Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Monday, October 14, 2013

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Best Projects

Project Based Learning (PBL) is something we all strive to perfect. I love coming across articles with lists that teachers can quickly reference like this one. Some of the ideas in this article are new to me so thought I'd share it.

From Edutopia:

Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, is a 100 percent project-based learning school. They are part of the New Tech Network of schools and their approach has yielded remarkable results, including a 98 percent graduation rate, with all of their graduates accepted to college.

The success of their PBL approach is largely attributable to the fact that their process is designed to stimulate student inquiry. Additionally, their process can be applied to any project in any subject, which means there is a consistent approach across grades and subjects at Manor.

Read on for all of the steps:

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices-guide?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=STW-pbl-plan-tip

Google Apps for Education: Getting Organized with gClass Folders

I love using Twitter! I just conducted a quick search on gClass Folders and found that this article had been tweeted a lot. This is a nice overview with some screenshots.

Google Apps for Education: Getting Organized with gClass Folders:

'via Blog this'

Friday, October 11, 2013

Why We're Here

Interesting article from Slate reiterating some of what we've been saying.  A quote of note:

"Hear Me is now less about the technology and more about the guidance and structure—the “scaffolding,” to borrow a favorite term of educators—that comes from mentors sitting with, listening to, and challenging kids to take their ideas to the next level. As Pachuta says: “Personal interaction makes technology meaningful”—and it also makes the technology secondary.

It’s a lesson that bears repeating as Smart Boards have become ubiquitous in today’s classrooms and school districts, such as Los Angeles Unified, are spending millions on fleets of new iPads. Technology rollouts can become a waste of time and money if there isn’t adequate focus on the people who will be interacting with students while using the technology."

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Evernote

Hey gang. I have a brief moment and have decided to post something quick. I requested that the Evernote Web Clipper Chrome extension be allowed for installation. If you use Evernote, it looks to be fairly useful. More info:  http://evernote.com/webclipper/whats_new/chrome/?firstlaunch

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Writing Instruction & the Common Core

Response: Writing Instruction & the Common Core - Part Three - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo - Education Week Teacher:

and  Writing for an Audience in Edutopia

thinking about support writing and thinking.

Writing is about communicating ideas and thoughts. Writers are authors. Authoring means much more than writing though, as we approach common core writing standards, how bound by traditional written text do we need to be?