Here is today’s leading #edchat question:
How does the internet change the role of content and prior knowledge?
It doesn’t. Kids still need a personal stake in both to create meaning. While everyone can learn content and has prior-knowledge, school-valued content and prior knowledge remain commodities that some have and some do not. I would further [...]
Here’s a quick post on an imperfect start to using video games in the classroom for teaching the soft-skills necessary for collaboration in a manner (hopefully) authentic and relevant to students’ media experience.
Teams of 3-4 students played New Super Mario Bros. Wii at a classroom station.
Teams were asked to win the most levels possible with [...]
¶
Posted 25 January 2010
† Chad
§
Anecdote
‡
°
Also tagged: Authentic engagement, Authentic learning, Authentic work, Collaboration, Communication, Game-based learning, Instructional technology, Leadership, Learning with games, Lives lost: levels won metric, Relevance, Small-group gaming, Social learning, Social stories, Soft skills, Strategic thinking, Video games
[Author's note: I love Foyble.com and its potential to add relevance and voice to students' community service. I greatly appreciate the opportunities I have to work with Foyble.com, but I am in no way compensated by the site.]
Monday night I Skyped with Brian Foy (@Foyble_org), a co-founder of Foyble.com, and Jack King (@drjackking), founder [...]
¶
Posted 14 January 2010
† Chad
§
Blog post
‡
°
Also tagged: Authentic learning, Authentic work, Brian Foy, charity: water, Community service, Digital citizenship, DoGood, Education reform, Educators give, FaceBook, Foyble.com, Haiti earthquake 2010, Innovation, Instructional technology, Jack King, Northfork Center for Servant Leadership, Relevance, Service learning curriculum, Skype, Social media curriculum, Student blogging
When a student asks me a question, I try to answer with a question. Call it Socratic Method Lite.
However, there’s one question I keep answering over and over again, and I need to stop. Whenever a student asks me, “Why does this matter?”, I’m ready with one of three flavors of [...]
Relationships come first in a joyful classroom. Students’ success and their enjoyment of it depend on positive relationships at school. Certainly, students need to feel safe around their classmates in order to take the academic risks that lead to meaning-making. Students unwilling to share any of themselves with others will have a [...]
Trevor Przyuski works as an instructional coach for Albemarle County Public Schools. In, “Let Them Own It,” he writes about the tension between children’s authentic engagement with personally meaningful work and their struggles with traditional school work. By sharing an anecdote from his own experience as a classroom teacher, Trevor offers a model of instructional [...]
¶
Posted 07 August 2009
† Chad
§
Anecdote § Blog post § Cross post
‡
°
Also tagged: African American Studies, Albermarle County Public Schools, Authentic engagement, Authentic work, Drama, High School, Instructional coach, Play writing, Relevance, Trevor Przyuski, W.E.B. Dubois
I’m very grateful to be able to share with you the work going on at Murray High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Murray High School is “the world’s first Glasser Quality Public High School.” The school uses William Glasser’s Choice Theory and Quality Schools framework to re-engage students with the joy of learning. [...]
¶
Posted 04 August 2009
† Chad
§
Blog post § Case study
‡
°
Also tagged: Authentic engagement, Authentic work, Charlotte Wellen, Choice Theory, High School, Innovation, Instructional technology, Murray High School, NBCT, Quality Schools, Relevance, William Glasser
Learning’s Horizon
“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
-Tomas Paine
Everyone takes sides in education. People disagree about what’s best for students, but agree that students and their success matter most. The dividing lines get drawn between adults debating definitions, outcomes, and processes. What is success? Who [...]
