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How can we ensure gifted and talented students are provided with opportunities to actively engage in learning?
You might not be able to take your students on field trips to all of the places that they learn about in your classroom, but thanks to the web you can take them on virtual trips to many neat places. Here are some of the virtual tours that I’ve explored over the years.
It seems like every week…
Clenching Right Fist May Give Better Grip On Memory
Clenching your right hand may help form a stronger memory of an event or action, and clenching your left may help you recollect the memory later, according to research published April 24 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Ruth Propper and colleagues from Montclair State University.
The group that clenched their right fist when memorizing the list and then clenched the left when recollecting the words performed better than all the other hand clenching groups. This group also did better than the group that did not clench their fists at all, though this difference was not statistically ‘significant’.
“The findings suggest that some simple body movements — by temporarily changing the way the brain functions- can improve memory. Future research will examine whether hand clenching can also improve other forms of cognition, for example verbal or spatial abilities,” says Ruth Propper, lead scientist on the study.
image via flickr:CC | DenisGiles
Memory tricks?
How do you add voice comments in Google Docs? Easy, watch!
(Source: youtube.com)
“My research shows that praise for intelligence or ability backfires,” said Dweck, who co-authored a seminal research paper on the effects of praise on motivation and performance. “What we’ve shown is that when you praise someone, say, ‘You’re smart at this,’ the next time they struggle, they think they’re not. It’s really about praising the process they engage in, not how smart they are or how good they are at it, but taking on difficulty, trying many different strategies, sticking to it and achieving over time.”
But what some might not know is that this paradox is strongest for girls.
(Source: gjmueller)
Photo by hoyasmeg
I tried to add up all of the educational videos on services like YouTube EDU, YouTube for Schools, TED-Ed, Khan Academy, Teaching Channel, National Geographic, Discovery Education, PBS Teachers, and many, many more. I stopped around a billion. And…
- Secure your network by pushing BYOD traffic through a different channel because students need access to what they need access to, and this is not everything.
- Your guest wifi already has filtering, because all internet in your building has web content filtering on it. Students should have access to your guest wifi for anytime learning situations. If students are using a cellular connection to access content they shouldn’t be this is the time for your teachable moment.
- Your school needs to provide enough access to tech to accommodate as many situations as you can.
I can tell you the last time I had to deal with a someone bringing in a device that was really a threat - BLASTER and NACHI. Do you remember them? I hope not, because 2003 was a really bad year. Since then, well-managed networks have security to make this a lower-risk issue. You can’t protect against every vector of attack, but eventually you’ve got to balance between the vast majority of your students being there to learn and students trying to break your network.
Pieces without meaty concerns about BYOD make me grumpy.
SUBMISSION: This week’s cover of Boston Magazine
Why are major sporting events often seen as platforms to spread a message to the world?
(via prettyclever)
In school, learned helplessness relates to poor grades and behavior problems. Learned helpless children doubt their ability to overcome their academic difficulties.
(Source: gjmueller)
Finding our centers: Becoming learning communities
“Communities are defined by their centers,” explains Thomas Sergiovanni, “repositories of values, sentiments, and beliefs that provide the needed cement for bonding people together in a common cause. Centers govern what is valuable to a community…They answer questions: What is this school about? What is our image of learners? What makes us unique? How do we work together as colleagues? How does this school, as a community, fit into the larger school community?”
image via flickr:CC | lululemon athletica
What is your school’s “center”?
There’s a difference between using technology and integrating technology in your classroom, and this list from Teachbytes can help you visualize the difference.
It can be intimidating to try something new in your classroom. This is especially true with technology. I believe that technology should make the work of teachers easier while creating an environment that excites and engages students. Even though I’m coming from an iPad classroom, these…
Bad Decisions Arise from Faulty Information, Not Faulty Brain Circuits
Making decisions involves a gradual accumulation of facts that support one choice or another. A person choosing a college might weigh factors such as course selection, institutional reputation and the quality of future job prospects.
But if the wrong choice is made, Princeton University researchers have found that it might be the information rather than the brain’s decision-making process that is to blame. The researchers report in the journal Science that erroneous decisions tend to arise from errors, or “noise,” in the information coming into the brain rather than errors in how the brain accumulates information.
photo via flickr:CC | A Health Blog
