Curriculum 21

Upgrading Assessments ... A group of teachers decided to upgrade/replace a final exam to embrace 21st century skills and Web 2.0 tools.

Visual Wonder Wheels (also a google app) that allow students to visually explore connectivity of topics, themes and eventually drills down to Web site for desired visual image.

This Week in Rap Current Events in Hip-Hop ... Great for all disciplines and when creating rap involves Marzano's vocabulary building/learning strategies.

David Nigadula's company Richer Picture ... Sample portfolios of students' personally selected work. Rhode Island gradulation requirement is to have K-12 personal portfolio.

"Pupils given a greater degree of freedom to surf the internet at school are less vulnerable to online dangers in the long-term, inspectors say. "Managed" online systems were more successful than "locked" ones at safeguarding pupils' safety, they said. "

FORA.tv - Presentation The necessity and urgency for replanting and infusing creativity in our classrooms Latest Book: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

"Teens across the country are starting to play computer games in school - and their teachers encourage them. It's called three-dimensional learning, and it has little in common with the 1980s video arcades parents remember. In North Carolina, high school students who take an elective called "Computer Applications 2" get introduced to Second Life or ReactionGrid, 3-D virtual worlds in which each player has an avatar - like a digital sock puppet that the user controls. In at least one school district, middle school students sit down at computers to play 3-D games in math and language arts classes. Quantcast "

I am not an artist, but I am surrounded by artists- family, friends, colleagues, and young people. A million years ago (or maybe about three decades past), I worked through each of the lessons in Betty Edwards' first edition of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and struggled to brake the inertia of my well-designed, verbal-linguistic vehicle so that I could learn to see, not read, images in my world. I followed instructions to turn a vase upside down and draw it. After an intense attempt the result was…a lopsided, upside-down vase. "

"The WNY Young Writers' Studio is a community where teachers and young people come together to discover what good writing is, how to create it, and how to inspire others to do the same. Students of all ability levels will enjoy a variety of engaging activities designed to help them define their writing interests and discover their own unique voices."

"As to the question, "How do we support students developing as efficacious self-directed, social learners and involve parents as partners in that journey?" I offer a little of my own background here. I mostly directly teach undergraduates (and adults), so I deal with folks who have already been through a system that has largely (with some exceptions) encouraged them to be passive, to be attentive to the rules of the game, to be really, really conventionally successful (as defined by the institution), and who are often self-directed and social learners-OUTSIDE of the classroom. So long attentive to the rules of the game of school, they sometimes resent being asked to deeply engage in their own learning. Here's a little recollection of my own journey through this as a teacher…"

Excellent resource for staying up with current (and archived) technology-oriented teaching and learning focuses

Watch how Nash Rocky Mountain Early College High School uses EduPlatform in their 1:1 [computer/internet access] initiative, which integrates today's latest technologies into the classroom for 21st century learning.

Siliva continually gleans text or created paraphrases from Curriculum 21, by Heidi Hayes Jacobs et al.

"Schools have become unwitting coconspirators in the decline of reading. On a recent cross-country flight, I found myself sitting next to the president of a multimillion dollar computer software company. To keep his business competitive, he told me, his organization regularly recruits employees from top universities. When I asked him how his current recruitment efforts were going, he said that over the past few years it had become increasingly challenging to find qualified workers. It isn't difficult finding smart candidates; the problem is finding smart people who can think."

Traditional schools - with their lectures, homework, and report cards - aren't for everyone. Here are five alternative approaches to education.

"Personalised learning means different things to different people. A lot of the debate focuses on who personalises the learning; the teacher for the learner, or the learner for themselves. Despite this polarisation, there would appear to be some agreement on what characteristics the 'learner' might have. "

Based on the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Grades 9-12, This response video combined with the original "An Open Letter to Educators" exemplifies the intent of these two standards: --Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and collaborate on a shared writing product, incorporating diverse and sometimes conflicting feedback. --Demonstrate command of technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update work in response to ongoing feedback, including fresh arguments or new information. This video exemplifies the intent of these two standards.

"If the message in this video resonates with you feel free to send it to any teachers, principals, professors, university presidents, boards of regents, boards of education, etc. you think should see it."

"When we question our students about "what it takes to get really good at something" and give them the space to respond, it is amazing how insightful they can be-and how much of it lines up with the neuroscience of learning. Here are nine answers that students gave in the book Fires in the Mind, along with related teacher actions to consider incorporating into your regular practice."