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Design Thinking and PBL | Edutopia
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Imagine innovation as a three-legged stool. Many schools have changed the environment leg, but not the other two legs: the behaviors and beliefs of the teachers, administrators, and students.
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Saturday, February 27, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/28/2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/27/2016
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“Focus on Kids, Not Ourselves”: Guiding Principle At Design 39 Campus | The Future of K-12 Education
This article showcases a school that focuses on integrated learning, interdisciplinary studies, collaboration and design thinking...all at the elementary school level.
- Mornings are for “Integrated Learning Time”; no rigid boundaries of subject, time, or space. The pod teachers decide when and how the students will move, and the teams focus relentlessly on how students will learn content through big, cross-disciplinary themes. The afternoons are split between “Deep Dives”, physical activity-based “Minds in Motion”, “Exploration” opportunities for students to follow their passions, and some dedicated time for mathematics in the upper grade levels. Within each of these broad areas, the teachers are expected to amplify the process of inquiry and to embed the skills of design thinking.
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- How might we further dissolve rigidity by allowing students to re-arrange classroom furniture on a very frequent (more than daily) basis to meet the learning objectives of the moment?
- How often can we get students up to the writing walls to collaborate on work rather than taking individual notes or keying into their individual devices?
- How might we constantly defuse the “teacher-centrism” of the room? If the teacher is not using a fixed projector or other device that requires a “front of the room”, why set the podium there, or stand there?
- How might we empower students to ask the questions that guide discussion?
- How might we allow students to find the best ways to interact within learning teams, rather than giving them a strict methodology to follow? When have we given them enough instruction on how to learn, and when is it best for them to find this out for themselves and with their peers?
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This site introduces Japanese lesson study which is a collaborative effort by groups of teachers to understand how their lessons impact students. Elements included in this type of PD are collaborative lesson planning, observation, iteration and reflection.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/25/2016
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Research Hints at Promise and Difficulty of Helping People With A.D.H.D. Learn - The New York Times
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5 Things We Can do to Prepare Students to Work Independently
- 1. Acknowledge What’s New in the Classroom and the Workplace
- 2. What's it mean to be an "expert."
- 3. Create Wise Consumers of Information
- 4. Encourage and Support Publishing Online
- 5. Working independently sometimes means working with others.
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Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/24/2016
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To-do list and task manager. Free, easy, online and mobile: Todoist
Project management tool
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Teachers, Take Care of Yourselves - Education Week
How teachers can care for themselves and set a model for their students.
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The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues
- In this Education Week article, Connecticut educator Christopher Doyle worries that many educators are not taking very good care of themselves – not balancing the intense challenges of work with family, friends, love, sleep, vacations, exercise, good nutrition, emotional health, and civic engagement. “Like American society at large,” says Doyle, “ many of us are overworked, stretched thin financially, and torn between roles as spouses, parents, and employees… Not unlike other professionals devoted to nurture, such as doctors, teachers are measured – and measure themselves – against an idealized image of excellence that involves incessant work.”
- Teachers occupy the middle to lower tiers of the American middle class – whose wages have been stagnant for some time.
- Stressed, workaholic educators are not in the best position to help students achieve some kind of balance in their overscheduled lives.
- Prioritize balance in the school schedule. This means building in time for teachers to prepare, think, meet with their colleagues, eat lunch, and pay an occasional visit to the bathroom. It’s also important not to burden teachers with unnecessary meetings.
- We should show our students, through the examples of our own lives, that they can lead healthy, multifaceted existences and not be slaves to their careers.”
- The more screen time teens have (up to 6.5 hours a day), the worse they perform academically.
- noticing another student multitasking electronically harms the learning of the viewer.
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- it’s unproductive to confiscate students’ phones; this can cause great anxiety and needless conflict.
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Francis Parker School Design Lab
Francis Parker School's design thinking blog.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/19/2016
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Free Science Curriculum for Middle School - Eva Varga
Many science resources listed here. Some of good quality and some of lesser quality.
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Yeah we're not coming back for awhile folks.. @charter #pasadena @outage #downforthecount https://t.co/TVJjuomUC2
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Friday, February 12, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/13/2016
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Ten Websites for Science Teachers | Edutopia
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Ideas for those new to teaching and new to teaching science.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/12/2016
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Workshops at the Henry Ford Learning Institute
PD workshops related to design thinking.
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Project-based learning ideas and tools for teachers and admin. This page includes big picture ideas and pointed advice for success.
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This site challenges students in grades K-8 to say "I can" to solve social problems. The contest is held every year and takes in entries from all over the world.
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Design Thinking Process - The Nueva Design Institute
This infographic provides ideas of how to facilitate design thinking in a K-12 school.
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Stanford Design Thinking Methods
These methods provide a more concrete idea about how to facilitate design thinking.
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5 Ways to Use the Google Classroom About Tab [infographic] | Shake Up Learning
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/11/2016
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Production Phase: Intention Map
Design thinking graphic organizer
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Design Thinking in Education: Empathy, Challenge, Discovery, and Sharing | Edutopia
- What we found in our initial prototypes -- launching an innovation lab space, creating a design thinking professional development experience, and running student-facing design challenges for middle- and high-school classes -- was that the design thinking process functioned as a kind of oasis for educators, reconnecting them to their creativity and aspirations for helping students develop as deep thinkers and doers, not just as test takers.
- Leading with empathy means pushing yourself to get closer to people, and to do so consistently, publicly, and with conviction.
- How do you do it? Listen more; talk less. Immerse yourself in how others experience your school or program.
- Reframing is critical for innovation, but it's also a way of moving from a deficit point of view to an asset focus.
- Challenging assumptions lets us see what both children and adults are truly capable of doing. Harnessed for good, challenging assumptions steers you in the direction of more effective policies and practices because you're willing to see things differently.
- what really matters is trying something, letting people know that you're trying it, and generating opportunities for feedback.
- a bias toward action: Don't talk -- do.
- And when you do, then you observe, reflect, and try again to get it right.
- You can share those things as well, but we'll all learn more when you share your process, warts and all.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/10/2016
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Three Reasons Students Should Own Your Classroom’s Twitter and Instagram Accounts | EdSurge News
Powerful ways to have your students use social media to promote class activities.
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Teaching Personal Finance to Teens - Math Giraffe
This site offers station ideas and materials to teach financial literacy to teens.
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10 Ways Teacher Planning Should Adjust To The Google Generation
- Curriculum maps should promote careful, self-directed study of relevant and meaningful ideas, rather than design micro-lessons to “efficiently deliver information.”
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Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/03/2016
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Exit Tickets: Checking for Understanding | Edutopia
Clear language about how exit tickets help with differentiation and examples of good questions.
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This piece showcases how one agency is using text messaging to help at-risk youth. Research shows that students are more willing to share info via text than voice.
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The Marshall Memo Admin - Issues
"Effective Use of Exit Tickets In this Edutopia article, educators at Hampton High School in Pennsylvania describe how they use exit tickets to assess student understanding at the end of lessons and follow up with differentiated help. “A good exit ticket can tell whether students have a superficial or in-depth understanding of the material,” they write. “Teachers can then use this data for adapting instruction to meet students’ needs the very next day… Exit tickets allow teachers to see where the gaps in knowledge are, what they need to fix, what students have mastered, and what can be enriched in the classroom… Perhaps one group will get more direct instruction around the basic concept, while another group will work independently. Perhaps only one or two students need some additional help, and you’ll plan accordingly. The key to differentiation is that you have high expectations for all students and a clear objective. If you know what you want students to master, differentiation allows you to use different strategies to help all students get there.” In terms of length, 3-5 short questions make a good exit ticket, say the authors. They recommend multiple-choice or short-answer questions linked to the lesson objective and focused on key skills or concepts that students should have grasped. Students should be able to complete the exit ticket in a few minutes at the end of a class period. Exit tickets can be pencil-and-paper, but technology makes collection and analysis quicker and easier – Poll Everywhere, Google Forms, clickers, and other apps. The authors advise against questions that are too general (Do you understand?) and questions that can be answered Yes or No. They provide these examples of effective questions: - Name one important thing you learned in class today. - What did you think was accomplished by the small-group activity we did today? - Write one question about today’s content – something that has left you puzzled. - Today’s lesson had three objectives. Which of the three do you think was most successfully reached? Explain. Which was not attained? Why do you think it wasn’t? - Read this problem and tell me what your first step would be in solving it. - One of the goals of this class is to have all participants contribute to the seminar. How well do you think this was achieved today? - Do you have any suggestions for how today’s class could have been improved? - I used the blackboard extensively today. Was its organization and content helpful to you in learning? Why or why not? - Which of the readings you did for class today was most helpful in preparing you for the lesson? Why? - We did a concept map activity in class today. Was this a useful learning activity for you? Why or why not? “Exit Tickets: Checking for Understanding” by teachers at Hampton High School, Allison Park, Pennsylvania in Edutopia, June 23, 2015, http://edut.to/23FtBj3"
- “The act of writing, even if the product consists of only a hundred and forty characters composed with one’s thumbs, forces a kind of real-time distillation of emotional chaos.” Researchers have confirmed the efficacy of writing as a therapeutic intervention.
- She was trained to avoid jumping into problem-solving mode, instead using validation
- Probes were important to get more information
- and she was trained to highlight strengths
- Showing empathy was important
- The trainer stressed the importance of avoiding teen patois and not making typos, which undermine authoritativeness.
- The advantage of using texting for a crisis hotline is that teens who are willfully uncommunicative when speaking are often forthcoming to the point of garrulous when texting, quite willing to disclose sensitive information.
- But in practical terms, text messaging affords a level of privacy that the human voice makes impossible. If you’re hiding from an abusive relative or you just don’t want your classmates to know how overwhelmed you feel about applying to college, a text message, even one sent in public, is safer than a phone call.
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- All people have the capacity for resilience, she says, and there are three factors that tap and nurture that potential: (a) caring relationships, (b) high expectations, and (c) meaningful opportunities for participation and contribution.
- The three factors help develop children’s social competence, problem-solving ability, sense of self and internal locus of control, and sense of purpose and optimism about the future – all of which are key to dealing successfully with adversity.
- Having all three factors present in a school can compensate for their absence in the family, community, or peer group. And a school with these factors can be resilient as an organization in the face of challenges and traumatic events it may face.
- This is all about providing a sense of connectedness and belonging, “being there,” showing compassion and trust.
- Teachers make appropriate expectations clear and recognize progress as well as performance. They also encourage mindfulness and self-awareness of moods, thinking, and actions. Principals orchestrate a curriculum that is challenging, comprehensive, thematic, experiential, and inclusive of multiple perspectives. They also provide training in resilience and youth development, and work to change deeply held adult beliefs about students’ capacities.
- Teachers hold daily class meetings and empower students to create classroom norms and agreements. Principals establish peer-helping/tutoring and cross-age mentoring/tutoring programs and set up peer support networks to help new students and families acclimate to the school environment.
- Resilience is a process, not a trait. It’s a struggle to define oneself as healthy amidst serious challenges.
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- a person who displays bad judgment is not ‘forever’ a bad person.”
- To help others, educators need to take care of themselves. An analogy: on an airplane, people need to have their own oxygen masks in place before they can help others.
- “The admissions process can counteract a narrow focus on personal success and promote in young people a greater appreciation of others and the common good.
- ome have pointed out that the report applies mostly to a small percent of students, and what colleges say they value may be a challenge to game the system.
- Julie Coiro (University of Rhode Island) takes note of a large international study by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), which found that computers were having no significant impact on students’ proficiency in reading, math, and science.
- In many countries, the study found, frequent use of computers actually made students’ performance worse. “Although these findings may relate to differences in professional development or implementation,” says Coiro, “it was clear that drill-and-practice software had a negative effect on student performance.”
- Technology is not critical for learning to be personal; all that’s needed is space and time to actively reflect, collaborate, and engage with personally meaningful ideas.
- Once students are empowered to direct their own learning pathways, technology can open the door to a range of texts, tools, and people to explore and connect ideas
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- “Unlike participation in sports,” says Stygles, “the choice to abandon reading to pursue other talents is not an option. Kids really have no escape from the struggles they face during the learning-to-read process, especially in light of frequent assessment or graduation through levels.”
- “Shamed readers do not believe they improve or can improve,” says Stygles
- “Measurement must be replaced by early and frequent positive transactions between reading, teacher, and texts,”
- We should share with students what intimidates us about reading, how we find time, and how we focus… If we show our readers realities of reading, maturing students will see reading as less burdensome.”
- “What students can learn,” says Stygles, “is how to manage their time, select books reasonably, and justify their reading choices. When students understand their capacity – what they can do successfully – they not only protect themselves from shameful failure, but also become stronger readers through repeated experiences of success and pleasure.”
- “A good exit ticket can tell whether students have a superficial or in-depth understanding of the material,” they write. “Teachers can then use this data for adapting instruction to meet students’ needs the very next day… Exit tickets allow teachers to see where the gaps in knowledge are, what they need to fix, what students have mastered, and what can be enriched in the classroom…
- The key to differentiation is that you have high expectations for all students and a clear objective.
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- Google Docs
- Padlet
- Coggle
- VoiceThread
- Each of these tools allows students to contribute individually to shared creations involving inquiry, peer feedback, and collaborative composition.
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