Thanks to Cooperative Catalyst (@coopcatalyst) I’ve been experimenting with self-directed learning in the public school classroom for the past three weeks. I’ve set aside 19.8% of class time for self-directed learning during a 20-25 minute station three times weekly. I’m 80.1% shy of my goal, but it’s a start.
Using a graphic organizer, students have self-identified [...]
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Posted 24 March 2010
† Chad
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Tagged: Comic Life, Differentiation, Education reform, Glogster, Goal-setting, Google 20% time, Scratch, Self-assessment, Self-directed learning, Student blogging, Student choice
I believe in 1:1 learning. I also acknowledge the difficulty inherent in differentiating instruction for multiple classes of 30+ students a day. I envision a school system in which students learn to take ownership of their work and acquire essential skills and understandings through self-directed curricula. I think we need to scale up models [...]
Here are four student perspectives on our soft-skills work with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Playing the Wii is not kind of silly. We play the Wii because of teamwork…. We’re a team what will stay alive and we don’t tell each other to say shut up or to get out of the game. [...]
The “blob” wins according to Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark). President Obama’s ESEA reauthorization blueprint gives all but the lowest-performing 5% of schools “a free pass” on fixing schools for our most under-served students.
What is the “blob?” Teachers’ unions? Teachers? Mediocre schools? Mediocre teachers? All of the above? The soft bigotry of low expectations?
As much as [...]
Teachers, I love you. I don’t think we’re doing everything we can for kids yet. I think sometimes the system is to blame. I think sometimes we’re to blame. I think that sometimes we face challenges of our own design, and that sometimes we face challenges over which we have [...]
The longer I teach and work for change within my system, the more I try to speak less and listen more in hope of becoming more effective at both.
I also love parallel structure and repetition in rhetoric, so it’s no surprise that this post from Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) caught my eye this morning.
I think [...]
This week three girls took up what might be the most ambitious project I’ve ever suggested to a student: create a World War II museum in LittleBigPlanet, a PlayStation 3 (PS3) game. None of us has any idea what to expect (apart from students somehow sharing the unit’s content through visualization and gameplay) – the [...]
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Posted 07 March 2010
† Chad
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Tagged: Authentic engagement, Authentic learning, Authentic work, Game-based learning, Instructional technology, Learning with games, LittleBigPlanet, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PS3, PSN, STEM, Video games
Here is the text from which I spoke to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors last night regarding the FY 10/11 budget and its impact on schools. This text comes from my notes. This is not a transcript, so I apologize for any incongruities with what I said out loud.
Thank you for this opportunity [...]
