Yesterday, the president spoke on education: Whether created by parents and teachers or community and civic leaders, charter schools serve as incubators of innovation in neighborhoods across our country. These institutions give educators the freedom to cultivate new teaching models and develop creative methods to meet students’ needs. This unique flexibility is matched by strong …
It’s hard when you read this: With the rise of technology, the democratization of information, and emerging platforms that allow anyone to teach and learn anytime, anywhere, it would be easy to say that things are looking grim for thetraditional teacher (see last Friday’s post). And then you talk to teachers who are so busy setting …
Some good insights: Education obviously is the most powerful thing in the world. And yet the old Mark Twain chestnut — “I never let school get in the way of my education” — speaks to the core of my own thinking regarding education. the real learning requires lots and lots of doing,not just listening. One …
Now this is connected learning: What I really hope that they will take from this process is the ability to navigate their minds around the world in the future — to be able to recall Iran is bordered by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq when these countries continue to influence world events over the next decade. …
Teaching isn’t about a linear train ride starting the year at one place and reaching your destination by May with station stops of assessment along the way. There are days that your students look at you and say: I don’t know that word. I’ve never seen that word. Learning is organic and dynamic and unpredictable. …
“Let’s just pretend,” is how I started my presentation two weeks ago in my Life and Work of the Minister class. I decided to start with that because my book was about considering a change in your ministry position. For some reason, it’s almost impossible for us, as adults, to talk reasonably through the ideas …
Teachers are joining forces and uniting their voices: The high-stakes testing era started with the advent of No Child Left Behind in 2002, and though NCLB has largely been discredited, the Obama administration’s policies have expanded the use of test scores as assessment tools not only for students, but also for teachers and principals. Many …
Many schools that are marketing to young parents are going to have a tough sale because they are a part of a growing number of recent college graduates who couldn’t find work in their profession after investing 4 years and thousands of dollars in the chance for a better job. Many young graduates take lower-paying …
Gaming in education is a topic that many educators are exploring, but is it even possible in the education climate that requires so many levels of approval? There needs to be a momentous change in attitude if this is to become legitimate. Recently in my university course, I wasn’t there when the topic of Scratch …
If school was like Twitter: At first, this ideas sounded intriguing. We would get together in random chats, organizing our thoughts and sharing resources according to shared categories that grow organically. I’d have the permission to speak and to listen, engaging strangers at times and somehow making close friendships in the process. When things got …
