Episode 65: Five Ways College Teachers Can Improve Their Instruction
…need? 1. Create a Student Avatar ENG: So one of the first things that I talk about in my book is to create a student avatar, because, you know, instructors have to know who they’re teaching, right? We mentioned this before. And I don’t mean just like basic information, like, “Oh, I know that my students want to go into business,” or “My students want to go into journalism.” No. You know, instructors need to know what actually drives their students, what matters to them, right? And so the best way I found is to create a student profile or…
Read More9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face
…Crawford I really enjoyed reading this article. There were so many great suggestions. Socio-emotional health is really important. Your ideas are great regarding student‘s mental health were very helpful. Engaging students in an online environment can be challenging at times. The ideas you suggested encourages student engagement, motivates and encourages student achievement. S.M, I enjoyed reading your blog. You shared several ways online teaching should be different than face-to-face teaching. One of the ways I found informative for teaching online is to build community and digital competency in the first few weeks of school. We can’t expect students to understand…
Read MoreProject Based Learning: Start Here
…main goal is to get student engaged in learning. This keeps all students on track and it is much easier to teach to a group of students who are actively participating in discussions and asking questions. Camryn Tucker Hi Jeb! Do you think that students are not learning as well with PBL because it is harder to manage and be involved in all students learning? I am hesitant with it due to the fact that students are taking control and it is hard to give students (especially elementary) the responsibility of their learning. Camryn Tucker Hi Debbie! Due to the…
Read MoreEverything You Need to Know About Building a Great Screencast Video
…students are following along, there is a good chance they will inevitably check out. Research shows that two simple strategies can increase student engagement with instructional videos: Embedded Questions One of the most important features of in-person lectures or discussions is the check for understanding. It is both an opportunity for teachers to get a temperature check on student learning and a chance for students to identify their own misconceptions. The problem with most checks for understanding is that they only engage a small percentage of students. That is not the case with instructional videos. When you upload your videos…
Read MoreBackward Design: The Basics
…seasons” (MS-ESS1-1). Note the language here: Students are meant to develop a model, then use it to describe these patterns. But in the plan above, students merely copied a model, and they didn’t use it to describe anything; even if the model required some written captioning to explain what was going on, because the model was a copy, it can’t be safely said that students were really the ones describing the system. Then there’s the test. If we assume that a large portion of a student’s grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their…
Read MoreEpisode 262 Transcript
…they can help a school or district like yours achieve at solutiontree.com/cultofpedagogy. Support also comes from Listenwise, providing short, high-quality, age-appropriate podcasts for grades 2-12. Save time with pre-made lessons and build students’ background knowledge and academic vocabulary. Keep students on grade-level with scaffolding and differentiation. Listenwise now offers the Writing Assessor, a new tool that provides instant, actionable feedback to help students become more confident and capable communicators. The Writing Assessor generates English Language Proficiency levels and identifies strengths and growth areas, saving teachers time and giving every student the valuable feedback they need to improve. Start a free…
Read MoreEpisode 271 Transcript
…pseudonyms in there so that they can reference, like, oh, this was when you were talking to Patrick or whatever? LOPEZ: Yeah. So we don’t collect any personally identifiable information about students. So the user, the educator who’s describing the situation, is giving a nickname of sorts to a student. And Ellis is built—we’ve trained Ellis so that if a user accidentally puts a student name in there, Ellis recognizes that and comes back and says, I’ve noticed a student name here, and I’m replacing that with “the student.” GONZALEZ: Also, it sounds like when it gives you replies to…
Read MoreNote-taking: A Research Roundup
…their own notes alone (Kiewra, 1985). If we combine this strategy with student revision, collaboration, and pausing to improve note-taking and learning—in other words, having students pause during an intake session to collaboratively revise their notes, then let them review instructor notes at the end—we can give our students an incredibly powerful learning experience. One concern is that providing notes might make students more passive about taking their own notes during the learning experience. Here are some suggestions for addressing that: Assigning a small grade for student notes would likely compel most students to do them, but this could distort…
Read MoreDeeper Class Discussions with the TQE Method
…student-centered learning in action: Students are in charge of the content of the discussions, and the ability to participate fully has become its own motivator for completing the homework. “The peer pressure of Everyone’s discussing this book—that becomes cool. To have an idea, to have an opinion. So the student comes in, and all of a sudden it’s, “Wait, I read that part, and I think this,” you know? And you want to talk about empowering a student? You just turned that student into a part of the classroom community.” ♦ If you are a fan of the TQE method and you…
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