Bloom’s Revised are essential to teaching 21st Century Skills and Common Core! Great visual resources for educators. “Bloom’s Taxonomy is a useful tool for assessment design, but using it only for that function is like using a race car to go to the grocery–a huge waste of potential.” In this TeachThought post they look at better use of Bloom’s taxonomy in the classroom read more at http://www.teachthought.com/
At the heart of standards-based education lie academic content standards. Content standards specify what students should know and be able to do, typically by grade level. By extension, they also specify what schools should teach. Over the years different states developed their own academic standards that didn’t necessarily align with those found in other states. With the adoption of national Common Core Standards the United States is taking the first step in ensuring that our country has aligned rigorous standards for all students. Over the next couple of years all of the states will be moving towards aligning curricula and assessment to these standards. Along with the changes required in curriculum and textbooks comes the need to change assessments as well as the way we asses our students achievement both formatively and summatively.
The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy. Ideally, these standards are rigorous and based on widely held agreements about the educational goals of the system.
As we begin this school year, there continues to be a need for our schools to change the way we foster learning in this generation of students. Our students are vastly different than the students of 5 or 10 years ago, their needs are changing rapidly because of the ever increasing technological advances, social media, educational programs, informational technology and the accessibility of devices to access the internet. These 21st century learners, or digital natives live and interact with their world in vastly different ways that their parents or teachers who are digital immigrants. The article below was written by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor of ESchool News and shares some statistical information supporting the changing needs of students and the need for our educational system to change to meet their leaning needs.
More and more students own mobile devices, including tablets, and indicate a strong desire to use those personal learning tools in school to increase collaboration and access to resources, according to the annual Speak Up Survey, which is facilitated by Project Tomorrow.
“Students, perhaps without realizing it, are already seeking out ways to personalize their learning,” according to the report. “Looking to address what they perceive as deficiencies in classroom experiences, students are turning to online classes to study topics that pique their intellectual curiosity, to message and discussion boards to explore new ideas about their world, or to online collaboration tools to share their expertise with other students they don’t even know. Students now expect in their learning lives the same types of personalized interactions that adults already experience in our everyday lives.”
Common Core Standards are a set of academic standards that states across the United States follow. The California Board of Education adopted the standards in August 2010, which means that children in Kindergarten through 12th grade in the state are required to follow the same educational curriculum as children in other states that adhere to the CCS.
Purpose
The standards provide a framework to prepare students in schools in California and elsewhere for college and the workforce. California state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has said that the standards give a “consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn” and that they make the U.S. more competitive with other countries.
Development and Implementation
The Common Core Standards were developed by California in conjunction with the other states that have adopted them. The federal government had no role in the standards’ development or implementation in California or elsewhere, and individual states choose whether to adopt the standards
If you haven’t heard of Common Core Standards, you will be soon. As our nation struggles to improve our educational systems, state by state, it became evident that the educational standards set by individual states varied dramatically across the United States. What constituted a proficient in one state was considered advances or emerging in other states.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort, launched more than a year ago by state leaders, including governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, 2 territories and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce.
The Standards are designed to meet the goal of preparing all students for success in college and their careers. This will result in moving even the best state standards to the next level. Since this work began, there has been an explicit agreement that no state would lower its standards. As a country we need college and career ready standards because even in high‐performing states – students are graduating and passing all the required tests and still are not prepared to enter the 21st century work force.
Educational standards help teachers ensure their students have the skills and knowledge they need to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning.
We need standards to ensure that all students, no matter where they live, are prepared for success in postsecondary education and the workforce. Common standards will help ensure that students are receiving a high quality education consistently, from school to school and state to state. Common standards will provide a greater opportunity to share experiences and best practices within and across states that will improve our ability to best serve the needs of students.
Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but they do help teachers figure out the knowledge and skills their students should have so that teachers can build the best lessons and environments for their classrooms. Standards also help students and parents by setting clear and realistic goals for success. Standards are a first step – a key building block – in providing our young people with a high-quality education that will prepare them for success in college and work. Of course, standards are not the only thing that is needed for our children’s success, but they provide an accessible roadmap for our teachers, parents, and students.
Information Adapted from: http://www.corestandards.org/
Self-control is a virtue that doesn’t come easily. This mother had to work on it, talking herself through each challenge. According to Dr. Daniel Coleman in his book, “Emotional Intelligence,” controlling impulses like frustration and anger is a crucial aspect of character. In fact, he says, “Those who are at the mercy of impulse — who lack self-control — suffer a moral deficiency.”
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It’s called “the flipped classroom.” While there is no one model, the core idea is to flip the common instructional approach: With teacher-created videos and interactive lessons, instruction that used to occur in class is now accessed at home, in advance of class. Class becomes the place to work through problems, advance concepts, and engage in collaborative learning. Most importantly, all aspects of instruction can be rethought to best maximize the scarcest learning resource—time.
Flipped classroom teachers almost universally agree that it’s not the instructional videos on their own, but how they are integrated into an overall approach, that makes the difference. In his classes, Bergmann says, students can’t just “watch the video and be done with it.” He checks their notes and requires each student to come to class with a question. And, while he says it takes a little while for students to get used to the system, as the year progresses he sees them asking better questions and thinking more deeply about the content. After flipping his classroom, Bergmann says he can more easily query individual students, probe for misconceptions around scientific concepts, and clear up incorrect notions.
Counterintuitively, Bergmann says the most important benefits of the video lessons are profoundly human: “I now have time to work individually with students. I talk to every student in every classroom every day.” Traditional classroom interactions are also flipped. Typically, the most outgoing and engaged students ask questions, while struggling students may act out. Bergmann notes that he now spends more time with struggling students, who no longer give up on homework, but work through challenging problems in class. Advanced students have more freedom to learn independently.
As an educator I annually review, revise and refine my personal philosophy of education. It is a reflective practice that has helped me more clearly articulate my beliefs about students, learning, and pedagogy and has had a direct impact on my professional activities inside and outside the classroom. Below please find my latest attempt is articulating what I believe about education.
My Personal Philosophy of Education
As we journey further into the 21st Century I find that through technology our world is changing faster than no other time in history. Our students have a wealth of information available to them twenty-four hours a day. Because of the availability of information it is vital that our schools create a learning environment that encourages social interaction, is less concerned with the past and “training the mind” and more focused on individual needs, contemporary relevance and preparing students to be Christian community participants in God’s ever changing world.
Who are the students setting in our classrooms today? Are they the same as we were as students? Are they the same as students from 5, 10 or even 15 years ago? As our society becomes increasingly more electronic so do our students. Today’s students have been called Digital Natives, 21st century learners, and Digital Natives, and their needs are changing the face of education like no other time in history.
