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"Today, I'm going to tell you a fairy tale: Once upon a time, my mother in law (a third grade teacher) was in her classroom at school when her principal walked in and gave her an iPad for her class to use. Well, technically it was supposed to be for the entire third grade to share, but that's almost beside the point. After some initial excitement, she discussed how the entire third grade was supposed to share a single iPad with her fellow third grade teachers, and the iPad was promptly banished into a drawer, never to see the light of day again. The end."

"It's a familiar classroom ritual - every June, teachers assign summer reading. And every September, students come back to school having read too few books. This is frustrating for teachers, and challenging for students. When kids aren't in school, they forget crucial skills they learned during the year - at least a month of reading achievement, on average. This so-called "summer slide" is particularly pernicious in children from low-income families. Low-income students often walk through the door of their kindergartens already behind their more fortunate peers because of a mix of poverty, poorer health, less parental education, and higher rates of single and teenage parents. With limited access to books and other academic opportunities in the summer, these children experience the summer slide threefold. Over time, this adds up. By third grade, children who can't read at their grade level (a whopping 73 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch) begin to struggle with other subjects. Students living in poverty who cannot read proficiently by third grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school. By ninth grade, some have estimated that two-thirds of the reading achievement gap can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. There is good news: Stemming the summer slide isn't impossible. Students who read just four to six books over the summer maintain their skills (they need to turn more pages to actually become better readers.)"

"Last year I taught third-grade math in a whole new way. Combining elements from the wildly popular sandbox game Minecraft, I had students thinking visually and creatively about mathematical models and theories that went way beyond a typical third-grade curriculum, transforming math class into what I like to call Mathcraft. Why Minecraft? I could say I am using Minecraft for a number of reasons, like how I find Minecraft enhances metacognition by increasing students' memory storage capacity. The game itself creates a relatable enjoyable experience that can be internalized and shared in a community of learners. The limitations on the working memory are minimized because the gameplay itself is an extension of our visual sketchpad. Working with students they always say, "I can see it," and when they see it they share it."

"Even after teaching for a decade, Pamela Baack found herself battling the calendar as she tried to keep her students on track. She's the first to admit it wasn't easy to change the way she had been teaching for a decade. "We were always on someone else's pace, not our kids' pace," says Baack, who teaches at the Bella Romero Academy of Applied Technology, a K-8 public school in Greeley, Colorado. Most lessons were taught to the entire class, requiring Baack to constantly search for opportunities to help the students who struggled. "It was hard to differentiate, because it was hard to find the time to go back," she says. Today, students in Baack's third-grade classroom work through addition, multiplication, and division activities at their own pace. Some progress through lessons quickly, while others get the opportunities they need to relearn and practice key concepts until they are ready to move forward. Importantly, Baack says, even the students who struggle the most are at grade level. "They're still doing what every else is doing, but at a different pace," she says. "They're exposed to grade-level standards and content and will be able to move up." "

"The Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation, a leading non-profit provider of environmental education for primary and secondary schools, is making its award-winning curriculum available free online. Kindergarten through second grade teachers can now access free Think Earth materials at www.thinkearth.org to teach students about the environment and the everyday behaviors that can help protect it. Updated Think Earth units for third grade will be available in September 2015, and grades four through eight are in development and will be available online in 2015 and 2016."

"As both a teacher and administrator, I often heard from parents whose children were exceptionally good at math. "My daughter already knows how to multiply four-digit numbers, so third grade math is too easy for her. She needs to be accelerated." There's lots of research to support acceleration as a strategy for gifted learners. The Acceleration Institute, part of the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, recently produced a report entitled "A Nation Empowered" which details the enormous benefits to accelerating a student when he or she is performing well above grade level. Researcher Jonathan Wei of Duke University says, "All students deserve to learn something new each day." In math, the obvious way to learn something new is to accelerate the instruction, letting the student go on to the next topic or grade level. But "learn something new" is not the same as "learn the next thing on the district's scope and sequence.""

"You know those grammar errors that students make in second grade ... and third grade ... and are still making in high school? Here are 10 lesson ideas that just might make the grammar rules stick, by WeAreTeachers blogger Erin Bittman. This is the fifth post in the Teaching Young Writers blog series sponsored by Zaner-Bloser's Strategies for Writers."

"Researchers at the American Psychological Association found that preventing depression in the sixth grade, via gym class and recess, can stave off depression throughout the rest of adolescence. Depression is the third leading cause of death and the number one leading cause of disability in teens. The study found that there is a significant association between the onset of depression in the sixth grade and depression in later teen years."

"This is my third summer offering maker education summer camps as part of a bigger program at a local school.  During mornings (9 to 12 with a half hour recess), campers, grades Kindergarten through 6th grade, can choose from one of four enrichment classes: art, drama, games, foreign languages, computers, and in my case, maker camps. During the afternoons, all campers get together for typical camp activities - fun and games, field trips, water sports, silly competitions. Each camp lasts a week. This summer I am offering: Cardboard Creations, Circuit Crafts, Toy Making and Hacking, and Robotics and Coding. I often discuss the need to implement maker education programs with minimal cost materials and ones that offer the potential to tap into diverse learners and their diverse interests:"

"A list of recommended websites by the American Library Association compiled by Cindy Lawrence, third grade teacher, at Barton Creek Elementary."

"Kyle Schwartz teaches third grade at Doull Elementary in Colorado. By now, you've likely heard of her-or at least one of her ideas, #Iwishmyteacherknew. Every now and then, there's an "Education" story that the masses take notice of-standardized testing, Michelle Rhee, Waiting for Superman, the flipped classroom, the iPad failure in LA, the testing scandal in LA, among others. The most recent to crossover is the hashtag #Iwishmyteacherknew, which is what it sounds like it might be-an asynchronous conversation (or rather, series of statements) illuminating the realities that many students face every day. On one hand, there's an inherent kind of other disconnect at work here that makes the whole thing a huge act of spectacle, while inviting frank discussions about privacy. We'll talk more about that in a follow-up later this week. To provide context to that kind of analysis, first the tweets themselves."

The Facts4Me description - The goal was to create a child-friendly, child-safe site; a site with accurate and interesting information that would stimulate emergent readers in either a school or family setting; a site written on the second or third grade reading and comprehension levels that would appeal to primary, special ed and ESL students.

"One of the biggest learning trends you should know about is project-based learning. Basically, students are given a task and allowed to work in groups to deliver solutions to a problem. This is an applicable methodology in science, technology, math, arts, etc. You name it, project-based learning could likely be used. But how do you get started with a new way to teach? That's a major question that often stops teachers right in their tracks. It's hard to switch up what's been working in the past. It's impossible to figure out how to integrate a new classroom structure in the small amount of time available to educators around the world. In an effort to help solve this issue, our friends at EdTechTeacher have created what's essentially a crash course in project-based learning. The video is about an hour long and is by Suzy Brooks, a third-grade teacher in Massachusetts."

"From a press release: As part of a national movement called the Tech Timeout Academic Challenge, a San Francisco school will shut down their tech devices for three days beginning February 12. SAN FRANCISCO What happens when over 1,100 students in grades K-12, at a school that prides itself on ubiquitous access to technology, power down their electronic devices for three straight days? That question will be answered on February 12-14 when students at Convent & Stuart Hall in San Francisco take The Tech Timeout Academic Challenge. It will be the first school in the greater Bay Area to take the challenge and just the third in California."

"As an elementary school science teacher, I find this not easy to admit, but some of my students' most rewarding and meaningful classes over the years have happened when I have taken a back seat and let my students "tinker." Whether they want to dam up a stream during a water study, build nests with mud and sticks while investigating local bird populations, or, after completing a set of Lego models, independently design and build spinning Lego tops from which energetic battles ensue, students love having time to explore and investigate independently. This fall, for example, I let a third-grade class have a "free choice period." I gave them a list of things that they could do, such as making crystals, handling pet rocks or having a dance party. Instead, they came up with their own idea: they wanted to make boats. So, I gathered materials and allowed them to use handsaws and hot glue guns (which they'd already been taught how to use safely). Of course, many teachers allow and encourage students to engage in creative play: we know that young children need the chance to explore, daydream, imagine, play and build without an outcome or even a product in mind-a place free from failure, because failure is not even part of the equation. But this often takes place outside the classroom."

"A list of free apps to start the base image for iPads in the Beaverton School District during the 2016-17 school year. This list is always evolving, but aimed at Kindergarten through third grade."