Edreach Group

Teachers, students and parents all have roles in ensuring student success, says teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron, who lists the top 10 responsibilities of each in three blog posts. For teachers, it is important to be experts in your field, make lessons engaging and relevant and be strong role models. Wolpert-Gawron writes that students must be their own advocates, ask questions and communicate with teachers. Families, she writes, are responsible for making sure students attend school ready to learn. However, a fourth party -- policymakers and voters -- must support education if students are to succeed, Wolpert-Gawron writes.

The U.S. Department of Education blames teachers for low test scores, and parents could be next, writes Maine educator Maja Wilson. She argues that rather than looking for ways to boost achievement, officials are assigning blame through a so-called "accountability movement." She writes that Education Secretary Arne Duncan's next move might be to implement a system he saw while working in Chicago schools that graded parents on whether they were involved in schools and their students were prepared to learn

Do digital tools and the Web's ability to connect classrooms to global society detract from or enhance teaching and learning? Two teacher leaders offer divergent views. Always an interesting discussion.

Wow, Canada is really trying to clamp down on Web 2.0 while at the same time claiming they are promoting use.

Telling.... The more I used the Fire, the more it felt like I was looking through the wrong end of a spyglass and all I could see was Amazon. I had read that the Fire is designed as a consumption device for Amazon products but I hadn't believed that they would go to so much trouble to hobble what should be a general purpose computer. 

Make Cinematic Narratives instead of Digital StoriesGood skills for iMovie 9 or iMovie 11 (there are small variations)