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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.

A collection of resources about QR Codes on Pinterest. Lots of great ideas.

While I don't know anything about this "Kwik" method of learning, I do totally agree with one thing he says. IF we're going to require kids to remember, "there's no class called 'remembering.'" We teach kids what to learn but not how to learn. As I listen to this video and read Timothy Ferris' book "the 4 hour chef" I realize that we've not honed in on the art of learning as much as we need to. I'm not sure that memorizing numbers is hugely important but if we can apply this to learning other things, that would be great -- learning the 100 most used words in a new language, for example, how could we benefit if kids could quickly learn that in the first week to get started.

Eventhough students search the web frequently, they still need to be taught to search effectively.

In a recent PEW study, National Writing Project (NWP) and Advanced Placement (AP) teachers said that "a top priority in today's classrooms should be teaching students how to 'judge the quality of online information.'"  Furthermore, teachers are concerned that students don't get past Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube into deeper (and more accurate) ways of collecting information. If you want to discuss research sources, social bookmarking is the best way to do this. We should see more classrooms using Diigo (the most superior bookmarking service, in my opinion) or Delicious as they discuss and share the documents they will use in their research papers.  I've found when topics need deeper research or when the sources of research are in dispute, that social bookmarking is the best way to facilitate those discussions. It is a powerful form of pre-writing for students. If they can begin the conversations around research articles and sources, then more accurate information will emerge in their final document. Often students don't verify the sources of information and should learn to view all online information with skepticism and a critical eye as they converse over what makes a good source. Social bookmarking is a key source of discussion, data collection, and citation in the modern classroom.

Darren Burris, a math teacher at Boston Collegiate Charter School, has a list of 186 items for Common Core Resources on his Diigo list. He's someone you'll want to follow on Diigo.

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

You can help them think deeper but it takes time and sharpening the saw. Great article. "A common occurrence in classrooms is that the teacher, when he or she sees the students struggle mightily to "think out of the box" will precipitously step in and give the students the answers, or throw the deeper learning activity out all together, thinking that the students aren't ready for it. What these students and the teachers need is to be patient, practice and build those mental muscles over time. One thing that helps teachers and students is a better understanding the nature of the advanced thinking tools."

This is a tough one and I've had two or three this year who will call out - in a disruptive way. Sometimes it is when I'm speaking. I have one great class that causes me to struggle because of several who have a bit of a problem with knowing the appropriate time to engage (not in the middle of a question or when someone else is talking.) I encourage kids to have a pencil and paper or a tablet in  hand to jot down notes of what they want to say - sometimes they are afraid they'll forget. Other times, when it is class discussion, I use poker chips. Each student gets two. When they want to interject, they spend their chip. Every student must participate twice before anyone can have a third input. It is a daily grade and so easy to assess b/c everyone must give up their chips.  This article takes it much further and is a good one if you're struggling with this. "Namely, how do you deal with a student who, despite receiving consequence after consequence, continues to call out in class? Before we get to the solution, it's important to note that there are times during a normal school day when you may want to allow your students to respond to you or their fellow classmates without raising their hand"

This is a discussion to have with all IT integrators. Many adopt the attitude of leaving the hibernating bear alone. After all, eventually, the resistant teacher will come out of the den ready to enjoy the springtime of learning? No. Not necessarily. But technological change is as much emotional and psychological as it is instruction. If you don't first have the teacher in the mood to learn, you'll be struggling. So, be careful of labeling the teacher as resistant in the first place and be willing to teach and encourage the teacher wherever he/she is. This is a nice article from Elena Aguilar. Check out part 2 after reading this one.

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.

Can you design a school to promote healthy eating? There are things every cafeteria can do (read to the end.) This is a big problem and something we need to address. Every school should have a fruit basket near the checkout. It is a no brainer, but do we? "Just walk into the cafeteria and you can see this is no ordinary elementary school. "One of the most striking differences is the openness of the eating space," said pediatrician Dr. Matthew Trowbridge, who also consulted on the project. Students can look into the area where the food is prepared, and they can look outside to a planned school garden, where vegetables will soon be planted."

Not sure where this blog will move, but if you're aligning with common core math, Darren Burris is your man. There are so many great resources on this website.

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.

Use the buttons on the left to play this interactive whiteboard set of tools for some of the best things you can find for interactive whiteboards. This list was made by Theresa Allen and you should share it with all your teachers who use IWB's. GREAT games and tools. Thanks, Theresa.

If you teach students about notetaking, this is one to listen to about modern notetaking. I love the tips and updates to the Cornell Notetaking system for evernote.