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Specific writing strategies can play an important role in boosting reading comprehension. That's the bottom-line finding of a new analysis of research. The report, out today from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, says that teachers can improve students' reading skills by having them write about what they are reading, teaching them writing skills, and increasing how much they write.

Literacy literature digital literacy future of education curation of content.  Good writeup on Twitters role in curation

Had a great conversation a few weeks a go with Don Wettrick and his students. They filmed via Skype and my students got a chance to share what they learn and about my classroom. I enjoyed the conversation and have to admit that my students were quite jealous of the recording studio Don has. I met Don at the Microsoft Innovative Educators conference in Seattle. He's a great teacher and teaches with video.

We need judges for multimedia for the Flat Classroom project and netgen. A topic will take 3-4 hours to judge during early May. This is a great way to learn about the emerging technology trends in education and technology and to see the current range of student abilities in digital storytelling. Some college professors have students participate as part of their coursework to understand how such projects work. If this is you, please contact us at lisa at flatclassroom dot org and we'll see what we can do to coordinate your needs. The Flat Classroom project judges a few weeks earlier than NetGen (early May versus NetGen in mid May). Thank you for your consideration and passing it along. This page is the instructions for the Flat Classroom project.

We need judges for multimedia for the Flat Classroom project and netgen. A topic will take 3-4 hours to judge during early May. This is a great way to learn about the emerging technology trends in education and technology and to see the current range of student abilities in digital storytelling. Some college professors have students participate as part of their coursework to understand how such projects work. If this is you, please contact us at lisa at flatclassroom dot org and we'll see what we can do to coordinate your needs. The Flat Classroom project judges a few weeks earlier than NetGen (FCP is in early May versus NetGen in mid May). Thank you for your consideration and passing it along. This page is the instructions for the NetGen Project

All of my students are required to create an efolio. Every year they update it, eventually producing a personal website to use for themselves for the future. Here are 8 apps that help you do this.

Love the HLW Skypers which has been founded by some of my favorite educators: Anne Mirtschin, Theresa Allen, Karen Lirenmen. Love what they are doing. There is information about how Mystery Skype works as well.

This is a very comprehensive list. One area where Wikipedia excels (if academics will continue to contribute) is in comprehensive lists of open education resources. This list includes whether it is subscription or free and what type of database it is.

The online learning congress has named their outstanding award winners. I was excited to see one of my blog sponsors, WizIQ win best virtual classroom provider for the second year in a row. Lots of interesting companies herein the global education community.

" Kristy Cooper's insanely rigorous mixed methods study, Eliciting Engagement in the High School Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Teaching Practices, published in the April 2014 American Educational Research Journal, does an exceptional job of showing what works. Cooper, an award-winning researcher at Michigan State University with an MA and Ed.D from Harvard, examined the impact of three well-supported strategies that teachers employ to increase student engagement. As you read each summary below, try to guess which practice had the greatest impact." Todd Finley shares the three methods and asks which has the most impact: 1) Lively teaching, 2) Academic Rigor and 3) Connective Instruction. A fantastic must-read on student engagement that you'll want to email your staff.

Very proud of my dear friend Cheryl Oakes from Maine who is on the Official Google blog with her work with those with disabilities. Cheryl is an amazing woman who loves children. My youngest son has met her only once (in San Antonio at ISTE) and still calls her Aunt Cheryl. She has that effect on people. Great post. "One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine. She's also been able to tailor the vast resources available on the web to each student's ability. This approach has proven invaluable for Cheryl's students, in particular 16-year-old Morgan, whose learning disability makes it daunting to sort through search results to find those webpages that she can comfortably read. Cheryl taught Morgan how to use the Search by Reading Level feature on Google Search, which enables Morgan to focus only on those results that are most understandable to her. To address the difficulty Morgan faces with typing, Cheryl introduced her to Voice Search, so Morgan can speak her queries into the computer. Morgan is succeeding in high school, and just registered to take her first college course this summer."

Thinklink has made some upgrades for teachers. There is an improved student sign up, the ability to organize students by class. You can create image "channels" and interactive albums and you can have a more safe way to find images and use them. I recorded a session on my podcast this week about UDL and Beth Ritter-Guth highly recommends Thinglink to use with students.

60 Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom By Category

There are so many ways that you can use Twitter in the classroom but even if Twitter is blocked, you'll find many ideas that you can use on Edmodo or whatever educational networking tool you're using with your students. Great read.

One of my favorite youtube channels for teachers and educators is from Jarrod Robinson "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" from down under. He is helpful, loves kids, and has a unique understanding of engaging bodily kinesthetic learners in all subjects and a passion for mobile learning.

This is a course for Spring Branch ISD which uses a blog as the framework. I also love how 9 hours of professional development is being given for the educators in this course. We need more embedded PD that gives teachers an opportunity to embed their learning in their daily activity. Embedded PD is the key to transformational learning. While there is a time and place for getting away, we have traditionally only used that "away" method when we also need to use the "learn right here" method of delivery as well. Take a look at what Karen is doing here as you evaluate your pd delivery methods.

A show I recorded with Dawn Casey-Rowe, an overcomer who is using technology (and kickboxing too). She gives advice on transforming classrooms to demands all teachers face. She shares her thoughts about leading, learning, and embracing education technology.

If you want students to draft work in Google Docs, you have to teach them about the Research pane. It lets you search for the appropriate license (click the down arrow) and set the citation method. You can insert photos, search Google Scholar and a dictionary, your own files, and even the web. When you mouse over the item, you have the option to cite the source or insert a link. Very cool and handy for writers. This is an older feature that hasn't gotten the press it deserves in classrooms. If you have Google Apps for education this is a BIG DEAL because it simplifies finding pictures and does many other things that online citation generators do all within Google Docs.

Another software visualization tool. This one is from IBM. The URL is an odd one so you'll have to bookmark this. This is free and is listed as an "experiment". It looks like many educators are gravitating to the site as I've found some nice infographics for literature here as well. On the homepage you can scroll through some of the ideas. There are also some nice articles about how to create effective visualizations on this site that will give you ideas if you are using infographics in the classroom.

Another Infographic app for schools. You can use just a few themes for the free price and there are prices for schools to use Piktochart. This is another option for creating infographics with students.

The Twitter chats in education are compiled on this document including chats for each day of the week. Find a chat and join in - anyone is welcome (except trolls who want to take it off topic.)