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Create an Engineering Mystery Bag Challenge for Kids | Childhood101
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Why Cliques Form at Some High Schools and Not Others - The Atlantic
- Most high schools segregate by "type," whether it's age, class, ethnic background, or volume of face makeup.
- The way high schools are designed—their size, their level of diversity, and the way they treat students—can either drive students to segregate based on things like household income and race, or force them to build relationships that are more about their high school life than their socioeconomic backgrounds.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/26/2014
Monday, November 24, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/25/2014
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Why Cliques Form at Some High Schools and Not Others - The Atlantic
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"In smaller schools, and in smaller classrooms, you force people to interact, and they are less hierarchical, less cliquish, and less self-segregated.”
<!--INSERT IN_ARTICLE AD--> - "In classrooms with assigned seating, you’re forced to sit next to someone whom you wouldn’t otherwise interact, and that tends to break down the tendency to segregate by background,” McFarland said.
- Instead, McFarland’s biggest point isn’t about how we ought to organize our schools, but rather
- But smaller schools, smaller classrooms, and forced interactions between students with different backgrounds make us different than big classes, big schools, and an unfettered freedom to pick friends by the first thing we can see about them
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The Art of Facilitating Teacher Teams | Edutopia
Three domains mentioned about how to facilitate teacher team meetings.
- Note that I'm using the term "facilitator" to mean the person who plans and designs agendas as well as who guides a team through processes outlined on an agenda
- we know that great attention must be paid to how a meeting is designed.
- The purpose of the meeting and desired outcomes are articulated and connected to the school's vision, mission, and big goals
- a variety of structures or protocols to meet the desired outcomes.
- anticipates the emotional, cognitive and energy needs of the participants
- planning reflects an awareness of how power dynamics and systemic oppression may manifest in this group and seeks to interrupt these dynamics
- We want to ensure that all will voices will be heard and will have equal access to decision-making and input.
- Frame the purpose and desired outcomes for the meeting and review agenda.
- Articulate the role participants will play in the meeting
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- Name any decision-making points and processes that will be used
- Identify the structures or activities that will be used in this meeting and how they'll connect to the desired outcomes
- Articulate expectations for behavior or procedures
- Determine structures to hold members accountable (self-monitoring and reflection, use of process observer, use of a team process rubric)
- Use a variety of listening strategies including paraphrasing and active listening
- Use a variety of questioning strategies to probe thinking and elicit new ideas
- encourage conflict about ideas verses interpersonal or inter-team conflict)
- Use data gathered in the moment to modify and inform facilitation
- Protect time for reflection and feedback within the established time
- Hold team members accountable to agreements, goals, structures, and protocols
- use various strategies to help a group a recover from a breakdown
- Read the group's emotional and energetic state and adjust accordingly
- Hold the expectation that members will learn, think creatively, and push each others' thinking
- Show up as a grounded, calm presence that believes in the capacity of team members
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3 Strategies to Improve Student Writing Instantly | Edutopia
- Identify an app or tool that will transcribe speaking into text. Some options for this include PaperPortNotes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dictation Pro, VoiceTranslator, or a text-to-speech tool that is built into many smartphones. Try one of these to your phone, tablet, or computer.
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Tips for Coaching Teacher Teams | Edutopia
- It can be very, very, painfully slow to build trust in a group of adults -- but it can be done, and you as the facilitator have to believe it can be done.
- Trust grows in tiny little ways when people are open and authentic, when they ask real questions and listen to each other, when they share their stories and others hold space for those stories, and when they do things together and those things go well. So create space for speaking and listening, ensure that everyone is participating, and then give them something to do.
- When we do things together that are new and challenging (but within our zone of proximal development), our brains actually produce hormones that make us feel good and feel closer to each other.
- As a facilitator, it's our job to clarify purpose and raise it, integrate it, and reference it all the time.
- Purpose needs to be connected to a school's mission, vision, and goals. When there isn't alignment and correlation, again, we can get lost.
- even if we trust and like each other, we need to know why we're there.
- while you can have a lot of power in a team, you may not have had the skill development to do so.
- And then it happened! They opened up and started sharing their fears and concerns, they asked meaningful questions, and they started learning together
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Friday, November 21, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/18/2014
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Beyond Minecraft: Games That Inspire Building and Exploration | MindShift
Five gaming options for teaching principles of science and math.
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How to perform stronger Google searches.
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Report: Teachers Better at Using Tech than Digital Native Students -- THE Journal
- According to a recent study of middle school science students and teachers, the teachers tended to have greater technology use.
- Do school-age students fit the digital native profile? Do school-age students surpass their teachers in terms of technology use? What roles do teachers play in shaping students' technology experiences inside the classroom?
- "In many ways," the researchers wrote, "it is determined by the requirements teachers place on their students to make use of new technologies and the ways teachers integrate new technologies in their teaching."
- "School-age students may be fluent in using entertainment or communication technologies, but they need guidance to learn how to use these technologies to solve sophisticated thinking problems," Wang noted. "The school setting is the only institution that might create the needs to shape and facilitate students' technology experience. Once teachers introduce students to a new technology to support learning, they quickly learn how to use it."
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Making School About Connection | Edutopia
The relationships that teachers build with students are far more important than the content and the tests that they deliver.
- No one looking back on his or her school experience remembers a particularly poignant test. Instead, people remember the teacher who reached out to them at a vulnerable moment, the unit that changed the way they understand an issue, or the project that seemed impossible at first but then became something far beyond everyone's expectations.
- Warm, genuine greetings and attempts to connect can have a large impact.
- Classrooms based on a foundation of respect encourage people to be kind and the best versions of themselves.
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What can be done to bring more students into the mainstream and alleviate feelings of marginalization?
- If the first message that students get about their work is what is wrong or how it is deficient, they are less likely to invest themselves in revision, and less likely to work hard in the future.
- If students hear what is interesting, special, or unique about their work, they will more likely be open to suggestions for improvement.
- Create rituals that help everyone laugh and be willing to pause the action to appreciate each other. Congratulate a class when they complete a large project.
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Friday, November 14, 2014
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/09/2014
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Google Forms: Formative Assessment Tips | Teacher Tech
Tips on how to use forms for assessments. Could also use them for setting up differentiated instruction
Monday, November 3, 2014
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