Free the Teachers! (LOL)

One tip I got when I did my National Board Certification was to make the nbpts.org site my homepage.  The idea was that I would be keeping my goal foremost in my mind.  I think it really worked. 

Now I apply that same idea to other goals:  when I wanted to be better at tracking my money, I made my credit union site my homepage; now my homepage is Edutopia because the Edutopia "vision" is really close to my own vision for school change.  My passion is for freeing teachers to do those things we learn about in our undergrad and grad schools.  Allowing us to TRY the latest and greatest, research based methods.  Allowing us to innovate.

And that's why I keep linking to Edutopia blog posts on school reform.  Like this post on using social media in education. 

Scientific Research Shows Lecturing Doesn't Work

In this article, the author describes the scientific research that physics professors from the University of Maryland, Harvard, and Arizona State conducting, indicating that lecturing only helps about 10% of the students learn physics--and those 10% might get the material even without the professor.  Interestingly, the physicists say that if all we are going to do is lecture, students could get that information just as easily from a computer and we can fire all the teachers!   One teaching method they've begun to use is called "peer instruction" in which students in groups discuss the answer to a question and then eventually discuss with the entire class. It's described better in the article, and is just one way to take teachers from being a "sage on the stage" to being a "guide on the side".  

Are You a 21st Century Teacher?

This was a blog post by Lisa from SimpleK12.  In it she details 21 activities a 21st Century teacher might do with her students.  Here are the first five:

1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype.
2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia.
3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.
4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.
5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.

Check out the article to see the other 16!