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Back to School demonstrates what education can  do, even though it was often earlier schooling that  let people down. . . . When we are at our best as a  society, our citizens are not trapped by their  histories. Sadly this possibility is shrinking, partly  because of a damaged an unstable economy but  more so because of our political response to the  economy. There are better ways to respond and to  foster the growth of a wider sweep of our  population. I hope Back to School points us in that  direction (p. xiii).

The Read & Write for Google Docs extension would be great for ELLs. You could even screen record it with highlights to support learning.

I passed this on to my Special Edu teachers simply for Read & Write. Great extension!

Super! I think how it highlights words, has a picture dictionary and audio pronunciation of words/vocabulary, translation feature... offers a great deal in support of reading and language.

Free education resources for Teaching. Books are customizable. You can rearrange the chapters or even add, remove and edit content. Concepts -Add bite-sized lessons to FlexBooks or assign to students for independent learning. Interactive Items-Videos and multimedia simulations bring learning to life. Exercises-Enable students to track their progress with instant feedback. Teaching Materials-Get assessments, answer keys and ideas for differentiated instruction.

This is one of the most comprehensive image editing sites I've seen. There are lots of effects to select and you can even make photo collages. It's easy to use and great for all sorts of projects. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Photos+%26+Images

If you believed the media shock jocks, every kid on the internet is either an idiot or in great peril. But I want to tell a different story starring my daughter, her best friend and a small group of friends ( including my opportunistic son!). This is a completely different story that highlights the amazing opportunities that today's available technology offers our students. It's also a story about how, if given the freedom, children will take what we 'make' them do at school and take it to a whole new level that the limited minds of us teachers don't even plan for. It explains why student led learning can be a success if we don't restrict our students from going beyond our stated objectives. It shows how true engagement doesn't need a teacher or a classroom for children to achieve great things and how technology can allow young students follow their dreams with the restrictions we had in the past.

"You are a college professor. I have just retired as a high school teacher. I have some bad news for you. In case you do not already see what is happening, I want to warn you of what to expect from the students who will be arriving in your classroom, even if you teach in a highly selective institution."

"Undergraduates and grad students alike will appreciate the usefulness of these search engines that allow them to find books, journal articles and even primary source material for whatever kind of research they're working on and that return only serious, academic results so time isn't wasted on unprofessional resources."

Great website with lesson plans and lots of multimedia covering basic chemistry topics. Though titled "middle school chemistry" much of the material can be referred to or used for basic high school chemistry or even biology (such as the basics on bonding, water molecules, etc).

Worth a bump, I stumbled upon this gem today. Excellent resource, there is even a free pdf textbook.

Middle School Chemistry lessons with worksheets and standards.

The potential for reliably predicting the outcome of any change effort is surely difficult if not even impossible once the number of influences becomes large. Acknowledging the complexity that exists and seeing the potential for growth, creativity and innovation that can exist within an organisation at 'the edge of chaos' are useful strategies as schools face a period of unprecedented change. 

Sometimes it is worth stating the obvious, giving time and thought to what we easily take for granted. In doing so we name the things we value most and give them the value they deserve. The value of teams is one such ideal, we know that teams have value, we probably even know what it feels like to be a part of a great team but too often we take this feeling as understood and don't stop to consider what makes it worth chasing.

Not that long ago I was a writer of interesting and engaging educational programmes. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. The programmes that I wrote and shared with a team of teachers were generally well accepted and the feedback offered was always politely positive. I enjoyed writing these programmes but in recent times I have enjoyed even more stepping away from this process and in doing so empowering the team of teachers that I learn with. The programmes that this team produces far exceed the quality I could ever have hoped to produce but more importantly the students are benefiting from their experience of highly engaged and thus engaging teachers.

How might we shape that culture and how will we understand the many forces at work? Understanding the culture of class or perhaps even a school is an important element of our teaching but realising the complexity of this task must come first.

Society confronts educational change in an odd, entirely counter intuitive manner. On one hand we acknowledge that education can and should do a better job of preparing our children for the future while on the other we cling to the models of education that we knew. This led educational writer Will Richardson to state that 'the biggest barrier to rethinking schooling in response to the changing worldscape is our own experience in schools'. Our understandings of what school should be like and our imaginings of what school could be like are so clouded by this experience that even the best evidence for change is overlooked or mistrusted.

I tried to think of a different way of titling this post, I wasn't keen on the word 'surviving' but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that actually, you really do feel like you're surviving… Just about. I've been onto Twitter, Instagram and even scrolled through my personal Facebook a few times to discover that Teacher Training Nerves are setting in. Now, I know you've probably (definitely) heard some complete horror stories but let's begin with an open mind. Having just completed the PGCE, I totally understand why you are so nervy and that is why I've created this post… So, sit back, take a deep breath and repeat "I can do this"...

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future: * Critical thinking and problem-solving * Collaboration across networks and leading by influence * Agility and adaptability * Initiative and entrepreneurialism * Effective oral and written communication * Accessing and analyzing information * Curiosity and imagination

Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly "small" social-psychological interventions in education-that is, brief exercises that target students' thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school-can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later.

For many students, the college experience includes game days watching athletes wearing the school colors take the field or court. But in today's environment of rising costs, soaring student debt and declining enrollment, college and university leaders are sometimes finding they have to explain the need for what has become an "arms race" among athletic departments. The argument might be made that much of the money that is required to keep college athletic teams going comes from ticket sales and outside sources such as alumni contributions. The other side of that coin is that some of the cost is borne by students, even those with no interest in sports. In the case of private institutions, it is up to school officials to decide whether the expense is worthwhile. The public has an obvious and greater role in the determination of the role and funding of sports in state institutions.

Excellent article on where we are (could not use diigo highlight)   research suggests that experts literally don't have conscious access to 70% of what they do. In well-defined domains, like mathematics and programming, we've created intelligent tutoring systems that can develop specific outcomes, but even those have problems transferring into practice. Real learning comes from approaching complex problems, experimenting with alternatives, and accessing resources in the process of solving them