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As the 9th largest school district in the state of Ohio, the Hilliard City School District serves more than 15,500 students in grades K-12, through three high schools, three middle schools, two sixth-grade schools and 14 elementary schools.

Friday, August 19, 2011

August 19, 2011


Starting the School Year Right


“When children return to school after the summer break, their perceptions about school and about themselves as learners are mostly uncertain. It’s a new year with new teachers, new books, new classes, new schedules and new friends. All of these novelties come with the hope this year could be different and better than all previous years.”


As we embark on a new year, this short piece by Thomas Guskey brings some important reminders of the hope, confidence, and optimism we can all strive to strengthen and secure within our students. It also drives home the significance of our first characteristic of highly effective teachers: “The highly effective teacher sets appropriately challenging goals and then structures situations so that students can reach these goals.” Let’s encourage our teachers to hold high expectations for all students, establish realistic, yet challenging goals, and create opportunities for plenty of success during the 2011-2012 school year!

Starting the School Year Right



Looking Back to Look Forward

"Yes today because of technology and our global economy and this new world we live in there is more of a focus on what we call 21st Century learning and it needs to be the norm rather than the exception but it is not something new."


As we continue to frame our conversations around 21st Century Learning, Greenblatt reminds us that we are not re-creating the wheel in terms of our instruction.  Instead, we are simply narrowing our focus and providing our students with more opportunities to be creative, critically thin, work with one another and communicate their learning.


Looking Back to Look Forward


 Using Social Media to Reach Your Community


As levy season approaches for the Hilliard City School community, administrators are considering the most effective ways to communicate with internal and external stakeholders.  At every opportunity, others need to hear a convincing message for the necessity of  a “Yes” on the ballot in November.  In the article, Using Social Media to Reach Your Community, a practicing principal states,  “Unlike traditional forms of communication such as snail mail and press releases, I can provide updates in real time as events happen, on Twitter and in Facebook. Since society as a whole is actively using social media, it only makes sense to connect with my community through these means.”  (E. Sheninger, personal communication, September 30, 2010)

Using Social Media to Reach Your Community
 
 
Kids Predict the Future of Technology
 
“Asking kids to predict the future of technology. Why not? It’s their future……Kids are asking for computers to look, feel, sound-and-interact- more like humans, says Jessica Reinis, a senior research analyst at Latitude who led the study and who specializes in creative methodologies for researching with children. In many cases, it’s not enough to have a machine that simply completes a task for the; kids today have a strong bent toward independent learning, creation, and artistic endeavors, and they are looking for technologies that can teach them and really engage them in new ways.”



This article delves into what appeals to kids with regard to future technology. Interestingly, but not surprising, they want to be active participants who have social communication privileges. They want human-like responses with devices that are an extension of themselves. This sounds a lot like the book that we are going to read in the iGeneration Seminar. Our second book, Infinite Reality by Jeremy Bailenson, explores the future of virtual classrooms where students will be taught by avatars who look just like them. He predicts that this idea will be a reality in the near future. Based on the research done for this article, it is notion that kids are desiring.


If you haven’t yet registered for the iGeneration Seminar, now is a great time to do that so you can be included in the discussions surrounding classrooms of the future!

Kids Predict the Future of Technology
 


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