Play is what happens when we accept these limitations, narrow our focus, and, consequently, have fun. Which is also how to live a good life. Manipulating a soccer ball into a goal is no different than treating ordinary circumstances — like grocery shopping, lawn mowing, and making PowerPoints — as sources for meaning and joy….
The secret to VLACS’ success may be that it does things differently from most virtual schools. It puts a focus on building strong student-teacher relationships. It breaks up traditional courses into specific skills and abilities, called “competencies,” that students master through a personalized blend of traditional lesson plans, offline projects and real-world experiences. Source: Inside the…
This is part 3 of 13 Gmail hacks for teachers. This is probably my favorite hack. What if I told you there was a way to only receive school email in your inbox, and all non-school email went into an Outside Email folder? And that you could do this with a 100% success rate? Well,…
I feel like my teachers always emphasized the importance of group work but kind of threw us to the wolves to figure out how to do it, especially when we are all supposed to be equal players with no manager to oversee the final product. Can you recommend any resources for how to do effective,…
Today’s enthusiasm for project-based learning (PBL) fits into the paradigm-shifting category, helpfully emphasizing that we learn best by doing. As a complete educational philosophy or strategy, however, it falls short on many fronts. Source: Project-based learning needs more learning Wow, I don’t think the author understands what Project Based Learning is. I mean, I find very little…
This is part 2 of 13 Gmail hacks for teachers. As we learned yesterday, we want to reduce our cognitive load of dealing with emails by getting them out of the inbox and into a system where we don’t have to remember what we need to do, but can easily find what we need to…
To get that valuable time and space to collaborate with fellow educators—in their city, state, country or across the world—some teachers are taking to online networks and DIY-ing their own face-to-face meet-ups. Through grassroots “unconferences” like Edcamps, online forums like #edchat and informal Facebook groups, teachers are taking professional learning into their own hands. Source: 7 Ways…
Since our students are using technology to play, learn, and communicate while at home and at school, they should be learning how to use that technology responsibly. Full integration of digital citizenship (or DigCit) curriculum into every class and every content area—at every grade level—should be the goal to meet this need. Source: How to…
This is part 1 of 13 Gmail hacks for teachers. There’s a phrase I like to use, “Your inbox is not an organizational tool”. But, how many people do you know that have thousands of emails in their inbox, mingling archived emails with actionable emails? By working toward inbox zero you’ll lessen the cognitive load…
There is a new platform for immersive learning games that’s taking classrooms across the world by storm. Based on the same principles as interactive Escape The Room digital games — which challenge players to use their surroundings to escape a prison-like scenario — Breakout EDU is a collaborative learning experience that enhances critical thinking and…