Saturday, August 15, 2020

Educational Links 8/16/2020


Turning around data culture and student learning


Pressure is on to close the digital divide under California governor’s executive order



10 Strategies Designed to Engage Elementary Students Online


Keeping Kids Motivated for Online Learning


How Online Learning Research Can Improve Remote Instruction


Distance Learning: 6 UDL Best Practices for Online Learning


Keeping Students Engaged in Digital Learning


Setting norms, cultivating belonging and making compelling curriculum are still at the core of online teaching. Here are *6 tips* for keeping students engaged in a virtual environment.

Rolling Blackout? At Home Lesson Plans--Special Education Online Learning



Rolling Blackout? At Home Lesson Plans
Here are activities for your student if there is a rolling blackout.
Please document their activity with a simple explanation through text or email, and I can give your students schoolwork credit.

  • Read a book together.
  • Organize a drawer in the kitchen (like cutlery)
  • Go for a walk with family noticing birds, trees and plants
  • Fold laundry
  • Draw and color
  • Play a board game
  • Make a sandwich
  • Count how many pairs of shoes you have
  • Look at a calendar- how many months until your birthday? How many days until Winter vacation?
  • Write a letter on paper to a family member.
These rolling blackouts  should not be too often, here you have a backup plan just in case. 

Thank you, families, you are WONDERFUL!

Friday, August 14, 2020

Educational Links 8/16/2020




50 Ways Google Can Help You Become A Better Teacher


Ed Department Accused Of Diverting Funds From Students With Disabilities


Education Trust Issues Report on Social and Emotional Learning from an Equity Perspective


Federal court clears way for new Title IX K-12 rule, takes effect Friday



Oakland Unified reaches compromise with teacher’s union in distance learning deal



Video Conferencing: Establishing Routines and Structuring Online Time with Students


Keeping Kindergartners Engaged in Distance Learning


Personalizing lessons and giving brain breaks can help young students stay engaged during short synchronous sessions.

Suggestions: How to Direct Students Writing Research Papers

How to Write a Research Paper in 11 Steps



Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing


Teacher Guide for Teaching Research

Students As Authentic Researchers: A New Prescription for the High School Research Assignment


Sample Guideline Research Paper: English 10


Sample Guideline RESEARCH PAPER: English 10


Sample Eleventh Grade Research Writing Student Handbook


Sample MLA Formatted Paper


And here is great input from our friends.


How to Make Writing Research Papers Relevant for Students


8 Reasons Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers


And never forget to encourage your student writers that they are well able to discover information and brilliantly express important ideas in clarity with confidence. Write on!



Thursday, August 13, 2020

Educational Links 8/14/2020


How Online Teaching Should Differ from Face-to-Face Instruction


Adjusting Your Child’s IEP or 504 Plan for Distance Learning



‘If I Could Handle This, I Can Handle Anything’: First-Year Teachers Reflect on the Pandemic


3 ways educational data helped this district improve outcomes


How to Use Google Classroom for Remote Teaching


20 Alternatives To Zoom For Online Teaching

How White Educators Can Approach Antiracist Work


Striving to understand the origins of the concept of race and the effects of implicit biases are good initial steps.

How Learning Happens

How Learning Happens https://www.edutopia.org/how-learning-happens

In this video series, we explore how educators can guide all students, regardless of their developmental starting points, to become productive and engaged learners.

The series features experts Linda Darling-Hammond and Pamela Cantor sharing insights on a range of practices, roughly categorized under five buckets:

* Cultivating a Belonging Mindset
* Fostering Positive Relationships
* Building Academic Confidence
* Developing Foundational Skills
* Establishing Positive Conditions for Learning

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Educational Links 8/13/2020


Lessons Learned From 'Quaranteaching'


Report: Students are not spending enough time writing



What Is the Role of Memorization When Teaching in a Post-Google World


Under the Table and Teaching: 11 Expert Tips for Schooling Kids with ADHD from Home


Unschooling. Homeschooling. Crisis schooling. What is the difference? And what are the best learning strategies for your child with ADHD at this stressful time? Here are tips and strategies from education experts who understand the distinctions and today’s inescapable realities.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Educational Links 8/12/2020


8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions


The hidden benefits of a move to online instruction


The simple intervention that could lift kids out of ‘Covid slide’


Some California districts, teachers struggle to agree on distance learning



5 Reasons Instructional Materials Matter for Equity


More details on what's coming to Meet and Classroom



Using Hand Signals for More Equitable Discussions


See how hand signals can help promote *equitable participation* whether class discussions are taking place online or in-person.


The Sky Is Cheap Entertainment: Meteor Shower! Perseids!


With very fast and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long "wakes" of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth's atmosphere. The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers (50-100 meteors seen per hour) and occur with warm summer nighttime weather, allowing sky watchers to easily view them.


Perseids


Perseid meteor shower 2020: When, where and how to see it



Top tips for watching the Perseids in 2020






Teaching Is...Counseling and Supervision


What to change in a school? I have reflected upon what change would have the greatest impact based just upon my own observations.

Counseling and supervision. More and more effective supervision and counseling. Kids learn better when their minds are focused. Internal and external conditions affect their ability to be successful in school, therefore counseling and supervision.

Counseling usually indicates a counselor working in scheduling classes and sometimes personal
intervention with parents and kids. Of course keep this, adding more opportunities for individual students and groups to interact with trained counselors. Have a variety of topics, a variety of groups. Maybe even a club. A qualified counselor at every school site.

Classes and class activities can  identify and/or aid in relief of tensions and stressors. Activities can give kids confidence and bolster their ability to learn.
One year when I was teaching a Special Day Class for the Severely Handicapped, a group of students from the student government class came once a week for a class period for peer interaction. My students and the gen. ed. student leaders interacted while I ran a very simple self-esteem class. The benefits? The gen ed. kids were exposed to new career choices (SPED teacher, counselor, etc.) and my students gained language and other academic skills, plus great self-confidence and new friends. It was like pouring Miracle-Gro on them.

Here are a few activities I developed to help students relieve stress:

Writing Prompts to Sooth Kids' Toxic Stress
 http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/04/writing-prompts-to-sooth-kids-toxic.html 

Books to Relieve Kids' Toxic Stress
http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/05/mzteachuh-books-to-soothe-kids-toxic_26.html

Here are curriculum sources for self-esteem:
Discovery Education
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/self-esteem.cfm

Writing prompts have therapeutic effects for students, too. The counseling comes in with discussion, either through teacher's written response or carefully guided group discussion. Kids are eloquent when narrating their own feelings and experiences. Teachers are professionals who interact with students at least 35 hours a week--we need to know them and how they are doing. Reading their thoughts in writing will do that. Then it is up to us to interact personally with them. Identify a student's internal stressor a student leads to getting them the help she/he needs.

Here are sources for writing prompts for self-esteem:

Self Esteem & Confidence 52 Journal Prompts for Kids
http://journalbuddies.com/journaling/self-esteem-confidence-journal-prompts-for-kids/

Reflective Journal Writing Prompts


 http://www.self-esteem-health.com/reflective-journal-writing-prompts.html


Supervision-oh my!  By my observation, only one school I taught with in the about a dozen in the past two decades actually followed the principal's directives on supervision consistently. On the playground, at the classroom doors before and after school, during assemblies. It was amazing. It was as though that principal had somehow cornered the teacher market on efficiency and cooperation. As a result, the kids were more secure, cooperative and generally happier. School rules were consistently enforced. The teachers were dependable in their appearances to supervise. At this school, the principal was also present on the campus, even making surprise visits to the classrooms, where he was welcome.


No teachers at any other school I encountered, except for the one above, even consistently enforced supervising passing time between classes. Every year the principal of these schools would announce the importance of teachers being at the door during this time, and in about a week most of the teachers stopped doing it. Why? Because people do what you inspect, not was you expect. The principals had no system to verify if teachers were doing this, except the increase of horseplay, fights  and other misbehavior in the hallways based on referrals. Parents of my students would tell me their child was afraid to go down the fall, to lunch or even to the restroom. 


Supervision, or lack thereof, enhances the student's learning environment or detracts from it. Personally, I believe the leadership in the admin. building needs to step up on this matter.


Just to put a chill down our spines.


FAILURE TO PROPERLY SUPERVISE STUDENTS


CAN LEAD TO EXPENSIVE LITIGATION 



 School Supervision Problem Areas


Monday, August 10, 2020

Educational Links 8/11/2020


The Challenge Of Global Learning In Public Education

How Schools Can Redeploy Teachers in Creative Ways 

During COVID-19


For Some Districts, Tech Was Messy This Spring. Now They’re More Prepared.


The Problem With Rubrics In Learning

Tracking how the coronavirus is impacting school districts


Keeping Kindergartners Engaged in Distance Learning


Personalizing lessons and giving brain breaks can help young students stay engaged during short synchronous sessions.


Teaching Is Reflective

A Mid-Year Reflection for Teachers and Students 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/mid-year-reflection-teachers-students-maurice-elias 

The Reflective Teacher: Taking a Long Look  

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reflective-teacher-taking-long-look-nicholas-provenzano  

Reflecting on Reflection: A Habit of Mind

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reflecting-on-reflection-habit-of-mind-terry-heick  

Reflective Teaching: A 30-Day Blogging Challenge For Teachers

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/    

Are You A Reflective Teacher?


Are You A Reflective Teacher?
http://www.www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflectiveteacher/  
10 Ways To Be A More Reflective Teacher

10 Ways To Be A More Relective Teacher


10 Ways To Be A More Reflective Teacher
  http://w.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teacher-reflective-teaching/ 

7 Great Resources for Reflective Teachers

http://www.edudemic.com/reflective-tips/  

Reflection: What Makes Learning Stick

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/reflection-what-makes-learning-stick/