The New Frontier

What you focus on expands in your life...

67 notes

world-shaker: 6 Expert Tips for Flipping the Classroom A great list. Here’s one of my favorites: 3) Step aside and allow students to learn from each other. “Pre-class, my students access digital readings using a web-based, collaborative PDF annotation tool called NB, which was designed by MIT,” says Mazur. “I have been truly impressed by the energy with which my students dive into the readings. I thought I would need to give much more extrinsic motivation [for them] to do that, but the answer is no, not at all. “Within a couple of weeks, my 35 students created 2,000 annotations in their text, discussing the readings asynchronously with each other. Their discussions were incredibly thorough, exciting, and in-depth. Yet, every time I participated in the NB annotations, I killed the discussion among the students, because I was seen as the authority. It stopped them from working it out on their own and finding the solution. [Now] I participate only if there is a situation where they are completely and utterly stuck.” This is awesome.

world-shaker:

6 Expert Tips for Flipping the Classroom

A great list. Here’s one of my favorites:

3) Step aside and allow students to learn from each other. “Pre-class, my students access digital readings using a web-based, collaborative PDF annotation tool called NB, which was designed by MIT,” says Mazur. “I have been truly impressed by the energy with which my students dive into the readings. I thought I would need to give much more extrinsic motivation [for them] to do that, but the answer is no, not at all.

“Within a couple of weeks, my 35 students created 2,000 annotations in their text, discussing the readings asynchronously with each other. Their discussions were incredibly thorough, exciting, and in-depth. Yet, every time I participated in the NB annotations, I killed the discussion among the students, because I was seen as the authority. It stopped them from working it out on their own and finding the solution. [Now] I participate only if there is a situation where they are completely and utterly stuck.”

This is awesome.

66 notes

lbjlibrary:

April 7, 1965. LBJ delivers the speech called “Peace Without Conquest” at Johns Hopkins University. He compares the needs of the Vietnamese people to the needs of the people of rural America, specifically the Hill Country of Texas. As a young Congressman, LBJ had helped to bring electricity to his impoverished district. 

“We often say how impressive power is. But I do not find it impressive at all. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols. They protect what we cherish. But they are witness to human folly.

“A dam built across a great river is impressive.

“In the countryside where I was born, and where I live, I have seen the night illuminated, and the kitchens warmed, and the homes heated, where once the cheerless night and the ceaseless cold held sway. And all this happened because electricity came to our area along the humming wires of the REA. Electrification of the countryside—yes, that, too, is impressive.

“A rich harvest in a hungry land is impressive. The sight of healthy children in a classroom is impressive. These—not mighty arms—are the achievements which the American Nation believes to be impressive.

“And, if we are steadfast, the time may come when all other nations will also find it so.” 

Former President Eisenhower called LBJ to praise the speech the next day. Full speech text here. 

Excellent source to use in a classroom.

(via ourpresidents)

Filed under History education History education

1,051 notes

good: A Library for the Subway- Adele Peters posted in Design, Product Design and Technology Let’s say you’re stuck on the F train, trying to ignore the person coughing on you, a screaming baby, and a someone staring creepily. (No, I’m not describing my morning). Wish you hadn’t forgotten a book? Here’s an interesting idea from a group of design students: using tech to bring you the first 10 pages of a popular book on your phone, and then telling you the nearest public library where you can go pick up the actual book. Nice way to possibly get more people back in libraries. Awesome… And they could provide entire texts of books that are free for digital download.

good:

A Library for the Subway
- Adele Peters posted in Design, Product Design and Technology

Let’s say you’re stuck on the F train, trying to ignore the person coughing on you, a screaming baby, and a someone staring creepily. (No, I’m not describing my morning). Wish you hadn’t forgotten a book? Here’s an interesting idea from a group of design students: using tech to bring you the first 10 pages of a popular book on your phone, and then telling you the nearest public library where you can go pick up the actual book. Nice way to possibly get more people back in libraries.

Awesome… And they could provide entire texts of books that are free for digital download.

Filed under Education lit reading books

69,274 notes

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

Gary Provost (via qmsd)

This might be my favourite quote on writing ever.

(via bdoing)

I’ve lost count on how many times i have reblogged this. Still, I feel the need to do so everytime I see it.

(via choquefrontal)

This is awesome.

(via betheteacheryouloved)

Filed under Education Writing

246 notes

ourpresidents:

One of FDR’s most famous State of the Union Addresses: The “Four Freedoms” Speech

In his State of the Union Address on January 6, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt presented his reasons for continued aid to Great Britain and greater production of war industries at home. In helping Britain, President Roosevelt stated, the United States was fighting for the universal freedoms that all people possessed.

As America entered the war these “four freedoms” - the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear - symbolized America’s goals.

The famous Four Freedoms paragraphs of the State of the Union did not appear in the speech until the fourth draft. Read More

Images: “Four Freedoms” posters by Norman Rockwell’.

-from the FDR Library

Great to give students the images to analyze before reading the text of the speech!

Filed under Education history social studies Teaching