Term 2 Week 6 - e-Learning

Upcoming Events

• 13th - 19th June - National gifted awareness week. Don't forget to visit the TKI Gifted & Talented community for ideas on how to support our gifted and talented students.
• Wednesday 15th June - National Support Staff Day
• Friday 17th June - World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
• World Refugee Day is on 20th June with events around the country.

Professional Reading

• A relatively old (2004) but nevertheless interesting paper from Rosemary Hipkins (NZCER) about the possibility of changing the way the curriculum is delivered in secondary schools.
• Teaching Secrets: Asking the Right Questions - by Elizabeth Stein. How the right questions can help students learn. Special-education teacher Elizabeth Stein offers suggestions for asking questions to determine whether students understand material or are merely recycling facts. Stein, who co-teaches an inclusion class, suggests educators first create an atmosphere conducive to meaningful learning. Then, she writes, teachers should ask open-ended, diagnostic and other questions that encourage students to analyze and evaluate what they have learned.  

e-Learning Strategy
Do you know anything about "flip-thinking" or the "flipped classroom"? I didn't until today. Read all about it here or get involved in a webinar about the concept. This "flipped classroom" concept is one that we would need to adapt in NZ because we don't tend to encourage lecture style teaching anyway. Similar things are being done here at SMC - the Science Faculty were recording demonstrations for students to watch at home on the Science wikis that they've set up and Tim has been creating help videos for all sorts of e-products that we need to know how to use. Has anyone else been doing anything similar? Last year I videoed myself planning and writing an essay on my laptop for my Y13 class but was too embarrassed to upload it anywhere - anyone else hate the sound of their own voice...??

Term 2 Week 5 - differentiation

Upcoming Events

• Samoan Language Week runs from 1 – 7th June and the Human Rights Commission has details in both Samoan and English, scroll down the page for the English text.
• Matariki is on the 4th June
• World Environment Day and Arbor Day are on 5th June
• World Oceans Day is on 8th June
  

Professional Reading
The Flexible Teacher - Leila Christenbury: Good teaching comes not from following a recipe, but from consistently putting student needs first.

The Overpressured Student - Richard Weissbourd: What school can do to curb destructive forms of academic pressure.


Differentiation Strategies
Objectives That Students Understand - Robert J. Marzano: Even seemingly straightforward classroom strategies like providing students with instructional objectives can be executed more or less effectively.

Giving students choices is a great way to differentiate for student needs and interests. This wiki has choice board templates that you can use or adapt to create resources for the topics that you teach.

Term 2 Week 4 - an engaged classroom

Upcoming Events
21-29 May - Youth Week
31 May - Smoke-free Day


With us all having exam marking and other pressures on our time, this week's post is a link to a discussion on edutopia: An Engaged Classroom . . . Dos and Don'ts. Hopefully the ideas shared by the teachers involved in the discussion might be things we can try or go back to doing when we return to our full teaching loads next week.

Term 2 Week 3: A little bit on understanding, thinking & creativity

Upcoming Events:
22 May - International Day for Biological Diversity - Theme for 2011: Forest Biodiversity

Professional Reading:
Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?
The learning environment needs to be one in which students feel respected and safe to take risks; kids need to feel that their learning has a purpose and that the curriculum is relevant to their lives; and students need feedback on their progress -- they need to know what they're trying to accomplish, where they are in relation to the goal, and what they need to do in order to get there.
This blog post is also interesting - What is understanding?

Good teachers may not fit the mold
Research suggests that good teachers possess a few simple, quantifiable attributes.

Thinking/ Creative Strategy:

Using nonlinguistic representation
Is a picture really worth a thousand words? According to brain researcher John Medina (Brain Rules, 2008), when we receive information orally, we only remember about 10 percent of the content three days later. However, when that information is paired with a picture, we're likely to remember 65 percent of the content.

In Classroom Instruction that Works, McREL applied this research and found that when used correctly, nonlinguistic representations (e.g., graphic organizers, mindmaps, mental pictures, and manipulatives) can have a powerful, positive effect on student learning. So the next time you introduce a new concept in your classroom, remember to pair it with a "picture" to improve retention. This is where tools such as Hyerle Thinking Maps, picture dictations etc. come in to play.

Thinking on the Spot (from the Auckland SCT wiki)- use this powerpoint to encourage students to think quickly. Adapt it to suit your curriculum area and it could be used as a quick, fun plenary, especially for afternoon classes.

Term 2 Week 2 - Literacy Strategies

Upcoming Events:
14 May - World Fair Trade Day
14 May - World Migratory Bird Day
15 May - International Day of Families
22 May - International Day for Biological Diversity

Professional Reading:
Reading to Learn - these articles from Educational Leadership have a reading focus. Some you can access online. If an article that you are interested in reading has "Buy article" under it, I can print the article for you (you just need to let me know).

Study: Why students might struggle with basic lessons
Material that is initially easy for students to understand might be difficult for them to remember -- a phenomena that researchers call the "stability bias." New research shows that classroom lessons that are more difficult for students to comprehend at the onset and require more in-depth study will actually be easier in some cases for them to recall at a later date.

The role of HoDs in promoting student achievement

Literacy Strategies:
Question the Author - a comprehension strategy that requires students to pose queries while reading the text in order to challenge their understanding and solidify their knowledge (Beck et al., 1997). Primarily used with nonfiction text, QtA lets students critique the author's writing and in doing so engage with the text to create a deeper meaning.

Picture Dictation - general description of how to use this strategy
(info from TKI)
The teacher describes a picture, or sequence of pictures, to students who draw what they hear. The aim is for close listening, the drawing should be quick and simple.

Normally the exercise takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on the length of the dictation.

Prepare a text that is appropriate to the level of the learners, is written in simple visual terms and has a series of steps.
1. Tell the students the number of visuals they will be drawing, or the shape of the picture if there is only one.
2. Read each step aloud to the class twice, allowing time for the drawing.
3. Where there is a series of visuals, the students work in pairs to retell the sequence.
4. The students check their visual against the original.

Social Sciences example

I've used this strategy when students are working on understanding a complex concepts - such as the tragic hero in Shakespeare. I read out short descriptions of the different aspects of the tragic hero which the students draw. When we have finished they have to go back and write a caption relating to each picture showing that they understand what makes up a tragic hero.

General resources:

I thought it was timely (due to the Pasifika/ Maori mentoring session that is on tonight) to send out information about the Pasifika Education Community on TKI. There are videos and other resources to support teachers to better meet the needs of our Pasifika students, including developing a better understanding of the different Pasifika cultures.

• This video “Strengthening Relationships” is an introduction to how we can better meet the needs of our Pasifika students through the relationships that we have with them.
  



• This video collection considers the diversity of our Pasifika students' groups and their communities.

Splat the Teacher

Term 2 has definitely started with a hiss and a roar so this week's PD Bite is quick and practical.

Splat the teacher is a simple 1 page powerpoint file for 2 teams answering 10 questions each on any topic. As each question is answered the 'splats' get closer to the teacher until the answer to question 10 obliterates him/her. Save the file from the wiki page (http://smc-sct.wikispaces.com/Starters+and+Plenaries) and then you can substitute the picture of the teacher for whatever you like. For example, in English classes the game could be Splat Shakespeare. I haven't used this resource yet but it seems like a good plenary activity with 10 questions based on what has been covered in the lesson/ unit.
The powerpoint was provided by Carol Young (Facilitator in Quality Teaching - Team Solutions).

Term 1 Week 11 - e-learning & lots of readings

Upcoming Events:

14 Apr - Pink Shirt Day (bullying)

18 April - Earth day

2-8 May Global Action Week 2011: Yes She Can! Global Action Week (GAW) will take place from 2-8 May 2011, under the theme of "Women and Girls' Education". With the slogan, "It's a Right, Make it Right: Education for Girls and Women Now!" and sub-slogan "Yes She Can", the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), as main organizer, has announced that GAW 2011's main activity will revolve around "story telling", also referred to as "The Big Story". The main activity aims to link the local group and school work with the national and global events. With only 5 years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve all Education for All goals, the GCE reminds the international community once again, their task of being the 'voice for the voiceless' by increasing the frequency of their demands from governments to live up to their commitments in education. The international community is encouraged to involve policy makers and politicians to address problems that hinder girls' access to school and to provide women, regardless of age, the basic skills training needed.

For more information, download:

• Global Action Week Planning Pack


• Global Action Week Resource Pack

Professional Reading:

This week I have tried to come up with a few readings/ viewings that may interest you over the holidays. Some are to do with this week’s theme – e-learning – others are of general interest.

Articles from Educational Leadership Magazine: Teaching Screenagers (February 2011):

• Teaching the iGeneration - Larry D. Rosen - How to use students' immersion in technology to enrich their learning.


• Publishers, Participants All - Will Richardson - Building an online presence is a literacy for our times.


• Too Dumb for Complex Texts? - Mark Bauerlein - How online reading discourages students from grappling with difficult content.


• How I Became a Convert to Online Learning - Nick Kremer - The benefits of online learning, from a former skeptic.


• Research Says… / One-to-One Laptop Programs Are No Silver Bullet - Bryan Goodwin - One-to-one initiatives engender enthusiasm but have mixed results.


• The Art & Science of Teaching / Making the Most of Instructional Rounds - Robert J. Marzano - Observing fellow teachers' instruction increases energy for change.


• Digitally Speaking / Good Teaching Trumps Good Tools - William M. Ferriter - The key is choosing tools that align with the skills you're trying to teach.


• Principal Connection / Taming the To-Do List - Joanne Rooney - Are there solutions for pervasive busyness?

I have a subscription to Educational Leadership magazine so if any of the following articles sound like something you would like to read, let me know and I will make a copy for you.

• Using Websites Wisely - Julie Coiro and Jay Fogleman - A look at instructional websites you will want to use with your students.


• Adventures with Cell Phones - Liz Kolb - Why it's time to stop banning cell phones and start integrating them into learning.


• What Screenagers Say About … - Pete Davidson, Alison Enzinna, Casey Gannon, Samoris Hall, Corinne Hayward, Ogechi Irondi, Ashley Magnifico, Terence Perry and Michael Virag - … multitasking, PowerPoint, the downside of technology, and more.


• High-Tech Cruelty - Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin - What can prevent bullying inside and outside of school?


• Let's Hear It For … - Matt Federoff, Troy Hicks, Anthony Mangiacapre, Erin Reilly, Ryan Imbriale, Eric Sheninger, Dan Meyer and Eric Langhorst - … all the devices technology leaders wish they had had when they were students.


• A Technology Plan That Works - Amy Overbay, Melinda Mollette and Ellen S. Vasu - Technology plans must be about people, not technology.


• Making the Most of Your Class Website - Lemoyne S. Dunn - How to extend learning with your own class website.


• The Need for Computer Science - Jane Margolis, Joanna Goode and David Bernier - High school computer science classes can propel students into promising careers.


• How PowerPoint Is Killing Education - Marc Isseks - Can we dodge those bullets—and use PowerPoint more effectively?

Articles from Educational Leadership Magazine: What students need to learn (March 2011):

• The Humanities: Why Such a Hard Sell? - David J. Ferrero - The economic aims of education should not obscure the personal and civic purposes of schooling.


• A Diploma Worth Having - Grant Wiggins - Why we should abolish lock-step requirements and establish a forward-looking, client-centered curriculum.


• Knowing Your Learning Target - Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long - No matter what we want students to learn, not much will happen until they know what to aim for.


• Research Says… / High-Stakes Testing Narrows the Curriculum - Jane L. David - The content of tests becomes the learning goal for students.


• Art and Science of Teaching / Relating to Students: It's What You Do That Counts - Robert J. Marzano - Teachers' actions—not their feelings—influence students' perception that their teachers care.


• Digitally Speaking / Becoming Digitally Resilient - William M. Ferriter - Tools that disappear, blocked websites, failing services—getting used to unpredictability is part of the job.


• Among Colleagues / How Can We Promote Teacher Collaboration? - Question by Andre Potvin. Responses in print and online by Amy Lockhart, Patsy Pouiller, Kimberly Kappler Hewitt, Doreen Knuth, and Misty M. LaCour


• Teaching Science Literacy - Maria Grant and Diane Lapp - How to foster a complex understanding of compelling everyday science.


• Staying Civil - Wayne Journell - Political tolerance can be taught—but only if supported through practice.


• More Than Meets the Eye - Bonnie B. Rushlow - A good visual arts program is the hub of a top-notch school.

Articles that I can copy for you if you let me know:

• What Students Really Need to Learn - Lynne Munson - Concentrating on content is common practice in most high-achieving countries.


• Building on the Common Core - David T. Conley - The Common Core State Standards offer an opportunity to shift away from shallow test prep to a focus on complex cognitive skills.


• Ethics: From Thought to Action - Robert J. Sternberg - Ethical action is a 21st century skill deserving of a place in schools.


• What At-Risk Readers Need - Richard L. Allington - We know that high-quality instruction is the key: Why aren't we opening the door?


• Worthy Texts: Who Decides? - Barry Gilmore - Standards have a blind spot if they deemphasize students' role in choosing what they want to read.


• Let Strategies Serve Literature - Diana Senechal - When literature is subordinated to strategies, students lose the meaning of the reading experience.


• Making STEM Real - Gary Hoachlander and Dave Yanofsky - Promising programs break down the isolation of science and math by connecting core academics with challenging professional and technical fields.


• In Defense of Mathematical Foundations - W. Stephen Wilson - To succeed at college-level math, facility with basic arithmetic algorithms is essential.


• Lessons That Connect - Young Imm Kang Song - Korean youngsters combine arts education, character education, environmental education, geography, and more.

Frank Baker: Media Literacy Webinar Media Literacy: 21st Century Skills All Students Need Recorded February 9, 2011 Most of our students are media-savvy, but most are not media literate. Students today tend to believe everything they see, read, and hear, especially if it originates on a screen. Media literacy, among other things, involves using media and popular culture to engage students in critical thinking and viewing, while at the same time meeting teaching standards.

About the Presenter: Frank Baker is an education consultant who shares his expertise on media literacy with educators around the world. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Education Week. He is a contributing author to the ASCD book Curriculum 21: Essential Education for A Changing World (2010), and he served on the National Council of Teachers of English Commission on Media from 2005–08.

What the U.S. can learn from the world's most successful education reform efforts

(A report from McGraw-Hill Research Foundation.) The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation released a report comparing the Program of International Assessment (PISA) test results of 74 education systems around the world and found five things the U.S. could learn from high-performing countries. The top-scoring countries included Finland and Singapore in science, Korea and Finland in reading, and Singapore and Korea in mathematics. On average, American students placed 15th in reading, 19th in science, and 27th in mathematics. The report says the U.S. would do well to consider the following: adopting common academic standards (an effort currently underway), developing better tests for teachers to diagnose students day-to-day learning needs; and training school leaders more effectively. The top recommendation was, "Make a concerted effort to raise the status of the teaching profession." Andreas Schleicher, one of the report authors, says that top-scoring countries recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring, and take steps to raise respect for the profession. "Teaching in the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high-status occupation," Schleicher says. "Teaching education programs in the United States must become more selective and more rigorous."

How does a school system with poor performance become good? And how does one with good performance become excellent? From McKinsey and Company (USA).

Our latest education report is the follow-up to the 2007 publication "How the world's best performing school systems come out on top," in which we examined the common attributes of high-performing school systems.

We compiled what we believe is the most comprehensive analysis of global school system reform ever assembled. This report identifies the reform elements that are replicable for school systems everywhere as well as what it really takes to achieve significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes.

In this new report, "How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better," we analyzed 20 systems from around the world, all with improving but differing levels of performance, examining how each has achieved significant, sustained, and widespread gains in student outcomes, as measured by international and national assessments. Based on more than 200 interviews with system stakeholders and analysis of some 600 interventions carried out by these systems, this report identifies the reform elements that are replicable for school systems elsewhere as they move from poor to fair to good to great to excellent performance.

The systems we studied were Armenia, Aspire (a U.S. charter school system), Boston (Massachusetts), Chile, England, Ghana, Hong Kong, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Long Beach (California), Madhya Pradesh (India), Minas Gerais (Brazil), Ontario (Canada), Poland, Saxony (Germany), Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, and Western Cape (South Africa).

Webinar: How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better Held Monday, November 29, 2010 This webinar summarises the research which led to the report.

e-learning strategies/ tools:

• Choose 1 out! – A new developing thinking tool. From the developer: It is an interactive PowerPoint activity similar to the famous Odd One Out, but much richer in its developing thinking potential, I believe. The idea is that the children can choose three images out of 16, so they have a choice and it is not the teacher who has chosen for three images for them! Also, before they choose their three images there are four possible pop-up questions that help them choose according to some criteria (e.g. Choose three images that make you feel safe!…) at the bottom right corner there is an ActiveX Control text box that allows the learners to write the image they think is the odd one out of the three they chose and to explain why they chose it! I believe this resource is quite useful to develop thinking in learners from any Key Stage and in any subject, but have a go yourself. You can download the Physics example I created and the template to make your own activities.


• Digi Advisors Offer Online Snacks - Online Snacks are a new initiative designed to provide teachers with the opportunity to develop e-learning skills aligned to their teaching and learning needs. All sessions are FREE and are facilitated by Digi Advisors - Rochelle Jensen and Suzie Vesper Each online snack takes approximately 40 minutes and are run using Elluminate, Adobe Connect or Skype. Snack dates and times are negotiated on request. Some snack ideas have been formulated but these can be personalised to meet your needs. Online Snacks are designed to complement existing professional learning programmes. Read more and register here: http://digistore.wikispaces.com/Online+Snacks or contact Rocky or Suzie for more details rjensen@waikato.ac.nz suzie.vesper@core-ed.ac.nz

General Resources

• Animals is a very handy template for creating word Sudoku activities - teacher just follows the instructions given to customise the resource for his/her own set of vocabulary. Sent by Carol Young - Facilitator in Quality Teaching


• http://secondary.tki.org.nz/ is the new Secondary Portal containing latest news items, secondary essentials, key resources, transitions and pathways, and a media gallery of videos with a secondary focus.