Archive for the ‘Educational Tools’ Category
The decision to homeschool your child certainly isn’t one to be taken lightly. First, you have to be certain you are willing and able to put the time and effort necessary to give your child a quality education. You also need to ensure you have the space and resources required to provide a well-rounded, comprehensive lesson plan.
In order to teach your child effectively, you need to constantly be researching the curriculum yourself and seeking out new teaching methods to instruct your child effectively. There are homeschooling laws in place to ensure that each child has the opportunity to have a quality education. So before you begin, it’s important to review the laws and regulations carefully to be sure you are doing everything by the book.
My Friday’s Quotes
Today I thought, rather then share a quote, that I would share with you an educational site. Teachers will probably know this as a very valuable resource. However, for parents who home school or are just interested in what is going on in education, this is a great place to bookmark and visit regularly.
Edutopia, “K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work”. I strongly suggest you browse this site and then sign-up for their weekly newsletter. For me to list all it’s benefits would be a waste of my time for they become quickly apparent when you enter the site. It is broken down into five major sections: Core Concepts, Community, Sections,(where you will find blogs, videos, webinars and more), Stay Connected, and The Foundation, referring to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
“An in-depth and interactive resource, Edutopia.org offers practical, hands-on advice, real-world examples, lively contributions from practitioners, and invaluable tips and tools.”
“Through an extensive offering of documentaries, Edutopia video is a catalyst for innovation by helping educators and parents, as well as business and community leaders, see and understand pioneering best practices.”
But don’t take our word for it – go find out for yourself. You will find a wealth of information and support.
Yesterday we briefly looked at the first 4 steps when doing a Project Based Learning assignment. It should be easy to see how nicely this allows for individualization and homeschooling curriculum. Now let’s look at the last 5 steps.
5.Make a list of what needs to be completed with a timeline: What information is needed to solve the problem? How are the possibilities ranked? How are they relate to the list of solutions?
6.List “What do we need to know? You will have already started this list in step 2 but as you have looked more closely at your question, there may be additions to the list. Start the research. Parents can help find possible resources, â¨experts, books, web sites, etc.
Make up a timeline listing the tasks/question being researched. This will help to stay focused and organized. *If your research supports your solution, go to (7). If not, go to (4)
7.Write up your solution with its supporting documentation â¨Findings and/or recommendations should include the problem statement, questions, data gathered, analysis of data, and recommendations based on the data analysis: in short, the process and outcome.
8.Review your performanceâ¨: â¨Take pride in what was done well well and learn from what could have been done better. Thomas Edison felt unsuccessful experiments were part of his journey to successful outcomes!
9.Celebrate the work! Find a way the project can be shared with others. It could be anything from addressing the town council to putting up a video on U-tube.
PBL is a perfect match for a virtual school. It is an effective way to integrate technology used by the school into the curriculum. Like a virtual school, its potential is a limitless.
How often is it that children seem to know more about computers than their parents If you’re like me, it’s all the time. Computer literacy no longer begins in high school; it begins in pre-school. Computers have become a central part of modern society, and it’s important to introduce children to computers at a young age. More and more you will find educational software as one of the primary tools for teaching children, with virtual learning environments now being incorporated in the classroom. By learning through software, children not only learn how the computer works, but the subjects that the software is used to teach.
You’ll often find adults that have no idea when to double click, when to single click, how to minimize windows, use tabs, and search for files, while a teenager could do this in their sleep. This is not because teenagers are more intelligent at figuring out how to use the computer, but rather because the entire interface of computer usage is embedded into their brains. It’s important that children too understand this basic computer interface when they’re younger. In the long run, children who are familiar with computers become more successful adults
Forty-eight states along with Washington, D.C. Agreed to help develop these core standards. Four states to date have pledge to adopt these standards, Kentucky being the first. The National Association of State Boards of Education point out that if a state decides to adopt these standards, “they will have to develop curricula, align assessments, and train teachers and other staff.”
There is no question that the concept of national standards is long over-due particularly in this day and age where families are so mobile. The question in my mind is the timing, Like all other educational policies and mandates I have seen passed, it is usually under funded or not funded at all. Teachers are being laid off, budgets are being defeated, schools are closing and you want to do what? Develop curricula? Align assessments? Train teachers and staff? Just how will this be paid for? And as you read through the standards, much is still left to the interpretation of schools, districts, states. Do they really think that money won’t play a major role in how states implement these standards? Aren’t we then back to where we started; segregating education by the money each state can but into the adoption?
“The only way to get this adopted on a widespread basis is with a fair amount of arm-twisting and coercion,” said Jay P. Greene, a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. “States and districts are in a horrible budget crisis, so support follows the money.”
That may be true. Only time will tell. Here were will hold a Common Core Standards watch. Meanwhile, take time to look at the standards yourself. Go to www.corestandards.org/ and read them for yourself. Look at your town’s school district and your state department of education. Is this going to be another educational bandwagon idea or will it accomplish the goal of delivering high quality education to every child regardless of where they live?
A brief summary of the common core standards for mathematics include:
* Assuring that students in the K-5 grades have “a solid foundation in whole numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals.”
* Kindergarten students will focus on numbers, , how they correspond to quantities and how to put numbers together and take them apart.
* Teachers will have “detailed guidance” on how to teach the k-5 students difficult topics such as fractions and negative numbers.
* “Conceptual understanding, in addition to procedural skills, will be essential.”
* Once K-5 students have a solid foundation as described above then they should be prepared for such content as geometry, algebra, and probability and statistics.
* High school students will be expected to apply mathematical ways of thinking to real-life situations.
* “Mathematical modeling” (“use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions” will be emphasized.
The home schooling vs. public school debate has been taking place for decades, and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. Unfortunately, people often take part in polarized discussions on the topic, refusing to even consider the other side’s arguments. It’s no secret that our public education system leaves something to be desired, which is exactly why many people decide to home school their children. Preventing uncouth social influences and eliminating peer pressure are also common factors.
Advocates of the public education system say that learning in an environment with your peers is essential for developing basic social skills. The classroom setting also offers opportunities for teamwork and collaborative assignments. Of course each child is different, and what is best for one child may not be optimal for another. Luckily, there are constant innovations in education, including new methods that combine classroom and online learning.
A year-long collaboration of content experts, state officials, teachers, school administrators and parents ended June 2 with the release of the final version of the Common Core Standards. The purpose of these standards is to insure consistent learning goals across the states.
These English, language arts,and math standards are to ensure that all students have the same learning opportunities. As time goes on, we will see if this becomes a reality. Children in the same state, the same School!, don’t have the same learning opportunities. Online Education is trying to address that issue, But I wonder so let’s get back to the Core Standards.
After approximately 10,000 public comments on the draft version, the National Governors Association along with the Council of Chief State School Officers released their final version. Those involved in the development staid that they looked at top-performing countries as their guide.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell believes that “through collective state actions such as these, (core standards and Race to the Top) we can provide all the country’s children with a world-class education. These standards lay the groundwork for students to live and compete in today’s global world.”
Mistacres School uses a multitude of programs and sites to give them the flexibility necessary to individualize programs for their students and schools. Although we are located in New Hampshire,we serve children from around the United States as well as internationally. We must select material which will meet core standards for all.
For this reason, we have selected the Core Knowledge Sequence as our foundation for building student programs. Core Knowledge offers a coherent, cummulative, well-balanced curriculum allowing for academic excellence for all learners.
We know success in learning new information depends on previous experiences and teachings. Although information is ever-changing, there is a foundation of information that remains consistant which students need to understand to be academically successful. Core Knowledge has identified these fundamental building blocks and sequenced them in a manner which provides a coherent approach to building a knowledge base.
Mistacres chose to use Core Knowledge based on current evidence showing that “it fosters excellence by improving student performance, boosting enthusiasm, and laying the groundwork for future learning.” (Core Knowledge Foundation)
Another reason for selecting Core Knowledge as our foundation is that it not only aligns with the Frameworks for all American schools but, because it introduces academic subjects and rich content in the early years, it also fulfills the international requirements.
Core Knowledge has outlined the curriculum and Mistacres has taken that and developed materials to help individualize and implement it. To further investigate this curriculum, explore the coreknowledge.org website.
Whether your child goes to a traditional school or is homeschooled through a virtual program, summer reading is critical to continuing reading growth. “Find a Book” developed by Metametrics is a free online book search which you and your child can use to develop his or her own reading list based on their Lexile level and their topics of interest.
Using the “Find a Book” is simple and, once your child learns how to use it, this will become one of their most used bookmarks. Just follow these simple steps
Go to www.lexile.com/findabook 
“Find a Book” has built in links to WorldCat which allows you to check the books availability at your local publi library. It also links to Barnes & Nobel.com which has joined Metametrics by Lexiling their books.
Many libraries also have reading incentive programs. Call you local library to find out how to join. Reading IS the key to success. Lexile helps them be successful in their reading. And isn’t success what it should all be about?!