Content Literacy

Nice well-rounded iPad Launch Proposal from Miguel Guhlin. He is thorough in his plan, and the plan is on-going, long-term, developmental, and shows what success would look like for teachers.  He is upfront about using some of the great ideas of others, and asks for feedback to make it even better. if you are looking for a great framework for working with teachers on developing teacher capacity using mobile devices this is a good place to start. 

Joint project between Berkley, Microsoft and Russian University that lays out existence in an interactive timelline. 

What mathematical competencies must a teacher have to teach the subject well? This has proven difficult to investigate (1). A current view is that teachers' knowledge of mathematics "remains inert in the classroom unless accompanied by a rich repertoire of mathematical knowledge and skills relating directly to the curriculum, instruction, and student learning" (2). Unfortunately, there is no consensus on which "knowledge and skills" might activate teachers' inert knowledge. Two perspectives prevail, neither with a research base that enables strong claims about practice. The majority of current studies focus on explicit knowledge of curriculum content and instructional strategies. Such knowledge might be assessed directly through observation, interview, or written test (2), with a parallel research emphasis on the formal contents of teacher education programs [e.g., (3)]. A second school of thought, presented here, is that the most important competencies tend to be tacit, like skills involved in playing concert piano, learned but not necessarily available to consciousness.

very interesting music creator. i'm not sure of it's value as a teaching tool (I don't know enough about music), but it is very cool, and there is a lot of math behind it. 

Great free online graphing calculator. 

One of a growing number of quiz apps that are available. Easy to use, but a litte rudimentary in that it only allows you to take a quiz and does not have a study mode. You can review your results and analyze how you are doing which is very cool. Easy to create new quizzes and share, which is good, and you can add images to your quizzes, which is key.  I still think I prefer gflash+ for it's flexibility in the study mode but it might be a nice combination of apps for some online quizzing using MC questions. 

Quantitative analysis for readability from the makers of Accelerated Reader. Compares nicely to the Lexile Reading Levels, and is in the Common Core for use in analyzing text. 

easy to use online photo editing site. Connects easily with flickr or saves to computer. 

Great common core math tools site from Bill McCallum's work in Arizona for PARCC

Smarter Balanced consortium page for CC tools and resources

o provide states with additional Common Core State Standards implementation support, the Council of Chief State School Officers hosted a one-hour webinar on Thursday, January 26th at 2 p.m. EST to share tools and resources to support teachers and districts on text complexity, which is the linchpin of the ELA standards. The webinar featured Sue Pimentel, a member of the Common Core State Standards English language arts writing committee, as well as representatives from the Kansas and Louisiana Departments of Education.

Videos supporting instruction that aligns with the Common Core vision. 

An article by DeZure, Kaplan, and Deerman about implications for instructors about student note-taking. An interesting look at what research tells us about how students take notes, what they are able to remember and write down, mistakes that are commonly made, and what instructors can do to make their students more successful.

Walter Pauk's book in which he outlines the cornell Note-taking system as well as other skills for being successful in studying. He indicates these are essential skills for success in college yet, I don't see high school intentionally supporting these kinds of curricula and skills. 

Great one page synopsis of the Cornell Note-taking System right from the Cornell University web site.

Palomar College has identified for its students College Success Skills and offers them different resources to help them understand how to be successful. Some schools go a step further and offer a College Success course that encompasses these skills, but again we don't explicitly support these skills in coursework. How is it that teachers continue to think it is not their role to support students in being successful in their courses with explicit support of these kinds of routines!  It is also valuable to look at this list of skills for other skills to actively and intentionally support in schools. A great example is Active Listening. It's not a complex skill, and with an intentional effort by an entire faculty a system like SLANT from Kansas University could become the expectation in a school. 

Another description of the Cornell System for Note-Taking. I see so many schools having students take notes, but I don't see a systemic approach to note-taking and the development of the skills necessary in being successful studying using notes. Why don't we set our students up for success more often with these kinds of systems? 

MyBrainshark.com is the perfect solution for the shyer set. Audio narration can be added through this website, as well as some nice background music for effect.