Archive: 2013
What Guides Your Work? And, Why Do You Teach What You Teach?
In my last post, Why do you teach? And, why do you stay?, I hoped to start a conversation about teaching -- why in the world are we here, and what keeps us here? I now want to look at what guides our work, and why we teach what we teach. For most of my teaching career, I did not know why I taught what I taught, or I thought I knew, but didn’t.
One Game Fits All?
Is gamification the solution to student engagement? Gamification – the addition of game elements such as points and badges to non-games like ad campaigns, household chores, or public education – would seem to offer schools the perfect blend of engagement, entertainment, and education.
8 Implementation Challenges and Solutions
The Digital Learning Now! Smart Series is a group of collaborative papers that bring together top thinkers on the current trends in teaching and learning to explore the implementation challenges at the intersection of digital learning and the Common Core.
Why We Need a Moratorium on Meaningless Note-Taking
Over the years, as I have encountered a goodly number of teachers who have complained vociferously about their students’ lack of proper note-taking skills, I have found myself more and more befuddled. Dare I tell them what I really think, that they are wasting their students’ time and setting them up for failure by having them outline their lecture notes, word for word, from the over-crowded PowerPoint slides they’ve projected at the front of the classroom?
Classroom Management Made Easy
By: William Lester. This articles gives creative opportunities to classroom management using iPad, iPod, and SmartPhone apps.
Reynoldsburg Schools Attracting Rave Reviews
Yesterday I visited the Reynoldsburg Schools in Columbus, Ohio and had a chance to see the great work being done in the schools that is drawing attention not only statewide but nationally. In this piece by the Columbus Dispatch the schools’ efforts at innovating around STEM and career and college readiness was highlighted with a visit from U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Deb Delisle to tour the innovative programs.
New iNACOL Report: State Policymakers Guide to K-12 Competency Education
Today iNACOL released Necessary for Success: Building Mastery of World-Class Skills – A State Policymakers Guide to Competency Education co-authored by Susan Patrick and Chris Sturgis. The paper focuses on key changes policymakers can take to remove barriers and create student-centered learning environments that allow for competency education.
Flipped Foreign Language
Moss Pike was raised in Las Vegas, studied Physics at Cornell University, and after a summer class in the classics found himself working on an M.A. in Classics at UCLA. He teaches Latin at the Harvard-Westlake School (HW), is the Middle School Dean of Faculty, and a regional leader in Greek and Latin linguistics and pedagogy.
Padlet: Today’s Digital Sheet of Paper
Even if you had only attended one class in your entire life, more than likely you have been asked, “Can I borrow a sheet of paper?” Some laid-back, often-tardy-to-school classmate probably gave you some excuse just as the rest of the students began diligently scribbling down resemblances of the teacher’s key lecture points. If you are anything like me, you half-reluctantly handed over a sheet of paper and chalked the very minor loss up as no big deal.
Smart Cities: San Diego
Running the San Diego County Office of Education seems pretty tame after tours of duty as state administrator in Oakland and Compton, but Randy Ward argues that county offices are more relevant than ever. With half a million kids and 42 districts there’s plenty to worry about.