Tuesday 30 April 2013
Monday 29 April 2013
Friday 26 April 2013
Wednesday 24 April 2013
Tuesday 23 April 2013
Getting Students Familiar with Teacher Website
image credits: memorialpto |
While teacher websites appear to be more popular, I have many colleagues who lament the fact that, halfway through a semester, many of their students have never found one. In order to ensure that my students at least know mine is there and how to find it, I have several ‘homework’ assignments that rely on them personally going to the site.
Student Information Form – Can I get this information from our school’s student information system? Yes. But…to reduce time spent on administrivia, and have useful data for me accessible from anywhere, I now have students complete their student information from a Google Docs form embedded in my site. It is required first night homework, can be accessed from school computers and must be done in order to gain entry into class the next day.
Photo/Email Assignment – I generally put up a page of interesting photos related to my subject. You can find many that are in the public domain. Recently I chose photos from my last trip to Japan. Students are required to email me (we await Google Voice and the ability to call/text here in Canada) with their favorite photo and why. I learn a bit about them – but most importantly – I now have an email address for them.
Web-Posted Homework – Once in the first 5 or 6 days of class I announce that the homework will be posted on the website ONLY. I ensure that it is already up there by the end of class so students can easily access it from school computers.
Practice Tests/Quizzes – I frequently will post a practice test prior to assessing student’s knowledge. In my area of languages this can be an audio clip, a reading multiple choice test or a straight ‘paper’ quiz. Students know that I do this. To reward those that find it I sometimes use the practice quiz as the real one. I may only do it once a semester, but students learn that practice can make (almost) perfect.
“You have a site?” is one question that I don’t hear from my students. Requiring them to use it in Week 1 means that they know it is there!
Source: Edudemic
Monday 22 April 2013
Happy Earth Day!
Some Classroom Ideas for Earth Day Activities:
- Six Earth Day Activities: Huffington Post author Ted Wells wrote this post in 2009, and it features some great ideas for incorporating Earth Day into the classroom.
- Earth Day Ideas on Pinterest: There are so many great Earth Day Pinterest boards, that’s it’s hard to pick just a few. But here’s a few that feature a bunch of great ideas for teachers: A to Z Teacher Stuff has great ideas for crafts, there’s tons of great ideas on Sara Dye’s “Teaching Earth Day” board, and great pins and resources on Dayna Atkins’ board.
- Earth Day Ideas from Scholastic: There’s a few quick links here for a variety of classroom activities -- from quick science projects to scavenger hunts.
Source: Edutopia
Saturday 20 April 2013
Friday 19 April 2013
Thursday 18 April 2013
Wednesday 17 April 2013
Tuesday 16 April 2013
Formative vs Summative Assessment
photo credit: Ken Whytock via photopin cc |
The
goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to
provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their
teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:
- help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work;
- help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately.
Formative
assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have
low or no point value. Examples of formative
assessments include asking students to
- draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic;
- submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture;
- turn in a research proposal for early feedback.
Summative assessment
The
goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at
the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or
benchmark.
Summative
assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a
high point value. Examples of summative
assessments include:
- a midterm exam;
- a final project;
- a paper;
- a senior recital.
Information
from summative assessments can be used formatively when students or faculty use
it to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.
Monday 15 April 2013
Friday 12 April 2013
A "bad egg"
cartoon credit: Adams from The Telegraph |
In a nod to Easter, this cartoon by Adams from The Telegraph portrays North
Korean leader Kim
Jong-un as a boiled
egg. The title of the cartoon "Bad Egg" is a play on words since
a bad egg is someone who behaves in a bad or dishonest
way.
US military drills in South Korea have prompted a fresh round of threats from North Korea in the past week, with leader Kim Jong-un ordering that the military be on standby to hit the US mainland with missiles. The isolated communist state stepped up its pugnacious rhetoric still further yesterday by warning Seoul that the Korean Peninsula was entering "a state of war".
US military drills in South Korea have prompted a fresh round of threats from North Korea in the past week, with leader Kim Jong-un ordering that the military be on standby to hit the US mainland with missiles. The isolated communist state stepped up its pugnacious rhetoric still further yesterday by warning Seoul that the Korean Peninsula was entering "a state of war".
Source: The English Blog
Thursday 11 April 2013
Wednesday 10 April 2013
Tuesday 9 April 2013
The "Iron Lady" who changed the face of Britain
photo credit: BBC Radio 4 via photopin cc |
She died yesterday, aged 87, after
suffering a stroke. During her life in politics some worshipped her as a
moderniser who transformed the country, others bitterly accused her of
entrenching the divide between the rich and the poor.
The abiding images of her
premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with the
miners' union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above
Trafalgar Square in the riots over a local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.
During her 11 years in power, she
clashed with the European Union, agreed to hand back the colony of Hong Kong to
China, and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine
invaders.
She struck up a close relationship
with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first President
George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev was a man she could do business with.
She opposed sanctions on South
Africa as a means to end apartheid and was a firm supporter of Augusto Pinochet,
the late Chilean dictator.
To those who crossed her she was
blunt to a degree - "the lady's not for turning", she once informed
members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her
policies.
Others who
crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes
often referred to as "handbaggings", named after the glossy black
leather bag she invariably carried.
"THATCHERISM"
photo credit: roberthuffstutter via photopin cc |
With Reagan, she formed a strong
alliance against communism and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down
in 1989 though she worried a unified Germany would dominate Europe.
Gerry Adams, head of the Irish
Republican Army's political wing, said her policies in Northern Ireland, where
thousands died in a struggle over British rule, had done "great hurt"
to people there.
Her reformist - some would say
radical - conservative agenda broke the mould of British politics, changing the
status quo so profoundly that even subsequent Labour governments accepted many
of her policies.
The woman who became known simply as
"Maggie" transferred big chunks of the economy from state hands into
private ownership.
"The problem with socialism is
that eventually you run out of other people's money," she once said.
Her personal credo, founded on
competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a
political philosophy known as "Thatcherism".
But her tough economic medicine put
millions out of work, alienated many and largely destroyed industries such as
mining.
Her combative stance antagonised
allies in Europe and her intolerance of dissent eventually led to her downfall.
"A brilliant tyrant surrounded
by mediocrities," was how former premier Harold Macmillan described her.
"That bloody woman," was the less charitable verdict of Edward Heath,
another prime minister and her predecessor as Conservative Party leader.
At the peak of her powers,
Thatcher's sheer personality made her one of the West's best known figures. A
workaholic, she put in 18-hour days, after which she would relax over a glass
of whisky.
In 1984 an Irish Republican Army
bomb attack on her Brighton hotel nearly killed her entire cabinet. She was
unscathed, but five people died and some close colleagues were badly injured. Next
morning condemning the bombing, she told reporters: "This is a day I was
not meant to see." Within hours of the attack, and on schedule, she gave
the closing address to her party's annual conference, vowing there would be no
weakening in the fight against terrorism.
After 11 years in power, Thatcher
bowed to a revolt and pulled out of a leadership contest with her former
defence minister Michael Heseltine. A new local tax, known as the "poll
tax", which had led to riots, contributed to her downfall.
"I fight on, I fight to
win," she declared during the party leadership vote, but she resigned the
next day.
Thatcher retained enough influence
to ensure Heseltine did not succeed her, advancing the claims of her protege
John Major, who served as prime minister until 1997.
"We are leaving Downing Street
for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy
that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we
came here," Thatcher said with tears in her eyes.
She suffered a series of mild
strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances
and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
Her decline into dementia was
chronicled in the Oscar-winning film "The Iron Lady", with Meryl
Streep. Cast as a bewildered widow, the very lonely Iron Lady was left only
with her memories.
Editing by
Guy Faulconbridge and Giles Elgood
Monday 8 April 2013
Friday 5 April 2013
Thursday 4 April 2013
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Interesting Powerpoint Lectures
Picture a half-full classroom with nearly-comatose students
descending into the slow death that takes place while listening to a lecture
that is as interesting as the buzzing of a mosquito that one cannot find in
order to squash.
It’s no secret that some teachers, even doctorates who
work as college professors, suck when it comes to lecturing. Don’t let that be
you!
So
what can educators do to make their lectures more engaging?
image credits: Deidra Miller |
Tip
|
Do
|
Don’t
|
|
1
|
Watch
sample
|
Watch lectures done by
speakers from whom you want to learn. Here is a lecture that contains
many of the “do’s” listed here. Video by Margie Anne
Bonnett (Marketing professor @ Towson University)
|
Watch lectures done by
speakers who are not well received and then don’t do what they do.
|
2
|
Use
powerful images
|
Use visuals that evoke an
emotional response. Students complain about dry presentations. Poor imagery
is a big reason why. Ensure images are relevant to the slide’s content;
otherwise, they only distract and confuse.
|
Words should not dominate
your slides. This is boring and causes listeners to tune out. Your
voice should contain your words. Your slides should not.
|
3
|
Convey emotion in your voice
|
Passion ignites and an
inspires an audience. Tell a story. Show you care. Let your passion inspire and become contagious.
|
Don’t read in a monotone
voice. In fact don’t read at all. Have talking points and know what you
are saying. Your lecture should sound as though you are talking to
someone not doing choral reading.
|
4
|
Use humor, carefully and
selectively
|
Engaging lectures often
contain a cartoon or two, and an occasional joke breaks down barriers and
prevents clock-watching. Effective humor for a lecture steers clear of
controversial topics and has at least some relevance to the topic. Humor can
also be used to help make key points sink in.
|
Don’t be dry. Be human.
Laugh a little to connect with your audience. When you insert humor you can
connect with audiences in ways that convey that you are speaking to them not
at them.
|
5
|
Remember
your audience
|
Instead of giving a speech,
engage the audience in a conversation. Make sure you make eye contact and
connect with them. Ask them to participate by providing thoughtful questions
for them to consider or respond to. For this to work, you must ask questions that
require people to think, but not so hard as to make them clam up. Watch their reactions.
|
Don’t forget you are
speaking to an audience. Don’t forget to look at them. See how they are
responding. This is about them, not you. Watch to ensure they are connecting
and adjust if they are not.
|
6
|
Prepare
|
You can always tell when a
presenter has practiced: slide transitions are impeccably timed, explanations
are crystal clear, and questions are fielded smoothly, never disrupting the
flow of the lecture. Polished execution captures and sustains interest, and
cannot be accomplished by “winging it.”
|
Don’t read off a piece of
paper. Your audience will zone out and stop listening to what you’re saying,
which means they won’t hear any extra information you include. Instead
practice your presentation and connect with your audience. Rather than
typing out your entire presentation on a piece of paper, practice and let
images, main ideas, and keywords remind you of what you are saying. Engage your audience by sharing the details out
loud.
|
7
|
Watch
yourself on video
|
Watching yourself in action
is a great way to see your strengths and weaknesses. Flaws really are more
glaring to ourselves than to others. It may be painful, but even a few
minutes reviewing your performance on video could save your students from
having to suffer through a lecture.
|
Don’t assume how your
audience will perceive you. Be the audience by watching yourself then adjust
accordingly. When you do keep the tips shared here in mind.
|
8
|
Give
tangible takeaways
|
After listening to your
lecture, your audience should be left with some ideas that they can take away
and use for their own personal success goals, learning, or to engage in
concrete action.
|
Don’t just lecture at people
without providing explicit information to them about what they can do or take
away from your lecture. Your job is not just to impart information, but to
directly inspire and let people know how what you have shared will lead to
their success.
|
9
|
Be a story-teller,
not a presenter
|
Even if you don’t really think your topic is ‘story-like’, find the
story in it. Lectures that work best are funny, revealing, have a start and
end, and simple, pretty design.
|
Don’t just deliver facts.
Connect with your audience. Tell a story. Seem like you are a human, not a
robot.
For example if you’re sharing a strategy, show it in action so your audience
can see or imagine how this has had an impact.
|
10
|
Memorize your talk
|
This is definitely one of the most challenging and fun parts of
lecturing to students. If you forget what you were going to say, freestyle
into something more interesting. Know your topic and practice, but leave some
room for that in-the-moment energy.
|
No one wants a paper-trained
professor. Lose the paper, get to know your material, and speak from the
heart. Remember every time you present you have the chance to excite and
inspire. That doesn’t happen when you are latching onto to a piece of paper.
Don’t hide behind the paper. Know your talk and speak to your audience.
|
Source: Lisa Nielsen @ The Innovative Educator
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