https://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach
Related: msawesome • ECS 10033 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom I came across a great blog post the other day – Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think – that told the firsthand account of a teacher, Steven Anderson, who implemented formative assessment in his classroom. He used a sticky-note version of an exit ticket to elicit evidence of student learning and in his words, “what a difference that made.” Formative assessment is ‘easier than you think’ and with all the digital tools and apps now available for mobile devices it’s even easier. We’ve shared some digital tools before and with the five tools that Steven shared combined with our earlier suggestions there are now 33 digital tools that we’ve uncovered that are free or inexpensive and help teachers implement formative assessment in their classrooms. Here they are: A few of Steven’s discoveries:
Indigenous Knowledge: not a separable area of knowledge (by Eileen Dombrowski, from OUP blog) It’s easy to miss the point entirely when treating Indigenous Knowledge in TOK. It’s not a special “category” of knowledge, even though it is listed in our syllabus in parallel with other areas of knowledge. Clustering up indigenous groups across the world to look at their knowledge does not enable us to treat that knowledge as separate or separable from other areas of knowledge. I’m a big fan of treating Indigenous Knowledge — but specifically as a particular cultural synthesis of other areas of knowledge and as a cultural perspective within and upon the other areas. Today I’d like to bring attention to three current topics that clearly deal with Indigenous Knowledge but, on consideration, deal equally with history, anthropology, and archeology.
See Sally Research: An Environmental Scan No, it's not deja vu - you may have read this post over on Joyce Valenza's NeverEnding Search blog already. She and I were asked to write a book chapter for administrators (note to self: no cracks about reading level) on today's information literacy practices. Here is the result. The good stuff is all Joyce's work. The Best 8 Web Tools for Doing Formative Assessment in Class February 25, 2015 Formative assessment, as we have agreed elsewhere, is assessment for learning which is completely different from summative assessment, which is assessment of learning. The insights gained from formative assessments are usually used to decide on the next instructional steps and also inform teachers as to the additional opportunities needed to ensure students' success. Examples of formative assessment include: assigning projects and performances, giving writing assignments, and asking questions. There are a variety of ways to do formative assessment in class and this post features some interesting examples of formative assessment techniques. You can also draw on technology to formatively assess your students and gather feedback from them.
How Early Academic Training Retards Intellectual Development Source: Google Image approved for reuse In my last post I summarized research indicating that early academic training produces long-term harm. Now, in this post, I will delve a bit into the question of how that might happen. It's useful here to distinguish between academic skills and intellectual skills—a distinction nicely made in a recent article by Lillian Katz published by the child advocacy organization Defending the Early Years. article continues after advertisement
The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning by TeachThought Staff Projects in the classroom are as old as the classroom itself. Seven Tech Tools for Fast Formative Assessment by Curtis Chandler You and I would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who’s against formative assessment. We would have better luck finding someone who hates whales or pizza. In theory, every teacher is regularly designing and deploying a variety of outcomes-based learning activities that help the teacher determine where students are in the learning process. And then adjusting their instruction accordingly (Greenstein, 2010). But in practice, formative assessment is more like proper diet and regular exercise—just another one of those things that we all know is important, but few of us have the time and focus to achieve.
Children, Learning, and the Evaluative Gaze of School — Carol Black The evaluative gaze of school is so constant a presence, so all-pervasive an eye, that many people have come to believe that children would actually not grow and develop without it. They believe that without their "feedback," without their constant "assessment," a child's development would literally slow or even stop. They believe that children would not learn from the things they experience and do and see and hear and make and read and imagine unless they have an adult to "assess" them (or unless the adult teaches them to "self-assess," which generally means teaching them to internalize the adult gaze.) For people whose experience is with children inside the school system, it may seem self-evident that this is true. For people whose experience is with children outside the school system, it may seem like believing that an acorn would not grow into an oak tree unless you measure it and give it your opinion. A pot boils whether you watch it or not.
(Rethinking) Makerspaces Kids have always made in my library. We encouraged digital and visual and dramatic and rhetorical creativity before, during, and after school. But for a while, I’ve questioned the value of using already heavily used real estate to randomly carve out space for a 3D printer, electronics stations and sewing machines. I had my doubts about the makerspace movement in school libraries. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to chat with Amos Blanton, project manager of the Scratch online community, and a member of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Lab. On his profile Amos notes: I design and sustain creative learning environments for people with agency.
20 useful ways to use TodaysMeet in schools TodaysMeet is an easy-to-use, versatile digital tool. It can enhance discussions, provide a place for ideas and more. TodaysMeet is so simple yet so versatile that it has become one of my go-to digital tools. It’s designed as a backchannel — the conversation behind what’s going on. 'We get soft': Why Regina teacher says kids need to embrace cold, not escape it When others hide inside and moan about the bitter cold, the kindergarten class at Prairie Sky School in Regina bundles up and goes outside no matter how frigid the temperature. It's part of their daily routine. Their teacher, Anna Rose, says her students would have gone stir crazy if they had been forced to stay inside during the cold spell that stretched through most of February.
What is PBL? To help teachers do PBL well, we created a comprehensive, research-based model for PBL — a "gold standard" to help teachers, schools, and organizations to measure, calibrate, and improve their practice. In Gold Standard PBL, projects are focused on student learning goals and include Essential Project Design Elements: