The first years of practice for teachers can be filled with great hope and exhilaration, as well as fatigue and anxiety. Without adequate support, new teachers often struggle through their early days, months, and years in the classroom.
Ask any parent about their children’s media use, and most will tell you they’re interested in media that help their kids learn. But what are parents’ experiences with their children’s use of educational media?
Webinar presenter, independent languages consultant Joe Dale, examined the SAMR model developed by Dr. Rubin Puentedura, which provides a useful framework for helping teachers rethink how they design activities that involve the use of technology. Joe drew on practical examples to explore the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and finally Redefinition stages of the model, suggesting how previously inconceivable tasks can be achieved which transform learning and allow educators to ‘teach above the line.
Rigor is driven by a balance among conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application. After focusing on conceptual understanding of the operations, teachers must help students use their conceptual understanding to build procedural fluency, both with basic facts and a variety of algorithms.
Non-traditional forms of assessment, such as peer-to-peer learning, can produce useful information for the teacher. Another idea is to include an assessment component in warm-up, group, and closure activities during class. Teachers can make students more responsible for their own learning through technology-enhanced self-assessments.
Novice teachers are put in a precarious position when it comes to assigning homework to their students – their veteran mentors tell them to load students down with it, while research shows that there is little (if any) educational benefit to assigning homework.
Are you a fan of the Big6 and Super3 and looking for interesting ways to incorporate these problem-solving strategies into your teaching? You can use team teaching with the Big6 and Super3 in your classroom or library media center.
Empower students to publish one-of-a-kind books using photos, text, drawings and audio with Shutterfly’s Photo Story for iPad App. This free app is ideal for Project Based Learning and enriching your classroom literacy program, while enabling students to achieve many of the College and Career Readiness Standards in English Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies.
In a time when budgets are tight and schedules are even tighter, educators must be creative and agile as we seek ways to connect with families and fortify the essential home-community-school relationship that best supports kids. Schools must differentiate outreach efforts to meet families where they are – in the same way teachers must differentiate for students with diverse needs.
Implementation doesn’t come with a download. Whether your student is using a free AAC app, a simple app, a complex app, or an app that costs hundreds of dollars, student and partner strategies probably aren’t as easy as the click was to install the app. Well there is no need to get discouraged and think that you have to download another app to get to AAC utopia!