May, 2022

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Embracing an Evolved Thought Process

A Principal's Reflections

It is quite hard to keep up with all the exponential changes we are experiencing. Take technology for example. We get used to a device or app and before we know it there has been a huge update that alters the experience or it’s gone and replaced by something else. I think we can all agree that disruptive change is not the standard in society, but the question becomes how is this impacting education?

Tradition 532
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An Innovative Learning Model: How To Sync Your Classroom

TeachThought

Learning in a synced classroom requires the ability to engage the same core material and the ability to engage the material independently. The post An Innovative Learning Model: How To Sync Your Classroom appeared first on TeachThought.

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Islamic Art & Architecture: Awesome Twitter Threads

World History Teachers Blog

Here are some fascinating threads about Islamic art and architecture from the Arabic Art House, Bayt Al Fann. They include Twitter threads about Islamic calligraphy, Islamic gardens, unique mosques in Africa, the dome interiors of mosques around the world, the use of geometric patterns in Islamic art, and Islamic scientists who study the cosmos. These threads, which I have saved as pdfs could work well in a unit on Islam in World History.

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10 Travel Themed Classroom Decor Ideas

Mr and Mrs Social Studies

Travel Themed Classroom Travel Themed Decor If you love travel and are looking to switch up your classroom decor, this set of travel themed classroom decor will be a perfect fit! We’ve created 10 travel-themed classroom resources that are easy to implement and ready to display. Whether you decide to use a few or all of them, these travel-themed decorations will transform your classroom and excite your students!

Heritage 130
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One university has a new college specifically to re-enroll adults who had dropped out

The Hechinger Report

Robin Golden drifted through high school without making much of an effort. After graduating in the spring of 1981, she planned to forgo college and head straight to the job market. When her father, a professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, signed her up for classes there that fall, she was furious. She didn’t want to go, and when she dropped out after two years, her GPA was 1.8.

Sociology 145
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Guest Post: The Papert Test: A Filter for Picking Powerful Edtech

Digital Promise

The post Guest Post: The Papert Test: A Filter for Picking Powerful Edtech appeared first on Digital Promise.

EdTech 166
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Efficacy-Based Practices

A Principal's Reflections

The pursuit of improvement is a never-ending journey. With all the disruption we have and will continue to see, changes to how we educate kids must be considered. We often see a great deal of investment in an array of ideas, strategies, and solutions with the goal of improving learning for all kids. I am all for anything that can benefit all students.

Artifacts 531

More Trending

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What is Zen Buddhism

World History Teachers Blog

Here's an excellent and short overview of Zen Buddhism, from the online Buddhist magazine, Lion's Roar. The author, Norman Fischer, a Zen teacher and writer, reviews the basic principles and practices of Zen. Korea first transmitted Buddhism to Japan in 525 CE but Zen for meditation was introduced in the 11th century. Khan Academy's short clip about Zen also reviews those practices.

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Aligning Video Coaching to Instructional Vision? Here are Hartford Schools’ 5 Key Learnings

Edthena

Hartford Public Schools, a Connecticut district with 39 schools, uses district-wide video coaching aligned to their larger instructional vision. Video-based professional learning helps support Hartford’s District Model for Excellence, the district’s strategic operating plan. Using Edthena, Hartford Public Schools captured 116 teaching videos in under a year, each tied to a specific aspect of the district’s instructional vision.

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PROOF POINTS: New evidence of high school grade inflation

The Hechinger Report

Close up of an illustration from the cover of a May 2022 study on high school grade inflation by ACT, a maker of college admissions tests. The ACT study found that high school grades rose between 2010 and 2022 while scores on the ACT fell. Credit: ACT Inc. It may be self-serving for a test maker to produce research showing that high school grades are rising and less reliable.

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Designing Powerful Professional Learning Experiences for Making

Digital Promise

In 2021, six educators representing community-based organizations, libraries, public schools, and the Digital Promise Maker Learning team embarked on a journey to increase opportunities for virtual and remote maker learning. The insights from this experience are valuable to all who wish to engage in powerful maker learning. This blog is the second in a series sharing our Maker Learning team’s experience designing and facilitating this professional learning experience.

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Improvement is Always Possible

A Principal's Reflections

We have been made to think certain things are absolute truths for most of our lives. Take, for example, the saying that practice makes perfect. While this sounds great in theory and can be a great motivation to pursue growth opportunities, an underlying fallacy is embedded in this message. Take bowling, for example. The ultimate goal of any bowler is to reach a perfect score of 300 by getting nothing but strikes.

Cultures 517
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The Science of Coaching Teachers

ED Surge

Matt Gibson spends a lot of his time thinking about how people learn. As a fifth grade math teacher and instructional coach in New Orleans, Gibson has become increasingly interested in effective teaching informed by cognitive science —otherwise known as learning science—and how it can help teachers improve their practice. That’s thanks in large part to Gibson’s participation as a coaching fellow at the Louisiana Resource Center for Educators.

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Genghis Khan in 8 Minutes

World History Teachers Blog

Here is an excellent 8-minute overview of Genghis Khan from the Life Guide. I found it on the Ancient Origins website which also has a good biography of the Mongol leader.

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Teacher Goal-Setting Should Be Meaningful: How to Help Educators Set More Powerful Goals

Edthena

Teachers, and the instructional coaches who support them, frequently set goals aimed at improving teacher practice and student outcomes. There are many frameworks used to help form and evaluate teacher goal-setting. SMART goals help teachers and school leaders define goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. SMART goals are focused on being trackable and attainable within a certain time frame.

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PROOF POINTS: How do you find a gifted child?

The Hechinger Report

At one elementary school in rural Appalachia, most of the children are white and poor; 90 percent qualify for free or reduced priced lunch. Guess how many of the 800 students are gifted? The answer: three. At least, that’s the determination of a widely-used national intelligence test , on which few students living in poverty score highly. School administrators wanted to boost the number of gifted students and invited a team of researchers to come up with another way to find them.

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Cultivating Digital Literacy through Real World Learning

Digital Promise

The post Cultivating Digital Literacy through Real World Learning appeared first on Digital Promise.

Education 152
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4 Question Types for Deeper Learning

A Principal's Reflections

There are many strategies out there that an educator can use to empower learners. Possibly one of the most powerful is questioning techniques. They comprise the core of any meaningful learning experience and are at the heart of virtually every type of pedagogical approach. While the value of great questions is understood, it is also vital to examine the types that are being used regularly in the classroom.

Teaching 456
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How Blockchain Can Encourage Learning

ED Surge

A version of this article first appeared at the Medium site of the Stanford GSE Office of Innovation and Technology. Blockchain has gotten plenty of attention lately as a new mode of exchange, allowing experimental cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and the sale of NFTs in ways that leave an unalterable, fully transparent public record that tracks the transfer and ownership of digital things.

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What are teachers telling us? Are we listening?

Education Elements

This spring, Merrimack College and EdWeek Research Center released a whitepaper publishing their findings for their Teacher Survey. One of the takeaways? Forty-three percent of respondents said they were somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their jobs. “The last two years have been fraught for teachers as their profession has consistently attracted public attention—much of it hostile—due to political and cultural battles over pandemic-related policies on masking and vaccines and new l

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Forget Gut Feelings. Look at the Right Information to Measure School Success

Edthena

School leaders, you know your school’s vision, mission, and motto, but do you know how to truly measure school success? According to the Principal of Stonefields School in Auckland, New Zealand, school leaders shouldn’t just trust their gut feelings about how their school is doing. School leaders need to look at the data to measure school success. And what data is that?

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PROOF POINTS: Lessons from college dropouts who came back

The Hechinger Report

In 2020, there were 39 million or one out of every five American adults under 65 who had dropped out of college and never finished their degrees, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Credit: NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images. Ron Floyd dropped out of New Jersey’s Seton Hall University after his junior year more than 20 years ago.

Research 130
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Digital Promise Launches New Learning Community of End Users of Learning and Employment Records

Digital Promise

Learning and Employment Records (LERs)—also referred to as digital wallets or verifiable credentials wallets—offer learners and workers the tools to communicate the totality of their skills and abilities to employers. But few people understand the value of this emerging technology and how to use it to their advantage. Preliminary research on the use of Blockcerts , a LER prototype at Georgia Tech, found that students were confused by the platform, frustrated by the unfamiliar terminology, and di

Research 109
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Unlocking Brand Power

A Principal's Reflections

Branding in education, or brandED, is a strategic mindset of clearly highlighting what makes your classroom, school, or district unique in a way that showcases all of the great things taking place that create a positive culture. It is all about TELLING, not “selling,” in order to build powerful relationships with all school stakeholders. Effective branding elevates the work taking place, focusing on image, promise, and result.

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Students Need Summer Learning That Doesn’t Feel Like School

ED Surge

Last spring, we looked to summer with hopes that the 2021-2022 school year would be different, easier, better. In many ways it was. Students returned to their school buildings, we had months of lower COVID rates and some of kids’ favorite learning strategies—like group projects, stations and flexible seating—came back. In other ways, this school year was harder.

Museum 134
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Solving Curricular Challenges: Driving Change through a Clear Vision

Education Elements

In our work with districts across the country, we frequently hear questions about instructional materials–from how to select high quality programs that match their needs, to building processes that are inclusive of key stakeholders, to developing sustainable processes for regularly reviewing and refining curriculum, just to name a few. Oftentimes, we see teams wanting to jump directly into reviewing materials or selecting a new program.

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10 end of year activities for any classroom

Letters and Ink Blog

It’s been one crazy year, and I’m exhausted. We’ve finally made it to the end, and my instinct is to play a movie for the last week of class next week. BUT, kids have worked hard, and I don’t want to just tap out. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat, so I made a list of activities that are fun and creative while still being moderately standards- related.

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OPINION: Too many Black and Latino students are ‘academically alone’ in advanced classes

The Hechinger Report

In high school, I was the only student of color in all but one of my advanced classes. Except for my time on the basketball team and some joyful moments in study hall, I didn’t see my friends from the neighborhood at school. I created a term to describe this experience: “academically alone.”. I rationalized my solitude by telling myself that I was unique.

Advocacy 121
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Strategies for Trauma-Informed Care in School

Digital Promise

The post Strategies for Trauma-Informed Care in School appeared first on Digital Promise.

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Welcome, New Teachers!

Rosie the History Teacher

It is that time of year – many new teachers are graduating and getting their very first teaching certificates. Maybe you already have a teaching job lined up for the Fall, or going on interviews or searching for a great first teaching role. It is an exciting and nerve-wracking experience. Especially now, when teachers are faced with challenges day after day while trying to do the most important work of caring for and teaching children.

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What’s Next for Edtech Now That the ‘Pandemic Bump’ Has Faded?

ED Surge

The pandemic forced lasting changes on the American education system. It also brought an explosion of private investments into edtech. What exactly that means for the future technology in schools is still uncertain. The pandemic bump that many edtech firms experienced has faded, but private capital’s interest in edtech, and in shaping the education system, remains.

EdTech 128
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3 Ways to Deliver Feedback that Drives Change

Education Elements

"Feedback is a gift." Most of us have heard this common phrase as educators, coaches, and professionals. But if feedback is a gift, why does receiving it sometimes trigger uneasiness, anxiety, and stress?

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The AI Coach Platform: Coaching Teachers to Coach Themselves (Teaching Learning Leading K12 podcast)

Edthena

[link]. The AI Coach platform was recently featured on the Teaching Learning Leading K12 podcast. Edthena founder and CEO Adam Geller highlighted how the platform coaches teachers to coach themselves. Host Steve Miletto and Adam talked about why coaching is integral to improvement in teaching, the four-phase self-reflective coaching cycle , and how teachers can use the AI Coach platform to support their growth and collaboration with their in-person coaches.

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OPINION: Career planning in middle school prepares students for better workforce choices

The Hechinger Report

Career literacy can no longer be an afterthought in education. Even though career planning has long been promoted in the U.S., we clearly aren’t doing enough, especially for girls and students from lower-income and minority backgrounds who, research tells us, tend to limit their aspirations. The earlier we focus on career literacy, the better. Career literacy, when introduced early in life, can successfully challenge self-limiting notions.

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Students are the Heart of Education: How are They Guiding Innovative Solutions?

Digital Promise

The post Students are the Heart of Education: How are They Guiding Innovative Solutions? appeared first on Digital Promise.

Education 133
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A (Partial) Analysis of RuPaul's Lip Sync Songs from RuPaul's Drag Race

Steven V. Miller

Sorry, Mother I’m in the gradual process of rehauling my {dragracer} package to make it more feature-rich for interested users. As far as R packages go, it was never going to be something super useful or in high demand, like {dplyr} or {devtools}. However, I want it to be more than it currently is because I could see it possibly being something useful, like {palmerpenguins} and especially {starwarsdb}.

Library 52
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Panic Over SEL Is Unfounded. Here’s Why.

ED Surge

In the classic children’s book, “ Henny Penny ,” the title character, Henny, a chicken, fears that the sky is falling when an acorn drops on her head. She quickly creates mass hysteria among her animal peers. In the story, she frantically considers multiple explanations before finally arriving at the truth: the sky is, in fact, not falling. The moral of this oft-told tale is quite clear: Don’t respond with panic and leap to inaccurate conclusions that incite confusion or anger.