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"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

Health teachers will love this site for kids. If you have a rainy day and have access to some computers, this would be a great place for activities. As we emphasize health, we should seek out engaging content in this area. This site is free. Love it. "The multi-award winning program is focused on teaching the basics of cardiovascular health, including anatomy, nutrition, and exercise, by offering comprehensive curriculum materials to teachers and a site just for elementary school children to explore. The curriculum was developed as part of our mission to educate the public in a collaborative effort with medical professionals and certified teachers.  Project Heart is completely free to use and free of advertisements. It is also fully translated into Spanish. 

"With so many expectations, requirements and scrutiny of primary school teachers, it is easy to become formulaic in your practice. This is a shame, as the initial enthusiasm for the job gets waned, and giving young students the opportunity to shine becomes less focused on whole-child development. However, to become an outstanding teacher demands consistency, focus and dedication. Outstanding teachers are always on the lookout for new ideas, but sometimes the tried-and-tested classroom activities and techniques can offer a strong system to help your pupils shine, despite curriculum restraints imposed."

Great website for those who want to teach about food production and farming.

Website to teach you about how the food got to you! This is a really neat website for elementary teachers who discuss food production. There is a resource for teachers as well. As a farm girl, it is great to see a site that discusses the importance of farming. This is so important for kids to understand. We garden at our school and it is great!

Exciting description of a wonderful individual research project at the elementary level with limited resources and a very hard working teacher.

I love the pictures on this blog showing the students using the computer, on the floor... everywhere, working on individual research projects. (Got to this blog to see the final products.) At first I said, "display boards?" but then I realized the amount of computer work required to create these display boards and I saw the age of the students and the number of computers in this classroom. This is a tremendous amount of work. Applause here from me to Kristi, another teacher blogger who I "met" from yesterday's post (hey go back to yesterdays and leave yours!)

A great way to get started with technology is to join in an exciting project. this project by Susan Silverman was designed using the principles of Universal Design for Learning. I've heard her present and she is a pro. (Along with my friend Jennifer Wagner.)

Susan Silverman creates excellent projects for global collaboration among elementary students.

Great research paper on why student test scores should not be used to evaluate teachers.

High quality documentary films. Various grade levels and classes

Excellent free reading program for K-3

Free-Reading is an open source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. Because it is open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. Free-Reading contains a 40-week scope and sequence of primarily phonological awareness and phonics activities that can support and supplement a typical kindergarten or first grade "core" or "basal" program.

Dear Educators, With this webcasting tool, you can connect live face to face with anyone, anywhere, anytime.....family, friends, students, teachers, colleagues, administrative groups, principals meetings, etc. without having to travel. You can even promote world peace by connecting with teachers and students in their classrooms worldwide and learning more about each other's country and culture The tools for your use include the ability to have live video chat, make PowerPoint presentations, stream video, share your desktop, record and share your presentation, and much more. Guests do not have to download any software. They simply click on the link to your conference that you send them, no cost, no travel and better yet, no wasted time. This tool is affordable and easily fits into a classroom, school or administartive office budget. As a former superintendent in the education system with more than 50 schools spread out 400 miles along a major highway, the ability to communicate with everyone in an efficient, effective and economical manner was essential. Hope you find this helpful. Best wishes, Barry

blog by a teacher in an all boy's school. How to make boys readersed

Gamification is one response. By embedding diverse achievements into activities and assessments, learning progress can be refracted infinitely. These systems would be able to more flexibly respond to unique learner pathways and abilities, and would further serve as encouragement mechanics -- instead of one carrot stick, there are hundreds. And not just carrots, but every fruit and vegetable imaginable.

A position which is bound to fire up educators, yet upon reading it I wondered if part of what they're saying isn't true? Perhaps it just sets up a simplistic binary that blinds teachers to the truth that we can be both interesting and effective as educators. Hard to tell.

Exploration of team teaching and it's challenges.

A long list of short n juicy professional development online courses to jump into next few months

Edutopia blogger Suzie Boss shares a variety of online resources to assist educators when teaching students about Sept 11.