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Showing posts from 2019

Do You Have a Creative Classroom? Here's What You Need to Know about Copyright

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Click the image above to see ConnectSafely's full guide and quick guide to Creativity and Copyright. Both were co-authored by Larry Magid and Kerry Gallagher. Design work by Maureen Kochan. The article below is cross posted from the ISTE Blog . When it comes to plagiarism, teachers have no trouble identifying it and dealing with it. But copyright law is another story. It’s an area where teachers are a little less confident. But it is something they need to know, not only to stay on the right side of the law, but also to help students protect their own work, says Kerry Gallagher, assistant principal for teaching and learning at St. John’s Prep in Massachusetts. “We think of plagiarism as it’s our ethical obligation to give credit for work done for ideas that have been put down in printed form,” Gallagher said. “We do this by adding a bibliography or a work cited to any product where we use those things. … “When it comes to copyright though, the law part, this really has n

Technology & Student Health: the FEAR, the REALITY, the FIX

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I had the amazing opportunity to be part of an Ignite session with 9 other ASCD Emerging Leaders this past weekend at the Empower 2019 conference in Chicago, Illinois. Each of us focused our talk on one of the five Tenets of the Whole Child from ASCD . My tenets were SAFE and HEALTHY. According to the official Ignite organization , an Ignite talk is defined as: a series of presentation that happen one after another without breaks each presenter uses 20 slides each slide auto-advances after 15 second the result is 5 minutes and high energy! Watch my 5 minute Ignite below. Let me know what you think in the comments. And contact me if you want me to visit your school to work with parents, students, and teachers on health, wellness, and technology use.

Why Cooperative Learning Works

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This post was first published on the St. John's Prep GOOD to Go blog and was authored by Chad Konecky. It’s a classroom technique that goes by a number of aliases—peer-to-peer, small-group and team-based learning, to name a few—but at its core, the concept is rooted in  cooperation —a classroom priority at St. John’s Prep that’s been proven to work. A synthesis of 168 studies conducted over the course of 73 years by researchers at the University of Minnesota found that  cooperative learning is almost 150-percent more effective than instructor-focused learning in terms of greater academic achievement, increased persistence throughout courses and programs, and more favorable attitudes toward learning in general .  Another Harvard-published study showed that students working in teams ask more questions and are more engaged than non-grouped students.  Kerry Gallagher , St. John’s assistant principal for teaching and learning, knows the research well, but says that seeing is be

Tough Topic: How to Teach Your Students to Stand Up to Hate Speech

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Hate speech is spoken or written words that are used to insult or belittle a person or group of people based on an element of their identity. Hate speech can targeted based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other identifying factors. Hate speech is ugly and can be hard to talk about with children and adolescents. It can also be hard for children to relate to hate speech. While many have seen it online or in other media, they likely have not been on the receiving end. While this is a good thing – because we don't want our children to have to experience this hardship – it can make it difficult to convince children that they should act to prevent hate speech. Often our students – especially those in middle or high school – find it easier to scroll past it on their screens or walk by it when overhearing it in the hallway. After all, stepping in could result in them being targeted by the person saying the hateful things as well. At Safer Internet Day earlier this we

Three Social Media Starter Tips

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Note: This post was recently  published on the St. John's Prep GOOD to Go blog . Chad Konecky interviewed me and wrote the post based on our discussion. Demonstrating and reinforcing common-sense social media engagement is important, especially when it comes to adolescents and teens. Kerry Gallagher, St. John’s assistant principal for teaching and learning, is leading the Prep’s emphasis on developing best practices when using social media. “Mentoring healthy guidelines like ‘Think before you post,’ ‘be kind and respectful’ and ‘be mindful of who you friend’ are key, but we need to foster—and the boys need to hone—an even keener sense of their life online.” Interestingly, the challenges of building an online identity can become even more difficult if students and their parents choose not to use social media, explains Gallagher. Alternatively, when students do create an online presence, it can become an opportunity to learn how to act appropriately and with accountability.