The Teaching Factory

Hello everyone I hope you enjoy reading this :) On July 15, 1982, Don Bennett, a Seattle businessman, became the first amputee ever to climb Mount Rainier (reported in Kouzes and Posner 1987). He climbed 14,410 feet on one leg and two crutches. It took him five days. When asked to state the most important lesson he learned from doing the climb, Bennett said without hesitation, “You can't do it alone.” The lesson learned by Bennett is one that we should all take to heart. If classrooms and schools are to become places where people achieve worthy goals, they must become places where students, teachers, adminstrators, and other staff cooperate in pursuit of those goals. Such cooperation must be consciously implemented until it becomes a natural way of acting and interacting. And it must take place at all levels of schooling from the classroom to the school to the district. Cooperation in the Classroom In every classroom, no matter what the subject area, teachers can str...

Hi everyone, Recently I've been reading some information about PBL (Project Based Learning). I really want to share with you some information regarding this method. First of all,what is PBL?Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience. As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills in the context of doing an authentic, meaningful project. Project Based Learning unleashes a contagious, creative energy among students and teachers. Student learning of academic content and skill development are at the center of any well-designed project. Project-based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acqu...

Hey guys, I've been reading about this interesting tool known as Padlet and I would like to share with you some general information since it was a novel concept for me. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did : Padlet can be used by students and by teachers. With padlet you can create an online post-it board that you can share with any student or teacher you want. Just give them the unique Padlet link. Padlet allows you to insert ideas anonymously or with your name. It’s easy to use and very handy. Whoever has the Padlet board opened on his smartphone or computer, can see what’s on it and what everyone is writing. Students just have to take a device and start adding little sticky notes online. They can see all the ideas gathered on the teacher board immediately. IN THE CLASSROOM Use a Padlet to collaborate in collecting ideas, brainstorming, and more.All students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Padlet does not show which...

3 tips on how to teach reading through technology: 1. Qualify Your Technology Needs There are dozens of tools available to help you teach reading with technology and all of them vary in one way or another. Take a minute to consider what it is you and your students need, which can help to narrow the options. To do so, answer a few important questions: What is my goal? What is the main goal of this product? Do I need the product to be common core-aligned? Will the product let me monitor my students’ progress? For example, you may think: My number one goal is to make reading more fun for my students. The main goal of the product will be to build a community around reading with my students. I need a product that comes with built-in, common core-aligned comprehension questions. I want to be able to check-in whenever at any time to see which students are excelling and which are falling behind. In this case, Whooo’s Reading, a social platform that encourages students to read mo...