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Understanding the Flipped Classroom Part 1 & Part 2 The flipped classroom seems to be the latest buzz in educational trends. Is this truly a new revolutionary approach or a revision of a technique used throughout the ages? To be clear, in simplest terms, flipping the classroom refers to swapping classroom lecture time for hands-on practice time. So the lecture is done for homework usually via a video or audio file and the classroom time is spent clarifying and applying new knowledge gained. photo via flickr:CC | ransomtech High-res

Understanding the Flipped Classroom Part 1 & Part 2

The flipped classroom seems to be the latest buzz in educational trends. Is this truly a new revolutionary approach or a revision of a technique used throughout the ages? To be clear, in simplest terms, flipping the classroom refers to swapping classroom lecture time for hands-on practice time. So the lecture is done for homework usually via a video or audio file and the classroom time is spent clarifying and applying new knowledge gained.

photo via flickr:CC | ransomtech

Common Core Drives Interest in Open Education Resources Spurred by the adoption of common-core standards by nearly every state the movement for open education resources is seeing a surge in interest as districts re-evaluate and realign their curricula. OERs, which are free to use, remix, and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students, advocates of the movement say. One tool to help educators determine the quality and alignment to the common core of a particular resource is the OER rubrics developed by the Washington-based Achieve, a nonprofit education policy group that helped write the Common Core State Standards. The rubrics are hosted by the OER Commons, a repository of more than 30,000 open resources created by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, or ISKME, based in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Common Core Drives Interest in Open Education Resources

Spurred by the adoption of common-core standards by nearly every state the movement for open education resources is seeing a surge in interest as districts re-evaluate and realign their curricula. OERs, which are free to use, remix, and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students, advocates of the movement say.

One tool to help educators determine the quality and alignment to the common core of a particular resource is the OER rubrics developed by the Washington-based Achieve, a nonprofit education policy group that helped write the Common Core State Standards. The rubrics are hosted by the OER Commons, a repository of more than 30,000 open resources created by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, or ISKME, based in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

What’s Worth Investing In? Criteria for Choosing Technology for Learning

DEFINING THE CRITERIA

  • WHAT DOES IT PROMISE TO DO? Is the main purpose to build students’ knowledge of content, or is it to develop skills and dispositions? Are there meta-cognitive strategies or learning strategies associated with the product?
  • WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IT TO DO? Do you expect the product to raise students’ test scores? To grab students’ attention? To flip your classroom? To open up dialogue? To help students’ inquiry process?
  • WHAT CRITERIA WAS THE PRODUCT DEVELOPED AGAINST? How was the product conceived and who designed and built the product? What classroom experience does the designer/entrepreneur have? What research was done during the designing process? Was it piloted in schools? Is this a rapid prototype with the flexibility to change and improve?
  • HOW WILL IT HELP OR CHANGE TEACHERS’ ROLES? Will the product keep the teacher in the center of the action in class, or will it give more control to students? Does it help the teacher meet the needs of the students, and if so, how? Does it augment teachers’ performance?
  • HOW WILL IT CHANGE WHAT HAPPENS IN CLASS? What kind of class environment does it create? Does it encourage collaboration, risk-taking, and student control? If the product is software that allows kids to do practice exercises, how will classroom time be spent on that subject? Will a different kind of curriculum be created, and who will create it? Can hands-on projects be incorporated into class time that build on what students have practiced on computers?
  • HOW DO OTHERS RATE THE PRODUCT?
  • HOW WILL IT SCALE AND GROW IN THE FUTURE? If the product is going to be used systemically, how sustainable is it? What are the chances that the company will stop providing this service, or start charging or raising fees? What’s the ease of adoption and use? Are there built-in ongoing improvement processes?
  • IS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDED TO USE IT? If so, how much does it cost, and how much time will it take?
  • IS IT A NATURAL FIT?
  • IS IT WORTH THE INVESTMENT? How much is the cost compared to the amount of time and effort it takes to train staff to use it and to implement it system-wide? Based on what other educators have said, is it worth the time and effort?
Evaluation Overload: Why Teachers Need Training and Support, Too Then he handed me a paper that I later learned was my evaluation form. All the boxes were marked “exceeds expectation.” He looked at me. I looked back at him. I can hide a lot of emotions, but bewildered is hard to cover up. “Sign your evaluation,” he said. “What are you waiting for? Am I missing something?” Eight years would pass before I was observed through the district again. Through seeking out mentors and hard work, I became a decent teacher. I was never excellent. Still, every time, my evaluation had “exceeds expectation” checked on every box. I would sign and return it although no one had ever visited my class. In my 17 years of teaching, I was meaningfully evaluated just once. photo via flickr:CC | inju

Evaluation Overload: Why Teachers Need Training and Support, Too

Then he handed me a paper that I later learned was my evaluation form. All the boxes were marked “exceeds expectation.”

He looked at me. I looked back at him. I can hide a lot of emotions, but bewildered is hard to cover up.

“Sign your evaluation,” he said. “What are you waiting for? Am I missing something?”

Eight years would pass before I was observed through the district again. Through seeking out mentors and hard work, I became a decent teacher. I was never excellent. Still, every time, my evaluation had “exceeds expectation” checked on every box. I would sign and return it although no one had ever visited my class. In my 17 years of teaching, I was meaningfully evaluated just once.

photo via flickr:CC | inju

Study Finds How Parents And Children Actually Use Smartphones There’s several decades between parents and children and, in technology time, that’s basically an eternity. To examine just how far we’ve come, the Rogers Innovation Report looked at parents and young adult children to see how they use their smartphones. It’s not a big shock that there’s no shortage of young adults using smartphones to text, chat, and connect. But how do their parents use the smartphone? Turns out they are like big kids … in that they use their phones in a very similar way to the younger generation. Here’s the breakdown from Rogers: In nearly equal numbers (40 per cent) connected young Canadians (ages 18-24) and their connected parents (43 per cent) are using technology to stay close with one another Youth and parents say texting is their preferred smartphone and tablet activity (94 per cent for youth and 82 per cent for parents) Youth and parents both look to technology to stay close to family (48 per cent for youth and 52 per cent for parents) High-res

Study Finds How Parents And Children Actually Use Smartphones

There’s several decades between parents and children and, in technology time, that’s basically an eternity. To examine just how far we’ve come, the Rogers Innovation Report looked at parents and young adult children to see how they use their smartphones.

It’s not a big shock that there’s no shortage of young adults using smartphones to text, chat, and connect. But how do their parents use the smartphone? Turns out they are like big kids … in that they use their phones in a very similar way to the younger generation. Here’s the breakdown from Rogers:

  • In nearly equal numbers (40 per cent) connected young Canadians (ages 18-24) and their connected parents (43 per cent) are using technology to stay close with one another
  • Youth and parents say texting is their preferred smartphone and tablet activity (94 per cent for youth and 82 per cent for parents)
  • Youth and parents both look to technology to stay close to family (48 per cent for youth and 52 per cent for parents)

What we talk about when we talk about gaps

Learning matters. It is the reason we beat one another over the head with test scores and mandate upon mandate. However, lost among the den of our discourse on outcomes is the process by which we come to them — the day-to-day experiences of students in our nation’s schools, be they urban, suburban, rural, private, public or charter.

The experiences students have in these varied locations are very separate and not at all equal. It is this, the experience gap, that has garnered far less attention than it deserves. Not all students have equal access to challenge and success, engagement and satisfaction, or safety and peace of mind.

Why Third Grade Is So Important: The ‘Matthew Effect’ Take a guess: What is the single most important year of an individual’s academic career? The answer isn’t junior year of high school, or senior year of college. It’s third grade. What makes success in third grade so significant? It’s the year that students move from learning to read — decoding words using their knowledge of the alphabet — to reading to learn. photo via flickr:CC | mastcharter

Why Third Grade Is So Important: The ‘Matthew Effect’

Take a guess: What is the single most important year of an individual’s academic career? The answer isn’t junior year of high school, or senior year of college. It’s third grade.

What makes success in third grade so significant? It’s the year that students move from learning to read — decoding words using their knowledge of the alphabet — to reading to learn.

photo via flickr:CC | mastcharter

Teachers’ Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform As Rosenthal did more research, he found that expectations affect teachers’ moment-to-moment interactions with the children they teach in a thousand almost invisible ways. Teachers give the students that they expect to succeed more time to answer questions, more specific feedback, and more approval: They consistently touch, nod and smile at those kids more. “It’s not magic, it’s not mental telepathy,” Rosenthal says. “It’s very likely these thousands of different ways of treating people in small ways every day.” So since expectations can change the performance of kids, how do we get teachers to have the right expectations? Is it possible to change bad expectations? photo via flickr:CC | flickingerbrad?

Teachers’ Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform

As Rosenthal did more research, he found that expectations affect teachers’ moment-to-moment interactions with the children they teach in a thousand almost invisible ways. Teachers give the students that they expect to succeed more time to answer questions, more specific feedback, and more approval: They consistently touch, nod and smile at those kids more.

“It’s not magic, it’s not mental telepathy,” Rosenthal says. “It’s very likely these thousands of different ways of treating people in small ways every day.”

So since expectations can change the performance of kids, how do we get teachers to have the right expectations? Is it possible to change bad expectations?

photo via flickr:CC | flickingerbrad?

Meaningful Staff Meetings

I want to respect the shortness of time that many educators have and then focus on making the content engaging enough that they want to be there.  That is a tough task, but do you think that if you show how much you respect your staff to have meetings that are short and engaging, do you think that will help build connections?  What about meaningful conversations?  Won’t that help build connections?

A Teacher's Lament: The Next Big Thing

As a New York City public school teacher, I’ve been attending meetings for almost three decades. There’s always an urgent problem that absolutely cannot wait.

Students need more test prep. Students need less test prep.

Teachers must stand. Teachers must not read aloud. Teachers must sit in rocking chairs and read aloud.

Students must do all writing in class. Students must do all writing at home.

Whatever the Thing is, we must do it immediately.

Grit, Luck and Money

More people are going to college than ever before, but a lot of them aren’t finishing. Low-income students, in particular, struggle to get to graduation. Only 9 percent complete a bachelor’s degree by age 24. Why are so many students quitting, and what leads a few to beat the odds and make it through?

In this documentary, American RadioWorks correspondent Emily Hanford introduces us to young people trying to break into the middle class, teachers trying to increase their chances and researchers investigating the nature of persistence.

Study Finds U.S. Trailing in Preschool Enrollment The United States lags behind most of the world’s leading economies when it comes to providing early-childhood education opportunities to young children despite improvements in recent years, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States ranks 28th out of 38 countries for the share of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-primary education programs, at 69 percent. That’s compared with more than 95 percent enrollment rates in France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Mexico, which lead the world in early-childhood participation rates for 4-year-olds. photo via flickr:CC | hcplebranch

Study Finds U.S. Trailing in Preschool Enrollment

The United States lags behind most of the world’s leading economies when it comes to providing early-childhood education opportunities to young children despite improvements in recent years, according to a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The United States ranks 28th out of 38 countries for the share of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-primary education programs, at 69 percent. That’s compared with more than 95 percent enrollment rates in France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Mexico, which lead the world in early-childhood participation rates for 4-year-olds.

photo via flickr:CC | hcplebranch