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"Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations," he said.

"Children are being forced to learn how to use applications, rather than to make them. They are becoming slaves to the user interface and are totally bored by it,"

Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard. To help pay for these programs, the state may have to shift tens of millions of dollars away from salaries for teachers and administrators. And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers.

“Teachers don’t object to the use of technology,” said Sabrina Laine, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, which has studied the views of the nation’s teachers using grants from organizations like the Gates and Ford Foundations. “They object to being given a resource with strings attached, and without the needed support to use it effectively to improve student learning.”

Vittra doesn't award traditional grades, either—students are taught in groups according to level—so maximizing diverse teaching and learning situations is a priority. The open nature of the campus and the unusual furniture arrangements reflect the school's philosophy that "children play and learn on the basis of their needs, curiosity, and inclination." That's true for kids all over the world, so let's hope educators in other countries begin to pay attention.

2) Formulate and write down four or five discussion questions based upon the assigned reading. 3) On the assumption that you will lead the day's discussion, write a brief (less than 5-minute) opening statement about the assignment. Your statement should set the stage for, and end by raising, one or more of your discussion questions.

Like the slur "anchor baby" itself, each of these claims is a fallacy. Far from "anchoring" their parents to US soil, many children born to undocumented immigrants are seeing them be deported. And for all the rhetoric spewed by the right about the need for tough new legislation to combat the immigrant "invasion," laws governing immigration to the United States have gotten more restrictive in the past fifteen years. Today, a citizen must be 21 in order to sponsor the green card application of a parent or an immediate relative. The applicant must then show documentation proving that he or she has not been in the United States unlawfully for more than one year. Barring such proof—the primary obstacle most immigrants face—the parent must return to the country of origin for ten years before being allowed to lawfully re-enter the United States and resume the application process. This is commonly referred to as the "touchback rule," explains María Blanco, director of the Earl Warren Institute at the UC, Berkeley, School of Law, and it is among the most insurmountable restrictions placed on the legal naturalization process in the name of "immigration reform" passed in 1996.

“Children should be given a voice not only about the means of learning but also the ends, the why as well as the what.” — Alfie Kohn

Joli OS is a free and easy way to turn any computer up to 10 years old into a cool new cloud device. Get on the Web and instantly connect to all your Web apps, files and services using the computer you already own. You may never need to buy a new computer again. It’s easy. Just download Joli OS. It installs in just 10 minutes.

"Many a Cause, Many a Conflict: The Texas Revolution" Introduction 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.

Try turning the question around:  How do other people usually get where they need to go on time?  What steps do they take to avoid being late?  First, they check the clock every so often, particularly when they know there's a deadline approaching.  They estimate how much time they'll need to get wherever they're going and thus what time they'll need to leave where they are.  They pause to figure out how long it will take to finish what they're currently doing and get ready for whatever is coming next.  And then they adjust their behavior accordingly

I suspect that those who chronically show up late don't do these things.  perhaps they have a tendency to lose themselves in whatever they're currently doing and don't discover what time it is until it's too late.

We have devised an interactive curriculum aimed to support teachers of secondary students (approximately ages 13-17). The curriculum helps educate students on topics like: YouTube’s policies How to report content on YouTube How to protect their privacy online How to be responsible YouTube community members How to be responsible digital citizens We hope that students and educators gain useful skills and a holistic understanding about responsible digital citizenship, not only on YouTube, but in all online activity.

The evolving Olympic athlete - 200m freestyle swim Since the advent of the modern-day Olympics in 1896, athletes have redefined limits in pursuit of the Olympic ideal: "Faster, higher, stronger." Through a combination of training, better regimen and technology, they've continued to advance their sports -- shattering records along the way. The graph below shows the progression of gold medalists' times for the 200-meter freestyle swim since 1896. Use the zoom controls at the top right to get a closer look, and hover over the points to learn each year's result. While zoomed, click and drag the timeline to view later years.

When students are prepped and prepped and prepped to pass the state tests, they aren’t necessarily better educated, just prepared to take a specific test. Too much prepping distorts the value of the test.

aren’t

ence.   I have used almost all lessons in the Expansion/Slavery curriculum section and I absolutely love these lesson. They are easy to use, well planned out, and it gets the students to stay on task and use academic language when discussing the material. The information is easily retained and the students are making more and more connections with material previously covered in class.   Rodney Del Rio, Teacher, Delano, CA More Testimonials

I utilized the stack feature so that I have two main stacks in Evernote, private notebooks and work related notebooks. In the work stack I have two notebooks, one for school related notes (to do lists, things to share in future meetings, substitute plans, etc.) and another that I have named lessons. In the lessons notebook, I have one note per week of the school year. Inside that I have a list of all of the classes I teach in age order. Underneath each class I write my lesson in. This is constantly updated, usually straight after a class so I know what to teach the follow week. So when I show up to a class, I can open up my computer or get out my iphone, go to the lessons notebook, click the week we are in and I have my lesson plan outlined. I’ve been doing this for fifteen weeks now and I find this an excellent way to stay organized. I have a searchable list of all of the lessons that I have taught. I can copy and paste if a class is cancelled or if it carries on for longer than expected. I can adapt my lesson plan straight away to add what was actually taught in the lesson as opposed to what I planned to teach. I can plan weeks in advance without worrying about having to cross something out. It is the ultimate organization tool.

We use a 'landscape/frame/gateway' approach that overlays freedom and agency onto a sophisticated curated learning landscape that takes 100s of hours to set up. 

Audacious. 180 kids, 1 space, NO TEACHERS. They put precautionary measures in place. No gap in duty-of-care. But: one huge risk. An audacious risk. Step back. Create space. Allow agency. Truth is, for the rest of the year it will be: 180 kids, 6 to 8 teachers, 1 space, and a virtual learning platform to rival the Khan Academy.

The state program works with teachers to change their lesson plans appropriately; the goal is to get students to think critically and engage with all subjects through creative work. "Since our beginnings, we've always looked at notions of creation," Mao said. "It's not about consumption of content, it's about the creation of knowledge."

making a laptop program effective is only 10 or 20 percent about the hardware itself, with the rest being about making sure the teachers know how to use them and how to lead students to proper learning goals

Bolting old lesson plans to new computers will do little, but future programs with strong teacher buy-in and excellent institutional support have the potential to do much more.

"Students and faculty have to have this sense that they can truly connect with each other," he concludes. "Only through that sense of connection do you have this sense of community."

The rankings stem from a desire by policy makers to find an objective way to distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers, untainted by the subjective judgment of individual evaluators, like school principals.

Critics also say there are aspects of a child’s life — or distractions on test day — that the numbers cannot capture: supportive parents, a talented principal, the help of a tutor, allergies or a relentlessly barking dog outside the classroom.

there are schools where students are taught by multiple teachers, making it difficult to figure out the weight of their individual contributions

These modules are prepared by AMSI as part of The Improving Mathematics Education in Schools (TIMES) project. The modules are organised under the strand titles of the Australian Curriculum. Number and Algebra Measurement and Geometry Statistics and probability The modules are written for teachers. Each module contains a discussion of a component of the mathematics curriculum from early primary up to the end of Year 10. There are exercises that teachers may wish to undertake – answers are given at the end of the module and often screencasts giving a solution are linked and indicated by an icon.