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Gone are the days when planning and thinking were done mainly by pen and paper.Technology have made it pretty much easier to think in different other ways. Free mind mapping , brainstorming and concept mapping applications are ubiquitous online and more and more teachers are using them . The 21st century education is based , on a large part of it, on the visual output. Students, who due to their excessive use of and exposure to technology have become digitally focused, tend to show more  interaction and response towards these visual stimulae .

This visual thinking exhibited by our students can be expressed in many ways. Graphic organizers are one way for visual thinkers to arrange their ideas. There are a variety of ways to express these visual ideas and graphic organizers have several of them including : visual maps, visual organizers, cognitive organizers, concept diagrams, and mind maps.These visual helpers are great learning tools that depict the relationship between facts, terms, and ideas within a learning task. Let us explore some of the ways we can benefit from graphic organizers in our classrooms.

The benefits of graphic organizers in education.

• Teachers can use graphic organizers to engage visual learners and help them organize their thoughts
• Graphic organizers help students make powerful connections between  ideas and concepts
• They help students develop their convergent thinking  by providing a framework for the development of new ideas through analysis, reflection and display.
• They also help students promote their divergent thinking by using such techniques as brianstorming to generate ideas.
• They can be used for developing vocabulary skills and improve reading, writing and communication skills.
• Students can easily learn new concepts and think in new novel ways using graphic organizers
• They help students focus on connections rather than words
• Finally , graphic organizers can help both teachers and students develop creative and critical thinking skills.

Some free resources on Graphic Organizers:

The following are some of the best websites where teachers can have free access to a variety of graphic organizers templates and other relevant materials. While this list is not conclusive, I am pretty sure it has all you would need in a graphic organizer.

1- Educational Place

This website contains dozens of pre made graphic organizers that you can easily download or print off to use use in your classroom.

2- Ed Helper

This is another popular website where teachers have free access to a plethora of printable graphic organizers covering all kinds of topics and themes.

3- Education Oasis

This website contains over 50 free printable graphic organizers for teachers to use with their students.

Read more @ http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/teachers-guide-on-use-of-graphic.html

You want to be green, but it’s hard to know the difference between reusing and recycling. Fortunately, it’s not that complicated. Recycling and reusing have the same goal: to keep items out of overflowing landfills. The two tactics just go about it in very different ways.

Recycling involves reprocessing an old item — such as a can, glass or newspaper — and turning it into something new. Recycled paper products may be reprocessed into toilet paper and old tires may become a compound used to resurface roads.

Reusing, on the other hand, means avoiding the reprocessing plant altogether. Old items like containers, bags and appliances can be used again in their current condition for a similar — or completely different — purpose. Takeout containers can be turned into food storage (think: free plastic containers!), and plastic bags can be transformed into waterproof liners for planters or drawers.

“Reusing extends the lifetime of a product, from the time it is purchased to the time it goes to a landfill [or recycling plant],” explains Janine Kubert, director of operations at iReuse, a company that helps businesses and individuals become better reusers.

When you extend the lifetime of a product, you not only reduce the need to buy something new (which takes energy to produce), but you also save on the energy it would take to recycle that product. “Reusing allows us to get the most out of our virgin products and raw materials, and aside from reducing consumption entirely, it is our best resource for waste reduction,” says Kubert.

Whether you’re an avid recycler or new to waste reduction, here are some simple ways to reuse and recycle every day:

Reuse

• Reuse bags, boxes and containers. For example, turn old shoe boxes into storage containers, packaging for gifts or a treasure chest (have kids cut out pictures from magazines and glue them to the outside of the box for a customized container).

• Rather than buying a new product, borrow, rent or share items you use infrequently or for a short period of time.

• When babies and kids outgrow toys, books, cribs, high chairs and strollers, sell or donate the items rather than throw them away.

• Invest in quality, durable products. You may spend more initially, but they’ll last longer, which saves you money over time.

Recycle

• Become a full-circle recycler. Buy products that can be recycled; sort and discard them according to your community’s standards; and finally, purchase products made from post-recycled materials.

• For more information about recyclable materials, check out the EPA’s website: Epa.gov/waste/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm.

Going Above and Beyond:
While waste reduction starts at home, communities nationwide are forming around the premise that less is more. Freecycle (Freecycle.org) — started in Tucson, Ariz., before spreading throughout the U.S. — helps people be the best possible reusers. Through the Freecycle network, members are able to donate — or pick up — used products, such as appliances, furniture, toys and bikes.

In need of a reduce, reuse and recycle tutorial? Companies like iReuse (iReuse.com) give personalized consultations to help you reduce waste, donate reusable products and save money.

If you’re not sure about your community’s procedures or standards for reusing and recycling, check your town’s government Web site or ask a neighbor. Through community boards, donation banks and home and school recycling programs, it’s getting even easier to do more to waste less.

by Dana Goeglein.

Read more @ http://www.cbs8.com/story/15341735/reusing-and-recycling-101

SERI KEMBANGAN: The Education Ministry is mulling over an option for teachers to be allowed to take sabbatical leave to encourage them to engage in scholarly research or other activities leading to professional growth.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the option would enable teachers to have an increased capacity for service to their schools.

“This suggestion will be brought to Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, for further deliberation.

“Tertiary-level educationist are allowed to take sabbatical leave. Therefore, it is about time teachers are given this opportunity as well and I am suggesting that they go overseas during this time,” he told reporters after handing over the New Deal Payment Incentive schemes to 151 principals and their schools, nationwide, here yesterday.

Asked on the importance for the sabbatical leave to be taken overseas, Idris said teachers still lacked foreign exposure and this would allow them to experience the culture and tradition of other countries.

He also said the opportunity should be given to academic as well as vocational teachers and they would be chosen according to several key performance criteria.

On the duration of the leave, he said it would be discussed later but it could be from three months onwards.

Earlier, Idris congratulated recipients of the incentive scheme for improving their school performance and efficiency.

To be eligible for the scheme, schools must have an annual appraisal report score higher than 90; clear audit report from the school’s Audit Department; free from disciplinary action; and having achieved school literacy and numeracy targets.

PUTRAJAYA: THE implementation of the Malaysia Education Blue-print 2013-2025 under the Government Transformation Programme has showed significant progress.

The blueprint, aimed at improving the education system until 2025, is to help internationalise and empower the system, while producing quality human capital.

The blueprint, which was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last year, has showed improvement, especially in terms of efficacy among teachers and learners.

The Education Ministry, based on the measures under the blueprint for the first 100 days of this year, focused on 25 of the total 100 initiatives, all of which met their targets.

There are five outcomes that the blueprint aspires for the system: access, quality, equity, unity, and efficiency.

These outcomes are in line with the aspirations articulated by participants during the national dialogues on the blueprint, and are comparable to outcomes set by other high-performing education systems.

The ministry’s performance and delivery unit executive director, Dr Habibah Abd Rahim, said with the success, it was certain to achieve the ministry’s long-term goal by the end of the year.

“The response has been highly positive, not only from the teachers but also students and their parents. The acceptance for the 100-day pilot programme has given the ministry the confidence to to implement the initiatives nationwide.”

The culture of one-dimensionality does not stop at our schools but carries on as we grow older; to the extent that people judge others based on superficial and narrow measures of success.

WHAT can we say about our education system? Good, bad, or something in between?

To be fair, changes are now being made to improve our schools although the outcomes remain to be seen.

Some strategies are in place but their proper implementations are always the tricky part. What we’re seeing now are patches of changes here and there, not yet fully comprehensive, holistic or far-reaching.

It’s unclear yet how the products of our new education system are going to turn out.

But we know too well what the old system was about, and how badly it has unconsciously seeped into our collective mindset long after we left schools. The same mistakes shouldn’t be repeated for our new generation.

Numbers

Let’s reminisce on what it meant for us to be “educated”. If there’s nothing else that we can agree on our school days, there was definitely one thing we can’t forget – class ranking!

From the first day we set foot into Year One, the only game in town was to get the Number One ranking in class.

What mattered should have been the learning, the critical thinking skills, the personal development, the social interaction, the capacity for creativity.

What mattered should have been the growth of emotional strengths and virtues: curiosity, confidence, courage, diligence, kindness, honesty, empathy, compassion, tolerance, ethics, etc.

Instead, the one thing that everybody — our parents, teachers, friends, uncles and aunties — really cared about was that coveted Number One seat.

Number One got you this toy and that prize, Number Two got you some too but a bit less. But sorry-lah if you were Number Four. Three was the limit, somehow, an unwritten rule shared by everybody.

How much narrower could we be to define success? Indeed, we had been groomed to be one-dimensional since early on.

How it was

We went on our entire primary and secondary education, routinely memorising this and that without the true meaning of learning, for that precious seat of “success”.

by Zulfaa Mohamed Kassim.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/16/education/13192634&sec=education

Counting beads: Tangible objects like beads are used to teach children abstract ideas such as Mathematics.

Good childhood care and development is vital to the implementation of inclusive education as it addresses the needs and strengths of a child’s learning curve.

FROM the time a child is conceived till he or she is eight years of age, development and learning occur at a rapid rate as these are the years when a child should be most engaged in learning.

However, this is not the case in many education systems worldwide.

It is infants and children up to this age category who need attention and require the best teacher-nurturers.

They clearly observe and absorb information, and with more time spent with their teachers and caregivers, they will presumably be on the right track.

Broader definiti on: Dr Shaeffer says that inclusive education covers all barriers to education.

During his keynote address at the International Montessori Forum Malaysia 2013, Dr Sheldon Shaeffer posed the question “Why do Year One classes usually have the least experienced and trained teachers, the highest pupil-teacher ratios, and the fewest contact hours? And why is it that Year Six is just the opposite?”

It was one of many “provocations” or issues that Dr Shaeffer brought up during his speech on inclusive education and early childhood care and development (ECCD).

Dr Shaeffer, formerly the director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, said that greater access to good quality ECCD programmes lead to more equal outcomes for children.

He added that these programmes are also “essential in achieving education which is truly inclusive”.

by Jeannette Goon.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/16/education/12854178&sec=education

Quality: Prof Ghauth says UM is committed to maintaining high performance in the indicators.

Universities need to be continuously gauged to see how they fare against other varsities, and the latest assessment is one that rates only institutions in the region. QUESTIONS have often arisen on why there is a need for a separate rankings for different regions in the world. It seems to imply that institutions from a particular region do better competing among its own rather than on a world stage. The QS World University Rankings currently includes 729 institutions out of an estimated 20,000 worldwide. QS head of research Ben Sowter says some regions are less well represented than others in the world rankings. “These regional exercises enable us to look more deeply at parts of the world where some of the most exciting developments are taking place. “They allow us to provide comparative information about more universities to more people and enable us to explore richer, context-driven data sets and altogether they enable us to publicly embrace the notion that there is no fixed definition of what is best,” he says. This, he adds, encourages young people to investigate what is actually being measured before taking any ranking at absolute face value when making important life choices.

Outcomes: Yap believes the National Higher Education Strategic Plan has set the path of excellence for institutions.

In fact, Asian universities have gained significant ground on their Western counterparts and could overtake them within two decades. QS managing director Nunzio Quacquarelli says there are already 17% more Asian universities in the top 200 of the world university rankings since the recession and the next two decades could see leading universities in the United States and Europe being overtaken. Explaining further, Sowter says the QS World University Rankings appear to be more prophetic than other exercises of their type.

by Karen Chapman.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/16/education/13233476&sec=education

PROPAGATING the idea of introducing English medium schools is a wise move.

Kudos to all out there who share similar views on the deteriorating standard of English. It is indeed disheartening and needs urgent attention.

While some quarters are distracted by the poor performance of our students, some are unaffected! What is the root cause of the decline?

Is it the education system, the teachers, the procedures in selecting teacher trainees or parents themselves?

Are we barking up the wrong tree, then? Having said that, the issue thus far sticks out stubbornly like a sore thumb.

The changes to the education system have been many such that it is now “damaged” and in dire need of a revamp.

If the Education Ministry is serious about arresting the decline, I can’t help but agree that English-medium schools should be re-visited.

It’s high time the ministry takes heed of the chorusing complaints. Many are passionate about this idea.

Judging by the competence level of some teachers, it would not be an understatement to say that they are not proficient and lack the skills to teach the language.

by Surajnaidu, Ipoh Perak.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2013/6/16/education/13188600&sec=education

For more than nine years, I have been deeply interested in metacognition as it applies to the art and science of teaching. I have also been involved in taking non-professional teachers and training them to be both content area experts and more than adequate teachers in the classroom. This can be a tough endeavor as people like to teach in non-traditional schools for a variety of reasons and some are not always interested in becoming teachers qua teachers. Worse are those who feel being a subject matter expert is enough because as long as they’re talking, the students must be learning, right?

Pushing metacognitive techniques in the classroom has been modestly effective, but more so for the individuals already familiar with the skills needed to be a more than adequate teacher. However, teaching metacognitive engagement is notoriously difficult because the techniques are so course and subject specific. Going beyond the basics and hoping those attending the workshops can apply the information isn’t really the best approach either.

I decided to use the notion of relevancy with the standard materials on metacognition to see if that made any difference in the reception and application of the notions behind metacognitive engagement by my faculty. The results were stunning and many who were reluctant before or who had shown clear lack of creativity in implementing the techniques got excited. The more they got excited, the more good reports I heard from the faculty members and their students.

by Steve Wyre, EdD

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/the-importance-of-relevancy-in-improving-student-engagement-and-learning/

My students have taught me some invaluable lessons during my first two years as a college professor. I’d like to share three of the most important ones here. They aren’t new lessons and I didn’t use any unique methods to learn them. I collected data midsemester from students, I talked with them, and I looked closely at what was happening in my classroom. The lessons were there for me to learn, and taken together they have helped me think more clearly about what I want my students to know and do, and who I want them to become. They are lessons that have made me a better teacher.

Assumptions about students can be dangerous
I have learned from students that new learning can be overwhelming. Many students have great difficulty when challenged by rigorous coursework. This is especially true when the course includes activities and assignments that require students to demonstrate their knowledge. For most of their school years, success in and out of the classroom has been relatively easy for many students. When challenged by rigorous coursework, they experience fears that can be paralyzing. For some students these become insurmountable obstacles.

I complicated the problem with my assumptions about their skills, knowledge, and dispositions. There was a gap between students’ actual knowledge, skills, and attitudes and what I expected of and from them. That ended up frustrating everyone. I learned I couldn’t make assumptions about their knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and instead had to investigate what they knew and were able to do. Not doing so compromises the learning process, but with support most of my students find a measure of sustainable success.

by Candice Dowd Barnes, PhD

Read more @ http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/lessons-learned-from-my-students/