The Cursed Pencil Sharpener

New data shows school “reformers” are full of it

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:37:27 -0400

New data shows school “reformers” are full of it:

In the great American debate over education, the education and technology corporations, bankrolled politicians and activist-profiteers who collectively comprise the so-called “reform” movement base their arguments on one central premise: that America should expect public schools to produce world-class academic achievement regardless of the negative forces bearing down on a school’s particular students. In recent days, though, the faults in that premise are being exposed by unavoidable reality.

Preach!

Friday night.. I needed to hear this! :D

gjmueller: Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:19:17 -0400

gjmueller:

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Self-Affirmation Can Improve Problem-Solving Under Stress

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:42:09 -0400

Self-Affirmation Can Improve Problem-Solving Under Stress:

According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, self-affirmation is the process of identifying and focusing on your most important values. Doing this can boost problem-solving abilities, the researchers claim.

“An emerging set of published studies suggest that a brief self-affirmation activity at the beginning of a school term can boost academic grade-point averages in underperforming kids at the end of the semester.

Human-Centered Schools: What Schools Can Learn From Google, IDEO, and Pixar

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:31:23 -0400

Human-Centered Schools: What Schools Can Learn From Google, IDEO, and Pixar:

thecompasspoint:

The country’s strongest innovators embrace creativity, play, and collaboration — values that also inform their physical spaces.

Spaces designed for learners that facilitate many modes of learning from individual quiet study to group performance and everything in…

gjmueller: A curriculum crunch for California In California,...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:37:54 -0400

gjmueller:

A curriculum crunch for California

In California, the curriculum standards and the new tests that go with them are supposed to be implemented in the 2014-15 school year.

That’s soon, and at the rate California is going, it won’t be ready. The core curriculum standards lay out extensive guidelines about the knowledge and skills that students should master in each grade of public school, in both reading and math. But there are many complicated steps involved in turning those guidelines into a day-to-day educational plan for California schools, and the state isn’t even close to halfway through them. It hasn’t figured out how to go about training teachers, and won’t begin to adopt new textbooks — a slow and politically rancorous process — for at least two years.

What’s more, common core is expensive, requiring extensive new training for teachers, new textbooks and computers on which the new tests must be taken. It’s unclear where the state will find the money.

image via flickr:CC | woodleywonderworks

world-shaker: Presented without comment.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:57:18 -0400

world-shaker:

Presented without comment.

Photo

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:16:42 -0400

Studies of iPad Use in Education

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:22:57 -0400

Studies of iPad Use in Education:

gjmueller:

FreeTech4Teachers is a great resource for teachers and edtechs like me. This post in particular had a number of links to iPad usage studies, something I’m very interested so I’m putting it here for you, too.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for Victoria, Australia iPads for Learning – In Their Hands field trial studied the use of iPads in nine schools

The iPad as a Tool for Education is a study based on iPad use at Longfield Academy, Kent, England . There is strong emphasis on interpreting the data generated by surveying students and faculty.

Reading With iPads – The Difference Makes a Difference studied the impact on the reading comprehension, knowledge of content, and analysis skills of boys aged 11 to 13 who read using iPads.

Promoting Student Engagement by Integrating New Technology into Tertiary Education: The Role of the iPad studied the use of iPads by teachers and students in distance learning and in-person learning environments.

The Impact of the iPad and iPhone on Education was published in 2010 and is speculative in nature as the students surveyed had not yet been given iPads.

world-shaker: 20 Quick Actions You Can Do Today To Set Your...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:59:03 -0400

world-shaker:

20 Quick Actions You Can Do Today To Set Your Classroom Up For Massive Success

An impressive and thoughtful list. Most of the ideas come with linked resources. Here are three (click through for the rest):

Action #7 Pay attention to noise and light surroundings, which may distract learning (30 minutes)
Teachers only have so many resources and control over the actual classroom structure. Using throw rugs and curtains help to diminish excess noise from hallways or in the room. If you have a reading area, why not set up a table lamp from home for more cozy lighting? It may not seem like much, but the environment plays a big role in a student’s ability to concentrate.

Do you or your parents have any old furniture at home? Adding a chair or couch to a silent reading area will greatly enhance your student’s willingness!
Action #8 Deal with smartphones from the first day with a proactive plan for integration (10 minutes)
Whether you like it or not, smartphones are working into younger and younger hands. Some schools may have a ban on smartphones altogether, but if your school does not, consider creating a plan that uses smartphones in the classroom. Banning them will only give you a headache as you spend hours trying to referee, confiscate, and deal with unruly students. Who wants to waste time doing that?

Why not create a smartphone area in your classroom? Everyone must put his or her smartphone there at the beginning of the day. For five minutes before lunch or after work is finished, they can go over to that area and use it for research or educational gaming. When you work with your students, you might find they are more apt to compromise as well.
Action #9 Create a list of “question words” that help you with effective questioning (10 minutes)
Create a board or poster with excellent words to use in questioning your students. These words can be used not only for instructing, but when students are asked to question each other. The NDT Resource center has an effective list of words to remember.

Education For All: Positively Persistent Teach: Teach for America needs a time out from gambling youth education

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:23:31 -0400

Education For All: Positively Persistent Teach: Teach for America needs a time out from gambling youth education:

ernestmedia:

It was my fifth grade year.

It was a lousy classroom. Kids throwing books across the desk. Paper on the floor, pencils broken. This became routine for the rest of the year and I hardly recall learning anything. What I did remember was a young, insecure teacher that…

theinsidelane: Show Me for iPad Show me is a very popular iPad...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:07:27 -0400

theinsidelane:

Show Me for iPad

Show me is a very popular iPad app among teachers. It can be used simply as a whiteboard allowing teachers to write up notes for their students. You can also import images and annotate them. But the best feature is the ability to record what you write or draw and publish the video on your Show Me account.

As you work out a maths problem or demonstrate how to do cursive handwriting, Show Me will record everything including audio. The resulting video can then be shared with your students via your Show Me account. You can also embed these videos on your blog or website. So instead of going over certain topics time and time again, your students can watch your videos in their own time. I have used Show Me this year to demonstrate some methods for working out maths problems and my students have viewed the videos numerous times at home to help them with homework.

Show Me can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

No ADHD Drugs for Healthy Kids, Say Neurologists

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:36:01 -0400

No ADHD Drugs for Healthy Kids, Say Neurologists:

A new position paper released by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) states that the practice of prescribing cognitive-enhancing drugs (such as ADHD medications) to healthy children and teens is misguided.

The paper lists many factors against the practice of prescribing neuroenhancements for healthy children and teens. These include the following: the child’s best interest; the long-term health and safety of neuroenhancements, which has not been studied in children; kids and teens may lack complete decision-making capacities while their cognitive skills, emotional abilities and mature judgments are still developing; maintaining doctor-patient trust; and the risks of over-medication and dependency.

gjmueller: The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have Build your...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:07:34 -0400

gjmueller:

The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have

Build your PLN

Establish real relationships in your PLN

Understand where edtech fits in

Know how to find useful resources

Manage your online reputation

Blog

Slow down

Make social media work for you

Don’t be afraid to fail

Know when to disconnect

You can print this image, the PDF is available here.

laureateiu: Education is always a wise investment and formal...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:24:54 -0400

laureateiu:

Education is always a wise investment and formal education increases your self-confidence, helps you reach your goals, improves your attitude by learning and sharing knowledge and increases your earning potential. Learn more from the following infographic.

dot-ed: storyboard: Bringing Orchestra to the Social Masses...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:17:55 -0500

dot-ed:

storyboard:

Bringing Orchestra to the Social Masses

Kristi Seehafer, first violinist with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, started playing the violin in the fourth grade.The reason she picked up the instrument in the first place was out of grumbling necessity: She had to get her own because her brother wouldn’t let her touch his.

What began as sibling rivalry gave way to full-blown wonder and then, once she was older, to the discovery of her life’s calling, after she fell under the spell of a performance in her hometown by the Milwaukee Symphony. It was a night she remembers that something clicked, “and I knew I had to play in an orchestra.”

Her telling of that story is captured in a YouTube video clip. That it’s posted to the orchestra’s Tumblr page is revelatory. Physically, symphony orchestras perform at a considerable distance from their audiences, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra is no different. Its home is the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which includes a 30,000-square-foot concert hall. Given that size, it’s not an easy task to foster a close bond between performer and listener.

Read More

world-shaker: How A Teacher Turned To Technology To Solve A...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:29:04 -0500

world-shaker:

How A Teacher Turned To Technology To Solve A Thorny Problem And Raised $100K

The clincher, the thing that made Quick Key go viral, was a poorly-lit video of an excitable guy holding his iPhone up to a Scantron page, one of those test pages you used to fill out in school. He thumbs through page after page, making comments on students’ performance as the app scans the page and instantly reports a grade. The video was amazingly compelling. The creator, Walter O. Duncan IV, can barely contain his excitement. His app looked great, it worked seamlessly, and the video struck a nerve with students and teachers, pocketing 260,000 views on YouTube and popping up on the front page of Reddit.

Class Struggle - How charter schools get students they want

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:01:49 -0500

Class Struggle - How charter schools get students they want:

gjmueller:

Charter advocates say it’s a fair fight because both types of schools are free and open to all. “That’s a bedrock principle of our movement,” said Jed Wallace, president of the California Charter Schools Association. And indeed, many states require charter schools to award seats by random lottery.

But as Reuters has found, it’s not that simple. Thousands of charter schools don’t provide subsidized lunches, putting them out of reach for families in poverty. Hundreds mandate that parents spend hours doing “volunteer” work for the school or risk losing their child’s seat. In one extreme example the Cambridge Lakes Charter School in Pingree Grove, Illinois, mandates that each student’s family invest in the company that built the school - a practice the state said it would investigate after inquiries from Reuters.

4 Ways to Enhance Teaching WIth Mind Maps

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:27:50 -0500

4 Ways to Enhance Teaching WIth Mind Maps:

world-shaker:

holtthink:

I really like mind maps, and I REALLY like mind mapping tools like Inspiration Software’s Inspiration Maps for iPad. I don’t know why Mind Mapping isnt used more frequently in classes, there tons of free ones out there like bubble.us.

Click on the Title to go to the link.

Edudemic explains how the following activities can be enhanced by mind mapping–techniques that can be integrated easily into class to improve teaching efficiency and student comprehension:

Brainstorming

Teamwork

Presentations

Assignments

Loves me some mind maps!

gjmueller: whatiscollegefor asks: Why Did 17 Million Students...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:59:44 -0500

gjmueller:

whatiscollegefor asks:

Why Did 17 Million Students Go to College?

Over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees (over 8,000 of them have doctoral or professional degrees), along with over 80,000 bartenders, and over 18,000parking lot attendants. All told, some 17,000,000 Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that the BLS says require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor’s degree.

The relentless claims of the Obama administration and others that having more college graduates is necessary for continued economic leadership is incompatible with this view. Putting issues of student abilities aside, the growing disconnect between labor market realities and the propaganda of higher-education apologists is causing more and more people to graduate and take menial jobs or no job at all. This is even true at the doctoral and professional level—there are 5,057 janitors in the U.S. with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees.

Hmm. Again. I’d say if considering what to study, put away your passions. If you love writing don’t major in English. Unless you’re ready to move to LA or NY and actively pursue your dreams, go ahead and put English as a minor and study Finance/STEM major or something where employment is reliable. Like if you’re studying Film you have to be ready to HUSTLE. If not, then…go to a job interview and with Film on your resume, doors won’t exactly fly open. Because what skills does a Film, Economics, Political Science, or Art degree bring with it? It’s about being marketable. And about the PhD’s Well the teaching market is changing. So a PhD isn’t a sure thing for a job; Obviously it’s about what you study as well.

Also it’s about grad school. A Women’s Study major may get limited play. But combined with an advanced degree it’s more marketable.

Pick degrees with caution.

from-student-to-teacher: “Discussion Tables” - Pick a passage...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:01:59 -0500

from-student-to-teacher:

“Discussion Tables” - Pick a passage from a book you are reading and glue it to the center of bulletin board paper and have the students write their thoughts about the passage.