Edutopia.org Review
Once I was told that George Lucas (Yes that George Lucas) ran a websie dedicated to education and built for Educators, my interest was peaked. This resource is trademarked by an approach to education that one would doubtlessly expect from the director of Star Wars, it is progressive and innovative.
My adventure through the website was laden by interesting articles linking to more interesting articles, each proving to be invaluable and enriching. I began on the homepage with a video titled “PBL and Arts: Empowering Students to Craft Beautiful Work.” Here, I was introduced to a very well applied example of Project Based Learning. In the Stratford, London “School 21” students worked on projects over several weeks, cross applying a range of disciplines into one final project. A special amount of emphasis is placed on the fine arts. Despite the concerns one might have about deviating from a rigorous system of textbooks and tests, School 21 outperformed comparable schools in the same area. The rationale for the approach was, “Once you’ve crafted something beautiful, you never look back.”
After learning about School 21, I found a link titled “Public Speaking: Oracy Skills for the Real World.” As a student of Speech and Debate, I was beyond interested in where that same previously mentioned School 21 could take a subject that I hold so dearly. Marvelously, they handled it marvelously. Below is a rubric I pulled from their site regarding the various components of oratorical competency and various skills within each component a student should hope to acquire
[Insert Pic Here]
The students in the provided video performed incredibly. They were well researched and rehearsed.
With all of the “hits” I did find some “misses.” After checking out the Oracy skills for the Real world video, I was brought to a presentation style called Ignite. In an Ignite presentation, presenters are given 5 minutes and 20 slides to deliver their message. The 20 slides are limited to images and each slide automatically flips over to the next every 15 seconds. I did find a few interesting ones. Here is one by Joshua Mess, titled “The WORST Ignite Presentation Ever.” However, I will not be using this resource in my classroom. There is not enough scaffolding built in, and the forced slide progression lends towards a very stressful environment that I feel would be hard for the novice orator.
Following my chain of communication centered articles and inquiries, I was brought to a little gem titled “Rethinking Whole Class Discussion.” At the end of my Highschool career, I was briefly introduced to the world of Socratic Circles and in class debates. I absolutely loved them, and thought “how could this get any better?” My selective memory failed to remind me that not all of my classmates enjoyed classroom discussion and deliberation. Furthermore, class discussions aren’t as simple as the teacher tossing a prompt into the middle of a circle of students and saying “Go get ‘em!” Professor of English Education, Todd Finley, provides the following advice for providing engaging prompts and probing for more depth in class discussions.
I was brought in to this website by the allure and novelty of its association with George Lucas. However, I found a wealth of resources and ways of approaching lessons that I had never considered. The articles and resources shown above were found after about an hour or two of casual reading.
Edutopia comes with my recommendation. So checkout their Topics page and find an article that interests you.
Warning:
Edutopia is a more generalized education resource. You’ll find plenty of articles regarding subjects such as apps for staying organized and preventing burnout. Don’t go here looking for lesson plans and direct “How To’s.”
My adventure through the website was laden by interesting articles linking to more interesting articles, each proving to be invaluable and enriching. I began on the homepage with a video titled “PBL and Arts: Empowering Students to Craft Beautiful Work.” Here, I was introduced to a very well applied example of Project Based Learning. In the Stratford, London “School 21” students worked on projects over several weeks, cross applying a range of disciplines into one final project. A special amount of emphasis is placed on the fine arts. Despite the concerns one might have about deviating from a rigorous system of textbooks and tests, School 21 outperformed comparable schools in the same area. The rationale for the approach was, “Once you’ve crafted something beautiful, you never look back.”
After learning about School 21, I found a link titled “Public Speaking: Oracy Skills for the Real World.” As a student of Speech and Debate, I was beyond interested in where that same previously mentioned School 21 could take a subject that I hold so dearly. Marvelously, they handled it marvelously. Below is a rubric I pulled from their site regarding the various components of oratorical competency and various skills within each component a student should hope to acquire
[Insert Pic Here]
The students in the provided video performed incredibly. They were well researched and rehearsed.
With all of the “hits” I did find some “misses.” After checking out the Oracy skills for the Real world video, I was brought to a presentation style called Ignite. In an Ignite presentation, presenters are given 5 minutes and 20 slides to deliver their message. The 20 slides are limited to images and each slide automatically flips over to the next every 15 seconds. I did find a few interesting ones. Here is one by Joshua Mess, titled “The WORST Ignite Presentation Ever.” However, I will not be using this resource in my classroom. There is not enough scaffolding built in, and the forced slide progression lends towards a very stressful environment that I feel would be hard for the novice orator.
Following my chain of communication centered articles and inquiries, I was brought to a little gem titled “Rethinking Whole Class Discussion.” At the end of my Highschool career, I was briefly introduced to the world of Socratic Circles and in class debates. I absolutely loved them, and thought “how could this get any better?” My selective memory failed to remind me that not all of my classmates enjoyed classroom discussion and deliberation. Furthermore, class discussions aren’t as simple as the teacher tossing a prompt into the middle of a circle of students and saying “Go get ‘em!” Professor of English Education, Todd Finley, provides the following advice for providing engaging prompts and probing for more depth in class discussions.
- Clarify their answers: Tell me more about that.
- Support their answers: What about the reading made you think that ___?
- Argue: Convince us that __.
- Examine their responses more fully: In what other context does that idea play out?
- Consider different perspectives: What would you say to someone who thought ___?
- Predict: What do you think that we will discover in the next chapter?
- Hypothesize: How would handle a situation like ___?
- Decide: So, this leads to you to what conclusions?
- Compare: How is your answer different or the same from others?
- Generalize: What did you discover?
I was brought in to this website by the allure and novelty of its association with George Lucas. However, I found a wealth of resources and ways of approaching lessons that I had never considered. The articles and resources shown above were found after about an hour or two of casual reading.
Edutopia comes with my recommendation. So checkout their Topics page and find an article that interests you.
Warning:
Edutopia is a more generalized education resource. You’ll find plenty of articles regarding subjects such as apps for staying organized and preventing burnout. Don’t go here looking for lesson plans and direct “How To’s.”