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21st Century Teaching

Posted by James Dittes on February 03, 2011

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Reflections on Testing: TNReady Round 1 for High Schools

It's been a busy break, and I haven't been able to blog.

There has been time for reflection, which I'm hoping will result in many cogent thoughts and account for my month-long break from blogging.

For the record, I have been an advocate for both testing and high standards. I have published views in favor of testing in the past, so I hope these thoughts aren't dismissed as a mere confirmation of opinions I had before Tennessee's first round of TNReady testing.

The GoalsTNReady lauched this year after the Tennessee state legislature elected not to go with PARCC testing as my state had planned to do when it adopted Common Core State Standards in 2009. Like the standards, the goal of testing was meant to ensure that students were college and career ready and an adequate measure of the new standards. (In 2013 and 2014 Tennessee had simply continued on with the previous contract that tested earlier standards.)

I was a TNCore coach this summer, so I felt confident in my k…

Why Did Microsoft include games with Windows OS? A Teaching Moment

Solitaire has always been a part of my experience as a user of Windows. But I've never stopped to wonder why it has been included in every Windows machine I have owned.
Here are some possible explanations: Did Microsoft want to balance the time saved by using technology with time that we could waste with solitaire or Freecell or Minesweeper?Did they want to show how smart I am? (I mean, I'm really good at Freecell. I win half my games.)Did they want students to be able to show teachers 'I'm bored' or 'I'm not working on your assignment' without needing to raise their hands and actually say so?Did Bill Gates have so much money that he decided to give away games free?
Turns out there are specific reasons these games are on our computers--and all of them have to do with teaching.
As reported in Mental Floss last year, Microsoft had specific reasons for the games it released with Windows 3.1 in 1992 (my junior year in college when, incidentally, I was using …

Teaching German with Pinterest Memes

Since I have been teaching via Google Slides and not by book, I have worked to update my presentations. Over the weekend, I read a blog by FluentU that suggested adding memes, and I must admit that I have been addicted. In less than 12 hours, I already have 30 pins to my Teaching German page.

Memes are great additions to lectures because they add silence and thought to the pace of the lesson. Usually, when they pop up, I go quiet, or I say, "I'm not sure I understand."

Students engage quickly, and I usually get a chortle or two.

While this is my first time experimenting with Pinterest and the wealth of German memes that are out there, it isn't my first rodeo with memes. I love making my own on Google+ or with my Meme Maker app on Chrome. Here is one example that I created from a set of historic photos that marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II last year:

Finally, a great place to pick up funny German photos is Bild newspaper's "Ohne-Worte-F…

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James A Dittes