http://www.geocities.com/teachers2teachers/newfcatexpand.html
Bringing Technology into the Classroom
A discussion
The minimal level is "hand out DVDs for parents and kids to watch at home on TV."
the next level up is "hand out CDs to watch on computers."
The third level up is "bring in cameras and make short videos with the students."
Fourth level: “videotape oral exams.” Howard Gardner defines this method of evaluation as "performances of understanding." Here is a short quote.
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When it comes to probing a student’s understanding of evolution, the shrewd pedagogue looks beyond the mastery of dictionary definitions or the recitation of textbook examples. A student demonstrates or “performs” his understanding when he can examine a range of species found in different ecological niches and speculate about the reasons for their particular ensemble of traits. A student performs her understanding of the Holocaust when she can compare events in a Nazi concentration camp to such contemporary genocidal events as those in Bosnia, Kosovo or Rwanda in the 1990s. “Measures of understanding” may seem demanding, particularly in contract to current, often superficial, efforts to measure what students know and are able to do. And, indeed, recourse to performing one’s understanding is likely to stress students, teachers, and parents, who have grown accustomed to traditional ways of doing(or NOT doing) things. Nonetheless, a performance approach to understanding is justified. Instead of mastering content, one thinks about the reason why a particular content is being taught and how best to display one’s comprehension of this content in a publicly accessible way. When students realize they will have to apply knowledge and demonstrate insights in a public form, they assume a more active stance to the material, seeking to exercise their “performance muscles” whenever possible. Page 160 to 161 Intelligence Reframed by Howard Gardner Pages 162.. But it is likely that we have avoided assessing understanding because doing so takes time and because we have lacked confidence that we will actually find clear evidence of understanding. Thanks to hundreds of studies during the past few decades by psychologists and educators, we now know one truth about understanding: Most students in most schools, cannot exhibit appreciable understandings of important ideas. Teachers need to assess students' understanding not simply at the end of the course but through regular interim practice performances. If individuals indeed have different kinds of minds, with varied strengths, interests and strategies, then it is worth considering whether pivotal curricular materials like biology could be taught AND ASSESSED in a variety of ways. p. 167
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Teachers would do well to use cameras to capture the students’ understandings. Review of those performances by parents would help teachers communicate to parents and students what is seen in the classroom.
S McCrea, www.VisualandActive.com

Look for SAT Words at FreeVocabulary.com

Where can you find lists of SAT words? 

 

1. Go to my web site www.TeachersToTeachers.com and click on SAT. 

 

2. Go to www.FreeVocabulary.com and print a page.  There are 50 words on each page, a total of 100 pages. 

 

Do you have tips that you would like to share?   Write to me at s2314@tmail.com (my cell phone’s email address) or at mistermath@comcast.net.  

 

Steve Mac

SAT Tutor

 

 

How can you help your kid improve on the SAT?

Here's how you as a parent can help your kid improve on the SAT.

I'm a tutor. Dozens of parents spend thousands of dollars on my services each year ... to help their kids with homework. Yes, just to finish homework.

I usually mention some of the following tips when I am sitting with the kid. I feel that it's important to get homework done, but it's MORE important that we all look at the bigger picture.

Who care's if your kid got a D or a C or even if he failed a course. If he has a 700 out of 800 in the verbal SAT, he's going somewhere. If your daughter gets a 720 in the math section (yes, she can!), then it doesn't matter if she failed a couple math courses.


TIPS
1. Do lots of SAT questions. You can find SAT questions in workbooks and on www.Number2.com (a FABULOUS web site).

2. Post words on your refrigerator. Use the words in sentences when your child is in the room. Your new friend seems be loquacious. "Huh?" She's not a laconic person, is she? "What did you say?" Just point to the word list.

3. Get your kid to practice a thirty-second "elevator talk." Imagine that Oprah steps on an elevator that you are riding down. You have 15 floors before the car arrives at the ground floor. What do you say...? Learn about Social Intelligence, sometimes called Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (Daniel Goleman's work). 1/10th of success is related to academics. 2/3rds of success is related to knowing what to say and actually saying it. The rest is luck. (What fraction of success is luck? Email me if you can't figure that out from this information...)

4. Improve your' child's GeoQ. (*It's like IQ about Geography.) If your kid doesn't learn a second language, at least get the kid exposed to students from other countries. Find an international school or find a school that has kids from other countries. Invite a kid out for coffee. Bring your kid along and encourage some talk with a map. Get your kid to ask questions. If you are in Fort Lauderdale, come to my school and meet my students from Europe, Asia and South America.

For more tips, write to me at s2314@tmail.com



If you can't do these steps X, Y and Z -- then hire me!

or when that fails – hire me! Let's get your kid ready for the SAT.

(Send me questions and I'll post the reply here as well as reply to you directly).