Monthly Archives: February 2012

Flipped Classroom Infographic #flippedclassroom #blendedlearning #edtech

Flipped Classroom Infographic #flippedclassroom #blendedlearning #edtech. Perhaps some of you have heard of the “flipped” classroom. Essentially the reason that it’s “flipped” is because the traditional “delivery of information” e.g., lecture, is  not done in the classroom but online as homework and the classroom is reserved for more experiential learning. There are many things to commend this model but there are also some question (and other observations) but let’s take it at it’s face value and commend it for being one way of increasing student efficacy for their own learning and helping teachers step back to focus on how to engage students in classrooms.

Advertisement

What’s Your Best Guess? Predicting Answers Leads to Deeper Learning | MindShift

Engaging students can take a variety of forms from cooperative grouping to the use of questioning strategies. What’s Your Best Guess? Predicting Answers Leads to Deeper Learning | MindShift provides one example of the latter. By having student predict you can activate curiosity within the student thereby keeping them engaged. It’s not an answer for all situations but a good tool for the teachers’ tool bag.

Metro Student Field Trip Program

Metro Student Field Trip Program sounds fantastic! It could really be a model of how other agencies can help schools in these tough fiscal times. The ability to take students on field trips and eliminate transportation costs is a huge benefit that can not be overstated. Thanks Metro!

Educational-Blogging – Home

I blog therefor I am? People blog for all sorts of reasons and interests. However as an educator, teachers can blog for the purpose of supporting student learning. Find out how and why to start a blog for your classroom at Educational-Blogging – Home.

Online course

At a meeting regarding online classes. State law needs to change to adapt to the new method of delivering instruction. Hybrid or blended online environments address a lot of the issues that are challenges for schools and skeptics.

20120209-120819.jpg

Shift Away from ‘Seat Time’ on Display in States

Shift Away from ‘Seat Time’ on Display in States – State EdWatch – Education Week, finally! As we move more towards a unified set of standards and expectations we must align our own measures of how we determine success. To simply use  seat time as the basis for credits is becoming unsustainable as we move towards requiring students to display mastery of subjects. If a student can demonstrate mastery of a subject should it really matter how long it took; whether it was twenty weeks or twenty days. This approach could be a win-win for both GATE students and at-risk students. GATE students can move quickly or more in depth into subjects and at-risk students can have more tailored programs building upon knowledge they have and not assuming they come in as a table rasa. This sort of movement is clearly could add to the flywheel of improving student achievement.

Learning and Development in After-School Programs

Learning and Development in After-School Programs describes not only the importance of after school programming to improve student achievement but it also describes how collaboration can take place between schools and after school programs.

Tackling the Toughest Turnaround — Low-Performing High Schools

Tackling the Toughest Turnaround — Low-Performing High Schools describes some of the same finding I found in my own research. One of the points mutually described is the importance of data to recognize the “terrain” and provide direction. Additionally, building leadership capacity among all stakeholders is critical. No one group can do it alone; school improvement requires everyone pulling in the same direction.

Putting Off-Track Youths Back on Track to College

“Middle Colleges” have shown proven success throughout the state. Many of the best (i.e., 10/10) secondary schools are Middle College schools. Putting Off-Track Youths Back on Track to College now looks at the middle college model and shows how it can be used to address the need of students at risk of dropping out. By connecting secondary schools with colleges and other “linked learning” students see the connection between what they are studying in school to future careers and their own interests.