Is it me, or are they sending us back to the Stone Age as quickly as possible.
You can follow whatever religion you want. But I don't believe you have the right to refuse business to someone.
This just seems all too much like Jim Crow all over again to me. So you refuse to serve gays. What's next? Refusing Catholics? African Americans? Nursing Mothers? Lutherans? Muslims? Home Schoolers? Injured American Veterans? Lesbians? White Trash? Norwegians? South Paws?
Just where is the line drawn? And just who decides?
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This spring I am fortunate to be part of a panel at UND that will presenting on the importance of environments in education to help solidify the relationship between UND and the teachers it produces.
The part of the panel I'm on will focus on the learning environment, which encompasses instruction and assessment.
We certainly don't have all the details figured out yet, but some of the issues we will be looking at will be differentiation, planning, assessing, and growing as a first year teacher.
This link is a great way for me to start thinking about these issues.
Here is another link I came across that will work - I think - for our focus on teaching and instructions. The title of this post is "Why The Best Teachers Change Their Minds."
Jodi Holen, the leader of our panel, said something that is still resounding in my mind: "The textbook is not curriculum." For the first few years of my life as a teacher, that was not how I viewed things. I clung to the textbook like a life preserver. But now I don't even use one.
I have come full circle. I don't think any specific text is your curriculum. And this may shock some, but I don't necessarily think the standards are the curriculum either. I think the standards are a map or guide, but not the total curriculum.
I have come to realize that curriculum is actual a combination of students (and where they are individually at as learners), standards, and process/theory.
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As a 1:1 district, we hear this message daily: don't use technology in a trivial way. If you're going to redesign your curriculum, don't use technology simply for technology sake. Instead, make sure that the technology enhances a vital skill or brings something innovative to the subject or task.
Of course, Marc Prensky agrees.
I especially like these points
• Connect with people around the world (e.g. using Twitter and Skype)
• Do complex analyses (e.g. using Wolfram Alpha)
• Create new software (e.g. making Apps)
• Create new physical products (e.g. using CAD and 3D printing)
• Simulate machines and populations (e.g. using computer-based simulation tools)
• Meet in Virtual Worlds (e.g. using Second Life)
• Build and program robots (e.g. using Lego Mindstorms)
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And this is amazing.
A high school student with an aggressive form of brain cancer gets to graduate early. And his high school rallies around him.
As sad as this would be, I have no doubt we would do this same exact thing at LHS. Our culture is that strong.
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Speaking of using technology to enhance assignments and to spark creativity: here are 8 online websites to create cool student projects.
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Interested in using Genius Hour in your classroom? Here is one of my favorite bloggers putting it into practice in his classroom.
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One of my all-time favorite education texts is Neil Postman's The End of Education. I try to re-read it every year or so. I learn something new every time. Though I don't agree with all of his views, I still love the way he thinks.
Here is a great review of the book.
And - best of all - here is a interview with the author.
One thing I think Postman hits right on the head, and one thing we're working on at Lincoln through our Ramp Up and Linc program is that if we don't know what jobs our students will have in 10 years, how can we hope to educate them for the jobs? Instead of just teaching specific skills (or simply vocational skills), we need to teach skills that are best brought out through a liberal arts curriculum: critical thinking skills, how to justify and support your opinion, how to view both sides of an issue, and so on. In fact, just last week in my Linc session we studied the concept of globalization and why it's important to us. And we focused on issues like acceptance, understanding, values, and so on.
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Here is one of my all time favs, Seth Godin - on how schools should change.
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And for the pure fun of it: The Worst Tattoo Spelling Fails.
This is the best advocate for learning how to spell correctly.'
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If you haven't seen any of the Everything Is a Remix series, check them out. They're a great tool to get students to think about creativity and how everything builds off of concepts. This would be especially effective if you're teaching about archetypes.
Here is the newest installment -
Everything is a Remix Case Study: The iPhone from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.
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And this is awesome! I could watch these all day
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This is so true!
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Of course, #1 is my favorite!
And #3 is one I live by. I think every teacher should do this. The more you show your students that you have passions and you are a life long learner, the more they are going to see you as someone they can relate to and - best of all - someone they want to emulate.
And that last comment led me right into #10 (be the person your students want to become). In fact, I was lucky enough to see these Tweets from two of my former students who themselves are now teachers!
And another of my favorites is #12 (Be a student of your students). Maybe that's why I feel like I'm constantly planning! I'm constantly evolving as a teacher because I'm always learning from my students.
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Despite this dire forecast on how American students stack up against the rest of the world
So since these high stakes have been put in place in 2000 (thanks No Child Left Behind), our scores have remained stagnant.
But we sure don't want this -- "The Costs of Shanghai's Education Success Story."
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