Sorry folks, looks like Standard Deviants is no more – KW 10/18/17
Learning resources like Accelerate can be a great supplement to online lectures and other approaches to ‘the flip', saving content creation time while delivering engaging videos and good assessment tools.
Guest post from Caitlin O'Connor.
The “Standard Deviants” have been around for over twenty years, creating educational videos renowned for their quirky and humorous approach to teaching. These characters have just launched a complete online platform, SD Accelerate, which includes the newest Standard Deviants video content and style as well as RTI, differentiated instruction, quizzes, group activities, critical thinking questions and more. The pre-lessons, actual lessons, and post-lesson activities and assessments are anything but traditional.
One of the greatest aspects of SD Accelerate is that it can save teachers that are implementing flipped classroom techniques time in gathering and preparing learning content for consumption out of class (i.e. the ‘homework' in the flipped class scenario). All of the content is contained and managed in one place. This is particularly true for teachers that are new to the flipped classroom approach and are overwhelmed with creating online content.
Since SD Accelerate can be accessed from anywhere, on any device, students can watch the videos and go through the content at their own pace at any time of day or night. The Standard Deviants content is digestible and easy to grasp, leaving students with a thorough understanding of the subject matter so they can participate in discussions and collaborative work when they get back to the classroom.
One of the major advantages of the content on SD Accelerate is that it is flexible and complete with activities meant to reinforce what the students were introduced to. Students have control over the media and the ability to go back and review parts that were misunderstood. SD Accelerate is also flexible in the sense that internet accessibility is not necessarily required. All of the activities have a print button and the videos have a printable transcript.
Why SD Accelerate?
- Entertaining Lectures: The video content isn’t just a “talking head.†They are humorous and dynamic.
- Accountability: SD Accelerate is more than just video content. Students are prompted to take notes and complete exercises based on what they have learned.
- Accessibility: SD Accelerate hosts its own videos, so they won’t be blocked by school districts. SD Accelerate also works well with tablets, projectors and interactive white boards. Activities can also be printed off.
- Activities: Accelerate is complete with group activities and critical thinking questions as well as quizzes and graphic organizers so that it can be used both in the classroom and at home.
- Assessment and Reporting: Accelerate is complete with visual grade reports, editable rubrics and alerts to make tracking students’ progress easy and intuitive.
Standard Deviants Accelerate is available for a no-obligation 30-day demo period. For more information, sign up here.
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
The Flipped Classroom is Hot, Hot, Hot
Is Reverse Instruction Education Technology’s Perfect Storm?
Reverse Instruction Tools And Techniques (Part 1)
[…] Learning resources like Accelerate can be a great supplement to online lectures and other approaches to 'the flip', saving content creation time while (‘Accelerate’ your Flipped Classroom with the Standard Deviants […]
[…] Learning resources like Accelerate can be a great supplement to online lectures and other approaches to 'the flip', saving content creation time while (‘Accelerate’ your Flipped Classroom with the Standard Deviants […]
[…] Learning resources like Accelerate can be a great supplement to online lectures and other approaches to 'the flip', saving content creation time while (‘Accelerate’ your Flipped Classroom with the Standard Deviants […]
I’ve been co-teaching since 1993 at the high school level. I’ve been cniohacg co-teachers since 2001. You are correct that there is little data that can clearly demonstrate that co-teaching works. There are too many variables. One of the key pieces of data that I have been asking administrators to provide is a comparison of student scores on state tests for specific co-teach classrooms. I want to know if there is a difference between how students do in a co-taught classroom that is co-taught well and how students fare in a co-taught classroom where one teacher is teaching and the other is holding up the wall. Co-teaching done well, I still maintain, works. The sad truth is that in many cases, it’s not done well. Differentiated instruction is also critical to the process. A general education classroom that is not co-taught yet differentiates instruction will have success. Co-teaching will not be successful without differentiating instruction.