Carolina Classrooms: Making College Affordable 2018

eschoolnews | January 16, 2019

Today, education is far more flexible and collaborative than a generation ago, and technology is key in enabling teachers to quickly adapt lesson plans to suit the moment’s activity. Having multiple screens that a teacher or student can wirelessly project to, along with the ability to switch between sources in seconds, means that teachers aren’t tied to the front of the classroom any more. They are free to roam around to small groups, to see what students are working on simultaneously, and to call attention to particularly high-quality work or ideas that challenge and stimulate.But all that technology does students little good if it can’t function properly because your school’s IT infrastructure isn’t up to the job. At Central Coast Grammar School in Australia, when Director of Teaching and Learning Damon Cooper pushed for more flexible and collaborative classrooms, we knew we would have to redefine our infrastructure.For more than a year, Cooper piloted his vision of multi-screen classrooms by piecing together whatever spare parts we had on hand. If I retired a screen from another part of the school or had a spare from a bulk purchase, he wanted it. Over that period, Cooper worked closely with me to prototype his vision. That work functioned as a proof of concept and fit nicely with our strategic plan, which called for an increased focus on digital literacy, greater collaboration, and developing students who can produce and publish digital work.

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Education Dive | December 12, 2018

Co-teaching is a mainstay of inclusion-styled classrooms, but the model requires more than just assigning two educators to a class. Teachers need time to plan and even develop a working relationship that benefits students, according to Education Week.While numbers are difficult to find, co-teaching appears to be on the rise. Still, research is mixed on whether the process is effective or not, according to the Division of Learning Disabilities and Division of Research of the Council for Exceptional Children, the article says. They say to “use caution,” when deciding to adopt the practice.Teachers also must learn a new style of educating children, one that accounts for another educator in the classroom who is not there as support, but as an equal partner in a child’s learning.When students have more time to spend with teachers in the classroom, they benefit from the increased attention. Teachers can focus on more differentiated instruction, but there is also more “social integration,” among students who may traditionally be kept in separate silos such as those with special needs, according to the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

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