago, my school, WPI, understood these ideas. Research by the Institute for the Future released in a report entitled “Future Work Skills 2020″ shows that preparing for a specific career area based on content is difficult and, instead, people should be developing certain broad skills. Here are the skills: Sense-making. Social intelligence. Novel and adaptive thinking. Cross-cultural competency. Computational thinking. New-media literacy. Transdisciplinarity. Cognitive load management. Virtual collaboration.
The state of education innovation in 2015 and where we go from here. — The Future of School
The Atlantic’s Adrienne LaFrance was right about how the real 2015 compares to the one in Back to the Future II. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale got a lot right given they were guessing 26 years out. LaFrance concludes that in many ways, reality is actually further along than the predictions. That’s not the case in education. Reality’s way behind the dream. I want to feel the way Adrienne did. A year ago, I threw out Four Frighteningly Ambitious Education Experiments I thought we’d see in 2014. Maybe looking back at what did and didn’t happen can help us understand where we go from here. Proposed Experiment 1: Set up skunkworks in “No Excuses” charter schools. Most “No excuses” schools are public charter schools that focus on accepting no excuses for getting every kid into college. So why aren’t we asking successful schools like these to do more aggressive research on what’s next? The state of applied R&D in education today: Bright spots: Where we go from here: But what about a parent?
Teach For Canada: A recipe for making education in Canada more (un)equal? | Tobey Steeves
Teach For Canada: A recipe for making education in Canada more (un)equal? Tobey Steeves Few would argue with the belief that federal and provincial education policies should ensure that vulnerable communities have access to well-resourced and well-trained teachers. By and large, I think it is fair to say that most readers of Our Schools/Our Selves understand that Insofar as opportunity is not distributed fairly there will be an underutilization of talent; some people will not develop their skills and abilities with consequent loss not only to them but to the society generally. (Levin, 2003, p. 5) Notwithstanding, as noted by Deleuze & Guattari, the solution to this problem is not a simple matter of ‘reason’, or ‘best practice’; nor, for that matter, is it a local problem – every country on Earth struggles to provide equitable access to social services. Steeves It is not the slumber of reason that engenders monsters, but vigilant and insomniac rationality.
Ignite Your Passion for Discovery: Ottawa- Eventbrite
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Born to Learn ~ You are Born to Learn
The Learning Lab
