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How to use JAMBOARD for teaching. ✨ FREE COLLABORATIVE WHITEBOARD // 5 ACTIVITY IDEAS! 💡

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MHS Online Collaboration Links; CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO BE TAKEN TO FURTHER INFORMATION

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MHS Library: Simply click on the placeholders to go through to lots of lovely collated links, from MOOCS to collaborative tools 🛠 

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1. #edchat

2. #K12

3. #learning

4. #edleadership

5. #edtech

6. #engchat

7. #literacy

8. #scichat

9. #mathchat

10. #edreform

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HOW TO EFFECTIVELY BUILD AND LEVERAGE A PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK (PLN)

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HOW TO EFFECTIVELY BUILD AND LEVERAGE A PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK (PLN)

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Morning Check in?
Afternoon Review?
Open up at Staff meetings and allocate resources to standards and information!

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15 Ways to Bring More Positive Language into Your Classroom and School

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15 Ways to Bring More Positive Language into Your Classroom and School

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As educators, we're expected to be a lot of things to a lot of people. We're teachers, coaches, caretakers, custodians, and so much more. To our students, we don't just tell them what they need to learn, we show them in the way we, ourselves, behave.

In the middle of a chaotic classroom or other stressful situation, it can be hard to find the kind of mindfulness and positive language we hope to model. Here are a few ways we can do that with just some small adjustments to our words.

Instead of "Be quiet."

Try "Can you use a softer voice?"

School days are full of noise ... so much noise! There are lots of creative ways to quiet down students. If you're working with older kids, simply asking them to use a softer voice can do the trick. Often, when we're excited, we may not even realize how loud we've really gotten. With younger children, try incorporating a familiar animal ("Show me what a sleeping cat looks like"). You can also add an element of friendly competition ("Who can be the quietest mouse?") to help positively reach the desired noise level even faster.

Instead of "What a mess!"

Try "It looks like you had fun. How can we clean up?"

Anyone who works with kids knows that with great learning can come great messes. Art projects alone can leave your room looking scary, especially if you're a teacher brave enough to use glitter. But be careful not to focus on the negative because it can quickly turn a happy, fun experience into a sad, disappointing one.

Instead of "You need to ... "

Try "Together let's ... "

Life can be overwhelming. With so much going on, even the most simple, direct, and even heartfelt advice can be hard to process. Help a student stop, think, and focus on the absolute first thing they need to do to take a step in the right direction-and let them know they don't have to do it alone. It may seem small, but it can actually be a huge help.

Instead of "Do you need help?"

Try, "I'm here to help if you need me."

Educators are caretakers-some of the best there can be. We want to help, and offering it is second nature. However, we have to be careful how we do it. Using closed-ended questions, or not asking at all before we jump right in, takes away a student's chance to work through challenges on their own. A gentle reminder that you're there to help, on the other hand, reinforces your support for the student while giving them the room, and perhaps confidence, to explore the many possible ways they can reach success on their own.

Instead of "Let me do it."

Try "I believe you can do it."

It doesn't matter what age you are or what situation you're in: There are few things in life that feel better than hearing someone say they believe in you. Being the person who motivates and inspires children-especially when they need it most-can be as priceless to you as it is to them.

Instead of "I explained how to do this yesterday."

Try "Maybe I can show you another way."

It can be tough when, after trying so hard in so many ways, a student might not have grasped or retained a lesson. It could be for any number of reasons, so before we try reminding or repeating, perhaps take a moment to consider another approach altogether. This can be especially helpful at the beginning of building a relationship with a student, since you're both learning how to communicate with each other most productively. Using a phrase like this, or even a version that uses an open-ended question, shows your student that you're in this together!

Instead of "Do I need to separate you?"

Try "Could you use a break?"

When you just can't handle the struggle of letting the on-again-off-again couple of the moment process another challenge on their own, it's time to play moderator. This type of phrase articulates reminders, expectations, options, and choices in a way that makes everyone feel like they have a little more control of how things move forward.

Instead of "Stop crying."

Try "It's okay to cry."

We've all had one: The kid who cries. All. The. Time. Some years you have a class full of them. If we let them, they take a huge amount of attention, and the rest of the class is left wondering and waiting. Luckily, we can still give care with this gentle and reassuring phrase, while returning focus to the lessons at hand for the whole class.

Instead of "Look at what you've done."

Try "How can we fix this?"

Show and tell might get the class's attention, but it's not enough to get what you really want: a solution. Try asking a question like this instead to get the kids' wheels turning about what needs to happen next. As they start brainstorming and thinking through options and processes, you may even find chances to practice social-emotional skills, like asking for help, offering assistance, and working together to achieve a common goal.

Instead of "Do you have any questions?"

Try "What questions do you have?"

Nothing stops a conversation before it starts like closed-ended questions. With just a tiny tweak in how we ask, we might just keep the door open in a way that students feel more comfortable walking through. The more they ask, the more engaged they become, and the more they learn!

Instead of "You're OK."

Try "How are you feeling?"

So many of us were told that we were OK, fine, or all right when we were kids. As adults, we often repeat this statement without much thought. However, if a child is crying, yelling, or giving us other signals that they are, in fact, not OK, we should probably believe them. Once we do, we can help them help themselves.

Instead of "It's not that hard."

Try "You can do hard things."

Hearing something's not that hard, or even that it's actually pretty easy, can make that voice inside of our heads start spewing doubt left and right. Having someone acknowledge that something is hard AND that we can do it anyway? Now that's a way to inspire trust and confidence.

Instead of "You need to listen."

Try "I want to help you."

Whether you're one on one with a student or trying to herd a whole class, getting students to listen sometimes feels impossible. No matter the odds, letting them know that you are first and foremost there to help them can hopefully get (and keep) their attention, while continuing to build a stronger relationship.

Instead of "We don't talk like that."

Try "Please use kind words."

The sad truth is that some of the environments kids are in outside of the classroom are places where they actually do hear plenty of "talk like that." It's not ideal, but shaming them about it isn't either. Instead, try pointing them in a positive direction about expected behaviors by giving them a great example of being kind with a friendly reminder about using kind words.

Instead of "Calm down."

Try "Breathe. I'm here to help."

Rarely in the history of the world has telling someone to calm down resulted in anyone actually calming down! But if you can get them to take a moment to focus on slowing their breath, they will naturally begin to calm down. Doing it while reassuring them that support is all around? That can make it happen even faster and make the effect even stronger.
Love this chart and want to share it with your teachers or school? Get a FREE PDF of it right here. Come and share your ideas for promoting positive language in ourWeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, get our free kindness posters.

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15 Ways to Bring More Positive Language into Your Classroom and School

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As educators, we're expected to be a lot of things to a lot of people. We're teachers, coaches, caretakers, custodians, and so much more. To our students, we don't just tell them what they need to learn, we show them in the way we, ourselves, behave.

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A school-based professional learning community (PLC) is well structured to enhance all aspects of project-based learning.

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A school-based professional learning community (PLC) is well structured to enhance all aspects of project-based learning.

Many schools have structures to support the work of a professional learning community (PLC). Teams have dedicated time to plan together, analyze data, and plan interventions and enrichments. They collaborate to support student achievement and foster a sense of shared responsibility for all students.

This culture and work can enhance the implementation of project-based learning (PBL), but teachers may struggle to see how their PLC can support PBL, instead perceiving the PLC and PBL as separate aspects of their work. However, there are specific ways to make them work in harmony. A project cycle aligned to elements of the PLC can ensure greater success of PBL in terms of both teacher and student learning.

Improving PBL Implementation With a PLC

Learning Together: One piece PLCs that is often set aside is the sacred time to learn together as team. The whole process of the PLC fosters each individual's professional growth, but teams need to create time to learn together. This might include examining short readings, videos, or resources as a group.

This shared learning time can be used to focus on aspects of PBL. Perhaps a team learns more about designing effective projects, or reads an article about implementation and assessment. This might come out of team goals for the year, or from a reflection on a previous project. This learning can only enhance the teachers' future PBL projects.

Collaborative Planning: PLC teams plan high-quality instruction and assessment. This is a natural fit for PBL as teams can plan the project together. Specific planning components of PLC work enhance the project planning: By unpacking standards, teams can ensure that the project is clear on the assessment targets and that they have a shared understanding of student achievement. PLC teams are also well suited to planning assessments in a project, both formative and summative, including major products and milestones.

In addition, teams can plan the general lessons they feel all teachers will need to teach. It's important in this process to trust both the team and the individual teachers, in considering what does and does not need to be planned together-this will allow the individual teachers to have autonomy and to experiment within the context of the project implementation.

Critique and Project Tuning: Many schools require all projects to be tuned before implementation. Project tuning is a great way to depersonalize instruction, get feedback from colleagues, and promote collaboration across different teams.

Protocols are nothing new in PLC work, and are leveraged consistently. To tune a PBL project, a protocol is used for feedback before the project is implemented. Once initial planning has occurred, teachers should complete a tuning protocol. This can occur in planning periods, before or after school, or at faculty meetings-one round can take 20 to 30 minutes.

Looking at Student Data and Work: A critical component of the work of PLCs is examining student work. By looking at student work, we share collective responsibility for all students in a course, and identify students who are ready for enrichment as well as students who need intervention. There are many protocols for examining student work out there, so teams can select or develop an appropriate one for their own use.

While a team is implementing a PBL project, a major project milestone or formative checkpoint is a great opportunity to come together to examine student work. As teachers examine the data, they can also identify teaching strategies that are particularly effective. For example, it might become apparent that one class has been more successful than another at this point, which becomes an opportunity for teachers to learn from each other.

Differentiation and Intervention: While differentiation is occurring consistently during a PBL project, teachers can also plan more formal interventions and enrichment opportunities following their analysis of student work and data.

For example, teachers might use a "stacked classroom" approach if there is more than one teacher for a course or grade level-the different teachers can provide specific lessons for students depending on their need. Or the PLC can plan small group instruction or interventions with the help of specialists.

It's important to remember that this about more than the students who aren't doing well-students who need a challenge and enrichment in the project can also be identified by the PLC, and steps can be taken to meet their needs.

Reflection and Celebration: At the close of the PBL project, it's important to carve out time to reflect on the effectiveness of the project as a whole. Teachers might dialogue on specific guiding questions, or journal about them and then share out. PLC teams can use this time to capture these reflections and celebrate their success.

This is also an opportunity to set new team goals or monitor progress on existing ones. We should take time to celebrate both student learning and teacher learning.

PBL and PLCs go together very well. The work of the PLC can improve the overall implementation of a project and drive future improvements as well. Teachers working together can do this work, and instructional coaches can support it as well.

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A school-based professional learning community (PLC) is well structured to enhance all aspects of project-based learning. Many schools have structures to support the work of a professional learning community (PLC). Teams have dedicated time to plan together, analyze data, and plan interventions and enrichments.

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Strategies To Foster A Sense Of Belonging In Your Classroom

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Strategies To Foster A Sense Of Belonging In Your Classroom

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When students feel they belong at school they also feel respected and ready to learn. That's why teachers work so hard to create a class environment where every student feels able to contribute and be heard.

"As human beings, one of the most essential needs we have is the need to belong," said Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute in an Edutopia video series on the science of learning. "When that sense of belonging is there, children throw themselves into the learning environment and when that sense of belonging is not there, children will alienate, they will marginalize, they will step back."

Classroom norms are one way to make sure everyone is on the same page about how to treat one another in academic spaces, and they're even more powerful when kids come up with them.

"To begin nearly every class, I start with the norms," said middle school social studies teacher Bobby Shaddox. "We developed this list of about ten adjectives. The classes that go really well are the classes when I start off reflecting on the norms and using those norms to articulate how our class will run well."

In addition to giving students a shared language to talk about the learning community, teachers can use specific strategies like "I notice, I wonder" to engage learners in a topic no matter their starting point. With many learning needs in a classroom, this practice gives students time to think to themselves, as well as time to learn together. It also builds confidence because there are so many entry points for noticing and wondering.

" 'I notice, I wonder' just brings the conversation to a place where all people can contribute," said math teacher Ann Young. "It gives everyone a voice. It allows kids to listen to other people's ideas before they do the analysis. So, it's like a way to collect information collaboratively, but allowing time to think first."

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Strategies To Foster A Sense Of Belonging In Your Classroom

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When students feel they belong at school they also feel respected and ready to learn. That's why teachers work so hard to create a class environment where every student feels able to contribute and be heard.

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Student engagement is the Mega Millions of education: When you hear about it, it seems so easy to win-and then you read about the odds. The good news is that there are effective strategies for boosting student engagement, and they're considerably more likely to pay off than playing the lottery.

A growing body of research in education and the social sciences suggests that students' curiosity can be stimulated in ways that strengthen their connectedness to lessons, interactions with each other, and willingness to commit to learning goals. There are simple techniques that teachers can use during a lesson to boost curiosity, and thus engagement, among students-especially older ones, who are at greater risk for losing interest.

Boosting Student Engagement

1. Harness the power of mystery and puzzles: As storytellers from Scheherazade to the writers of Stranger Things have known, humans have a compulsive need to find out what happens next. We love solving puzzles and finding sequences and patterns. So introduce your next new unit with a mystery.

Try posing a broad question to groups of three or four students, such as: "What would happen if a butterfly's habitat was suffering a severe drought during the pupa stage?" or "What if Tupac had lived?" Let the groups discuss and present their justifications to the class. The realization students need to come to: Conjecture is a legitimate starting point for learning.

2. Pause after asking a question-and again after getting an answer: Rushing through questions and answers doesn't help most students. We all process information differently, and taking an answer from the first student whose hand shoots up means others may abandon the question before they've truly processed it.

Pause with purpose after every question, and again after every answer. That second pause helps other students reconsider the question and reflect on the first answer.

Remember, too, that choral responses aren't just for younger students: When everyone repeats and responds at the same time, the risk that they're not actively involved in the content is reduced. While we'd all like to see education become as individualized as possible, there's something affirming about being part of the group every now and then, even for older students.

3. Craft fewer-but deeper-questions: One or two thoughtfully phrased questions can lead to a deep discussion. Try using questions that begin with "What if" or "How might," and aim for questions that don't have an undisputed yes or no answer and that don't rely on simple recalling of facts. The goal should be to foster mature thought and collaborative discussion.

4. Introduce controversy: Debating an issue and trying to persuade others are great ways to become invested in a topic. This is true not only in current affairs, but in literary and historical analysis. You might pose questions such as, "Why do you think the character responded as she did?" or "What do you suppose happened to John Smith when the crew accused him of mutiny?" You'll have to be prepared to step in if the exchange of views threatens to deteriorate into an overly emotional argument.

5. Mine the gap: The knowledge gap, that is. A certain amount of background knowledge needs to be delivered by direct instruction; then a combination of guidance, self-direction, and curiosity can propel learning indefinitely. If you can lead a student to recognize that she knows something about a subject, and that she'll be better off if she pushes herself to learn a little more about it, curiosity will kick in and motivate her to make that extra effort.

Ask students what they know about a topic, and then ask what they think they don't know about it. Ask which of the "don't know" items they think are most important for them to learn. Do they seem to be guessing? That's all right-you're asking them to comment on something they've already conceded they don't know. Examining their knowledge and capacity to learn is the whole point.

6. Give students a WIIFM (what's in it for me?): A student who asks, "Why should I know this?" is pointing toward a promising teaching tactic. Students must see why content is important to them. How will they use it later in life? How do people use it in the real world? For instance, you might know how a given subject relates to students' families' quality of life right now. We can give students relevant projects through which to apply and show what they know.

7. Encourage dynamic collaboration: With the right guidance, collaborative small-group work leads students to build social skills while also obtaining knowledge. They learn how individual and group success are mutually dependent, and how to fill gaps in peers' knowledge-and they do this in an environment that's engaging because it's social. Teachers can consistently build in short, informal collaboration techniques such as Mix, Freeze, Pair.

Virtually all teachers already use these techniques to some degree. But they become much more powerful when we view them as part of a coordinated, intentional strategy to boost student curiosity.

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Student engagement is the Mega Millions of education: When you hear about it, it seems so easy to win-and then you read about the odds. The good news is that there are effective strategies for boosting student engagement, and they're considerably more likely to pay off than playing the lottery.

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Behaviour Management Episode 2: Phil Beadle on de-escalation techniques

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Behaviour Management Episode 2: Phil Beadle on de-escalation techniques

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Australian Council for Educational Research - ACER

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This podcast from Teacher magazine is supported by Southern Cross University. Study a Master of Education online and complete your degree in 16 months part-time. Develop skills that will help drive change through contemporary, real-world strategies, and bring positive outcomes to student and teacher wellbeing. For more information visit: online.scu.edu.au/master-education
Hello and thank you for downloading this podcast from Teacher magazine - I'm Rebecca Vukovic.
My guest for the second episode in our Behaviour Management podcast series is Phil Beadle - a teacher, education consultant, public speaker, author and broadsheet columnist. Phil was once named Secondary Teacher of the Year in the UK and is considered an expert in the areas of literacy and behaviour management. In today's podcast he joins me on the line from the UK to discuss behaviour management, but in particular the different de-escalation techniques that educators can use to manage challenging behaviours in their classrooms. Rebecca Vukovic: Phil Beadle, thanks for joining Teacher magazine. You've said that when it comes to de-escalation, 'it's important to act quickly, be decisive, pick a technique and put it into action straight away'. So, what are some of the most effective de-escalation techniques you'd recommend to teachers?
Phil Beadle: Can I first say that perhaps that's a little bit glib? I'm aware, I think it's Why are you shouting at us that that's in. But that is a bit of a glib thing in that the choice of when you put a de-escalation technique in is probably one of the most complex things of all, in that you have so many different things to consider and you have to consider them so quickly.

In a crisis stage, then you have to rapidly do a very quick risk assessment and it might be that the appropriate de-escalation technique is just to stand there and observe. Alternatively, it might to be come in really quite quickly.

For me, at an early stage of a behaviour incident, then redirection is generally the best technique, where you just redirect the child away from their emotional landscape, you redirect the child away from the triggers and just put them onto something else. Now, that can be quite as simple as 'let's just focus on the work and forget about it' kind of tactically ignoring. Or it can take a pleasingly surreal bent, where you just deliberately employ some kind of surreal humour when they've been triggered. So, for instance, if somebody has said something unpleasant about someone's mum, you might reply, 'yeah but what about the fact that my mum still buys my clothes and I'm over 50?' And in doing so, you've just redirected them away from their emotional landscape.

Another thing I think is really a fantastically useful technique for teachers is just stating your recognition of a child's emotional state. So simply the phrase, 'I can see that you're getting upset', helps them to recognise that they're getting upset themselves to put their own controls in place.
RV: One thing that I found really interesting is that you've said that humour can be one of the best de-escalation techniques. Why have you found that humour works best?
PB: There's some absolutely fascinating science about this actually in that scientists' best guesses is as to how laughter evolved, is that it's the relaxation of the grimace of extreme mortal fear. So, you can imagine you're on the African savannah in the Palaeolithic times running away from a sabre-toothed tiger, your face would go into this kind of rictus grimace, and then the sabre-toothed tiger breaks their leg as they're running after you. It's that kind of relaxation of absolute up-tightness is how laughter is meant to have evolved.

Now, if you're making a student laugh at the beginning of the process when they're triggered into reactive anger, then what you're actually doing is you've short-circuited them towards the end. So laughter as a redirection technique, which of course is not recommended for kids with autistic spectrum disorders, and laughter as a redirection technique takes them to the end of the process but it also takes them outside of the self. There's a wonderful phrase about laughter, that 'it's the shortest distance between two people' - so it's a brilliant way of achieving rapport and then being able to redirect kids away from their emotional state and then back onto the work.
RV: Now on a more practical level, when a teacher is being presented with behaviour that's immensely challenging, what techniques could they use to de-escalate this behaviour? Could you take me through some of the steps they should take?
PB: The first thing is just two words: go cold. Much of student behaviour - certainly whilst not reactive anger, the proactive anger - is about desiring a behaviour from the teacher, it's about controlling the teacher's behaviour. And what children in the state of manipulative aggression want is they want an emotional response. They want you to behave emotionally, because if you behave emotionally then you're not going to be entirely in charge.

So the first thing we do in really troubling situations is we go cold and then we go by the book. For instance, I had a situation this year where an erstwhile, quite delightful young man named Charlie threw a book in my face in front of the rest of the class and I did find myself in the absurd situation of 'what do I write that you should do here?'. And we go unemotional immediately, and then we go back to the book. So, Charlie chucked the book in my face and wandered out and I found myself feeling somewhat impotent as I said 'That was entirely inappropriate behaviour...' as he slammed the door off its hinges, '...and there will be a sanction Charles!' And whilst it does feel slightly impotent, actually it's a trained professional response. So, if you're dealing with immensely challenging behaviour, be certain that you do not give an emotional response but you give a professional one.
RV: So what about the more minor infringements, what can a teacher do to ensure these minor disruptions don't escalate into more serious issues?
PB: Well it's about being with it from the off, really. If I'm sitting at the back of other teachers' lessons, judging their validity and ticking things on a clipboard, the first thing that I'll note is that the minor behavioural infractions are not challenged. Such as, if gum is not spat into the bin straight away or if there's not an insistence on the minor rules, if there are bags on the table, if the jackets are not on the chairs - then actually that's a classroom in which the bigger behavioural incidents are going to take place. So with minor stuff, it's all about nipping it in the bud absolutely immediately, and again there's quite a nice phrase: 'just sweat the small stuff and then the big stuff doesn't happen'.
RV: You've said before, and I like this quote, 'what's best for the child? - that's a mantra that teachers have got to have in their souls'. And I guess with this in mind, how do teachers de-escalate the tension from poorly behaving students, while ensuring that the well-behaved students aren't negatively affected at the same time?
PB: Managing behaviour adequately, or well, is an entirely egalitarian approach. So what do the high achieving and more compliant students want? They want a calm and purposeful environment in which they can learn. So we have to differentiate our behaviour to focus on those students for whom behaviour is more of a challenge, in order to keep the classroom purposeful and people learning.

So, you won't have a situation where a 'more compliant' student will be upset that a teacher is actively managing the behaviour of the kids for whom behaviour is more of a challenge.

The 'what's best for the child?' mantra is in specific reference to the most challenging of all situations. So, we're hitting a really heavy weight crisis stage and the child's behaviour is distinctly unlovable. It's in these kind of crisis-related incidents that we have this mantra, 'what's best for the child?' And there's also the really delightful phrase, 'who needs the most love in the room is the person who is behaving in the most unlovable manner'.
RV: That is a great quote! Because often it is about timing and a teacher knowing when they should intervene. So are there any kind of rules of when a teacher should intervene when a student is behaving badly?
PB: I think to a certain extent we've covered this in the first question in that the point at which you intervene is probably the most technically complex of all because you've got so many distinct things. And there is an element to that, that it can't really be trained. It's to do with the teacher's professional discretion and crucially to do with their relationship with the students - in that if you have an active and productive relationship with the student then that's going to affect the way in which you intervene and the timing in which you intervene. Whereas, if you have no relationship whatsoever with the student, then it's going to affect your behaviour. And also probably, if you have no relationship whatsoever with the student, you'll want to observe for a little bit more to see what's happening.
RV: I've been thinking a little bit about personal triggers, so how do teachers actually identify their own personal triggers and responses to poor behaviour?
PB: This is kind of a lifelong journey in that I've only been teaching for just over 20 years and I'm only just getting to an understanding of what my own personal triggers are. I think for me again, the key mantra here is an understanding - and I think this is probably the most profound thing I've learned in life, let alone in teaching - that the only thing you can change is yourself. Anybody that attempts to change other people is a fool.

So, in situations where you have potentially a very challenging class and they're setting challenges on a day-to-day basis, you cannot actively change their behaviour.

What you can do is change the way you react to that behaviour. And it's your ability to model the process of change which cuts through to the class.

And it's making these tiny on a day-by-day distinction where... For instance, I do a thing which I was taught by this brilliant guy John Murphy with whom I wrote the book ( Why are you shouting at us?) called the behaviour impact analysis. Now John was previously the head of a residential emotional behavioural difficulties unit for seven years, and his early stages he said he was doing what's called a behaviour impact analysis on himself for every single class of every single day. And it's all about how in the most challenging circumstances, just making these minute changes to behaviour and asking "what is the effect of your own behaviour as a teacher on the students?" - if that effect is negative, then the behaviour of the teacher has got to change.
RV: And Phil, what about follow-up? So, once a situation has been de-escalated, how do you follow-up the next day? Because is it something that needs to be acknowledged or is it better to just let it go?
PB: What we're talking about is managing the comedown. With reactive anger, it follows a repetitive cycle where it takes 45 minutes for the adrenaline that's caused the outburst to subside and the child will remain in a hair-trigger state for those 45 minutes. So, within that 45 minutes post a behavioural incident then a child has to be looked after, and the child has to be reassured, because what's one's automatic human reaction to having behaved very poorly? It's shame. And what we don't want is a child [to be left to stew in their own shame].

So what we need to do, post a behavioural incident, is manage that, and just let the child know that everything is going to be okay. In terms of the procedural stuff post that, well that's a responsibility of individual schools' behavioural policies. So, depending on the incident you might be required to write it up. But my expertise is not within the procedural or within the policy, my expertise is what happens within the classroom. So once you've managed a comedown situation ... a word of advice if you've got two boys fighting, don't immediately get them to shake hands afterwards because it's just going to flare up again. But in terms of the procedural aspect of it, that's the individual school's policy that need to be followed.
RV: Are de-escalation techniques down to the individual teacher or are they something that can be managed by a school-wide plan?
PB: Clearly it's to do with the individual teacher because it's the individual teacher that will manage it. However the issue, the school-wide issue, is do the teachers have the skillset and do they have the training? In that all of us, I think - when we enter a classroom for the first time post our training - feel somewhat underequipped to deal with some of the unruly behaviour with which we might be presented. My belief is that ... For instance the book, the Why are you shouting at us? book, was written with an expert from behavioural units and my belief is that the expertise that the people within those environments have has not actually crossed over into the mainstream.

So my argument would be that each school, every teacher needs training in these techniques so that they can apply them individually. Clearly the training that they receive is a matter of school policy, but in terms of one's application of de-escalation techniques, you can't use them unless the school has a policy to equip you with the training that you need in order to actually own them.
RV: Just finally Phil, I guess this is on a more personal level, when you think back on your own career, have you changed your approach to de-escalation over the years?
PB: Oh gosh yeah! I had no training whatsoever and I was thinking about this this morning, I was gifted ... I started my career in perhaps arguably the very toughest school in the East End [of London]. There were rumours that it was going to close, there were 20 NQTs (newly qualified teachers) on the first day and I was gifted two of the more challenging classes in that school as their drama teacher. I recall 8D, who I could not control at all, shouting at them so loudly that I almost collapsed because it brought stars to my eyes.

Massively, my approach to behaviour has changed massively in that I've become interested in it because I was so, so useless at the beginning. One becomes interested in it, one does research, one leads the people doing good work. And so, ultimately, my progress has been one from chaos to calm to an extent.

I'm no longer ... on a teaching and learning basis, I tend to pride myself on being quite a fissile element, but actually in terms of the management of behaviour, I'm no longer a fissile element in the room that adds to the noise and adds to the chaos. I'm this utterly calm and surprisingly professional practitioner.

That's all from this podcast from Teacher magazine. To check out the full podcast transcript and related reading, visit www.teachermagazine.com.au. To download all of our podcasts for free head to acer.ac/teacheritunes or www.soundcloud.com/teacher-acer
You've been listening to a podcast from Teacher magazine supported by Southern Cross University. Study a Master of Education online and complete your degree in 16 months part-time. Develop skills that will help drive change through contemporary, real-world strategies, and bring positive outcomes to student and teacher wellbeing. For more information visit: online.scu.edu.au/master-education
Phil Beadle says that identifying your own triggers is a lifelong journey. As an educator, how do you identify your personal triggers and responses to poor behaviour?

Consider the steps you take to de-escalate poor behaviour in your classroom. Can you draw on any of the techniques suggested by Phil Beadle in today's podcast to improve your practice?

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Behaviour Management Episode 2: Phil Beadle on de-escalation techniques

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This podcast from Teacher magazine is supported by Southern Cross University. Study a Master of Education online and complete your degree in 16 months part-time. Develop skills that will help drive change through contemporary, real-world strategies, and bring positive outcomes to student and teacher wellbeing.

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UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORKS: FOUNDATIONS TO LINKING, STRETCHING AND AMPLIFYING

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UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORKS: FOUNDATIONS TO LINKING, STRETCHING AND AMPLIFYING

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The word network is used all of the time in everyday speech, however it is important to understand what a network actually is and how connections form and are maintained, so that a truly effective PLN may be developed.

A lot of the time learning communities and learning networks are treated as the same thing and yet they are quite different. Generally, a Learning Community is formed intentionally by a group of people who know each other. This means they have strong ties, which is another way of saying that they interact regularly and that there is a level of trust between them. Because most members of a community will know each other, when one shares something with the group, it is more likely that this will be reciprocated and others will acknowledge this. The membership of the learning community is known - even if members don't know each other well there is generally a sense that everyone is working together towards a shared goal such as the completion of a course or task.

Learning networks can include members of a community, but networks tend to be more organic, undefined and have both strong and weak ties. This means that there will be some members of the network who are known to each other and others who may be unknown. The membership of a network is far more flexible and usually changing all of the time. The goals are personal to each individual, and while members might work together, they may be working towards different goals.
The PLN is mediated by social technologies
The personal learning network is the social learning space that is supported and extended through social technologies - platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Blogs, Reddit etc. These online tools offer spaces where people can connect with others, interact and access a wide range of information. Individuals can develop strong connections which offer them support and validation, and they also can connect with people from diverse backgrounds who they may not know as well, but who might contribute new exciting and innovative perspectives.

A PLN is formulated around the learners' own context, professional interests and personal learning goals. Leveraging the connectivity of social technologies, the PLN allows learning that overcomes barriers of time and space.

If this post has whetted your appetite for informal, connected professional learning, you can read more on my blog at http://www.linkinglearning.com.au/develop-your-pln/ and join me at the Capacity Building School Libraries conference at the National Education Summit in Brisbane where I will be presenting. I look forward to meeting you and continuing the conversation!

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Moorabbin, Australia: Hawker Brownlow.

Trust, T., Krutka, D. G., & Carpenter, J. P. (2016). "Together we are better": Professional learning networks for teachers. Computers & Education, 102, 15-34. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.06.007

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Understanding Personal Learning Networks: Foundations to Linking, Stretching and Amplifying

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The word network is used all of the time in everyday speech, however it is important to understand what a network actually is and how connections form and are maintained, so that a truly effective PLN may be developed. A lot of the time learning communities and learning networks are treated as the same thing and yet they are quite different.

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Borrowing ideas from game construction can help teachers with both assessing student projects and constructing rubrics.

Courtesy of Louisa Rosenheck

Teachers play a game designed to encourage deep thinking about what rubrics are and how they work.

Let's say a student builds a trebuchet -a siege catapult-for a makerspace or a science classroom, and it fails in functionality. Perhaps the support structure is too weak, and it snaps and breaks as the student tries to use it to catapult a projectile. The prototype has failed, but the student still might understand the physics of simple machines that undergirds his or her project.

When we teach students iterative design approaches to project-based learning, or-better yet-ways to apply Mitch Resnick's creative learning spiral, how do we assess students' content and skill mastery, particularly when lots of prototyping, iterating, and creativity are embedded in the process?

One approach being explored by researchers is playful assessments, which both measure student understanding and honor the iterative design process used in creating projects.

Embedding Stealth Assessments in Projects

Recently, I spoke with Stephanie Chang, director of programs at the nonprofit Maker Ed, about approaches to assessments that involve creative work. She suggested a game-like approach. After all, games have embedded assessments that gauge player mastery throughout the learning experience. (All games are learning games-you have to learn the game's system to navigate through it.)

Good games don't pre- and post-test players, as teachers might; instead, games seamlessly assess as people play them. Val Shute, a professor of education, calls this stealth assessment. "Teachers can design assessments to do just that," Chang suggested. "We often try to capture a moment in time, and that's not always useful."

Whether student work is digital, as with Minecraft or Scratch, or is made with arts-and-crafts materials such as hot glue and cardboard, or involves a combination of both, as with physical computing (e.g., Makey Makey, littleBits, or Micro:bits kits), the assessment question should not focus solely on the artifact a student produces for a particular (and often arbitrary) due date.

"Look at the process it took for [the student] to get there as a learner, and how he or she reflected on that experience," Chang recommended.

In other words, ask students to reflect about how and why they made their design decisions. Processes of reflection create opportunities for students to think about their thinking, a hallmark of good constructionist learning. Aside from written reflections, students can also document their work using digital portfolio tools such as Seesaw or Flipgrid. (For more ideas, check out the free online course Digital Portfolios with Maker Ed at KQED Teach.)

Make Assessments Playful

Like a good game, assessment itself can be playful. That's not just my opinion: Research on game-based assessment has been around for a few years now.

"Assessment should start with a sense of [student] agency, and should include student participation," Yoon Jeon (YJ) Kim, a research scientist at the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, explained. "It's like good game design, where there are interesting problems, and different pathways within it. And there is the sense of competence right away."

Kim suggested embedding project directions in rubrics and encouraging students to use the rubrics as project instructions. Rubrics should be designed so that students can record their learning accurately-they should be leveled or scaffolded, like games, to accommodate differences in skill or content complexity among students. "We can apply playful learning in the design of assessments to provide an engaging experience, rather than one of anxiety," Kim continued. "Learners can then see multiple entry points and visible paths that each lead to competencies and skills."

This might all sound more theoretical than practical, so Kim-along with Louisa Rosenheck, a research scientist from the MIT Education Arcade-created a game-like activity for teachers called MetaRubric. A free printable download, MetaRubric is a playful learning experience about making rubrics. You just need the deck of cards and small groups of three to five people to get started.

The MetaRubric cards guide the action. First participants are asked to draw a "good" movie poster. (The cards intentionally leave that phrase ambiguous-does it refer to good movies or good posters?-so teachers share the experience of how it feels to have unclear expectations.)

"These drawings serve as the basis for the subsequent rubric construction, and set players up to have the experience of assessing with a rubric and being assessed by one," Kim explained-just the experience students have when they first assess themselves and then are assessed by a teacher.

Players next list criteria for what they think a good movie poster should have, identifying the elements and skills they deem most important. "From there they are asked to share and discuss their criteria, in order to come up with one group rubric with a set of criteria they all agree on." Finally, they make a rubric for rubrics (hence the meta in MetaRubric).

Playing MetaRubric together, rather than designing rubrics in isolation, gives teachers opportunities to share ways to iterate and improve on praxis. "An outcome from playing MetaRubric may not be the perfect rubric," Kim continued. "But the perfect outcome may be the conversation about how to playfully assess."

Aside from professional development training, or settings like pre-service education courses, experienced teachers can create playful assessments together, too. Students should also get involved, as they work on open-ended projects. "Students should be part of the broader assessment conversation," Kim said. "Then they talk about what they think is important when demonstrating success. Assessment needs to be participatory. And playful. It's about a sense of agency and mutually understood communicative values."

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Borrowing ideas from game construction can help teachers with both assessing student projects and constructing rubrics. Courtesy of Louisa Rosenheck Teachers play a game designed to encourage deep thinking about what rubrics are and how they work. Let's say a student builds a trebuchet -a siege catapult-for a makerspace or a science classroom, and it fails in functionality.

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Flipped Classrooms: Turning Education on its Head

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Flipped Classrooms: Turning Education on its Head

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You know this scenario well: The teacher stands in front of the class and lectures, and you try to take notes on everything that is said. That night you sit down alone to do your homework and find yourself with questions, trying to understand your nearly illegible pages of scribbles. You read the assigned text for the next day, when you go back to school, sit in the classroom, and take notes again. If you got stuck, maybe you can stay after school and ask questions.

It's the longtime standard for how a classroom works. But is it the best way for students to actually learn the material?

No, say proponents of "flipped classrooms," where the work typically done in the classroom is being done at home and vice-versa. Teachers in flipped classrooms record short video lectures for students to watch before class (at home or in a school computer lab), which allows those students to take as much time as they need to watch the video and take notes. The next day's class time is then spent in discussion and projects connected to the topic at hand, activities thought to be more meaningful in learning the concepts being taught.

"In our combined 37 years of teaching, we have been frustrated with students not being able to translate content from our lectures into useful information that would allow them to complete their homework," writes Jonathan Bergmann about himself and Aaron Sams, two teachers who met while running the chemistry department at a high school in Colorado. "Then one day, Aaron had an insight that would change our world. It was one simple observation: 'The time when students really need me physically present is when they get stuck and need my individual help. They don't need me there in the room with them to yak at them and give them content; they can receive content on their own'."

Voila - the passive classroom had just become an active one. Bergmann and Sams created the flipped classroom, and tried the concept in earnest during the 2007-08 school year. They pre-recorded their chemistry lectures and spent classroom time on problem work and lab experiments.

"We found that we had more time for both the labs and the problem work time," Bergmann writes in the book the two co-wrote, Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day (International Society for Technology in Education, 2012). "For the first time in either of our careers, we ran out of things for the students to do. They were completing all their work with 20 minutes left in class. Clearly, this model was more efficient than lecturing and assigning homework."

In an interview with the Washington Post that year, Bergmann talked about himself, teaching, and his new approach. He was asked whether standardized test scores had improved.

"Students have done better. I don't know the numbers, but they learn the material," he said. "In my first 19 years as a teacher, I was a good stand-and-deliver lecture guy. I won a presidential award. I had all these credentials. I was good that way. You get to the end of the unit and a kid gets a 62. We move on. All you can do is say, 'Wish you had done better, Joey,' but by that time he's lost and we are in Unit 2. Joey never really learned it. This forces Joey to learn it."

In the decade since Bergmann's and Sams' experiment, the two have become national experts. They have a website, FlippedClass.com, and founded a nonprofit organization, The Flipped Learning Network, which helps provide resources to teachers interested in flipping their classrooms. And in keeping with their understanding of the digital students of today, they are active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. And their concept has many fans.

While it seems there has been no large-scale nationwide study on the effects of flipped classrooms, there is strong anecdotal evidence. Education World cites case studies in a research project conducted by the Flipped Learning Network, Pearson, and George Mason University. One school studied showed no appreciable change. The other results:

School: Niagara Falls High School, New York
Subject: Math
Results: The year before, 71 percent of students in honors Algebra II/Trigonometry passed the Regents exam; in the flipped classroom, 83 percent passed it. In General Algebra, 35 percent passed the exam the year before; 55 percent passed it in the flipped-classroom year.

School: Ashland Middle School, Massachusetts
Subject: Language
Results: Two concurrent classes were taught, one in a traditional model and the other with a flipped classroom. Homework completion was close to 80 percent before the flip; the flipped classroom improved to nearly 99 percent. The traditional class scored 78 percent on a grammar class while the flipped class scored 88 percent; the traditional class scored 87 percent on a written assignment while the flipped class scored 92 percent.

School: Bullis High School, Maryland
Subject: AP Calculus
Results: The year before, 58 percent of students scored a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam. The year of the flipped classroom, 78 percent of students scored a 4 or a 5.

There are also benefits for the teacher in a flipped classroom, in addition to the ultimate goal of helping students to learn better.

"Teachers can get to know students so much better and quicker than in a traditional lecture-style classroom," writes EdSurge, a website offering news and resources for those involved in education and technology. "Since you are now going from group to group and student to student asking and answering questions, the relationship is much more of a two-way street. As you get to know your students better, it becomes much easier to differentiate your instruction for each individual learner. When students are so involved in their learning, the learning is much stronger and it is easier for them to recall information."

So, what's the takeaway for a passionate teacher who just wants to get the best out of students?

Dominican University of California offers a three-part, self-paced Flipping your Classroom Teaching course meant to introduce and refine the skills you need. The course, which uses Bergmann's and Sams' book as text, is appropriate for teachers at any level.

In Part 1: Introduction, the focus is on understanding the flipped classroom, learning the history of the movement, and creating or enhancing your own online presence with a classroom website, a wiki or a blog. Part 2: Building Your Flipped Classroom Toolbox teaches you how to create videos, embed them in your online site, create Google forms and more. And Part 3: The Flipping Unit Plan actually walks you through creating a detailed 3- to 4-week Flipped Unit of your choosing.

"If you are new to the flipped classroom, this class will be a terrific introduction. If you have already started to dabble in the flipped classroom, you will appreciate refining the fundamental skills of flipping. Regardless of your experience, the best part of any professional development course is that you, the participant will take this information and make it your own." - Dominican University of California

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Flipped Classrooms: Turning Education on its Head

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You know this scenario well: The teacher stands in front of the class and lectures, and you try to take notes on everything that is said. That night you sit down alone to do your homework and find yourself with questions, trying to understand your nearly illegible pages of scribbles.

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For those of us who remember a time before the internet, using Google for research might feel strange -- like being thrust from the cozy confines of a favorite library straight into the Wild West of the web. But in today's world, it's impossible to ignore Google Search as a legitimate tool for research.

Most of us begin any simple quest for knowledge with a Google search. So it makes sense that more serious searches might start there, too. But is Google OK for formal research? That depends. It's still best to combine Googling with other forms of research, like visiting a library or using an academic database. But the good news is that Google Search can get you well on your way to finding credible, accurate information for a research paper or project -- that is, if you know how to use it.

Essential Tips for Google Research

1. Use quotation marks to find exact wording.

Normally, Google will take a look at the set of words you type in, then try to find matches based on those words -- not necessarily in the order you type them. Sometimes this means that Google might separate the words you've entered or even find matches for similar words. But you can also tell Google not to do this and instead look only for the words you entered in the exact order you entered them. To restrict your search to exact wording, surround the word or phrase in quotation marks.

Example: I've found this especially useful when hunting down sources. Say you want to know who wrote something you'd like to cite: You'll get much better results for the citation if you put it in quotation marks and look for an exact match.

Another use case: Found a good quote in the novel you're reading for class? Wonder what others have said about that specific quote? Search for it with quotation marks to find out!

Bonus: You can also use this as a tool for fact-checking. Say you come across a meme on social media and find yourself wondering, Did Abraham Lincoln really say that? Google the exact wording of the quote -- using quotation marks -- to see if you can find the correct attribution.

2. Use "OR" to get options.

By typing "OR" (in capital letters) between search terms, you're telling Google to look for matches to either term.

Example: This can be helpful when you're searching for something that varying sources might describe differently. For instance, say you're looking for information on climate change. Some sources might refer to climate change as "global warming," so your search could look like this:

3. Use a hyphen (or minus symbol) to remove options.

To narrow your results, you can omit certain words and sites from your results by adding a "-" symbol in front of the word (or words) you don't want your search results to include.

Example: This comes in handy when your search query has a double meaning. Imagine that you're trying to research the company Apple, but you don't want any results about the actual fruit. Your search could look like this:

As another example, say you're researching critical reaction to the novel The Great Gatsby, and you don't want any sources that mention film adaptations of the book. Your search could look like this:

4. Use "site:" to limit your search to within one website.

By using the word "site:" (followed by a colon), then typing a website's address, you can limit your search to results from only that website or source. This tip is helpful when you're looking for a page on a website that doesn't have its own search function (or when a website's search function doesn't work as well as Google).

Say you want to see whether a specific source, like the Example: New York Times, has covered a particular topic, like single-payer health care. You might assume that they have but maybe can't quite track down the exact article you're looking for. In this case, you'd type something like this:

Another way to use this trick, but for broader results, is to restrict your search to a type of source, like academic institutions ("edu") or nonprofit organizations ("org"). Simply follow the "site:" with "org" or "edu," then your search terms. This is especially helpful when looking for more credible or research-backed information. The same search for single-payer health care could look like this:

You can even combine this tip with others. In fact, you can combine lots of Google search tips. Here's an example:

5. Use "site:" and a country code to explore sources from a particular place.

This is a classic Alan November example, which he explains here in more detail (be sure to check out his site in the links below). You might already know that Google's search algorithm populates users' results based on their geographic location. But for some searches, it could be important to break out of your bubble and consider information from other locations or countries.

Example:Say you're researching how Syrian refugees have been received in different parts of Europe. American news sources have definitely covered the issue. But how has this issue been covered in, say, Germany? By typing "site:" and the country code for Germany ("DE"), Google will give you results only from German sources. Here's how that search might look:

Other useful tips for Google research:

Add "@[name of social media site]" after your search words to get results from only that platform.

Use "intitle:" to only get results with your search words in the title.

Use "related:" before a web address you know to find results from similar sites.

More resources:

Looking for a lesson plan on this topic?

Click the link to view our digital citizenship resources!

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5 Must-Have Google Search Tips for Students | Common Sense Education

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For those of us who remember a time before the internet, using Google for research might feel strange -- like being thrust from the cozy confines of a favorite library straight into the Wild West of the web. But in today's world, it's impossible to ignore Google Search as a legitimate tool for research.

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Nonverbal communication can sometimes be your most effective classroom management tool. Establishing a system of hand signals in the classroom is a great way for students to communicate their needs while you're teaching a lesson or during work time without disrupting the flow of learning. They're also the simplest way for teachers to get a message across quickly and quietly.

Here are eight hand signals you can start using in your class immediately along with additional resources to learn more about using hand signals in the classroom.

1. Attention

Silent Coyote is a fun way to signal for attention. When the teacher shows the class the signal, students should stop talking, turn their eyes to the teacher, and return the signal.

2. Check yourself

This signal, known as Give Me Five, cues students to check that one, their eyes are looking; two, their ears are listening; three, their mouth is shut; four, they are sitting cross-legged; and five, they have their hands to themselves.

3. Bathroom break

No need for a student blurt out to the whole class when they need to go. Students can simply flash the Crossed Fingers signal to the teacher, wait for a thumbs-up, and be off to take care of their business.

When little ones get antsy at circle time, simply show them this American Sign Language signal to remind them to quietly have a seat.

5. Yes, no, wait, I agree

The thumb is a flexible tool for signaling in the classroom. Thumbs-up signals yes, thumbs-down signals no, and thumb turned sideways can mean wait. In addition, students can hold a thumbs-up to their chest to silently signal that they agree, which is especially helpful during circle time when kids tend to blurt out their opinions and stories.

Another American Sign Language gesture, this signal can show your students that you appreciate it when they respond to your direction or when they're doing a good job at a task.

Instead of raising their hand for the whole class to see, students can use this unobtrusive signal to show that they need further instruction or assistance. This signal is particularly helpful during circle time when students are seated in close proximity.

This signal helps students focus on listening to the speaker. It's great when you don't need to quiet the whole group but need to give a gentle reminder to an individual or small cluster of kids. For more helpful tips, watch this video.

Be sure to check out the free hand-signal-in-the-classroom resources from The Science Penguin and Melissa Mazur.
Do you use hand signals to communicate with your class? Come share your favorites in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Also, check out 5 Strategies to Use With Your Squirmiest, Wiggliest Students.

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8 Nonverbal Cues for the Classroom That Really Work

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Nonverbal communication can sometimes be your most effective classroom management tool. Establishing a system of hand signals in the classroom is a great way for students to communicate their needs while you're teaching a lesson or during work time without disrupting the flow of learning.

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Fully 92 percent of American teenagers go online daily. More than half of them do so several times a day and a quarter are online "almost constantly."

I'm a mother of two teenagers who fall into that latter category. And as a parent and a teacher educator, I work on ways in which we might capitalize on teens' social nature and fondness for technology to promote something positive.

A question I wrestle with is: can social media help students learn? Or is it just wishful thinking?

Over the past decade, my colleagues and I at the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education have worked with hundreds of middle school teachers to integrate technology with meaningful learning. Our research suggests that a one-to-one computing environment, where every student has access to an Internet-accessible device such as a tablet, netbook or laptop, can be a powerful complement to middle-grades teaching practices.

Learning through Twitter

Most research on the use of Twitter for learning has been conducted with undergraduate and graduate students. Research with teenagers, however, has found that students use social media for self-expression, communication, friendship maintenance and information.

So, recently, one of our partner teachers explored the potential of social media to promote learning. Ryan Becker, a teacher at a public middle school, wondered if Twitter might be an effective way to extend classroom learning and to link students to "real world" science.

Working with 128 eighth graders over two years in his physical science classes, Becker first helped each of his students establish a Twitter account specifically for their science learning.

He provided them with a starter list of accounts to follow, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (e.g., @NASA, @SpaceStation, @MarsCuriosity); the radio program Science Friday (@SciFri); Emily Lakdawalla, a science writer and blogger; and @realscientists, a Twitter account that rotates weekly among scientists from diverse branches of science who share interesting details about their lives and their work. He also encouraged students to expand the list of accounts based on their own science-related interests.

Next, students got down to some real work. Both during class and for homework, students were asked to read and tweet regularly about science. They posted pictures and videos to illustrate scientific concepts, such as "acceleration" or "friction."

Ryan Becker, CC BY

They tweeted about their learning, posting personal examples of Newton's First Law and summarizing chemistry in a mere 140 characters. They tweeted about class projects in order to generate ideas or update others on their progress. And they used Twitter to inspire each other, such as posting videos of successful Rube Goldberg machines, a device that performs a simple task in a complicated fashion, when they were building similar machines in class and sharing their own personal connections and observations.

Based on this Twitter project with middle schoolers and Becker's subsequent doctoral research with high school students, we found students learned through Twitter in multiple ways.

How Twitter helped students

First, selecting whom to follow based on their own interests helped to personalize the curriculum for students - an approach that is gaining rapid momentum through recent philanthropic and federal funding efforts.

Second, by tweeting about their daily science learning, students found an immediate and potentially unlimited audience for their tweets. Students who were interested in space, for example, could be followed by classmates or an astronomer. They could tweet questions directly to accounts covering missions throughout our solar system.

In almost all cases, the tweets reached a larger audience than was otherwise possible in a classroom.

Ryan Becker, CC BY

Third, using Twitter expanded students' literacy opportunities. For example, most of the tweets students encountered included links to science-related, informational text, such as blogs and research studies, all of which were related to students' self-identified interests.

Having to distill their own learning into tweets also called for students to use concise language to convey complex ideas, a challenging skill for many. They even integrated different writing genres into their work, such as these sci-kus (haikus that are science-related).

Finally, Twitter served as an assessment tool. Although the research design didn't enable us to measure student learning, we were struck by how well students' tweets provided quick insight into students' understandings and misconceptions.

Because tweets are sent and received instantaneously, students' thoughts and questions could be viewed in real time. Learning how well students were understanding the latest science concepts in turn helped their teacher adjust how and what he taught next.

An earlier study by California State University researcher Carol VanVooren and middle school teacher Corey Bess showed that the use of Twitter helps improve student learning. In that study the researchers found that when teachers used Twitter to reinforce classroom instruction, students performed better on standardized tests.

Challenges of Twitter-based learning

Despite this promising evidence, our research on using Twitter with middle and high school students revealed a number of challenges.

For example, most students in Becker's classroom did not have Twitter accounts, which was not surprising given that most teens favor Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat as their top social media platforms. Students needed guidance on how to structure a tweet and how to assess the reliability of content - both tasks that took time during the school day. Valuable learning time was also eaten up by the undependable nature of technology, such as inconsistent Wi-Fi and inadequate bandwidth.

Overall, however, our research found the benefits of Twitter far outweighed the drawbacks. Embracing Twitter as part of class - as opposed to teaching the type of stand-alone social media unit so often found in schools - helped students grapple with many of these issues in an authentic way.

Two years of survey data from the 128 eighth graders revealed that over 90 percent of students felt Twitter enabled them to follow real science in real time and to interact with others outside of class. This also helped them to make connections between science and their lives and personal interests.

Clearly, we need a lot more research on the use of social media in middle and high schools to better understand its ultimate potential for promoting learning. But in the meantime, in this media-saturated era, teens can benefit from the opportunity to experience the power of promising digital technologies alongside knowledgeable adults.

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What happens when middle schoolers take to Twitter? They become learners

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Fully 92 percent of American teenagers go online daily. More than half of them do so several times a day and a quarter are online "almost constantly." I'm a mother of two teenagers who fall into that latter category.

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Creation of Multi Modal texts and Copyright

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Creation of Multi Modal texts and Copyright

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NEW: © Copyright Free Solutions with Creative Commons

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Key Takeaways

Personalized learning at scale need not rely solely on predictive analytics - it can be facilitated by connecting and empowering distributed communities of learners to co-create their learning experience.

Many students are not prepared to engage in personalized, connected learning and require clear messaging about the vision, values, and skills that will help them succeed.

Personalized learning requires a delicate balance between student autonomy and instructor-led direction and scaffolding, along with openness as a pedagogy and toward content licensing, to achieve personalized, crowdsourced, connected learning.

The most effective personalized learning at scale requires the thoughtful integration of many pedagogies and emerging technologies including learning analytics, openness, and connectivism.

Many current efforts to provide personalized learning at scale involve plugging analytic data about learners into automated technological systems and using algorithms to generate customized and adaptive paths for each student. Yet personalized learning at scale need not rely solely on predictive analytics, quantitative data, and automated platforms. What is more, some fear these approaches may "reduce metacognition and student agency, encouraging students to become dependent on the system rather than learning how to make adjustments to optimize their learning." ¹ Another way to personalize learning at scale leverages technology to connect individuals across time and space, capitalizes on the collective wisdom distributed across communities, and empowers learners to co-create their learning experience. In fact, this approach gave rise to the original MOOCs in 2008 (termed by some cMOOCs), ² which were based on connectivism. ³ Many of the MOOCs that followed these initial efforts - which garnered much more notoriety ⁴ - were not based on connectivist principles and instead resembled more static and didactic delivery mechanisms for content (termed by some xMOOCs). In this article, we describe our experiences designing and teaching a MOOC that attempted to bring back and even enhance personalized learning opportunities by implementing connectivist principles within an xMOOC environment and platform. ⁵

OK MOOC

In fall 2014, we designed and facilitated a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary, bilingual, and openly licensed (CC BY-SA) MOOC, "Open Knowledge: Changing the Course of Global Learning," known as OK MOOC. As the course designers and instructors, faced challenges and opportunities in developing a massive, open, online, personalized learning experience. We had to make decisions regarding instructional design, technologies, and legal considerations in order to maximize personalization and student self-determination.

With four other co-instructors, we developed and led the 13-week OK MOOC with over 12,000 learners enrolled from 178 countries. Course content focused on issues of "openness" (open education, open access, open source, open science, open data, etc.). (Further information on the course, including the course content, can be found on the course site.) OK MOOC was designed to provide participants with opportunities to

increase their understanding of the foundations of open knowledge creation, use, dissemination, and evaluation;

collaborate with learners from other cultures and disciplines;

work effectively in rapidly changing knowledge environments; and

develop as independent, self-directed, lifelong learners.

To achieve these aims, we recruited instructors from Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Ghana with expertise in education, information science, business, and technology. We received seed funding from Simon Fraser University and Stanford University, which included in-kind support from educational designers and technologists.

On the surface OK MOOC resembled many other xMOOCs in that it followed a traditional course format, used an xMOOC learning management system, and featured instructor-selected video content and readings. ⁶ However, the course deviated from a traditional model by leveraging a "distributed flip" model that in part enabled learners to personalize their experience. ⁷ In this model, MOOC content serves as a hub to facilitate and connect distributed communities of formal, for-credit students as well as noncredit, informal learners. The inspiration for the course design and technology decisions came from instructor experiences with the innovative cMOOC model, ⁸ and the work of Cormier, Couros, Downes, Siemens, Wiley, and others. To facilitate connecting, OK MOOC was open to the world as an informal learning opportunity, but simultaneously offered for credit to registered students at the instructors' institutions.

Design Approaches

We chose several approaches to the design: a crowdsourced curriculum, module flexibility, multiple tracks to completion, and student-led discussions.

Crowdsourced Curriculum

The first component of personalizing the course was to collaboratively work with students to build a resource list of readings, lectures, and other materials for each module - to crowdsource the curriculum. All instructor-selected readings and videos were suggested but not required. Students could choose from the instructor-suggested list or the growing list of peer-selected resources. We wanted to enable students to recognize their existing knowledge; discover the multidisciplinary, multicultural knowledge of their peers; and share the power of setting the curriculum. We believed this approach would help develop learners' "personal knowledge mastery," a fundamental skill of professionals in the knowledge economy. Lastly, we wanted to collaboratively build an extensive repository of freely available "open knowledge" resources.

To facilitate the building of a shared list, we introduced Jarche's Seek, Sense, Share framework. This approach encouraged learners to seek resources from the world around them that the considered relevant to the course. We also asked learners to briefly describe and reflect on the resource (sensing) and put into practice what they learned through their writing and discussion posts. Lastly, learners were asked to share the resources with the OK MOOC community and, more broadly, the world.

Students appreciated the course-generated resource list in terms of broadening the resources available, enabling global voices to be heard, and empowering them as independent learners. For example, one student commented: "I have found many links suggested by fellow students to be extremely helpful in encouraging my own learning journey." Another noted: "So far I like the agency I have over choosing which subjects to review more thoroughly and respond to posts, etc."

Crowdsourcing the curriculum had its downsides. For example, many students felt overwhelmed by the volume of resources: "All channels are flooded with messages from hundred plus participants." Also, because much of the content was to be student contributed, some students felt the course was not a true MOOC experience. When asked in the midcourse survey what they found valuable in the course, a learner indicated: "Nothing. This is not a class. This is a website with different types of content. You're deceiving people by calling this a MOOC." This student's criticism encapsulates some of the tensions related to a crowdsourced curriculum, including that some students believe they can only "learn" in a course from instructor-driven content. This also illustrates how the "grammar of schooling" (instructor dissemination of knowledge, inflexible schedule, summative grading schemes) remains ingrained in many adult learners and can be a roadblock to self-directed and personalized learning. ⁹ To some degree, we suspect that by adding recommended resources to each module, we might have inadvertently undermined the resource-sharing exercise, with many students opting to rely exclusively on our expertise rather than exploring the findings of their peers.

We came to realize the need to balance learner autonomy with guided instruction, as echoed in this student's comment: "Independent learning has to be based on some sort of structure. I have been working to provide a structured approach while keeping myself open to exploring new ideas." On reflection, we feel that increased messaging from the outset about the course structure and learners' roles and responsibilities might have allowed students uncomfortable with highly self-determined learning experiences an early opportunity to prepare themselves for something significantly different from previous learning experiences.

Module Flexibility

We attempted to foster personalized learning by encouraging learners to choose multiple paths through the course to fit their needs and interests. For example, if during the second week a learner was primarily interested in engaging with the content slated for week six, then she was welcome to explore those materials. Additionally, all OK MOOC content remained accessible following the formal course period, allowing learners to proceed at their own pace or return to those materials for just-in-time learning. Due to constraints of a traditional university calendar, for-credit students lacked similar flexibility, although they could choose to put less effort into some modules than others without penalty.

Despite encouraging learners to select modules of their choice, some students felt compelled to complete all materials before moving to the next module. One student noted: "I try to cover all the videos and core readings, and work on the activities. I wish I [could] cover more of the additional readings." For many students this caused frustration with the amount of content and an anxiety about course pace. "I am constantly a little behind so I don't really write as much as I could and should in the forums." Another student commented: "Since there is so much information on each topic...it's not possible in the time available to follow many of the interesting contributions from fellow students." Again, early instructor efforts to emphasize the personalized learning focus of the course might have reduced student anxiety.

Multiple Tracks to Completion

Learners could choose one of three tracks to earn a Statement of Accomplishment, which required completing a number of activities depending on the track they chose, including posting and commenting on the discussion forum; sharing resources; actively tweeting; evaluating resources; creating an open, online digital object; and writing a brief self-assessment of learning. Tracks included Connecting, with an emphasis on sharing and communicating; Evaluating, with an emphasis on critiquing resources; and Creating, with an emphasis on building and sharing a new open, online digital object of their choice. The course did not involve quizzes, tests, or essays. Completion rates for the tracks were Connecting, 54; Evaluating, 72; and Creating, 52.

Having multiple tracks allowed students to decide how much time they wished to devote to the course, with the Connecting track requiring approximately 1-2 hours per week, the Evaluating track 3-5 hours, and the Creating track 5-8 hours. Students only interested in one or two modules, while not eligible for a Statement of Accomplishment, were considered valuable course members. For the instructors, a successful MOOC experience was not one where students consume all of the learning materials but where they come away having learned something they consider of value. As mentioned, though, we could have been more explicit about the many ways learners could extract value from the OK MOOC experience.

Related to the tracks, we maximized personalized learning by allowing Creating track students to select both the format and topic of their major assignment. To complete the Creating track, learners needed to create an openly available, online object related to the course topics covered. Table 1 shows examples of student projects. On completing the assignment, students had to post their digital object to the course discussion forums, where instructors and students could engage with and respond to the work. Over time, several students have continued to work on their projects, signaling that this exercise was not a throwaway. For example, one student took on the digitization of the " forgotten fantasy" paperback Aladore. The student continues to make progress on this initiative and to document his work. Additionally, these projects were made publicly available to reinforce course ideals and extend their impact beyond the course.
Table 1. A sample of Creating student projects
Due to the formally structured nature of for-credit courses, credit students were much more constrained by course sequencing and had to review all course modules and complete all assignments to receive university credit. This highlights the difficulty of implementing connectivism and personalized learning in a traditional educational setting and again points to ways in which the pervasive grammar of schooling can be a roadblock to these methods.

Student-Led Discussions

We extended personalization through student-led discussions. The online forum was open to anyone to initiate a discussion or participate in an existing one. Over 2,400 unique learners wrote more than 15,000 forum posts during the semester, which were predominantly in English but also in Spanish. While some posts were instructor prompted, instructors limited their interventions, getting involved only to encourage participation, add ideas, or pose additional questions.

Despite probing instructor questions and encouragement in the course instructions, online discussions proved less successful in connecting learners. Many posts were monological, resulting in forum posts being a single author's voice instead of a participatory conversation. In addition, the large number of students, from a wide variety of backgrounds, made the development of meaningful connections challenging. Because much of the course value lay in the discussions, more effort would be needed to ensure its success for online students. This could include incorporating more-guided questions to promote discussion, actively linking students with similar interests, and ensuring optimal software options for encouraging dialogue.

In the physical classroom, students divided into small, permanent discussion groups and self-selected a weekly leader. Leaders determined the questions to ask their group and were expected to facilitate a meaningful exchange. Instructors circulated between groups, allowing discussions to organically unfold and intervening only when asked. The in-class discussions were largely successful, with students expressing a strong sense of community within and between the in-class groups. Despite our encouragement, however, interactions between the in-class and online students were not as successful as we expected. More attention to consciously building these connections through creating international discussion groups or offering more compelling reasons to collaborate with a peer from another institution might have helped students better interact with their wider peer group.

Technology Approaches

Personalized learning at scale requires the thoughtful and intentional integration of pedagogy, content, and technology throughout the design process. We recognize that the technological options are evolving rapidly; therefore, we do not make any specific recommendations, but instead provide examples of how we (as instructors and instructional designers) wrestled with integrating technology, course goals, personalized learning pedagogies, and institutional IT structures. Table 2 summarizes the pros and cons of the four technologies we used in the course, which are described in detail below.
Table 2. Technologies to support massive personalized learning: affordances and challenges observed in OK MOOC

Stanford Lagunita (Open edX)

Provides a central location for student participation

Allows students to create new forum posts and comment on the posts of others

Enables instructors to see student data to better meet the needs of individual learners

Students must register with a third-party service, with data stored on a commercial server

Loss of control over personal data

High volume of content challenges some students

Unstructured resource sharing

Educational purpose not readily apparent for all students

Unfamiliar to most learners

High initial learning curve for some students

Google Community

Familiar interface, often considered intuitive and easy to use by students

Learners can decide what to post, when to reply

Lagunita (Open edX)

We selected Lagunita, hosted by Stanford, as our primary platform because it is open source and, in part, because of our partnership with and funding from the university. Lagunita contained the majority of instructor-curated content, including text-based orientation materials, video links, and readings. Lagunita captured and, for instructors, displayed learners' platform interactions. As a traditional xMOOC platform, Lagunita worked well as a central location for instructor-provided content and instructor communication.

Some aspects of Lagunita worked less well for OK MOOC and its more connectivist intent. Structurally, the discussion forums were a major concern. As instructors, we struggled to effectively embed prompts for weekly discussions and monitor forum activity, given the limited ability to receive alerts for posted content. Students expressed dissatisfaction with the display of posts and lack of ease in tracking their posts or any replies. "The overall structure of the discussion board is a nightmare for Type A organized folks. Often people end up starting a new thread instead of finding an existent discussion topic that fits their comments, resulting in this long stream of single-comment discussions, which is not helpful." Related to these concerns, one dissatisfied learner launched an in-MOOC discussion, "Help Wanted: Reinventing MOOC discussion boards," to generate ideas for improvement. This thread was one of the most commented on.

Twitter

We selected Twitter in the hope that learners' interactions as tweet writers and consumers would expose them to a global conversation on openness, teach them about information flow, provide opportunities to share resources and course experiences, and help develop their own personal learning networks. To facilitate Twitter use, we promoted #okmooc, pointed learners toward relevant hashtags and people to follow, and supplied instructional materials on Twitter. There were 2,237 tweets total, of which 1,854 were unique.

Harvard and nonprofit launch largest library of exceptional K-12 student work http://t.co/yptx3X1D6M via @educationdive #edchat #okmooc

Knowledge Unlatched, nuevo enfoque de las bibliotecas a hacer libros académicos de acceso abierto, consulta http://t.co/z9HSnvh8gf, #okmooc

Hey ex- #okmooc -ers! Keep up the exploration with this super cool discussion on Critical Pedagogy #moocmooc http://t.co/Mm0HH3YGO7

#OKMOOC how do we know we pass the course?

#OKMOOC classmates who just finished the @Stanford #OpenKnowledge course-any other #MOOCs you'd recommend? I'm suffering withdrawals here.

Are OER's the answer to equity What about issues of learner skills required to gain from OER's and scaling this #OKMOOC

Declaración de Lyon sobre el Acceso a la Información y Desarrollo (via #okmooc ) http://t.co/qpWmhVRPv

Some students voiced concern about digital privacy related to Twitter. For example, some learners were concerned about the longevity/stickiness of their posts and future employment. Resolute learners were able to meet the requirements of the Statement of Accomplishment without using Twitter or by creating an anonymous Twitter account exclusively for the course.

Diigo

To manage the "crowdsourced curriculum," we created a Diigo Group. Each week students were asked to discover, describe, tag, and share web resources, as well as explore and comment on peer-shared resources. This served as an additional resource list for the course, on top of the instructor-recommended resources. Over 2,500 resources are included in the collection, providing a record of the course's shared learning experience.

Diigo is feature-rich and easy to use (after some initial training), but in the end only 596 students registered with the group, although many more might have visited the site without signing up (registration is not required to view the group). The reasons why more students did not register included feeling overwhelmed by needing to learn another tool, finding the tool difficult to use, not being interested in actively participating in the overall process of finding and sharing resources, and not trusting one's peers to make useful recommendations.

Google Community

Shortly after the course launched, an OK MOOC student created a Google Community independent of the official course called "Stanford MOOC: Open Knowledge" and linked it to all course resources. All course participants and instructors were invited to join. The student chose this platform as "a structure that everyone can work with" and thus provided another platform for learners to further control their learning.

Of the learners, 578 joined the Google Community. Learners were encouraged to experiment with the platform, provide feedback and content, reflect on the course experience and materials, and share their expertise and unique global perspectives. Learners posted a variety of materials, including videos, graphics, and news stories, and commented on these materials in both English and Spanish. To support the Google Community, OK MOOC instructors allowed posts to count toward course requirements. Instructors played minimal roles in this independent online space, partially due to the inability to be present on all platforms but also to support and encourage learner autonomy.

From the instructors' perspective, the Google Community posed unique challenges. First, it stretched their time available to participate in another platform. Additionally, it introduced an inherent loss of "classroom" control. For example, a few weeks into the course, a learner proposed closing the group to newcomers as it neared 150 members to keep it small in accordance with Dunbar's number. It was difficult as instructors not to interfere and suggest that this went against the nature of the course; however, the group decided on its own to keep the course open.

Legal Considerations

In facilitating distributed, personalized learning communities, we provided options for learners to engage at different levels; select the modules of greatest interest; contribute new resources to the course materials; co-create, reuse, and share content for assignments; and connect over various social media platforms. The ability to use and share these activities - essential for students to personalize their learning - was enabled by the openness of materials. The course not only covered issues of "openness," the course materials were assembled from existing open educational resources. When possible, new material was made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike ( CC BY-SA) license. However, this meant specific legal considerations regarding open materials. For example, some content could not be included in the course or made accessible to all learners because of license and permission restrictions. In other instances, permission was obtained only after protracted correspondence with content owners, and this process consumed a significant amount of development time that could have been used to improve the course design. Special institutional permission was also needed to openly license instructor-created material. Finally, some students were concerned about agreeing to the platform's terms of service and, in particular, their privacy and ownership of any materials they contributed to the course. This was partially ameliorated by adding a component to the syllabus regarding learners' rights and allowing an option for them to access content without formally registering on the platform.

Conclusion

Our experience designing and teaching OK MOOC illustrates that personalized learning at scale can be supported without predictive analytics, and we encourage educators to consider integrating more open and connectivist principles in the learning space. The need to provide meaningful, personalized learning at scale will only continue to grow and will likely require the thoughtful integration of many pedagogies and emerging technologies, including learning analytics and connectivism. While there were certainly challenges to the pedagogical approach described in this article, we will continue to build personalized learning, self-direction, and open approaches into our future courses and hope other educators and instructional designers will consider our experience in their future teaching endeavors.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
Disclaimer

Acknowledgments

We'd like to thank our fellow instructors Arianna Becerril (UAEM), Smith Esseh (KNUST), Bozena Mierzejewska (Fordham), and John Willinsky (Stanford), and our teaching assistants Ashton Napier (Fordham) and Maryam Lucia Attai (Stanford) for their work on developing and delivering the course, as well as the students from our institutions and from around the world who participated in this unconventional learning experience.

Notes

1. 7 Things You Should Know About Personalized Learning ELI, September 8, 2015.

2. George Siemens, "MOOCs Are Really a Platform," elearnspace blog, July 25, 2012.

3. George Siemens, "Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age," elearnspace blog, December 12, 2004.

4. Laura Pappano, "The Year of the MOOC," New York Times, November 2, 2012.

5. Michael Caulfield, "xMOOC Communities Should Learn From cMOOCs," EDUCAUSE blog, July 11, 2013.

6. Ibid. See also Todd Bryant, "Bringing the Social Back to MOOCs," EDUCAUSE Review, June 22, 2015.

7. Michael Caulfield, Amy Collier, and Sherif Halawa, "Rethinking Online Community in MOOCs Used for Blended Learning," EDUCAUSE Review, October 7, 2013.

8. See Tony Bates, "Comparing xMOOCs and cMOOCs: Philosophy and Practice," blog, October 13, 2014.

9. David Tyack and William Tobin, "The 'Grammar' of Schooling: Why Has It Been so Hard to Change?," American Educational Research Journal 31, no. 3 (September 21, 1994): 453-479.

Lauren A. Maggio is an associate professor of Medicine and the associate director for Distributed Learning and Technology for the Graduate Programs in Health Professions Education (HPE) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She holds a PhD in HPE from Utrecht University in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco, and a master's degree in Information Science from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Maggio's research examines how to effectively connect health professionals, learners, and patients with information through the design of educational initiatives and by facilitating access to knowledge for public and professional use.

Andrew Saltarelli is the director of Digital Learning Initiatives at Stanford University in the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. He leads a team of instructional designers who collaborate with faculty to design new and effective online, blended, and other innovative digital learning experiences for on-campus learners and beyond. Saltarelli holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology from Michigan State University and has published a number of studies that systematically investigate how instructional technologies affect the social psychological processes (e.g., belongingness, motivation, cooperation) underlying teaching and learning.

Kevin Stranack is the Community Services & Learning Coordinator for Simon Frasier University Library's Public Knowledge Project. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies. Stranack received his master's of Library and Information Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2002 and his master's of Adult Education from the University of Regina in 2013.

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crowdsourcing the curriculum: a mooc for personalized

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Crowdsourcing the Curriculum: A MOOC for Personalized, Connected Learning

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Personalized learning at scale need not rely solely on predictive analytics - it can be facilitated by connecting and empowering distributed communities of learners to co-create their learning experience. Many students are not prepared to engage in personalized, connected learning and require clear messaging about the vision, values, and skills that will help them succeed.

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WELCOME TO THE
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES HUB
Unpack the Digital Technologies Curriculum one step at a time. Find great lesson ideas linked to the curriculum, explore strategies and advice from Australian primary and secondary schools and more.

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WELCOME TO THE
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES HUB
Unpack the Digital Technologies Curriculum one step at a time. Find great lesson ideas linked to the curriculum, explore strategies and advice from Australian primary and secondary schools and more.

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Understanding DT

Engage with the Digital Technologies curriculum to plan, implement and assess effective lessons.

Plan and prepare

Guidance and support to develop and implement a whole-school plan.

Teach and assess

Students can learn to code and create using digital technologies, and find out about relevant careers.

For families

Find out about Digital Technologies to support your child to learn skills, create digital solutions and find a related career.

Programming

This series of three infographics provide an explanation of 'Programming' with relevant examples for each Year band and 'I can' statements

Algorithms

This series of three infographics provide an explanation of 'Algorithms' with relevant examples for each Year band and 'I can' statements.

Data representation

This series of three infographics provide an explanation of 'Data representation' with relevant examples for each Year band and 'I can' statements.

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Support for the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies with lesson plans, case studies, advice for school leaders, activities for students and for families. See links to the digital technologies industry events and programs. Get support with the development of computational thinking and coding skills in Australian students.

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by Terry Heick

What students say and do and create are products of thought processes that, more or less, are predictable-and of significant potential if we can make those processes visible.

The idea of making learning visible isn't new. This is an idea as old as conversation or writing-show me what you know. It comes in many forms, from essays, quizzes, and exams, to the lifeless "What'd you learn in school today? " conversation after school.

Playing an automotive racing video game recently, I unlocked a badge for accruing a certain number of miles on a specific track. As I was driving-or rather, pushing buttons on a controller that simulated a lot of the visuals and some of the sensations of racing a car-a little badge popped up at the bottom of the screen, along with a title reflecting what I'd accomplished. Learning badges and trophies are usually seen as a reward for an accomplishment, but they're not very good at it. They flash on the screen, create an all-too-brief dopamine response, and are gone.

On modern video game platforms like The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam, no one really cares about these collections because everyone has them. They might be quantified, as in "I have more points or trophies than you," but as individual episodes of achievement, they're mostly anonymous, which means they fail to signify something actually worth signifying.

In a learning ecology-as we use them now-digital badges usually cause little excitement and mean nothing. As levers of gamification, however, they have the potential to uncover the nuance of performance, as I explained in that post.

"A digital trophy system-if well-designed-offers the ability to make transparent not just success and failure, accolades and demerits, but every single step in the learning process that the gamification designer chooses to highlight. Every due date missed, peer collaborated with, sentence revised, story revisited, every step of the scientific process and long-division, every original analogy, tightly-designed thesis statement, or exploration of push-pull factors-every single time these ideas and more can be highlighted for the purposes of assessment, accountability, and student self-awareness."

So, in the best of cases, these icons can be gathered into a personal collection to act as an uber-report card. Imagine the icons on your phone or tablet as symbols of something important attempted or accomplished by a student. That'd be a great starting point for learning badge and gamification "2.0," but merely updating a broken system doesn't seem like the best use of our time. It's much more fun to speculate what might be possible if we're willing to squint a little to maybe find something we haven't found before.

Transfer

The shift from proving understanding of externally-driven content (i.e., curriculum maps and pacing guides created from a universal set of standards) to turning inward and learning to ask questions that sustain learning isn't simply a matter of process, but purpose and human outcome. See John Dewey explain.

"From the standpoint of the child ( Ed note: this is the only standpoint that matters, right?), the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. That is the isolation of the school - its isolation from life. When the child gets into the schoolroom he has to put out of his mind a large part of the ideas, interests, and activities that predominate in his home and neighborhood. So the school, being unable to utilize this everyday experience, sets painfully to work, on another tack and by a variety of means, to arouse in the child an interest in school studies. While I was visiting in the city of Moline a few years ago, the superintendent told me that they found many children every year, who were surprised to learn that the Mississippi river in the textbook had anything to do with the stream of water flowing past their homes." (Dewey 1916)

In focusing on narrow data from a fixed curriculum using universal assessments, it might be that we've gotten the learning process itself all knotted up. Curiously, there haven't been very many attempts to make learning, in and of itself, visible. Letter grades and paper certificates make up the bulk of these efforts, and digital portfolios and project-based learning artifacts are about as exotic as it gets.

Badges are a more recent entry into this field, but we're falling far short of what's possible. In short, badges as evidence of achievement are interesting, but insufficient because they are residual. Leftover. Effects. Artifacts. Fin. But if we use them as simply the first "stage" of a growing idea, then we can both illuminate and catalyze learning as a process while it's happening -and in the process,connect students with someone other than the teacher.

The question becomes then, what should we make visible, how, and to whom?

How To Make Learning Visible: A Spectrum

Below is a kind of model to think about this. It is set up here as a spectrum. Stage 1 represents early thinking about the idea-essentially, where many classrooms are today, while Stage 4 represents more developed thinking-what "classrooms" might seek to become as we move beyond "I'm done with this assignment" thinking.

The big idea, then, is to evolve the thinking behind letter grades, certificates, and badges in pursuit of a genuine ecology of learning-pushing past simply sharing evidence of "mastery" (which is perishable), toward a focus on the students as they ask questions, seek information, apply their own thinking, and see learning as a fluid-and entirely personal-process.

Big Idea: A shift from emphasizing the products of learning to the process of learning

Stage 1: Product (The Artifacts Of Learning)

At the first stage of this "spectrum" of making learning visible, there is emphasis on the finished products students create. This can provide evidence of understanding, and allows other stakeholders in education an opportunity to infer what's happening in the classroom. This is also where most classrooms are today.

Examples:

Physical projects and models, essays, posters, blog posts, badges of completion, ribbons, letter grades, diplomas, certificates, PowerPoints, project-based learning artifacts, photographs

Driving Question(s):

What compelling evidence of performance and understanding can be shared with others? What is the most authentic way to publish student work in affectionate and attentive communities?

Stage 2: Process (The Patterns & Sequence Of Learning)

As we make learning visible during this second stage, the process and sequence of learning is illuminated. This may include ongoing or even finished projects shared, but only insofar as student habits, decisions, developing understanding, and ongoing performance are concerned. This helps students see understanding as alive-and thus capable of growth or decay-and always evolving.

This also helps schools and teachers see student performance as an extraordinarily individual and often chaotic-even Rhizomatic-journey, and design curriculum, assessment, learning feedback, and other systems around that idea.

Examples:

Any practices that encourage metacognition, journaling about the Habits of Mind, making room for failure, revisiting old work for reflection or improvement, entrepreneurship projects (including community projects and businesses), visual data that shows change over time, returning to "places" (physical or digital) of learning, the iteration of digital portfolios (rather than the artifacts themselves), reflecting on what students felt emotionally during the process of learning

Driving Question(s):

What does "personalized learning" mean? How do students learn differently-both in a standardized curriculum, and in a model where each student learns something different? How can the nature of learning as a process be made visible-and in a way that serves the student as much as those around them?

Stage 3 : Need To Know (The Reason For Learning)

At this advanced stage of making learning visible, knowledge demands and curiosity are the focus. Here, what students need to know is supplemented-and empowered-by why they need to know it. These two concepts work together to bolster both curiosity and the utility of knowledge.

Driving Question(s):

How can the need to know be communicated, emphasized, and published? What role does curiosity play? What is the difference between "engaged academic" and "authentic learning"?

Examples:

Informal learning, demonstrated curiosity, problem-based learning, challenge-based learning, visible transfer of knowledge, communal constructivism, self-directed learning as a classroom model

Stage 4: The Self (The Context For Learning)

The last of these so-called "stages" of making learning visible finishes with the student themselves. A continuum that began with the idea of students proving themselves to others by what they "do" has now transformed into one that focuses on the students themselves as a context for learning-what they learn, why the learn it, and what they do with what they know.

Some of these kinds of questions can be found in our self-directed learning model, including:

1. What problems or opportunities are within my reach?

2. What important problems & solutions have others before me created?

3. What legacies am I a part of & what does that suggest that I understand?

4. For me, in this light, what's worth understanding?

Examples:

Self-directed learning as a classroom model, place-based education, learning through play

Driving Question(s):

How is each child different? How are each child's knowledge demands unique? In what contexts do students both need to know and then-unprompted-use what they know?

The next question to address, which I'll do in a follow-up, is whom are we sharing the above with, and how?

For professional development around this idea or others you read about on TeachThought, contact us.
How To Make Learning Visible: A Spectrum; image attribution flickr user woodleywonderworks

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How To Make Learning Visible: A Spectrum

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What students say and do and create are products of thought processes that, more or less, are predictable-and of significant potential if we can make those processes visible. The idea of making learning visible isn't new. This is an idea as old as conversation or writing-show me what you know.

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Twitter as a Professional learning resource

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Twitter as a Professional learning resource

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It's 2016, and we live in a social media age. Even without realising it, social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter provide us with news and information on a daily basis. Traditional journalism uses it to get the inside scoop on what's happening, and citizen journalists are capturing the news as it happens.

What does this have to do with you, as an educator, and your choice to use Twitter? So much.
The world we live in has changed beyond measure in the last ten years. The way we communicate, create and share information has led to a world that is no longer shaped by information scarcity. Even the most well informed person can no longer hold within their head the total amount of information that exists on any given subject, and so we must move our focus from what we know, to how we find out. I have written before on the theory of Connectivism, which suggests that learning is the process of creating connections, and the potential to know is of more value than the amount currently known.

Connecting on Twitter is a terrific way to begin building a personal learning network. As an educator and learner, it is vital to be in touch with sources of up to date knowledge and information, and to be able to call on this when and where you need it. A teacher can never stop learning, but there is a limit to the time and money you can spend on formal professional learning opportunities. It is now almost impossible for a teacher to be engaging in best practice unless they are part of a supportive, informed and well developed network. Twitter is just one way to begin making these connections.

Ferriter, Ramsden, & Sheninger suggest that there are six 'common patterns of participation' for users of Twitter:

1. Sharing Knowledge and Resources - sharing links to blogs, images or video clips of interest.

2. Monitoring Educational New Sources - sourcing professional readings and research

3. Digitally Attending Important Conferences - sharing thoughts and reflections from professional development sessions or conferences.

4. Encouraging Reflection - engaging in a reflective conversation with others

5. Gathering Instant Feedback - turning to Twitter as the first point of call when needing answers about their practice

6. Mentoring Colleagues - turning to Twitter to find a digital mentor for yourself or a peer.

So if I have convinced you to give it a go, read on for a step by step account of how to connect in the Twitter world. Building a network takes time, and but the benefits of being an educator in touch with the world are amazing!

Step One: Sign Up!

Signing up for Twitter is easy. Similar to other social networks, an email, password and username is all that is needed. Use a secure password, and if at all possible, resist the temptation to log in using another app such as Google, for the security reasons I have outlined previously. If you are signing up to enhance your learning opportunities, it is good practice to own your identity - in other words, use your real name and image. Of course it is totally up to you - everyone has their own levels of privacy with which they are comfortable. However, when making connections, people like to know to whom they are connecting. Personally, I hardly ever connect with someone who has used a pseudonym unless I actually know who they are. My learning network is important to me, and I minimise spam and problem accounts by making sure each person in my tweet feed is legitimately there for the same reason I am - to share and to learn from each other. Although this article is a little old, it is still a good summary of why I dislike linking with unknowns.

Once you have signed up, the fun begins.

Step Two: Learn to love the Twitter Interface

Twitter looks different depending upon the device you are using. The computer version has slightly more features than the mobile app version, but they are all similar, and operate in the same way. I have created an interactive graphic of the current Twitter desktop interface so you can get to know what everything does. This interface will change (this is the third version of this interactive interface I have designed over the years!) but the general features stay pretty similar, and as you become more confident, you'll adapt to small layout changes. Remember the uproar every time Facebook changed in the beginning? A part of being digitally literate is to realise that everything is perpetually in beta, constantly changing, and learning to go with the flow is a skill that you can transfer to multiple contexts!

Step Three: Lurk and Learn!

There is no pressure to dive in straight away - the beauty of informal learning is that there is no timeframe. Spend time 'lurking' - choosing who to follow, getting familiar with the 'genre' of tweets and seeing which tweets you are most interested in and who posted them. Of course, your experience using Twitter will be richer once you start interacting and making connections, but there is no hurry! Search different hashtags; the more specific the hashtag, the more likely you will find like-minded tweeters and more relevant tweets. You can find lists like this one by googling 'twitter hashtags for teachers'.

Step Four: Begin to Build your Network

Spend time building a small network of useful, quality tweeters who will become the backbone of your Professional Learning Network. Choose those who you find to be posting tweets that really interest you, and look who they follow - chances are, they will also have similar interests, and be worth following also. I have compiled a list of Tweeps you may like to begin with - Teacher Tweeps to Follow - but it is by no means exhaustive, and is reflective also of my own interests. Use it as a starting point!

Step Five: Begin Tweeting

Once you feel comfortable with the interface, and you have a small network, it is good to start 'giving back'. The community is only as rich as it is thanks to the generosity of everyone who shares. Don't think 'what I have to say isn't worth sharing' - there's a great video that answers that doubt here:

If you are stuck for ideas, check out this great list of suggestions, and think about what you like to read. Often, it is the tweets that just give an insight into what other people are doing that are worth the most. Not the groundbreaking new theories, or earthshattering events; just the peek into everyday, that we so often miss when we lock ourselves in our own classrooms.

Step Six: A Little, Often.

Your network will not grow overnight, and it will take some time to get comfortable with tweeting and retweeting. However it is like riding a bike. One day it will be a struggle, and the next, it will 'click', and you will be away. I have contacted countless people via Twitter to ask for help, compare experiences, share ideas, and have always been met with warmth and welcome. You get back what you put out, so make sure your tweets are positive and constructive, and you will receive in return!

In ten minutes on Twitter, here's what I found:

There really is something for everyone. So get started on your Twitter journey. Tweet me and we'll talk more! See you on Twitter.

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It's 2016, and we live in a social media age. Even without realising it, social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter provide us with news and information on a daily basis. Traditional journalism uses it to get the inside scoop on what's happening, and citizen journalists are capturing the news as it happens.

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How to get ACTIONABLE peer feedback in 20 minutes

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Dyslexia Awareness: In partnership with Made By Dyslexia

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Microsoft and Made By Dyslexia have a shared mission to empower every person with dyslexia to reach their potential, and we have partnered to create tools to help make this happen. Empowering teachers, educators, and parents with knowledge is the first step to unlocking this potential, so we are working together to create free training which will be available globally on the Microsoft Educator Community.

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The role of authentic questions in the classroom

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The role of authentic questions in the classroom

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Allowing real curiosity-the kind that fuels philosophers, artists, scientists, historians, explorers, and innovators-is the most fundamental change we can make in our teaching practice. When we step back and allow students to step forward with their own inquiry, it throws a switch in their brains that changes everything. Encouraging students to cocreate their own learning by generating authentic questions grants them an intellectual power and an identity as meaning-makers.

The fastest way to engage anyone's brain is to ask it a question, neuroscience says. Judy Willis, a neurologist and middle school teacher, explains that inquiry is like caffeine for kids' brains. That's because questions kick-start a process inside their heads that works like a kind of prediction machine. Once a question enters this system, the brain begins trying to resolve the uncertainty by formulating answers. The tension that comes from wanting to know if they've guessed correctly is immediately and powerfully engaging:

Students' curiosity, along with their written or verbal predictions, will tune their brains into the perfect zone for attentive focus. They are like adults placing bets on a horse race. Students may not be interested in the subject matter itself, but their brains need to find out if their predictions are correct, just as the race ticket holder needs to know if he holds a winning ticket. (Willis, 2014)

As teachers, we can use this information as a sort of neurological hack. If we carefully scaffold students' questions in a way that points toward the content we need to teach, we can enlist their natural tendency to find answers into deeper learning experiences. These experiences then, in turn, develop their vocabulary; their speaking and listening skills; their writing skills; their reading; and, most importantly, their critical thinking.

This idea was road tested during my year of service as National Teacher of the Year. In a special partnership with the U.S. Department of State, I visited the Middle East as an ambassador of American teaching. Traveling alone caused the kind of stress that kept my brainpower focused on finding my way around airports and adjusting to the realities of heightened security. This meant that I didn't prepare for one of my first presentations like I normally would have. During times of uncertainty, familiar practices are strength, so I leaned on those that are bedrock for me: inviting students to share their questions.

Even though I'd never met them, the senior class at the American Jerusalem High School in Jerusalem was willing to play along. We gathered in an auditorium, and as I looked at the 200 assembled students, I felt a wave of insecurity wash over me. Seeing their interested faces was all the encouragement I needed to open the lesson the same way I did at my high school: sharing a personally meaningful question.

"Before I was a teacher, I was a reporter and I covered some really sad and scary things," I told them. "And some of them, I don't think I'll ever forget-especially when they happen to children. I accept that bad things happen to good people. That's just the way of the world. What I can't seem to accept is when good things happen to bad people. Why do some people 'get away with it'? Why are some people never made to answer for what they do to others? I don't know that I'll ever get a good answer, but it's a question that haunts me. What about you? What are the questions that stay with you? What haunts you? Or makes you sad? Or makes you angry? Or just confuses you no matter how much you try to think about it?"

By this point, they were silent. I could see that they were considering whether or not to trust this strange woman from the United States.

"I've asked your teachers to give everyone a piece of paper. I'd love to know what your questions are," I said. "What are the things you've kept inside you that you've been afraid to ask? Would you mind sharing them with me? If you want to, please write them on the paper."

An engaged quiet settled over the room as they began writing. I exhaled. They were repeating the behavior I'd seen in my own classes.

What I've written here is version of my traditional opening for this lesson. Part of the reason the room gets quiet, I think, is because of a willingness to be authentic and vulnerable with my own questions. What I share with them are my own frustrations with the difficult nature of justice, which is also an engaging topic for teenagers.

After a few minutes, I stopped the students and asked who wanted to share. So many hands went up that the administrators were startled.

"Why is there so much intolerance in the world?"

"Is it ever okay to tell a lie?"

"Why do we equate money with success? Are there other ways to be successful?"

Their teachers were as surprised as I was. "We will definitely be talking about these in class today," one of them told me. As I was leaving the school, an older teenage girl stopped me and said, "I just want to give you a hug and say thank you for listening to us."When we worry that students want more technology or games or for our lessons to be more fun, maybe what they really need is just for us to listen to them and trust the intellectual power inside them.

Starting With Your Own Questions
The authenticity of your own questions are all you really need to get started in the process of inviting more authentic inquiry into your classroom. Everything you need is already there inside you. When I ask teachers to share their authentic questions with me-anonymously-I see that they have long-standing struggles that could connect to their students' concerns:

Reading these, I see the grounds of our common humanity. What's more amazing than the fact that we share these ideas around the world is that young children wonder the same things. If we step back and make a space for students to speak and really listen to them, they will show us what is in their hearts and minds.

Justin Minkel, a second-grade teacher at a high-poverty school in Fayetteville, Arkansas, gave an opening to his students, during the first weeks of school, to share what they would ask the smartest person in the world.

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How to Create Deeper Student Learning Experiences Through Authentic Questions

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Allowing real curiosity-the kind that fuels philosophers, artists, scientists, historians, explorers, and innovators-is the most fundamental change we can make in our teaching practice. When we step back and allow students to step forward with their own inquiry, it throws a switch in their brains that changes everything.

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Drawing Ideas: The Benefits Of Mindmapping For Learning
contributed by Andrew Sperl

Developing your teaching methods to be more effective is an everyday process for educators around the world.

In the same way, students everywhere continue to work on methods that will help them learn more efficiently so they can be successful in school. With competition increasing and pressure to get into a good university and land a dream job mounting, it is more important than ever for students to be able to get a handle on their education. However, traditional and older methods of teaching and learning do not have the same level of success for every student. Mindmapping software enhances study skills for students and allows them to look at material in a way that is easier to process and retain.

Discovering the best way to reach a student, or the best way to absorb material, is essential. While some individuals learn best from taking notes during lectures, others do when they are able to put down all of the information they know and their ideas graphically. This allows them to visualize their thoughts and the material they are trying to master. It can even be one of the man ways to demonstrate learning. Students and educators can use software to easily work through mindmapping techniques so that they have a better connection with what is being taught. Here is more information on how this software can be used in the education field, and the benefits it has on users.
What Is Mind Mapping?
Mindmapping is a strategy that helps students study and professors teach course material. A mindmap is a diagram that is used to visually outline information. One of the most common types of mindmap is a large brainstorming web where a central word or idea branches out into related subjects. As ideas are fleshed out and connect to one another, you can see how concepts tie together to get a better understanding of what you are trying to study.

By using words, pictures, and diagrams, you are able to organize your thoughts in a way that helps you follow your train of thought when you come back to study further. U sing a combination of words and pictures while studying is six times more advantageous for remembering information than words alone. Mindmaps differ from other forms of outlines by removing their linear nature and instead positioning information in a way that is more natural for the brain to process and retain. A mindmap contains a number of essential elements that make it a unique tool for students and educators. These maps often begin with the main idea, easily distinguishable at the center. Main themes branch out from the main idea before being broken into smaller subsets. As the map grows larger, it will include images or other graphical elements that connect the main themes back to the central idea. Using software allows you to quickly build a mindmap on the computer rather than having to draw it out and design it yourself on multiple pieces of paper. Mindmapping takes a conceptual approach to teaching and learning, and helps students visualize a subject and understand how various ideas are interconnected in both the theoretical and practical senses.

(See also Mind Map templates.)
What Are the Benefits of Mind Mapping?
Mindmapping software offers both students and teachers a number of benefits relating to presenting and understanding information. As noted by the BBC , mindmaps are "highly effective visual aids that enable students to group together different ideas and enable teachers to present ideas visually and assess their students' conceptual development and understanding."

In addition to seeing information in a way that helps students remember more of what they are being taught, they are also able to increase their critical thinking and/or memory skills (and thus correct the defiicit in critical thinking). Long after their days of cramming for finals are over, the skills they sharpen by using mindmaps will translate to their professional lives. For students that rely on visual learning methods in order to complete projects and study for exams, mindmaps make it easier to communicate thought processes so their teachers and classmates can better understand their ideas.

By using software to create a mindmap, students are not limited to the space available on paper. Instead they are able to develop collapsible branches off of their main idea and constantly move items around as needed. This feature keeps the mind working, and the creative juices flowing, so that students can continue to build their ideas without distractions or interruptions. Students are able to stay current on assignments, collaborate more easily with classmates, and create news way to communicate ideas publically (e.g., through presentations).

In addition to assisting students with learning new concepts and working through difficult problems, mindmapping also directly benefits their teachers and professors. Not only can educators use mindmapping to lay out lesson plans and prepare lectures for a class, they can also use it to foster creativity among students. This technique allows teachers to show students a new way of thinking about and tackling problems, as well as a way to create discussion and debate about a topic. For example, a high school history teacher could have students use mind mapping to develop arguments for the North and South prior to the Civil War.

Mindmaps also allow teachers to gain insight into their students' thought processes and see the development of their work. This allows them to assess strengths and weaknesses, while also monitoring growth. Teachers are also able to see where they can use targeted lesson plans for individual students, or as a group, to provide additional resources and information that helps them learn the material.
How Can We Use Mind Mapping in Education?
Mindmapping has numerous uses in education and is being used by students and teachers alike. While many students choose to develop a mindmap for a particular assignment, others find that segmenting all of the information they've learned over the course of a semester best helps them remember the material before a final exam. Here are some ways that students and teachers can use a mindmap to improve their productivity.

Taking notes. It can be tough to remember everything a professor says during a two-hour lecture. Mindmaps act as outlines that help students remember the overall themes of a topic, all the way down to the smallest details they'll need to recall later.

Project planning. Have an essay coming up or a presentation to your class? Mindmapping allows you to organize your time and thoughts so your work can be completed one step at a time. Easily communicate your talking points with your audience. When you use software, you can distribute your mindmap to the entire class so they can see how your points relate to one another.

Problem-solving. Both teachers and students come across problems that need to be solved over the course of a class. Mindmapping helps you see the various options ahead of you so you can find the solution that is best for the problem. An example of this is a logic puzzle that has many methods of solving it, but only one correct solution. A mindmap keeps your work in order so you can access the information you need.

Not only does mind mapping help a student understand a theory or write a term paper, it can also help him or her learn a new language. You can learn more about the benefits of using mindmapping software for education by visiting iMindQ's official website at http://www.imindq.com.
Sources

1. http://lifehacker.com/how-to-use-mind-maps-to-unleash-your-brains-creativity-1348869811

2. http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/UsingMindMappingTools.aspx

3. Future Technology image via Michelle Zappa

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Drawing Ideas: The Benefits Of Mindmapping For Learning -

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Drawing Ideas: The Benefits Of Mindmapping For Learning contributed by Andrew Sperl Developing your teaching methods to be more effective is an everyday process for educators around the world. In the same way, students everywhere continue to work on methods that will help them learn more efficiently so they can be successful in school.

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Topics include questioning/feedback, Goal Setting, Lesson Structure, Collaborative Learning, Explicit Teaching

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Free Training Sessions: Maximise student engagement with ClickView

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Get the most out of ClickView through short easy-to-follow training sessions led by our Learning Advisors. All staff are welcome and please feel free to register for multiple webinars.

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TeachThought – A Critical Thinking Classroom

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TeachThought promotes critical thinking and innovation in K-12 classrooms

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

The benefits of movement in the classroom aren't limited to younger students. Pairing new words and concepts with gestures or dance moves locks in understanding-and active brain breaks prime students to learn even more.

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A free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education.

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Teach & Learn Practical Digital Skills - Applied Digital Skills

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Thousands of teachers and students are using Applied Digital Skills to improve digital literacy, and we’re adding new lessons regularly. Join us and start learning or teaching digital skills today.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (ETML) is a blog owned and operated by Med Kharbach. Dr. Kharbach holds a PhD in educational studies from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada. He was also a K-12 teacher with over 12 years of classroom teaching experience.

I launched ETML in 2010 with the purpose of helping my fellow EFL (English as Foreign Language) teachers integrate technology in English language teaching. Fast forward to 2022, ETML became among the top EdTech blogs with over 7000 published blog posts. ETML has been referenced in a wide variety of academic research journals, books, and news outlets including the New York Times, Huffpost.com, Hubspot.com... [continue reading].

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (ETML) is a blog owned and operated by Med Kharbach. Dr. Kharbach holds a PhD in educational studies from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada. He was also a K-12 teacher with over 12 years of classroom teaching experience.

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Having a mastery of visual storytelling techniques has become more critical than ever, and these are the ones to use.

Transforming education isn't about change for the sake of change. It's about meaningful and mindful evolution.

Learning encompasses a series of specific tasks-sometimes in order, but most often not. The elements of authentic learning are in Bl...

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Having a mastery of visual storytelling techniques has become more critical than ever, and these are the ones to use. Transforming education isn't about change for the sake of change. It's about meaningful and mindful evolution. Learning encompasses a series of specific tasks-sometimes in order, but most often not.

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In the global information environment, time moves quickly and there's an abundance of commentators trying to keep up. With each new technological development, a new report emerges assessing its impact on different sectors of society. The IFLA Trend Report takes a broader approach and identifies five high level trends shaping the information society, spanning access to education, privacy, civic engagement and transformation.

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Jennifer Asha, literacy educator, demonstrates how teachers can use questioning to explore the persuasive techniques used in 4 exemplary digital texts.

In a previous Scan article, I wrote about using imaginative digital texts as resources for teaching visual metalanguage to facilitate deep understanding of digital narratives. That article made suggestions for classroom talk, particularly teacher questioning to support student literacy learning. In this article, I will explore a different type of text - those created for persuasive purposes. This piece will also examine the ways that teachers can use questioning to support learning about persuasive techniques used in visual and digital texts.

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians states the need for schools to prepare students to be 'active and informed citizens' (MCEETYA, 2008, pp 6-7). Research similarly demonstrates the necessity of preparing students to think in critical ways (Zammit and Downes, 2002; Freebody, 2007) to help them become 'informed sceptics' (Durrant and Green, 2000, pp 97-98), rather than 'passive recipients' (Kervin and Mantei, 2009, p 3). The Australian Curriculum and NSW English syllabuses also mandate critical literacy practices.

The Australian Curriculum: English and NSW English K-10 Syllabus show a progression of literacy practices that students should be taught from Stage 1 through to Stage 3 in relation to persuasive texts. The outcomes across the stages show an increasing sophistication of comprehension and interpretation of texts - from describing'differences between imaginative, informative and persuasive texts' (ACELY1658) to identifying'the audience' (ACELY1668) 'and purpose of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts' (ACELY1678). Students are expected to 'identify' (ACELY1690), 'explain'(ACELY1701) and then 'analyse'(ACELY1711) characteristic features used in persuasive textsto meet the text purpose as they progress through the stages. The texts teachers use to instil these literacy practices need to be rich enough to allow for the application of these sophisticated critical literacy skills. The internet gives teachers access to high quality texts that can be worthwhile resources for lessons designed to explore the structures, features, purpose and audience of texts created for persuasive purposes. In the following paragraphs I will share some exemplary digital texts that employ a range of techniques to meet their purpose and persuade their audience.

'All I need' by MTV and Radiohead

The purpose of this short video by MTV and Radiohead (3 mins 47 secs) is to raise awareness of child labour in the footwear industry. The clip design employs an unusual layout with a split screen running two different clips side-by-side simultaneously. The intended audience can see elements of their own daily life represented on the left or 'given' (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996) as it shows a day in the life of a child in a developed country. Through a variety of close-ups and mid-shots, we see the familiar elements of a school day: eating cereal at the kitchen table while mum packs a lunchbox, walking to school along a safe and clean suburban street, participating enthusiastically in a classroom discussion with a positive and supportive teacher, and playing games in the playground with school friends. In stark contrast, the clip on the right shows a day in the life of a child working in a developing country's shoe factory. This child lacks a loving home, care from adults, sufficient food, access to education, and the childhood freedoms that are the rights of every child. This 'new' (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996) information tells the tragic story behind the school shoes we rarely give much thought to. The contrast in the children's lives reaches its most impactful conclusion when the child on the left is shown taking off his school shoes at the end of the day, while the clip on the right shows the child in the factory continuing to work and produce the very shoes shown on the left. The dual clips are accompanied by a melancholic soundtrack ('All I need' by Radiohead), with its themes of loneliness and unnoticed admiration. The lack of spoken text allows for different levels of interpretation and could elicit rich discussion in the classroom.

Teachers can support students to interpret the choices of the text creators through carefully worded questions which incorporate visual metalanguage. For example:

how has the creator used layout to help meet the persuasive purpose of this text?

how does the clip creator use different distances or shots to show the details of the children's lives?

how does the mournful tone of the sound track contribute to meeting the persuasive purpose of the text?

how has the text creator attempted to make the audience connect emotionally or personally with the text?

'First 1000 days' by World Vision Australia

This video advertisement (2 mins 23 secs) aims to highlight the importance of nutrition in the first one thousand days of a child's life. It also encourages viewers to partner with World Vision Australia to urge world leaders to address poor maternal and childhood nutrition. The clip begins like a fairytale, with the written text and voice over narrating: 'Once upon a time...'.It continues by introducing the caricatured image of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. However, this perpetually young boy is used to symbolise the child who doesn't grow properly due to poor nutrition. The magical Tinkerbell symbolises the transformative power of appropriate nourishment. The written and spoken text also draw on the Peter Pan story through the appropriation of Never Never Land. The repetition of 'never never' in the verb groups describes the prospects of the child character and explains the vicious cycle of poverty. This use of intertextuality would resonate with an audience who possesses childhood memories of the fairytale, conjuring up remembered feelings of wonder, while putting a poignant spin on the realities of never growing up and the subsequent consequences. The clip uses a simple colour palette and seemingly 'cut out' images of the featured characters and setting. These design features lower the modality (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996) of the clip in contrast to other videos by World Vision Australia that often feature footage of real children and families via high modality images. By choosing these stylised characters and setting, World Vision Australia is highlighting the plight shared by different communities in various countries across the world, focussing the audience on the enormity of the intergenerational issue. This issue is reiterated through the call to action at the conclusion of the clip: 'Join World Vision's Child Health Now campaign today and call on world leaders to urgently address poor maternal and child nutrition'.

Teachers will probably need to fill gaps in student background knowledge regarding the original Peter Pan story by J. M. Barrie, briefing students on the characters, plot and themes prior to viewing 'First 1000 days'.

Subsequent discussion prompts that could help students to analyse and interpret the text in a critical way could include the following:

what is World Vision Australia saying about the idea of never growing up?

how is the Peter Pan fairytale used to connect to the audience's emotions?

how does the lowered modality of the images help to focus the audience on the issue of poor maternal and child nutrition?

'Mr. W' by Epuron

A German commercial for wind energy, this quirky digital clip (2 mins 3 secs) uses humour and novelty to engage the viewer and keep them guessing about the main character (played by actor Guillaume Raffi) right up until the very end. The advertisement begins and ends with interview style 'pieces to camera', showing close-ups of a figure clad all in black with ill-fitting clothes and hat, foreshadowing the concept that this is a person who doesn't 'fit in' to society. This disruptive character is then shown moving through various common settings, interacting with people in a most uncommon way. He throws sand in the face of a child in a playground; tussles the hair of a well-dressed woman; pulls another woman's skirt up, exposing her knickers; knocks pot plants off window sills; turns umbrellas inside out; bangs window shutters; bats the hat off a man's head; and pushes a load of plastic bottles from a homeless man's trolley. One socially inappropriate action after the other leaves the viewer wondering: 'who does this person think he is?' and 'why isn't anyone telling him to stop?'. The main character delivers a voice over throughout the advertisement. In language reminiscent of a job interview, he shares his sadness at not belonging and being misunderstood, until his potential is finally noticed and harnessed. It isn't until the closing screens, however, that a written text emerges,revealing the character to be a personification of the wind: 'The Wind. His potential is ours'. As the meaning of this visual metaphor slowly dawns on the viewer, and they begin to make sense of all the strange scenes they have witnessed, Mr. W turns and gently spins the wind turbine replica that has sat, unnoticed, on a table behind him throughout the entire advertisement.

Teachers can draw student attention to the clever persuasive and audience engagement techniques in 'Mr. W' through questions such as:

why did the text creator use the contrasting close-up eye level shots of the main character and longer shots from a distance to help characterise Mr. W?

how did the text creator use the element of surprise and viewer concern for other people to keep the audience watching and thinking throughout this advertisement?

people don't normally feel strong emotions for the wind. What techniques do the text creators use to generate feelings in the viewer?

'Lasting energy' by Australian Bananas

This television advertisement (30 secs) for the popular Australian fruit contrasts the 'no nos' of sugary junk food with the long-lasting energy of bananas, affectionately referred to as 'na nas'. The ad employs a number of sophisticated visual techniques. Beginning with a scene showing a woman holding a sugary snack in one hand and a banana in the other, the 'given' and 'new' (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996) layout is evident. The no no is positioned on the left, in the 'given', and the na na on the right, in the 'new'. Subsequent scenes then follow a repeating pattern of showing no nos and their negative effect on the consumer, followed by a corresponding na na scene with their positive effects. The no no eaters are shown as unhappy, unhealthy and sedentary people. While na na eaters appear happy, healthy and active. The visual modality of these scenes also follows this pattern with no nos depicted using unnatural colour saturation and grey, unhealthy, 'peaky' colours. These scenes have 'animated' qualities that include an oversized boxing glove punching a no no eater, a chair rocketing a no no eater through the roof of a building, and the background whizzing around behind an overweight participant to show the unnatural and unpleasant experiences of the no no eater. In contrast, the na na eaters are shown in pleasant outdoor environments via a more realistic colour saturation, with brighter yellow-tinged lighting, symbolic of bananas.

The angles used throughout the ad further contribute to the intended message. A scene toward the beginning of the commercial positions the viewer above, as a no no eater is rocketed through the sky, creating a sense that we all know the feeling of a 'sugar high'. Toward the end of the advertisement, a scene shot from below features a boy kicking a football high into the sky, towards the sun, symbolic of the natural 'high' created by bananas. The viewer is positioned to believe bananas have given the eater the ability to soar naturally. Placement of a shot from above at the beginning of the ad and a shot from below at the end of the ad provides a type of balance and cohesion that is echoed in the verbal text of the voice over. The voice over also makes use of alliteration, juxtaposition of competing elements, and evaluative language. A transcript and verbal analysis can be accessed on Gumleaf Games and Resources.

Students can be supported to critically consider the elements employed by the 'Lasting Energy' advertisement through questions such as:

how is what we know about healthy and unhealthy food choices echoed in the left-to-right layout in the opening scene of the ad?

how do the ad creators position the viewer to think about sugary snacks versus bananas through angles at the beginning and end of the ad?

how is the symbolic use of colour employed in each of the scenes? How does this build up a pattern that is intended to persuade the viewer to choose bananas over junk food?

These persuasive texts are rich examples of the genre, and make use of many more techniques than there is room to explore here. It is hoped that these brief explanations will provide a starting point for classroom discussion and discovery. If teachers analyse the structure and features of a persuasive multimodal text, considering the techniques used to meet the purpose of the text, for the audience, they are well placed to lead classroom discussions that support student description, interpretation and analysis of the texts. Teacher modelling of visual metalanguage during discussions and the contextualised use of metalanguage in teacher questions encourage meaningful use of shared metalanguage and deep understanding of persuasive texts to help students to become 'active and informed citizens' (MCEETYA, 2008, pp 6-7).

References and further reading

Asha, J. (2013, May 1). Australian Bananas advertisement campaign: How the visual and verbal features work together to create a successful ad [Gumleaf Games and Resources web blog post].

Asha, J. (2018). Teaching visual grammar in the context of digital texts. Scan, 37(7).

Australian Bananas [AustralianBananans]. (2012, August 15). Australian Bananas 'Lasting energy' 30 sec TV commercial [Video file].

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2012). English.

Durrant, C. & Green, B. (2000). Literacy and new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 23(2), 89-105.

Epuron [Guillaume Raffi]. (2000, January 1). Mr. W [Video file].

Freebody, P. (2007). Literacy education in school: Research perspectives from the past, for the future. Camberwell, Australia: ACER.

Kervin, L. & Mantei, J. (2009). Using computers to support children as authors: An examination of three cases. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 18(1), 19-32.

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London, England: Routledge.

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians.

NSW Department of Education. (2016). English textual concepts.

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales. (2012). English K-10 syllabus.

Radiohead & MTV. (2008, May 2). Radiohead 'All I need' video for MTV's EXIT campaign [Video file].

World Vision Australia [WorldVision Aus]. (2011, September 18). First 1000 days | World Vision Australia [Video file].

Zammit, K. & Downes, T. (2002). New learning environments and the multiliterate individual: A framework for educators. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 25(2), 24-36.

How to cite this article - Asha, J. (2020). Examining persuasive techniques using visual and digital texts. Scan, 39(1).

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Examining persuasive techniques using visual and digital texts

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Jennifer Asha, literacy educator, demonstrates how teachers can use questioning to explore the persuasive techniques used in 4 exemplary digital texts. In a previous Scan article, I wrote about using imaginative digital texts as resources for teaching visual metalanguage to facilitate deep understanding of digital narratives.

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Dr Emma Goodall, author, researcher and education consultant, explains the benefits of teaching interoception skills and shares teaching activities using three online resources which she has co-created.

What is interoception?

Interoception is sometimes referred to as mindful body awareness or somatic awareness. It's colloquially known as the eighth sense, with the other seven being sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, proprioception and vestibular (Lynch and Simpson, 2004). Interoception is an internal sensory system in which the internal physical and emotional states of the body are noticed, recognised/identified and responded to. Awareness of both these internal body cues is impacted in individuals who are affected by trauma, including intergenerational trauma, and neurodevelopmental disabilities including the autism spectrum (Schauder, Mash, Bryant and Cascio, 2015; Mahler, 2015).

Interoception skills are required for a range of basic needs, such as knowing when to go to the toilet, and more advanced emotions, like being aware that you are becoming angry or upset and managing these feelings proactively. When children and young people have not yet developed interoception skills they will struggle with their emotions and social interactions. These students require higher levels of co-regulation by their teachers, as they become dysregulated far more quickly than their peers, often resulting in much lower levels of learning and higher levels of take-homes, suspensions and exclusions.

Once a child or young person can recognise and understand their internal body signals for uncomfortable emotions, they can begin to work out what distresses or stresses them and then how to respond to these stressors. Parents and teachers may well have a good idea of the feelings involved, and their causes - but without learning it for themselves, the child or young person will never be able to learn to self-regulate independently and will require co-regulating throughout their education.

Resources for teaching interoception

The following resources can be used together or separately to introduce and teach interoception:

Ready to Learn - Interoception Kit (PDF 6936KB) by Department for Education, South Australia (2019) - for preschools and primary schools (plus families and allied health professionals)

Interoception Activity Guide 301 (PDF 3085KB) by Department for Education, South Australia (2019) - for upper primary, intermediate and secondary schools (plus families and allied health professionals)

YouTube videos about interoception and managing behaviour by Healthy Possibilities (2019).

The two resources from the South Australian Department for Education provide a brief outline of the evidence base for teaching interoception and offer a range of explicit teaching activities and resources for lesson planning and delivery. If you are new to interoception and are only starting to implement the approach, it may be helpful to browse the department's Interoception webpage or watch some of the videos on the Healthy Possibilities YouTube channel. These videos range from cartoon explanations of interoception to practical advice on how to teach it in the classroom, including videos which will introduce it to preschool and primary children for you. Additional videos explain the link between poor interoception and challenging behaviour and emotional dysregulation.

Together, the three resources link to multiple areas of the national curriculum, across all ages and stages of learning, including English, mathematics, science, PDHPE, creative arts and preschool. Links to specific syllabuses and general capabilities are noted in Interoception Activity Guide 301 (pp 5-14), together with brief examples. This information is also available as a separate download via Linking Interoception to the Australian Curriculum, General Capabilities and Embedding in Classroom Practices.

Educational significance

As its name suggests, the Ready to Learn - Interoception Kit is designed to ensure students are ready and able to learn prior to starting formal lessons. However, interoception and formal lessons can also be easily combined to enhance effective learning, as the curriculum links within Interoception Activity Guide 301 make clear.

When students are too stressed or distressed (whether due to high cortisol levels from chronic stress or because they are experiencing sympathetic nervous system overload - flight/fight/freeze/flop/drop), they are unable to learn effectively. At worst, they can be so disruptive that no-one can learn.

Teaching interoception using the suggested activities helps students connect to and learn to understand their own bodies and emotions. This develops the prerequisite skills for self-management and self-regulation. The suggested resources provide children and young people with the tools to know when they are developing emotional reactions, and the skills to be in control of those reactions.

Schools and preschools where interoception is being taught have decreasing behavioural challenges over the school year, while those where it is not have static or increasing behavioural challenges (South Australian school-wide behaviour reporting analysis 2016-2019). In the 230 schools and preschools using these resources, over the course of a term, children and young people have consistently demonstrated decreases in challenging behaviour and increases in pro-social behaviour, followed by increases in engagement in learning. School learning support officers/teacher aides who use interoception activities to start withdrawal group activities have reported much higher levels of engagement and learning in those groups as compared to not using interoception.

With most states and territories now focused on Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) or Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL), teaching interoception is a unique version of these approaches that uses universal design for learning philosophy to teach the prerequisite skills for self-management and self-regulation in classrooms, preschools and families.

Schools and preschools where interoception is being taught have decreasing behavioural challenges... and increases in pro-social behaviour, followed by increases in engagement in learning.

Suggestions for using these resources

Educators could show some of the videos from the Healthy Possibilities YouTube channel to their students and then discuss, or they could simply start using the activities in Ready to Learn - Interoception Kit or Interoception Activity Guide 301. These activities can be used in any order, though it is preferable to start at the beginning and work through them. To improve self-regulation in the classroom (or preschool) effectively, interoception activities must be taught 2-3 times a day. Most educators find that teaching an activity or two before rollcall, and after recess and lunch is the most effective and simplest way to embed interoception in the school day. Each activity takes 1-5 minutes to implement and teachers simply read the dot points whilst modelling the activity as students follow along.

An interoception activity focuses on a particular part of the body for 30-60 seconds. Students observe and label the movement and part of the body involved (for example, toes - stretch and curl up or curl under). They are then encouraged to identify a change in their body state (for example, hot-cold, soft-hard, stretch-relax) and where they felt that change (arch or ball of foot, on top). The change in body state is always repeated a second time, and the whole class is asked to focus on noticing what they feel in a very specific part of their body. When undertaking interoception activities 2-3 times a day, decreases in challenging behaviour and increases in engagement in learning should be noticed within 8-10 weeks.

Secondary teachers have indicated that they find watching a short video on Dan Siegal's hand model of the brain (2:52) can be useful as an initial introduction to students. A follow-up discussion can focus on how helpful it can be for students to have their thinking cap of the brain connected, and how interoception re-engages their thinking cap. Educators can increase confidence prior to presenting activities to students by watching a short video on How to develop interoception (2:37) or How to teach interoception (5:30).

Teaching activities

Using the warm-up style interoception activities and tracking students' personal bests (for example, 'how long can I hold a wall press/plank?') can be the easiest ways to get upper primary and secondary school students to engage in interoception. This is reflected in Interoception Activity Guide 301. This guide also includes a food and technology unit plan which has been developed and successfully implemented by staff at Paralowie R-12 School in South Australia for their Years 8 and 9 students (pp 46-58).

The Ready to Learn - Interoception Kit contains three mini lessons and numerous activities which can be used with the whole class to settle students after recess and lunch. An example of the activities presented is 'Feeling muscles - hands'. In this exercise, students start by sitting down, resting their hands on top of their thighs (teacher demonstrates). Then everyone stretches their fingers as wide apart as possible and holds them tense in this position for 30 seconds. Everyone then rests their hands again, so they should be relaxed. Students are then asked by the teacher: 'Where could you feel your muscles when your hands were stretched?' Students can either point or say where they felt something. The teacher then asks the students to repeat the stretch for another 30 seconds, this time focusing on a specific part of their hand (such as the webbing between their fingers). Each time the activity is done for the second time, a different place can be designated for the students to focus on. After the second stretch, the students can be asked if they felt it more. It can take up to 12 months for some students to feel some areas of their body.

Time trials in several South Australian schools showed a decrease from up to 15 minutes to 5 minutes from coming in to starting work. These interoception activities can thereby serve to increase both available teaching time and the likelihood that students will be neurologically and emotionally ready to learn.

Experimenting

Sports teams may find their accuracy of play improves as their collective interoception increases - which could form a scientific experiment.

Another interesting way that primary school teachers have creatively incorporated interoception into their lesson planning is to get students who are already familiar with the activities and theory behind them, to design, record and present their own interoception activities to their peers.

References and further reading

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2019). General capabilities.

Department for Education, South Australia. (2019). Ready to Learn - Interoception Kit*.

Department of Education and Training. (2009). Belonging, being & becoming - the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.

Healthy Possibilities. (2019). Home [YouTube channel].

Lynch, S. A. & Simpson, C. G. (2004). Sensory processing: Meeting individual needs using the seven senses. Young Exceptional Children, 7(4), 2-9.

Mahler, K. (2015). Interoception: The eighth sensory system. Shawnee, KS: AAPC.

Schauder, K. B., Mash, L. E., Bryant, L. K. & Cascio, C. J. (2015). Interoceptive ability and body awareness in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 131, 193-200. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.11.002

*Kit contains:

How to cite this article - Goodall, E. (2020). Interoception as a proactive tool to decrease challenging behaviour. Scan, 39(2).

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Interoception as a proactive tool to decrease challenging behaviour

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Dr Emma Goodall, author, researcher and education consultant, explains the benefits of teaching interoception skills and shares teaching activities using three online resources which she has co-created. Interoception is sometimes referred to as mindful body awareness or somatic awareness.

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50 Blended Learning Resources For Teachers [Updated For 2020]

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From Open Courseware to tools, models, and definitions, this is a collection of 50 of the best blended learning resources for teachers now updated for 2020.

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Reflection Strategies to memory retention of content just taught

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Reflection Strategies to memory retention of content just taught

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15 Reflection Strategies To Help Students Retain What You Just Taught Them
by Terry Heick

Reflection is a natural part of learning.

We all think about new experiences-the camping on the car ride home, the mistakes made in a game, or the emotions felt while finishing a long-term project that's taken months to complete.

Below I've shared 15 strategies for students to reflect on their learning. Modeling the use of each up front can go a long way towards making sure you get the quality of work you'd like to see throughout the year-and students learn more in the process. (This post pairs nicely with 8 Reflective Questions To Help Any Student Think About Their Learning.)
15 Reflection Strategies To Help Students Retain What You Just Taught Them 1. Pair-Share
Pair-share is a classic learning strategy where students are paired, and then verbally 'share' something that will help them learn new content, deepen understanding, or review what they already know. It can also be used as a quick and dirty assessment tool, as the conversations generally reflect a level of understanding the teacher can use gauge mastery and plan further instruction.
2. Sentence Stem-based responses
Sentence-stems are great because they're like training wheels-or to mix a metaphor, tools to coach students into thinking and speaking in certain patterns. For example, you can implore students to 'think critically,' but if they don't have even the basic phrasing of critical thinking (e.g., 'This is important because...'), critical thinking will be beyond their reach.

You can also see our sentence stems for critical thinking here for other examples (you don't have to buy the materials to see the samples).
3. Layered Text
Layered text is something I've meant to write about for years and never have. A layered text is a digital document that is filled with hyperlinks that communicate, well, just about anything: Questions students have, opportunities for further inquiry, odd references and allusions that reflect the schema students use to make meaning, and so on. (Rap Genius does a version of this.)

By adding 'layers' of meaning to a text through meaningful hyperlinking, students can reflect back on anything, from a pre-assessment journal entry that demonstrated their lack of understanding, to a kind of 'marking up' of what they learned when, and from where.
4. Tweet
140 characters forces students to reflect quick and to the point-great for brief bursts of reflection or hesitant writers who would struggle to write meaningful journal entries or essays. In fact, you can combine twitter with #6 for twitter exit slips.
5. 3-2-1
3-2-1 is a tried-and-true way to frame anything from a pair-share or journal entry (e.g., ask students to write 3 things they think they know, 2 things they know they don't know, and one thing they're certain of about a topic) pre-assessment to a post-assessment (e.g., list three ways your essay reflected mastery of skill X, two ways skill Y still needs improving, and one way you can make your argument stronger in the next five minutes) to a reflection of the post-assessment.
6. Exit Slips
Whether you call them exit slips or exit tickets, asking students to briefly leave behind some residue of learning-a thought, a definition, a question-is a powerful teaching strategy. In fact, 'exit-slip teaching' literally drives how I use data in the classroom. Asking students to drop some bit of reflection of the learning process on a chair by the door on the way out is a no-brainer.

Some examples?

How did you respond emotionally to something you struggled with today? What did you find most surprising about _____? How did your understanding of _______ change today? What about _____ still confuses you or makes your curious?
7. Write-Around
I love write-arounds-easy ways for students to write asynchronously and collaboratively. And the writing fragments students use don't have to be prose-certain key vocabulary and phrases can help students reflect, but most importantly in a write-around, help students learning from one another as each student is able to read other responses before creating theirs.
8. Sketch
Whether by sketch-notes or doodles, allowing students to draw what they think they know, how they believe their learning has changed, or some kind of metaphorical pathway towards deeper understanding is a great learning strategy for students that tend towards creative expression, and a non-threatening way for struggling students to at least write something down on paper you can use to gauge understand and plan your (their) next step.
9. Podcast
Through podcasting as a reflecting strategy, students will talk about their learning while recording. If you want to keep it 'closed-circuit' (not published), or actually push it to a public audience of some kind depends on the learning and students and privacy issues and so on.

This can also be simply an audio file recorded and uploaded to a private YouTube channel that's shared with teachers or parents.
10. Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be an effective reflection strategy because it disarms issues with other approaches. For hesitant writers, journaling may not work because the writing process could overwhelm the learning. Podcasting may not work for shy students, Pair-Share may not work well if students are paired effectively, and so on.

Brainstorming is much simpler. Students could take an allotted time to write down everything they remember about a topic. Or, they could brainstorm questions they still have (things they're confused or curious about). They could even brainstorm how what what they learned literally connects with what they already know by creating a concept map.
11. Jigsawing
Jigsawing is a grouping strategy where a task, concept, or something 'larger' is broken down into small puzzles pieces, and students in groups analyze the small puzzle piece, then share out to create the puzzle at large. Using this approach for reflection is seamless: Among other approaches, you can prompt students in groups to gather and share questions they have (you could group by readiness/ability, for example) in groups, and then choose one question that they weren't able to answer among themselves with the whole class (anonymously-no one has to know who wrote the question).
12. Prezi
Think of a cross between a sketch, collage, and presentation, and you have a prezi. Engaging-though distracting and overwhelming if the reflection you need is minor-reflection tool that allows students to create an artifact of learning for their digital portfolios.
13. Vlog
This reflection strategy is close to 'Podcasting' and even has something in common with pair-sharing. By reflecting through vlog'ing, students simply talk about their learning to a camera.

This approach would be successful for students that love talking to a camera, but less so for others (who, if they have to talk at all about their learning, may prefer podcasting-or simply recording audio files that are never published.
14. Collage
You could do a normal collage of learning reflections, but a multimedia collage is also possible-maybe a sketchnote with a voiceover recorded as a YouTube video to share as a quick presentation with the class (or absent students).
15. Journaling
The University of Missouri-St Louis offers 3 kinds of journals that demonstrate the different possibilities of the otherwise vanilla-sounding 'journaling.'

1. Personal Journal - Students will write freely about their experience. This is usually done weekly. These personal journals may be submitted periodically to the instructor, or kept as a reference to use at the end of the experience when putting together an academic essay reflecting their experience. (Hatcher 1996)

2. Dialogue Journal - Students submit loose-leaf pages from a dialogue journal bi-weekly (or otherwise at appropriate intervals) for the instructor to read and comment on. While labor intensive for the instructor, this can provide continual feedback to students and prompt new questions for students to consider during the semester. (Goldsmith, 1995)

3. Highlighted Journal - Before students submit the reflective journal, they reread personal entries and, using a highlighter, mark sections of the journal that directly relate to concepts discussed in the text or in class. This makes it easier for the instructor to identify the student to reflect on their experience in light of course content. (Gary Hesser, Augsberg College)
15 Strategies For Students To Reflect On Their Learning; image attribution Flickr user woodleywonderworks

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15 Reflection Strategies To Help Students Retain What You Just Taught Them -

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15 Reflection Strategies To Help Students Retain What You Just Taught Them by Terry Heick Reflection is a natural part of learning. We all think about new experiences-the camping on the car ride home, the mistakes made in a game, or the emotions felt while finishing a long-term project that's taken months to complete.

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I And You And Us: 30 Inspiring Messages For Students -

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I am responsible for everyone and thing in this class and therefore at times what I say and do may confuse you or even seem unfair or wrong.

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Digital Note Strategies that Deepen Student Thinking

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Digital Note Strategies that Deepen Student Thinking

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Organization is a critical academic skill and one that many students struggle with in both the physical and digital worlds. Parents and teachers already help students get organized and now need to extend that to the digital world. Given the influx of technology in their academic lives, students need to develop an effective organizational system for their digital notes, projects and thinking.

Much like students understand the concept of binders, notebooks and notes in the physical world, they need a similar system in the digital one. Whether working with dividers and subjects in a tool like Notability or sections and pages in OneNote, students need to build vocabulary to support how they house their learning. All note taking tools search typed content, and many also search handwriting, so students can not only find information quickly, but they can also focus on making connections to previous ideas instead of wondering where they put their notes. These familiar paradigms allow students to digitize existing organizational processes, but then add powerful capabilities such as searching and tagging.

Through thoughtful tagging, students can easily search across their notes, regardless of where they might be digitally organized. Traditionally, students and teachers may think of tags like keywords. Students in a history course might tag content by event (e.g. Civil War or Treaty of Versailles). And yet, content could also be tagged with study strategies, overarching themes or essential questions debated in class. When teachers build this type of critical thinking into note taking instruction, they can help students to engage more deeply with their notes. Tagging this way not only helps students stay organized, but it could also help them to examine trends across courses or even semesters.

As a doctoral student, I use OneNote. First, I create a new digital notebook each year. Inside that, I add sections for each term as well as my different courses. Finally, my notes get organized into individual pages within the sections. When I can recall the precise location where I put a particular set of notes, I navigate directly to that page. However, on the numerous occasions when an author, vocabulary term or concept seems familiar but I cannot recall the precise moment when I took notes, then the search function becomes critical.

Since I can search across sections and notebooks to quickly access content, I have more time and mental capacity to connect seemingly disparate pieces of content and engage in a deeper synthesis of ideas. This is exactly the type of thinking that Mueller and Oppenheimer advocated for in their paper, "The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard." However, they argued that this was the main benefit of taking notes by hand instead of recognizing it as a strategy regardless of device.

Multimodal Notes
One of the ways digital notes differ dramatically from paper notes lies in the ability to capture information in multiple forms. With most tools (Notability, OneNote, Evernote, etc.), students can not only capture typed and handwritten notes but also incorporate photos, audio and even video. These versatile capabilities allow students to customize their note taking process to meet their learning needs. Consider these possibilities:

Students may take notes on paper, add photos of those papers into a digital notebook, synthesize their thinking with audio or written notes, and then tag their digital notes for later retrieval.

Students might use audio syncing -- a feature that records audio and then digitally syncs it with whatever the student writes or types -- to capture the context of the class discussion or lecture. When reviewing their notes, students could click or tap on their notes and then jump directly to that point in the audio recording.

Teachers might provide students with their presentation slides or other note taking guides as PDF files. Now, students can focus on taking notes - using any modality - for synthesis, elaboration, reflection or analysis rather than in an attempt to capture content verbatim.

In 1949, neuropsychologist Donald Hebb famously wrote, "Neurons that fire together wire together." When scaffolded for students, digital note taking has the power to transcend the traditional definition of what has been typically considered "notes." By encouraging students to focus their note taking on building deeper connections instead of just capturing content verbatim, then they create a more integrated neural network around the ideas. With the right support from teachers, digital note taking can be so much more than just capturing a lesson. It can encourage students to actively engage in the note taking process and also reflect on their own development as learners. They might even tag their notes as such!
Concept Mapping
According to Johns Hopkins professor Mariale Hardiman, concept mapping helps students to build deeper connections, more easily recognize links between content elements, and increase their conceptual understanding of the topic. She compares providing a concept map to students with using the picture on the box of a jigsaw puzzle -- it's the "big picture" for how seemingly disconnected pieces of information fit together. Teachers can offer concept maps at the beginning of a unit as a way to frame the learning, but students can also make their own concept maps to visualize connections across content areas through diagrams or sketch notes.

One of the powerful components of digital note taking is that the pages never end, and a full page isn't an artificial barrier to limit thinking. Students can work on an infinitely expanding canvas to include as much information as they need. For example, concept mapping tools such as Coggle or Padlet allow students to create networks of ideas using text, links, images and even video without ever running out of room.

An ever-expanding canvas removes all physical constraints on students' thinking and connecting ideas. To illustrate this concept, Sabba Quidwai, former director of innovative learning for the physician assistant program at USC's medical school and now K-12 development executive at Apple, shared the image below from an anatomy student. The student constructed a concept map in Notability using sketches, screen shots and handwriting to illustrate key points about the circulatory system.
Visible Thinking Routines
Finally, students of all ages struggle to make connections to the content as they read and write, regardless of the note taking medium. Whether asking an elementary school student to pick out the main idea in a passage or a high school student to synthesize across multiple sources, all students need scaffolding for their thinking and reflection. Visible Thinking routines, sets of questions designed by researchers at Harvard's Project Zero, encourage thinking and support student inquiry.

Consider the potential of using See-Think-Wonder, one of those routines, to focus notes about a reading or a presentation. Instead of directing students to "take notes," teachers could suggest that they create three columns on a page, or nodes on a concept map, and then take note of what they see, what they think, and what they wonder. Not only does this guide their note taking but it also encourages them to ask questions about the content as they record it.

Similarly, students might use another routine, Connect-Extend-Challenge, to summarize notes at the end of the day and reflect on their learning. This thinking routine asks students to connect new content to prior knowledge, acknowledge what has extended or pushed their thinking in a new direction, and then address what they still find challenging or confusing. Whether completed on paper and then added to a digital notebook as a photo, or constructed completely digitally, visible thinking routines provide concrete strategies to help students engage with the information they are capturing.

Too often, educators project their own note taking habits onto their students, applying paper-based strategies to digital tools. With that mindset, it becomes far too easy for short-sighted studies to confirm previously held biases against technology. However, as students progress in an increasingly digital and connected world, one challenge for educators will be to view digital note taking as a unique, necessary and completely different skill set to be taught.

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Digital Note Taking Strategies That Deepen Student Thinking | KQED

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Organization is a critical academic skill and one that many students struggle with in both the physical and digital worlds. Parents and teachers already help students get organized and now need to extend that to the digital world. Given the influx of technology in their academic lives, students need to develop an effective organizational system for their digital notes, projects and thinking.

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14 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask Themselves About That Lesson Plan Ed note: On May 26, 2015, Grant Wiggins passed away. Grant was tremendously influential on TeachThought's approach to education, and we were lucky enough for him to contribute his content to our site. Occasionally, we are going to go back and re-share his most memorable posts. This is one of those posts. Thankfully his company, Authentic Education, is carrying on and extending the work that Grant developed.
by Grant Wiggins

How do you plan? Here are some of the questions that I think we need better answers to...

1. Do you plan each day? Weekly? By the unit?

2. How often do you adjust your future plans based on formative results?

3. How often is a textbook the source of the plan? What % of the plan is directly from a textbook?

4. How free are you to plan your own course/units/lessons?

5. How often is district curriculum and/or course map referenced in your own planning?

6. How detailed are your plans?

7. What's the role of templates and checklists in your planning?

8. How do you think, ideally, you should plan for optimal preparation and good results?

9. How much of the planning process, ideally, should be mandated or at least recommended?

Typical plans focus too much on fragmented day-to-day lessons and activities on discrete topics instead of deriving coherent plans 'backward' from long-term performance. The result is the beast called "coverage." More subtly, many plans focus far too much on what the teacher and students will be doing instead of mapping out a plan for causing specific results and changes in ability, attitude, and behavior. A surprising number of plans do not make student engagement a central design consideration. And most plans do not explicitly design in a plan B many plans have no Plan B when Plan A doesn't work. And even larger number do not plan mindful of predictable misconceptions and rough spots.

The value of a template - with cautions. It was for these reasons and more that Jay McTighe and I wrote Understanding by Design 14 years ago. We clearly struck a chord. The book is in its 2 nd edition, over a million copies have been sold and used in countries all over the world, and over 150 schools of education use the book to train teachers in unit writing. Over the years, countless people have thanked us for helping them become more thoughtful and disciplined in their planning.

However, never did Jay and I intend for our template to be a mandatory act of pointless drudgery, a required piece of busywork required by thoughtless supervisors. Never did Jay and I intend people to fixate on filling in boxes. Never did Jay and I advocate using the UbD Unit Template as a lesson planner. Indeed, in our latest books on unit planning we stress this point in an entire module. You can download an excerpt here: Mod O - on lesson plans (excerpt).

We have hardly treated our own Template as a sacred untouchable icon. We have changed it 4 different times over the past 14 years, and we have provided examples in which various features of the Template were highlighted or left out. In short, we had zero intent of putting teachers in a planning straitjacket. Alas, some mandate-minded supervisors are currently fitting all their teachers for one.

Rather, as with any tool, the template is meant to be a helpful aid, a mental check. The idea of a good checklist is what's key. Atul Gawande has written extensively on how the "pre-flight" checklist in medicine, modeled on the one used in every airplane cockpit, has saved lives. Here is an article on its power to save lives.

An instructional planning template can save intellectual lives, we think. By having to think of the big ideas; by focusing on transfer as a goal; by worrying about whether goals and assessments align, by being asked to predict misconceptions and rough spots in the learning, the Template keeps key design questions front and center that tend to get lost in typical planning, where teachers too easily think about content to be covered.

Years ago, in working with college professors as part of Lee Shulman's Scholarship of Teaching program, a History Professor from Notre Dame said, "I can't use a template. It's so, so, so - schoolish!"

I replied, "Do you like the planning questions in the boxes?"

He said he did.

"Then, ignore the template and consider the questions," I said.

"Oh," he said, "I can do that."

Precisely.

Planning questions. Here are the current UbD template elements framed as questions, for idea-generation and double-checking one's draft plan.
14 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask Themselves About That Lesson Plan

1. Bottom line, what should learners be able to do with the content?

2. What content standards and program- or mission-related goal(s) will this unit address?

3. What thought-provoking questions will foster inquiry, meaning-making, and transfer?

4. What specifically do you want students to understand? What inferences should they make? What misconceptions are predictable and will need overcoming?

5. What facts and basic concepts should students know and be able to recall and use long-term?

6. What discrete skills and processes should they be able to use, with good judgment and on their own?

7. What criteria will be used in each assessment to evaluate attainment of the desired results?

8. What assessments will provide valid evidence of the goals?

9. What other evidence will you collect to determine whether goals were achieved?

10. How will you pre-assess and formatively assess? How will you adjust, if needed (as suggested by feedback)?

11. Does the learning plan reflect principles of learning and best practices?

12. How will you fully engage everyone and hold their interest throughout the unit?

13. How must the plan be tweaked, in light of recent results (and based on ongoing student needs and interests)?

14. Is there tight alignment across goals, assessments, and learning?

Please let us know how you plan. So, please let us know how you plan, in as much detail as you can provide, in the Comments Section. Happy Summer Planning!
Links on research on planning: Links to templates for lessons and units: 14 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask Themselves About That Lesson Plan

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14 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask Themselves About That Lesson Plan Ed note: On May 26, 2015, Grant Wiggins passed away. Grant was tremendously influential on TeachThought's approach to education, and we were lucky enough for him to contribute his content to our site. Occasionally, we are going to go back and re-share his most ...

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12 Of The Most Common Types Of Blended Learning
by TeachThought Staff

Blended Learning is not so much an innovation as it is a natural by-product of the digital domain creeping into physical spaces.

Broadly speaking, blended learning just means a mix of learning online and face-to-face, which means it's likely your students are already doing some form of blended learning and have for years. As digital and social media become more and more prevalent in the life of learners, it was only a matter of time before learning became 'blended' by necessity.
Finding The Model That Works For Your School, Classroom, And Students
In The Definition Of Blended Learning, we offered that 'blended learning is a model that combines online and face-to-face learning spaces and experiences.' Below, we identify and describe 12 different types of blended learning.

Obviously, there aren't just 12. It could be argued that there are thousands of types of blended learning varying by content, scale, technology, learning spaces, etc.

The purpose of this post is to A) Explain the most commonly referred to types of blended learning as most educators know them and B) Help you think more about blended learning as a flexible concept that ideally empowers both teachers and students to improve learning outcomes so that you can C) Identify and adapt a blended learning model that's right for your school, classroom, and students.
6 Types Of Blended Learning You've Probably Heard Of 1. Station Rotation Blended Learning
Station-Rotation blended learning is a: "...model (that) allows students to rotate through stations on a fixed schedule, where at least one of the stations is an online learning station. This model is most common in elementary schools because teachers are already familiar with rotating in centers and stations.
Similar to: Lab Rotation Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the fixed schedule that guides the 'blending'
2. Lab Rotation Blended Learning
'The Lab Rotation' model of blended learning, similar to "Station Rotation,' works by "allow(ing) students to rotate through stations on a fixed schedule...in a dedicated computer lab allow(ing) for flexible scheduling arrangements with teachers...enabl(ing) schools to make use of existing computer labs."
Similar to: Station Rotation Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the use school computer labs in new ways

3. Remote Blended Learning (also referred to as Enriched Virtual)

In Enriched Virtual blended learning, the student's focus is on completing online coursework while only meeting with the teacher intermittently/as-needed.

This approach differs from the Flipped Classroom model in the balance of online to face-to-face instructional time. In an Enriched Virtual blended learning model, students wouldn't see/work with/learning from a teacher on a daily basis face-to-face but would in a 'flipped' setting.
Similar to: A mix of Self-Directed, Flex Blended Learning, Flipped Classroom
Primarily characterized by: students completely coursework remotely and independently.
4. Flex Blended Learning
The 'Flex' is included in types of Blended Learning and its model is one in which... "a course or subject in which online learning is the backbone of student learning, even if it directs students to offline activities at times. Students move on an individually customized, ﬂuid schedule among learning modalities. The teacher of record is on-site, and students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments. The teacher of record or other adults provide face-to-face support on a flexible and adaptive as-needed basis through activities such as small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring."
Similar to: Remote blended learning, Inside-Out Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: its versatility to meet the needs of a variety of formal and informal learning processes (schools, organizations, homeschooling, etc.)
5. The 'Flipped Classroom' Blended Learning
Perhaps the most widely known version of blended learning, a 'Flipped Classroom' is one where students are introduced to content at home, and practice working through it at school supported by a teacher and/or peers. In this way, traditional roles for each space are 'flipped.'
Similar to: Remote Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the retention of traditional learning forms in new contexts (i.e., studying at school and learning at home)
6. Individual Rotation Blended Learning
The Individual Rotation model allows students to rotate through stations, but on individual schedules set by a teacher or software algorithm. Unlike other rotation models, students do not necessarily rotate to every station; they rotate only to the activities scheduled on their playlists."
Similar to: Mastery-Based Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the personalization of student learning as determined by individual schedules that have the chance to better meet the needs of each student
6 Types Of Blended Learning You Probably Haven't Heard Of 7. Project-Based Blended Learning
Blended Project-Based Learning is a model in which the student uses both online learning-either in the form of courses or self-directed access-and face-to-face instruction and collaboration to design, iterate, and publish project-based learning assignments, products, and related artifacts.
Similar to: Self-Directed Blended Learning, Outside-In Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the use of online resources to support project-based learning
8. Self-Directed Blended Learning
In Self-Directed blended learning, students use a combination of online and face-to-face learning to guide their own personalized inquiry, achieve formal learning goals, connect with mentors physically and digitally, etc. As the learning is self-directed, the roles of 'online learning' and physical teachers change, and there are no formal online courses to complete.

In Self-Directed blended learning, one challenge for teachers is to be able to judge the and (somehow) success of the learning experience without de-authenticating it.

For students, the challenge is to seek out models of products, processes, and potential that can provide the kind of spark that can sustain learning while being self-aware enough to know what's working and why, and to make adjustments accordingly. Some students need very little to soar, while others need support through very clear pathways that they can guide themselves through with autonomy and self-criticism.
Similar to: Inside-Out Blending Learning, Project-Based Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: the exchange of traditional academic work for student-centered inquiry
9. Inside-Out Blended Learning
In Inside-Out blended learning, experiences are planned to 'finish' or 'end up' beyond the physical classroom, but still require and benefit from the unique advantages of both physical and digital spaces.

In both the Outside-In and Inside-Out models, the nature of the 'online learning' is less critical than the focus on platforms, spaces, people, and opportunity beyond the school walls. (The 'online' components could be self-directed inquiry and/or formal eLearning courses and curriculum.)

Because the learning pattern is 'outward,' Project-Based blended learning is an excellent example of the Inside-Out model.

As with Outside-In blended learning, there is a need for expert guidance, learning feedback, content teaching, and psychological and moral support from face-to-face interactions on a daily basis.

Well-designed, each of the three 'areas' plays to its strengths and complements the other two.
Similar to: Outside-In blended learning, Blended Project-Based Learning
Primarily characterized by: student movement between digital and physical spaces
10. Outside-In Blended Learning
In Outside-In blended learning, experiences are planned to 'start' in the non-academic physical and digital environments students use on a daily basis, but finish inside a classroom.

This could mean traditional letter grades and assessments forms, or less traditional teaching and learning that simply uses the classroom as a 'closed-circuit' publishing 'platform'-a safe space to share, be creative, collaborate, and give and receive feedback that grows student work.

Well-designed, each of the three 'areas' plays to its strengths and complements the other two. While the pattern is Outside-In, unlike Remote blended learning there is still a need for guidance, teaching, and support from face-to-face interactions on a daily basis.
Similar to: Inside-Out Blended Learning
Primarily characterized by: student movement between digital and physical spaces; the potential authenticity of student work
11. Supplemental Blended Learning
In this model, students complete either entirely online work to supplement their day-to-day face-to-face learning, or entirely face-to-face learning experiences to supplement the learning gained in online courses and activities.

The big idea here is supplementing -critical learning objectives are met entirely in one space while the 'opposite' space provides the student with specific supplementing experiences that the other did not or could not provide.
12. Mastery-Based Blended Learning
Students rotate between online and face-to-face learning (activities, assessments, projects, etc.) based on the completion of mastery-based learning objectives.

Assessment design is crucial in any mastery-based learning experience; the ability to use face-to-face and digital assessment tools is either powerful or 'complicated' depending on the mindset of the learning designer.
*Sources include TeachThought, the Christensen Institute and blendedlearning.org

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12 Of The Most Common Types Of Blended Learning by TeachThought Staff Blended Learning is not so much an innovation as it is a natural by-product of the digital domain creeping into physical spaces. Broadly speaking, blended learning just means a mix of learning online and face-to-face, which means it's likely your students are already doing some form of blended learning and have for years.

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Modern Trends In Education: 50 Different Approaches To Learning
contributed by Lisa Chesser, opencolleges.edu.au
This post has been updated, slightly revised, and republished from a previous posting
Education sprouts in many forms.

Our views of what it should look like and how it should materialize depend on our value of it and our experience with it.

What if a class consisted of words that led to information that whirled into blended realms of creativity set up just for students, created by students. The students then dictated what they learned instead of reluctantly ingesting information and standards imposed upon them.

That exists here and now. In every nook and cranny, around every corner, inside every well-engineered lesson, students might just learn what they want to learn and actually find success while improving the world around them.

Take a tour of 50 different views of education that somehow find a similar note: Education must change.
1. Ground Up Diversity
Sir Ken Robinson campaigns changing education through talks, writing, advising, and teaching. He believes education must change because it's a stale environment in which most students don't really learn what they should or want to learn. How that happens makes all the difference-from the ground up. People, students, and teachers create the change, not the administrators or the executives.
2. Social Networking
With social networking growing to the point that Technorati last tracked about 70 million updated blogs, using social networking to teach any subject and catapult students into a realm other than stagnant learning means blending the traditional education with modern communication. Many educators believe this is the route to engaging students in learning all the basic skills they need.
3. Talking Education
Educators believe using talking or videos to review lessons and teach concepts helps students learn and retain more. Between TedEd and TeacherTube, education talks a lot about everything. Students love movement, television, and film so utilizing these snippets of information transforms the meaning of learning especially for many students who are strapped for time.
4. Underground Education
According to John Taylor Gatto, teachers should choose the real world over the classroom. Students don't learn to live or survive in a classroom. They learn to survive in the real world so the concept of underground education challenges educators in any walk of life to give students the tools with which to live and breathe in the world around them. If the lesson must be taught, then teach it thinking of who they might become.
5. Navdanya
Dr. Vadana Shiva's mission lives and breathes in Navdanya, an organization that promotes self-reliance and earth democracy. The leaders of the organization are women who find strength in women's movements and give women a voice. Earth democracy developed from the idea of seed saving helping local communities become self-reliant.
6. Self-Directed Learning
Read here for more on Self-Directed Learning.
7. Social Status
Even more significant to learning than being an asset, social status plays an underlying role in the education of a small or large group of people whether it's an entire country's agenda or certain sections or communities within that country. In other words, if that community puts importance on education as a social benefit, students and people in that community will strive to achieve it in order to raise their status in the community.
8. Lesson Study
Originating in Japan, lesson study applies to style of teaching. Conceptually, lesson study promotes the idea that teachers constantly improve and change their style of teaching based on students' performance and reaction to it. It sounds like what we already do but not exactly. Collaboration between teachers is paramount and so is change. Combining these two factors with constant change means students never stop learning.
9. Constructive Struggling
Another Japanese form of teaching is to allow students to struggle through a lesson with guidance from their teacher. In other words, the student shouldn't be embarrassed about failing the first time around, not even the second or third time. The instructor should actually encourage students to learn from that failure.
10. School in the Clouds
After experimenting with a computer in a wall where poor children basically found a way to learn without a teacher, Sugata Mitra won the Ted Prize of $1 million in 2013. He wrote an ebook named Beyond the Hole in the Wall offering an ideal for education based on a very real premise that students learn no matter what social status or economic background. They simply need the tools with which to do so.
11. Problem-Based Learning
In regards to tertiary education, problem-based learning is gaining popularity in Australia. Students are given a real-world problem then they work together to find a solution to this. In Australia, nursing programmes have begun to embrace this style of teaching and learning because it challenges the students to work as if they're dealing with real problems they'll encounter in the workplace. Teachers find it invaluable because students learn more with this method.
12. Learning with Technologies
Another view found around the world surrounds the use of technologies as a key to students improving their learning and 'marketability.' Within the realm of technologies, teachers encourage students to innovate, bringing them full-circle into the 21st-century where visibility and adaptability rule.
13. Constructivist Learning
According to Dimitrios Thanasoulas of Greece with relation to philosopher Giambattista Vico, humans only understand what they construct. This concept runs on the idea that students create their own learning environments, actively participating in the knowledge they ingest. Creating your own learning involves making mistakes with no preset agenda in place. Constructive learning is not stable so many educational systems reject it.
14. International Objectives
Many countries are creating a climate conducive to international students' interests and desires. In 2010, $7.7 billion was spent on tuition by international students in Canada. Countries that give attention to international students find economic benefits in both education and employment.
15. MOOCs & eLearning
Free education has materialized in the form of eLearning and Massive Open Online Courses as a direct result of students wanting to learn but not having the resources to do so whether that means they don't have the money or the background to achieve their learning goals.
16. Competency-Based Education
Competency-based education says that regardless of the length of time it takes for a student to complete a course, the student completes it based on what they know already. The only factor in determining how or when the student completes the course is the mastery of knowledge within the subject.
17. The Bologna Process
More an agreement than a concept, the Bologna Process is an agenda bent on responding to the changing landscape of education. Higher education systems in European countries organize themselves to create a more modern, advanced system of higher education for the incoming students.
18. Degree Qualifications
The Lumina Foundation argues that degree programs need to set benchmarks for students that prepare them for an ever-changing workplace. These degrees then aren't simply meant for study but give students goals and skills that will help them find and maintain jobs once they enter the workforce.
19. Herbert Stein's Law
Herbert Stein's Law states, "If something can't go on forever, it will stop." Many within and outside of the field of education have latched onto this law as a wake-up call to educators. It shows its presence with the advent of so many changes actively taking place and being embraced throughout every educational environment.
20. Disrupting Innovation
Some see online education as a disruptive process in the clean line that traditional education has managed to stronghold, which links to Herbert Stein's law in the sense that online education is putting an end to this stronghold. Americans see this as a crisis because of the unemployment rate and the competition from China and India. In response, disruptive innovation means the expense and elitism of education is changing to provide an affordable alternative.
21. Open Innovation
Open innovation promotes the idea of competition. In the business world this means opening up platforms for companies in the form of contests. In higher education, this means bringing together various institutions for competitions locally and globally. It means not confining it to only a select few but opening up to as many contestants as possible.
22. High-Quality Teachers
Another view and criticism of education puts the success or the blame on the teachers' low salary. Respect for the teaching profession is crucial to the process of growing high-quality teachers. Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg believes that educators should be paid more and for good reason. In Finland, receiving placement in a master's programme for teachers is harder than getting a law or medical degree.
23. Finnish Education
Instead of focusing on meeting standards and racing to the top, Finland focuses on providing quality education to everyone. Contrary to many of the other views in this list, Finland doesn't believe in competition or even giving grades until fifth grade. The system also doesn't believe in punitive measures but encourages trust and equality.
24. Social Support Strategy
Organizations such as The Adolescent Girls' Advocacy and Leadership Initiative (AGALI) use social support strategy to ensure young women learn about themselves beyond social norms. Realizing that the institutionalization of education can only go so far, these organizations provide education in other, far-reaching ways that give people a sense of confidence and self-worth necessary to finding success in life.
25. Change Agents
Elevating the teacher as the key to changing the groaning educational system, change agents are teachers who not only embrace the notion of change but simply make change happen. They don't wait for a law to pass or a standard to take effect, they just take the initiative to ensure students learn no matter what the circumstances or limitations.
26. Common Core Change
In the United States, the implementation of common core standards is meant to support higher education, which has reported a lower standard in educational abilities than in years before. It's also meant to challenge students more by forcing education to enter the 21st century with more student-driven learning.
27. Start-up Education
Start-ups and education are slowly finding each other and attempting to link up with one another. The only problem is that bureaucracy in education creates slow change. But, when that change does occur, fast change and innovation give students and educators an ecosystem in which to thrive and learn. LearnLaunchX showcased startups' products to educators creating enthusiasm in hopes of changing educational sloth.
28. Mobile Education
We move as a global society so that where ever we go, we carry our smartphones with us. Between conversations, we look down and tap away at whatever our minds fancy necessary or entertaining. So education, at least in the most cognizant facets, says it will be there too. It will walk with us on our journeys, our whims, our detours, and our desires. If we take our laptops around the world, education will walk with us according to mobile educational theories.
29. Invisible Structures
On that same note, why place a student in a box? If a student prefers to learn while traveling the world, then so be it. Breaking down the walls of education doesn't simply mean creating online classrooms but encouraging students to meet in open spaces and learn outside the confines of the institution. Teaching outside the classroom should be a source of inspiration, not a strange phenomenon.
30. Economic Empowerment
Giving students the ability to control their economic status through teaching them skills and economic value systems around the world helps them become leaders and innovators but also helps them find a basis for earning an income in a fluctuating economy.
31. Vocational Training
Whether students are seeking a specialized higher education or a specific skill in order to further a career path, vocational training has become a more popular avenue and view of education in general. Often used by governments to train displaced workers, it can be a valuable source of study for anyone wanting to specialize in areas such as various types of medical technicians or even graphic arts.
32. Gamification
The concept of gamification basically means introducing the gaming experience to environments where gaming would normally be unacceptable: Education. The word gamification was actually coined by an English programmer, Nick Pelling, in 2004. Adding gaming to education means simply enough that the user completes certain tasks for rewards just like in a video game.
33. Smart Capital
Smart capital involves placing funds exactly where they should be. Instead of handing funds over to an entire community or country based on need, the money flows into the hands of those that need it but will also use it effectively then share their ideas and funds with others so that we eliminate mediocre use or even no use of technology and funds.
34. Catalytic Role
Many foundations or organizations play a catalytic role in advancements in education such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They help innovators change the dynamics of education by providing monetary and other resources as support through college-ready education and post-secondary success. The main idea is to strengthen the relationship between teacher and student so that the learning process progresses to the point at which students not only learn but apply what they learn.
35. Blended Learning
Blending learning and technology gives students an advantage over others. It's one thing to move along at one's own pace. It's another to learn at one's own pace. Linking the two makes a difference worth noting. Teachers don't have to be breathing over the neck of the student. Guiding the student is often quite enough.
36. Collective Education
The individual takes the back seat when it comes to the idea of collectivist education. Students learn in groups and more importantly with each other better and more effectively than alone. This doesn't mean that we disregard the individual online learner, but it means that the online learner will learn better when exposed to a group of learners with similar interests who can offer insight and questioning into the process of learning any particular subject.
37. Personalized Education
Ironically enough, personalized education holds even more value than ever. The difference is that personalized education doesn't mean there isn't collective education. It just means that the education is given importance to personalized needs and desires, that the individual should mean something within the collective forum.
38. Flexible Learning
With the personalized education, the value of flexible learning needs to be addressed. Flexible learning offers students choices, convenience, and a personal approach to learning any given subject. Because we are individuals, learning and teaching should entail some form of flexibility within the realm of standardization.
39. Flipped Learning
As bluntly put as possible, a "flipped classroom" means turning learning on its head. Take the learning environment and flip it around so that students do the nitty-gritty of learning with their teachers or professors as opposed to studying for exams alone in a dark room with only a bright lamp to guide them. The fun part happens at home with a link to a short article or a video. The tough part happens in school where the teachers can help students fill in the blanks.
40. Classical Education
The classical education of any group of students rewind to a time lost to them if delivered in a lecture format. Students can experience the beauty of Shakespeare at any age because they see it like it was and is, in a theater, no matter how small or large. Students at Oxford, in an online class, or students at a small school experience classical education because it's handed to them by teachers who deliver it in motion.
41. Free Post-Secondary Education
Countries all over the world offer free post-secondary education giving students in those countries an obvious advantage over other students who may or may not receive any education at all. Students might be able to pay for their education if they work while they're putting themselves through school and if they're lucky enough maybe they have a resource providing them with funds for their education, but free resources guarantee an education that adds value to whatever they want to become.
42. Religious Education
Religious education exists because communities and cultures give it an importance beyond knowledge. Linking them together with time and presence, students learn the nature of who their families and communities believe they are as well as how to deal with a changing world full of disappointments and violence.
43. Moral Education
Moral education involves many religions and many insights into the way humans interact with one another. How we manage our way through difficulties is just as important as how we maneuver through technological advances, at least to our ancestors and their views of right and wrong.
44. Character Education
Within the realm of creating morality, there's character standing right next to it. Character may even be a stronger element of education than morality. With students so quickly exposed to violence and sexism throughout the Internet, character development takes effort and awareness. At every level of education, students should be exposed to it and given a chance to exercise their understanding of it.
45. Readiness Testing
Readiness Testing points educator and students in the right direction according to the people who view it as necessary. It allows educational systems to decide whether students can perform various tasks at a particular level therefore giving everyone insight into where and how students should move forward.
46. Sharing Voices
In New Zealand, students are encouraged to use online tools in order to tell their own stories and have their voices heard throughout their own communities and their country. In fact, the Ministry of Education's goal is to have students express themselves and take responsibility of their own learning.
47. Expeditionary Learning
Expeditionary learning brings the learning out into the world expediting the need to learn more than what's confined inside the classroom walls but even more so using the world to learn. Students feel engaged in learning while achieving goals and accomplishing character development when exposed to learning outside.
48. Sharing Voices
In New Zealand, students are encouraged to use online tools in order to tell their own stories and have their voices heard throughout their own communities and their country. In fact, the Ministry of Education's goal is to have students express themselves and take responsibility of their own learning.
49. Expeditionary Learning
Expeditionary learning brings the learning out into the world expediting the need to learn more than what's confined inside the classroom walls but even more so using the world to learn. Students feel engaged in learning while achieving goals and accomplishing character development when exposed to learning outside.
50. Global View
According to renowned educator Yong Zhoa, high-stakes testing creates more problems than provides answers and it doesn't match success in the world today. Educating creative, entrepreneurial students should be the focus of education with what he calls world-class learners in his latest book. Zhoa believes there needs to be a paradigm shift in education that builds on students' strengths and gives them a format where their talents flourish and take shape instead of education shaping them.
This post is excerpted from a post first published on opencolleges.edu.au; Modern Trends In Education: 50 Different Approaches To Learning; image attribution flickr user tulanepublicrelations

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Modern Trends In Education: 50 Different Approaches To Learning

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Modern Trends In Education: 50 Different Approaches To Learning contributed by Lisa Chesser, opencolleges.edu.au This post has been updated, slightly revised, and republished from a previous posting Education sprouts in many forms. Our views of what it should look like and how it should materialize depend on our value of it and our experience with it.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here is a handy visual featuring what we think are some of the best educational web tools for Bloom' taxonomy. For each of Bloom's thinking levels we came up with a number of suggested tools that go with it. We have been very selective concerning the choices included and because of space constraints we excluded several other tools that worth the mention here. Also, the visual is not hyperlinked, check out the chart at the bottom of the page for links of the featured tools. For an iPad version of this graphic, click here.

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For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here is a handy visual featuring what we think are some of the best educational web tools for Bloom' taxonomy. For each of Bloom's thinking levels we came up with a number of suggested tools that go with it.

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How to start using Google Classroom in 2020 | Tips and Tricks Episode 38

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6 Secrets For Incredible Growth As A Teacher

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7 Teaching Secrets For Long-Term Growth by Terry Heick Ed note: This post has been updated and revised from an earlier post Good teaching is a major undertaking. Make no mistake-teaching has never been easy. But as we come upon 2014, as a profession teaching is increasingly characterized by its possibility , accountability, and persistent mutation.

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Marzano's 9 Instructional Strategies For Teaching And Learning

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Marzano's 9 Instructional Strategies In Infographic Form

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Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs

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Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs

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Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level.

In this blog post we will take a look at over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories:

Text to Speech

Readability

Reading Comprehension

Focus

Navigation

Some of the tools fit into more than one topic, but each is only listed once. Certainly this list does not cover all of the useful web extensions available for struggling learners, but it is a great place to begin. In addition to the list of extension, I have also linked in the video from a webinar I did a while back on "Google Tools for Special Needs".

Text to Speech extensions

1) Read&Write for Google Chrome
Chrome web extension link
The "Swiss Army Knife" of extensions with tools including word prediction, dictionary, picture dictionary, text to speech, screenshot reader, speech maker, screen mask, translator, highlighters, voice note, and more. Works on webpages, PDFs, Google Docs, and Google Slides.
Note: There is a paid version with all the tools and a free version with a subset of the tools. Educators can get the paid version for a year at no cost by filling out the form at: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/free-for-teachers/

2) Read Aloud
Chrome web extension link
This text-to-speech extension will read either the entire page or just the text that you have selected. In addition to the normal options to adjust the speed, pitch, and volume of the voice, the best feature is the wide collection of high-quality voices to choose from.

3) Voice Instead
Chrome web extension link
This is another good text-to-speech extension with high-quality voices. The only drawbacks are that you have to select the text you want read (rather than the entire page), and sometimes there can be odd pauses in the middle of a sentence.

4) Announcify
Chrome web extension link
This is another text to speech tool that not only reads a webpage, but also removes distracting elements from the site. The only drawback is the inability to select specific text to read, as the entire page is read aloud.

Speech to Text extensions

5) VoiceIn Voice Typing
Chrome web extension link
This speech-to-text extension allows the user to dictate text for any text box or text entry portion of a web page. You can either click the extension or right-click and choose "Start recording" to use it. Be sure to click the extension again to turn off the speech-to-text function when done.

Readability extensions

6) Mercury Reader
Chrome web extension link
Make any website easier to read by removing ads, comments, and all other distractions, so just the core content remains. Users can also adjust the font size and color scheme of the new text. (For a list of 10 more extensions that clean up webpages, see here: http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/11/10-readability-alternatives.html)

7) OpenDyslexic
Chrome web extension link
Override all fonts on a webpage with the OpenDyslexic font, making the text more easily readable.

8) Dyslexia Friendly
Chrome web extension link
This extension replaces the fonts on a web page with either OpenDyslexic or Comic Sans, and provides a horizontal shaded bar to help the user stay on the correct line when reading. The only drawback is there is no easy way to toggle it on and off, so you will want to use an extension management tool to let you turn it off when not in use.

9) BeeLine Reader
Chrome web extension link
This tool creates a more readable version of a web page by removing all the ads, comments, and other extra distracting items, and then applies a color gradient to the page text guide your eye from one line to the next. (Limit of 5 articles per day for free version.)

10) ATbar
Chrome web extension link
Toolbar with features including color overlays for webpages, dictionary, text to speech, word prediction, and more.

11) MagicScroll Web Reader
Chrome web extension link
Turn web pages into a flippable e-book with easy clickable or keyboard control, as well as control over font size and page color as well.

12) Readline
Chrome web extension link
Although originally designed as a speed reading tool, you can slow the WPM rate down so students can use this to focus on one word at a time when reading to not lose their place.

13) Visor
Chrome web extension link
This screen overlay tool darkens out the page except for a horizontal band you can move up and down as you read, helping the student focus.

14) High Contrast
Chrome web extension link
This tool can make webpages easier to read by changing the colors to increase contrast, invert the colors, or switch to gray-scale.

15) Color Enhancer
Chrome web extension link
For people who are partially color-blind, this tool can help adjust and improve webpage colors.

16) CraftyZoom
Chrome web extension link
This extension give you a floating magnifying glass that you can move around the screen to make portions of the page larger. You can adjust the size of the circle and the level of the zoom.

Reading Comprehension extensions

17) Google Dictionary
Chrome web extension link
Don't get stuck on an unknown word. Double-click on any word to get a pop-up definition, as well as spoken pronunciation for many words.

18) SMMRY
Chrome bookmark link
While not technically an extension, this tool functions very much like one and is launched from your Chrome bookmarks bar. Summarize any online article with a simple click of the SMMRY bookmark link. This will generate a simplified version with fewer sentences (7 by default) and just the most important information. Settings can be adjusted for longer or shorter summaries, as well as emphasis on certain desired words..

19) TLDR: Summarize Anything
Chrome web extension link
This extension will generate a summary of any web page you are on. There are three levels of summarization - short, medium, and long, in addition to the original full version of the page.

20) Resoomer
Chrome web extension link
This is another summarization tool for web pages. It opens up a new tab with a cleaned up version of the page, as well as three levels of summary.

21) Internet Abridged
Chrome web extension link
This article summary tool gives you a pop-up window with a short bullet list of the main sentences from the page.

22) Auto Highlight
Chrome web extension link
This extension takes a different approach to summarizing. Instead of removing the non-essential portions of the text, it highlights what is most important. This allows the reader to still look at the rest of the article if needed. Three levels of highlighting can be chosen.

Focus extensions

23) Simple Blocker
Chrome web extension link
This tool helps students to stay focused on their work by blocking distracting websites. The user can choose the sites to block, how long to block them, and optional password protection.

24) uBlock Origin
Chrome web extension link
A simple but powerful ad-blocking extension to help remove distracting ads from websites, making pages less cluttered and easier to read.

25) Move It
Chrome web extension link
For students who need a break, this extension can be set to periodically have them stop working and do something physical for a moment.

26) Google Keep
Chrome web extension link
Keep allows users to save and retrieve any information they come across including text, links, pictures, speech, handwriting, doodles, and more. The tool works as an extension, web site, Android app, and iOS app, and integrates into Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings.

Navigation extensions

27) CrafyCursor
Chrome web extension link
This extension makes it easier for the user to find and track the mouse cursor by putting a highlighted circle around it. The user can choose between several colors for the cursor spotlight.

28) Click-free Browsing
Chrome web extension link
For users who have a difficulty clicking a mouse, this extension adds on-screen navigation buttons the user can simply hover over to use.

29) Vimium
Chrome web extension link
Provides keyboard shortcuts for navigation and control for someone with difficulty using a mouse.

30) CrxMouse
Chrome web extension link
Use mouse gestures to navigate including forward, backward, scrolling, refreshing, switching tabs, and more. The user can even program their own custom mouse gestures to open programs and perform other tasks.

31) Caret Browsing
Chrome web extension link
This extension gives you a movable cursor in any web page, allowing you to move through the text with your arrows keys and select text with the keyboard.

Additional Resources

Video training webinar (1 hour)

What other Chrome web extensions have you found that can assist students with special needs and struggling learners? Share your suggestions in the comments below.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Chrome Extensions for Struggling Students and Special Needs

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Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level.

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A guide for Questioning in the classroom

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A guide for Questioning in the classroom

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An Updated Guide to Questioning in the Classroom
by TeachThought Staff

Something we've become known for is our focus on thought, inquiry, and understanding, and questions are a big part of that. We've done questions that students should ask, parents should ask, students should and shouldn't answer, questions that promote and stifle inquiry, questions that reveal self-knowledge and wisdom, and more.

If the ultimate goal of education is for students to be able to effectively answer questions, then focusing on content and response strategies makes sense. If the ultimate goal of education is to teach students to think, then focusing on how we can help students ask better questions themselves might make sense, no?
Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers
The ability to ask the right question at the right time is a powerful indicator of authentic understanding. Asking a question that pierces the veil in any given situation is itself an artifact of the critical thinking teachers so desperately seek in students, if for no other reason than it shows what the student knows, and then implies the desire to know more.

Asking a question (using strategies to help students ask better questions, for example) is a sign of understanding, not ignorance; it requires both knowledge and then-critically-the ability to see what else you're missing.

Questions are more important than answers because they reflect both understanding and curiosity in equal portions. To ask a question is to see both backward and forward-to make sense of a thing and what you know about it, and then extend outward in space and time to imagine what else can be known, or what others might know. To ask a great question is to see the conceptual ecology of the thing.

In a classroom, a student can see a drop of water, a literary device, a historical figure, or a math theorem, but these are just fragments that are worthless in and of themselves. A student in biology studying a drop of water must see the water as infinitely plural-as something that holds life and something that gives life.

As a marker of life, and an icon of health.

It is a tool, a miracle, a symbol, and a matter of science.

They must know what's potentially inside of a drop of water, and then how to find out what's actually inside that drop of water.

They must know what others have found studying water, as well as what that drop of water means within the field of science, and beyond it.

They must know that water is never really just water.
Teacher Questions vs Student Questions
When teachers try to untangle this cognitive mess, they sacrifice personalization for efficiency. There are simply too many students, and too much content to cover, so they cut to the chase.

Which means then tend towards the universal over the individual-broad, sweeping questions intermingling with sharper, more concise questions that hopefully shed some light and cause some curiosity. In a class of 30 with an aggressively-paced curriculum map and the expectation that every student master the content regardless of background knowledge, literacy level, or interest in the material, this is the best most teachers can do.

This only a bottleneck, though, when the teacher asks the questions. When the student asks the question, the pattern is reversed. The individual student has little regard for the welfare of the class, especially when they're forming questions. They're on the clock to say something, anything. Which is great, because questions-when they're authentic-are automatically personal because they came up with them. They're not tricks, or guess-what-the-teacher's-thinking.

A student couldn't possibly capture the scale of confusion or curiosity of 30 other people; instead, they survey their own thinking, spot both gaps and fascinations, and form a question. This is the spring-loading of a Venus flytrap. The topic crawls around in the mind of the student innocently enough, and when the time is right-and the student is confident-the flower snaps shut. Once a student starts asking questions, that magic of learning can begin.
The Purpose of Questions
And the best part for a teacher? Questions reveal far more than answers ever might.

Thought of roughly as a kind of spectrum, four purposes of questions might stand out, from more "traditional" to more "progressive."

In What Is The Purpose Of A Question?, Terry Heick said:

"To be a little more abstract, a good question causes thinking-more questions. Better questions. It clarifies and reveals. It causes hope.
(More Traditional) Academic View
A bad question stops thinking. It confuses and obscures. It causes doubt."
(Less Traditional) Curriculum-Centered View
In a traditional academic setting, the purpose of a question is to elicit a response that can be assessed (i.e., answer this question so I can see what you know).
(More Progressive) Inquiry View
Here, a "good question" matters more than a good answer, as it demonstrates the complexity of student understanding of a given curriculum.
(More Progressive Still) Self-Directed View
As confusion or curiosity markers that suggest a path forward for inquiry, and then are iterated and improved based on learning. (Also known as question-based learning.)

In a student-centered circumstance, a question illuminates possible learning pathways forward irrespective of curriculum demands. The student's own knowledge demands-and their uncovering-center and catalyze the learning experience.
The Relative Strengths of Questions

To be a little more abstract, a good question causes thinking-more questions. Better questions. It clarifies and reveals. It causes hope. A bad question stops thinking. It confuses and obscures. It causes doubt.

The Relative Weaknesses of Questions

Good questions can reveal subtle shades of understanding-what this student knows about this topic in this context

Questions promote inquiry and learning how to learn over proving what you know

Questions fit in well with the modern "Google" mindset

Used well, questions can promote personalized learning as teachers can change question on fly to meet student needs

7 Common Written Assessment Question Forms

Questions depend on language, which means literacy, jargon, confusing syntax, academic diction, and more can all obscure the learning process

Questions can imply answers, which imply stopping points and "finishing" over inquiry and wisdom (See questions that promote inquiry-based learning.)

Accuracy of answers can be overvalued, which makes the confidence of the answerer impact the quality of the response significantly

"Bad questions" are easy to write and deeply confusing, which can accumulate to harm a student's sense of self-efficacy, as well as their own tendency to ask them on their own

Questioning & Self-Directed Learning
Questions as written assessment (as opposed to questions as inquiry, questions to guide self-directed learning, or questions to demonstrate understanding) most commonly take the following forms in writing:

For years in classrooms, questions have guided teachers in the design of units and lessons, often through the development of essential questions that all students should be able to reasonably respond to, and that can guide their learning of existing and pre-mapped content.
Cognitive Dissonance
In the TeachThought Self-Directed Learning Model, learners are required to create their own curriculum through a series of questions that emphasize self-knowledge, citizenship, and communal and human interdependence. In this model, existing questions act as a template to uncover potential learning pathways.

Cognitive Dissonance is the cognitively-uncomfortable act of holding two seemingly competing beliefs at the same time. If you believe that Freedom of Speech is the foundation of democracy, but then are presented with a perspective (through Socratic-style questioning from the teacher, for example), you arrive (or the student does) at a crossroads where they have to adjust something-either their belief, or their judgment about the validity of the question itself.
Role of "Lower-Level" Questions
In this way, questions can promote Cognitive Dissonance-which means a good question can change a student's mind, beliefs, or tendency to examine their own beliefs. Questions, cognitive, and self-reflection go hand-in-hand.

Lower-level questions are questions that inquire at "lower levels" of various learning taxonomies.

These are often "recall," questions that are based in fact-definitions, dates, names, biographical details, etc. Education is thought to have focused (without having been there, who knows for sure?) on these lower levels, and "low" is bad in academics, right? "Lower-level" thinking implies a lack of "higher level" thinking, so instead of analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and creating, students are defining, recalling, and memorizing, the former of which make for artists and designers and innovators, and the latter of which make for factory workers.

And that part, at least, is (mostly) true. Recall and memorization aren't the stuff of understanding, much less creativity and wisdom, except that they are. Bloom's Taxonomy was not created to segregate "good thinking" from "bad thinking." In their words, "Our attempt to arrange educational behaviors from simple to complex was based on the idea that a particular simple behavior may become integrated with other equally simple behaviors to form a more complex behavior." In this way, the taxonomy is simply one way of separating the strands of thinking like different colored yarn-a kind of visual scheme to see the pattern, contrasts, and even sequence of cognitive actions.

Nowhere does it say that definitions and names and labels and categories are bad-and if it did, we'd have to wonder about the taxonomy rather than assuming that they were. It doesn't take much imagination to see that if a student doesn't know there was a war, and that it was fought in the United States in the 1800s, and that it was purportedly over states' rights, and that both culture, industry, and agriculture all impacted the hows, whens, and whys of the war, that "higher-level thinking strategies" aren't going to be very useful.
Essential Questions
In short, lower-level questions can both illuminate and establish foundational knowledge on which to build more complex and nuanced understanding of content. They provide a foothold for thinking. To further the point, in 5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom's Taxonomy, Grant Wiggins explains that the phrases "higher-order" and "lower-order" don't appear anywhere in the taxonomy.
Examples of Essential Questions
Grant Wiggins defined an essential question as those that are "broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are perpetually arguable."

What is justice?

Is art a matter of taste or principles?

How far should we tamper with our own biology and chemistry?

Is science compatible with religion?

Is an author's view privileged in determining the meaning of a text?

A question is essential when it:

causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content;

provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions;

requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers;

stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons;

sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences;

naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.

You can see more examples of essential questions here.
A Guide To Questioning In The Classroom; image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad
On Tuesday, we'll help you take this background information and channel into specific question strategies that you can use to help students learn to create their own questions.

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An Updated Guide to Questioning in the Classroom by TeachThought Staff Something we've become known for is our focus on thought, inquiry, and understanding, and questions are a big part of that. We've done questions that students should ask, parents should ask, students should and shouldn't answer, questions that promote and stifle inquiry, questions that reveal self-knowledge and wisdom, and more.

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Creating a culture of Problem Solving in the classroom

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Creating a culture of Problem Solving in the classroom

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12 Strategies For Creating A Culture Of Problem-Solving In Your Classroom
by TeachThought Staff

Without the ability to solve problems, learning is 'academic.'

Problem-solving, creative thinking, and critical thinking are both skills and habits that allow students to apply and transfer academic knowledge into real-world application. Unfortunately, problem-solving isn't a significant part of most curriculum in K-12 schools.

Further, problem-solving-being a habit as much as a skill-both creates and is dependent upon a kind of culture in your classroom. To remedy the situation, and grow fruitful and happy students within the confines of the syllabus you are bound to, start to fix the problem yourself by creating an atmosphere of problem-solving in your classes. Create situations where students have to think for themselves.

Here are some ideas.
12 Strategies For Creating A Culture Of Problem-Solving In Your Classroom 1. Use Exit Slips
Instead of telling students what the learning objective is for a task, have them come up with one when they've completed it. Make it the exit slip.
2. Ask 3B4ME
Instead of answering an unnecessary question, urge students to take back their power by taking another moment to think about the problem, then to check their books and other resources around them for the solution, before asking their table for help, before asking the teacher. Adam Schoenbart's advice here is excellent: Ask 3B4ME
3. Perfect-And Actually Use-The Gradual Release Of Responsibility Model
Gradually reduce the scaffolds on tasks, increasing the amount of autonomy with the approach to a task. Explain that in the previous task you helped in this way, but that in this task you are not. This will make students connect previous experiences.
4. Allow-Or Require-Students To Help Shape The Curriculum
The goal is to get students to solve the problem of satisfying the demands of the syllabus while making the learning interesting. Outline what must be covered, and challenge them to come up with interesting and creative ways to get it done. You could begin by looking at the whole course, and asking for suggestions about projects. The more adventurous could increase the challenge by asking - 'here's what must be done in this lesson - how can we achieve it'. Trust yourself that you can handle the change in direction, and that if a student comes up with a great way to get to the same place, then be brave enough to go with it.

How you handle the change in direction is the best example of problem-solving there is. Even if no one comes up with something this time, the process will not only stimulate their thinking to some degree, but also empower them to know that you are offering some autonomy in the learning. But the real gain in such a process is that students will begin the process of truly understanding the outcomes of the course. Then out of nowhere you are achieving the desired growth, but in a sustainable manner.
5. Make Sure Students Review Instructions Periodically
Teach students to return to instructions after they have completed some of the work. They may not, but when they don't and have trouble, use that as a teachable moment.

Why can this help? When students first view a task, they often only take in the first few components of the task, and then automatically ask what's next once they've got to that point. Encourage the habit of revisiting the instructions, emphasizing to students that the brain is now able to process the next parts of the task.
6. Have Students Articulate Learning To Others
Get students to make connections between their learning more often. A great way to do this is to get students to go around the school and describe to another teacher or school leader the activity or activities involved, and ask them what they think the real world learning is for the task/s. The responses will make the student consider the relevancy a lot more, especially if the responder asks the student some questions.
7. Use ABC Feedback
When questioning students, make it interactive. Get them on their toes when discussions ensue. Use Alez Quigley's excellent suggestion of ABC Feedback to energize student interaction in lessons. Every question then becomes a chance to solve a problem.
8. Encourage Them To Be Self-Sufficient
Redirect students' questions back to them or to other students. This could have several possible outcomes: it provides more students with a chance to participate in a discussion; provides opportunities for students to teach; and will minimize the number of unnecessary questions, as students are by far the harshest critics of time-wasting, especially when it's theirs.
9. 'Play With' Confusion
Ask questions that deliberately create thinking, such as thunks. Questions that create confusion are also winners - I guarantee someone in the class will respond and have a go at making sense of it. If played well (it can be a fine line at times), creating a space where the class is not able to assume what is presented to them is straight forward, or accurate, begins an unmistakable increase in student awareness, and brain activity.

Examples include getting students to remember everything around the room they see that is the color of white, and then, ensuring they don't look up, get them to write down everything in the room that is the color green; writing 4 random words on the board and getting students to rank them in order; add a word to board and have students design a question where the word is the only possible answer; adding deliberately wrong info within an activity and getting students to spot it; and of course, riddles - which every student seems to love.
10. Helps Students Focus On The Solution Instead Of The Problem
Teach students what Patch Adams had to learn: to focus on the solution rather than the problem in front of them. It's incredible what a small change in perspective can achieve.
11. Explain How They're learning
Above all else, ensure that you label the next unit you teach as a Problem-Solving Unit and consistently refer to it as it unfolds. Explicitly discussing the problem-solving aspects of each activity will develop and consolidate the expectations that your classroom demands. Students will have the chance to thrive as a result!
12. Ask Students What Problems Matter To Them
Then use inquiry learning, create a self-directed classroom culture, promote collaboration, and more to help them solve those problems for themselves.
Conclusion
Teaching is not about raising grades. Teaching should always be motivated by a need to create amazing people. Amazing people, by definition, are active sort of people, inspiring, creative and resilient. They are people who flourish in the right conditions, and who grow with challenge and inquiry.

These qualities are not unique to a select group of people defined by hereditary-they are outcomes of having to consistently solve problems. Changing your classroom from a delivery room into a learning room relies entirely on your ability to change students from receptors to problem solvers.

So let's get to it, there's not a moment to lose!

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12 Strategies For Creating A Culture Of Problem-Solving In Your Classroom -

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12 Strategies For Creating A Culture Of Problem-Solving In Your Classroom by TeachThought Staff Without the ability to solve problems, learning is 'academic.' Problem-solving, creative thinking, and critical thinking are both skills and habits that allow students to apply and transfer academic knowledge into real-world application.

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6 Factors Of Academic Achievement To Guide Your Teaching
by Terry Heick

What are the factors of academic achievement?

First, a definition for academics in the classroom. An academic classroom is one where the primary goal is to promote proficiency of academic standards. Everything else, while appreciated and winked at, comes after. The class, curriculum, and instruction, by design, are built to move students in their academic achievement.
6 Factors Of Academic Achievement 1. Instructional Design Quality To Guide Your Teaching
If that's your goal, what might your focuses be? What's important? What matters? Let's take a look at six important factors at work here.

While there are countless factors in the academic achievement of a student, few are more powerful than instructional design.
2. Accuracy & Alignment
This is a topic for an entire book or a post of its own. But just consider that the 'understanding' is in large part a product of design and that starts with the most macro elements of all: what is being studied (curriculum), how it is sequenced (curriculum maps, for example), and how each are designed to maximize learning opportunities.

I'll write more about this soon.

Accurately unpacking the standard --not oversimplifying it, nor making it more complex than it has to be. Making sense of what the standard says, and understanding exactly what the student needs to know and be able to do to get there.

Accurately acknowledging the rigor of the standard-accurately, which means what it says, not what you think it should be. The standards describe a minimal level of proficiency-feel free to push students above and beyond, but not until they've mastered the language described in the standard.

Consider Using: Your PLN. Collaboration with other teachers is critical, and not necessarily through a formal 9-step PLC process, but conversationally, over time trying to make better sense of what the standards both say and imply.

Alignment between student practice with the standard. The work students do throughout the year shouldn't merely 'engage' students or 'push them to think, make, or create.'

Those things are great, but if there isn't alignment between the practice and the standard, the mastery isn't going to show because what the students aren't mastering the standard, but rather thinking, making, and creating. Understanding by Design's Backwards Planning makes a lot of sense here. As in, do it.

Alignment between student readiness and the academic standard. Think the Zone of Proximal Development. It does no good to create 'rigorous' work for the student who lacks the background knowledge, content knowledge, or literacy to perform the work while you browbeat them to 'meet your expectation.'
3. Data Forms & Quality
Meet the student where they are implies exactly that. Meet them, then move them.

Consider Using: Understand by Design, especially Backward Planning thinking.

A climate of assessment and ways to measure understanding provide usable data that teachers can grab-and-use to revise planned instruction. Fresh, trustworthy, and relevant data teachers can use and students can understand to let them know what should come next. If it doesn't answer that question-what now?-it's an assessment of narrow value.
4. Whole Literacy
Data as in, units, lessons, and activities are designed to flexibly respond to that data in authentic ways without leaving it all on the teacher's shoulders to do so on the fly-or, worse, at the local "data team" meeting.

Consider Using: Exit-Slip Teaching (we're working on a model that might help here), technology that can help aggregate and report usable data consistently.

Literacy in terms of being able to read a variety of texts both critically and holistically. To be able to decode grade level texts of appropriate complexity, and to then be able to take that text apart in terms of ideas, evidence, theme, and craft.
5. Student Motivation & Engagement
And further, 'whole' literacy, as in being able to write clearly and eloquently about what is read, learned, and thought across physical and digital forms, for a variety of audiences and purposes. In short, to be able to seamlessly use the writing process to create and refine arguments and narrate experiences for both academic and authentic purposes.

Consider using: RAFT assignments

Student effort as in, helping students developing intrinsic motivation.

Student effort as in, supporting students emotionally, metacognitively, and intellectually to give themselves to the process of mastering academic content.
6. Depth Of Knowledge One Last Thing
Student effort is everything. Teaching with engagement is like tweeting constantly with zero followers. Singing to an empty stadium. Dancing alone in the dark. We often use words and phrases like student engagement, student-centeredness, curiosity, and so on-and all of these are great. But a motivated student with zero technology, limited resources, and even a novice teacher will perform light years better than an apathetic student in a '21st-century classroom.'

Consider Using: Consistent learning feedback that makes sense to students; positive reinforcement; clear indicators of progress for students (think about video games, which constantly clarify yes/no, good/bad, warmer/colder to students); also, think gamification-points, levels, badges, unlocks, etc; lots of 'voice' and choice; also, work within their ZPD that feels designed for them specifically will carry more weight than one-size-fits-all-do-it-because-I-said so; "Teaching What Matters Most" by Silver, Strong, and Perini is a great resource as well.

One indicator that the above is working? Self-Initiated Transfer.

Self-initiated transfer is a key indicator of understanding. It can be defined here as the ability to transfer knowledge or skill to a new and unfamiliar context, preferably unprompted. Put another way, students who know what to use what knowledge, when without being told to do so.

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6 Factors Of Academic Achievement To Guide Your Teaching by Terry Heick What are the factors of academic achievement? First, a definition for academics in the classroom. An academic classroom is one where the primary goal is to promote proficiency of academic standards. Everything else, while appreciated and winked at, comes after.

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Literacy Skills in one on one conferencing

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Literacy Skills in one on one conferencing

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Brief, frequent chats with students help teachers assess their reading and writing skills while building strong relationships.

Juice Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Traditional assessment tools in English language arts classrooms include written assignments and tests on the readings, along with the odd presentation or small group book study. For years, my assessments focused on these tools, but I didn't feel like they were working for me or my students. I'd pass the garbage cans in my classroom at the end of a period and see my written feedback-hours of work-carelessly thrown away. Why was I wasting my time?

I tried everything I knew how to do, but still felt like I wasn't really doing a great job of moving my students forward or providing authentic literacy assessments.

Then, in the spring of 2014, I attended a professional development session on literacy presented by Penny Kittle, who had just published Book Love. She spoke passionately about the idea that conferencing with students was essential to understanding how well they could read.

I started muddling through reading conferences with my students, and went on to read Kittle's Write Beside Them and Kelly Gallagher's Write Like This. Both Kittle and Gallagher praised conferencing as an assessment tool in the writing process, and I began to use conferencing in my writing assessments as well. I've never looked back.

Conferencing as a Literacy Assessment

Conferencing has many benefits, but for me the most important is the one-on-one time with students. Although I use it as an assessment tool, conferencing is also a critical method of relationship building with students, which is a necessary precursor to learning. I learn about students' interests and feelings through their reading choices and their responses to texts. Without conferencing, I wouldn't have these personal moments with students, which create an atmosphere of respect and trust that doesn't arise through traditional assessments like presentations and tests.

Immediate, individualized feedback is a significant benefit of literacy conferencing, because the teacher focuses on one student. Conferencing provides an opportunity for immediate correction of errors or reteaching of material if a student needs it. Conferencing can also raise an early red flag regarding student progress, allowing the teacher to respond to a problem immediately, rather than at the end of a unit.

The central assessment benefit to literacy conferences is finding out exactly what students know and what they can do. When we conference, there's no internet to give students hints about a text, and no parent or sibling to help write their thesis statement. Conferencing provides teachers with a clear snapshot of students' knowledge and skills.

When students realize this, they become much more focused on their work and take more responsibility for their learning. Conferencing encourages students to be honest about their strengths, weaknesses, and next steps involving literacy skills. It's a way of tearing down the walls that a student may have hiding behind for years. Although this may be uncomfortable for the student, and may cause issues with parents who've worked hard to hide their children's weaknesses, it's a way for us, as teachers, to guide students to improve their reading and writing skills.

Getting Started With Literacy Conferences

Many teachers interested in using conferencing as an assessment tool in their ELA classrooms are concerned about the logistics. Common complaints I've heard in my own department include: "I don't have enough time for conferencing" and "What are my other students supposed to be doing?"

ELA teachers spend a great deal of time marking student work. Before I began using conferencing, I rarely left school without a bag full of papers or tests to grade. Conferencing shifts some of the time teachers spend on grading to conversations that take place in class.

Setting up your class with specific routines is key: I start all my ELA classes with silent reading and end with quiet work time. Our periods are 70 minutes daily, and we spend the first 15 to 20 minutes on silent reading and the last 15 to 20 on quiet seat work, with a 30- to 40-minute lesson or activity in between. I don't conference with students every day, but when I do, it's at the beginning and end of class, when all students have assigned tasks.

To make conferencing work, you need to have a goal in mind. What skills are most critical for you in terms of literacy assessment? What literacy skills are your students struggling with the most? Having a purpose that is clear to you and the students will make your conferences truly effective.

My reading conferences are often focused on goal setting, tracking or sharing progress through reading logs, reflections, and discussions of what students will read next. I also use conferencing to assess reading fluency and comprehension by having students read out loud and discuss the significance of passages with me.

When students are working on big writing tasks like essays, I conference with them throughout every step of the writing process, which works beautifully to ensure that they're on track and doing authentic work. As a result, I rarely have issues with plagiarism. When we work on shorter writing pieces, I may conference about a particular writing feature or element I've taught, or focus on revising and editing and have students think aloud through this process with me.

Creating a handout to help students prepare for the conference is useful so they know what to expect, as well as to keep you on task. A simple rubric, list of questions, or assessment checklist is fine-the handout doesn't need to be elaborate.

Throughout the conference, you'll need to take notes to aid your recall later. At times, I've also audio-recorded conferences; I let students know when I'm doing that, and I also let them know that I destroy the recordings once I no longer need them. Having notes or a recording is invaluable when I'm moving quickly through conferences with multiple students in one period and throughout the day.

Conferencing is an assessment tool that can benefit all ELA teachers-and their students.

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Assessing Literacy Skills With One-on-One Conferencing

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Brief, frequent chats with students help teachers assess their reading and writing skills while building strong relationships. Juice Images / Alamy Stock Photo Traditional assessment tools in English language arts classrooms include written assignments and tests on the readings, along with the odd presentation or small group book study.

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The teachers' lounge can be a great place to relax, sit in a squishy couch, and talk to your colleagues about teaching. Unfortunately, this isn't the reality for most lounges. Usually they are just places for teachers to grab their mail and fight with the photocopier.

Life is busy, and teachers are busier. So where do you turn when you want support, ideas and inspiration? You go to virtual teachers' lounges (aka teacher Facebook groups). Here are some of our favorite teacher Facebook groups for educators. They're sure to offer a place to share your journey with a like-minded community.

If you've been intrigued by the new trend toward digital breakouts and escape rooms in the classroom, check this group out. You can find links to breakouts for all ages and get advice for creating your own. This week I even saw a breakout for parents at back-to-school night.

The WeAreTeachers Helpline has been a staple for WeAreTeachers, and it will always be around for general questions and sharing. But you might want to look at one of our other groups, too. For instance, High School Teachers Helpline is available for teachers focusing on the upper grade levels. If you work with teenagers, this is definitely for you.

The first years of teaching can be some of the most challenging, and teachers really need some extra support. This is why we created WeAreTeachers First Years. This group is the place to go for anyone new (or just a few years) into teaching. You'll find plenty of mentors in here, too. Post your question or concern and get quick feedback from others who have been there.

Starr Sackstein has been leading the way toward grade-less teaching for a long time. Her group is filled with meaningful conversations about how and why to do it. If you're interested in taking a step back from grading, join the conversation in this active group.

I'm the moderator for this group. I love to see what creative English teachers around the world post there every day. Teachers inside link up with collaboration partners, share creative resources, and check out trending pedagogies through links to podcasts and articles.

No matter what you teach, if you're interested in incorporating maker spaces and STEM activities into your curriculum, this could be a great group for you. People share maker lab photos, request materials and information about STEM activities, and post ideas others can benefit from.

While this group is especially for technology teachers, many topics here could apply to a range of classrooms. On a recent visit I saw a discussion of digital citizenship, a post asking for advice on building a huge classroom lego wall, and a conversation about which apps like Remind, Bloomz, Appletree and Seesaw are best.

This is a group of science teachers committed to helping each other and our students succeed in science. This group also maintains a collaborative drive of awesome resources.

Try one of these or search FB for a key word and then click on the "groups" tab. Facebook groups are truly a great place to share ideas and find support. You are far from alone on this journey.

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Teacher Facebook Groups You'll Want to Join Today

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The teachers' lounge can be a great place to relax, sit in a squishy couch, and talk to your colleagues about teaching. Unfortunately, this isn't the reality for most lounges. Usually they are just places for teachers to grab their mail and fight with the photocopier. Life is busy, and teachers are busier.