Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally and is a thought leader in on-line and blended learning.
Most parents believe they are in control when it comes to teaching a child about the use of digital devices. The reality is that children are learning at younger ages about technology, and they are largely unsupervised.
A recent report said 47 percent of kids ages 8 to 12 years old have a smart phone with Internet access. Another study said kids use digital devices more than seven hours a day.
In short, kids are using digital devices with Internet access most of the time after school and when not sleeping.
At the same time, most parents admit their child catches on quickly and seems to learn faster about technology than they did. Thus the challenge: kids learn faster than parents and parents give kids all-day access to powerful mobile computing devices. That combination spells potential trouble.
What Trouble?
Eight- to 12-year-old kids are not typically malicious, but they are curious. Kids innocently get into trouble online without thought of consequence. Young kids need to be protected from others, and from themselves.
Teens are another story. They know the truth and they can be mischievous. Teens are faster learners than their parents and they do know more overall about technology. They were born with it.
Unfortunately, there are teens that apply that advanced knowledge to hiding online behavior from parents.
A study last year revealed that nearly half of parents believe their teens tell them everything they do online, while 70 percent of teens revealed they have ways to avoid parental monitoring. In this fact lies the irony.
Teens trick their parents in the following ways:
53 percent = number of teens that clear their browser history to keep web visits off the record
46 percent = number of teens that close/minimize their browser when a parent walks near (to hide the web site)
34 percent = number of teens that hide or delete instant messages or videos
23 percent = number of teens that lie or omit discussing details with parents about online activity
23 percent = number of teens that use a PC their parents don’t check
21 percent = number of teens that use an Internet-enabled mobile device
20 percent = number of teens that use privacy settings to make web content viewable only by friends
20 percent = number of teens that use private browsing modes or proxy web sites (which are free)
15 percent = number of teens that create a private email address unknown to their parents
9 percent = number of teens that create a duplicate or fake social network profiles and share one of them with parents
Many of these tricks can be prevented or monitored.
Parental Controls
Parents are busy. They need help. Parental control software solutions monitor Internet browsing, for example. That way, a parent can limit the types of web sites visited based with a profile they choose for their child or teen. For example, if you don’t want your teen looking at drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography or lingerie web sites, you can set a profile to block those sites while allowing all others.
For parental controls solutions that monitor and control Internet browsing, go to a third-party review site such as Top Ten Reviews, ZDNet or CNET.
Second, there are Facebook/social network monitoring solutions available now. In fact, Tumblr now has a slight edge over Facebook when it comes to the sites most popular among teens.
Third-party review sites typically publish lists of Facebook monitoring software as well. Those types of solutions let parents view their child’s Facebook page, keep tabs on “friends” and posts and view photos. That type of information can save a digital identity, embarrassment or even tragedy.
Admin Rights
One more commonly overlooked issue: do not give a child “administrator” (or Admin) rights on a computer. To clarify, all computer operating systems have modes of operation. These modes restrict or grant privileges to the user.
For example, if you have Admin rights, you can create, delete or modify files, folders and settings on your computer. A teen with Admin rights doesn’t need to play by the rules to uninstall software programs or to delete critical files.
The computer’s operating system assumes that the Admin is in charge.
Overall, parents should openly discuss the use of technology with their kids. A parent has the right to protect a child (as the parent). In reality, the parent is likely paying for the device, the Internet access, and any mobile phone bill and, therefore, should establish clear rules of conduct.
You would establish rules for the use of the family car, right?
The Flipped Classroom model is gaining momentum in classrooms around the world. Much has been said and written about the benefits and advantages of the Flipped Classroom throughout the year, so during the last three weeks of school I decided to experiment with this model of instruction and I flipped my math classroom. Using Explain Everything on my iPad, I created a series of videos that my students watched prior to coming to school. In the classroom I had the opportunity to take advantage of the extra instructional time, as well as their excitement about sharing the knowledge they gained by watching the videos I created, and tried to engage my students in high order mathematical tasks.
Although the results were highly encouraging and made me a fervent proponent of the Flipped Classroom, there are four things that I think every classroom teacher should know before they start using the Flipped Classroom model.
Some Students Will Take Longer To Adapt Than Others
Teachers should keep in mind that many students will need a week or two to adjust to the new “homework reality” that the Flipped Classroom is based on. In fact, during the first couple of weeks many of the most responsible and hard working students who typically never miss a homework assignment will manage to “forget” to do their homework. Although I suspect in my case, classroom fatigue is partially to be blamed for this phenomenon, after all, we were close to the end of a very long school year, I believe there is a deeper reason for this unwanted occurrence.
Some students might not do their homework because they are used to a more concrete and traditional paper-and-pencil homework assignment, and therefore they might perceive this “new homework” as abstract, irrelevant, and perhaps not as important. Providing access to a laptop and privileges to watch the videos before the beginning of the school day may alleviate some of the problems, but eventually the students will have to understand that in a flipped classroom, completion of the homework assignment is a key component to successful learning.
Teacher-Made Videos Must Be Engaging
Watching teacher-made videos before class is one of the most commonly used components of the Flipped Classroom model. It is widely accepted that the most effective videos are the ones that manage to keep students accountable for their learning. This can be achieved by using a number of clever techniques to attract the students’ attention and captivate their interest in the lesson. For example, at key parts of the lesson/video the teacher might instruct the students to pause the video and answer a question, or take notes, or make a prediction, or work on a short problem that requires students to apply recently learned knowledge. Such techniques make students active participants and empower them to take control of their own learning.
In my short Flipped Classroom trial, I found that the video lessons in which I instructed the students to pause the video and answer specific questions about the nature of the math concept the video explored, led to some unexpectedly rich discussions in the classroom, transforming my students into self-motivated and dedicated learners.
Recording Time Might Be Longer Than You Anticipate
Teachers should know in advance that the time they will be spending to record lectures will be longer than anticipated, at least in the beginning. A ten-minute video will take much more than ten minutes to complete. First, the teacher will have to collect all of the resources and previously prepared material he/she intends to use in the lesson, such as background pictures, maps, or math problems to name a few.
In addition, unless you are proficient in screencasting, chances are that you will need to repeat recording the same lesson several times in order to create the highly effective video you originally had in mind. This can be frustrating and even a deal breaker for some teachers. Most people who flipped their classroom agree that in the beginning, teachers should expect to spend an average of 30 minutes of recording time to create a 10-minute lesson. However, after the first four-five lessons, most people become more comfortable with screencasting and recording times reduced significantly.
Video Formats Should Be Chosen Carefully
Teachers need to make sure in advance that their students will be able to access the videos, and that these videos will be in formats that are playable by most video players. I ran into this problem myself. Using Explain Everything, I saved my videos in .mp4 format. It turns out that some of my students have computers at home that are really old and not equipped with up-to-date video players. Consequently, they were not able to watch the videos I made. Teachers should keep in mind that many students will not have access to the latest and greatest of technology, and therefore they might not be able to access videos created on iPads or lessons recorded using modern software. Saving each lesson in multiple formats might be a solution to this problem. Also, creating a Youtube channel and posting videos on Youtube will make videos more accessible to all students.
What about you? Have you flipped your classroom yet? If yes, what are some obstacles you ran into? Do you have any advice/insight to share?
Nikolaos Chatzopoulos currently teaches 4th grade Math and Science at Plato Academy, in Clearwater, Florida. Nikolaos can be reached at chatzopoulosn[at]platoacademy.net
For the same reasons we encourage our children to be active participants in classroom discussions, parents should take advantage of opportunities to talk with teachers. Learn more about science teaching and learning in your child’s classroom, whether it’s during back-to-school night, teacher conferences, or at another point during the school year.
Science lessons deliver some of the most engaging and exciting activities of your child’s day. Children are inherently curious and high-quality science instruction allows them to channel that energy and wonder into discovering more about the world around them. As they grow older, science learning helps them develop the necessary skills and practices to solve real-world challenges and build important life skills.
The more you know, the more you can support your child’s science learning at home. So what should you know about science education at school? Start with these key questions for your child’s teacher:
How is science taught in your classroom? What methods or activities do you use? Are there sample lessons I can review?
What science topics will my child learn and what skills will he/she master by the end of this year? How does this relate to what my child learned last year and what he or she will learn next year? How does it relate to what my child is learning in math, other subjects, or the world in which we live?
Do you have access to local informal science opportunities? Will there be field trips to local museums or science centers?
Will there be science homework and what will it look like?
What types of questions should I ask my child about science on a day-to-day basis?
What can I do to support my child’s science learning? Are there science projects or activities we can do together at home, or apps, websites, or learning games we could explore?
How does the school support education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects? Is STEM incorporated throughout the day and if so, how? Are there after school STEM clubs, programs, or science and engineering fairs that would support my child’s learning?
How will learning be assessed? Will you use only formal assessments like tests or will children be able to show you what they know through other avenues?
What happens if my child doesn’t achieve the learning goals of a lesson or unit of study? Can he or she get extra help?
What types of science equipment and technology will be used throughout the year?
There are no standard answers to these questions, but a teacher who creates a rich classroom environment for science exploration will be happy to discuss them with you. And while you are having this valuable conversation, look around. These are just some of the signs that the classroom environment supports science learning:
Space and storage: Science requires “stuff.” Whether the shelves are filled with rocks and leaves or hand lenses and measuring instruments, it’s important that teachers have the materials nearby to teach science.
Safety equipment: To explore science in the mode of a scientist, your child will occasionally need eye protection, gloves, soap, and water. There are many experiences that are both simple and safe, but safety criteria must always be in mind.
Whatever the answers are to your questions, a great response to close a conversation would be, “What can I do to help?” Most teachers would be thrilled to know if you have a background in science, technology, engineering, or math, or have time and resources to share.
A strong foundation in STEM will put your child on the road to success in school and beyond.
December 13, 2014 There is no secret recipe to enhance one’s productivity. It all boils down to how much dedication and will power you have and are willing to invest in your work. But sometimes people do have the will power to be productive and achieve more but they just can’t put it down to action. The distractions in their lives are too many to let them work as they want. This is where…
Experts weigh in on how administrators can support teachers in implementing collaboration and creativity
Implementing broad concepts like critical thinking and communication may seem like natural next steps to educators, but unless teachers receive support from school policy and infrastructure, providing students with a true 21st century education may not be so easy.
This was a key topic of discussion during a recent Connected Educator Month webinar, hosted by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) and EdLeader21—a national network of school and district leaders focused on integrating the 4Cs into education.
The 4Cs–communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity–are part of P21’s mission to help educators teach students 21st century skills. Webinar panelists said this task can’t be accomplished without support from school administrators in the way of space design, instructional practices, and school policy.
Dana Strother, chief academic officer at Douglas County School District in Colorado, said her district “looked at Bloom’s Taxonomy and vetted our state’s standards through the taxonomy” during an evaluation of instructional practice.
“Areas that were lacking we improved through what we call ‘World Class Outcomes,’ and instructional design that allows for the 4Cs. We also provided CIA curriculum and instruction alignment and wove authentic learning experiences into the curriculum for support,” she said.
The district also made it a priority to provide supporting infrastructure through district policy on risk-opportunities.
“It’s important to let teachers know, in various ways, but also through policy, that we support risk-taking opportunities, or new strategies, projects, or professional development opportunities that may be new or unique,” she said.
For example, Douglas County lets teachers experience inquiry-based professional development opportunities in order for teachers to learn through the same practices they’re expected to teach students.
“We’re asking teachers to incorporate new kinds of teaching that include the 4Cs, so why should teachers in turn be taught in a different manner? Sometimes by thinking outside of the box and going against traditional methods, especially from an administrator standpoint, the results are better,” Strother said.
Randy Fielding, chairman and founding partner of educational facilities planning and architectural design firm Fielding Nair International, said he believes school design also factors heavily into incorporating the 4Cs into a student’s daily life.
Fielding’s design firm tries to incorporate 20 “learning modalities” into school design, which include concepts, such as Independent Study, Peer Tutoring, Team Collaboration, and One-on-One Learning, to support the 4Cs of instruction.
“To have a truly 21st-century school, you have to inspire organic collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication, and focusing on design can help.”
“To have a truly 21st-century school, you have to inspire organic collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication, and focusing on design can help. For example, you could have a ‘watering hole’ space off hallways where students could casually converse; you could have a ‘cave space’ where students could reflect for independent thinking; and you could have a ‘campfire space’ where everyone gathers to collaborate,” Fielding said.
Panelists emphasized that it’s also important for administrators and teachers to understand that instruction focused on the 4Cs doesn’t just work for certain kinds of subjects, students, or teachers.
“The 4Cs work for every kind of student and teacher in classrooms across the country,” said Donna Harris-Aikens, director of Education Policy and Practice at the National Education Association (NEA). “It’s less a series of requirements and more just authentic learning. For example, a math class could use its English and design skills to help draft a proposal to help senior citizens in their community make their homes more accessible. For this kind of project, you need the 4Cs in STEM, English, and community service.”
Fielding said it’s important that school and district leaders support teachers in working together to develop collaborative projects for their students.
One of the schools his firm works with has a student-run lunch program through which students negotiate with local farmers. They serve the week’s menu selections on carts around the school so students can taste-test their creations. Students in the program generate quarterly reports on profit and loss, and send those reports off to the school board.
“Students get credit for working in this program, which essentially teaches them collaboration skills, analytical skills, and even creative skills, thanks to cooking,” he said.
However, panelists said that there are still barriers for teachers who want to pursue the 4Cs, including getting first-world experience on how to actually teach broad concepts like creativity.
“That’s why we introduced the Creative Innovator Network in our district, which allows teachers to collaborate with not only their peers on different projects, but also local businesses to brainstorm ideas on how students can better serve the community,” said Strother. “We also bring students into the teacher professional development sessions to hear their voice and how they enjoy learning, so that teachers can adapt their instruction.”
“The biggest barrier for teachers is time,” said Harris-Aikens. “Finding time to make everything work effectively and collaborate is hard, especially because planning, or collaborating, time needs to be on a consistent and continual basis. Students also need a large amount of time to work on these projects, and to have time flexibility in case they make mistakes, as well. Administrators need to make sure teachers and students can have that time in their day.”
African American parents are increasingly taking their kids’ education into their own hands—and in many cases, it’s to protect them from institutional racism and stereotyping.
Marvell Robinson was in kindergarten when a classmate reportedly poured an anthill on him at the playground. After that, the gibes reportedly became sharper: “Why are you that color?” one boy taunted at the swing set, leaving Marvell scared and speechless. The slow build of racial bullying would push his mother, Vanessa Robinson, to pull him from his public school and homeschool him instead.
Marvell is one of an estimated 220,000 African American children currently being homeschooled, according to the National Home Education Research Institute. Black families have become one of the fastest-growing demographics in homeschooling, with black students making up an estimated 10 percent of the homeschooling population. (For comparison’s sake, they make up 16 percent of all public-school students nationwide, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.)
And while white homeschooling families traditionally cite religious or moral disagreements with public schools in their decision to pull them out of traditional classroom settings, studies indicate black families are more likely to cite the culture of low expectations for African American students or dissatisfaction with how their children—especially boys—are treated in schools.
Marvell, now 7 and in the second grade, was the only black student in both his kindergarten and first-grade classes, and one of only a few black students in his San Diego elementary school, according to his mother. And Marvell’s Asperger syndrome—a high-functioning form of autism that makes social interaction difficult—only added to the curiosity and cruelty with which his fellow classmates approached him, Robinson added. She was concerned the school wasn’t doing enough about it. “I just thought maybe I could do a better job myself,” she said.
“They said, ‘kids will be kids,’ and the only solution was for Marvell to be monitored—like he had done something wrong,” Robinson said. “In the end, I don’t think that anyone should have to monitor my kid” because of other kids’ behavior.
Robinson allowed Marvell to finish first grade there and began homeschooling him when he started second grade in September. Robinson adjusted her nursing schedule to include 12-hour shifts on the weekends so she could take on educating Marvell during the week. Her husband, a sous chef at a restaurant in downtown San Diego, continues to work full-time and participates in lessons when he can.
And while her primary motivation was giving Marvell individualized attention, Robinson was unable to separate her worries about racial bullying from the decision. “If he hadn’t been bullied I would have really looked into transferring schools, or going back to where I grew up in Kansas,” she said. “At least in Kansas it was more racially diverse. I assumed that’s how the schools would be in San Diego, but I was wrong.”
Robinson likely joins hundreds of other African American parents who’ve decided to homeschool their children because of dissatisfaction with the traditional campuses. Indeed, Joyce Burges at National Black Home Educators has watched her membership grow “exponentially” in the 15 years since the organization was founded, a trend also reflected in Marvell’s home state of California. While Burges’s national conferences in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, used to attract only around 50 people, they now attract upwards of 400, she said—a noteworthy number for the first organization for black homeschoolers in a sea of predominantly white organizations.
Research conducted by Marie-Josée Cérol—known professionally as Ama Mazama—also offers insight into the growing trend. A faculty member in the African American Studies department at Temple University in Philadelphia, Mazama began homeschooling her three children 12 years ago and realized quickly that there was little research on black homeschoolers.
“Whenever there are mentions of African American homeschoolers, it’s assumed that we homeschool for the same reasons as European-American homeschoolers, but this isn’t really the case,” she said. “Because of the unique circumstances of black people in this country, there is really a new story to be told.”
In a 2012 report published in the Journal of Black Studies, Mazama surveyed black homeschooling families from around the country and found that most chose to educate their children at home at least in part to avoid school-related racism. Mazama calls this rationale “racial protectionism” and said it is a response to the inability of schools to meet the needs of black students. “We have all heard that the American education system is not the best and is falling behind in terms of international standards,” she said. “But this is compounded for black children, who are treated as though they are not as intelligent and cannot perform as well, and therefore the standards for them should be lower.”
Mazama said schools also rob black children of the opportunity to learn about their own culture because of a “Euro-centric” world-history curriculum. “Typically, the curriculum begins African American history with slavery and ends it with the Civil Rights Movement,” she said. “You have to listen to yourself simply being talked about as a descendent of slaves, which is not empowering. There is more to African history than that.” Mazama’s studies show that black parents who choose to homeschool often teach a comprehensive view of African history by incorporating more detailed descriptions of ancient African civilizations and accounts of successful African people throughout history. This allows children to “build their sense of racial pride and self esteem,” she said.
Meanwhile, Cheryl Fields-Smith, an associate professor in the department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia, has in her own studies found similar motivations among black homeschoolers. “The schools want little black boys to behave like little white girls, and that’s just never going to happen. They are different,” she said. “I think black families who are in a position to homeschool can use homeschooling to avoid the issues of their children being labeled ‘trouble makers’ and the suggestion that their children need special-education services because they learn and behave differently.”
What it means to be “in a position to homeschool” has long been a question in the homeschooling community. According to Mazama, regardless of race, homeschooling families tend to be wealthier and better educated because they must have the economic ability to have one parent stay home full time. Home education, she added, is “not a middle-class phenomenon.”
However, both Mazama and Fields-Smith say this is beginning to change; barriers that in the past might have left homeschooling out of the question for many working-class families are being lifted. Greater access to public-education resources is making homeschooling more appealing, too. Mazama pointed to the availability of subsidies ensuring homeschooled children have access to standard public-school nutritional offerings, for example, and public programs allowing homeschooled students to enroll in extracurricular activities and after-school sports as reasons why families are increasingly seeing homeschooling as a valid alternative to traditional education. In fact, Fields-Smith is in the process of writing a book on black, single homeschooling mothers because she sees “more and more families of less means” making the decision to sacrifice traditional career paths so that they can pull their children from school.
Rhonda McKnight would be an archetypical candidate for Fields-Smith’s book. As a single mother, she works about 45 hours per week as a contractor for the state of Georgia—often at odd hours and during the weekend—so she can homeschool her 8-year-old son, Micah. “It’s not easy,” McKnight said. “It’s extremely difficult to balance everything.” While a common criticism of homeschooling is a potential lack of socialization for children, Mazama said the growing number of homeschooling groups solves this problem. McKnight for her part joined a homeschooling collective that, in addition to providing Micah time with other children, also helps her manage her workload. The group gathers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to engage in extracurricular and hands-on learning activities that can’t easily be done in the home, giving McKnight some time to herself—and, of course, some time to work.
Micah, who like Marvell is autistic, didn’t learn well in a classroom with 25 students. McKnight also felt as though his teacher was misinterpreting the symptoms of his disability as behavioral problems and accusing him of “behavior that was not typical to him.” “I don’t know how racially motivated it was at the time,” McKnight said. “But even black teachers are taught certain things they are not even aware of. Our culture tends towards labeling our boys.”
The poor education, according to McKnight, left Micah significantly behind in several subjects, which means she’s now trying to pack as much into his schedule as possible to get him back on track. “He doesn’t really get a day off—not right now, because he’s just behind. I feel like he doesn’t really have time to relax,” McKnight said, explaining she wasn’t aware just how behind he was until she started to homeschool him. Most devastating, she said, was when she realized her son was reading well below his expected third-grade level: “I felt like I had totally failed him, and the school had totally failed him, and the only thing I could do was work with him one-on-one to get him caught up.”
To get Micah up to par in his academics, McKnight has employed a customized mix of purchased homeschool lesson plans and learning materials she developed herself—all on top of what he learns at the collective. When Micah is home, McKnight said her days are “totally dedicated to him.” They work for at least an hour on each of the core subjects, studying within the grade level that best suits him in each area. On days he returns from the collective, McKnight reads with him for two or three hours with the goal of getting him to a third-grade level by the end of the year. Lessons even continue on Saturdays and Sundays. He’s at his father’s place every other weekend, where he continues his reading schedule, and on the weekends that he’s home McKnight takes him on educational field trips—Atlanta’s many museums are frequent destinations.
It’s this ability to shape everyday activities and lessons to meet the personal needs of each child that Fields-Smith finds so promising about homeschooling—especially for black families. “There is no one way to homeschool,” she said, noting all of the families that she consulted for her study were “catering to their children and customizing their education for them” instead of using a single stock homeschooling curriculum.
Still, Mazama and Fields-Smith acknowledge that homeschooling is controversial, particularly in the black community. “For African Americans there is a sense of betrayal when you leave public schools in particular,” Mazama said. “Because the struggle to get into those schools was so harsh and so long, there is this sense of loyalty to the public schools. People say, ‘We fought to get into these schools, and now you are just going to leave?’”
For Paula Penn-Nabrit, an African American scholar and writer who homeschooled her children in the 1990s, this struggle hits very close to home. Her husband’s uncle, James Nabrit, argued Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court alongside Thurgood Marshall; he later served as the president of Howard University. When Penn-Nabrit decided to pull her three sons from public school, it angered many of her black friends. “A lot of people felt that because my family was intimately involved in the effort to integrate schools, that for me to pull my children out of schools was a betrayal of all that work,” she said. “But it really wasn’t. The case had nothing to do with what I, as a parent, decide I want for my child. That decision meant the state can’t decide to give me less than, but I can decide I want more than.”
In 2003, Penn-Nabrit published a book, Morning by Morning: How We Home-Schooled Our African-American Sons to the Ivy League, in an effort to help others repeat her successes with homeschooling. Her older twin sons, Damon and Charles, both attended Princeton, and her youngest son, Evan, went to Amherst College and then to the University of Pennsylvania.* The book, according to Penn-Nabrit, received “a lot of open hostility”—with several people accusing her of racism—because it detailed accounts of the discrimination her sons allegedly faced in public school and emphasized an Afrocentric approach to education.
Upon deciding to homeschool their sons, Penn-Nabrit and her husband, both of whom have degrees in the humanities, elected to teach them the subject areas they knew well.** For the remaining science and math courses, however, they hired black, mostly male, graduate students from the Ohio State University to take over—in large part so that the boys had exposure to successful people who looked like them.*** After all, according to the Department of Education, less than 2 percent of current classroom teachers nationwide are African American males; until their homeschooling, Penn-Nabrit’s children had never had a black man as a teacher.
“Most black people go to school and never have a teacher that looks like them, and this is particularly true for black boys,” she said. Similar concerns, she noted, led to the creation of single-sex schools—a particularly apt comparison for Penn-Nabrit, who attended Wellesley. “If women benefit from having a period of isolation from the larger group, that could be applicable to black boys as well.”
Mazama, meanwhile, said that rooting children in their heritage in an educational setting allows them to do better emotionally and socially. “If anything, homeschooled black children would be much stronger because they would not have been devastated at an early age by racism,” she said. She explained that the absence of these early destructive experiences, combined with a heritage-focused curriculum, ultimately allows children to recognize and deal constructively with racism—”not by denying it, but by confronting it because they are comfortable with who they are.”
“That’s the way I teach my own children,” she continued. “I have seen this work.”
Back in San Diego, Vanessa Robinson has also seen it work. Now that she’s been homeschooling Marvell for five months, she notices that he is better adjusted and has moved farther along academically than he did in public school.
“He’s a completely different person,” she said, reporting that his confidence is higher compared to where it was in public school, allowing him to make friends in his neighborhood and learn more quickly. Robinson said that, while she bought a set of lesson plans with a suggested timeline, Marvell now moves so quickly that she has to add lessons together from an array of instructional programs just to keep up. And when he finds something he loves, she lets him dive deep. “Right now, Marvell says he wants to work for NASA, so we’re really focusing on getting in depth into science and space,” she said. His new interest is a thrilling prospect for Robinson, a registered nurse with a background in science.
“I just want my son to be a free thinker and to question everything,” she said. “I wish that when I was growing up, I could have done that.”
* This post previously stated that both of Paula Penn-Nabrit’s sons graduated from Princeton with honors. We regret the error.
** This post previously stated that Penn-Nabrit’s husband had an advanced degree in the humanities. We regret the error.
*** This post previously stated that the graduate students Penn-Nabrit hired to instruct her sons attended the University of Ohio. We regret the error.
December 17, 2014 Procrastination is one of the social evils that has always accompanied us since the dawn of time.Some people crave procrastination and think they can do better when they delay tasks that require immediate attention. Others procrastinate because they lack motivation or interest to keep them focused and on task, some procrastinate because they think they have a ‘skill deficit’…
When students engage in quality projects, they develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions that serve them in the moment and in the long term. Unfortunately, not all projects live up to their potential. Sometimes the problem lies in the design process. It’s easy to jump directly into planning the activities students will engage in without addressing important elements that will affect the overall quality of the project.
With more intentional planning, we can design projects that get at the universal themes that have explicit value to our students and to others. We can design projects to be rigorous, so students’ actions mirror the efforts of accomplished adults. They will feel the burn as they learn and build up their fitness for learning challenges to come.
There are several ways to start designing projects. One is to select among learning objectives described in the curriculum and textbooks that guide your teaching and to plan learning experiences based on these. Another is to “back in” to the standards, starting with a compelling idea and then mapping it to objectives to ensure there is a fit with what students are expected to learn. The second method can be more generative, as any overarching and enduring concept is likely to support underlying objectives in the core subject matter and in associated disciplines, too. Either way you begin, the first step is to identify a project-worthy idea.
We have condensed the project design process into six steps. After outlining the steps briefly below, we offer examples that show how one might use these steps to develop a germ of an idea into a project plan that emphasizes inquiry. Read the steps and examples all the way through before digging in to your own plan.
Step 1—Identify Project-worthy Concepts
Ask yourself: What important and enduring concepts are fundamental to the subjects I teach? Identify four or five BIG concepts for each subject.
Step 2—Explore Their Significance and Relevance
Now, think: Why do these topics or concepts matter? What should students remember about this topic in 5 years? For a lifetime? Think beyond school and ask: In what ways are they important and enduring? What is their relevance in different people’s lives? In different parts of the world? Explore each concept, rejecting and adding ideas until you arrive at a short list of meaningful topics.
Step 3—Find Real-Life Contexts
Look back to three or four concepts you explored and think about real-life contexts. Who engages in these topics? Who are the people for whom these topics are central to their work? See if you can list five to seven professions for each concept.
With that done, now think: What are the interdisciplinary connections? In what ways might the topic extend beyond my subject matter? For example, if your subject specialty was math and you imagined an entrepreneur taking a product to market, the central work might involve investment, expense, and profit analyses. The project might also involve supply chains and transportation (geography), writing a prospectus for a venture capitalist (language arts), and designing a marketing campaign (language arts, graphic design, technology).
Step 4—Engage Critical Thinking
As you begin to imagine these topics in the context of a project, ask yourself, what might you ask of students? How might you push past rote learning into investigation, analysis, and synthesis? Consider how you can engage critical thinking in a project by asking students to:
Compare and contrast
Predict
Make a well-founded judgment or informed decision
Understand causal relationships (cause and effect)
Determine how parts relate to the whole (systems)
Identify patterns or trends
Examine perspectives and alternate points of view
Extrapolate to create something new
Evaluate reliability of sources
Step 5—Write a Project Sketch
Now, step back and write a project sketch—or two or three. For each, give an overview of the project. Describe the scenario and the activities students are likely to engage in. Anyone reading it should be able to tell what students will learn by doing the project. The process of writing will help you refine your ideas. There are dozens of project sketches in this book (and all are included in the Project Library in the Appendix). Use them as a guide.
Step 6—Plan the Setup
Three small but useful elements are left, and together with the project sketch, they provide a framework for the project. Write a title, entry event, and driving question for your project.
Project title.A good title goes a long way toward anchoring the project in the minds of your school community. A short and memorable title is best.
Teachers at Birkdale School in New Zealand take their projects seriously. They not only provide them with proper names but also fly a special flag in the school’s entry when a new project begins. You might not need to go this far, but a good title conveys a sense of importance and helps make a project memorable. Let these project titles inspire you.
Lest We Forget—A project involving war memorials in New Zealand
Mingling at the Renaissance Ball—A social studies investigation that culminates in a celebration of human achievement
Lessons from the Gulf—A collection of collaborative projects by schools concerned about U.S. Gulf Coast devastation
AD 1095 and All That—Time-traveling students intervene to stop religious wars in medieval Europe.
Risk and Reward—Students acting as financial counselors present stock information to clients and advise on investments.
Stay or Leave?—Students examine economic factors that influence people’s decisions about where they live.
YouVille—Students explore past civilizations to design their own utopias.
Entry event.Plan to start off the project with a “grabber,” a mysterious letter, jarring “news,” a provocative video, or other attention-getting event. As we discussed in Chapter 4, make sure it is novel (to make students alert) and has emotional significance (to make them care). Read these examples and imagine how your students might respond. Then plan an entry event for your project.
A newspaper article describes hazards associated with a clinic’s use of poorly refurbished X-ray machines.
Distraught warrior king Gilgamesh appears in class and appeals to his “subjects” to help him learn why an enemy’s technological prowess in battle outstrips his own.
A process server slaps student “witnesses” with subpoenas, compelling them to testify in an upcoming trial.
A letter from an elder describes her desire to capture stories before she and other storytellers are no more.
A television news story on “designer” babies kicks off an investigation about the ethical implications of genetic manipulation.
A forest owlet from a wildlife rescue center visits school bringing Owl Mail and asks students to investigate hazards to its survival.
Driving question.Kick off your project with a research question students will feel compelled to investigate. Imagine a driving question that leads to more questions, which, in their answering, contribute to greater understanding. Good questions grab student interest (they are provocative, intriguing, or urgent), are open ended (you can’t Google your way to an answer), and connect to key learning goals.
Consider how to write a good question based on these “remodeled” examples (Larmer, 2009):
What are archetypes in literature? à To increase relevance, you might ask à How do archetypes inform our culture today?
What causes tornadoes? à To add context, you might ask à How can we prepare for a natural disaster in our region?
What are the requirements to sustain life? à To add interest, you might ask àHow can we design a biome that is self-sustaining?
How can we purify water? à To increase challenge, you might ask à How can we advise a village in the developing world to choose an inexpensive water purification system?
One Last Step
Workshop your project idea, especially at steps 5 and 6. Colleagues, students, parents, and subject matter experts will ask questions that will clarify your thinking and contribute ideas you might not have considered.
It seems like everywhere you look these days, a hot technology topic when it comes to kids is MINECRAFT. Considering all the gaming apps that are out there, it can be hard for parents to navigate the good from the bad and even harder to understand how best to monitor and manage their kids usage of them.
Okay, so here are the main points you want to know:
What is it:
Minecraft is a gaming app, available for all types of mobile phones and tablets as well as gaming systems like the Xbox and playstation and even for your PC. The most common version of the game for younger children to play is the Pocket Edition, which is available for android and iPhone as well as the iPad. The majority of this post will be specific to this version of Minecraft.
The easiest way to describe the game is virtual legos, but that is definitely an oversimplification. The graphics and even some of the basic functions of the game will at first appear poorly made or terribly outdated, like some kind of strange old school video game. However, once you watch your kids in action on the game and see all the ways they use their creativity to construct buildings and interact with their environment, you’re likely to recognize the genius of this game’s simplicity. In many ways, it’s almost a blank canvas without the typical rules and boundaries of a highly designed game. This sense of freedom seems to be a big part of the game’s appeal to kids.
How is it Played:
There are two modes of the game available: Creative and Survival
Creative: This is where all children should start to get a feel for the game and is probably the better option for younger children, end of story. In this mode, players all become the generic character “Steve”(they can add their own name if they prefer, but everyone looks the same) and they are deposited into a minecraft world that basically looks like a typical landscape, with grass, hills, trees,sky, and some lakes or ponds. There is also the occasional farm animal such as a sheep. Players are able to select from a large variety of materials to build any structure they can dream up. They can make houses of stone or glass that can be on the ground or in the air with gardens and trap doors. Again, it sounds pretty straightforward, but I was amazed when I saw how elaborate and unique my kids projects were.
Survival: Alright, so for those who have at least a little familiarity with Minecraft, you’re probably wondering about the zombies and the creepers you’ve heard about. Those appear in this version of the game. Again, due to the rudimentary graphics, these are not super scary and there is no real blood or gore. Survivor mode is just like it sounds. In this version of the game you don’t have unlimited access to all the building materials and other resources that are available like you do in the creative version. You actually have to go out and find them. You start the game during “daytime” and have a limited amount of time to find what you need to stay alive and build some kind of dwelling to keep you safe. Once night falls, all the more sinister elements of the game come out and you have to fight to survive. Again, I know this sounds a little bit scary, but we’ve allowed our five year old to play this version of the game and she loves it. No nightmares, no fear, nothing! Why, because it’s too much fun, and its challenging. Players in survivor mode have to be clever and strategize to survive. Also, while you can “die” you basically are just recycled right back into the game again.
In either mode, there is no “winning” and no end goal. It is open ended and just an endless invitation to think bigger and better and create more.
Multi-Player:
The aspect of the game that most kids really enjoy is the fact that they can “connect” with others and play together. Now, by “connect” I don’t mean to the internet where any crazy can hop in their Minecraft world with them. The primary way to “connect” is on a shared network, most commonly your home network. If you have your network set up properly, it will be password protected, so no outsiders can access it (if you don’t ….that post is coming). For older and more advanced players, there are ways to connect to other outside Minecraft servers, but this is not something built into the game. Unlike many other gaming apps, Minecraft does not automatically connect to the internet or require the internet to run.
We encourage parents to take advantage of the multi-player part of the game and actually play WITH their children so they understand how the basics of the game work. This will also enable you to try out the “survivor” mode and decide if or when your child might be ready for this next step. My husband and I have both played with our kids. My husband is Minecraft rockstar and he enjoys it so much I often have more trouble getting him off the game than the kids. I confess, I’ve struggled with it a bit, but even I’ve managed to pull together a fairly impressive glass house in the sky decorated with artwork and boasting it’s very own sunflower garden. I even have had various pet sheep. My kids LOVE when I play with them, even if its only for ten minutes and they also really enjoy playing together. (yes, my kids enjoy playing together, this is a shocking side effect of this game).
Minecraft Pros:
Minecraft is not just some mindless activity, nor is it like any other gaming app. Whether in creative or survivor mode, players are required to think and create and strategize. There is a need for spatial understanding (geometry) and design. Plus, as mentioned, many children find the fun of the game enhanced by playing with multiple people. Doing this requires collaboration and communication.
Minecraft can also be expanded with “secret” elements or the introduction of “mods” (modifications) that enable new features. Kids can find much of this on YouTube, but again you want to make sure you have the parental controls enabled (you can watch a video about it HERE) The other major source of this type of Minecraft info is the Official Minecraft Wiki. Researching and discovering the game enhancements, presents another new and engaging level of the game for kids and presents another opportunity for teamwork as they will often share and teach each other what they’ve learned.
Minecraft has been so successful in teaching kids some fundamental learning concepts that it is even being used in schools as an educational tool. It has also spawned a number of options that introduce kids to the basics of computer programming. These include online courses as well as something called “LearntoMod”, which will be introduced in October 2014. These are add-ons to the game, which allow players to use code to design their own customization for the game (new tools, animals, or even creepers). For more info Click HERE.
Minecraft is a teensy weensy bit additctive, especially since there is no “official” end. However, as long as you set time limits and clearly communicate those limits to your children, then you shouldn’t have problems when it comes time to leave “Steve” behind until next time. However, like most activities that kids get absorbed it, a smooth transition is best facilitated with a five minute warning before it’s time to wrap things up.
If you truly find that it becomes a struggle to get your kids off the game (or any technology for that matter), it may be time for a technology break. You can simply tell them, “It seems that you are having a hard time using technology in a healthy way right now. Technology is fun, but it can’t be something we do all the time. Let’s take a break and in a week (or whatever time frame you set), we can try again.”
How Much Does it Cost:
Pocket Edition for Android and iOS $6.99
(This is the only cost, there are NO in-app purchases)
Xbox 360 $19.99
Playstation $19.99
You can even play it on your desktop PC – $26.95
You can find links to purchase any of these versions HERE.
This is a 3D solar system simulation application, which gives you the approximate location of the planets in the solar system at different time, and some information about each one of them.
Anatomy 3D provides you with a bunch of interactive tools to use to dissect, explore and learn about the human body in 3D. The tool is also available for Android and iOS users. 3- Anatomy Games
This extension offers users a variety of anatomy games and atlases to help them learn about human anatomy
Planetarium is a beautiful interactive sky map that students can use to explore the stars and learn about planets. The tool shows over 1500 stars with a magnitude of up to “+5”.
This is a periodic table of the elements that has all the elements and most of their respective properties collected and stored in one easy to use and simple to find location. Contained within this periodic table is a unit converter that will convert some of the scientific dimensions. Also, containing links to wikipedia for further literature on that element that you wish to know. Great for students because of the elements quiz contained within.
Learn all of the major bones in the human body using three different modes: Learn, Game and Quiz. The app covers all of the major bones in the body from the phalanges to the femurs. Carefully selected graphics make the features easy to identify.
