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" According to the latest EQAO report, half of Ontario Grade 6 students don't meet the curriculum standard in math. That's a problem. But it's not the only one. What worries me is that only 13 per cent of students who didn't meet the provincial standard when they were in Grade 3 manage to catch up so they meet the standard for Grade 6. That's the lowest number on that indicator in five years. If you fall behind in math you stay behind. That's why it's important to get it right, not just at some vague moment in the future, but for kids who are in Ontario schools right now. Fortunately, every parent in Ontario is sure they know how to teach math. Many parents want to get rid of "discovery math," broadly defined as "doing it weird." If only that loopy Liberal government would teach math the way we learned it when we were kids, the theory goes, there'd be no problem. Sure, great, except for one thing. Very few parents I've met can perform more than the most rudimentary arithmetic for themselves. If you all learned math so well, why do you inch toward Junior's algebra homework with a cross and a bulb of garlic?"

"If the most recent U.S. Election has taught us anything it's that we live in an era of fake news and sites. With accusations flying of manipulation of stories, the media and voters, it's truly hard to know if what we read on blogs, social media and other sites is actually the truth or a tale spun to generate clicks. To further compound the problem a recent study from Stanford shows that the vast majority of students can't determine it what they read on websites is true or baloney. The study showed More than two out of three middle-schoolers couldn't see any valid reason to mistrust a post written by a bank executive arguing that young adults need more financial-planning help. And nearly four in 10 high-school students believed, based on the headline, that a photo of deformed daisies on a photo-sharing site provided strong evidence of toxic conditions near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, even though no source or location was given for the photo. With many schools and districts rolling out 1:1 initiatives and a push to digitize learning, helping students understand where their information comes from, and if it is reliable and accurate are critical skills, not just for learning for but life as well."

"If you have opened Google Forms lately, you've probably noticed that things are looking a little different! Don't worry, this Google Forms does everything the older version did… and a few more cool things! If you get a little annoyed with it, you can always go back to the old version. Just click the little the man in the bottom left corner and you will be back in your familiar territory. However, if you're feeling creative, check out the new tools! Here are five of my favorites!"

"Financial literacy used to be a class in many schools-well, until that whole standards-based reform and "accountability" movement started turning the screws on schools. And like that, it was gone. It only takes one look at our nation's financial crisis, heaps of student loan trouble, and general credit malaise to wonder if financial literacy shouldn't be a bit higher on our priority list. An easy retort is to wonder who has the time-and where are the standards, where is the research, and who's going to see the data? But what if, rather than teaching a pure financial literacy lesson or unit, you tied it to your content area? What if it was embedded into a project-based learning unit about design or social media or the causes and effects of World War II?"

"For many years New Milford High School was just like virtually every other public school in this country defined solely by traditional indicators of success such as standardized test scores, graduation rates, and acceptances to four year colleges. These indicators have become so embedded in the minds of those judging our schools and work that we, like everyone else, worked hard to focus only on initiatives that would hopefully produce favorable outcomes in those areas. If we were doing well we continued down the same path allowing the status quo to reign supreme. The mentality of if it ins't broke than why fix it resonated so profoundly with us that we would not have even considered changing our ways. If results were not what our stakeholders wanted this would then trigger meetings leading to the development of action plans to get us back on course. "

"If you have only one iPad, use Apple's VGA adapter ($29) to connect your iPad to a smartboard. No smartboard? Grab an LCD projector, VGA adapter, and speakers, if you wish, for your iPad, then check out the simple how-to video below. If you have just one smartphone, pop your phone under a document camera. You can also use an adapter to project the smartphone; however, not all apps will function properly. (Unless a class is using Apple's presentation software, Keynote, I use a document camera to display my smartphone.) Use your single iPad or smartphone to blast content onto the big screen and let kids work together for an engaging mini-lesson. Then have students use the single device when working in small groups, as a reward, or during center time."

"T-Charts Pros and Cons is a free iPad app designed to help you organize your thoughts about a question or dilemma. This simple app provides a clean layout in which you can write your pros and cons lists. Each thing that you write on your lists can be given a different weight. For example, if you're trying to decide if you should study or go to a party you can give extra weight to "will probably do better on the test if I study" in your chart. Within T-Charts Pros and Cons you can create and manage multiple lists. All of your lists can be emailed to friends for their input and feedback."

"Do you use Mystery Skype in your classroom? If so, you are probably familiar with how it works, but if you are looking for some extra tips, or want to get some other teachers involved, you should check out the new Mystery Skype Curriculum that Microsoft has put together for teachers who are connecting their classrooms all around the world. The curriculum is free for anyone who wants to use it, but you do need a Microsoft account in order to sign in and view the latest version. Microsoft accounts are free, and you may already have one if you have a Hotmail or Outlook.com email address. For some reason Office 365 for School accounts do not seem to be supported, but this may have changed by the time you read this blog post."

"If we are to be completely honest with ourselves, the concept or theory behind computer science in the curriculum is not new, well not within Early Years Education. If we stop and think for a minute, what is happening when we code? We end up with - Problem Solving. Plain and simple……Computer programmers, computer scientists……solve problem! Our young learners spend every day solving and overcoming problems and obstacles. As educators, we set up scenarios, we pose problems and we guide the children towards finding strategies. These challenges are often in Maths and Science lessons but we sometimes see them in Physical Education and language classes too. We always strive to relate these problem solving skills to contexts, it makes sense if children can relate to real life scenarios. And this is where coding fits in."

"The list of apps that educators favor this year shares some commonalities with last year's favorites. Teachers tend to drop apps if they become too expensive or sometimes if the updates are so overwhelming that they no longer know how to use the product. Luhtala explained it's a delicate balance: "If it doesn't feel different than it did a year ago, that's alarming. It should feel the same, but better.""

"Old people are out of touch with technology. That's the stereotype, anyway. With adages like "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" and "He can't change, he's already set in his ways", many of us assume that certain pursuits are for young people only - and programming is no exception. It's easy to see why this mentality is so pervasive. As a relative youngster myself, the programming world evolves so quickly that even I find it difficult to keep up. Most of what I learned in school was obsolete by graduation. So if youngsters like me have trouble, is there any hope for the older generation? Yes! If you - or someone you know - have ever wondered if you're "too old" to start learning how to program, the simple answer is that anyone can pick it up as long as they have determination, persistence, and an open mind. The real question is, should you give it a shot? I think you should, and here's why."

"I often wonder if what we see as teaching at professional learning events would be acceptable in a high school classroom. If the purpose of professional development (Pro-D) is professional learning, then what is our evidence that learning does, in fact, occur? Are we using effective teaching practices in Pro-D? Although Pro-D is evolving, the "Sit'n'Git" way of learning seems to still be alive and well in many conferences and workshops throughout Canada and the U.S. In the past five years, I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in a large conference room for a number of hours with hundreds of other dedicated educators and not been provided with the opportunity to even talk to the person beside me. People are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to attend these events to listen to a series of lengthy lectures without the opportunity to network and wrestle with the presented ideas. I'm not opposed to a keynote address to start off the day with some inspiring, thought-provoking ideas; however, if there is no opportunity to take these ideas and move deeper, many of the thoughts that are initiated in the keynote get lost as I move on to the next session or listen to the next presenter. It's no secret that in order for deeper learning to occur, we must DO something with a new concept; we must apply new learning to take it from an idea to implementation. Our current typical model of Pro-D makes deeper learning a challenge and often only leaves participants with a few ideas that are unfortunately left on the shelf with the many glossy white binders from workshops of years past. At some point we need to stand up and say that a high volume of "Sit'n'Git" style of Pro-D is no longer acceptable and is an insult to those who have spent money, time, and effort to attend. While doing this, we also need to rethink the conference model and professional learning so that it better aligns with what we want to see in classrooms."

"Welcome to your new classroom. I am sure you are going to explain and teach in a way that I might never understand. You see, I come from a day of filmstrip projectors that beeped, ditto paper that left my fingers blue and the students enjoying the scent, bells that really did ring out a mechanical melody, 16 millimeter films that, if in color, amazed the kids. In fact, if these films were shown backwards it provided bonus entertainment. In recent years I have heard words that are so strange to me. These words include foreign terms such as twitter, blog, wiki, Skype, web 2.0, clickers, and interactive whiteboards. I have heard all this talk about 21st century skills and I am not even sure if I can tell you what they are. So there you have it. I am not one of those digital natives, nor am I a digital immigrant! I may not even be an analog native or immigrant. So, even though I do not know all the new terms, I thought that I might give you a list of ten items I feel just might ensure success no matter what century it is."

The bottom line is this: If you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future. If you're a Baby Boomer or Gen-Xer: This is your field guide.

Some people can read instructions on how to do things and can immediately go out and do them without any problems. But others need to see things done before they fully grasp how to do them. This is fine if you know someone who can show you how to do things, but if you don't, it's a little harder. Enter the video tutorial.

via Sandy Munnell What if you had effective and powerful learning assets when you leave the classroom or formal learning environments? What if you could access them using the various digital environments that are a part of your everyday life? What if you could do all that for free or less than the cost of single online course?

"Building lesson plans is an integral part of every teacher's day. Integrating technology into lessons (that may have previously existed in a totally non-technology infused version) can sometimes be difficult, especially if the task at hand can be easily completed without technology - many of us wonder why bother if we don't have to. While there are tons of lesson planning sites online that offer either templates or ready made lesson plans for a fee, tailoring the lesson plans to your particular material and students is usually the best option. The handy infographic below takes a look at the lesson planning process broken down into a simple, four step process. Think of it as having four different buckets of building blocks, and you can choose one item from each bucket to piece together your final product. You could potentially use this to make a rubric style lesson planner for yourself - if you were feeling ambitious!"

"Even if you think the buzz around "learning how to code" is overkill, you have to admit it's here to stay. Just like it's easier to learn a foreign language if you start in grade school, getting an early grasp on mark-up and programming languages such as HTML, CSS and Java ensures you'll have an idea of what makes our digital lives and devices tick, even if you don't plan on becoming a software developer."

"Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." If this sounds like a philosophy you can relate to, then you'll love TED talks. These informational 17 minute presentations are given at annual conferences by some of the world's greatest thinkers. Their aim is simple: To inspire ideas and change attitudes around the world. As of April 2014, there were over 1,700 of these incredible talks available free online to choose from. Sadly, listening to them all would take 20 days solid. Happily, you don't have to because we've picked the most life changing for you. Listen and learn and enjoy."

"ll ludicrous jokes aside, isn't this how some educational institutions operate? Totally unaware of students' opinions about the very aspect of their own lives that will impact them the most? What might the educators excuses be? Too little time? Too many papers to grade? Unwillingness to learn something new? Fear of being knocked off the sage-on-the-stage pedestal? An allegiance to out-dated and inflexible lesson plans? Fear of facilitating a class full of learning noise and having it mistaken by administrators as chaos? Or, plain ole professional stagnation due to a detachment from the ever-burgeoning world of the connected, 21st Century Educator? But please excuse my lack of manners. I should not be treating readers like participants in a twenty questions session. Instead, I got an idea. Let's just ask the students some questions. Got time to listen? The Questions If you could improve public education, what three changes would you make? If you were a school principal, what types of teachers would you hire? If you were a school principal, what types of teachers would you fire? Do you believe smartphones should be allowed in school? How can all teachers integrate students' passions/talents/interests into their curricula? What are your passions/talents/interests? Please describe your future plans."