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"Claire Amos, Director of elearning at Epsom Girls Grammar, outlines ten tips for encouraging students to take the lead in a bring your own device approach"

Offering teachers a ten-year development plan, rather than the cyclical 1-year review meeting could be an integral part of keeping teachers in the profession, claimed Sir David Carter today at the GL Assessment conference in Manchester...

"During the past several weeks, ten essential ideas, so far, have emerged for me that ARE the difference that MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.  Let's take a look at them."

"Obviously, this started out being a list of predictions about 2010 and beyond. But, after working on it for about a week, I concluded that the questions we are asking, as we move toward the future are much more interesting. ..and, of course, the biggest and most interesting question for 2010 is, "What are we going to call it, two-thousand and ten or twenty-ten?" Anybody? Anybody?"

"This book is remarkable gem.  It is easy to read but offers great challenge and inspiring ideas in a carefully explained and encouraging way. The author draws on his experience, in an honest and true-to-life style.  He is open and honest and shares some of his worst experiences in a modest and humble style.  As I picked up the book I wasn't sure that resilience was the key feature of leadership that I would have highlighted - I think I would have wanted resilience in my top ten characteristics of good leadership, following other books and courses I've been on I'm sold on the benefits - but I was slightly surprised to find a book putting resilience at the heart.  Until I started reading, and quickly I was convinced."

Need renewal this summer? Here are ten great tips from Edutopia. Reflect while you relax!

Volumes sufficient to fill multiple warehouses have been written about the Texas Revolution of 1836 in the century and a half since it culminated in the seventeen minute Battle of San Jacinto. Few topics have inspired such polarized feelings. Many blame Mexico's loss of her northernmost regions on a conscious premeditated conspiracy of Anglo-Americans in the United States to steal Texas by whatever means possible. This conspiracy, supported by the American government in Washington, D.C., first bore fruit in 1835-36 with the Texas Revolution and culminated ten years later with the Mexican War which resulted in the loss of the present-day states of New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and California. At the other end of the continuum are those who blame the Mexican people for the misrule of Texas and the ruthless dictatorship of Santa Anna for provoking a fully justified rebellion by Anglo-Americans and Tejanos. While such extreme positions are far too simplistic to explain the events of 1835-36, they continue to be voiced today - a century and a half after the fact.

Teaching tip for vocabulary - have students collect 10 "juicy words" each week including where they found them and how each was used.  Then they choose their favorite 3 and are asked to use those 3 throughout the week.

Writers give advice - re: writing fiction - part 1

"Ten Great Tools for Telling Stories With Pictures - A PDF Handout" - great ideas for using images to tell story. With the iPad, taking images of hand-drawn pictures and adding text is a great way to combine analog/digital modalities.

Ten Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses Implementing the principles of universal design in online learning means anticipating the diversity of students that may enroll in your course and planning accordingly. Designing a course with principles of universal design in mind is an ongoing and creative process. One does not achieve the level of usability aspired to with a simple checklist, but with an open mind and a commitment to making design and inclusion a priority. There are a few elements, though, that if taken into consideration, can enhance access and usability greatly. Knowing and incorporating these elements on the front end of the design process can save hours down the line.

Asa Spencer of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute writes in the Education Gadfly Weekly: "Traditionalists cringe, tech buffs rejoice: This latest NAEP writing assessment for grades eight and twelve marks the first computer-based appraisal (by the "nation's report card") of student proficiency in this subject. It evaluates students' writing skills (what NAEP calls both academic and workplace writing) based on three criteria: idea development, organization, and language facility and conventions. Results were predictably bad: Just twenty-four percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored proficient or above. Boys performed particularly poorly; half as many eighth-grade males reached proficiency as their female counterparts. The use of computers adds a level of complexity to these analyses: The software allows those being tested to use a thesaurus (which 29 percent of eighth graders exploited), text-to-speech software (71 percent of eighth graders used), spell check (three-quarters of twelfth graders), and kindred functions. It is unclear whether use of these crutches affected a student's "language facility" scores, though it sure seems likely. While this new mechanism for assessing kids' writing prowess makes it impossible to track trend data, one can make (disheartening) comparisons across subjects. About a third of eighth graders hit the NAEP proficiency benchmark in the latest science, math, and reading assessments, compared to a quarter for writing. So where to go from here? The report also notes that twelfth-grade students who write four to five pages a week score ten points higher than those who write just one page a week. Encouraging students to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is a start."

"Schools face the prospect of widespread strike action after ministers announced a fundamental overhaul of teachers' pay that will scrap automatic rises for tens of thousands of staff."

The NMC is pleased to announce the interim results of the 2013 Horizon.K12 Project, as presented at the 2013 CoSN Conference in San Diego. The Horizon Project Advisory Board voted for the top 12 emerging technologies as well as the top ten trends and challenges that they believe will have a significant impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in global K-12 education over the next five years. These initial results will be compiled into an interim report, known as the "Short List," and described in further detail. The "Time-to-Adoption Horizon" indicates how long the Advisory Board feels it will be until a significant number of schools are providing or using each of these technologies or approaches broadly. Near-Term Horizon: One Year or Less * BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) * Cloud Computing * Mobile Learning * Online Learning Mid-Term Horizon: Two to Three Years * Adaptive Learning and Personal Learning Networks * Electronic Publishing * Learning Analytics * Open Content Long-Term Horizon: Four to Five Years * 3D Printing * Augmented Reality * Virtual and Remote Laboratories * Wearable Technology

"My EdTechTeacher colleagues Beth, Greg, and Tom have been pouring over educational apps. Lots and lots of apps. As practitioners, their instinct is that the vast majority of educational apps are terrible. Shovel-ware. Flashcards. Garbage. Tens of thousands of them."