Everyone -- Two quick resources that I found this week that you might be interested in too.
Innovative Educators is putting out 2 minute videos on the web and I thought "Helping Students Manage Their Time" was definitely worth the two minutes! The faculty member talks about a website www.howtostudy.org and the usefulness of the "assignment calculator" on that website. I did a search on the site to find it -- here is the URL: http://www.howtostudy.org/resources_subject.php?id=4
At any rate, it sounds like a nice tool. I would have students write a reflection on their experiences with the tool after they used it. I would have students show what they learned from using it on a subsequent assignment by asking them to submit a timeline for getting the assignment done (maybe I am old fashioned here but I wouldn't want students to be dependent on a tool forever but to actually learn from using the tool so that they could map out their personal due dates for pieces of the assignment).
The second thing that caught my eye this week was an Academic Minute (put out by Inside Higher Ed) on Teaching Mathematics to Students With Learning Disabilities -- here is the URL http://www.insidehighered.com/audio/academic_pulse/mathematics_and_learning_disabilities
Landmark College Math Professor Michelle Bower talks about a concept called "Stereotype Threat" and how it can affect students' learning. Just the learning disability labels that students are attached with can have a negative effect on their learning! I had never thought about that. Landmark College specializes in helping students with learning disabilities. Here is the URL http://www.landmark.edu/. I would love to have some faculty from Landmark College come to the Alamo Colleges to talk to us about what they are doing to help students with challenges learn!
I am most interested in the second topic you brought up. In my experience, I have noticed that students learn at a myriad of levels, based on their lived experiences, access to education, and learning challenges. Your suggestion to have someone from Landmark College come to share their insights with us would be great. One of the educational communities that I worked in changed how they serviced students and called the program ‘Exceptional Student Services’. This was to compliment their mission : “To promote the development and implementation of quality education for students with disabilities.”
ReplyDeleteI’m open to what can help us provide high quality education to our students in need.