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"The main arguments behind the push for students to learn to code, usually center around preparing students for future jobs. There is a skill shortage in the computer science industry which determines skilled job seekers can walk into lucrative contracts. This trend is predicted to rise. The other aspect to the usual argument is that even students who do not work in the technology industry will also benefit throughout their life and careers by learning computer science, as all industries now involve some component of programming. While these arguments are perfectly valid, there are many more reasons why kids should learn to code. They include:"

"debate historical Supreme Court cases by advancing arguments and backing them up with supports."

"I'm a firm believer in the notion that opinionated kids are the most important resources for argument writing, so when it comes to coaching this form in classrooms, early conversations are often about inciting passion and letting kids talk about what matters…..to them. Experience has taught me that most don't care to write about school uniforms, cell phone use, or cyber bullying, and when they are asked to write about these things, what emerges is typically uninspired. They have a lot to say about a lot of other things though, and they're eager to research and learn more about issues that really mean something to them. Ready to support these kinds of writers in your classroom?"

"Halloween is packed away, Christmas looms on the horizon, report cards are consuming way too much time…all of which means it is almost one of my favourite weeks of the year: Hour of Code week! This year Hour of Code officially runs from December 4th to 10th. Last year our teachers and administrators worked really hard to ensure that students in all grades and across all of our schools got a chance to try one or two coding activities during Hour of Code week. I hope we do even better this year and for the next several weeks my blog posts will be dedicated to helping teachers prepare for Hour of Code in their classroom. However, in any discussion about coding, I think it is important to start off by discussing Computational Thinking. Computational Thinking is the basis for all coding. More importantly, it provides a great base for problem solving in any arena of life, from getting dressed for the snow to building a gingerbread house to completing a school project."

"In his new book, Raising Kids Who Read, Daniel Willingham wants to be clear: There's a big difference between teaching kids to read and teaching them to love reading. And Willingham, a parent himself, doesn't champion reading for the obvious reasons - not because research suggests that kids who read for pleasure do better in school and in life. "The standard things you'll hear about why kids should read I actually don't think are very strong arguments," he says. "Because if the goal is to become a good citizen or the goal is to make a lot of money, I can think of more direct ways to reach those goals than to read during your leisure time.""

"As schools and even entire school districts take the plunge and adopt iPads, we have been following the arguments for an against the adoptions in blogs, YouTube videos, and responses, and in conversations with colleagues. "

"One of the things we need to be doing as educators is to critically evaluate the resources and learning experiences that we provide for our students. This is even more important when we are spending vast sums of public money to implement new or innovative hardware devices into our schools. At the moment only short term studies have been released showing the benefits or not of using 1:1 tablet programs. There are few that are easily accessible to teachers or that outline specific strategies for implementing tablet programs. It would good to create a collection of these if people are aware of them. Send them through and I will add them to this article. These could even be cited when making the argument for implementing such programs. "

"Through the arts, students learn to observe, visualize, manipulate materials, and develop the creative confidence to imagine new possibilities. These skills and competencies are also essential to scientific thinking and provide a strong argument for transforming STEM education by integrating the arts"

"Often when speaking to groups about technology and "Bring Your Own Device" initiatives, I will have someone challenge the thinking and say, "Well…what about inequity?" To break down this question, what is often meant is that you will really shine a negative spotlight on the kids who do not have devices and they will feel worse about their situations. Sometimes I feel that this argument is a reason to not even try by some that are making it. But for some, it is a legitimate concern. Here are my thoughts…"

"In my last post, I began a celebration of brains and made the argument as to why teachers need to brush up on their knowledge of brains in order to reach that all-too-allusive 'tween noggin. During this, my second of three posts in this series, I'll bring up a few key terms you should know in your own neurologic education. Then, we'll follow a history-related fact as it enters the brain of an average middle schooler, weaving its way towards the blessed long-term memory. "

"When we give students writing assignments, the purpose is often to share ideas and demonstrate understanding. We have students write persuasive essays to demonstrate their ability to make and support arguments, or write answers to questions that we use to assess their understanding. But, as Joan Didion explains, writing can also be a way to develop understanding."

"So this collection wasn't as easy to curate as it'd seem. It wasn't a matter of simply choosing the best apps across content areas-math, science, social studies, etc. The title says "every iPad," which seems to imply universal needs. Every. iPad. Same with age and grade level, reading level, and gender. So we took at look at apps that could be used in any content area, and at (almost) any grade level K-5. (Phonics Genius likely wouldn't be as necessary in later elementary grades as it might in K-3, for example.) The focus is on literacy, content, and play. An argument could be made that elementary school students may be better served with an Encyclopedia app rather than Google Search. You almost may want something with a subscription as Brainpop has, or a slightly more child-friendly word processor than Pages. Substitute away!"

"What we've tried to do in the following list is provide an evidentiary-based counterpoint to the lingering persistence of the textbook in education. We've collected ten apps from across the content areas, from Shakespeare to the Elements, that each serve as compelling argument against textbooks. Only one of these apps is a game; the rest are examples of how-when properly designed-content can be refracted digitally, with a user-centered touch interface, full multimedia capabilities, while still maintaining a focus on delivering content to students. Or rather, providing access in a way that's more compelling than any textbook could ever imagine."

"My argument, here and in my book, OPEN: How We'll Work, Live and Learn in the Future, is that the discourse surrounding formal learning is becoming ever further detached from the lessons we see when learning happens outside formal boundaries. The grades that individual students receive for their school projects matter little compared to the comments found on their blogs, or their Vimeo accounts. Rising numbers of parents, frustrated by the worksheet culture of their child's classroom, are self-organizing and co-creating local home-learning networks. Learning which is "open" - outward-facing, highly collaborative, co-created and purpose-driven - offers the promise of addressing the two biggest, yet largely overlooked, challenges facing educators."

"I read Fareed Zakaria's work often. He's a great journalist for the Washington Post and a TV news anchor with his own show on CNN. I dug into a piece yesterday he wrote titled "Why America's Obsession with STEM Education is Dangerous". Unlike Zakaria's articles on foreign policy, which are insightful, thought-provoking, and in-depth, this article paints an innacurate and overly-simplified picture of what STEM education is and should be. Worse yet, his argument injects dangerously reductive rhetoric into the public debate on education, where we already see heightened emotion and political division. Maybe this type of reaction is what Zakaria is aiming for. He releases a new book today on this same topic called "In Defense of a Liberal Education". "

"How many schools and how many classrooms allow student choice? And, in adult-centered spaces, how often do young people have the opportunity to make important decisions? Our mainstream educational machine is fueled by the idea that adults know best-that adults must impart their knowledge to prepare students for a demanding world. Our responsibility as teachers is to teach students for their own good…a "good" that more and more of us are having difficulty understanding. We teach students addition and multiplication facts because some day they will need to calculate very quickly…a tip at a restaurant or a bill at the grocery store in case their smartphone runs out of batteries. We teach them to write a five paragraph essay on the theme of a book because they will need those writing skills when…writing an argument to dispute a lawsuit. We teach them how to conjugate "to be" in Spanish because it might save their life…at a fruit stand in South America. While we are preparing them for possible situations, should these situations define the entirety of the direction of their education? I propose that we introduce some choice and some unknown into the situation of school. What if we allow students to make choices about what they learn, how they learn, and when they learn? In a way, 1:1 iPad programs are sparking choice whether we're OK with it or not."

"Educators have learned much about the benefits of using projects for learning, and collaboration is easily recognized as an important skill for students to build. There are very few arguments against having students work together in class and on assignments. However, the challenge facing many educators is not in wanting their students to work together, but in figuring out how to group students together in the most effective ways. We do not want to create groups that hinder the progress of any of our students! This simple guide can help you the next time you are creating groups for an assignment or task in your classroom!"

"So, then, what does it really take to be a modern teacher? This term has been cropping up since the general consensus seems to be that the term '21st century teacher' is outdated and a bit awkward. Some make the same argument for the 'modern teacher' mind you but that's about semantics. You want to know what it takes to be a progressive and always-learning teacher who knows how to get students to think, contemplate, and explore. Well, here goes!"

"As the collective family of social media channels grows, each adopts their own personality. LinkedIn is oldest sibling -a go-getter that wore a suit in middle school. Instagram is the playful teen that opened her own restaurant with her family's money. Facebook is the walking political argument that you know not get started. And twitter? twitter is the wild child of the bunch. Offering quick bits of information, a dynamic stream that looks great on desktop and mobile devices, and a variety of ways to communicate from #hashtags to @messaging to micro-blogging and link distribution, twitter works, and unlike facebook, blogging, and other digital tools, when something does indeed "fail" on twitter, the overwhelming number of tweets can help mitigate the loss. The best I've heard explanation we've heard for the difference between twitter and facebook is (paraphrased), "Facebook makes me dislike people I've known for years, while twitter makes me like people I've never met." I'm not sure it's quite that cut and dry, but the big idea remains the same-every social channel has its own personality."