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Site with educational media that users can search and then use.

YIKES so much to learn.... so many free sources

Twitter is a great place for educators to share ideas. It has become my go to place when I am looking for something to read, a new idea or some inspiration. It is a great avenue for sharing practice, asking questions and building a community.    But . . .   . . . Twitter has some problems and these seems to be growing. To get the most out of Twitter a degree of caution is advised.

When a comprehensive assessment program at the classroom level balances student achievement information derived from both summative and formative assessment sources, a fuller picture of where a student is relative to established learning targets and standards emerges."> This is a cached version of http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/WebExclusive/Assessment/tabid/1120/Default.aspx. Diigo.com has no relation to the site.position:absolute;right:20px;top:5px;color

The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You

If you're not an avid follower of #edchat on Twitter, you may be missing out on a great opportunity to learn about some new Web 2.0 tools that are currently being used in classrooms around the world. That's because @chickensaltash posed a simple question to the PLN and there has been a huge swell of support as hundreds of people have jumped in to answer the question about which 5 Web 2.0 tools teachers are using in classrooms.

A lot of these are really great tools to use!

With the Christmas Holiday's finally here this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on some of that reading which has been delayed while more pressing matters are dealt with. Here are the top items on my holiday reading list. With a project underway that explores a conceptual based approach to teaching mathematics there is a bias in that direction. 

This site is a great way for anyone to expand their vocab. It allows teachers and students to create lists and has thousands of already made lists from literature, speeches, history, current news, plus more.

One of the great joys and best strategies for expanding your understanding is to engage with a great book. Fortunately the options available today are immense and electronic options and audio books make access easy and possible wherever you may be. Here is a short list of what I have been reading lately with some brief reflections. 

This article emphasizes that ELLs benefit when literature teachers include techniques that make the learning more accessible. I like the idea of connecting the literature to a real project. I do this same activity with my adult ELLs every semester. For example, this semester they are reading "Breaking Through", a true story about a boy whose parents are undocumented agricultural workers. It is a great story of perseverance and "grit" that shows how immigrants make this country stronger. I am going to pair the reading with a group project called "The Immigrant Experience in Houston". My students will research an immigrant group and chronicle the melting pot that is Houston. They will create a Power Point Presentation and share their research with the class. Food samples always get 5 extra points!

Scholastic is offering K-12 e-magazine for free during this crisis.

Despite your best efforts, your entire class seems to start experiencing a huge decline in motivation. What started out well, as you watched your students' curiosities be heightened, now feels like an attempt to lift something well beyond your capacity. You're experiencing "the dip," and it is a common occurrence. You may very well not have done anything wrong, to cause this to happen. However, there are plenty of strategies you can use to bring the motivation back in a course.

Storyboard That is a robust web tool that allows students to create and edit Storyboards. This site is simple to use and allows users to drag and drop stick figures and screen elements, as well as add their own content, to the storyboard time line. Enough tools and features to be really useful and not too many to confuse young users, this is a nice way for students to create storyboards for class projects, videos, or anything else you can think of including comic strips. There is a nice educator portal which has some lesson plans and example student work. Not free, but free trial and reasonably priced for teachers

"Bring the world's best storyboard creator into your classroom! From first grade to graduation, Storyboard That engages students with digital storytelling in the classroom."