future of learning
Teaching and Learning at Acton – Without the Teaching
Acton Academy has evolved over time from a few homeschooling families to a one room schoolhouse (well, two rooms now) teaching 37 students in a primary and a middle school with plans for a high school in 2016.
$12M Gates Grant Supports Literacy Tools for Teachers
With a $12M Gates Foundation grant, the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) launched CoreTools, a teacher-created online instructional platform to guide teachers through a curriculum design and PD experience that enables them to master the instructional shifts of the Common Core.
Overcoming the English Teacher Tech Blues
I have never minded the messiness of learning that sometimes comes with using technology. I have never believed in a right answer to interpreting a poem or a right way to write an essay, so I’ve never really been frightened by the vastness of interpretation that populates the Internet. Instead, I’m excited by the expanding universe of literature, reading, writing, and language.
Smart Cities: Los Angeles (part 2 of 2)
With new blends and more EdTech startups, things are heating up in the City of Angels. Catch Startup Weekend or one of the blended learning workshops.
A New Year’s Resolution We Can All Achieve: Failure
As you begin thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, I encourage you to consider taking up failure as chief among them. Don’t always play it safe. Expect to fail and know that with each successive failure you get better at the very thing you’re trying to innovate.
Staying Connected to Fulton’s Teachers: One District’s Approach to Boost Teacher Morale
School superintendent Robert Avossa is on a quest to visit all 100 Fulton County schools within a year. He’s already been to 70, traversing a 75 mile swath of metro Atlanta, Georgia. His Staying Connected visits, held before or after school, are voluntary, but teachers flock to them.
An Elementary Edcamp- An Unconference for Students
So how do you get started? I would get familiar with the edcamp model or even attend one (not required) to fully see one in action. See how the session board is setup, how sessions go and who partakes, maybe even you. This will help you share with your students. It did for me. Then if you are using Google Apps in Education, I would post a spreadsheet with a link for them to fill out the sessions.
The Future: What 32 Ed Leaders Are Excited About
It's exciting to hear these leaders describing high engagement and multi-modal learning environments with cultures that embrace high expectations and provide strong supports--and personalized learning for educators as well as students!
Lemonade Day: Tapping Into Student’s Potential
Detroit Public School System has historically been plagued by low attendance and high dropout rates, but on Lemonade Day 2013, DPS reported its’ highest-ever attendance: 98%, representing 52,000 students. This participation rate reveals our program’s power to engage disaffected students and families across an entire public school system. Igniting entrepreneurship in kids promotes active authorship of their own lives and sets the basis for future success.
Build on Strengths, Explore Interests, Shore Up Weaknesses
About 40 months ago Nicholas Carr was suggesting that the Internet was making us stupid—which I thought was stupid. So I wrote Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning Will Make Us Smart. I, for one, am very optimistic about the potential to dramatically boost achievement and completion rates here and around the world.