Here are some more great posts from this past week:
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How hummingbirds switch gears at breakneck speeds | Popular Science
Hummingbirds are some of the fastest and most agile birds on Earth. They can squeeze into incredibly small spaces to get nectar and hit flight speeds as high as 9Gs while courting without getting physically hurt. They also appear to have very contro…
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NASA finally pries open stuck Bennu asteroid sampler | Popular Science
Even the brilliant minds at NASA sometimes have trouble opening up a tightly-sealed container. Engineers and scientists from Johnson Space Center finally opened a container of asteroid sample material, after two fasteners had been stuck for about 3.…
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I’m adding this video to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures (though would have rather they not used the space shuttle as an example):
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It’s been a hell of a past three years – for everyone, including for us teachers. Many of us are very tired.
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Humans Absorb Bias from AI–And Keep It after They Stop Using the Algorithm | Scientific American
Artificial intelligence programs, like the humans who develop and train them, are far from perfect.
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Advancing educational equity with UDL and generative AI
As we all struggle down the path toward true educational inclusion, we are confronted with four pillars of equity as described by Rochelle Guiterize: Access, Success, Power and Identity. Educators with a mind towards equity typically excel at access.
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How Offline-First Edtech Addresses Education Disparities Worldwide | EdSurge News
Access to high-quality education is widely recognized as a pivotal tool for alleviating poverty, mitigating the spread of disease and malnutrition, fostering children’s overall welfare and empowering women.
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MLK Day in the US is the third Monday of January, this year, January 15, 2024. This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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Explore the Skeleton of the Rat with Coloring
A rat spends most of its life moving through small spaces. The skeleton of the rat is well suited for burrowing and climbing behavior. Rats are agile, and can squeeze into tiny spaces. The bones are lightweight, sturdy, and flexible!
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AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools and tips for teachers and students.
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Most Teachers Are Not Using AI. Here’s Why
While the hype around ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools in K-12 has made it seem like most educators have tried them, new survey results from the EdWeek Research Center suggest that’s not the case.
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AI and Education: Will Chatbots Soon Tutor Your Children? – The New York Times
Sal Khan, the chief executive of Khan Academy, gave a rousing TED Talk last spring in which he predicted that A.I. chatbots would soon revolutionize education. “We’re at the cusp of using A.I. for probably the biggest positive transformation that ed…
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Why I Changed My Mind About Teachers and Education Theory | The Jose Vilson
It was a typical math department meeting in which I decided to, once again, bring in something controversial out of sheer boredom. Yes, I’m that guy. We spent the next 30 minutes arguing why this method works over a more consistently functional meth…
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The TRAC To Teamwork – Gamified UK – #Gamification Expert
A long time ago, I created a little framework for improving teamwork in organisations. I had forgotten about it until a recent conversation! So here it is, the TRAC to Teamwork Trust: Develop a culture of transparency and honest communication.
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The Problem with AI Prompt Feedback (and How to Solve It)
My students are writing a collaborative writing document following the principles I share in my book Reinventing Writing. But now I want to integrate AI feedback. Yesterday I demonstrated how to get AI feedback. But something odd happened.
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Students Taking Action Together: 5 Teaching Techniques
By Lauren M. Fullmer, Laura F. Bond, Crystal N. Molyneaux, Samuel J. Nayman, and Maurice J. Elias (ASCD, 2022 – Learn more)
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Friday 5: Teaching strategies for classroom success
All classrooms are different and require different teaching strategies to address various concerns, goals, and learning trends. Plus, it takes a dedicated teacher to employ the right teaching strategies for desired outcomes.
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She Wrote A Book About AI in Education. Here’s How AI Helped | Tech & Learning
Educator and edtech expert Alana Winnick never considered herself much of a writer. Even so, she was able to write The Generative Age: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education at warp speed. This was thanks to, well, AI.
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Are microschools the future of education?
This article originally appeared on the Christensen Institute’s blog and is reposted here with permission. Microschools have become a hot topic over the last few years. Their big appeal is that they promise to do a better job catering to students’ a…
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How Instructor Support Impacts STEM Results at Minority Serving Institutions – Digital Promise
MSIs have been found to foster supportive campus environments for underrepresented students pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees (Espinosa et al., 2018). A higher proportion of historically underrepresented students (e.g.
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North Carolina AI Education Guidance Release
*North Carolina has arguably issued the best AI guidance to date (IMHO), and I explain why below (my highlighted version is here).
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The common arguments about potential student use of these technologies suggest artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted writing will damage student learning by shortcutting the writing process.
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Get Ready for the Great AI Disappointment | WIRED
In the decades to come, 2023 may be remembered as the year of generative AI hype, where ChatGPT became arguably the fastest-spreading new technology in human history and expectations of AI-powered riches became commonplace. The year 2024 will be the…
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ISTE | 3 Note-Taking Strategies To Improve Comprehension | ISTE
She had discovered the Cult of Pedagogy’s power lesson on successful note-taking stations at the high school level and reached out to me, our school’s library information specialist.
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Katie Hull and I worked with Education Week to create an animated video on using Artificial Intelligence in education. Part One has just been published, and Part Two will appear later this month.
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How Do I Know What Is Real? How to Fight Misinformation in An Age of Lies
Yesterday, the World Economic Forum’s “Global Risks Report 2024” ranked AI-derived misinformation as a top global risk ahead of climate change, war, and economic weakness. NPR reported this morning that Taiwan is struggling with misinformation as it…
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Three Easy Ways for Teacher Librarians to Get Started with Magicschool.ai – NCCE Blog
Magicschool.ai is a robust suite of tools with a single goal: to save educators time and energy so that they can focus on teaching and learning.
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New Research: 16 Writing Interventions That Work | Tech & Learning
New research highlights that when it comes to writing instruction for middle and high school students, it’s important to get it, well, right. The meta-analysis was published in the Journal of Educational Psychology and used data from 406 previous ex…
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Promoting music education beyond the classroom
At its core, music is about self-expression and creativity. Music education also gives students a chance to reflect on their inner thoughts and helps struggling children build their confidence in a safe space.
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6 Tips for Building Trust as a School Leader | Waterford.org
Just like family-teacher partnerships, a strong relationship between teachers and administrators is important for ensuring that students have the academic support they need. At the heart of this partnership is trust—something that takes time and con…
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Exploring World History: Can a Skill-Based Curriculum Help? – Digital Promise
Whether you’re a social studies teacher, a scholar, or just someone who loves a juicy history podcast, most of us would agree that history class should be about more than just memorizing names and dates.
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Arthur Camins: The Lies That Protect the 1% | Diane Ravitch’s blog
Arthur Camins is a retired educator. This post appeared in The Daily Kos. Open the link to read the article in full.
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Thom Hartmann: The Fascists Start with Threats of Violence | Diane Ravitch’s blog
I am a fan girl of Thom Hartmann. I don’t know how he manages to produce deeply thoughtful, deeply researched articles at a fast clip. This is another great one, about the use of threats, intimidation and violence to achieve rightwing goals.
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Why You Need To Bring More Humor To Your Classroom Smart Classroom Management
No, you don’t have to be riotously funny. You don’t have to prepare daily jokes and stories. You don’t even have to try to make your students laugh. But you do need to prioritize humor in your classroom.
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Sneak Peak: Practical AI Strategies [Out January 31] – Leon Furze
Practical AI Strategies will be published January 31st by Amba Press and will be available internationally and in both hard copy and digital formats.
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NASA’s PACE To Investigate Oceans, Atmospheres in Changing Climate – NASA Science
Earth’s oceans and atmosphere are changing as the planet warms. Some ocean waters become greener as more microscopic organisms bloom. In the atmosphere, dust storms born on one continent affect the air quality of another, while smoke from massive wi…
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NEW YORK and HELSINKI, Jan. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — ARound, the pioneering shared augmented reality (AR) platform, part of Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), is excited to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Immersal, leaders in spatial computing and A…
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Magic Milk Experiment: How-To Plus Free Worksheet – We Are Teachers
This fun experiment is a classic for a reason! In the magic milk experiment, kids learn about simple chemical reactions and physical properties using only a few ingredients. Read on to see how to do the experiment, and fill out the form on this page…
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Coding and Robotics in ELA Classrooms | Edutopia
Coding can help middle school students gain a deeper understanding of ELA concepts and build problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
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Energy in High School Physics Labs | Edutopia
This lab allows teachers to differentiate instruction as students build a working conveyor belt to test how energy transfer works. Students constantly experience the effects of different types of energy transformations.
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8 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2024 | Cult of Pedagogy
Well, it’s January! And that means it’s the time when I put out a new edition of my Teacher’s Guide to Tech. This is now the TENTH edition of the guide, and as always, because it keeps improving, I’m gonna say this is the best edition yet.
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Last week, I presented as a part of Pear Deck’s Pear Fair 2020. My presentation was Pear Deck 101 for Google Slides. During the presentation, there was a live chat. Many people said it went too fast for a 101 Session. Luckily, it was recorded so i…
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Battelle Climate Challenge – Science for All
Battelle is running a climate challenge for high school students called the Battelle Climate Challenge. Students in grades 9-12 are tasked with researching and addressing climate-related hazards in their communities, such as drought, wildfire, flood…
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How to Teach About AI: A Simple Free Lesson Anyone Can Teach
When we start discussing AI, they don’t know it. Some teachers are curious about how to teach about AI. Maybe this glimpse into the resources and methods I use with my 9th graders (and later in the semester, 8th grade) will give you some ideas.
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9 Tips for Using AI for Learning (and Fun!) | Edutopia
These innovative, AI-driven activities will help you engage students across grade levels and subject areas. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools exploded onto the scene in the last school year.
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From The U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum: The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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5 strategies for turning boredom into brilliance
As someone who began teaching in middle school, I’ve had plenty of firsthand experience dealing with boredom in the classroom. Most educators will recognize the signs: students sleeping during class, students watching the clock, students daydreaming…
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5 Reasons Why Education Leaders Need to Consider AI – Education Elements
Imagine a new educational paradigm: virtual tutors provide real-time assistance, ensuring no students are left behind. Interactive simulations and virtual reality experiences engage learners in immersive educational adventures, making lessons come a…
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Everything We Know About Ocean Plastic Pollution So Far | The Ocean Cleanup – YouTube
Ocean plastic pollution is a global emergency. Trillions of pieces of plastic waste are floating in our oceans right now – and solving a challenge so huge requires understanding the facts behind the problem. This is our understanding of ocean plasti…
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7 Things Teachers Should Never Do in a Parent Meeting
At some point, every teacher will have to attend a meeting to discuss a classroom issue (or issues) with a parent. While most of these meetings are a totally cordial, non-issue, standard part of the job, there are, of course, the outliers.
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How to Edit Photos in Canva Like a Pro! – YouTube
Dive into the world of photo editing magic with Canva! In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the powerful features of Canva’s Magic Tools, helping you transform your photos into visual masterpieces. From instant background removal to effortless …
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How to Edit Photos in Canva Like a Pro! – YouTube
Dive into the world of photo editing magic with Canva! In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the powerful features of Canva’s Magic Tools, helping you transform your photos into visual masterpieces. From instant background removal to effortless …
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5 Key Policy Considerations for Regulating AI in Classrooms | Tech & Learning
Institutions across all industries are grappling with how to address the continuing growth of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their environments. Educators are no different as AI tools have already impacted the fabric of the classroom and facu…
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4 Lessons From California’s Teaching with AI Guidance | Tech & Learning
California was one of the first two states, along with Oregon, to release guidelines for teaching and learning with AI.
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Creating a Flexible, Vibrant Classroom Learning Environment
As an elementary 5th grade teacher I teach all subject areas, and each one requires its own learning configuration.
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4 lessons learned about AI in 2023
As a forward-thinker in the realm of education, I’m constantly exploring how emerging tools and strategies shape learning. Each year I share my predictions about these trends. (Here’s a look at my 2023 predictions.
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The Problem with Plastics — Cool Infographics
This infographic shares the depressing small amount of plastic that gets recycled. Information is Beautiful created The Problem with Plastics infographic by visualizing data by Geyer et al, Science Advances, back in 2017.
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Betsy Potash Shares How to Use Hexagonal Thinking to Improve Discussions – John Spencer
In this episode, Betsy Potash shares how to use hexagonal thinking to improve classroom discussions. She walks you through some of the potential applications at various grade levels with different subject areas.
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Back to School with Generative AI: A FAQ for Schools and Universities – Leon Furze
If 2023 was the year Generative AI dropped on us from a great height, then 2024 looks like the year for the tech to grow out of its “move fast and break things” phase. In education, it’s time to have some serious conversations about where we go from…
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Across Australia, students are receiving and digesting important exam results. University students began receiving their semester 2 results at the end of November. This week and early next week, Year 12 students are also receiving their final marks.
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Mind Mapping: A Teacher’s Secret Weapon | ideamapper
Traditional assessments often rely heavily on written exams or quizzes, which may not fully capture a student’s depth of understanding. Mind maps provide teachers with a visual representation of a student’s knowledge.
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Have You Brought AI Dungeon Into Your Classroom? – AI Advisory Boards
AI Dungeon is an AI-powered text-based role-playing game (RPG) that offers a unique gaming experience. Unlike most games where you experience worlds created by game designers, with AI Dungeon, you can direct the AI to create worlds, characters, and …
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Martin Luther King Jr. for Kids (Google Slides, Videos, and More)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. might be the most recognizable name in American civil rights history. We celebrate this inspirational leader on the third Monday of January each year, but his life and legacy are valuable lessons all year long. Use these r…
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After-school STEM program builds on Indigenous knowledge – Washington STEM
Wishram High School on the Columbia River hosts after-school programs that integrate programming on Indigenous cultural knowledge and learning about the local river habitat. The program now serves more than 140+ students, many from Tribal communitie…
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The mystery of the Cahokia Mounds | Popular Science
Just a river’s crossing away from St. Louis, Missouri, rests an ancient and mysterious anthropological site that few Americans know of. Scholars still discuss the potential reasons for the demise of Cahokia, a massive settlement that may have housed…
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Schools can feel totalitarian to many students | @mcleod
I participated in a Twitter conversation yesterday that bounced around a bit. I believe that most of the folks I conversed with were from the United Kingdom. I also believe that many of them were in favor of what we might call ‘strict discipline’ in…
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Why We Need to Expand Close Reading Beyond the Printed Page
By Jason D. DeHart This third post in a series about what reading and literacy means in today’s world addresses the question: What does it mean to read closely when there are so many different ways for students to engage with text today?
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Levels Of Integration For Critical Thinking –
A Basic Framework For Teaching Critical Thinking In School by Terrell Heick In What Does Critical Thinking Mean?, we offered that ‘(c)ritical thinking is the suspension of judgment while identifying biases and underlying assumptions to draw accurate…
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Real World Math Lessons | 3 Act Math Tasks | Math Worksheets & Practice
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How to turn handwritten notes into digital text | Popular Science
Whether it’s a piece of paper covered with notes or a whiteboard crammed with scribbled ideas, don’t you wish you could just copy those words and paste them somewhere else? It turns out you can.
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Thom Hartmann: How Reagan’s Tax Cuts Expanded Inequality | Diane Ravitch’s blog
One of the most memorable books I have read is The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. They argue that the happiest societies are the ones with the most equality.
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A Principal’s Reflections: System for Educational Transformation (SET)
As we navigate the shifting currents of the educational landscape, it’s clear that transformative change is not just necessary—it’s inevitable. To foster an environment where every student thrives, we must reimagine our approach to education from th…
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Video: “How The World SOUNDS To Animals” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
PicsbyFran / Pixabay I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes:
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Julie Smith – Media Literacy Education since 1997
TikTok’s in the news constantly, whether it’s stories about our decreasing attention spans or threats to national security. Today’s TikTok… I’m super thrilled to share the sketchnotes that were created during my “Hive Summit” talk this summer. I lov…
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This service is one step you can take to help remove online nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photos and videos taken before you were 18.
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Checking for Bias in AI Outputs | Edutopia
When students use generative artificial intelligence, they need methods to check for biases that may skew results to prompts.
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Time-Saving AI Tools for Teachers | Edutopia
New edtech tools are making it easier for teachers to complete tasks like generating lessons and providing differentiated texts, freeing up time for them to work with students.