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Features Paul Black. I think this is a great video that vividly depicts ways instructors can change the way they interact with pupils to enhance student outcomes.

This article discusses integrating learning styles with multiple intelligences

Describes ways in which poverty negatively affects student achievement and development. Also describes ways to combat the cycle of poverty and shows schools already implementing this means of action.

Sorry I didn't want these to go public. These were just my notes to myself so that I could further do some research. Is there a way to remove these or make these private again. Guess I'm still testing the water.

The House has led the way to increase funding in science and technology education. It looks like Republicans have attempted to block it several times, and it still must fight its way through the Senate.

Situated cognition-learning language/vocabulary

a lot of educators have heard about wikis but just aren't sure how to use them in the classroom. In PBwiki Summer Camp you will learn the best way to structure your classroom site, engage your students with audio and video and connect with experienced wiki mentors. At the end of the summer, Campers who have followed the program receive a free platinum wiki for the school year, as well as some fun swag along the way.

For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency. Now, I like to actually have data to play around with, in part because people have been known to lie about politically charged issues and in part because I like to have nice graphs (which are not provided by Riddile). Anyway, it turns out that international poverty data is pretty hard to come by and fraught with interpretational difficulties. On the other hand, the National Assessment of Educational Progress provides test data for most of the states in the U.S., and the U.S. Census Bureau provides data on the percentage of people in poverty by state. I took the NAEP data for 8th grade science achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. The two are negatively associated: as poverty increases, science achievement scores decrease according to the relationship in the plot below. (Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, and Vermont did not meet NAEP reporting guidelines and are not included in the plot above.) The association is highly significant (p=9.98*10-6). I also took pilot NAEP data for 8th grade mathematics achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. (Evidently, the NAEP has only just started testing for mathematics achievement, and only eleven states were included in their pilot.) Again, the two are negatively associated. The slope of the relation turns out to be almost exactly the same as for science achievement. The association is not as significant, but it is still significant (p=0.0186). (My guess is the association is less significant in this case because fewer states were measured.) Clearly there is an association between poverty and achievement in science and mathem

Reviews various perspectives of "student-centered" and offers techniques for making your class more student-centered.

"The term student-centred learning (SCL) is widely used in the teaching and learning literature. Many terms have been linked with student-centred learning, such as flexible learning (Taylor 2000), experiential learning (Burnard 1999), self-directed learning and therefore the slightly overused term 'student-centred learning' can mean different things to different people. In addition, in practice it is also described by a range of terms and this has led to confusion surrounding its implementation."

is chapter aims to: Give an overview of the various ways student-centred learning is defined, Suggest some ways that student-centred learning can be used as the organising principle of teaching and assessment practices, Explore the effectiveness of student-centred learning and Present some critiques to it as an approach.

"The challenge for instructors teaching online courses is to learn to use humor to create interesting and inviting virtual learning environments while minimizing any potential pitfalls of humor as an instructional device. In a commentary noting the need for humor in online courses, James (2004) observed that "Because humor is one of the major traits of the best, most effective teachers, it is a characteristic that all teachers should want to hone, practice, and nurture, regardless of medium" "

Thinking back to our conversation on humor. (I was only a lurker in that conversation, but maybe now I have time to revisit this idea). Hope this adds to your thoughts.

explain how instructors can incorporate humor in an online course, the enhancement humor can bring, guidelines for locating, selecting, developing, and integrating humor into an online courses, and examples of humor in various online components.

Student Reflections @wattspoi on "Heutagogy & its Implications for Evaluative Feedback" http://t.co/xiuWsCsD #lrnchat #edchat

Creating service-learning in an online environment

ice breaking activities

Another way to keep organize and create presentation for education, in 3D.

This is awesome! It will be great for your Science class. If only I could think of ways to use this in a Spanish room. Maybe a 3D running of the bulls!!

New forms of student assessment are designed to demonstrate what students are learning and what they can do with their knowledge. Known variously as "alternative" or "more authentic" measures, these assessments require students to "perform" in some way--by writing, demonstrating, explaining, or constructing a project or experiment--so they are also called "performance-based" tests.