Vicki Davis's Library tagged bestpractices →  View Popular, Search in Google

As I read Mrs. West's homework blog, I am struck with the simplicity but also the thought that there are so many places to publish homework. I think the question we must ask every teacher is: "How can students access your homework FROM HOME? How can they interact with you ONLINE?" It doesn't have to be one size fits all but such things should not be optional. I think everyone should be able to access grades and assignments online in every class.

teaching blogging bestpractices

For those working with elementary students integrating global competency, these 428 lesson plans and activities are great ways to cover geography and the cultural literacy that is needed by today's students. 

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Indexed list of highly rated lesson plans at all age levels by the curators at TES for studying about teh events of the Titanic along with articles and videos.
The anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is April 15. If you are planning to teach around it, you might want... http://t.co/7M8cjfHm

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Free open textbooks that are peer reviewed to be of higher calibre. Free online and low-cost in print. If you're looking at options, this is where you should go (if you're curriculum director or administrator.) Start here for free open textbooks.

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Justin reich's research which has powerful implications for equity, how wikis are used (they are used more and longer by mid to higher affluent schools) and how we should shape and design platforms. (Because affluent students are disproportionately using the services, it is impacting design and most companies are caught in a feedback loop that is causing them to design for affluent students.)

education oer edreform research oer12hf bestpractices learning

in list: Wikis

Very proud of my dear friend Cheryl Oakes from Maine who is on the Official Google blog with her work with those with disabilities. Cheryl is an amazing woman who loves children. My youngest son has met her only once (in San Antonio at ISTE) and still calls her Aunt Cheryl. She has that effect on people. Great post.

"One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine. She’s also been able to tailor the vast resources available on the web to each student’s ability. This approach has proven invaluable for Cheryl’s students, in particular 16-year-old Morgan, whose learning disability makes it daunting to sort through search results to find those webpages that she can comfortably read. Cheryl taught Morgan how to use the Search by Reading Level feature on Google Search, which enables Morgan to focus only on those results that are most understandable to her. To address the difficulty Morgan faces with typing, Cheryl introduced her to Voice Search, so Morgan can speak her queries into the computer. Morgan is succeeding in high school, and just registered to take her first college course this summer."

education news Google learningdisabilities literature bestpractices

An article/ ebook on creating new learning spaces in the classroom. this one talks about the "pod room." I love the 7 spaces for learning that Ewan McIntosh wrote for us in our Choice Chapter in the Flat Classroom book - he espouses many of these same thoughts. 

education edreform school design bestpractices edu_trends

Some great lessons to use for science and Engineering week (in the UK but why not bring it over the pond) March 9-18th. If you are promoting STEM here are some fun lessons including the squashed tomato challenge.

education stem teaching lessonplans math science engineering bestpractices all_teachers

You can connect with your students. Here are five ways I strive to do this in my own classroom. (In a piece I wrote for the Atlantic.com)

95% of what you accomplish is because of your habits. What are the habits in the classroom that will help you reach more students?

education teaching passionbasedlearning all_teachers bestpractices

An article from Harvard Magazine on the Twilight of the lecture. There are measurable improvements when you move to interactive learning:
"Interactive learning triples students’ gains in knowledge as measured by the kinds of conceptual tests that had once deflated Mazur’s spirits, and by many other assessments as well. It has other salutary effects, like erasing the gender gap between male and female undergraduates. “If you look at incoming scores for our male and female physics students at Harvard, there’s a gap,” Mazur explains. “If you teach a traditional course, the gap just translates up: men gain, women gain, but the gap remains the same. If you teach interactively, both gain more, but the women gain disproportionately more and close the gap.” Though there isn’t yet definitive research on what causes this, Mazur speculates that the verbal and collaborative/collegial nature of peer interactions may enhance the learning environment for women students."

education learning research news bestpractices wiki_book flatclassroom_research

Free online conferences are an amazing part of the new learning landscape. I'll be presenting at Eye  on School Success in March on Tuesday, March 20 at 4:15 but this is the link to many different presenters at this conference. Todd Whitaker is keynoting this one and Barbara Blackburn is also presenting as well as many other great authors who I don't know personally yet.

education news success learning bestpractices

Mess around with web pages. This is from David Warlick's post on Educon that I posted as part of the daily news. You're not REALLY changing the page but changing it locally on your machine, but is is still a lot of fun. There are also links to using this site to teach how to make websites.

education teaching html webmaster webdesign bestpractices technology

David Warlick's reflection on the miracle of Finland's flourishing education system is a great read.

education news finland bestpractices

One of my favorite youtube channels for teachers and educators is from Jarrod Robinson "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" from down under. He is helpful, loves kids, and has a unique understanding of engaging bodily kinesthetic learners in all subjects and a passion for mobile learning.

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Chinese New Year Collection with many different lessons at all age levels along with downloadables to use. If you are expecting your students to have global literacy, you cannot afford to ignore China. This is a fun time to teach about it - kids love dragons and fireworks!

education teaching lessonplans china all_teachers bestpractices digitalcitizenship

It is finally here. Here are the details on our Flat Classroom global book club. (click the link for more)

Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern) 


Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborate room https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0 .  


The book club is free and everyone is welcome.


#flatclass Book Club Meeting Times
Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation
Week 1: Sunday March 11 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 1 - Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17)

Chapter 2 - Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30)
Week 2: Monday, March 19 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 3 - Step 1: Connection (p 31-61)
Week 3: Sunday, March 25 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 4 - Step 2: Communication (p 62-96)
Week 4: Monday, April 2 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 5 - Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125)
Take a break.
Week 5: Sunday, April 15 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 6 - Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157)
Week 6: Monday, April 23 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 7 - Step 5: Choice (p 158-196)
Week 7: Sunday, April 29 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 8 - Step 6: Creation (p197-214)
Week 8: Monday, May 7 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 9 - Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234)
Week 9: Sunday, May 13 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 10 - Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267)
Week 10: Monday, May 21 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 11 - Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293)

Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 - 304)

 We’re also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about “their” chapter. You’ll meet people from all over the world just like you who are doing wonderful, amazing things. This is a global story that transcends just one project, although we’re mighty proud of ours.


While you are welcome to just “drop in” you can register with the Book club mailing list and we’ll remind you each week about the session, let you know who is coming, and we’ll mention any special events that we’ll be having as part of the launch. If you run your own book club, you’re welcome to come by the club anytime for ideas and discussion points.


The hashtag for our conversations is #flatclass and the book club is, of course, free. Anyone can join us. There’s no homework - just conversation and learning. We’ll all be there to discuss the future of education with each other. We hope global collaborators from around the world will join us and share their stories too. Conversations will hinge around our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. The book will be available in ebook format, although we’re not sure yet which ebook formats.

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Language arts teachers of all ages will love the free lesson plans on this website. They are standards based and organized by grade level.

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This is a course for Spring Branch ISD which uses a blog as the framework. I also love how 9 hours of professional development is being given for the educators in this course. We need more embedded PD that gives teachers an opportunity to embed their learning in their daily activity. Embedded PD is the key to transformational learning. While there is a time and place for getting away, we have traditionally only used that "away" method when we also need to use the "learn right here" method of delivery as well.

Take a look at what Karen is doing here as you evaluate your pd delivery methods. I also have to admit that Spring Woods High school is one that has been an outstanding contributor to Flat Classroom in the past, so I personally know they are walking the walk here.

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TEacher AJ Juliani (a Flat Classroom certified teacher) writes a beautiful and profound blog on his wish list. He understand and gets global collaboration in the classroom. Especially moving is this quote:

"My wish list for Education in 2012 is centered around the belief that it is time to try “new things in new ways”. It is time to look for “Next Practices” instead of “Best Practices”. It’s time to put ideas that are unproven into practice, learn from our failures, and celebrate our successes. Here is my wish list:"

Worth a read.

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Free lesson plans that you can filter by age and how many class periods that you have teach as well as the topics. This is by Microsoft so it is using Microsoft projects. This is perfect for those of you who want cool lessons but are restricted from using a lot of the web 2 tools.

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