Wednesday 28 May 2014

Free Maths Worksheets for Teachers

Math Aids is undoubtedly a treasure trove of free dynamically created math worksheets. It features more than 895 unique worksheets for all grades from kindergarten to grade 12. These worksheets are organized into 74 math topics all of which are accessible through the left hand column.





Math Aids is free to use and does not require any sign-up. Just head over to its main page and sift through the topics listed on the left. Each of these topics features a wide variety of worksheets. The great thing about these worksheets is that they come in a format that allows you to customize them on site by adding text, changing values..etc to suit your specific teaching needs. After you finisih customizing your worksheets you can then print or download  the PDF version which usually includes answer keys.





Math Aids does not only provide you with ready made high quality math worksheets but also allows you to create your own worksheets to use with you students. If you are a math teacher, a parent or home schooler interested in measuring your learners mastery of basic math skills or giving them extra practice, then Math Aid is definitely a must have.




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Powerful Antidote for Students

I was fortunate to teach in a 1:1 laptop classroom for seven years. In my classes, students took daily notes on computers, did research, wrote essays, created various multimedia publications, and worked on collaborative projects.
Yet I knew that if I wasn’t watching their screens, my students would at some point be doing something they were not supposed to be doing. So, while I was thrilled with the tremendous educational content available to my students, I was concerned with the less-than-desirable elements pervasive on the Internet. Today, I stroll through many schools that are using technology extensively, and invariably I see students using computers for Facebook, IM, playing games, checking sports scores, and all manner of other “evil” things. (BTW, this is as true in middle school classrooms as it is in graduate schools.)
Many teachers I encounter have decided that they need to crack down on — if not entirely eradicate — screen distractions in their classrooms. (A minority of teachers accept it as a form of 21st century doodling.) So, I regularly get questions from teachers asking if they can lock students into apps (yes, that’s possible) or watch student laptop screens remotely (yes, that’s possible, too).
Study-Students-With-iPads-Perform-Better-School
Yet, I rarely indulge in discussions of “Big Brother” tools and strategies. Instead, I ask teachers to consider the most important truism regarding screen distractions:


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Tuesday 27 May 2014

Learning and Literacy by Games

James Paul Gee is one of the renowned scholars and authors in the field of New Literacies Studies. Most of Gee's work over the last few years focused on the study and analysis of digital and video games. His book " What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" is a culmination of his work in this field.

In this book, Gee analyses some popular games such as first-person shooter games, fantasy role-playing games, real-time strategy games, and simulation games and draws out a set of learning principles that are embedded within these games and which make them  more engaging, challenging, and ultimately fun to play. Comparing the kind of learning that takes place in these gaming affinity spaces to the one that take place in school environments, Gee found out that the "levels of textual and cognitive interaction in traditional schooling are decidedly wanting" (Kalantzis & Cope,  "Literacies" ).

Gee contends that gaming affinity spaces where gamers get to virtually meet and discuss the content of their games, help each other solve game-related problems, these spaces are multimodal sites of literacy in which students navigate narratives as powerful as any in the literary canon." They do this as character, as players, as actors in the narrative. They negotiate text and image."

Upon the analysis of several video games , Gee sketched out some of the main benefits these games have for learning and literacy. The table below taken from Literacies(a book I am reading this week) features some of them.






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Free Moocs

The summer vacation is around the corner and while it is a great time for us to have a break from the classroom routine, it is also the convenient time for us to do things we always wanted to do but we were not able to because of lack of time and busy time schedules.You might have plans for some freelance reading, learning a new digital literacy, writing a short story...you name it, but whatever your plans are you should always keep in mind that as teachers we are constantly looking for new opportunities to expand our knowledge and grow professionally. Your plans should always operate within this framework.


Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/



Yes summer vacation is a golden opportunity for you to learn new things and MOOCs ( Massive Open Online Courses) are among the top choices I would recommend. If you haven't tried a MOOC before then grab one this summer and explore the learning experience it provides. It is definitely worth trying. Open Culture features a list of more than 800 MOOCs from top universities from all around the world. The majority of these MOOCs offer " certificates" or " statements of completion" (not a university credit). You can sift through this list and pick out the ones that interest you. Courses in these MOOCs are organized by start date and some of these courses (called evergreen) are not time bound and you can start them anytime you want. Evergreen courses are featured in the bottom of the list.




If you find the number of the MOOCs featured in Open Culture too overwhelming then consider this curated list I made specifically for teachers and educators. These are some great MOOC courses that  will start next June.


  1. Technology in A Foreign Language Class (NI) - Canvas Network - June 3 (5 weeks)
  2. Tangible Things: Discovering History Through Artworks, Artifacts, Scientific Specimens, etc. (CC) – Harvard on edX – June 2 (5 weeks)
  3. 5 Habits of Highly Creative Teachers (NI) - Northwest Colorado BOCES on Canvas - June 2 (5 weeks)
  4. Understanding Research Methods (SA) – University of London on Coursera – June 2 (6 weeks)
  5. Programming for everybody
  6. Model Thinking (CC) – University of Michigan on Coursera – June 2 (10 weeks)
  7. Evolution: A Course for Educators (NI) – American Museum of Natural History – June 2 (4 weeks)
  8. Education in a Changing World (SA) – Open2study – June 2 (4 weeks)
  9. Teaching Adult Learners (SA) – Central Institute of Technology on Open2study – June 2 (4 weeks)
  10. Decision Skills: Power Tools to Build Your Life (NI) - Decision Education Foundation on NovoEd – June 16 (6 weeks)
  11. Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (SA) – Mt. San Jacinto College on Coursera – June 20 (5 weeks)
  12. The Addicted Brain – Emory on Coursera (NI) – June 23 (8 weeks)
  13. Teaching Goes Massive: New Skills Required (NC) – University of Zurich on Coursera – June 23 (3 weeks)
  14. Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills (SA) – University of Melbourne on Coursera – June 30 (5 weeks)



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Teaching is like Farming

Sometimes, I think that teaching is a lot like farming. I know that statement won’t immediately convince most of you, but sometimes, you need to think of yourself as a farmer.
farmer1

Reap, Sow

This principle is as old as time. It is fair to say that farming was one of the first professions. Farmers understood very early on about the relationship between the seeds and the plants. A tomato seed results in tomato plant!. Likewise, the transformation, or lack there of, is directly related to the seeds of work and wisdom we put into our students’ minds.

A Lack of Control

Nature eludes stretchable human intellect and ever increasing power of control. Nature constantly reminds farmers how dependent and vulnerable in it’s hands. Untimely rains, unwanted sunshine and underestimated winds all prove that ultimate result demands many elements to be just besides he artful efforts. Similarly, the handwork teachers put in might not show in test scores or behavioral changes; but, we need to find comfort in the fact that we tried in all humanely possible ways.

The Results Are Not Immediate

A single visit to any grocery store might make us believe that there is nothing like  seasonal produce. All fruits and vegetable are available all-year-round. But this fallacy is hard to sell even to a young child. One of the cardinal characters of a farmers is to plan ahead. Waiting for the fruit season is part of his life. We all know in education that facts and knowledge takes its time to make an impression on him/her. Year long dedicated, sometimes individual, work with children doesn’t bear fruit immediately. Patience and persistence is virtue in good teachers.

The 1:1 Ratio Doesn’t Exist

Farming is purposeless if we reaped 1:1 for the seeds we sow. The abundance of fruit from a single seed is marvelous principle of nature. We as educators are constantly wondered by the amazing acts our students perform with the simple facts they learn in the classroom. Their innocent applications, disproportionately sophisticated experiments with the knowledge proves how they are ready to individualize the understanding.

Constant Attention

A good farmer spends most of his day tending to his plants. Every day’s work is clearly seen in the fruit. From planting to pruning, from weeding to watering, constant care is essential for farming. Teachers know that every day’s lessons add to the previous knowledge and experiences. Constant care for social, technical, physical well-being of a child is critical piece of healthy education.
Now, I challenged myself to think of at least one difference between Farming and Teaching so here is one:
Farmers choose what seeds to plant; Teachers don’t pick their students
As teachers, we don’t get to select the students we want to teach. Adding to the dynamic nature of teaching is different levels of students in one classroom under one roof with one teacher. But, farmers enjoy the luxury of picking their seedlings to control the outcome.
I hope that you see a farmer in you when you walk into the classroom next time.



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Top Education Systems In The World

Pearson recently released their global report on education (which we also looked at last year). This report takes a look at major factors in education, such as expenditure per student, GDP, graduation rates, etc. South Korea topped the rankings again this year, but Finland – well known for its excellence in education – fell to 5th place.
Take a gander at the graphic below (from the report summary) to see where each country falls in the rankings. If you want to toy around with the statistics and see what factors are influencing each country in each area, you can take a few minutes to play around with the interactive graphic of cognitive skills and educational attainment.
Some of the key findings of the report are as follows:
  • East Asian nations continue to outperform others. South Korea tops the rankings, followed by Japan (2nd), Singapore (3rd) and Hong Kong (4th). All these countries’ education systems prize effort above inherited ‘smartness’, have clear learning outcomes and goalposts, and have a strong culture of accountability and engagement among a broad community of stakeholders.
  • Scandinavian countries, traditionally strong performers, are showing signs of losing their edge. Finland, the 2012 Index leader, has fallen to 5th place; and Sweden is down from 21st to 24th.
  • Notable improvements include Israel (up 12 places to 17th), Russia (up 7 places to 13th) and Poland (up four places to 10th).
  • Developing countries populate the lower half of the Index, with Indonesia again ranking last of the 40 nations covered, preceded by Mexico (39th) and Brazil (38th).

Ranking the World’s Educational Systems

We’ve just listed the first 10 below – scroll through the whole graphic to see all of the countries examined in the report.
  1. South Korea
  2. Japan
  3. Singapore
  4. Hong Kong
  5. Finland
  6. UK
  7. Canada
  8. Netherlands
  9. Ireland
  10. Poland
Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 4.54.01 PMScreen Shot 2014-05-13 at 4.54.25 PMScreen Shot 2014-05-13 at 4.54.46 PMScreen Shot 2014-05-13 at 4.55.05 PM



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World Before Social Media

Sometimes it is hard to imagine how we functioned without our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices. Whenever I head out to explore a new city, I hit up Yelp or Chow-hound to figure out where to eat. I use my GPS to navigate unfamiliar places. I don’t remember very many phone numbers anymore, because I have them all close at hand in my phone. When I want to read a book, I can download it. When I need to research something, I don’t need to head to the library. 
We’ve come a long way, and the cute graphic below shows us what social media looked like before it was actually social media. Think of it as ‘vintage’ social media. This is how we learned and connected in the days before the world was at our fingertips. Enjoy!

vintage social media



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