Teaching to reach every single student

eSchool News online - States: Ed tech is raising student achievement

This article is a preliminary report on a large-ish set of studies which investigate the benefits of technology in education, especially in K-12 schools.

Here is a summary:

In comparing the results from demographically similar control and experimental schools, Wolf said, state researchers have found some significant differences in areas such as student engagement, achievement, and discipline.

These differences are especially pronounced when certain factors are in place, she added, such as high-quality, ongoing professional development in the use of technology to support learning; effective school leadership; and a curriculum that personalizes instruction. eSchool News online - States: Ed tech is raising student achievement

 This article does a pretty good job defining some terms and situations and some key areas of controversy.

I think there should be much discussion of the issue wherever we fall in using technology in our classrooms/schools/districts.

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Teacher Magazine: Adventures of a School Tech Specialist

This is a commentary from a school technology specialist outlining “168 hours in June.”

I really liked the “in the chair” quality of the report, along with the tools that this professional was using. Some of which, like Microsoft’s Photostory, were new to me.

I recommend you check out the list of projects that STUDENTS are doing: slideshows, podcasts, photography. In addition to the students being authors of most of these projects (as it should be), their audience seems to be primarily other students as well.

School 2.0?

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In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind - New York Times

This article in today’s New York Times discusses teaching students “mindfulness:”

Mindfulness, while common in hospitals, corporations, professional
sports and even prisons, is relatively new in the education of
squirming children. But a small but growing number of schools in places
like Oakland and Lancaster, Pa., are slowly embracing the concept — as
they did yoga five years ago — and institutions, like the psychology
department at Stanford University and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, are trying to measure the effects.

During
a five-week pilot program at Piedmont Avenue Elementary, Miss Megan,
the “mindful” coach, visited every classroom twice a week, leading 15
minute sessions on how to have “gentle breaths and still bodies.” The
sound of the Tibetan bowl reverberated at the start and finish of each
lesson.

The techniques, among them focused breathing and
concentrating on a single object, are loosely adapted from the work of
Jon Kabat-Zinn, the molecular biologist who pioneered the secular use
of mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 to help medical patients cope with chronic pain, anxiety and depression.
Susan Kaiser Greenland, the founder of the InnerKids Foundation, which
trains schoolchildren and teachers in the Los Angeles area, calls
mindfulness “the new ABC’s — learning and leading a balanced life.”

I am interested to see what results are accomplished in the (probably large) number of research studies that are tracking effects.

I am also interested in the combination of the quiet of this practice and the collaborative nature of the Read/Write web tools that I believe are so important to our students’ learning.

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Schools consider eliminating homework grades

This article reports on an initiative in Middletown Ohio to revise their policy on homework. According to the article:

Under the proposed policy, homework would no longer be graded toward a
report card grade and is clearly defined as specific tasks to be
completed outside of school hours. The proposal also includes a
stipulation that homework not be assigned with the assumption that
parents or guardians will provide students with supplemental materials
or assistance.

One of their basic ideas is to refocus the homework on self-assessment and reflection. Interesting, these are the types of assignments that I have found most effective on my class blog. Another key idea is to achieve parity. Since parents often help with homework and not all students have access to this type of help at home, changing the emphasis of homework tries to level the playing field.

Check here too for some commendary from Education Week magazine, along with a video of part of the Board discussion.

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