quality teachers

Kathy Gordon and The Flipped Classroom

Apr 30

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

Apr 30

“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.

New Common Core standards will focus on critical thinking over memorization

Feb 27

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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Start the New Year by Flipping Your Classroom!

Jan 02

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.

FOCUS ON TEACHING OR LEARNING … the top three indicators of student mastry

Dec 08

When I went to college to become a teacher the program was largely about learning to teach. How many seasoned educators can relate to the following story:

A few years ago, my principal called me into his office and explained that too many students were failing my language arts class. I deflected his comments as no fault of my own.“They’re not putting in the effort it takes to master the content.”

How many of us have had similar conversations and responded the same way? Saying things like they aren’t trying … are lazy … don’t have the basic skills … didn’t meet deadlines … need to learn responsibility. There is often truth to these statements. But I have come to believe that great teachers accept responsibility for motivating their students. The most effective educators establish an environment where kids not only want to succeed but feel that they can. They focus on learning, rather than focusing on teaching.

Research indicated that the top three factors related to student learning are 1) the quality of the teacher, 2) effective instructional practices, and 3) student engagement.

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Lutheran Schools Tops in the Nation on “The Nation’s Report Card”

Jul 06

Accountability! Results- what difference does it make? We are becoming a data-driven nation in regard to our schools. Whether you agree with that direction or not, it is where we are at this moment in our nation’s history. Parents want to know if their child is receiving a quality education.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “The Nation’ s Report Card,” is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas.

The report is in and the news is GREAT for Lutheran schools. In five of the eight categories Lutheran Schools finished in first place among nine other categorizations. In the other three we finished second. The groups included the following: public, other religious, nonsectarian, Catholic, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Dept. of Defense, State Department of Education, Lutheran, and Conservative Christian.

UNDER ACHIEVERS: Do you have one in your family?

May 15

An UNDER ACHIEVER, just what is that? Do you have one in your immediate family, classroom, or perhaps your extended family? A typical under achiever has academic ability and is not working up to their ability level. Every classroom has one. In my personal family I definitely have a child that meets the criteria of an UNDER ACHIEVER. We recognize as parents and teachers that the child definitely knows, and is learning more than their school efforts indicate. Typically these children have high SAT scores, and may also have high IQ’s but they miss assignments, do the work poorly, and the grades on their report cards are low. What are we to do as parents? What can teachers do?

Dr. Dobson offered this advice to parents on students that are under achievers. There are three things you can try:

These students are usually poorly organized; work with your child on getting them organized. Set up an organizational procedure that will work for your child. Their desks are often disorderly, they cannot find the work they have done, or they simply cannot remember what it is they need to do.
Stay in close contact with your child’s teacher, monitor your child’s work on a nightly basis checking for completeness and also making sure it gets in the back packed for school tomorrow. Setting aside regular homework times at home and working with your child may improve their school performance.
Get a tutor for your child in subjects that they are deficient in. The one on one interaction this provides may make a difference in your child’s performance.

He then told the parents that following the three steps above will work for some children, but not all. If it doesn’t work for their child they will have to live with the fact that this is the way their child is. He encouraged the parents to love their child and work within their abilities.

As the superintendent of Grace Lutheran School, I know how hard we work, teachers, parents, principal and students to help each of our children be all that they can be. As teachers we need to support the parents, and as parents we need to support the teachers. The more we learn about children the more we realize the how unique the Lord has created each of them.

Bringing Technology into the Classoom

Apr 10

Technology is here to stay, the challenge is for educational leaders to figure out how to make the transition from real life to the classroom. Education blogs, on any and every topic, abound online. Unfortunately, few educators have the time to go out and search for them. The list below highlights blogs that have good free resources, offer information about school reform trends, or share how-to videos.

The list below, highlights some of the best education blogs I’ve come across or have heard about from other educators.

20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education

Apr 09

Ann Curry hosted the second Education Nation Summit to address the developments, challenges, and progress of the past year, as well as identify and explore new, exciting opportunities to reinvent America as an Education Nation. In their “Voices of a Nation” discussion, young people provided insight into their own experiences with education and what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. After the discussion Curry knew these students didn’t disappoint. She told viewers, “Students wanted to say something that made a difference to you (adults) and they did. Now adults need to listen.”

More on the Flipped Classroom

Mar 29

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.

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Janie Andrich

21st Century Education