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"Students need to have a balance of literature and informational text.  If you're looking for sites that include nonfiction passages or high-interest articles here are a few worth exploring:"

The Coconino County Health Department is introducing a new sexual health education text messaging program for local teens called SexFYI. The program provides teens a confidential way to get automated, scientifically accurate answers to commonly asked sexual health questions. SexFYI also provides local teens with information on where they can acquire more information and sexual health medical help.

As concerns about the environment and economy increase, so too does the need for balanced and credible information about energy in Canada. The Canadian Centre for Energy Information was created to meet that need

Twitter: The Fastest Way to Get Informed. Or Misinformed.

"Although we can learn a lot of great information from books, articles, interviews, and conversations, we naturally forget a lot of it. Create a system to regularly remind you of lessons you've already learned. Here are three simple ways you can do that. "

"For a while now I have ben exploring the use of technology to bring interactive information to our students. This has involved QR codes, uBleams, Augmented Reality and eBooks. There have been some successes but it was a long process that meant the initial trigger usually looked fairly boring so made a very poor 2D presentation of work. I have since been looking at using Layar to create augmented reality magazines and posters."

"We often talk about iPads in K-12 classrooms, the availability of information on the web for college students to access, and a host of other similar topics in too many categories to mention. But we don't often broach the topic of technology in early childhood education classrooms. While we've seen some statistics on kids and technology usage, that information doesn't usually fall into the 'classroom usage' category. So we were interested to see this handy infographic which looks at the technologies early childhood teachers and administrators use (or don't use) in their classrooms, including how often they're used, what tech is used, and why they are used. Keep reading to learn more."

"If you're exploring the ocean with your students or looking for an informational multimedia text, check out Ocean Science. This fantastic free app is full of beautiful pictures and rich information about ocean life. "

"The National Geographic Word Atlas for 2013 is currently available as a free iPad app. I recommend grabbing it while it's free. The app features a globe that students can rotate, zoom-in, and zoom-out. When students zoom-in on a country they can open a panel of location details to discover some basic information about that country. The details pane for each country includes information about the country's population, geographic size, culture, and government."

"When teachers know their students well, they can build strong connections that lead to better learning. Knowing students' interests, strengths, and weaknesses help teachers tailor learning experiences for their students. Formative assessment is how teachers collect information about what students know, don't know, and want to learn. Formative assessment takes many forms, including exit tickets, discussions, games, and quizzes. These kinds of informal assessments can also help teachers get to know their students as learners and as people. There is a very wide variety of digital formative assessment tools that can be used for free (often charging for extra features). I've written a little about 15 of them below. Most of these tools work with any web browser, so they are great for laptops, computer labs, iPads, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones."

"In creative jobs, design in particular, inspiration is one of the keys to productivity. Perhaps, one of the most productive kinds of inspiration is the one taken from experts, successful people who have experienced what they share. Today we're going to recommend you a set of interesting and informative TED-talks that we think could be interesting, useful and helpful for designers as well as other creative people! Should be said, TED is a great resource of wise and informative things to learn in diverse directions and spheres, so we never miss the chance to share our findings there.   Here we offer you 20 TED-talks all with the descriptions given on the TED website. Most of them are already classic, sometimes even could be called legendary, and that makes them even more precious as they have been successfully checked with the time and practice. The ability to analyze take the best from the past usually broadens the creative horizons and becomes a solid foundation from innovative thinking. We also added some prominent thoughts full of wisdom and practical experience. So, let's move on!"

"In this post-election period, there has been a lot of discussion about fake news, particularly about how it is spread and shared online, and whether it influenced the recent presidential election. On November 22, Stanford University released an influential study showing that middle and high school students-and even some in college-have trouble distinguishing which online resources are credible. The inescapable fact is that young people need to be prepared for the Wild West of information that they live in and will grow up in. It is also imperative that we, as educators, prepare young people for the important job of responsible and informed citizenship"

"How are you making connections between your English Language Arts instruction and the work happening in social studies? Incorporating social studies reading passages into your instruction can help you address learning goals in both subject areas. If you are teaching a lesson about the American Revolution you might share a short selection of informational text so students can discuss cause and effect in a reading passage in the context of that moment in history. If you are reading a historical fiction novel you can use short reading passages to provide additional information on notable figures or events that pop up during the course of the story. Earlier this year I shared some favorite online resources for science reading passages (see the post here). There are a handful of great social studies reading passages organized on websites and available in mobile apps. Locating just-right resources for your classroom can be a struggle, especially when it comes to reading materials. As you begin the search for content to share with your students, you'll want to check out the range of resources featured on this list. Make sure to scroll to the bottom for a special link to reading response tools that students can use in combination with the resources on this list."

"This case study report provides concrete guidance and information resources to support other School District leaders faced with the challenge of determining how they can get their own innovations to 'stick' and achieve their goals. The CEA Selection Jury of Canadian innovation leaders was most impressed with how the OCSB leads with a focus on learning and teacher support first, followed by the technology. This School Board has been implementing their innovative strategy over a number of years, incorporated all partners - including teacher unions and support staff - and built a budget in support of this collective vision, with ongoing parent and student voice that continue to inform these changes. "

"One of my favorite innovations in recent years is the idea of TED Talks. Whether you attend a session in person or watch online, you can learn and gain inspiration and see and hear people tell their stories and share their expertise firsthand. It's accessible, substantive information on virtually every topic imaginable. If reading the news first thing in the morning is bringing you down, why not save that task for a bit later in the day? Instead, take in one of these great TED talks with your breakfast. Since they're under 20 minutes, it's the perfect amount of time to spend with your breakfast and coffee--and you'll start the day informed, motivated, and ready to go do great things."

"According to Wikipedia, a QR code is " a specific matrix bar code ( or two-dimensional code ), readable by dedicated QR bar code readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL, or other data." Teachers can use this technology for a wide variety of educational purposes. In this excellent video tutorial, Red Squirrel demonstrates 11 ways you can use QR codes in your class (e.g: create handouts with links to online content; enrich your content by adding links to online videos, documents and PDFs where students can access more information about topics taught; create QR codes that can show answers to a specific exercise or instructions on how to carry out a certain activity …etc, make books interactive and many more)."

"This is the seventh in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. The first posts covered financial literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, historical literacy, numeracy, and data literacy. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse information literacy and digital literacy skills into the curriculum."

"The merits of doing research and creating these reports and papers are valid. When they create them, students … Gather information Evaluate sources Organize and synthesize data Form ideas and cohesive thoughts Create a polished, finished product Cite where they got their information Here's the problem, though: the finished product just isn't very relevant to the real world, be it in the workforce or in people's personal lives. Reports and papers often end up where mine always did - in the trash. If students are going to do their best work to learn and create, shouldn't it be in a form they can be proud of - and that they want to show others? I think it's time that we turn research reports and papers on their heads. Here are 10 creative alternatives:"

"Librarians make a huge difference in our students lives. They are entrusted with a wide variety of educational tasks. Some of these tasks according to Queen University Library include: help students with information-related activities, assist students in developing information literacy skills that allows them to navigate and search the web effectively, collaborate with teachers in creating challenging project-based activities, run different literacy clubs, build library collections and many more."