educaiton

Kathy Gordon and The Flipped Classroom

Teachers by nature are “in it to win it”. Their ultimate goal is meeting the need of their students.  The educational environment is changing as are 21st century learner needs.  Are you ready to flip your classroom to foster student engagement, and differentiate instruction, then this podcast is for you.

Michael Boll Middle School Technology Coach at talks with Kathy Gordon about flipping the classroom.   Kathy is a Math Teacher at Concordia International School Shanghai.

Great insights on setting up a flipped classroom, a frank discussion of the pro’s and con’s and the impact flipping has on meeting student learning needs.  Listen to this pod cast at http://podcast.concordiashanghai.org/blog/2013/04/22/interview-19-kathy-gordon-and-the-flipped-classroom/

14 Brilliant Bloom’s Taxonomy Posters For Teachers

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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/learning/14-brilliant-blooms-taxonomy-posters-for-teachers/

10 Important Questions To Ask Yourself Before Deploying iPads

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Instead of focusing on the financial and logistical considerations when implementing 1 to 1 IPad programs we need to focus on the curriculum needs and ensure that the IPad implementation, what positive effects will they have on student learning.  To read this excellent article from
TeachThought click here.  

iPads in the classroom: embedding technology in the primary curriculum

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As all of our schools wrestle with the technological revolution and application to classroom instruction educators continue to try and transcend the chasm from digital immigrant and try and develop classroom strategies to meet the needs of our digital natives.  Today’s classroom teachers are digital immigrants and must develop literacy in technology to meet the needs of these students.

Digital Natives are the generation born during or after the general introduction of digital technology. Digital Natives have an inherent understanding of digital technologies, as they’ve been integrated into their lives since early childhood. They are part of a tech-savvy generation at the forefront of technological progress and want to be connected when they wish, from anywhere.

Almost as soon as they can walk, children these days are using iPads, iPhones and all sorts of mobile devices. Most three and four year olds are now technologically savvy, using digital technology at home, in school, and on the go. Using the web site to play games, learn language, math, and reading skills, take pictures and listen to music.  This means that a burgeoning number of children are well versed with the Internet and the hardware they need to access it, well before they even start school.

iPads and iPods are influencing all areas of learning in David Andrews’ classroom. He reveals how he’s using the iPad in the following article from Teacher Network.  Click here to read about his amazing technology journey and how he is using iPads in his primary classroom to build and control a ‘vehicle’ using a variety of online apps.

 

New Common Core standards will focus on critical thinking over memorization

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With the onset of the Common Core teachers in classrooms all over the country are expecting their students to do more than calculate the correct answers in math class. Students are expected to work through problems and demonstrate how they arrive at answers. After conferring with classmates, they also must critique the reasoning of their peers.

Math instruction will be infused with Common Core, academic standards that are set to hit California classrooms in the 2014-15 school year. The Common Core guidelines were developed by a nationwide consortium of educators and other officials. They are designed to emphasize critical-thinking skills over rote memorization and better prepare students for college and career. No more multiple-choice answers, the whole point of Common Core is to support teachers to prepare students for college and beyond.

Schools throughout California, in private and public institutions, are working to incorporate the new benchmarks into daily lessons in time for the statewide launch, which is set for fall 2014. The shift will drive systemic changes in instructional practices and outcomes from kindergarten through high school. The overarching goal of Common Core is to transform how students are taught, particularly what they must do to master math, English and other subjects.
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12 Habits of Mind

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As we begin the steps of implementing the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) schools have been setting foundational understandings for teachers to ensure they are prepared to teach our 21st Century Learners.  We have addressed best practices like Marzano’s 9 strategies for the teaching profession, ELL strategies, 21st Century skills. and technological improvements.  At Grace we are also working to ensure our students have the needed foundations needed to become 21st Century learners.  Over the last three years we have implemented PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support), and are now looking at Art Costa’s Habits of Mind as a needed foundation for tomorrows learners. There is no one pedagogy, book, or computer program that will help us become better systems thinkers. Instead, the complexity of our worlds demand that we develop “habits of mind” to intentionally use systems principles to understand the complexity of everyday situations and to design for desired futures. The 12 Habits of Mind are:

Sees the Whole: sees the world in terms of interrelated “wholes” or systems, rather than as single events, or snapshots;

Looks for Connections: assumes that nothing stands in isolation; and so tends to look for connections among nature, ourselves, people, problems, and events;

Pays Attention to Boundaries: “goes wide” (uses peripheral vision) to check the boundaries drawn around problems, knowing that systems are nested and how you define the system is critical to what you consider and don’t consider;

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Habits of Mind and the Common Core

“Habits of Mind are the characteristics of what intelligent people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolutions of which are not immediately apparent.” (Costa)

 

The mission of the Common Core State Standards is to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our children need for success in college and careers.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) encourage the highest achievement of every student by defining the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire at each grade level through an integrated standards-based system of education in which both academic content standards and “Habits of Mind” standards are an essential part of the whole.

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Start the New Year by Flipping Your Classroom!

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Students say “flipped learning” classes are still the exception, not the rule. But when done right, they make a course both more challenging and more enjoyable.

 

I know that I have written about this teaching strategy before but as we begin 2013 it’s time to get serious about focusing on learning rather than teaching.  It’s time to make those educational resolutions to improve student success in your classroom.  A great starting place would be flipping! 

As a teacher my self I can relate to this excerpt from the  eCampusNews article:

And Freeman always received great reviews from students, even though 17 percent routinely flunked his class—a failure rate he considered “gruesome.”

Freeman knew what was wrong: His students weren’t adept at applying information in a new context to solve problems, and he told them so. But one day, a student threw the ball back in his court. He just wasn’t doing enough to prepare her for the tests; she needed his help to practice.

“I thought, I am so busted,” Freeman said. “She is right. That still rings in my ears.

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Common Core and the Use of Technology

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.

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