Did you know that up to 40% of the population in the United States, including children, has one or more chronic conditions? More than 75% of healthcare costs are related to chronic illnesses and 8% of children from ages 5 to 17 have life-affecting limits due to chronic conditions. These facts mean something important for… Read More
Learning is a very personal experience. So much of a student’s ability to learn is dictated by context. Not just because of the framing of lesson plans, but by how aspects of their lives inform and affect their ability to grasp concepts. No educator wants a student to be left behind. It’s not always possible… Read More
Empowering your students to take the lead and develop strong leadership skills is one of the best gifts you can give them. It sets them up for success in the future, even if they’re not aware of it now. However, cultivating leadership practices within your classroom can be a challenging task unless you know how… Read More
School time is precious and usually rather inflexible, but some schools are adding a little more flexibility and personalization into their learning time to the benefit of students. The concept is called “flex time” or “W.I.N. Time” which stands for “What I Need Time.” Getting flexible about learning time Most schools are pretty locked into… Read More
Google Translate is an astonishing program. It converts words and even whole sentences back and forth from dozens of languages through multiple modalities; you can type, handwrite, scan, and even say whatever you want to communicate. Its accuracy—at least in French, German, and Spanish, the three languages that I speak—is surprisingly good. At worst, Translate… Read More
Recently, I went back to school for the first time in 20 years. Although I was at the university every day teaching until about two years ago and have often taken adult-education courses, I hadn’t been a student in a class for credit since 1997. (In case you’re wondering, I recently celebrated my third 28th… Read More
When I was in graduate school, I saw a short film about cultural norms in France. One scene featured two people greeting each other in Paris’s Jardin de Luxembourg. After the archetypal bises on each cheek, the young man in the film asked the older woman, “Ça va?” Instead of saying simply, “Oui, merci.” she… Read More
One must start from that which is barely knowable but knowable to oneself and try to know what is knowable without qualification, passing, as has been said, by way of those very things which one does know. —Aristotle, Metaphyics As someone who does research for HotChalk’s Learning Design team, I am in the process… Read More
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” —Albert Einstein, US (German-born) physicist (1879 – 1955), no original source given As news and social media make readily apparent today, almost any subject can be controversial. In fact, contentious debate has become an ersatz form of… Read More
Teaching online is not like working with students face to face. Instructors cannot rely on real-time feedback, such as students’ reactions and classroom atmosphere, to judge the effectiveness of an activity or indeed an entire lesson. A successful online experience depends on finding other means to connect with students. Teachers of online classes must see… Read More