pedogogy

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/

Responsive Classrooms

images

“Teachers at Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor, Maine, use proven Responsive Classroom techniques — such as relationship-building morning meetings and engaging student-led activities — to get students focused and ready to learn.”

Are your student’s engaged and armed to learn? Is your classroom a “responsive” one, watch this Video and decide.

9 Characteristics Of 21st Century Learning

21st-Century-Overview
1. Learner-centered

2. Media-driven (this doesn’t have to mean digital media)

3. Personalized

4. Transfer-by-Design

5. Visibly Relevant

6. Data-Rich

7. Adaptable

8. Interdependent

9. Diverse
Read the full article at http://www.teachthought.com/learning/9-characteristics-of-21st-century-learning/

New Common Core standards will focus on critical thinking over memorization

logo-orig- HLP Common Core Standards-GIF

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.
Read More…

Start the New Year by Flipping Your Classroom!

flippedlearning1-150x150

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.

Read More…

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.

Read More…

National Assessment of Education- 2011 Results for Private Schools

Our school recently participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for reading and mathematics.   NAEP is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in core subjects at grades 4, 8, and 12.  Several different breakdowns of private school results are available for the 2011 results, they are  Lutheran, Catholic, Conservative Christian and other Private Schools.  For reference, private schools make up 25% of the nation’s schools and educate a bit over 9% of our youth so measuring and comparing student achievement from this population is statistically relevant when looking at student progress.

In 2011 Students from private schools on average outperformed students from public schools in mathematics and reading achievement at both grades 4 and 8.  Students from Lutheran, Catholic, and Conservative Christian school on average performed higher than public school students. The graph below compares student achievement from the various sub groups.

Read More…

An annual report reveals that student-owned mobile devices, including tablets, are on the rise

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.”

Read More…

Why music education is important in school!

When we hear about music and other art programs in our school curriculum, most of us are guilty of putting it aside. For example, the focus is then put on the basic or standard studies in schools such as reading, writing and arithmetic. Little do a lot of us know that the importance of including music in that list is as crucial as the others.

Programs are being cut from school budgets at an alarming rate to save money, i.e. physical education, art and music classes. There is already a whole generation of teachers and parents who haven’t had the advantages of arts in their own education. Many teachers don’t know how to include any kind of art in their teaching these days and parents don’t know how to ask for it.

Studies have shown that including musical studies such as learning to play an instrument or class sing-alongs and even drama have impacted the way children learn and process knowledge. There’s lots of evidence that kids immersed in the arts do better on their academic tests.

The connection of math and music is in the note reading for instance. Quarter, half and whole notes can be applied to fractions, and numbers as well as symbols can also apply to mathematics. The word reading in songs can apply to languages arts, just to mention a couple of ways music is useful in academics.

In 2006 a national survey found that in the five years after enactment of NCLB, that 44% of the school districts increased time spent on academic classes like English language arts and math and decreased time on other subjects. The follow-up analysis in Feb. 2008 showed that 16% of the school districts decreased class time for music and art. In California participation in music courses dropped 46% from 1999-2000 through 2000-2004 and total enrollment increased 6%

Music is an integral part of our everyday lives. It can come in the form of tunes sung by our children when they wander through the house, background music to a TV show or major motion picture, songs on the radio, or arrangements performed at a school orchestra or band concert. So why is it that something fundamental to and so impactful on our lives gets minimal attention at school?

Read More…

1 2  Scroll to top