Educational Resources & Tech Tools 03/01/2019

• Using Neuroscience to Launch a Research-Informed School Schedule | EdSurge News

  "Though we had changed many of our pedagogical practices, our schedule was still outdated. We wondered whether we could leverage research in educational neuroscience to transform it."

  tags: neuroscience schedule scheduling SEL

  • Though we had changed many of our pedagogical practices, our schedule was still outdated. We wondered whether we could leverage research in educational neuroscience to transform it.

  • students saw the value of about 90-minutes of quality homework that was assigned for one of three reasons: retrieval practice, to connect or extend prior learning or to be prepared for the next class period.
  • Launching something imperfect when you already have something that is comfortable can be challenging, but it gave us an opportunity to model what we were already messaging to our students about “failing forward.”
  • Any change in a school’s daily schedule impacts the entire school
  • community including students, teachers and families. For our teachers, it was an especially emotional transition.
  • One of the most enjoyable parts of our journey was when we piloted the new schedule for a week in February 2018, seven months before our permanent launch date. While this pilot highlighted some of the schedule’s flaws, it also assured those who were not yet on board that this was a good move.
  • Teachers have reported that longer class periods are elevating the use of multiple modality instruction and allow now students time to go deeper into discussions and projects, or even begin homework during class time.
  • I never heard anyone of them say “we love our daily schedule.” For many school leaders, leveraging research in the sc
  • ence of learning to rethink their daily schedule is truly the next frontier.
  • It has been emotional, and it is a process that makes school systems, administrators, teachers, students and parents think deeply about their priorities and what student-centered truly means. But it is worth it because we now know more about how the brain learns, works, thrives and changes, and we can use that understanding to create a daily schedule that allows each student to be more challenged, creative, healthy and engaged.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 02/15/2019

• Opinion | The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know - The New York Times

  • Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important? Their answer: the ability to master “two codes” — computer science and the U.S. Constitution.
  • if you want to be an empowered citizen in our democracy — able to not only navigate society and its institutions but also to improve and shape them, and not just be shaped by them — you need to know how the code of the U.S. Constitution works.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/31/2019

• The Importance of Self-Care for Administrators | Edutopia

  • “The moment you want to retreat is the exact moment you have to reach in.”

      

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    As an administrator, I use this mantra when the work feels too difficult or the feedback seems too tough, to remind myself that the challenge is also a moment of opportunity.

  • • Making a commitment to a regular practice of reading gives a fresh viewpoint on ways to make your school better.
     
  • In the weekly newsletter I send to my staff, I include a quote from what I’m reading.

  • Make time for exercise and family interactions. Good health is essential to the ability to do our job and must be a priority.

      

  • Each morning, I use daily journaling. On one side of a page, I write, “Grateful For,” and list my items of gratitude. On the other side I write, “Looking Forward To,” and reframe items I might otherwise avoid. For example, instead of writing, “yet another parent conference,” I write, “looking forward to creating a stronger connection with a parent through relationship-building at parent conference.”
  • At the moment we feel most challenged as administrators, it’s important to pause and remember the value of caring for ourselves as well as our students, staff, and schools.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/12/2018

• Many Ways to Be a Girl, but One Way to Be a Boy: The New Gender Rules - The New York Times

  • Yet when it came to their bodies, girls said they did not feel equal. About three-quarters of girls 14 to 19 in the survey said they felt judged as a sexual object or unsafe as a girl. By far, they said society considered physical attractiveness to be the most important female trait — a view that adult women share, surveys have found. Girls were also more likely than boys to say they felt a lot of pressure to put others’ feelings before their own.

  • “I call it boys policing each other to be boyish, particularly when showing emotions or wanting to do something considered feminine, like volleyball or ballet. They have the sense that they can’t stray a bit.”

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/04/2018

• Where Kids Find Hate Online | Common Sense Media

  tags: digital citizenship hate speech bullying cyberbullying diversity

  • Just by playing a game on the internet, looking up a definition, or maybe checking out some music, they'll encounter some of the most vile and offensive words and images that can be expressed in the comments section of a YouTube video, a meme in their feed, or a group chat
  • The intensity of these ideas, the frequency with which kids see them, and the acceptance by so many that it's just part of internet life mean that it's critical to talk to kids about this difficult topic.
  • Are tech companies really that dedicated to free speech, or do they just want more users?
  • But when kids see the horrific race-, religion-, and gender-based attacks committed in the real world by members of online extremist groups, they must wonder why adults can't stop these hate crimes.
  • Ultimately, hate speech is an area where sharing your own family's values -- around compassion and tolerance, appropriate communication, and empathy toward other -- sets a stable path forward for your kids to follow even in unsettled times.
  • How would you feel if you were a member of the group targeted by cruel language?
  • Does it matter if you're exposed to it a lot or a little? Are people with different social statuses -- for example, a popular kid vs. a loner type -- affected differently?
  • What's the difference between hate speech and cyberbullying? If someone is trying to hurt someone, or knows that they're hurting someone, and does it repeatedly, that's cyberbullying. When someone expresses vicious views about a group or toward an attribute of a group, that's hate speech.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.