Tech Tips
December 2018: Volume 6- Number 52
Have a Wonderful Winter Break!
PocketGuard
"PocketGuard is one of the leading, easiest to use personal finance apps in the US and Canada. This handy tool can finally make money management and budgeting trouble-free. Paying bills, managing multiple accounts, staying on top of your spending habits — all of this is now available in one place."
"Featured by Google Play! No. 1 in over 19 countries and among the top 5 health apps in over 57.
Now supports Google Fit, and comes with the new abs workout.
Over 3 million users love 7 minute workout. Scientifically proven to assist weight loss and improve cardiovascular function."
"Keep your motivation alive with inspiring tips, photos, and virtual rewards
√ The best weight tracker & calorie counter - Easily journal your diet plan with our user-friendly diet diary
√ Easy, Fun, Motivating - Way more than just a calorie calculator & weight tracker
√ Learn to lose weight fast and get into fitness by making small lifestyle changes
√ Free water tracker"
Student Motivation Problems Crush the Kids — and They Crush Us, Too!
By Dave Stuart Jr.Excerpt:
How Do We Get Kids to Do Work with Care?
The five key beliefs are the core of the core of student motivation. They are what make kids do work with care:
- Credibility says, “My teacher is good at her job.” So guess what? The research shows us that when kids are taught by a credible teacher, they perform better. Guess why? Because in that teacher’s class, they do work with care.
- Value says, “This work matters to me.” Do you know many kids who are motivated by work that they view as totally pointless? Me neither. I know few adults like that, either. But when they do value the work, it’s so much easier for them to do. And the value belief is highly malleable at the classroom level.
- Belonging says, “I belong in this academic setting.” Want to know something? The research shows us that we people identify with the place that they’re in or the work they’re being asked to do, they’re more likely to do it. And with care.
Are you seeing a pattern here? These things are common sense, but the beauty is that they're also heavily vetted in our best research on teaching and learning.
- Effort says, “I can improve in my knowledge or skills if I work at it.” The research is overwhelming, much of it popularized by Carol Dweck in her work on mindsets. When human beings believe this, they’re more likely to do work with care — especially when we teach kids how to put forth the right kind of effort. Kids then get stuck in a positive feedback loop.
- And finally, Efficacy says, “I can succeed at this.” You might be a teacher who has a lot of kids defining success as something totally determined by grades. And success to them is unattainable. The good news is that we can help kids develop wiser definitions of success — definitions the increase the degree to which they do work with care.
The Quarry Workers Creed
“We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.”
Improving Student Motivation via Micro-commenting on Papers
excerpt:
"As our colleague Matthew Johnson in Ann Arbor, MI has argued, the notes we put in the margins of kids' work are relationship-building. Often times, for those of us with 100+ kids on the roster, margin notes are a primary means through which we build relationships.
I think of it this way: with those notes in the margins or on the simple rubrics that I use, I'm trying to help my kids to believe
- that I care about them and know what I'm doing as their teacher;
- that this work matters because it's fun and challenging and rewarding;
- that they are writers — people who push to elevate their powers of communication;
- that they can get better through effort, and that they *are* getting better; and
- that they can succeed.
It doesn't take paragraphs to do this — on a recent pile of student work, I averaged 20-40 words per paper — but the words I use obviously matter.
Why the Best Teaching Strategies Are Like Boxes of Building Blocks
Excerpt:
A lot of my favorite teaching strategies are like the box of building blocks that my children have. When the box gets dumped out, it's amazing how many things my kids can make. The blocks provide a set of very basic constraints — how many there are, their shapes, their colors — but mostly there's freedom for my kids to experiment and create and make.
Pop-up debate is a box of blocks. There are really just two rules:
- Every kid speaks.
- To speak, you stand up and speak.
From there, the beauty and power is up to you.
At first, the goal of pop-up debate is just getting every kid to participate — to get over their fear of public speaking (more here, or pp. 218-221 in These 6 Things for a more polished treatment). Then you teach them how to explain themselves and require that as the new goal. Then you ask them how they think the class can do better — and so you end up teaching and requiring Paraphrase Plus (here or p. 126 in These 6 Things), or Palmer's PVLEGS (here, or p. 224 in These 6 Things, or Palmer's Well Spoken). Eventually, you can get as complicated as Les Lynn's Refutation Two-Chance (here, or pp. 127-128) or mandatory tracking (here, or pp. 122-124).
I met a science teacher in Kansas last week who is excited to introduce students to logical fallacies and how not to commit them.
Yes. That's what I mean by building blocks. The blocks are pop-up debate. What can you do with this structure? All kinds of beautiful and creative things.
Gallagher's article of the week is the same kind of thing. An article each Monday, a couple basic requirements, and the response is due Friday. You can make it more complicated if you'd like (I used to — full story here), or keep it simple. You can select articles on all kinds of topics, or aim at topical immersion like I do with Burning Questions of the Year (described on pp. 85-86 of These 6 Things).
These are simple, simple strategies, but so rife with potential.
There are more like them — Conversation Challenge, the Nine Moves, Think-Pair-Share. They are about as complicated as a teacher like me gets.
SCS Instructional Technology Information
Contact me if you have any questions or would like help using these tools.
Email: vturner@scsmustangs.org
Website: http://www.strongnet.org/InstructionalTechnology
Phone: 440-572-7067
Twitter: @vturner8