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Learning should always be an active process and a two-way partnership between teaching and learning. In essence, learning and its counterpart exist as a vibrant dialogue between individuals whose role in the relationship is continually transformative. I'd like to explore this thinking further.

Some statements stand out in your memory for the power with which they resonate through you mind. I recall the first time I encountered the question posed by Alan November "Who owns the learning?" on the cover of his book of the same name. In four words, Alan poses a question that strikes at the heart of education and encourages us to re-think our approach. If we believe that the learner should own the learning, what are the implications of this for our teaching? Like a stone dropped on the surface of a calm pond, the ripples from a powerful idea spread, expand and gain strength. 

We live in a time of chaos, complexity and contradiction. (Sardar, 2010 [1]) Where rapid changes and transformations through technology, politics, globalisation and the climate, conspire against normality (Friedman, 2016 [2]) These times demand a fresh approach to education, one that provides learners with the thinking dispositions they need to turn challenges into opportunities, to connect their learning to their passions and emerge from their years of formal education as self-navigating life-long learners. 

Life in the 21st century provides a whole new world of opportunities for self-directed, passion-driven, personalized learning. Educators who are ready to move on from teaching the way they were taught, and administrators who will let them, can begin supporting students using tools and strategies available to the 21st century learner.

"Posted by Peter Skillen on Nov 30, 2012 in The How of 21st Century Teaching, Peter Skillen writes, How CAN we help our students be the kind of thinkers we want? Several years ago, my friend and colleague, @brendasherry, wrote a thoughtful post called "What is Deep Understanding?" She asked several excellent questions: what kind of thinkers do we want our students to be? what is deep understanding? can schools really provide the learning environment to nurture and develop it? In thinking about these questions, I would like to also ask: "How can we help novice learners become more expert learners?"

Peter Skillen explores ideas about developing deep understading in students.

What do you think? How do we envision the future and teach for it?

Teacher and tech enthusiast Jon Schwartz espouses the benefits of blogging for teaching elementary  English language learners and boosting student engagement. 

A collection of 400 + online tools for learners.

A collection of 400 + online tools for learners.

Teachers should be master learners not master teachers!

With good reason, much is made of learner agency but the concept of teacher agency is important too. If we hope to build a profession in which we are all self-navigating life-long learners, we must acknowledge the role that teacher agency plays. 

"Number Talks" is an approach to the teaching and learning of Number Sense. Rather than relying on the rote-memorisation of isolated number facts achieved through drills of "table-facts", Number Talks aim to build confident, number fluency, where learners recognise patterns within and between numbers and understand the properties of numbers and operations. Number Talks are a "mind on" learning task that engages students in an active learning process as they search for patterns, decompose and recompose numbers and develop a flexible understanding.

Making, Maker Centred Learning and STEAM fit neatly alongside Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) for many schools. Commonly this approach includes a constructivist view of knowledge and teachers seek to establish conditions which allow students to explore questions and ideas with greater independence than may occur in the traditional classroom.  Learning becomes a collaborative partnership between teachers and students with a clear focus on a learner centric approach.

At the start of each year we arrive back from our break hopefully rested and energised. The new year brings many new opportunities including new students, new team members and new teaching programmes. We begin again the climb up the hill with a fresh group of learners arriving at our doors full of excitement who will rely on us to meet their learning needs in the year ahead. All of this means we are at risk of starting the year with a certain level of panic. There is so much to do, our students are not accustomed to our routines, we don't know each other well, there are parents to meet, assessments to be done and before we know it we are back to being busy. 

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

Happy mothers day 2016 quotes

The Elluminate Teacher Certification Program is designed to help teachers acquire the skills and knowledge needed to teach and learn online. Participants will learn how to use Elluminate Live! to deliver interactive, engaging online learning experiences for K-12 students. The program requires participants to demonstrate a superior command of the use of the Elluminate Live! moderator tools and feature set. Additionally, participants will learn to apply those tools and techniques to create learner centric online classrooms that will increase student achievement and satisfaction. The Elluminate Teacher Certification Program is for anyone, not just Elluminate customers, who wants to excel in the virtual classroom. No prior Elluminate product purchase is necessary. UCSD Extension Education is offering 2 units of credit for completion of the certification.

Our goal is to transform school systems by developing professional communities of teachers and school leaders with interactive online courses and on-site support programs that enable schools to cultivate the critical learning students need for the 21st century world. Research-Based. WIDE World professional development programs are based on Teaching for Understanding, a classroom-tested framework developed through research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Online. WIDE World courses are conducted online and are asynchronous. This allows for flexible, adaptive, and convenient learning for all participants, regardless of location or schedule. Job-embedded. Through our courses, WIDE World learners integrate research-based strategies in their own workplace. Online coaches support cycles of learning, applying, and reflecting as teams of educators improve lesson plans, instruction, and data-driven action projects. Team-Based with Coaching. Systemic change requires coordinated effort from all stakeholders. Expert coaches help teachers, leaders, and specialists work in teams to develop a common language for defining and achieving shared goals. Tailored for Local Impact. WIDE World works with you to design professional development programs adapted precisely to address the needs of your school, program, district, or system and build local capacity for continuous improvement. Global Learning. In the online environment, participants collaborate with innovative educators from across the US and around the globe.

The dangers of making learning so safe and so easy it lacks any real sense of challenge. When we do this we deny our learners the opportunities they need to learn from mistakes and grow their minds. 

Assessment is arguably the piece of the learning cycle we get most wrong. Whether looked at from the perspective of the learner, the teacher, the school administrator, the politician or the parent, assessment is misunderstood and poorly utilised as a tool for learning. The importance of changing this situation is only made more salient in light of the countless research studies from the likes of Jon Hattie & Dylan Wiliam that points to the power of effective assessment. So, what are the common mistakes and how might we avoid them?