Teaching to the middle—most teachers don’t want to do it. But when faced with a large class of learners with diverse proficiency, the middle is where many teachers find themselves. Knowing that he wasn’t challenging one-third of his class and teaching over the head of another, Peter Briggs, a music teacher at Lincoln High School (WA), wanted to find a way to manage and support growth for all skill levels. As he explained in the edWebinar, “Developing a Growth Mindset Using Digital Portfolios,” combining a change in his educational approach with the addition of differentiated assignments helped all students raise their performance.
“While we (teachers) are not always comfortable with technology, we need to think about students first and work through our challenges to make things better for them,” said Sharon Plante, Director of Technology for the Southport School, Southport, CT, during a recent edWebinar. She emphasizes that meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities through the use of technology “can make reading instruction a multi-sensory process that is engaging and explicit while maintaining the individualization and diagnostic-prescriptive aspects of the lesson.”
Zero tolerance policies, while trying to keep kids accountable for their actions, often result in suspensions for even minor infractions like dress code violations or being tardy. While these behaviors warrant attention, Fatima Rogers, Principal of Charles W. Henry School, School District of Philadelphia, and Jody Greenblatt, Esq., Deputy of School Climate and Safety, School District of Philadelphia, questioned what their conduct code and other discipline methods actually did to help students. Working with the Committee for Children, they’re piloting a program merging social emotional learning (SEL) and Restorative Practice (RP) in school. Their goal, as explained in the edWebinar, “SEL and Restorative Practices: Schoolwide Integration Strategies,” is to not only give students the emotional toolkit they need but to also provide a behavioral framework that focuses on support over punishment.
In a recent edWebinar, Julie Alspach, Program Administrator, Virtual Learning Academy Consortium (VLAC), and David E. Kanter, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer, Calvert Education, shined a light on a shift in education. Kanter said that “the goals of education have shifted to create the independent thinkers and creative problem solvers that our world needs, both now and for the future.”
Learning seems like a simple process. The information goes in (encoding), the learner attempts to commit information to memory (storage), and then the learner tries to recall the lesson (access). Even though the ability to recall and apply the knowledge is critical, teachers spend the majority of class time focused on getting the information in. During the edWebinar, “Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning,” Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., Cognitive Scientist and Founder of RetrievalPractice.org and Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., Educational Specialist, Veteran Teacher, and Author discussed their research into the benefits of retrieval practice and emphasizing the third step of the learning equation. When educators help students learn how to access their knowledge in low-stakes environments, the presenters said, they help students improve their long-term educational recall and performance.
Of course cyber security is necessary in education. Schools have valuable information to protect for both students and employees. However, as financial and physical security issues arise, cyber security can fall down the list. As Ann McMullan, Project Director, CoSN Empowered Superintendents Program reminded attendees at a recent edWebinar, cyber attacks are increasing in K-12… read more →
Even with the NGSS’s emphasis on engineering, there’s still a feeling that in preschool and kindergarten, teachers shouldn’t place as much emphasis on the E in STEM. While four-year-olds can’t compete with even third graders in engineering, they can learn and benefit from modified lessons. Nia Keith, Director of Professional Development for EiE, Museum of Science, Boston, gave attendees insights into engineering in early education in the edWebinar, “STEM in Early Education: Empowering Problem-Solving.”
If you get some down time over the holidays, it’s a great time to catch up on some of the most popular edWebinars of 2018! This year we hosted over 285 edWebinars on a wide range of innovative topics for early childhood educators, librarians, teachers, and administrators. Here is our Top 25 List for 2018 based on those that had the most views.
edWeb.net is delighted to announce that FreshGrade will be sponsoring TechTools for the Classroom, one of the largest professional learning communities on edWeb. The TechTools community hosts monthly edWebinars that help educators discover and integrate technology into the classroom to make the learning more engaging and effective for students. The TechTools community on edWeb has… read more →
We’re in the Golden Age of Educational Apps, according to Shannon Holden, Assistant Principal at Republic Middle School (MO). However, many parents and educators question the educational value of apps and worry they are taking away from actual instructional time. Holden reminded attendees in his recent edWebinar “10 Apps Every Teacher Needs NOW!” that like any instructional resource, teachers should carefully review each app’s purpose and potential for aiding the learning process. The apps showcased in the presentation help reinforce lessons, organize lesson content, and assess student progress.