I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.
Here are This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:
One portion of her piece, in particular, caught my eye:
If we want video to be an effective tool for teacher growth, here are some ways to help shore up enthusiasm.
• Keep evaluation and exercises for growth separate. As soon as evaluation becomes part of this process, the process changes. Teachers are far more likely to go into compliance mode, fearful of making mistakes. And when fear prevails, authenticity loses. So, instead, make the purpose of using video very clear: for self-reflection and growth.
And I’ve embedded Bill Gates’ full talk (You can get the transcript here) on his plan to videotape every teacher in the United States — at a cost of $5 billion:
Here’s my Washington Post piece on what I think of his idea:
PBS is airing a special TED Talks Education program on May 7th. It’s an interesting line-up of speakers, and I thought I’d list a few of them along with previous posts in this blog that readers might find helpful:
I’m pretty confident in saying that I’m not the only IB Theory of Knowledge teacher who sometimes has difficulties helping students understand what a “Knowledge Issue” is, especially when it comes time for them to develop their Oral Presentation topics.
I previously posted about TED Conversations when they started awhile back, but I’ve just taken a few minutes to look over the ones that have occurred since that time.. These are questions related to popular TED Talks, followed by comments from the TED presenters and readers.
The questions there are a treasure trove of Knowledge issues that could easily be adapted for TOK classes — either as topics for presentations or for mini-lessons throughout the class. They certainly cover all the Ways of Knowing and Areas of Knowledge.
At the very least, they can be used as Knowledge Issue models to help students get thinking about possible other topics….
To celebrate their one-year anniversary, they’ve unveiled a new video to explain the service. It has useful info, though the computer-generated narrator seems a little strange to me:
Here’s the first one, though I actually found the second video they posted more interesting and useful and which is also below. That video has TED talker and psychologist Philip Zimbardo, PhD, share the elements of a successful talk. I’m adding his video to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations.
I’ve been writing this blog for six or seven years. I thought readers might find it useful for me to dig back in the “archives” and highlight my choices for some of the best posts that appeared during that time.
The first list in this series, My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume One, focused on the year 2007 and included a fair amount of still-useful material (at least in my opinion).
TED Talks launched Playlists today. They are collections of various TED Talks, primarily based on topic — “Natural wonder,” “The creative spark.” It also includes list of favorites put together by different celebrities but, I’m sorry, I don’t really care what Glenn Close likes (though she’s a great actress).
The Huffington Post has just begun what they are calling “TED Weekends.”
They’re choosing a TED video each weekend, getting some high-powered guests to write responses to it, and then inviting readers to contribute. You can read more about it here.
Their first one isn’t that interesting to me, but the idea has some potential.
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2012:
Thanks to reader Terri Reh, I learned about The TEDx Classroom Project. It’s an extremely impressive effort that includes students’ analysis of various TED Talks, along with students using the TED model to create their own presentations.
You grow to like people for whom you do nice things and hate people you harm.
And, as I said in that post, a classroom version is:
Many teachers know that an effective classroom management move to turn a disruptive student into an ally is by giving him/her responsibilities in the classroom — tutoring another student, offering them a key classroom job, etc.
The Wall Street Journal wrote about this concept (without mentioning Franklin) and traced it further back further:
“The transformation of enemies into allies, Machiavelli claims, can be effected by granting enemies some power or benefit; doing so can cause ‘those men who were distrusted [to] become faithful,” write Gersen and Vermeule.
The American Federation of Teachers has unveiled a new site where educators can upload lessons to share (and, of course, download them, too). It’s called Share A Lesson, and you can read more about it in the New York Times article, Teachers’ Union to Open Lesson-Sharing Web Site. Registration is certainly simple — it takes about ten seconds. It’s just beginning, so it doesn’t have a zillion resources, but I suspect it will grow quickly.
“Stories are about 22 times more memorable than facts alone” – I found that quote in a post byShawn Callahan and subsequently learned it comes from Bruner’s book, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds.
“Smart Teaching” is a very useful infographic for all teachers.
Thanks to an excellent post by Jennifer Brokofsky, I learned about this short video of Sir Ken Robinson. He makes an excellent point about the importance of helping students motivate themselves (and I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students):
“Farmers and gardeners know you cannot make a plant grow….The plant grows itself. What you do is provide the conditions for growth. And great farmers know what the conditions are and bad ones don’t. Great teachers know what the conditions for growth are and bad ones don’t.”
I have many free resources, including excerpts and student hand-outs, available from all my books. Clicking on the covers will lead you to them:
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Film Story is an interactive site where you can search for theatrical films by geographical location, history or science subject, historical era, and film type. It seems like an exhaustive list and is very accessible.
My United States History class blog is freely available, and pretty much contains my entire U.S. History curriculum. I only ask that if you download any of the original materials that you add me as the source.
Vocre is the latest in an increasing number of SmartPhone translating apps that can help you communicate in another language. It can come in handy if you just have to communicate something to an ELL student in their native language, or if you need to communicate to family members.
The American Federation of Teachers has unveiled a new site where educators can upload lessons to share (and, of course, download them, too). It’s called Share A Lesson, and you can read more about it in the New York Times article, Teachers’ Union to Open Lesson-Sharing Web Site.
The Yellow Test is the headline for a New York Times column that offers great writing advice.
I would strongly encourage reading the entire piece, but here’s an excerpt:
Carrie is a professor at a university. She had asked me how to turn an area of her expertise, secondary school education, into writing that the general public would find rewarding and enjoyable. That’s when I began talking about scenes, using her accident as an example of how to approach her work. Almost all creative nonfiction, essays or books, are, fundamentally, collections of small stories — or scenes — that together make one big story.
There’s been a lot of research published about the effectiveness of stories. Readers remember information longer — and are more likely to be persuaded by ideas and opinions — when it’s presented to them in scenes. This is why so many TV commercials are narrative. Think of parents’ angsting over how to pay for their children’s college tuition in the Gerber Life College Plan ad, or the famous “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” spot, campy, but so successful that the phrase itself has been copyrighted by the sponsor.
I told Carrie about the exercise I assign my students: “The Yellow Test.” You pick up a book by your favorite nonfiction writer or leaf through a best seller that made a big impact. Take a yellow highlighter and color in the scenes — that is, the places with characters and action, where things happen. I promise: You will find you have highlighted a major portion of the text.
