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Math and Science professionals who to into primary teaching in Australia will get half of their student loan forgiven.

In Australia, they are taking an initiative to get more math and science graduates into primary teaching -- those who do so will have a 50% refund on their loan payments. This in response to a study in July from the National Numeracy Review that "concluded that systematic teaching of numeracy in the early years of schooling, in maths lessons and across the wider curriculum, was essential if these trends were to be reversed." I find this interesting and hope that it will encourage people who love math and science AND STUDENTS will accept. Just a geek doesn't mean you love students or want to teach them.

Great article by Larry Cuban on the Washington Post that you should forward to principals. "Yet studies of principal behavior in schools makes clear that spending time in classrooms to observe, monitor, and evaluate classroom lessons do not necessarily lead to better teaching or higher student achievement on standardized tests. Where there is a correlation between principals' influence on teachers and student performance, it occurs when principals create and sustain an academic ethos in the school, organize instruction across the school, and align school lessons to district standards and standardized test items. There is hardly any positive association between principals walking in and out of classrooms a half-dozen times a day and conferring briefly with teaches about those five-minute visits.The reality of daily principal actions conflicts with the theory."

This article talks about how today's teaching is going to change the business world. Sadly, I think that much of the teaching they CLAIM happens (such as mobile learning and differentiation) may not be as widespread as they think. Either way, this generation is different and I do think they expect to be a truly mobile workforce. Of course it will be interesting to see how the kids who are lucky enough to have personalized learning feel about the workforce.

Cool Webinar tomorrow - Live Webinar with the Folger Shakespeare Library on Wednesday, March 18 from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time (5:00pm start Pacific Time, 12 midnight GMT). Our speakers will present and demonstrate methods for teaching Shakespeare using digital media. The educational activities to be presented were developed by trained workshop leaders and teachers during the Folger's Teaching Shakespeare Institutes and sessions. Participants will learn practical and exciting ways they can incorporate Shakespeare's King Lear and other literary works into history, social studies, English, and language arts instruction. I try to understand why we cannot use these as credits - they are free and they are announced a few days a head of time -- but still, they are valuable learning experiences.

Really enjoyed reading Angela's Classroom habitudes - enjoyed reading this mini lesson about teaching curiosity. Love this quote -- kids asking "teacher, do I have the right question?"

k12 online conference marketing flyer

K12 online marketing flyer -- this is going to be so exciting! The K12 online conference is a FREE conference for people who teach kids at the K12 level. You'll find tons of great information about how to teach today's kids and information on new tools and classroom best practice. Julie and I are working with the strand "kicking it up a notch" and are very excited!

"The currency of youth is time..." I enjoyed the reality that James Gill shares his experience teaching summer schoool. From the tremendous investment of time (and advice from his father, a retired science teacher), to the kids who just tune out and move on. THIS is what teachers who teach summer school deal with. I admire James for his tenacity and positive attitude in the midst of struggle.

Excellent article about summer school and the challenges.

he pages of Teaching With Ted are organized to feature a TED Talk(s) followed by links to related resources and ideas for teaching the concepts/ideas discussed in the TED Talk video. 

This phenomenal special interest group of ISTE has a great quarterly newsletter which is really the best of innovative learning in all of education. On pages 15-17 there are three pages of an article from two of my students and I about teaching in a virtual world including my "quick tricks for teaching in a virtual world." Print this, share it, and learn - so many great things in this newsletter!

Tutorials to teach students of all ages about computational thinking and coding.

Celebration of teaching and learning conference will be held March 6 and 7th, 2009 from 8 - 5 pm and will feature Sir Kenneth Robinson (WOW!) - and several others including Alan Alda. This will be held at the Hilton in New York. I wish I could attend and WISH they would consider having an online stream of this, not everyone can get up there, especially those of us wih NO travel budget.

Conference with great speakers happening in March in New York.

Another PA parent opts his child out of PSSA standardized testing as a measure of civil disobedience.  Word of caution:  This can very much hurt a school's Adequate Yearly Progress and ultimately the school may suffer.  But, what if this movement spread amongst parents?  What then?  Would the government take over the school?  

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.

NOTE: The linked article is NSFW - it has a word of profanity where the author quotes Good Will Hunting. But the points are right. Some teachers worry they will be outdated or not needed with the online education movement. This article has some great points that I agree with. I do think online learning is part of our future but perhaps not the savior some make it out to be. "The online education utopians ignore the fact that free learning has existed for decades in the form of the public library and despite that availability, every kid within bicycling distance to his local branch didn't turn into a self taught entrepreneur. Suggesting that online courses are the cure-all for our educational needs is like saying all you have to do to teach kids in the ghetto is give away textbooks on the corner. Recent studies have shown there is a significant gap between the completion rates of online students compared to classroom based students. When you consider that online learning is often promoted as a cost effective solution for at-risk learners who don't have the financial resources for face-to-face instruction, it becomes clear that the online movement is offering a product that makes it easier to drop out to students who are already more prone to quitting in the first place."

Through the end of the year, Discovery just sent me a note that they are offering these three common core academies at no cost. Here's the info from Steve Dembo. I've done some work with their SIEMENS STEM Academy and am a sTAR Educator and everything they do is top notch. If you can work it out before the end of the year, this is something you'll want to do. From Steve Dembo: "We know that implementing the Common Core can be an uphill climb. That's why Discovery Education is proud to partner with educators to offer Common Core Academies in ELA, Math, and Leadership at no cost. From now until the end of the school year, educators across America are invited to sign up for an Academy and receive: practical strategies to implement CCSS reseach-based instructional practices best practices in using digital content resources and digital tools for immediate classroom integration Discovery Education Common Core Academies offer one day of immersive professional development and two follow-up virtual sessions at no cost to support educators and leaders in effectively implementing the Common Core State Standards. Educators may choose from three Academies offering a unique combination that brings together best practices in digital integration with proven research-based instructional practices: Literacy and the Common Core in a Digital World Teaching and Assessing Common Core Math in a Digital World Leadership Strategies to Support Digital Literacy and the Common Core"

Enter your videos to help teach SAT videos and win prizes. Get 1 free itunes download for every 5 videos you share. This could be neat - I have a couple of older ones that I'm going to upload.

This request from Ernie Easter: "Hi Vicki - Margaret Lincoln, a librarian from Battle Creek, Michigan and a member of the Maine Holocaust Education Network Ning has posted a request for educators who use art in teaching about the Holocaust to submit curriculum ideas. The artist is a Holocaust survivor. Would you be willing to look at it and add it to your blog? The only thing I am unsure about at this point is the commercial aspect of it, if any."

Great sessions from Discovery - one is coming up on October 22nd about Bernie Dodge.

Discovery education has the greatest WEbinars. I'm going to attend the one next Wednesday with Bernie Dodge. These are free great sessions. I highly recommend listening to the one with Bernie Dodge - he is doing some great work and came on wow2 last year and talked about webquests and web 2.0 and was getting ready to embark on some really cool work. I"ve GOT to hear what he has to say. This is great for teachers and anyone teaching educators.

Wiki projects of Marco Torres, teacher in LA.

Marco Torres' wiki page with media and information on his student projects. He teaches in LA.

6 week free class about using images in your classroom to teach