Educational Links of the Day 8/22/14

Growing Closer To Your Most Challenging

Students

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/growing-closer-to-your-most-challenging-students/ 

 As a new school year approaches, the guidance offered by six “pillars” can help you stay at the top of your game by dramatically influencing even your most challenging students to want to behave and achieve. 

Teachers can create and maintain positive relationships with the hard-to-teach kids without being 'all warm and fuzzy.' Actually, being 'all warm and fuzzy' isn't very effective. The protocol to establish limits for students is scientific, and demands scientific application. Teaching, after all, is much more a science than an art.

#6: Instructional Design: Have Conversations with Your Colleagues (Back-to-School Countdown)

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/08/22/6-have-conversations-with-colleagues/ 

An important practice as we’re designing our course is to talk to our colleagues and get their thoughts on how to make our big ideas relevant to students. What do I do because of that conversation? How am I mapping out the learning?

Creating a camaraderie of teaching with your team has effects outside of the school--parents realize there is a unity, students recognize the teachers are hanging together, and, of course, your colleague might just have a valuable insight. 

Getting into the PBL Groove

http://www.edutopia.org//blog/getting-into-the-pbl-groove-andrew-miller?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29 

Building PBL culture is intentional and must start as soon as students walk in the door on the first day of school.

This is the most fun part of school--taking lots of planning, organization and execution, of course-but sharing time and activity with the students is always the most rewarding for a teacher.

Also check these websites for more interesting articles: Edutopia,  TeachHUB,  TeachThought,  MindShift KQED.

Attention Science Teachers: Here’s How Superheroes Work

http://www.edudemic.com/science-superheroes-graphic/ 

 This handy infographic takes a look at some of the science behind superheroes. While (obviously) many of these superpowers aren’t attainable for humans, teaching your students to critically examine and calculate the (potential) science offers a lot of benefit for them. Keep reading to learn more!

I love Edudemic--always so helpful, fun and interesting. Especiall Katie Lepi's articles. Not pretentious or high-falootin'. Here is a great example, using superheros. Kids find the humor, fun, and best of all, the imagination. As a Star Trek fan from teenhood, I know how imagination becomes reality. Still waiting for the transporter pads, though.

How To Choose A Learning Game

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/08/how-to-choose-a-learning-game/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FnHAK+%28MindShift%29 

Many teachers are excited about trying games in the classroom but don’t know where to begin. The landscape of learning games is vast and confusing — and it’s growing and changing rapidly. Moving at the pace of the software industry, games are often updated and iterated so that new versions replace familiar ones before you’ve even had a chance to implement them in your classroom routine. 

I would also suggest that even more important than choosing the right game is budgeting just the right amount of class time for it. Don't forget about recess.

Top ed-tech stories to watch: Online testing looms

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/08/22/online-testing-looms-034/ 

Next spring, new state exams tied to the Common Core standards in reading and math will be given for the first time in more than 40 states—and there are big questions about whether schools and students will be ready.

This is a conundrum. Many districts still don't have the bandwidth or tech for this.

Check out these websites for more interesting articles: Edudemic, eSchoolNews , and  EdTechReview. 

MUST SEE: This Film Could Help You Understand How Some People Experience Autism 

http://www.specialneedsdigest.com/2014/08/must-see-this-film-could-help-you.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FLUdSt+%28Special+Needs+Digest%29 

Autism is a spectrum disorder, encompassing a wide range of conditions, symptoms, and experiences. But this short animation may help you understand, and empathize with, certain specific sensory and perception differences that some people with autism experience.

Empathy in educators. A hard quality to find, what with the budget crunches and pressure of testing. What about those outside the circle of 'making us look good?' This includes all students with handicaps. Empathy Education, not just for students, is needed.

General Learning Disabilities Info

What is and isn’t a learning disability (LD)? LD is more than a “difference” or “difficulty” with learning—it’s a neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to receive, process, store and respond to information.

All adults involved with kids, in the family and in the school, need to be well versed in identifying possible learning disabilities so appropriate referrals can happen.



Teaching Students with Emotional Disturbances: 8 Tips for Teachers

http://nichcy.org/teaching-students-with-e-d 

Do you have a student with an emotional disturbance in your class this year? Or perhaps you have a student whose behavior or demeanor makes you wonder if an emotional disturbance is going undiagnosed? If so, please read on.

This is the toughest assignment, I found. This is a very complicated disability. When you are teaching a student with an emotional disturbance, you really need to collaborate with the experts-the school and district educational psychologist in particular, and keep in close contact with the family. 

Check out these websites for more interesting articles. 

National Center for Learning Disabilities , Special_Ism, Special Needs Digest.

Need Empathy? Watch this movie.