An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
What happens when you bring classrooms into living rooms – and homework into classrooms? In a “flipped” classroom, teachers reverse the traditional teaching process, sending students home with video classroom lectures online, on thumb drives, on DVD – wherever students can get them. The students watch these lectures at home, then come to class prepared to practice what they learned with their teacher.
Education affects how the brain ages, and when older people take cognitive tests, the results are compared to those of others with the same amount of schooling. But new University of Alabama at Birmingham research shows that because of racial and economic disparities in education quality, that approach can lead to disadvantaged people being diagnosed as impaired when they really aren’t. Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen recently sat down with Dr. Michael Crowe, who says the disparities in our schools are obvious.
Educators from across Alabama recently spent 2 full days at Trussville High School learning new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. The annual Alabama Educational Technology Conference provided teachers and administrators with in-depth, hands-on workshops, such as how to use web 2.0 tools for foreign language classes and ways to integrate iPads into lesson plans. And technology advocates say these tools will enable students to succeed in a 21st century work force.
Fund for Teachers is a Texas-based non-profit organization that gives grants to teachers to let them explore their interests and re-energize their role in the classroom. Each teacher selected gets to design his or her own course of study around his or her passions. For example, here’s the story of Mark Coleman, who teaches Social Studies at Booker T Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery Alabama.
Most teachers run their classrooms in a traditional way: lecture in class and then give homework for practice and reinforcement. But some Georgia teachers are turning things around and using technology to “flip” the classroom.
Educators from around Alabama traveled to the rural Piedmont school district last week to see firsthand, how it is empowering its students with 21st century skills. Through an initatiave called MPower Piedmont, students in grades 4 through 12 are given their own laptop to use in class and take home.
More than a thousand students from across the state traveled to Birmingham last week to compete in the 2012 SkillsUSA Leadership Conference. Carpentry, electrical technology and cosmetology were just some of the fields students could compete in.
Students at a state university in middle Tennessee are deciding which courses will get them to graduation based on a computer program that suggests courses.
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