Are Teachers Taught How to Manage Classes?

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) report, “Training Our Future Teachers: Classroom Management,” says that teacher education isn’t doing its job when it comes to classroom management. Instead of tackling how to run a smooth and efficient classroom and create a good learning environment, teachers go through programs that emphasize instruction. While learning how to instruct is necessary, if a teacher can’t handle a class, he or she will never make it to the instruction. Notably missing from most teacher education programs were “strategies that impose consistent consequences for misbehavior, foster student engagement, and—most markedly—use praise and other means to reinforce positive behavior.” Other important techniques teachers should include in the management toolbox include: establishing rules, expectations, and routines.

With the addition of technology tools and resources into the curriculum, it seems even more necessary to help teachers learn about proven techniques in order to avoid disruptive behaviors in the classroom.

Paper Vs. Electronic Texts

Do students learn better when reading from and studying from traditional books or digital books? An article in ISM (Independent School Management), “Paper Versus Electronic: Debating Comprehension,” cites research relating to the topic. Digital resources were found to be more mobile, easier to carry, and greener than paper. Two studies, one in the Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education (2012) and another to be published in College & Research Libraries in 9/2014 found that although college students “relied heavily on their mobile devices”, they reported that study tools such as highlighting, bookmarking, and even searching worked better when they use traditional text. Although, a study by Ferris Jabr, in the Scientific American, found that “modern screens and e-readers drain more of our mental resources ... and make it harder to remember”, this study did not, according to John Jones of DML Central, include various types of electronic readers and “did not support his [Jabr’s] claims about the nature of paper versus screen reading for comprehension.”

The argument continues with some preferring paper and others, digital. It seems that only time will tell, because we must remember that the college students in these studies grew up using paper texts. Only recently have we seen digital textbooks starting to replace paper.

Does Tech in Education Help Students Learn?

Carnegie Mellon University wants to know how educators can best use technology with their students, and to find out, the university has announced the Simon Initiative, called the “world’s largest database on student learning.” Researchers at Carnegie Mellon will use the data to find out what are actually the best practices in using technology in the classroom. Most educators are convinced that technology in classrooms works well in helping students learn. We see it every day in our schools; The Simon Project is designed to use a multitude of data to prove that we are right.

The project proposal has the following goals: “sharing rich data globally, helping teachers teach, acceleration innovation and scaling through start-up companies . . . .” This will be an interesting project to watch, since its outcomes will certainly be of use to all our schools, PK-college.

Top Ten Tech Skills for Teens

With all that teens are learning as they use digital devices and the Internet, it is difficult to sort through what they actually need to know. Cindy Donaldson in her article on Education.com (August 2013), polled companies in Silicon Valley to find what their leaders thought were skills all teens should master. The skills recommended are typing, word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, eMail, electronic calendars, Netiquette, social networking, basic computer upkeep, using Internet searches properly for research, and use of databases. Other skills suggested are related to blog making, photo processing, and making a Web page. 

It seems to me that using critical and innovative thinking skills, learning to work collaboratively, and adapting to new technologies should be added to the list, because these skills will certainly be needed.

Project RED: How to Implement Tech Programs

In Project RED’s 2010 study of schools and tech, 997 schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia were represented. The study found that the leadership of the school principal was highly important in whether programs were successful; “online collaboration increases learning productivity and student engagement”; schools that put the key implementation factors to work outperformed other schools; and to get the best results, tech should be used every day. Based on research results, Project RED Community was launched to help transform education.

Be sure to take a look at the key implementation factors.  Those should benefit all schools.

Take Part in ISTE Research

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) encourages you to take part in the Speak Up 2013 Survey.  You can share the link to the survey with peers, parents, and students. Your answers, along with those of other educators, parents, and students will become part of the Speak Up 2013 National Research Project. The survey closes December 20, 2013 and in February 2014 national and state data results will be available.

Good Listeners Are Successful Students

Tales2Go and eSchool News offer the whitepaper, Listening, the 21^st Century Learner, and the Common Core Standards. According to the paper, a good listener is not necessarily one who sits quietly or keeps eyes focused on a lecturer or storyteller; it’s one who understands. Students who are good listeners are those who understand skills and how to use them. Good listeners know how to participate in conversations and to “reflect on what they’ve heard.”

Students with reading difficulties profit from listening to audio books—audio books allow teachers to differentiate instruction. But, where do Common Core Standards come in? They offer “a ‘staircase’ of increasing complexity for the student as he strives to comprehend more and more of what a book provides.” Students are better able to achieve the goals of Common Core if they have been exposed to audio versions of fiction and non-fiction stories. There is a lot to be said about learning through listening, especially when it comes to modeling human voices that are fluent in reading.

Is a MOOC in Your Students’ or Your Futures?

Forty-two percent of those taking MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses), according to as survey performed by Qualtrics, are educators. At this time most courses do not offer college credit or certificates of completion, but two-thirds of the survey respondents said that credits and certificates would be an incentive for them to complete a course.  The results of the survey suggest that people take an online course because they are interested in the course topic or expect the course to help them with personal and/or professional development. They also want courses that differ from traditional lectures, provide interaction, and are open in format.

With the growth of these free online courses, we’ll see more precollege students enrolling.  Will K-12 schools bring these courses into their classrooms, and if so, how? High school students are already enrolling to get ahead in the skills and content they’ll need for college.

Spotting Future Dropouts by Grade 1

In Montgomery County, Maryland, administrators have identified early-warning signs for students at risk of dropping out of school. They can identify flags for 75 percent of dropouts—by the second semester of first grade.  Some of the warning signs are reading below grade level, absences of nine days or more, report card grades, incomplete assignments, and behavior.  Montgomery County Evaluation Specialist Thomas (Chris) C. West, who created the formula for his district, commented in an Education Week article (07/29/2013), “You will not reduce dropout rates by identifying] the students; it’s what you do with them. Early-warning systems are not an intervention strategy; they are part of an intervention strategy. They are not a magic bullet.”

The Teenage Brain

WKCD (What Kids Can Do) includes information on how our students learn. Research shows us why teens act the way they do with behaviors such as “mood swings, surliness, impulsivity, poor decisions, insensitivity (or too much sensitivity), and more.” The brain’s frontal lobe, the area that affects judgment, is not fully developed until ages 25-30. As the brain grows, young people have difficulty making decisions quickly, don’t notice errors in judgment, have trouble identifying other’s emotions, and are “vulnerable to stress.” So—it’s good for all of us in education to remember that there is a biological reason for why teens are the way they are and that we need to be patient as we wait for their minds to mature.