Technology

Five Keys to Personalizing Deeper Learning

Five Keys to Personalizing Deeper Learning

Presenter linkJames A. Bellanca
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Categories: 21st Century Skills, Instruction, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Student Engagement, Technology

Based on Personalized Deeper Learning

Here’s a scenario to get us started: A colleague, Tom, is shoulder-deep advocating for technology as the best way to personalize learning for every kid. To start, he favors that every student be on a computer. For him, tech makes life easier for teachers.

I feel compelled to challenge Tom’s belief that every kid must have a digital program for every subject, all day, every day, if his teachers are going to personalize learning. (For starters, his declaration eliminates personalized learning for students who have neither a computer nor the internet, and most of those whose classrooms may have limited devices.) Read more

Want to know how students are faring in 2020? Ask them!

Want to Know How Students Are Faring in 2020? Ask Them!

Presenter linkLeigh ColburnPresenter linkLinda Beggs
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Categories: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Technology

Based on The Wraparound Guide

Like virtually everyone, students are facing unprecedented changes and challenges in 2020: distance learning, canceled or altered social interactions, closed schools, altered athletics schedules, disruption of extracurricular activities, changed family dynamics, and perhaps sick—or even lost—loved ones. 

Schools also face rocky terrain as they attempt to resume this fall—whether in person, online, or through a combination of both media. Typical school policies and school improvement plans simply won’t provide the guidance educators need to weather this storm, especially when they also are personally impacted by current events. Read more

Preparing to Teach Online | (PREP) Pandemic Response and Educational Practices

Preparing to Teach Online: Blending What’s New With What You Already Know

Presenter linkCasey Reason
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Categories: Instruction, Pandemic Response and Educational Practices, Technology

This entry is the 13th in a blog series called Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP), which aims to highlight and further the important work educators are doing amid the worldwide COVID-19 crisis.

Based on Creating the Anywhere, Anytime Classroom

“I’ve been teaching for 24 years, and I am now being asked to teach online. I love my job, and when it comes to teaching, I feel like I know what I’m doing. But in this moment, I don’t know where to begin.”

—Gloria, fourth-grade teacher Read more

Planning for Your Youngest Learners in an Unprecedented School Year | Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP)

Planning for Your Youngest Learners in an Unprecedented School Year

Presenter linkBrian K. ButlerPresenter linkDiane KerrPresenter linkJacqueline HellerPresenter linkTracey A. Hulen
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Categories: Pandemic Response and Educational Practices, PLC, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Technology

This entry is the 12th in a blog series called Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP), which aims to highlight and further the important work educators are doing amid the worldwide COVID-19 crisis.

Based on What About Us? The PLC at Work® Process for Grades PreK-2 Teams

Several years ago, Becky DuFour, expressing her passion for our youngest learners, helped us launch an idea that is now being released as our new book, What About Us? The PLC at Work Process for Grades PreK-2 Teams.

We four coauthors, from Mason Crest Elementary—the first DuFour Award–winning national Model PLC school—filled the book with resources, tools, action steps, and examples for early childhood educators striving to meet the needs of all students. With the publication of the book this month, coinciding with the launch of a school year full of uncertainty, we thought a sneak peek into a few chapters, while considering ideas for adapting to a remote learning environment, could add some welcome tools to early educators’ toolkits. Read more

Insufficiency of Google

Dr. Google’s Knowledge is Not Enough!

Presenter linkBrian M. PetePresenter linkRobin J. Fogarty
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Categories: 21st Century Skills, Technology

Based on Literacy Reframed: How a Focus on Decoding, Vocabulary, and Background Knowledge Improves Reading Comprehension

“Dr. Google” is often considered “the background knowledge center” of the classroom, standing ready to accommodate student searches for words, concepts, ideas, and factual information.

This notion is well-deserved, as Dr. Google is the ever-ready battery that charges student work. However, Dr. Google’s knowledge is not enough! New knowledge builds on prior knowledge. The more one knows, the more one can connect one piece of knowledge with another. When prior knowledge is weak or missing, students are working with a huge deficit. Read more