In a story by Paul Barnwell of TeacherMagazine.org posted on Education Week May 30, 2012, the self-described tech-leaning teacher derided the use of social media technologies like Facebook as having little to no academic value in the classroom. Barnwell wrote:
“I’ve always been open to new technologies in the classroom—in fact, in 2010 I argued that we were doing students a disservice by not incorporating cell phones into instruction. But over the past two years, I’ve seen or read about too many teachers and students who have become enamored with—even addicted to—social media and cell phone applications that fail to offer true pedagogical advantage or promote critical thinking.”
While Barnwell raises important issues, the argument rings hollow when one considers his points have been made for decades every time a new technology emerges. The onus is on the teacher to use these burgeoning technologies as effective classroom tools. Where someone complains that Twitter is killing students’ proficiency in English, a creative teacher is using the social media platform as a 21st-century version of the Chain Story Lesson, in which a student writes one sentence of a story, another student writes the next and so on, until a finished narrative is complete.
Thankfully, Barnwell says he is "a long way from giving up on technology altogether" and is working on infusing Web 2.0 tools into his curriculum.
Barnwell is right to question the technologies, but to abandon them after a single attempt at implementation is a disservice to his students, and to his own professional development.
As EPlybon, a commenter responding to Barnwell's story, explained:
"We encounter teachers every day who use technology because it is cool, rather than making sure it is the tool that will get that particular task done in the most meaningful and efficient way. To translate that into evidence against the use of social media is flawed. I have seen social media, and the concepts surrounding it, used in very meaningful ways which promote higher-level thinking, and I've seen it used as fluff. Making the distinction between the two is important. I will not concur with you that, because some teachers use it wrong, we all should stop using it."
I want to share a new way to go over homework. I use my CPS remote control system and have students punch in their answers to random questions. The class has its homework out~ then students click in their answers~ with the option of revising them as they go along. I quiz them on just a few questions from each page to check understanding--in my opinion you can get a sense if the students "got" the homework without going over every problem. The CPS system then grades the homework~ and I...
I was watching Weekend Today and the topic was~ "Is cursive writing something we should still be teaching in school?When I first starting teaching 6th grade~ back in the days of being self-contained~ I remember planning for 15 minutes of cursive penmanship instruction. The students usually copied a famous quote or a funny tongue twister. Then~ as more and more responsibilities were placed upon the day~ penmanship went on the sidelines. The alphabet~ which was posted~on a bulletin board~ was...
One criticism of education (and there are many :)~ is that schools fail to teach kids about money. If you haven't come across a money system created by fifth-grade teacher~ Rafe Esquith~ you need to read his second book "Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire." There's a lot of good ideas in that book~ but the money system is something I believe should be taught in all classrooms across... the country.
Essentially~ the kids...
I want to share an idea that worked really well for me.
A few weeks ago~ I had the students come to school dressed like a super hero of their own creation. I was dressed like a villian~ black cape~ black mask. I also used a voice scrambler to sound like Darth Vader.
The class then competed against mein a series of challenges that tested math~ vocabulary and science skills. Every time they got an answer right~ they got a point. The same went for me. While the...
I am thinking about trying the following idea:
Set the room up like a maze or gauntlet~ using curtains~ sheets~ etc. My students then have to navigate the maze and pass a series of tests before preceding to the next section. I want to set the tests up so they test students on nationally established standards for gifted students~ like determining their strengths and choosing the learning style that best works for them.
I would have parents help adminster the...
I retired after teaching for 33 years and continue to develop teaching materials(all free) for use in the classroom. I just returned from a trip of a life-time~ a trip to China and~ many pinch me moments-including walking the Great Wall of China. I just posted pictures and captions which you might find of use in your classroom at my website.http://www.gailhennessey.com/index.shtml?chinafolder.html and...
Editor's Note: Today's guest post comes from Dr. Scott Taylor~ an educator from New Jersey.
A Protocol for Developing Meaningful Curricula
The actual process of developing curricula has not been properly defined for educational leaders who aspire to collaboratively engage their teachers in a thoughtful and sincere codification of the programs they are expected to implement in their classrooms. There are plenty of curriculum...
Try a trampoline.
I asked a parent to donate a mini-trampoline to the classroom and began using it to create excitement in my fifth-grade classroom.
Sometimes~ I jump on it for fun~ and when I land~ I have the class yell "boom!"
Other times~ I reward students who get a correct answer by letting them come up and get in some jumps. It is amazing how hard they will work to jump a few times on a trampoline!
Without exception~ visitors...