Comments for eSchool News https://www.eschoolnews.com/ Innovations in Educational Transformation Fri, 29 Jul 2016 17:32:18 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Comment on 6 ways to make your blended learning PD more successful by scoefield https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/04/12/6-ways-to-make-your-blended-learning-pd-more-successful/comment-page-1/#comment-244844 Wed, 29 Jun 2016 17:48:56 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179048#comment-244844 Excellent ideas of how to preplan and organize PD changes that are so needed. Thank you.

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Comment on 5 ways to engage students in real coding this summer (hint: it’s not by playing Minecraft) by schory https://www.eschoolnews.com/steam/2016/06/24/5-ways-to-engage-students-in-real-coding-this-summer-hint-its-not-by-playing-minecraft/comment-page-1/#comment-244785 Sun, 26 Jun 2016 13:16:53 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180363#comment-244785 Great article. I agree with every word. Would recommend using CodeMonkey for teaching a real programming language at upper-elementary and middle schools. It teaches text-based coding through a highly intuitive and engaging experience. No prior CS knowledge required from teachers.

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Comment on The 7 questions every new teacher should be able to answer by annemarie https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/13/the-7-questions-every-new-teacher-should-be-able-to-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-244764 Sat, 25 Jun 2016 06:35:32 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180149#comment-244764 A huge mind shift is needed as educators tend to teach the way they were taught. This change in approach should start at the universities.

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Comment on The best BYOD tech tools for the Common Core classroom by harry674 https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/21/the-best-byod-tech-tools-for-the-common-core-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-244685 Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:03:09 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180292#comment-244685 If your learning technology is not device-independent, go back and try harder. HTML5 is device-independent. HTML5 may not support every slick feature for user interfaces, but it does do everything necessary to make good-looking, easy-to-use interfaces.

Regarding the free and freemium ideas, you should also understand the fact that many learning software programs that are not free are very inexpensive, only dollars per child per year. In many schools, this means that you can buy them with the leftover budget dollars that would otherwise not be spent or would be spent on something the school may not ever use.

The tools listed in this article are not learning tools. Rather, they support your curricular goals in other ways. When it comes to learning software, free usually means poor quality or supported by grants that will eventually disappear and change the software from free to fee. For very popular software, it could mean supported by advertising.

You should wish to support really good learning software with a modest fee so that it can be maintained and enhanced to continue to deliver great learning experiences to your students.

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Comment on 20 educational resources for new teachers by mcollins https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/04/14/20-educational-resources-for-new-teachers/comment-page-1/#comment-244678 Tue, 21 Jun 2016 14:14:25 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179043#comment-244678 Need to include some for mathematics. Illustrative Mathematics https://www.illustrativemathematics.org/ has lesson plans, tasks, explanations for teachers, and other useful resources. NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) is another great site https://www.nctm.org/ . There are resources to purchase as well as lessons that are available at no cost. Those are two great places to start.

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Comment on Can you teach students to think more like entrepreneurs? by eweinstein https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/20/can-you-teach-students-to-think-more-like-entrepreneurs/comment-page-1/#comment-244639 Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:44:34 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180262#comment-244639 A report out of the World Economic Forum says that over one-third of the most important workplace skills will change over the next five years, with the Top 3 being Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking and Creativity. Historically, schools have focused on teaching students content knowledge, leaving career skills for on-the-job training. This is not necessarily the wrong approach. Foundation skills such as vocabulary, reading comprehension, math rubrics, and factual knowledge in history, science and social studies are the essential building blocks for complex problem solving and critical thinking. If students do not have the automatic recall of core information, they cannot possibly draw the necessary connections for the top three skills on the WEF’s list. We wrote more extensivley on the this topic on our blog:

http://bit.ly/21MmbbI

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Comment on These 9 apps help every student hit Common Core Standards by vjohnson14 https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/03/these-9-free-apps-help-every-student-hit-common-core-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-244558 Thu, 16 Jun 2016 14:17:57 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180043#comment-244558 Yes these apps are NOT ALL FREE and beware of SMULE Autorap there are monthly fees associated with this app. Please be more diligent in publishing these articles.

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Comment on How to transform your media centers into makerspaces by retrevino https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/09/how-to-transform-your-media-centers-into-makerspaces/comment-page-1/#comment-244503 Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:58:21 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180125#comment-244503 Hi! I am a teacher in a graduate course to receive my MLS and learning so much about a 21st century librarian teacher. My elementary and middle school on the same campus are scheduled for a brand new building in 3 years, and have already heard from architects about a new 21st century school design. Question: Are librarians and computer science teachers becoming “married” for the sake of the students? I never conceived of having a 3D printer or robotics activity in a library. I thought librarians supported reading literacy through technology. Any articles you could recommend would greatly help us on the committee as we give input for what we want our 21st century school to look like.

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Comment on The 7 questions every new teacher should be able to answer by armollin https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/13/the-7-questions-every-new-teacher-should-be-able-to-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-244460 Mon, 13 Jun 2016 15:16:16 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180149#comment-244460 Fantastic information to generate new thinking for teachers to prepare us to think in the present and future. Thanks

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by tahoe2000 https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244452 Sun, 12 Jun 2016 18:06:21 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244452 @mrgerth

I work with Dr. Mike on an algebra project. He made me re-read your posts several times. I have to say I missed quite a few things in your posts. You are right in many aspects… What you said was actually very helpful to our project. Hopefully we can talk more in the future.

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by tahoe2000 https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244439 Fri, 10 Jun 2016 15:35:28 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244439 *** there are many other valuable and profound subjects that accomplish the same purpose of Algebra (namely, critical thinking, reasoning, logic, memorization, challenge, communication, language, etc.) ***

What you said is true, but the issue is that algebra does accomplish much, much more than your list. Parts of algebra can be replaced by other subjects, but then we are missing some unique features that can be provided only by algebra.

Many, many students don’t like ELA and they do fail ELA tests. Should we find something else to replace English?

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Comment on How to transform your media centers into makerspaces by debrabumgarner https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/09/how-to-transform-your-media-centers-into-makerspaces/comment-page-1/#comment-244434 Fri, 10 Jun 2016 12:00:14 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180125#comment-244434 I would love to know about some of the classroom projects that the media specialist and teachers are collaborating on at these centers. I am presently implementing a center like this at my school and would love some ideas on how to use this with classroom curriculum as well.

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by scottatbc https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244430 Thu, 09 Jun 2016 20:01:00 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244430 Mr. Gerth,
I’m with you. I believe there are people who get nothing from taking an Algebra class – even if they are sincerely trying. Like music, effort without aptitude can be exercise in frustration. Looking at this paragraph by the author of the post:

“In Hacker’s defense, I have no doubt that some high school algebra teachers, maybe even a majority of them, spend their time emphasizing arcane definitions and complicated formulas instead of the problem-solving skills, copious applications, and intrinsic beauty that should be at the core of an algebra class.”

I also believe that for those who will be continuing with math beyond algebra, they *must* learn the ‘grammar’ of math that is learned in an algebra class and for those who will not, a separate class focused on problem solving using algebraic concepts (without the grammar) would be beneficial.

I was pretty bad at math, but I’m pretty good with informal logic, simple programming and spreadsheets.

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by mrgerth https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244378 Wed, 08 Jun 2016 16:00:59 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244378 @Tahoe2000

Although you have made a false equivalence, allow me to use your metaphor in my response.

Algebra is indeed an edifying subject – I feel as though I made that quite clear. I also made it clear that there are other profitable and noble things for kids to learn. To use your analogy, algebra isn’t all vegetables, but a single type of vegetable. And if kids don’t like, say, broccoli, but readily eat cauliflower, spinach, or cucumbers, why force them to eat the broccoli? In other words, there are many other valuable and profound subjects that accomplish the same purpose of Algebra (namely, critical thinking, reasoning, logic, memorization, challenge, communication, language, etc.). For some, taking Algebra makes sense. For others, it doesn’t – and they ought to pursue those other subjects which suit them better.

As I hinted, food and education are not equivalent (and with the most popular worldview being one of naturalism, that should be relatively easy to see). Food is necessary for life, and, in fact, one can scarcely go without it for even a two weeks. Education is not so, and there is ample evidence that many peoples, tribes, cultures, etc., do not educate and yet they survive.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not discourage the notion of everyone taking Algebra simply for children’s happiness. This is not about making things easier or more fun. It’s about doing what’s right. Algebra is indeed a fulfilling subject, but if that’s the reason we force kids into taking it, then why don’t we also force them to take swimming, dancing, debate, theology, architecture, and all of the other myriads of profitable subjects? And more to the point of the original post, kids don’t “need” this useful subject. That is false. As I mentioned in my previous post, yes, it is a worthwhile subject that would be helpful to them, but in no way is it “needful” for them. Unless you would like to redefine what the word “need” means.

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by tahoe2000 https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244377 Wed, 08 Jun 2016 14:42:28 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244377 <>

It is wrong to force kids to eat vegetables. They all love fries, so parents should feed their children with fries all day long to make them happy…

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Comment on 5 ways music and tech are adding a little STEAM to our lessons by sue@aeideas.com https://www.eschoolnews.com/steam/2016/06/06/5-ways-music-and-tech-are-putting-a-little-steam-in-our-lessons/comment-page-1/#comment-244365 Tue, 07 Jun 2016 14:34:33 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180028#comment-244365 You’re right that this type of activity should be integrated into instruction to increase learning and engagement. Imagine what might happen if, rather than potentially uninformed use of music, language arts teachers collaborated with the music teacher to include richer use of musical concepts and skills at the same time! For example: What musical effects are metaphors for the main idea, sequence, or details of the information students are asked to remember? Was it a crescendo, or an explosion? What do those sound like, and how do you musically create the effect? When students make these types of decisions during composition, they will remember not only the facts, but the generalizations that allow them to apply the learning going forward, and compare the knowledge to other learning. You’re on the right track, and it can be even more powerful when teachers collaborate!

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Comment on What teachers want in a data dashboard by tubaman56 https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/05/03/what-teachers-want-in-a-data-dashboard/comment-page-1/#comment-244364 Tue, 07 Jun 2016 13:39:42 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179459#comment-244364 BKLSchoolVision…visuals that inform offers a simple interface which drills down into customized grade level and district level interactive dashboards with easy to analyze customized visualizations. Teachers and school staff do not have to change anything they are currently doing since we capture all electronic files existing in the multiple “silos” of school data and bring it together. During PLC meetings, trends and patterns are immediately seen so that teachers can work on targeting and personalizing instruction to improve student achievement on specific standards. Teacher time is too precious to spend time organizing or re-entering data.

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Comment on These 9 apps help every student hit Common Core Standards by Melia.Hellmann https://www.eschoolnews.com/district-management/2016/06/03/these-9-free-apps-help-every-student-hit-common-core-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-244305 Fri, 03 Jun 2016 17:12:21 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=180043#comment-244305 Very misleading title to say they are FREE apps when they are not. Stuff like this makes me not trust your publication.

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Comment on Here’s why students need algebra by mrgerth https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244181 Tue, 31 May 2016 03:47:50 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179799#comment-244181 First of all, I have not read the book in question, “The Math Myth”, so I don’t stand to defend any of the author’s points. However, I believe that his basic premise is right: Forcing kids into Algebra is wrong. I say this as a math teacher who loves algebra.

Let us assume that the purpose of an education is pragmatism – that is, that teachers are teaching students things that they will need and will use in their life. If this is true, then it is not absurd to think that we should be spending the majority of our time giving them useful skills and knowledge to that end.

This, however, is not the case in any Algebra 1 classroom. The vast majority of time is spent on developing skills that culminate in solving equations, graphing equations, and simplifying expressions. These skills are developed by rote and recipe, which is to say, they are not developed at all, but merely memorized. Almost none of this – the content of the class or the procedure in which it is presented – is at all pragmatic.

And thus, if pragmatism is the goal, then Algebra does not meet the standard. Not even close.

Algebra is class similar to grammar – it serves to teach the student the language of math. And while grammar is necessary – since poor writing and communication can be detrimental not only to one’s professional life, but also their personal life – Algebra is not, since only mathematicians speak in Algebra. Perhaps that point will be disputed. If this is the case, I challenge you to determine the statistics of those who solve, graph, or even read equations in their everyday life.

I was very disappointed with your examples. Your list does not in any way provide a convincing argument for why students “need” Algebra. They might “want” it. But they might also want theology, or art, or athletics. To assert that students “need” algebra because they might use it here and there is simply an irresponsible argument. I can see the “need” to add numbers together. I can see the “need” to be able to write. I do not, however, see the “need” to see what the winning percentage of a team will be if they win a certain amount of games.

Does this mean we should abolish Algebra entirely? By no means! However, we need to seriously reconsider how we do it and to whom we teach it to. In many ways, math is like art or music. With some guidance from someone experienced, you must learn yourself through your own work. You have to fail. You have to try again. You have to explore. There’s practice and rote involved along the way, to be sure, but there’s also plenty of adventure along the way. And like art and music, not everyone can (or should) be bothered to go through this process (which, let’s face it, is time-consuming, difficult, and sometimes fruitless). Those that do will be immensely rewarded – not with esoteric skills, but with knowledge, love of learning, curiosity, logic, reasoning, and intuition, just to name a few.

The fact is, if the goal of education is pragmatism (which is the facade that modern education paints – but that’s a debate for another day) then algebra is nearly worthless.

Of course, I would hold that education is not – and frankly, shouldn’t be at all – about pragmatism. It’s about developing and training the mind on how to think, learn, and communicate. It’s about building a foundation with logic and reasoning, and teaching kids truth and virtue. If that’s the case, then Algebra stands as a desirable pillar to explore. But it also means that it needs to be actively explored, and not memorized. And if the student doesn’t desire to explore it? That’s OK too – there are many other noble fields that a student can grow and develop his or her mind on.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts. Looking forward to your response.
Joe

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Comment on State offers laptops as trade-in for school iPads by Tomsmcdonald https://www.eschoolnews.com/comment-page-1/#comment-244161 Sun, 29 May 2016 16:23:23 +0000 http://www.eschoolnews.com/?p=179881#comment-244161 Ipads and laptops simply allow access to information.

Unfortunately in traditional education their use is simply to transfer incumbent, ineffective, inefficient, one size fits all teaching which does nothing to advance deep student learning.

Over and over again the research reflects this and its ignored time and time again

The educationally innovative pedagogy, seamless integrated into software, delivered to individual students over common devices, in an individually facilitated, belended and flipped envirnment is what work

Lets get past the device and focus on the rearch reflecting what advances student success outcomes

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