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It turns out that teachers and low ranking civil servants (ie.key electoral workers numbering >1700) are a special target of post election violence in Zimbabwe -- Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission is also calling for international coordination of runoff election.

Does anyone know how best we can all organise our colleagues to write to UN and President Mugabe whom we could encourage between them to put this awful matter right...?!

NECC is the place for hands-on, interactive learning about how technology and the latest Web 2.0 innovations can transform teaching and learning. Join more than 18,000 teachers, technology coordinators, library media specialists, teacher educators, administrators, policy makers, industry representatives, and students from all over the world.

Advancing Excellent Teaching in American Schools Annenberg Media uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. It is part of The Annenberg Foundation and advances the Foundation's goal of encouraging the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge. Annenberg Media's multimedia resources help teachers increase their expertise in their fields and assist them in improving their teaching methods. Many programs are also intended for students in the classroom and viewers at home. All Annenberg Media videos exemplify excellent teaching. Annenberg Media resources can be accessed for FREE at Learner.org, or can be purchased through the Web site or by calling 1-800-LEARNER.

The GeoNames geographical database is available for download free of charge under a creative commons attribution license. It contains over eight million geographical names and consists of 7 million unique features whereof 2.6 million populated places and 2.8 million alternate names. All features are categorized into one out of nine feature classes and further subcategorized into one out of 645 feature codes. (more statistics ...). The data is accessible free of charge through a number of webservices and a daily database export. GeoNames is already serving up to over 11 million web service requests per day.GeoNames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All lat/long coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). Users may manually edit, correct and add new names using a user friendly wiki interface.

dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked. While other interactive software (e.g. Cabri Geometry, Geometer's Sketchpad) focus on dynamic manipulations of geometrical objects, the idea behind GeoGebra is to connect geometric, algebraic, and numeric representations in an interactive way. You can do constructions with points, vectors, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. Furthermore, GeoGebra allows you to directly enter and manipulate equations and coordinates. Thus you can easily plot functions, work with sliders to investigate parameters, find symbolic derivatives, and use powerful commands like Root or Sequence. Workshops You are interested in visiting or giving workshops about GeoGebra? Here is the right place for you with dates, addresses and materials: * GeoGebra Workshops

award winning software that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus.

Fascinating method for helping the crisis around the world including coordinating for Haiti recovery.

Win a $1,500 subsidy for NECC On each day of Teacher Appreciation Week (May 4-8, 2009), we'll randomly select a K-12 teacher to receive a $1,500 subsidy to help pay for costs associated with your NECC registration, travel to and from and accommodations in Washington, D.C. If your name is chosen, we will contact you immediately to coordinate permissions and travel arrangements.

Supercool School is a system that allows you to coordinate and hold live and interactive online classes. The process starts by creating a request for a class and specifying what you would like to learn. Other users can then join these requests by browsing through the request list, or by being invited by their friends. Once a request is full, the teacher seat opens.

If you have no idea what network-centric grantmaking is and you write grants or work with fundraising - this blog post is an important read for you. (Buy Beth's book - the networked nonprofit - it is great.) Themes as per Beth: These themes include: 1. Listening to and consulting the crowds: Actively listening to online conversations and openly asking for advice. 2. Designing for serendipity: Creating environments, in person and online, where helpful connections can form. 3. Bridging differences: Deliberately connecting people with different perspectives. 4. Catalyzing mutual support: Helping people directly help each other. 5. Providing handrails for collective action: Giving enough direction for individuals to take effective and coordinated action.

An intriguing site which has split the whole world into 3 metre by 3 metre squares and assigned 3 words to label that coordinate, giving addresses to millions around the world who don't have an official address, or making a meeting point more accuracy than a postcode. For educators, there are lots of geographic and literacy possibilities - geocaching with spelling, or writing short stories or descriptions about a real location including the words. The site can be viewed in many different European languages meaning there are MFL possibilities too."

"When I look at my timetable for the week, it isn't the recorder practice which happens next door first thing every Monday morning which fills me full of dread, nor the infamous Friday afternoon slot which brings about a sense of foreboding. My true timetable terror occurs shortly after school on a Wednesday afternoon. The (unrelenting) weekly staff meeting should be a time to coordinate with colleagues, create inspirational ideas for the way ahead, and take key decisions for the future of the school. A chance to bring clarity to the chaos, and move the things forward."

"I was introduced to the Good/Great/Awesome techniques in some TEEP training in November last year. I immediately placed it in my "to-do right away" pile. As an intrinsically positive person, and teacher, who always strives to build students' self esteem and promote the growth mindset in all who pass through my classroom; I found the idea of offering 3 levels of positivity much more appealing that the previous wording. I implemented this strategy quickly and personally added in an overarching learning objective, so students could see each stage of G/G/F as building blocks. I coloured coded them, as is common, and occasionally colour coordinate to grades or tasks."

Handwriting and fine motor activities. A nice PDF document that you can find some things if you teach handwriting. Description: This resource provides a range of activities to develop fine motor skills, designed with learners with severe learning difficulties in mind. It is by no means exhaustive, but covers a range of activities to develop discrimination of left and right, hand-eye coordination, crossing the mid-line,

Fascinating article about upcoming data to be collected on international ICT use in education. So many challenges.

Clever use of social networking tech. The initial take on twitter was that it just broadcast mindless sort personal observations. This use turns that idea around. Interesting way to teach a bit of history. What if we started tweeting Basho & Issa, the great Japanese haiku poets? Hmmm sounds like a fun lit project doesn't it?