iWalkthrough™ – Great Schools Partnership

The Great Schools Partnership have developed the iWalkthrough™ tool for use in schools to observe teaching and acquire data for feedback:

“The tool allows administrators or other instructional leaders to make a five to ten minute classroom visit yet dial in on the instruction they witness. During the training process, observers are encouraged to observe in the room then record after they leave so as not to be a distraction to the students or the teacher.

To be effective, the Walk through concept must be done frequently, with observers visiting the classrooms multiple times. Because the device is convenient to carry and the process so time effective, administrators and teacher leaders can do a number of such visits to several different classrooms in the time it would have taken to do one such formal observation previously.

But it is later, after the data has been collected from a multitude of such visits and collapsed by the software that the device shines. The iWalkthrough can generate customized reports that easily sort, compare, and visually display a wealth of data.”

Author: Tom Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 16th April 2008

Full article available here.

Podcasting Basics: Simple Steps for Introducing Podcasting into Your K-8 Class, Part 2

In the first segment in this two-part series, teacher and consultant Brad Pearl explained what kinds of hardware and software you’ll need to introduce podcasting into your classroom. He also shared advice for selecting a first project and getting students involved in the work of recording podcast segments.

In this segment, Pearl explains how to edit and publish the podcasts your class produces. He also offers suggestions for managing a classroom where it seems like every student is going off in a different direction in pursuit of the perfect podcast.

Author: Dian Schaffhauser, T.H.E. Journal, March 2008

Full article available here.

Award-Winning Teacher Utilizes a Wealth of Classroom Technology

In his classroom, Mr. Thompson has been using blogs to communicate class activities to parents and SMARTboard technology to have students create powerpoint presentations. In addition, Mr. Thompson utilizes movie technology for both classroom lessons and student products. This caring and dedicated teacher even provides “Podcasts” on his web page that give verbally recorded instructions for parents on how to help children with their math and reading instruction.

Below we present our interview Mr. Thompson in question and answer format. We have included numerous links to his classroom materials including “The Morning Work Show,” “The Literacy Fastbreak,” and his classroom web page.

Author: Tom Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 27th March 2008

Full article available here.

In the News – Grant Wiggins, Angry Home Schoolers, and Gender Differences

Grant Wiggins, author of Schooling by Design, has brought forth some very interesting points on a couple of topics in a recent post on his Authentic Education Big Ideas site.

First, Wiggins takes a look at the current “Just in Case” philosophy that dominates the American educational system then discusses the more appropriate notion of a “Just in Time” system. However, Wiggins notes that the “Just in Time” concept can only come about through a complete redefining of our current school curriculum. In regards to the “Just in Time” notion, he states, “You learn what you need in order to handle increasingly demanding performance requirements” then adds “we already do this in business, law, medicine, as well as sports and the arts.”

Author: Thomas Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 26th March 2008

Full article available here.

Look! A teacher using stories to teach!

(Washington Post link)I love this story. This teacher, author, etc (see bio) wrote a series of books using guess what – stories – to teach things like history and science. This quote from a county school science coordinator, “teaching science through stories rather than unconnected snippets of formulas and information is gaining popularity” – is kind of a bittersweet, double-edge sword. On the one hand, yea! On the other hand, umm…haven’t we used stories to teach for a lot longer than we have used something like the classroom? This next quote really nails it “”If you talk to any first-rate scientist about a particular development, you will very quickly hear a narrative, because the way good scientists think about developments in their field is in terms of stories.”

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings Blog, 17th March 2008

Full article available here.

CSH Lab Biology Animation Library

Biology Animation Library

The good folks at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory provide a number of helpful and well-designed educational materials on their site, and this Biology Animation Library is a real find. Visitors to the site can view one of a dozen animations offered here, and they can also download them for their own use. The animations include a brief overview of cloning, several on DNA, gel electrophoresis, and polymerase chain reaction. One can imagine that utilizing these animations in a genetics classroom would be quite easy, and students could even use these materials as a way to review basic genetic concepts. The site is rounded out by a section on the left-hand side that contains links to other educational resources created by experts at the Dolan DNA Research Center.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2008 http://scout.wisc.edu/

Author: Ray Schroeder, Educational Technology Blog, 15th March 2008

Kids use latest technology to help one another excel

LINCOLN MIDDLE SCHOOL There’s a video on YouTube that has generated nearly 1,000 views since it was posted last August. It isn’t the latest impressive basketball dunk or footage of pirates versus ninjas, but rather an instruction on adding fractions using different denominators.

The lesson on lowest common denominators is led by “Billy Billy,” a pseudonym for eighth-grade Lincoln Middle School student Aleya Spielman, whose voice in the video guides her fellow classmates how to solve a particular type of problem.

Author: Melody Hanatani, Daily Press Staff Write, 26th February 2008

Full articel available here.

Who should be responsible for Building Schools for the Future?

It ‘s a controversial point but are headteachers the right people to lead on their school’s development under BSF?

The daily life of a headteacher must be a difficult one: reporting requirements, staffing issues, delivery of a plethora of national and local initiatives, sick, missing and ‘problem’ children, maintenance, CPD, Governors, local authority and estates – to name just a few of the problems and challenges faced on a daily basis.  Then someone decides whilst you have to keep this particular plane flying, that you have to start planning and building a new one – with the whole new gamut of changes, disruption and chaos that this will bring.

What’s more, you have to deliver this mammoth project – a process the like of which you’ve never encountered before – to a tight budget with significant time restrictions, and with little time for any real trialling or piloting. Add into the mix the fact that you’re dealing with a range of new external ‘suppliers’ – including architects, designers, developers, contactors and engineers – probably for the first time in your professional career. So, you’ve a lot on your plate and you are about to embark on probably the biggest project of your professional career – you have to retain your profile and that of your school and you need to deliver both a good current school despite the disruption, as well as a brand new building at the end of all of this.

As a head you know too well the shortcomings and issues with the current school, where the quick wins are that would alleviate immediate pressures and which might contribute to the improvement of the environment and the day-to-day activities within the school. With little time to complete the project, there may be some consultation but is it enough?

How can you work to engage stakeholders with a radical, transformative vision of a learning space that will embed the pedagogy and practices of a truly personalised educational future? The answer is: “With great difficulty”. It is accepted knowledge that our developed and internalised ‘habits of the mind’ – that are created through practices and approaches to pragmatic problem solving – can and do limit our ability to be innovative and think of alternative approaches outside of ‘what is known’. If you ask anyone ‘what will the school of the future look like?’, you will get a school to all intents and purposes. And the closer you are to the various machinations and day-to-day workings of the school you are, the more difficult it may be to see things another way – which could result in missed opportunities.

So, with this in mind, are headteachers the right people to lead in the development of visionary educational models of the future when much of their time is focussed on delivering against the needs of today?

Author: Tim Rudd, Flux, 18th February  2008

Doubts over reducing class sizes

Further reductions in primary school class sizes probably would not be good value for money, research suggests.

The study says investing in staff is more important than class size

The study by Professor Dylan Williams of the Institute of Education in London questioned the benefit of lowering class sizes below 30 pupils.

Cutting them to 20 would cost £20,000 per class per year, he says – but would pay off only if pupils were unruly.

Otherwise the money would be more effective invested in closer monitoring of pupils’ progress, says the study.

The introduction of smaller infant class sizes was a key promise of the Labour government – and the Conservative Party has spoken of the value of smaller schools.

Behaviour

But this study challenges the assumption that smaller classes are inherently better – saying that reducing class sizes by a third would not be the best use of resources.

Instead it suggests that investing in a more personalised tracking of pupils’ progress would yield more improvements.

However the study says that small class sizes can be beneficial for infant classes – although this would need a more radical drop in numbers, down to classes of 15 pupils, suggests the study.

It also says that the success of a larger class depends on pupils being well-behaved.

“Smaller classes do confer a benefit if pupils are unruly, because fewer pupils in a class means less disruption,” says the study.

“But as long as pupils are well-behaved, then what you can do with a class of 20 is generally possible with a class of 30.”

Training

The ATL teachers’ union backed the findings that school staff rather than class sizes were the key to raising standards.

“We know cutting the number of pupils in a class only improves learning when there are only 15 or fewer pupils, but putting an extra professional in each classroom could have the same result,” says Martin Johnson, the union’s deputy general secretary.

“Schools have benefited hugely over the last decade from having more classroom based staff, but much more training is needed to make their deployment fully effective.”

In England, the average infant class size is 25.6 pupils – with a legal maximum of 30 pupils.

For primary pupils between ages eight and 11, the average class size is 27.2 pupils.

Author: BBC, 25th February 2008