June 2011 Blog Posts (42)

I am looking for examples of successful projects that implement Authentic Learning Experiences. If you have ones that you would like to include in my research, please fill out the form. I will contact individuals with additional details.

Thanks, Dayna (@daylynn)

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I have started a PLN developed around fourth grade and technology.  I have found it a great place to keep all of my resources readily available.

http://loricobbpln.wikispaces.com/

http://mattjacobipln.wikispaces.com/

If you are a French teacher please visit my PLN wiki for resources to use in the classroom.  Hope this helps!  Leave feedback if you have ideas for me, thanks!

All of my PLN is hosted on my wikispace: ....and here it is....

http://ryanshetlerpln.wikispaces.com

Back in September, five of my teachers from different content areas attended a two-day Project Based Learning workshop hosted by the Buck Institute. Then in October, I asked them to share what they learned with a group of about 35 of their colleagues. We spent an entire day discussing their experiences and they walked us through the PBL process.

One of the…

In the spring I trained all of the Learning Specialist in our network on Khan Academy. They used it a remedial tool for students who struggle in math and as a way to provide extra support and practice, as a skill builder. For summer school we have decided to launch a prototyping of blended learning using google's new Chromebooks. We are in the beginning stages, the students in both the control and experimental groups are taking the pre-test. The control group is receiving traditional Algebra…

In the winter of the current school year, I found myself looking forward . . . and I realized that I was in the enviable position of choosing where I wanted to live.  My husband’s job was no longer tied to a specific geographic location – and my kids were making decisions about where they wanted to be. . . based on post-secondary education and career opportunities.  The world was my oyster. . .

I am a principled person, and so I began to think about what I wanted – really…

Never smile until Christmas!  We have all heard this so called adage. However, I believe the right classroom management strategy will allow you to smile consistently from August till May.

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During my years of Training teachers at the TESOL program I came across this article with was very relevant then and and it still is.

Paulo Borba

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Many Black youth have barely mastered the norms of their own culture when they are confronted with teaching styles that are incompatible with their accepted learning patterns (Benson)..In her book "Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Patterns," Hale Benson suggests that formal education has not worked for many Black youth because it has not employed teaching styles that correspond with student's learning styles..When this incongruity between teaching and learning styles…

If Black non-mainstream children wish to make their way successfully in mainstream society, it is necessary that they learn Standard American English...In a complex  technological, highly impersonal society such as the United States of America, a great deal of information must be shared by means of the printed word..The ability to read well is a prerequisite for navigating one's way through such a society..Without the acquisition of basic reading skills, the…

Like all of us, educators bring their own cultural beliefs to their schools..Data from the National Research Center reveal that in general, Americans evaluate minority groups more negatively than Whites..Respondents were asked to evaluate on a scale of 1-7 characteristics of Whites, Jews, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Southern Whites..These characteristics included intelligence, laziness, and motivation to be self-sufficient..African…

The failure of our public school system to adequately address and substantially reduce the academic achievement gap between Black non-mainstream students and their White counter-parts is deplorable..This is due, to a great degree, to the educational system's inability to effectively bridge the cultural difference which exists between Black non-mainstream and White cultures..When teachers are educated to their students' cultural styles and world views, they are…

I had lunch today with two great retired band directors, and as we discussed the future of music education in America we kept coming back to several key points.

1. Today's students learn differently than they did 30 years ago, but they still have a need for music in their lives. They want music in their lives.

2. If music education programs are to survive in our schools, then music eductors must constantly adapt to new cultural and school environments and they…