Teacher and PBL consultant Shelley Wright offers her first draft of a Slow Education manifesto and urges other educators to end the McDonaldization of schools by joining in the effort. “It’s the very philosophy we need to save our education system.”
A “Connected Educators Month” in the United States — the rapid rise of Twitter PD — the coming of age of the Personal Learning Network. No question: It’s been an historic year for connected professionals, including PLP’s extended family of teacher and school leaders. Here’s just one example: the Top 13 Most-Read Posts by our Voices from the Learning Revolution group bloggers for the year just past. Each article listed here scored more than 4,000 pageviews during 2012. Now’s a great time to read (or re-read) them, as you resolve to connect and make a difference in 2013!
Physics teacher Dolores Gende is shifting her teaching to a student-driven learning model by selecting some areas of focus each year. This year it’s assessment. “I see assessment as an ongoing process that informs me and my students and gauges the progression of learning. I partner with my students, and they appreciate not being constrained by fixed deadlines and dead-end quiz scores. They prefer the ample opportunities we create to demonstrate they can accomplish all of our Learning Objectives.”
Embedded technology is not evidence of a transformational shift in teaching practice. It’s possible to embed technology into every aspect of teaching and learning and still have a completely teacher-centered classroom, with the teacher in control of what is learned, how it’s learned, and for the most part, how students show their learning.
To me, authentic literacy learning has two goals: to help students develop a passion for reading and writing, and to help them learn to implement the strategies that adult readers and writers utilize for genuine purposes. I’ve been searching for ways to do this, in a climate of high stakes testing and a commanding curriculum. Involving my kids in virtual book clubs with students in other schools is my latest discovery.
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