Watching fast-paced cartoons harms toddlers' ability to concentrate and solve logic-based puzzles, as well as undermining their short-term memory

They're addicted to Facebook and slaves to their smartphones - "digital natives" trying to navigate the post-secondary world. But as universities spend millions on e-learning tools to help cater to this tech-savvy generation, current students say they're learning more in classes that don't have all the technological bells and whistles.

Homework is one of those issues we see come up in educational debates on a fairly regular basis. There seems to be two camps where you either love it or hate it...

...The coach in me suggests that if your team is performing well, you keep doing what you're doing.  Certainly you tweak it here or there, but when you turn in a world class performance, you don't bring in a coach from a team that didn't even make the show to give suggestions, but we did, because we're Canadian, and the one thing we have even more than an awesome education system is a giant inferiority complex with our big cousins to the south.

Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

I have written about why I think blogging and commenting about blogs are an essential part of learning today in Kaia and Room 10 - Why Blogging and Commenting on Blogs Are So Important.

Gamification is the application of game elements in nongaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior

Great starting point for inspirational ideas in the classroom.

Here is the speech that actor Matt Damon gave today to thousands of teachers, parents and others who attended the Save Our Schools march on the Ellipse near the White House to protest the Obama administration's education policies that are centered on standardized tests.

Teaching Secrets: Communicating With Parents By Gail Tillery Premium article access courtesy of TeacherMagazine.org. You will face many challenging tasks as a new teacher. Dealing with parents is probably among the most intimidating, especially if you are young and in your first career. While communicating with parents can be tricky, a little preparation will help you to treat parents as partners and to be calmer when problems arise. Here's the first rule to live by: Your students' parents are not your enemies. Ultimately, they want the same thing you want, which is the best for their children. By maintaining respectful and productive communication, you can work together to help students succeed. Second, whenever problems arise, remember that parents are probably just as nervous about contacting you as you are about returning the contact-and maybe more so. I'll confess: Even after 26 years of teaching, I still get a little frisson of fear in my belly when I see an e-mail or hear a voicemail from a parent. But I have seen time and again that parents are often more nervous than the teacher is-especially if their child doesn't want them to contact the teacher. Indeed, some parents may even fear that if they raise concerns, their child will face some kind of retaliation. Remember that parents' tones or words may reflect such fears. In your response, try to establish that everyone involved wants to help the child. Here are some practical tips for communicating effectively with parents: Contact every parent at the beginning of the year. Do some "recon." Telephone calls are best for this initial contact, since they are more personal than e-mail. Ask the parent to tell you about his or her child's strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc. Make sure to ask, "What is the best thing I can do to help your child succeed?" Remember to take notes! Once you've gathered the information you need, set a boundary with parents by saying, "Well, Ms. Smith, I have 25 more parent

Few other graduates in Canada have as much reason for pessimism as those who finished teacher's college this spring. A study from the Ontario College of Teachers shows that two-thirds (67 per cent) of education graduates from Ontario's class of 2009 found themselves unemployed or underemployed in the following year. And, the unemployment rate among new teachers has exploded to a staggering 24 per cent - up from just three per cent in 2006.

Keep that status update to yourself. That's the advice teachers are being given as the education system grapples with the expanding use of social media by students. Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation has been conducting workshops with high school teachers in Algoma in recent months after the Ontario College of Teachers issued an advisory that teachers should keep their distance from students when it comes to Facebook, Twitter and other electronic communication.

Studyladder is a highly effective, logically organised, Mathematics and Literacy program. It has been developed by experienced educators to inspire and motivate learning. It is suitable for Primary and Junior High School students and is very easy to use - students simply login with a username and password to access all the learning materials.

Teachers never have enough time. We have curriculum to cover, skills to teach, reports to write and meetings to attend. The demands are endless, both in and outside the classroom.

School leaders around the United States continue to spend HUGE amounts of money on interactive whiteboards for classrooms, despite the fact that these devices universally FAIL to empower students to become more independent, self-directed and engaged learners in the way mobile learning devices (like laptops, tablets or other personal digital learning tools) can. Please do not misunderstand me: It definitely IS a big deal for a teacher and his/her students to have access to an LCD projector connected to a computer in the classroom if previously, the "normal" technology in the room was an overhead projector.

Calls for shared curriculum for the common standards have triggered renewed debates about who decides what students learn, and even about varied meanings of the word "curriculum," adding layers of complexity to the job of translating the broad learning goals into classroom teaching.

Use Prezi to add drama and sophistication to all your presentations. Prezi is an online application that takes the place of tired slideshows. You get to use your creativity and work with a variety of different media formats. But first, discover Prezi shortcuts, set up paths, and how to navigate its main menu. This Cheat Sheet shows you how.