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Providing feedback to students can make a significant difference in their achievement.

" What is Taught in EEI The EEI Curriculum is 85 K-12 grade units that teach California content standards in Science and History-Social Science to mastery. The EEI Curriculum also supports your students' efforts to master English Language Arts standards. The Curriculum teaches standards through an environmental lens, including understanding resources, conservation, where our food, energy, and water come from, and complicated decision-making processes related to climate change, green chemistry, and use of public lands. As students are taught the EEI custom learning objectives and standards, they also learn the Environmental Principles and Concepts. California examples make learning relevant, connecting students' learning to the communities they live in, and stimulating their involvement with the world around them. All of this bolsters your students' academic content mastery. "

Some great resources for teaching both content and ELA standards.

"This collection of student work demostrates the many ways technology can be used in the classroom. They may spark ideas on how you can engage students in your classroom. We thank the teachers and students who have shared their work."

LearnZillion is a learning platform that combines video lessons, assessments, and progress reporting. Each lesson highlights a Common Core standard, starting with math in grades 3-9. We started LearnZillion at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. because we wanted to solve a problem. We knew what lessons our students needed but we didn't have enough time to teach each student the right lesson. To create more time, and to share best practices across classrooms, E.L. Haynes' teachers began to capture their expertise on screencasts. We posted them on a homemade website and coupled them with a short quiz to help us track student progress. Soon the idea grew. What if teachers from across the country could contribute to the site? What if new teachers could learn the new Common Core standards from the wisdom of experienced teachers? What if students could get a playlist of lessons that matched their needs? What if, over time, the video lessons got stronger and stronger, as more teachers contributed and the data showed which lessons had the biggest impact? Thanks to funding from the Next Generation Learning Challenge, NewSchools Venture Fund, Achievement Network, and others, we are about to find out!

"Field trips can be amazing learning experiences.   They provide students with the opportunity to actively participate in education, offering learning possibilities that aren't readily available in the classroom.  Unfortunately, it isn't always practical or possible to take students on field trips.  Tight budgets, location, transportation, time, and resource restrictions can keep your students school-bound.  Virtual field trips can fill this void.  Virtual field trips have come a long way from the page of links they used to be.  Now students can explore the world with simulations that are so realistic, they will believe they have left the classroom."

This is an example of how a teacher uses Google Docs in her classroom. Although, these students are in high school, Google Docs can be used with younger students too -- Google docs fosters collaboration and provides opportunities for you to give students frequent feedback.

"Bestselling author Mike Schmoker describes a plan for radically improving student learning that is built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum (what we teach); clear, prioritized lessons (how we teach); and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy. With this "less is more" philosophy, educators can help students learn content at a deeper level, develop greater critical thinking skills, and discover more clearly how content-area concepts affect their lives and the world around them. Both a call to action and a blueprint for creating more effective classrooms, Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved student Learning will challenge your assumptions about schooling and show how educators who have embraced this approach quickly achieved spectacular results."

"Professional Development is a life-long learning process that involves different activities including individual progress, continuing education, inservice education, peer collaboration, study groups, and peer coaching or mentoring. The importance of professional development lays in the fact that it is closely related to the overall quality of education and students achievements. Teachers who stop learning and suffice themselves with the curriculum content soon turn into hard working students only a step above their actual students."

"There's no denying the fact that the Internet is a great tool for students to increase their knowledge. However, some search engines can also lead students to less-than-desirable websites or websites without any valid content. Use these 5 Best Free Web Search Tools for Teachers to ensure that your students find relevant and safe results whenever they search the web. "

"Web Worksheet Wizard and Project Poster have combined to make Web Poster Wizard. This FREE tool allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or class page and immediately publish it online. Teachers can also set up classes and assign projects to students. students complete the assignments by creating their own online projects or reports. Teachers and students can even add images and links to their pages. "

"This afternoon someone emailed me asking for some suggestions for tools for creating book trailer videos. It has been two years since I last wrote about the topic so I created a new list of tools for creating book trailers. Book trailers are short videos designed to spark a viewer's interest in a book. Having students create book trailers is an excellent alternative to traditional book report projects. A great place to find examples of book trailers is Book Trailers for Readers."

"Wordly Wise 3000 Online is a dynamic and interactive online program that helps students master the academic vocabulary they encounter in school every day. Full audio support is included throughout the program to help your struggling readers or ELL students. A time-saving reporting feature puts progress monitoring at your fingertips."

"When books have no boundaries, classrooms have no walls. Subtext makes it easy to interact with your students right in the pages of digital books-you can answer questions, link to websites, create custom quizzes and more. Equally as important, your students can exchange their own ideas and talk about books whenever and wherever they're reading."

"Timelines have become an indispensable part of the learning experience as they enable students to participate more actively in learning and acquire knowledge the easy way. In other words, timelines help students easily understand and memorize events and dates. But how easy it is to create them? Which are the best - and free- tools that you can use? In the following list you will find the TOP 10 FREE Timeline Creation Tools for Teachers that are very effective, free and easy to use. "

"Social Studies Techbook is built from the ground up to be a unique, web-based teaching and learning resource. Unlike other digital social studies programs that are converted from existing textbooks, Techbook™ takes full advantage of digital capabilities to offer multi-modal resources that transform teaching and learning. Powerful yet simple-to-use, Social Studies Techbook supports teachers as they transition to digital, while simultaneously helping them to meet Common Core State Standards. Real-time assessments also enhance a teacher's ability to individualize instruction. From interactive maps to "enduring debates", Social Studies Techbook links social studies to key historical resources, features activities that help students to think critically, and encourages students to develop arguments that are supported by evidence. "

Something to think about

The FBI launched a redesigned FBI-SOS website this week featuring an Internet Challenge to help educate students on cyber safety. The full FBI Safe Online Surfing site is set to launch in early 2012. The FBI-SOS program is a nationwide initiative designed to educate children about the dangers they face on the Internet and to help prevent crimes against children. It promotes cyber citizenship among students by engaging them in a fun, age-appropriate, competitive online program where they learn how to safely and responsibly use the Internet. The program emphasizes the importance of cyber safety topics such as password security, smart surfing habits, and the safeguarding of personal information.

"This collection provides a list of free educational resources for K-12 students (kindergarten through high school students) and their parents and teachers. It features free video lessons/tutorials; free mobile apps; free audiobooks, ebooks and textbooks; quality YouTube channels; free foreign language lessons; test prep materials; and free web resources in academic subjects like literature, history, science and computing. This newly-released list is a work in progress. Please tell us if we're missing something good."

This is a great way to track student behavior (both positive and negative). The students have access, as well as the parents.

I have started using it this week and really like it. The parents can get the free app and get instant feedback on their child's behavior. If the parents don't want the app, the website emails them when their child receives a mark (whether positive or negative). It also allows teachers to add comments when needed. Check it out!

"iKeepSafe is dedicated to the education of families on how to stay safe online. That's why we've teamed up with Google to develop curriculum that educators can use in the classroom to teach what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. The curriculum is designed to be interactive, discussion filled and allow students to learn through hands-on and scenario activities. Each workshop contains a resource booklet for both educators and students that can be downloaded in PDF form, presentations to accompany the lesson and animated videos to help frame the conversation."

"This video series introduces key Common Core concepts in 4th-8th grade mathematics. Each video focuses on building conceptual understanding of a topic, so that students understand the "how" and "why" behind mathematical problem solving. Use these videos with your students as topical introductions to topics including integers, the concept of ratios, unit rates, percent, and division with fractions."