Posts Tagged ‘personalized’

More reasons to differentiate the way we teach students

Once again, we are shocked (stunned, rocked, blindsided, disoriented…) by the news that our utterly outdated educational system is at best delivering average results compared to other nations. The results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reported in The New York Times this week were summarized succinctly by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
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Personalized physical ed class

by Fred Strong, Dean of Faculty, Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences High school PE class. Maybe you liked it, maybe you dreaded it. Did you have “lines” and “squads”? Even if the teaching methods in your class were more enlightened than back in my day, the drills and games probably showed who could or
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Just go to school for social reasons?

What if the main reason to go to school disappears? Imagine a time a few years in the future, when individualized e-learning is readily available. You can study any subject, using materials and pacing that perfectly fits not only the way you learn best, but also your goals and schedule. When you need help from
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Danger! Is your school an “Assembly Line” school?

This morning I played tennis with a friend of mine in his seventies, and we observed that the way many classrooms function hasn’t changed much since he was a student. In the meantime, the way we generate, sort, analyze, distribute and share information has changed dramatically. Likewise, the tools we possess to communicate with each
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Customized paths to learning

I adapted this framework from the book Disrupting Class and from Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory. My goal is not to propose the ‘right’ way, but rather to demonstrate that even with a few variables you end up with many different customized lesson plans (in this case, 8 x 3 x 3 = 72).
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Getting personal with technology

How a South Carolina elementary school has used computers to engage students in a learning process calibrated to their individual needs and abilities. Read story or go directly to resources/downloads from Forest Lake Elementary School.
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No more cookie-cutter teaching!

Nothing frustrates me more than lazy, old-fashioned cookie-cutter teaching. I’m talking about teachers who stand up and lecture, who have one strategy and one strategy only for getting students to learn, and who care more about doing things their way than helping kids learn. I’m also talking about administrators and school boards that tolerate –
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