From our newsletter: Preparing Kids for Tomorrow • Teaching Visual Literacy • Successful STEM Strategies • Poetry & the Common Core • A Year of Super Tech Posts • Timely Talk = Successful Change • Writing for Special Audiences • Art History Online • Quick Links (free subscription)
Preparing Kids for Tomorrow
In this
MindShift blog post, Duke prof Cathy Davidson talks in depth about the best ways to prepare today's children for the uncertainties of tomorrow. An expert in the brain science of attention, Davidson says up to 65% of the next generation's jobs are "not invented yet," so we must cast aside tech fears "and prepare our school-aged kids with important skills, both in technical ways and other less tangible ways." Davidson suggests 3 things parents and teachers can do to help.
from Stenhouse Publishers
It's essential that we explicitly teach kids how visual information works —how to comprehend it and how to communicate with it. I See What You Mean is a practical guide to incorporating visual literacy—maps, diagrams, tables, graphs, and charts—throughout your curriculum. Preview the entire book online.
Successful STEM Strategies
How can STEM education succeed in America? In this Hechinger Report interview, Professor David Drew focuses on the need to draw more students into STEM -- girls, minority youth, white kids from poor families -- especially as they enter the middle grades and face stumbling blocks like intensified math anxiety. Drew emphasizes the importance of engaged teachers who can spur student excitement. He also debunks several STEM myths.
Poetry & the Common Core
Poet and PD consultant Georgia Heard was skeptical about how the Common Core State Standards would impact the teaching of her favorite E/LA content: poetry. But after reviewing the literacy goals, she's pleasantly surprised -- so much so, in fact, that she's agreed to write a book for Scholastic on poetry and the Common Core. Heard talks about using CCSS with poetry and other genres in this podcast interview at Choice Literacy (transcript provided).
A Year of Super Tech Posts
At Free Technology for Teachers, enjoy Richard Byrne’s 25
most-clicked posts of 2011. Find out why and how to use Edmodo, locate several super search engines for students (like Famhoo, KidRex), learn about web safety resources like
Your Own Space, an ebook for students. There's much more, including hard-to-resist PPt templates for TV-show based vocabulary games, covering most subjects and just about any age
. Timely Talk = Successful Change
Writing in ASCD Express, organizational development coach Harriette Thurber Rasmussen considers the challenge of balancing authority and adaptive leadership. When collaboration is needed to
build support for change, Ramussen recommends “putting the right conversations before the right people at the right time.” Her suggestions for developing those timely conversations can help principals, instructional coaches and other teacher leaders.
Writing for Special Audiences
ESL and other students who need audiences for their writing, says teaching coach Elena Aguilar, might choose to write letters to people who are meaningful in their lives (whether or not they actually deliver them). She describes
an assignment inspired by a girl whose traumatized father was difficult to reach. By reading their letters to each other, her students also learned more about each other's lives. Responding to reader comments, Aguilar explains that such revelatory writing can work when a deep level of trust has developed with students and a school has resources to support those who may find the assignment emotionally difficult.
Art History Online
Professors created smarthistory to offer free art history resources not embedded in heavy tomes with lots of superfluous details. The site provides art overviews reaching back to prehistory, along with helpful links and brief video commentaries on selected works. Kids will likely be drawn to Claes Oldenburg’s 1962 Floor Cake as well as ancient works like the 4600 year old Great Lyre from the “King’s Grave” found in Mesopotamia. Objects can spark discussion for social studies and ELA students as well as in art classes.
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MiddleWeb's Quick Links
Didn't find quite what you need? Here's a quick look at some other resources of interest.
• Can social media and school policies be friends? ASCD challenges assumptions, provides a good infographic on the issue.
• Find out what teacher teams need to succeed in this quick read from the Harvard Education Letter.
• NASA’s GRAIL A and B spacecraft reach the Moon this weekend. Watch for news as the near-twins map the gravity of our nearest neighbor.
• Research shows novelty bolsters learning. And works for teachers as well as students.
• PC users, don’t miss SaveDelete’s 100 tips to speed up your use of Windows, Word, Excel and email.
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