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I love these views from my student and her use of the term "horizontal" teaching - I think she has inadevertently hit on a very important concept for us teachers to understand. "Everyone has different views, different things they are good at, and different things they know. In a classroom, the teacher used to stand in front of the students, and lecture all day long. Now many of those teachers have started to teach "horizontally". This means that the teacher doesn't necessarily stand in front of her class and lecture, but works with the class, not only teaching them, but allowing them to teach her new things as well. This video gave me different opinions and opened my mind to a flattened world. I agree in many ways with Mr Friedman, because I personally do not learn well by having someone lecture me, it is very easy to get distracted, and by learning horizontally, I can interact with my teacher and classmates, and I feel like I learn so much more, because not only do I pay attention, but the fact that I am interacting, and experiencing what she is teaching helps out a lot."

Love this phrase "horizontal learning"

A cool video from a teacher about how she is innovating in her classroom. This is an application for Google Teacher Academy and was made on Animoto and uploaded to Google Video. Great job! More applications for events and organizations are moving to the video format. Knowing how to produce compelling video will help your students get scholarships and you move ahead. Learn how to tell digital stories. Oh, and I'm so excited, it looks like I'll be at Google teacher academy in June -- it is going to be great!

Excellent video applying for Google Teacher Academy on June 25th

"The main findings show that teachers present high levels of anxiety or stress due to their use of educational technology in the classroom. Among the conclusions, the need for research on different strategies to prevent the emergence of these anxiety and stress symptoms in teachers stands out."

Doug Johnson is a great read for his blunt, in your face honesty and his point about how technology companies are trying to differentiate is a great one. I think, however, we should extend this to schools as well. If your school is great, say why, but dissing the competition is no way to compete. If you think your school has no competition, think again. So, read this in light of the arriving and coming competition on the edulandscape and have an honest take on how you should "sell" the virtues of your school. If you can't talk about how great your school is and have to resort to how bad the other one is, prepare for a day when you'll shutter the windows and wonder how they're going to keep the bugs out of your empty building. Wake up and smell the wires burning their way into your student's computers and tablets, great teachers are just a click away and we've all got to learn how to blend and trend our courses, teaching, and to bridge our classrooms to add real value as teachers. It isn't hard as you think but if you just sit and teach like you've always taught, you're setting yourself up for some unpleasant days. You can't do everything but you can do something to improve yourself. Next practices are an important part of your best practice. Always innovate and never settle. Standards are only the beginning, you must have purpose if you're going to be a great teacher. Doug says: "But what I do know that when competitors trash each other, I tend to tune out. And I flat out hate it when I know they are lying - and I will NOT buy from a liar. A salesman recently promoted his video storage service by stating "unlike YouTube, we don't own your movies." That's just not true. (YouTube doesn't own your movies, GoogleApps doesn't own your Docs, CIPA, FERPA, etc. do not ban social media.)"

Connecting can still be a struggle.

Sometimes teachers reach out and find others are not there. This is what it takes to set up collaboration. I've found that it takes a teacher totally committed to eventually find a person to connect with -- it takes two determined teachers to make it happen -- her experiences are similar. So, if you have students who speak mostly spanish and would like to collaborate -- please please connect and leave a comment on this post. Share resources and places that you're connecting. Sometimes, twitter, as she says, does end up being the best way to connect.

Excellent discussion about Blogging in the classroom from Rob Kamrowski on the Flat Classroom Ning. Rob says: "The presenter, Konrad Glogowski, an eigth grade writing teacher, discussed his use of blogs as a "third place" for students to express themselves. The first place being students home, the second school, and the third, a sort of place where they are free to creatively express themselves. At the begining of the year, Mr. Glogowski challenged his students to "grow" a blog. He presented them a visual to assist them in planning their creation and, pretty much, allowed them the freedom to make their own product. He watched as the blogs and classroom community grew. Fellow students commented on one another's blog entries, offering advice and building fellow classmates confidence in their writing. Mr. Glogowski's role as teacher evolved into a reader of work and a partner in learning rather than an evaluator and expert of information. By the end of the year, his students had great pride in their work, bonded as a communtiy, and were better, more confident, writers. The likely hood that they would continue to work on their blogs and writing was extremely high. Mr. Glogowski's strategy and his educational philosophy towards blogging was a success." This person did not attend necc, but watched Konrad present via ustream via Will Richardson's blog. Ascyhronous conferences are so important. Can we make it part of conference best practice?

Overview of Konrad Glowgoski's presentation for necc.

Current comparisons of computer science and introductory computer science courses from the Computer Science teachers Association. I find it interesting that only 33% of schools require such a course and that the #2 choice for professional development for Computer Science teachers is now online networking.

Interesting results comparing the last two years of computer science teachers association surveys.

Some cool science teachers at necc who have "flipped the classroom" -- they record their lectures and make them available on itunes to download. Then, they do "homework" in class w/ the teachers. Listening to the podcast of class is their assignment -- the homework is what they do in class. This flipped method had some people talking today in our workshop. So so cool! This makes so much sense -- take the one to many work delivery and make it the assignment -- take the work where you need many to many to help one another and have that in the classroom. Can you see class evolving? wow! This makes so much sense.

Use of podcasting to "flip" the classroom experienc.e Lectures are assignments to listen to on the podcast -- homework is the classwork now so teachers can help the students one on one. How much sense does that make! Wow!

Marvelous article about 7 ways to find teachers on twitter.

List of resources for teachers on Facebook.  Students could benefit from some of these, as well, as lessons in digital citizenship.

The US is not the only country in government educational induced turmoil. Here is an overview of what is happening in England right now. "Make teachers redundant or have them teach subjects they are not trained in - that is the stark choice cash-strapped secondaries will face if national curriculum changes proposed this week are introduced, ministers are being warned. The bleak scenario is predicted by heads' leaders and teacher recruitment experts if the Government follows the recommendation of its national curriculum review expert panel to make history, geography and modern foreign languages compulsory for all 11 to 16-year-olds from 2014."

A slick presentation about Google apps for education. Becky Evans created and shared this and says you can use it as a presentation to introduce current features to teachers at your school. Take a look as you prepare to give teachers an overview of Google Apps for Education.

", new research demonstrates that spending does matter. The authors-C. Kirabo Jackson, associate professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University, Rucker C. Johnson, associate professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, and Claudia Persico, a doctoral candidate in human development and social policy at Northwestern University-show that "increased school spending is linked to improved outcomes for students, and for low-income students in particular…Increasing per-pupil spending yields large improvements in educational attainment, wages, and family income, and reductions in the annual incidence of adult poverty for children from low-income families. As they also show, it matters how the new money is spent-such as on instruction, hiring more teachers, increasing teacher pay, hiring guidance counselors and social workers. Money well-spent "can profoundly shape the life outcomes of economically disadvantaged children and thereby reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Money alone may not lift educational outcomes to desired levels, but our findings confirm that the provision of adequate funding may be critical.""

Students talking about trends on the Horizon report are amazing me!

Blue zones education program - this is the education model - this is a great opportunity for younger students and is a "real" live experience that makes a big difference. Fascinating for health teachers and science teachers as well.

Navigating the Digital Rapids written by Julie Lindsay and I about 21st Century Skills and @netgened and @digiteen. One of the points in this article, I'd like to repeat on this bookmark and my blog: "Teachers who avoid customization often claim they cannot customize and meet standards at the same time. But meeting standardized learning outcomes does not mean you have to standardize the process. In fact, if you involve students in student-centered, globally connected projects, each student's learning experience becomes markedly different, and each classroom becomes as unique as the students and teachers who learn there. A customized classroom and national standards can coexist and lead to rich learning." Read and let me know if you have questions!

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