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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

Just got this in my inbox - English teachers listen up and plan to celebrate national punctuation day. "HOW TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY What can you do to participate in National Punctuation Day on September 24! 1. Go to www.NationalPunctuationDay.com and become familiar with punctuation rules and issues. 2. Organize punctuation activities at your school, library, or office. 3. Share punctuation peeves with founder Jeff Rubin at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com. 4. Send photos of incorrectly punctuated signage to Jeff Rubin at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com 5. Forward this news as a way to spread the importance of proper punctuation. - Entrants must send a recipe and a sample of their cookie, cake, pastry, doughnut, or bread baked in the shape of a punctuation mark to National Punctuation Day, 1517 Buckeye Court, Pinole, CA 94564. - Entrants must send two print photos ‹ one putting the item in an oven before baking and the other taking it out when it¹s done. Make sure we can see the baked goods clearly. - First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive a box of non-edible NPD goodies, and all entrants¹ photos and recipes will be published on the National Punctuation Day website (www.NationalPunctuationDay.com). - All entries must be received by September 30, 2009. This looks like a lot of fun

"At the time of publication, it was leading up to 100 years since the cessation of fighting at the end of the First World War. The destruction of life, lands and families finally ceased for a couple of decades and bringing to mind the conflict of modern-day young generations is still important as lessons can be learned from those tragic battles."

So, I have been asked by a few people to provide a further update to the 'worklife balance' issue.  As many of you will now know, when I started my first headship (the one I'm currently in) just over two years ago, I started my first Inset day by te…

"It's the end of the first week of term and it has been so positive. I have tried to spend most of my day being the leader I want to be, engaging the 'spirit energy' (see Peter Drucker). I spent summer reflecting on my values and vision, and I'm fortunate to have been handed the reins for the Curriculum in my school. To realise the vision, I've employed the help of a team of subject leaders, and today I met with them for the first time. I knew this was probably our most important discussion; my opportunity to engage them in the future (see Steve Radcliffe, Future Engage Deliver), and so I spent the week prior to this discussing and reflecting with SLT to ensure I was ready."

"Colours promote such emotion and are attributed to everything we see every day. Children are taught from a very young age that the sky and the ocean are blue, the grass and leaves are green, that the sun, sand and sunflowers are yellow and the night is black. But I ask you, how often have you looked at the ocean and seen green, not blue or looked up into the branches and seen a selection of oranges, yellows, browns and reds not a blanket of green. I am not suggesting that we shouldn't teach children these colour clichés, at a young age they are their first experiences of colour and form the bases of many of their first art pieces."

New posts-my kids are in it, so I wanted everyone to meet them!

Materials for planning your first day and classroom procedures are available for download as you plan your fist day of school. This should be something all teachers can use.

60 examples of how Twitter is being used in the classroom today. From sharing with parents quick takeaways from the day to empowering class discussions, Twitter is a tool you can use. I'm announcing a hashtag for my class on the first day! ;-)

"Posted at 04:30 PM ET, 10/14/2011 STEVE JOBS SMACKDOWN: Matt Bors delivers our Cartoon of the Day By Michael Cavna [comic] Last Sunday night, Comic Riffs first reported on a curious trend we noticed among editorial artists: Despite Steve Jobs's declared Buddhism, obituary cartoons were rendering unto him an afterlife at the gates of an iPad-happy St. Peter. Throughout the week, other cartoonists noted the odd trend, as well. But one artist - Portland's Matt Bors - has now rendered perhaps the most inspired response. ..."

What I've encountered most in dealing with colleagues is the fear and the notion that this is just another five to ten year fad in education. It is important first to help others understand CCSS are not a quick-fix or an answer. In some ways, CCSS take us back to what good teaching looks. Ultimately, aside from the budgetary concerns with implementation, perhaps the other greatest struggle here will be the state-level assessment of the CCSS. In order for states to get it right, there needs to adequate time devoted to determining adequate assessment, not drill-and-kill. Broad, interconnected, higher-order thinking cannot be bubbled-in. Period.

"The start of a new term and in walks little Johnny! It's his first day in a SEN school. He doesn't bite his nails though but he fidgets, fiddles and drifts off into early morning daydreams. Our quest as teacher and TA then begins. How do we reel him in? How do we get him to be here… with us?"

I love this very real post that includes a term I've never heard before "door knob lesson plan" -- this is as real as it gets and is on an important topic for November. "What am I most grateful for each day at school? My students. Classes are a sanctuary from the black funnel cloud, and let's face it, they are why I wanted to teach in the first place. Not for the paperwork. Not for the technology. Not for the budgets or schedules. Not for the data. For the kids."

Braids around the Globe Main theme - Global Travel Goals * to become familiar with different locations / cultures around the world * to participate in the Vendee Globe trip (see below) * to follow-up by creating our own Global Adventure Dubbed "the Everest of Yacht Racing", the Vendee Globe is the ultimate in single-handed endurance: around the world, single-handed, non-stop with no assistance from shore. The Vendee Globe spans 25,000 miles, ~100 days, France to France, leaving Antarctica to starboard, starting in November 2008. Rich Wilson is the ONLY American registered for the 2008 Vendee Globe. The first race was held in 1989-90, and has been run every four years since the 1992-93 event. Two sailors have been lost at sea since the race began in 1989, and others have been dramatically rescued.

Search 74,456 objects collected from 1880 to the present day from steam engines to fine glassware, postage stamps to robot dogs. This interactive database contains thousands of zoomable images and research into the Museum's collection, much of it made public for the first time.

In this online tool, students can learn about and write diamante poems, which are diamond-shaped poems that use nouns, adjectives, and gerunds to describe either one central topic or two opposing topics (for example, night/day or winter/spring). Examples of both kinds of diamante poems can be viewed online or printed out. Because diamante poems follow a specific format that uses nouns on the first and last lines, adjectives on the second and fourth lines, and gerunds in the third and fifth lines, this tool has numerous word-study applications. The tool provides definitions of the different parts of speech students use in composing the poems, reinforcing the connection between word study and writing. It also includes prompts to write and revise poems, thus reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can print their finished diamante poems.