Week 8: Predicting Dyslexia

In the battle of understanding and helping those with dyslexia, several recent advances have been made.  Among these advances are ways to diagnose the disorder at an earlier time of the child’s life, thereby leading to a greater chance of helpful and timely intervention and a path towards success.

Scientists and researchers have discovered an area of the brain that may be helpful in diagnosing a child with dyslexia.  Using MRI technology, scientists have identified the arcuate fasciculus in the left hemisphere of the brain that seems to be an indicator of dyslexia.  It is important piece for language.  In a person without dyslexia the arcuate fasciculus appears to bigger and better organized.  In a person with dyslexia, the arcuate fasciculus appears small and without proper organization.  This is just a step in the direction of diagnosing dyslexia early on however, and further research is needed before this method can be used to identify children with dyslexia.

Another study out of MIT, is measuring the brain’s electrical activity in young students by using electrode caps.  While wearing the caps, the students perform a number of tests in the cognitive, behavioral, and language departments.  The leaders of the study are hopeful that results will help to diagnose dyslexia in students and avoid further frustration.

I think these are great steps in identifying dyslexia.  I have seen students struggle firsthand with this disorder and believe that any research to help diagnose dyslexia earlier in life would be helpful.  It may help to prevent some of the anguish and frustration that comes with reading if a student has targeted help early on in their education.

Zimmerman, R. (2014, June 24). Predicting Dyslexia — Even Before Children Learn to Read. MindShift. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/predicting-dyslexia-even-before-children-learn-to-read/

Week 7: Going All In: How to Make Competency Based Learning Work

New Hampshire has become the first state to dive head first into “Competency Based Learning” or where students are moved up in academics when they have shown mastery of a subject or standard.  This is in contrast to the current widespread system of having students move on after they finish a grade, regardless of their level of achievement (as long as it’s above average) or understanding of all subject matter.

New Hampshire policies for competency-based learning rely heavily on performance-based assessments, with the hopes that there will one day be a vast archive of these assessments for teachers to utilize.  End of the year and standardized testing have no place in the new system.  Under the new system, age based grade levels would cease to exist and students would only move forward once they have shown mastery of certain skills and subjects.

However, the state has run into several problems with this system.  For one, their power to implement it was taken away when the legislators decided not to include ways to assess the progress of the initiative in the schools.  The state’s role is now more supplemental, providing research and resources to schools that would like support.  Because of this, the policy is being implemented in many different ways throughout the state, with some local officials deciding which parts they would like to use and what to throw out at their discretion.

Overall, I think this idea is a good one.  Having taught in a school where a high number of students had just been passed through the system, regardless of mastery or even competency of most subjects, I think this would be greatly beneficial to a lot of students.  However, I’m curious as to how teachers are supposed to teach to a class where all the students are working at a different pace.  I would like to see this type of system in action or more research on its effectiveness before fully subscribing to the idea.

Schwartz, K. (2014, June 16). Going All In: How to Make Competency-Based Learning Work. MindShift. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/going-all-in-how-to-make-competency-based-learning-work/

Week 6: Using Entrepreneurship to Transform Student Work

Raleigh Werberger is a high school humanities teacher that worked with a group of teachers to implement a new kind of project based learning for his ninth grade students.  He and his colleagues were motivated to really engage the students in their learning, seeing it as a way to have them take charge of their learning and find some happiness in it.

He and his team came up with the idea of having students create a startup business for a local aquaponics farm.  Students assigned themselves roles like contractor, designers, and salesman to complete the project.  The results were staggering.  The students were so highly engaged in the project that its success spilled over into other academic areas as well.  Teachers reported higher involvement in math, science, and language arts, to further their understanding of how to get their business up and running.  The students saw each lesson as a potential learning experience to better their business plan.  Also, members of the community and the parents of the students were heavily involved.  Werberger easily conceded to professional engineers and accountants as they worked with the students to accomplish their business goals.  One team even got their business bankrolled by a few local entrepreneurs while the other teams vowed to find funding for their businesses as well.

I think this idea of introducing entrepreneurship at the high school level is a brilliant idea.  A lot of times students do not feel connected to the material they are learning and it becomes a chore to participate or engage in lessons.  This project clearly shows that students can be motivated to take charge of their learning and funnel it towards worthwhile outcomes outside of the classroom.  I think this kind of project could really benefit a lot of students and schools.

Werberger, R. (n.d.). Using Entrepreneurship to Transform Student Work. Edutopia. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-entrepreneurship-transforms-student-work-raleigh-werberger

Week 5: Teaching History Outside the Box

Guest blogger Dan Carlin illustrates an interesting concept in his blog “Teaching History Outside the Box.”  Carlin details the well known boring aspect that is associated with learning history and how students are taught about events, only to likely forget them when the test is over.  In other words, teaching history has always been more about the curriculum than it has been about student interest.

Carlin suggests a more radical approach to teaching history by using its inherent interesting properties to engage students by connecting to their personal interests.  For example, if a student loves sports, why not encourage that student to research how sports came to be and early versions of their favorite games? In this way, teachers would be instilling in students a love of learning history, rather than a few passing memories of historical events that they have little interest in.  Carlin creates historical podcasts to engage his students in learning about the past, something they seem to enjoy.

While I can appreciate Carlin’s enthusiasm for student interest, I have a hard time “tossing out the curriculum” when it comes to teaching and learning history, as he suggests.  I do think there is room for improvement on how students are taught and tested in history, but the idea of the subject being entirely student centered is a bit radical for my taste.  I would like to see this kind of teaching in action before I’d consider following some of his points.

Carlin, D. (n.d.). Teaching History Outside the Box. Edutopia. Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-history-outside-the-box-dan-carlin

Week 4: How to Grow an Engaging Environment

In this article, author Suzie Boss illustrates the benefits for both teachers and students when a school garden is installed.  Holiday Heights Elementary school in Fort Worth, Texas is a Title I school with about 700 students and a school garden that offers hands on learning experience.  The garden coordinator/teacher at the school, Scott Smith, uses the garden to enhance his math and science lessons, providing a level of engagement and interest he had been missing in his “rut” over the last few years.  He says that the students have little experience with gardening or outdoor work and it’s refreshing and new for them.  He tries to use the garden as much as possible in his lessons.  Instead of showing the students a diagram of the water cycle, he takes the class outside to view whatever aspects of it are present in the garden.  Instead of calculating the volume of a rectangular prism from a worksheet in the classroom, he poses the problem of how much soil is needed to fill one of the raised flowerbeds in the garden.

There are a few steps to take to ensure the overall and long-term success of a school garden.  First, there has to be engagement on all sides of the educational world, with students, teachers, and parents participating in the garden effort.  There also needs to be a level of flexibility and subsequent problem solving when gardening.  It’s important to remember that all plants/designs may not take or work right away.  There also needs to be someone in charge of the garden at the school that is motivated to work on all aspects of the project, chief among them garnering interest and involvement from the other teachers.  Finally, it’s important for the long-term involvement in the garden that every success, whether big or small, is recognized and celebrated.  Those successes help build continuing interest and involvement from every aspect of the school community.

This garden was made possible by the non-profit organization REAL School Gardens.  I would be interested to see these gardens in action!

Boss, S. (n.d.). How to Grow an Engaging Learning Environment. Edutopia. Retrieved May 27, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-grow-engaging-environment-suzie-boss

Week 3: 7 Things You Should Know About Flickr

Flickr is a website for photo sharing where anybody can upload their photos, comment on other photos, and browse other users’ photos.  Organization is improved by the user’s ability to create sets of photos and to join/add to subject groupings.  The real strength of Flickr is the community of users itself.  The content on the site is only as strong as the content the users upload and the communication between the users.

Today, there are upwards of two billion images and twenty billion tags on the Flickr website, including a large contribution from the Library of Congress.  The Library of Congress shares a collection of images and invites Flickr users to comment and analyze the images.

Flickr users can register for free accounts (with limited bandwidths and groups) or a paid account with more options.  Both accounts are able to upload, share, and comment on images.  Users are also able to designate the level of copyright on a photo and also which users are allowed to comment/tag a photo. 

Despite it’s usefulness as an online photo-sharing forum, users need to be wary of the factual accuracy of any tags or comments because the users may not be qualified to identify the images.  In the classroom, Flickr can be used for studying photography and also for enhancing projects and enabling students to gain feedback on their work.

7 Things You Should Know About Flickr. (2008, February 15). EDUCAUSE Homepage. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-flickr

Week 3: What A Teacher Powered School Looks Like

In this article, author Tina Barseghian, explains the concept of teacher-run schools and how one school in particular is benefitting greatly from this flipped authority.  A teacher run school gives the policy making power back to the teachers because “teachers know their students best.”  These teachers make decisions about curriculum, educational policy, budget, finances, new hires, and a wealth of other subjects that are most often left to administrators and state officials.  Teachers at these schools (about 60 across the country) work together in a collaborative setting to figure out what is the best route for their students.

Avalon school, a grade 6-12 charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota is one of these teacher run schools and has found tremendous success utilizing this model of decision making.  Avalon school has a teacher retention rate of 95-100 percent and has higher test proficiency scores than the public schools of St. Paul.  The teachers decided on a problem based, student led curriculum format, which has created a culture of democracy and accountability among the student population.  The teachers take time to evaluate each other in the classroom and also hire a teaching coach to better improve their classrooms.

In my opinion, this approach has its positives and negatives.  While I fully support more teacher involvement in decision-making, I’m not sure that most teachers would be wiling to take on the extra work of budget/financing along with all of their other duties.  I would love to see some more examples of schools where this approach was successful.

Barseghian, T. (2014, May 20). What a Teacher-Powered School Looks Like. MindShift. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/what-a-teacher-powered-school-looks-like/