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"So many essential questions examples, so little time. When we talk about essential questions, often the man who comes to mind is the late great Grant Wggins. He is still known as the "godfather of the essential question." Both he and his colleague Jay McTighe did so much to bring an awareness of how to create meaningful essential questions in education. They knew, as we do now, that the questions we ask our students matter."

"In our new conception for Gold Standard PBL, we have created two separate but related components of the model: Essential Project Design Elements, and Project Based Teaching Practices. We call them the Essential Project Design Elements because that's precisely what they are - not the "elements of PBL" the instructional methodology, which is a much broader topic than the design of a project itself. The Project Based Teaching Practices expand on what it means to implement PBL well, beyond designing the project. You can read more about our new model in another post, but as you can see in the diagram below, while some of the familiar "8 Essential Elements" remain, others are gone. Let's explain where they went and why."

"Reading, writing, and math are no longer the only essential subjects everyone should learn. Today's essential skills include navigating the web, writing code, and engaging with others online. This web literacy map from Mozilla presents activities that cover these 21st-century skills."

"Having essential questions drive curriculum and learning has become core to many educator's instructional practices. "

"Essential Skeleton is a free iPad app that students studying the human skeletal system should download. The app puts a 3D skeleton on your students' iPads. Students can zoom-in, zoom-out, and rotate the skeleton 360 degrees. When students zoom-in and tap on a bone they will see its name in English and Latin, have the option to hear an audio pronunciation of the bone's name, learn about the connected bones, and write their own notes about the highlighted bone."

"A meaning of "essential" involves important questions that recur throughout one's life. Such questions are broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are perpetually arguable - What is justice? Is art a matter of taste or principles? How far should we tamper with our own biology and chemistry? Is science compatible with religion? Is an author's view privileged in determining the meaning of a text? We may arrive at or be helped to grasp understandings for these questions, but we soon learn that answers to them are invariably provisional. In other words, we are liable to change our minds in response to reflection and experience concerning such questions as we go through life, and that such changes of mind are not only expected but beneficial. A good education is grounded in such life-long questions, even if we sometimes lose sight of them while focusing on content mastery. The big-idea questions signal that education is not just about learning "the answer" but about learning how to learn. (http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=53)"

"The Essential iPad Guide for Principals"

"In thinking about tonight's #talkmath chat re: math workshop, I wanted to share what I think are two essential components of math workshop and how we've used digital tools to support them."

"Here is an interesting infographic from university of Phoenix featuring 10 essential skills for the successful worker.Going through the list we remarked that these skills are important not only for a successful work for successful learners as well. In fact, these skills represent the ethos of the 21st century epoch, an era where knowledge economy and the social capital are so interdependently connected that it becomes extremely hard to decipher the dividing line between the two."

"Essential Skeleton 4 is a great free app that lets you explore the human skeleton. The app allows you to pan and move around the skeleton, zoom in on different bones and get information about each one. The ability to hear the name of each bone being read aloud is a nice feature. Teachers will also like the annotation and notes facility."

"Most educators are aware of the "Four C's" (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication) and their importance in schools for ensuring the development of today's skills in our students (I appreciate Will Richardson's contention that "curiosity" should be the fifth "C" and is more important than the others).  But there are other essential skills and traits that many schools teach, either through learning in the classroom or by providing extra-curricular activities, which are not as widely acknowledged, but are extremely important. From my experience being a part of schools and visiting, I have noticed that great schools teach these essentials that are timeless: "

"Many educators don't realize that Skype could be a valuable classroom asset that gives students lots of new opportunities to learn. When you hear about Skype, you most likely think of video calls that you might make in your spare time. However, there is an entire world of untapped resources available through Skype for your school. If you have been trying to incorporate new ideas into your classroom, signing up for a Microsoft Educator Community membership might be a smart move. You can give your students access to tons of resources and real-world experiences that will deepen their knowledge of the concepts you teach. Find out what sort of classroom activities you could plan in our essential guide to the use of Skype in your classroom."

"The most powerful thing she said was something that education policy makers will ignore at all costs. That is that Creativity is the next essential literacy. Now keep in mind I am just beginning to try and wrap my mind around what that may look like. My first belief in this discussion is that creativity is something that begins at a young age. I also believe that creativity and imagination go hand and hand. When I teach my courses for the college I refer to imagination as a sense of wonder because often people are distracted by the word imagination. This is because it brings up a short time in their life when they were encouraged to imagine. As an education system we ignore imagination and we have quickly weeded out that perceived "unnecessary" tool over the past 20 years. "

"Four Essential Principles of Blended Learning"

"s a high school math teacher, it was important for me to create a learning space that welcomed on-demand wonder and exploration. I knew that I planned to have a few essential hands-on math tools, and in the last few years, I also knew that I needed to have other items that were essential for providing kids more creative freedom. With a few containers, manipulatives, and supplies, along with some technology, I created a space that my students would go on to name "the wonder shelves." What you are about to read was not an overnight process, but one that grew over an eight-year span."

"Last summer at the Apple developer conference, WWDC, we learned that there were more than 1.2 million apps in the Apple App Store alone. That's a lot of choices. In a sea that large, understanding how to find apps for the classroom can be challenging. In speaking with numerous educators, we learned that most app downloads result from a colleague's recommendation (i.e., word of mouth) or from choosing the first app in the search results. These are both sound strategies given the limited time educators have to explore each new app. But a larger point has become clear: learning to swiftly evaluate apps has become an essential skill in the fast-growing, ever-changing mobile classroom. The Great App Checklist, go.sas.com/MobileLearning. We offer this checklist to help educators zero in on the app they need and to judge how well it performs key functions. This rubric can help developers understand how educators choose apps, what information would help someone in this audience, which details to mention in the app store summary, and what is the essential functionality. The checklist's themes - Purpose, Alignment, Pedagogically-based, Personalization, Sharing, Ease of Use, Privacy, App Citizenship, and Access - are those discussed throughout Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Developers, Educators, and Learners."

"As a high school math teacher, it was important for me to create a learning space that welcomed on-demand wonder and exploration. I knew that I planned to have a few essential hands-on math tools, and in the last few years, I also knew that I needed to have other items that were essential for providing kids more creative freedom. With a few containers, manipulatives, and supplies, along with some technology, I created a space that my students would go on to name "the wonder shelves." What you are about to read was not an overnight process, but one that grew over an eight-year span."

Exploring topics that range from soil to the solar system, Essential Science for Teachers: Earth and Space Science provides participants the opportunity to increase their science content knowledge and develop new understandings of how this content connects to K - 6 classrooms."

"Forget Sharpies and highlighters, the new back to school essentials this fall are apps for your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. While cellphones used to be classroom contraband, the burgeoning market of educational apps means iOS devices are as welcome as loose leaf and pencils. This school year, free iOS apps can replace your pricey graphing calculator and clunky dictionary. Inexpensive planners will organize your homework, grades and finances. "