Here's the page to upload your outside reading summaries/reflections. Just click EDIT, then FILE (on toolbar), browse for the file and UPLOAD. Once uploaded, double-click on file's icon and it'll appear on this page. Then click SAVE.




Selected chapter from Whitaker, T. (2003). What great teachers do differently. Eye on Education.
This selection was about basing our teaching on three principles: what is the purpose, will this actually accomplish the purpose, and what will the best people think. It focuses on not teaching to the middle, but teaching to the best students in class, and treating all students as if they were the best students. I think this chapter is important because it questions the way we do things as teachers and offers a different approach. It is a good reminder that we need to think through why we chose activities and evaluate them for their effectiveness. Submitted by Esther McCauley.


This website provides clear guidance and tips for implementing collaborative learning in your classroom. The site features commonly asked questions with responses, tips for troubleshooting, and video showing collaborative learning in progress.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index.html

This website, hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology, gives some good criteria for establishing collaborative learning in an online environment.
http://online.rit.edu/faculty/teaching_strategies/collaborative_learning/strategies.cfm

This website, although geared towards using collaborative learning in a university environment, provides tips for designing, organizing, and evaluating group work. It also includes a long list of references related to collaborative learning.
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html
Submitted by Esther McCauley, 10/5/10.


http://www.vimeo.com/15732859
This short video focuses on a small school in New York where multimodalities are the focus of the learning environment. This school uses game design as a way to teach students about systems. Using game design, the students learn in an environment where it is ok to take risks and make errors. It is a great video about the benefits of using technology in schools and provides explanations on why it is important to teach in a way that students already understand. Submitted by Esther McCauley, 11/17/10.