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Courtesy of the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). These are quick, free two-pagers. Each one has an introduction, best practices/ideas, supporting research, and some references. Here are three of them (click through for the rest):

Reflective Writing:   This handout addresses different types of reflection writing, such as free-writing responses and journal writing.

Guided Discussion in the Classroom This handout addresses some best practices for leading an entire class through a discussion, so that students contribute more, and talk at a higher level of critical thinking.

How to Use Peer Learning (Group Work): This sheet describes different types of peer learning situations, including instructions for how to create and manage group work.

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Check out the peer learning link.

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The Nerdy Teacher: Quick Hit - Saving Documents from iPad to Dropbox

I wanted to share with everyone a way to save Pages and Keynote files from the iPad to your Dropbox account. Here is a link to the document I shared with my students on Dropbox. http://db.tt/VySWoJ6y Basically, you create a document using Pages or Keynote and email to yourself. You go to your email through Safari and access your email. In the email, open the document and it will take you to a new tab. From the new tab, it will give you different programs you can open the document in. Choose Dropbox and it will let you save the file in an existing folder or you can create a new one. The PDF is a bit more detailed, but it works every time. Give it a try.

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The Problem with Library Spaces

The biggest problem libraries face is proving their usefulness in a digital world. Libraries rely on statistics, such as the numbers of books, computers and patrons, to show their usefulness for the local community and society as a whole. Most large academic and public libraries use a statistic called "gate count" or the number of people who enter the building during given time range.  Typically, the higher the gate count, the more useful the library.  That worked well in the age of print where libraries held the information and librarians acted as gatekeepers. You might say library patrons were held captive by libraries and the libraries were happy.

Then along came the Information Superhighway of the earlier 1990s and libraries began to see their gate count drop as information was released into the ethernet. Libraries responded by physically altering their space to create a "common area" space characterized by food, drink, and noise,  tech help and tutors, and large computer labs full of desktops (Caniano). While this design change worked to increase gate count it also did little to continue the tradition of the library as the place for research and learning. 

Today, as the cost for mobile devices and laptops decreases and more people are able to own their own computers there is less need for libraries to have large labs full of desktops. People can get "everything" online while sipping lattes and eating muffins. And libraries continue to see gate counts decrease.  

But all is not lost for the library. With the overwhelming glut of "information" online there becomes a need for humans (i.e. librarians) to filter, annotate and curate the millions of web pages and websites. Instead of a banks of desktops, wireless access points will become the norm.  With these changes the "common area" design will morph into an "Anthenaeum" where a scholarly atmosphere is fostered and librarians act more as teachers than gatekeepers. Statistics will be hard to gather but, in the end, an information literate patron will prove the worth of libraries.

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Here are two:

Stonebridge Elementary School

Students at this elementary school are taking part in a pilot flipped classroom program for math this fall. Six fifth-grade classrooms will be using at-home video lessons and quizzes at home, bringing their homework into class so that they can get help completing it from the teacher. Teachers at the school are using Moodle to track student progress in the at-home portions, seeing who watched the videos and completed the quizzes and more easily pinpointing those who are struggling. Teachers and administrators at the school decided to give the flipped classroom a try because they believe it will help give above- and below-average students a learning experience that’s more personalized to their needs.

Woodland Park High School

Fans of the flipped classroom largely have this high school to thank for pioneering the practice. Two science teachers, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, came up with the idea to record lessons online for students. At first, the lessons were just for students who couldn’t make it to class, but the teachers soon realized that nearly all of their kids were taking advantage of the videos to review and reinforce their classroom lessons. The two then realized that perhaps they had stumbled onto something great, and created the format we now refer to as flipped learning. Both teachers believe that it’s not the videos alone that make the method effective, but the overall approach flipped classrooms take to learning. Bergmann and Sams feel the setup gives them more time to give individual attention to students and build better, stronger relationships, which can often foster greater motivation. Since they first started flipped teaching, the method has spread like wildfire, and is now used in thousands of schools across the nation.

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From Larry Ferlazzo:

When students focus on tests, they are thinking about what they need to remember to get a good grade, he said. They are not taking the time to think about why they are learning this information, and why it is important in their life.

That’s the conclusion of a study of 5,000 students taking high school health classes. Students in classes where teachers emphasized the importance of learning information because it would be on the tests were less likely to actually develop healthy habits in their lives than those in classes where the teacher concentrated on the relevance of the information.

But let’s not worry about developing life-long learners — the state tests will be coming up in a few months….

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What do you think DLIL?

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DLIL- Read this article. What do you think?

world-shaker:

Facebook certainly has made life interesting over the past few years since its inception. For those of us over 30, we have been faced with the opportunity to see those people from high school that we long forgot about. There was a time when we only had to worry about seeing high school friends every ten years when we attended our high school class reunions, which is why some of us skipped our ten year reunion.

My own high school experience, where I graduated in 1989, was not stellar and many of my classmates that I reconnected with were surprised to see that I am a principal. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I was not known for my academic prowess.

In high school, I was a sub-sophomore because I did not have enough credits to be a sophomore, and I graduated ranked fourth from last in my class. I am better off giving high school students lessons in what not to do instead of advice on how to get through the experience successfully.

However, as a school principal who struggled a great deal in my youth, I also understand that some high school students hate their high school experience and have no idea why they are forced to go there. And, as some of my readers who think that the institution of brick and mortar is so nineteenth century, I know there are parents who believe that high schools have nothing to offer to this generation.

Click through for the rest!

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DLIL class, which of these Twitter apps should we try? I am interested in GroupTweet.

world-shaker:

Some of these may not be too surprising, but it’s a healthy list for anyone interested in doing this sort of thing.

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As a librarian I am extremely lucky to be able to earn a living doing what I love - reading, learning and using technology.  There is much talk in libraryland about the role of librarians and the future of libraries. Is the name librarian accurate? Will printed books continue to exist? What should school libraries look like? How can libraries help people best in the future? So far I have been reading articles in School Library Journal like The Future of the Library, Changing Spaces: Exploring Future User Needs, and Finding the Future.  Stick with me and let's see where we end up in the future.