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Great article about the importance of Computer Science. This is one of those that superintendents and principals should email their curriculum directors, school board members and PTO's to support and encourage this kind of education. "This is not about helping the tech industry. It's about the tech industry helping the rest of America. Today, 67 percent of software jobs are outside the tech industry. If hiring computer programmers is challenging for Silicon Valley, it's an even greater challenge for every other industry in America. Tech jobs aside, teaching kids basic computer science is valuable no matter what career path they might choose. Every child can benefit from a strong foundation in problem-solving. As software is taking over the world, a rudimentary grasp of how it works is critical for every future lawyer, doctor, journalist, politician and more. American schools are struggling to teach basic math and English, and skeptics may worry that we can't afford to teach anything else. We'd argue that computer science is part of the solution: it motivates kids to learn other subjects. If a school can afford to teach biology, history, chemistry and foreign languages, it should teach computer science too."

Mia MacMeekin at "An Ethical Island" has made a profound infographic "27 Ways to innovate" that you'll want to share and read.I love the quotes and suggestions throughout this graphic which is inspiration, insightful, and very motivational.Why not get each teacher to pick something and come back together and discuss.

A great explantion of how a lecturer use Twitter as part of his course. It also gives us an overview of uses for twitter. Adding it to my Twitter motivation!

2008 Edublog awards are open - nominate your favorites. I've had the honor of being nominated for these awards since I started blogging, but have never won a coveted "Eddie." This is one of the few awards I do think means something, although no one should blog motivated by receiving one. We blog because we believe in the nobility of what we do (teach tomorrow's future) and in sharing with others around the world of a like mind.

via http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/2008/12/secret-builders-virtual-world-for-ages.html\n\nSecretBuilders is a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by a web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers. On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. Three features which form the backdrop for SecretBuilders distinguish it from other online worlds:\n\n * Children learn through immersing themselves in the stories, themes, and concepts from the best in literature, arts and humanities. They will interact with famous historical and fictional figures and be introduced to content and characters from world civilization and the great thoughts and ideas of human creativity. \n\n * Children will create this site, not just consume it. They are directly involved in creating this world with their ideas, critiques and contributions on virtually every aspect of the site and many of their ideas will be implemented!\n\n * Children publish their works - writings, art, videos - making SecretBuilders their own personal store of creativity. They can invite friends and family to view their works, and comment upon them. Seeing their works published and enjoyed by others instills tremendous for self-confidence as well as motivation to do more.\n

Fantastic motivational video of 5th grader talking to teachers

Leadership and taking criticism

Another must read motivational post for those in leadership from Doug Johnson. I love the part where he says this time of year he needs to wear iron underwear b/c everyone seems to want to take a bite out of his a*%! Criticism is so tough to deal with, especially when you feel a lone. This is something I've been taking on the chin lately at our school and sometimes it really makes me want to quit. I think it is because as connected as I am with all of these amazing educators, right now in terms of technology, I don't feel very connected with the teachers at our school, largely because my workload barely gives me time to go to the ladies room! I love this post!

In my earlier post, I mentioned how Twitter played such a prominent role in the TLt experience. There was another theme that threaded through almost every presentation and deep into the private conversations; the importance of family. I've never been to a conference where so many presenters boldly expressed how their family motivated them to share, learn, and create. My family sacrificed quite a bit for me to attend this conference, and I greatly appreciated being in the presence of others who recognized the importance of incorporating family values into your work life. Everyone I met was just a pleasure to be around. I would like to share a little about some of them. I can't list everyone I met, because I didn't spend much time with some of them, but hopefully I can help you get to know a few of those with whom I connected.

We Make Learning Fun! Our educational video games offer an innovative approach to teaching basic academic skills by incorporating features of arcade games and educational practices into fun online games that will motivate, intrigue, and teach your students.

STAR educators program.

If your school has united streaming and you do things to teach others about how to use this resource, you can become a STAR educator. Here is the application process and let me know, I'll be happy to help you. I have an ulterior motive on this one -- if I help recruit a STAR by December 1st, I can get a mythbusters or Deadliest catch DVD and really would love to give this to my son. Like all of you, I'm scrambling this year on Christmas to slash the budget and still do great things. (Hey, some of you might want to give my book for Christmas ;-) So, if you decide to join and want a little help, let me know. And if you do so, let me know and I can get credit and get a DVD -- my son LOVES mythbusters!! I've been a STAR educator for some time now, and it is another great networking program. They also have their summer institutes. They have a wealth of great resources and UNITED STREAMING is my teacher's FAVORITE classroom subscription that we have.

Understanding Science gives users an inside look at the general principles, methods, and motivations that underlie all of science

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.

"The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education."

Project Based Learning is an instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the science or math classroom.

Students have no risk of embarrassment with respect to their individual answers and are very motivated to actively participate when using the personal response system (PRS). This interactive wireless system produces active learning by providing each student with a simple and handheld response remote. This remote is non-threatening and is in use from pre-K through college graduate education. PRS is often referred to as Clickers, Classroom Response Systems, and Learner Response Systems.

So many quotable quotes in this post! Wonderful 'deep' thinking.