Archive

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Leadership

Q&A: Monica Jordan, Memphis City Schools

Getting Smart Staff

As part of professional development and growth for Memphis City School Teachers, video resources are being added into schools. Teachers will gain experience, support and professional development for use of videos in their classrooms. Support for the video solution in schools is being provided by Teachscape, a pioneer in classroom video use.
Personalized Learning

The Super Diploma

Adam Renfro

A particular Gen Z group has emerged as the super achievers, and I don’t mean just in the classroom. They have have launched their own startups and are serious content creators.
Personalized Learning

Why We Need a Moratorium on Meaningless Note-Taking

Susan Davis

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?
Personalized Learning

Padlet: Today’s Digital Sheet of Paper

John Hardison

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.
Personalized Learning

NPR Fails The Online Learning Test

Tom Vander Ark

NPR ran a misleading story about online learning.  Blake Farmer, a Nashville reporter, has been beating this drum and today invited disreputable and uninformed critics of a new statewide online school to pile on.  Yes, a low percentage of students scored proficient on state tests, but when most…

EdTech

SoundCloud + QR Codes = A Gallery of Students’ Voices

John Hardison

Not too long ago, a few clicks of the mouse had me calculating how I could improve an already-strong lesson plan. My calculations led me to a solution. Although it won’t be the next “E=MC2,” it did solve a huge, logistical problem in the assignment details. The equation? Well, it’s quite simple. SoundCloud + QR Codes = A Gallery of Students’ Voices.
Personalized Learning

Three Reasons For High Schoolers to Use Peer-Reviewed Journals in Research

Guest Author

If you’ve taught students to improve their researching and writing skills - or even graded your share of research papers - you’ve probably noticed that students have the whole process down to a system: Google a few articles or grab them from the library, look for keywords related to their topics, then write about a viewpoint or two. In college and graduate school, though, expectations will get higher as classes get more advanced.
Personalized Learning

K12 Report Shows Growth, Calls for Better Measures

Tom Vander Ark

Thirteen years ago, when his daughter was six, Ron Packard was a dad searching the Internet for math lessons. He started what became the world’s largest online learning provider, a public company with annual revenues close to $1 billion serving 110,000 full time students in 33 states.