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"Unfortunately, the strength in the talent pipeline that we see in female soccer today is not the reality for technology. The U.S. is facing a shortage of Computer Science (CS) graduates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, every year there are close to 140,000 jobs requiring a CS degree, but only 40,000 U.S. college graduates major in CS, which means that 100,000 positions go unfilled by domestic talent. Even more dramatic is that women in U.S. colleges and universities earn only 18 percent of CS degrees. In middle school, 74 percent of girls express interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), but when choosing a college major, only 0.4 percent of high school girls select computer science. The true potential of future innovation will only become a reality if more women are part of it. A rich, diverse community of innovators is key for new technologies to address the needs of modern society. That is why Microsoft YouthSpark - a global initiative to create opportunities for all youth to learn computing - supports Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit organization that aims to close the gender gap in technology in the U.S."

"t's time to debunk the myths about who is good in math, and Common Core state standards move us toward this worthy goal. Mathematics and technology leaders support the standards because they are rooted in the new brain and learning sciences. All children are different in their thinking, strength and interests. Mathematics classes of the past decade have valued one type of math learner, one who can memorize well and calculate fast. Yet data from the 13 million students who took PISA tests showed that the lowest achieving students worldwide were those who used a memorization strategy - those who thought of math as a set of methods to remember and who approached math by trying to memorize steps. The highest achieving students were those who thought of math as a set of connected, big ideas."

"One of the basic tenets and strengths of the maker movement is its emphasis on constructive and collaborative learning through hands-on, trial-and-error experimentation. While a live mentor demonstrating and leading activities is the gold standard, a growing number of titles offer inspiration, support, and clarification for a wide variety of maker topics. The following list of recommended books was crowdsourced by librarians running maker spaces and/or offering maker programming in their libraries or schools."

"One of the basic tenets and strengths of the maker movement is its emphasis on constructive and collaborative learning through hands-on, trial-and-error experimentation. While a live mentor demonstrating and leading activities is the gold standard, a growing number of titles offer inspiration, support, and clarification for a wide variety of maker topics. The following list of recommended books was crowdsourced by librarians running maker spaces and/or offering maker programming in their libraries or schools."

Students are introduced to Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, and given an overview of its strengths and weaknesses as a research source. They are taught how to evaluate the reliability of a Wikipedia article and then attempt to improve an existing article.

I will be meeting up with Dennis Newson and anyone else who is interested to chat about my experiences in Second Life and what I see as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to delivering English language instruction there.

THREE CUPS OF TEA is the true story of one of the most extraordinary humanitarian missions of our time. In 1993, a young American mountain climber named Greg Mortenson stumbled into a tiny village high in Pakistan's beautiful and desperately poor Karakoram Himalaya region. Sick, exhausted, and depressed after failing to scale the summit of K2, Mortenson regained his strength and his will to live thanks to the generosity of the people of the village of Korphe. Before he left, Mortenson made a vow that would profoundly change both the villagers' lives and his own-he would return and build them a school.

""By using patented co molded metal and plastic form that can easily bend to any shape gives the InfiniteLoop the strength and rigidity to hold up a heavy iPad. The suction caps and adjustable side clips also allow it to fit virtually any iPad, tablet or smartphone on the market.""

"Here is another great find today from Google Apps Action. Davis created this excellent visual illustrating how to integrated SAMR model using Google Apps. She made use of two main apps: Google Docs and Google Hangout, and for each of the SAMR levels (substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) she provided an example of a task together with the app to do it. To me, the strength of this work lies in the task samples mentioned here. Teachers can repurpose them and try them with their own students in class. I also find the simple explanation of each of the SAMR levels quite helpful and  would help those new to SAMR better understand the philosophy underlying this conceptual framework."

"I have always believed that teachers (and people in general) MUST have an open midset; one that tolerates and celebrates mistakes and errors; one that looks at failure as an opportunity for a better beginning. It is through falling down that we stand up robust and it is through misfortunes that we gather our strength to live the life we want and pursue our dreams. If we want to raise up socially and  emotionally strong students who can face up and overcome  the hardships of life, an important key in this is to teach (and model) them about failure. We need to show them that failure is a healthy sign and a good omen for a healthy life experience. They need to view failure as an attempt for deep reflection and meditation about what work or did not work. They also need to be reminded that failure has been a common denominator behind most of the historical achievements and invention in the history of humankind."

"YouTube is definitely one of the best platforms for searching and accessing  educational video resources. We have already covered several ways teachers can leverage the  power of this platform in instruction. In fact, the strength of YouTube is not only in it being a resource of educational videos but is also a powerful tool for creating and editing videos. Several teachers still overlook some excellent editing features and creative possibilities that YouTube provides. For instance, you can use YouTube editor to create beautiful slideshows and presentations to share in class, or create use it to create a Hangout  and invite students to take part. These and several other hacks are all available right in your YouTube account and if you need help discovering YouTube's hidden gems, this section is a good place to start with."

"Traditional teacher professional development depends on external training handed down to teachers after having identified their weaknesses as a professional. If you're not so great at teacher writing, or if assessment is becoming a bigger focus in your school or district, you fill out a growth plan of some sort, attend your training, get your certificates, and repeat until you've got your hours or your school has run out of money to send you to more training. Oftentimes these "professional growth plans" are scribbled out in 15 minute meetings with your principal, then "revisited" at the end of the year as a kind of autopsy. What would happen if we flipped this model on its head? What if instead we created a teacher-centered, always-on, and social approach to teacher improvement? One that connected them with dynamic resources and human communities that modeled new thinking and possibility, and that crucially built on their strengths?"

For many of us, our fathers are our heroes. We appreciate them for their love and guidance. A good father can set an example of strength, honor, sacrifice, and responsibility. On Father's Day, we honor dads for their love and the lessons they have taught us.

Sweetness in your speech talent in your mind love in your heart peace in your eyes strength in your hands & I wish always victory in your life

"There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student's readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student's needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, "What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?" This is a student-centered approach, and is built around the idea of recognizing the vast differences in students-not just in terms of literacy or schema, but an authentic need to know."

"What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately." Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. Meanwhile, teachers can improve the effectiveness of their instruction, re-teaching if necessary. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E. Stake, "that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative." Formative assessment can be administered as an exam. But if the assessment is not a traditional quiz, it falls within the category of alternative assessment. Alternative formative assessment (AFA) strategies can be as simple (and important) as checking the oil in your car -- hence the name "dipsticks." They're especially effective when students are given tactical feedback, immediately followed by time to practice the skill. My favorite techniques are those with simple directions, like The 60 Second Paper, which asks students to describe the most important thing they learned and identify any areas of confusion in under a minute. You can find another 53 ways to check for understanding toward the end of this post, also available as a downloadable document."

"Genius hour is trending in education, and for good reason. It is an attempt to restore the personalization, creativity, and authenticity that has been designed out of many schools and classrooms in the modern testing era of ed reform. We've offered a definition for genius hour in the past, and discussed the principles of genius hour before. Below we've listed 7 strengths and challenges of teaching with/through genius hour (we've used the simpler but slightly less accurate terms "pros" and "cons")."