Is it personality? Are some people born with it? Can it be learned? I am talking about REFLECTION. At the beginning of the week, I had the opportunity to be part of a workshop during our pre-service ( we just returned from our summer break here in the Southern Hemisphere) ...
We know that authentically assessing an integrated lesson can be a challenge to many teachers and administrators. That's why we've curated our very best assessment resources for you here on this page. You'll find sample rubrics, ideas, and resources for implementing authentic arts integration assessments with ease.
Creativity is Key. Too often our educational system relies solely on a single, standardized measure to determine student success. This doesn't serve our students well and demeans their capacity for innovation. We resolve to bring back creativity in teaching and learning. Teaching is a science and an art. Alignment provides authenticity.
While schools now measure their students' progress more frequently throughout the year, using this information to target instruction more effectively still poses a challenge. Turning data into higher achievement involves changing the entire school culture-and technology that ties together curriculum and assessment also can help.
Rather than all the evidence of what you're learning being trapped in the databases of commercial co...
Learn how new types of education assessment that measure the full range of student abilities -- academic, technical, cultural and interpersonal skills -- is a real-world improvement on the artificial measures of paper-and-pencil testing.
Search for “soft skills” in Google and you’ll find 45,800,000 results. The first screen includes business Web sites, Web sites listing job and interview skills, career developer Web sites, and an article from National Careers Service asking, “What are the ‘soft’ skills employers want?” The U.S. Department of Labor links to a curriculum focused on teaching workforce readiness skills to youth ages 14-21 called “Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success.” The course consists of six modules: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem-solving and critical thinking, and professionalism.
At Fresh Meadows Elementary School in New York City, 1st grade teacher Courtney Horan hands her student, six-year-old Wenika, a copy of the children's book Surprise Moon, by Caroline Hatton. Horan listens carefully as Wenika starts reading; this assessment will determine whether Wenika moves on to the next reading level.
The digital learning tools flooding schools come with a tantalizing promise: real-time feedback on what children know, combined with fingertip access to a dizzying array of tailored instructional materials, resulting in more customized instruction from teachers and a more personalized learning experience for each student.
For Olivia Lozano and Gabriela Cardenas, team teachers at the UCLA Lab School in Los Angeles, understanding what each of their students know and can do at any point in time is so integral to their practice that they call themselves "teacher researchers."
Google Apps Learning Center for new users to Google Apps. Here you can get started with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites. Printable guides, instructional videos and tutorials!
This site contains tools and guidelines to use as a starting point to getting your students, faculty, and alumni ready and excited about what’s coming.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, one of two federally funded groups of states that are designing general assessments for the Common Core State Standards, is setting up the library. The summative tests being built by Smarter Balanced and the other state consortium, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, are widely known and hotly debated.
Every single one of the apps listed on this board are free apps that are great assessment tools. Furthermore, I tend to be a very visual person when it comes to shopping for apps in the app store.
Digital Learning Now's third annual report card measures state policies on digital learning based on their alignment to the 10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning. In addition to the interactive map below, you can read the full text of the 2013 Digital Learning Report Card.
For Olivia Lozano and Gabriela Cardenas, team teachers at the UCLA Lab School in Los Angeles, understanding what each of their students know and can do at any point in time is so integral to their practice that they call themselves "teacher researchers."
Letter grades are a tradition in our educational system, and we accept them as fair and objective measures of academic success. However, if the purpose of academic grading is to communicate accurate and specific information about learning, letter, or points-based grades, are a woefully blunt and inadequate instrument.
Why pay $250 for a Nest Wi-Fi-connected thermostat when you can build your own? It sounds complicated--the kind of thing that might require at least a little bit of engineering experience--but it's not. With the littleBits Cloud Module, a building block for Internet-connected gadgets announced at this week's TED conference, that Nest-like thermostat just became a lot easier to build.
The Resource for Education Technology Leaders focusing on K-12 educators. Site contains a Software Reviews Database, articles from Technology & Learning Magazine, articles from Educators in Educators' eZine, Event and Contest listings, Reader suggested Web sites, and weekly news updates on education technology leaders.
If we hope to construct enduring understanding in our students, it's critical that, now more than ever, we know their strengths and interests. By incorporating students' strengths and weakness into authentic learning experiences from the beginning of each unit, while at the same time including opportunities for feedback, metacognition and revision, we promote a variety of cognitive and emotional benefits that can lead to academic success.
SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge, an educational version of the popular city-building video game, is a known quantity in a fresh wave of serious learning games that bridge the gap between instruction and assessment.
New report offers guidance, insight on important assessment features As many states begin to implement online assessments to gauge student learning under the Common Core State Standards, administrators are faced with a number of important considerations that accompany implementation. A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) presents four important assessment questions that policy makers and educators should ask.
Standardized testing has been a staple of American education for more than a half century, and has become particularly prominent in public schools—some might say invasive—since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. But while it's not likely that standardized tests in schools will be going away anytime soon, there are definite signs that the assessment field is in a period of transition—brought about by, among other factors, widespread dissatisfaction with conventional testing formats, advancements in technology, and the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.
How to establish a classroom culture of quality
Is it personality? Are some people born with it? Can it be learned? I am talking about REFLECTION. At the beginning of the week, I had the opportunity to be part of a workshop during our pre-service ( we just returned from our summer break here in the Southern Hemisphere) ...
