The findingDulcinea Blog

Examples of Innovative Teaching Practices

 Since September 2006, we've been curating content and creating innovative tools to help educators integrate the Internet into their curriculum, and teach students how to use the Internet effectively.

A barrier to the wide adoption of our products is the status quo - textbooks and other crude tools from the 19th century that remain the primary method by which students learn. We've attended dozens of education conferences in the past two years, and have met thousands of passionate educators who are determined to bring about their own version of education reform - one that is focused on students. The goal of these efforts is to create a new system of education that is relevant to and engages students, addresses them as individuals, lets them develop their passions, and encourages the development of skills they'll need to succeed when they graduate, not the skills their parents needed when they graduated 30 years ago.

With the explosive growth in social media, it has become easier to interact with these educators on a daily basis, rather than at once-a-month conferences. The number of solid examples of innovative teaching practices we're seeing is growing exponentially. Here, we'll share just a few that we've come across recently.

In a blog post aptly titled, "Own It," Andy Marcinek writes of how he assigned his English 101: College Composition course what he termed, "not a standard, written essay, but a focused collection of media that they will use to inform, to persuade, to challenge or defend." He gave them a simple writing prompt, and then had them gather links, images, videos, and other media to synthesize, with his guidance, into a final presentation. Andy explains, "I am making an attempt to harness all the great resources we have available at the moment. I feel it is my moral obligation as a teacher to open up all learning avenues to them, not hide them." He then provides a new prompt, this one for his fellow educators: his work is "not the pinnacle of classroom innovation. It is a start. It is an idea that I hope you steal, remix and make your own, for your own students. Don’t we owe them that?"

One educator who feels Marcinek's sense of obligation to students is Lisa Neilsen, Technology Innovation Manager in NYC's public schools. In "Advice for Choosing Pages, Groups or Profiles When Using Facebook for Education," Neilsen gives advice and specific examples of educators who are using Facebook to teach, collaborate with students, and communicate with students, parents and others in the community. Nielsen writes that, "in schools where we’re doing what is right for kids, you see engaged youth who use the filter between their ears to determine how to best access information. Students are empowered rather than restricted from using personally owned digital devices in school.  At these schools they understand that people, not tools, have behavior.  Fortunately, more and more often these schools that mirror the real world are starting to crop up." 

One of the exemplars that Neilsen cites is Michelle Luhtala, whose library program at New Canaan High won the ALA's 2010 National School Library Media Program of the Year. Luhtala maintains separate personal and professional profiles on Facebook, as well as a Page for her library. In response to Nielsen's post, Luthala explains how friending students through her professional profile enabled her to, among other things, (i) get student input for the post, at 10 pm on a Friday night, (ii) collaborate with two groups of students who decided to enter a video contest at the last minute, and (iii) coordinate a trip by a large group of students to Philadelphia, for a Model UN.

Another teacher who is a living example of effective and innovative practices  is Pulaski (WI) High School English teacher Kim Noe, recent winner of the "Golden Apple Award" from the Green Bay (WI) Chamber of Commerce. According to the Green Bay Press Gazete, Noe's philosophy when it comes to technology is that students, “don’t turn it off very often, so why not tap into it?" The Gazette reports that, in Noe's classes, "tasks like memorizing vocabulary words are accompanied by related YouTube videos," students receive MP3 files with feedback to essays, and authors visit via Skype. Further, Noe chats with students every night on Facebook; she says, “I have found Facebook is one of the greatest tools to reach kids I could imagine.” How do the students react to Noe's practices? Her co-principal, Dan Slowey, tells the Gazette, “it becomes kind of a small, close-knit family in those classrooms.”

The last "practices" I want to note were not actually put into place by a classroom teacher; they were suggested by Ashley Appozardi, a student teacher who is observing classes. She sat in on the class of a teacher reviewing fractions, in the wake of a test where students had not performed well. In Azzopardi's view, the teacher:

"- Moved through the questions very quickly

- Did not give the students enough time to answer her questions

- Did not rub off the writing on the whiteboard once moved onto the next question

- Did not provide much praise to the students

- Did not allow the students to write anything in their books

- Did not allow the students to use concrete materials, and

- Did not use the interactive whiteboard."

Azzopardi believes that the students learned little from the lesson.

She echoes the calls from Marcinek and Nielsen to build upon the innovative work of other educators, as she writes, "we need to acknowledge that our students have changed radically. The educational system wasn’t designed to teach today’s students....Adapting materials to the language of this generation has already been done successfully, in particular the creation of games which help teach the content, even the most serious....I can only imagine how different that lesson could have been if the interactive whiteboard had been turned on. Instead of the students looking out the window, hoping not to be the one chosen to answer a confusing question next, they could have been excited, engaged, learning and participating in a visual and interactive math lesson."

These four educators are a very small sample of the passionate educators from all over the world who are beginning to offer up examples of innovative, and effective, teaching practices for educators to follow.

Mark E. Moran
CEO

 

In the comments, please offers your own examples that you invite others to "steal, remix and make [their] own."

The Importance of Great Educators, Again

Six months ago, we blogged about the importance of great educators. It's a topic we celebrate regularly, particularly in Educators That Rock, a series of profiles of educators that inspire us. The occasion then was an article we had written about how difficult it can be for students from rural communities to apply to top colleges. We spoke with Angela Bakker-Lee, who had ventured from a rural town to Stanford University, a Marshall Scholarship and a career as a healthcare consultant. Angela credited several of her teachers, particularly Linda Lee Tatro, for helping Angela recognize and realize her potential:

"I have no doubt that knowing her changed my life. She encouraged me in a way that no other teacher had up to that point. She had more confidence in me than I did. And I think she was the first adult to really talk to me."

This week, teachers came under attack from talk show hosts and many others who have spent little time in classrooms. They made broad statements about fixing "the" education system, as though it were a monolith with a fixed set of problems, rather than an amalgamation of individual districts spread across our federation of 50 states, each with its own particular problems to address - sometimes teachers, sometimes administrators or severe budget cuts or external phenomena, sometimes parents and students themselves.

Happily, I've also come across several more affirmations of the importance of great educators, and the impact they can have on students.

The greatest wisdom often comes out of the mouth of babes, as I learned, again, when I came across this two-year old video featuring Dalton Sherman, then a fifth grader. Addressing 20,000 educators in Dallas, he told them, using a rhetorical style as convincing as you'll ever hear:  "here’s the deal: I can do anything, be anything, create anything, dream anything, become anything -- because you believe in me, and it rubs off on me....In some cases, you're all we've got."

The next reminder came from our Interview of the Day from yesterday, featuring Maya Angelou. As so often seems to be the case, her early life was not what you'd ordinarily expect to lead to awards and nominations from Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer. At 7, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, which led her uncle to kill the rapist. Stunned by the episode, Angelou refused to speak for four years, and found solace only in poetry. In a 1987 interview with CBS Radio, Angelou explained how a teacher, Mrs. Flowers, conquered a 12 year-old trauma victim's refusal to speak:

"She said, 'you can’t love poetry. In order to love poetry, you must speak it. You must feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips.’ … She was trying to shock me. And one day I went under the house … and I tried poetry. And I had a voice. I had a voice.”

The final reminder this week came from a blog post written from the heart of Sarah Edson, a teacher at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conn. I met Sarah this summer at #ntcamp in Philadelphia, an educator managed "un-conference," a growing phenomenon in which teachers create their own professional development, on their own time, with their own money.

Anyone who has been to an un-conference would not broadly proclaim that teachers are the problem with "the" education system. #ntcamp was the starkest evidence I've seen yet of the profound commitment of many teachers to creating new, and relevant, approaches to education. Originally envisioned as a small program where experienced teachers would share tips with new teachers, #ntcamp was attended by more than 100 veteran educators who assembled at Boys' Latin Charter School at 8 a.m. on a 102-degree Saturday.

Many were from the greater Philly area, New Jersey and New York; plus dozens of out-of-towners such as retiree Jerry Blumengarten, up from Florida; Pam Moran and Paula White from Albemarle County, Virgina; Steve Anderson from Winston-Salem, NC; Kyle Pace from Lee's Summit, Missouri; Shannon Miller from Van Meter, Iowa; and Elizabeth and Kristina Peterson, sisters-in-law who drove 7 hours from New Hampshire, overnight, after attending a wedding till 11 p.m. the night before, and arriving in Philly at 6:30 a.m. It was an amazing day of learning from an inspiring group of educators.

Sarah Edson was one of the few relatively new teachers there, and evidently she also was quite inspired by it, as well as by lessons learned from her educator mother, who passed away a decade ago. Sarah poignantly relays the experience of tending to her terminally ill mother for weeks, and the powerful lessons it taught her about paying close attention to a person's needs. She concludes by vowing:

"I will continue to attempt to connect with each of my students, even in the face of unresponsiveness.  I will maintain hope.  I will celebrate each success.  And I will pay careful attention just in case I discover that a student, in her own way, has shown that she needs me."

It's here that I am supposed to conclude the post with a particular insight of my own. Instead, I invite you to re-read the words of Angela, Dalton, Maya and Sarah about the importance of great educators:

"I have no doubt that knowing her changed my life. She encouraged me in a way that no other teacher had up to that point. She had more confidence in me than I did. And I think she was the first adult to really talk to me."

"Here’s the deal: I can do anything, be anything, create anything, dream anything, become anything -- because you believe in me, and it rubs off on me....In some cases, you're all we've got."

"She said, 'you can’t love poetry. In order to love poetry, you must speak it. You must feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips.’ … She was trying to shock me. And one day I went under the house … and I tried poetry. And I had a voice. I had a voice.”

"I will continue to attempt to connect with each of my students, even in the face of unresponsiveness.  I will maintain hope.  I will celebrate each success.  And I will pay careful attention just in case I discover that a student, in her own way, has shown that she needs me."

Mark E. Moran
Founder & CEO

Sweet Sites | Don't Know Much About Music?

In the research section of our Web Guide to Music we’ve touted allmusic, an underrated encyclopedic resource of artist biographies and album reviews. If you’re reading a review of an album on Answers.com or in the iTunes Music Store, it often originates at allmusic.

Stream through your favorites in dozens of genres with Lala, a site that lets you both stream and download music. In a companion piece to this blog post on findingDulcinea, “Enjoying Music on the Web—Legally,” we discussed Lala and a few comparable sites. Lala stands out because of its extensive archive of 7 million songs, including classical, country, classic rock, pop, jazz and indie rock. Artist pages on Lala often include bios, as well as links to similar artists and Lala users who streamed or bought the artist.

Essentials of Music is a classical music destination with composer biographies, MP3 samples of their work and articles on major eras in classical music. The site is based on the W. W. Norton book title, “Essential Classics.”

Parents, get your children educated about classical music with Cincinnati Public Radio’s Classics for Kids, a site with radio shows, audio samples, articles on periods and composers, special features and games.

Mainstream and indie music fans alike will appreciate the new Billboard. The site used to be a hard-to-access database of music charts and news. Now it’s a glossy, colorful, multimedia-filled publisher with interactive music charts, news, interviews, concert coverage and more.

If you like Billboard, be sure to check out “5 Must-Book Music Sites,” a must-read for indie music fans that are just getting their feet wet online. It features five top sites in five categories—concert listings, MP3 blog, music magazine, lyric database and video site—as well as five runners-up.

Liz Colville
Senior Writer
Audience Development

Getting Acquainted With Blake Harrison of Flocabulary

Remember watching “Sesame Street” and learning the alphabet and some basic math skills? How about “Schoolhouse Rock” and learning the difference between an interjection and a conjunction, or how a bill becomes law? Did you forget how much fun learning could be?

Blake Harrison didn’t forget. Harrison, along with Alex Rappaport, founded Flocabulary, a teaching curriculum that uses educational hip-hop music to teach reading, vocabulary, math, science and social studies. The duo has taken their music on the road, held teaching workshops and created a current events series called The Week in Rap.

FindingEducation, a new tool that helps teachers save and share their favorite Web sites and assignments, spoke with Harrison about his inspiration for Flocabulary, how music enhances education and why teachers are seeing value in this unique approach. Read the full interview with Blake Harrison at findingEducation’s blog, Digital Teachers’ Lounge.

Introducing the On This Day Challenge

Today marks the official launch of findingDulcinea's brand new tool, findingEducation. It's an online resource that allows teachers and students to save and share their favorite Web sites, as well as post and share assignments with the findingEducation community. It's up and running now in alpha mode, and we'd love for you to sign up and take a look around.

In conjunction with findingEducation, we've launched the On This Day Challenge. We're asking students to write articles about historic events by conducting online research, with chances to win gift cards and cash and have their work published on findingDulcinea.

Click here to read everything teachers need to know about getting involved in the project. You'll find a section on motivating students to participate, advice for writing and researching an On This Day article, tips for evaluating Web sites, an FAQ and more. Learn about the mission behind findingEducation and the On This Day Challenge by reading our founder Mark Moran's message to the findingEducation community.

We'll be working toward building a community of teachers and students (and a collection of amazing Web resources) on findingEducation over the coming weeks and months, and would appreciate it if you'd spread the word. Sign up and tell your friends, whether they're teachers or parents, or just need a reminder of how much fun learning can be!

Sweet Sites | Swim the Web to Find Water Activities This Summer

It's hot outside; why not head to the water? We're continuing with last week's theme as we go in search of sites to help you find pools, beaches and water sports near you.

Swim.com will help you find a pool, public or private, in your area. The site contains entries from around the world and offers detailed information about each pool, including the pool's shape, whether it contains chlorine and if a lifeguard is on duty.

Keep your kids safe in the water by signing them up for swimming lessons. If you've never learned how to swim yourself, it's never too late to start. Swim.com also provides a database of swim instructors, listing name, years of experience, reviews (if any), rate and distance from you.

If you long for sand between your toes and the splashing of waves, Dr. Beach has just the right prescription for you. Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman provides a beach overview by U.S. region, and also issues a yearly list of the nation's best beaches.

Have fun (mostly) above the water with GORP's Paddling page, which offers resources to plan your next canoeing, kayaking or rafting trip, including information about where to go, what you'll need and how to improve your paddling technique.

Amy Goldschlager
Editor

Find your own "eureka!" sites using SweetSearch.

Consult our Travel Guides for sites to help you with more location-specific fun this summer.

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Sweet Sites | Use the Web to Find Summertime Fun, Wherever You Are

The temperature's warming up and you've got some free time, but you have absolutely no idea what to do with this glorious opportunity. Here are some sites that can help you with this high-quality problem.

Festivals.com allows you to search for U.S. events by region and type, including fairs, sporting events, crafts expos and motor shows. The site is particularly strong on music events; find out who's playing where in a variety of genres from alternative to zydeco.

Whatsonwhen offers information about intriguing events happening across the globe. Search by keyword or browse by destination or event type to learn more about a wide range of activities that includes both the North American Sand Soccer Championships in Virginia and the Baby-Jumping Colacho Festival in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain.

If your summer simply must involve a screaming tour of a roller coaster or a spin on the Ferris wheel, consult Theme Park Insider for help planning your next trip to the amusement park. The site offers reviews, park safety news and advice, tips to shorten your wait on ride lines, hotel information and more. 

Amy Goldschlager
Editor

Find your own "eureka!" sites using SweetSearch.

Consult our Travel Guides if you're looking for sites to help you with more location-specific trip-planning.

Get "Sweet Sites" in your inbox once a week.

Kicking Off the Summer on a Positive Note

Memorial Day may have started as a tribute to war veterans following the Civil War, but in modern times, it also marks the beginning of summer and is often celebrated with cookouts, parades and general warm-weather revelry. Although Weather.com says it’s expected to be rainy “for much of the nation” this weekend, that won’t stop millions of us from taking day or weekend trips to visit family, or explore new or familiar getaway spots.

This summer, we're in a recession, but that needn’t make us any more glum. Recent polls encouragingly suggest that money isn’t strongly tied to happiness. One poll by the Associated Press and mtvU shows that a higher percentage of college students are happier this year than they were last year. Many people are stressed about the economy and job market, including college students, but there is also evidence that those with higher incomes aren’t necessarily happier than those who aren’t. Education level more strongly correlates with happiness, says a study by Britain’s National Literacy Trust, so take some time this summer to feed your mind.

The recession “may actually be good for people,” as our positive news columnist Anne Szustek wrote earlier this week. Follow the lead of New Yorkers, who are reportedly volunteering more, shirking their “self-insulating” stigma. For families, summer is an especially active time, and it shouldn’t be any different this year. Sticking together and sharing experiences is even more important now. Find affordable alternatives for your family to enjoy this summer.

Liz Colville
Senior Writer
Audience Development

Sweet Sites | Play the Game: Reconnecting with Childhood Games on the Web

Nostalgic for the games you played when you were a kid? Here are three sites that can help you recapture those old memories and potentially share your childhood fun with your own children.

If the happiest moments of your youth involved tossing away all your quarters at the arcade, you might enjoy KLOV (Killer List of Videogames), sponsored by the International Arcade Museum. Search or browse the alphabet for detailed information and images of classics like "Burger Time" and more recent favorites like "Dance Dance Revolution." If you have hundreds of dollars and the floor space to spare, the site also includes whatever eBay listings for the game are available. Those with thinner wallets but deep devotion might be interested in purchasing the game manuals.

If your pulse used to race to the clatter of dice, the fluttering of cards and the march of plastic game pieces, than BoardGameGeek, a database of more than 30,000 board games, is for you. Plug in the name of your favorite board game into the search box for a brief description, images, forums discussing game play and listings for the game on eBay and the site's own marketplace. If you've got information about a particular game that appears to be missing from the site, you can add what you know via an online form.

Maybe you preferred to spend most of your kid downtime outdoors; in that case, visit GamesKidsPlay. The site isn't particularly elegant, but it does have a nice long list of rules for playground games, as well as jump rope and clapping game rhymes. If you're desperate to remember exactly how to play Red Light/Green Light," "Steal the Bacon" or "Spud," this site is an answer to your prayers.

Amy Goldschlager
Editor

Find your own "eureka" sites using SweetSearch.

Consult our Video Games Web Guide for more sites that will connect you with video games new and old.

The Significance of Brand Identity

Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP

One of the stories we recently published on encontrandoDulcinea dealt with the outrage with which fans received the new “tween” edition of the TV cartoon character, “Dora the Explorer."

Dora and her animal friends are extremely popular Nickelodeon characters that appeal to an audience made up mostly of preschoolers. Because of its quality educational content that aims to teach kids about language and other essential skills, parents love the show. Dora has an ample fan base among Spanish speakers as well; early on after the release of the original show in 2000, Nickelodeon launched its Spanish version.

But when toy maker Mattel, in association with Nickelodeon, announced the release of a new edition of the Dora doll, aimed for kids between five and eight years of age, parents were outraged. The new doll is meant to be an older version of the tomboyish Dora, and has long hair and “shapely” legs.

Not only did parents and fans disapprove of the “voluptuousness” of the doll’s new look, they also felt cheated because of the radical change in a brand they had given their loyalty to.

Though it might seem trivial, this story illustrates the importance of building, and maintaining, the identity of a brand, particularly one that has so successfully captured the hearts of their customers.

For more on brand identity, check out our series "What's Next?," which has covered such companies as Nike, Trader Joe's, Costco, Target, Patagonia and Digg.

Anita Gutierrez-Folch
Senior Writer