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A way kids/teachers could make money from their writing...more info at the site A new initiative from Amazon called Kindle Worlds, introduced yesterday, is offering fanfic authors a cut of the sales when their works are published through the program. Amazon's first partner in this project is Alloy Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros TV Group, which is providing the licenses to the franchises Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries. (All three are book series that have been turned into TV shows.) Amazon promises that more licensed worlds are on the way, from "movies, comics, music, and games" as well as books and TV shows

more at the article.... The Common Core standards don't just suggest novel technology use as a way to "engage students," but rather requires learners to make complex decisions about how, when, and why to use technology-something educators must do as well. In the past, tech use-whether limited or gratuitous-has been more a matter of preference or available resources than a must-do requirement. With the Common Core, such use is now a matter of law. Takeaways for Teachers: For teachers, the takeaway is simple: technology is no longer a feel-good way to develop buzz and honor authenticity, but rather a matter of academic merit and fidelity-which is awesome for several reasons: -No longer must progressive educators defend the reasoning behind twitter, YouTube, iPads, or blogging in their classroom. -Teachers will now have access to district, state, and federal resources to more meaningfully integrate technology. This means funding, training, school and district programs, and formal and informal professional development. -Social media professional learning networks (PLN) from linkedin to twitter, facebook to even pinterest, can be dominated by education technology discussion rather than broader concerns of how people learn, likely because those educators tending towards technology are on these digital networks to begin with. Now that said technology integration is required, it has the chance to bring the "old guard" of educators (perhaps kicking and screaming) into the world of #edtech. -This should also mean better resources for all teachers in the future. Digital "stuff" is easier to share than yellowing worksheets in an old file cabinet. As more learning becomes digital, sharing should increase as a result.

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ThinkCERCA is an online program designed to support individualized instruction in critical thinking for students in grades 4-12. The CERCA acronym (Claims, Evidence, Reasoning, Counterarguments, Audience) represents the site's structured approach to teaching critical thinking and argumentation. While reading one of the program's numerous text selections, students can make claims about what they're reading.