Dr. Katie Davis's session today at the Learning and the Brain Conference shared some of the findings and highlights from a book she wrote with Howard Gardner, The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy and Imagination. Because I misread the schedule, I showed up a bit late to the session, so my notes focus on the … Continue reading The App Generation
Tag: students
Sites and Apps Students Are Using
As a teacher, one of my goals for this year is to know my students better. I'm not a big fan of get to know you sorts of games, but I hoped that an interesting question might create some space for learning more about my students. To that end, I asked students in my high … Continue reading Sites and Apps Students Are Using
Students Engage Each Other
As part of their cumulative project, students in my Upper School (all 11th graders this year) US History class are responsible for researching the development of a particular area of US History and then teaching a class period on the topic. This year I've been impressed by the way students who are teaching have gotten … Continue reading Students Engage Each Other
Writing for Publication with Students
Independent School magazine has just posted an article I wrote with two students in last year's blended learning US history class as a Fall 2011 online feature. It's entitled "Learning Differently- and Deeply: Reflections on a Blended Learning Class". Writing an article with students for publication was a challenging and rewarding process. We tried several … Continue reading Writing for Publication with Students
To This Effect
Jon Becker recently wrote about his frustration with educators who promote the value of online chats, conferences, edcamps, etc. without providing evidence of improved experiences for students. In essence, he seems to be asking for the proof that these experiences are worth educators' time. I posted the following comment on the post... I appreciate the … Continue reading To This Effect
Role Reversal
On Monday, I'm doing one of the Ignite-style (20 slides in 5 minutes) presentations for the NCAIS 21st Century Teacher Academy. I thought about doing the presentation on Socratic Seminars I've used before, but I decided to put together a new presentation based on some of the things I talked about at the New Literacies … Continue reading Role Reversal
Inviting Students to Work Alongside Us
When I was an undergraduate, one of my professors invited a law student and I to be co-authors of some entries he was writing for the Dictionary of American History. I'm sure he easily could have cranked out the entries himself, probably requiring less time than meeting with us to draft them did. However, I suspect … Continue reading Inviting Students to Work Alongside Us
When They Don’t Care (About What You Care About)
My high school students are working on their final projects examining a shift in US history. They're digging into primary and secondary sources, creating timelines, drafting papers, conducting interviews, and planning learning experiences for the whole class. They choose a wide range of areas of focus for their projects, and I've seen many of them come … Continue reading When They Don’t Care (About What You Care About)
Death By Lecture
Before my Upper School History class met for the first time, I asked them to complete a quick info form, so I could get a better sense of them as students. I wordled the responses to a couple of the questions. EDIT: I want to note that the sample size for this was 11, and … Continue reading Death By Lecture
Museum Day Preparation
Sixth grade students are busily preparing in World Cultures and Language Arts classes for the Museum of World Cultures next week. I love that students are exploring new tools and making good use of old ones! This has been a fantastic activity for the last days of class. Students have been more focused and engaged … Continue reading Museum Day Preparation
In For Good 