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"During a person's lifetime they will experience a variety of life events, both positive and negative. Negative life events, such as a loved one dying, tend to be researched more extensively than positive life events due to the damaging effects it could have on a person's life. Negative life events can induce a great amount of emotion and a person's reaction to these life events determines how they process the event and overcome it. When this processing is detrimental, emotional deficits can occur such as depression."

"Fads in education come and go, with many settings being full of optimism, hope, and trying to instil a positive mindset among their pupils. Yet, all these positive, happy signals sometimes fall short of providing individuals the skills to think more critically within the world they engage in. Many people believe that thinking negatively is a bad thing, and do not consider it as a positive force for good. Expecting things to go wrong can be a great force for good, and with grades and expectations in schools set very high, what happens when things don't go to plan? People are completely stuffed. If exams scores do not reach expected levels, then deciding on a college, university, or vocational options can throw individuals off-course, but having considered the negative outcome options can provide a backup plan of which they still have some control."

These amazing 12 free games would be great for interactive whiteboard or laptop. I've played a few of the. I love #3 which lets you teach coordinates. You can choose one quadrant (x,y - positive numbers only), 2 quadrants (xy - positive and negatives) or 4 (xyz positive and negatives) - great game for reinforcement.  All of the games are math / numeracy games so spread this like crazy for your math classes. TES is a great site out of the UK for free stuff and is the largest network of English speaking teachers in the world.

Learning algebra is difficult for most students. Ask any student what they are learning in algebra and you will probably receive an answer similar to this (after - Why do I need to know this?). "Using Xs and Ys a lot, a bunch of numbers and symbols, and memorizing a lot of rules." This often comes with learning algebra without connection to anything students can relate to. When students learn basic math, they can make a lot of connections.

"Charles Basch, a professor of health education at Teachers College of Columbia University, presented highlights from his research on the relationship between student health and achievement. Basch's research identifies major health risks that have a negative impact on learning, including asthma, teen pregnancy, poor vision and a lack of breakfast. "It's not a coincidence that children in the 5,000 lowest-performing schools are the same ones that experience the greatest health disparities," he said."

This is a superb classroom management tool where you can track the behaviour of your class and keep them motivated. Simply click on the child and assign them a positive or negative behaviour point. You can also track their reading and spelling ages and make your own customised data set. Use this information to help you arrange the children within your class. You can have multiple classes on your teacher's account and you can share data with colleagues using different accounts. The data is encrypted to ensure data security. The system works on the majority of web enabled devices. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Management+%26+Rewards

Following on from the results of our online poll, #UKEdChat this week will focus on Good Behaviour Strategies used in schools. Whether in the Early Years, Primary, Secondary or beyond, the behaviour of students can positively or negatively impact the rest of the class as well as interfere with teaching and learning. The session will release six questions (see below), so join the session on Twitter from 8pm via the #UKEdChat hash-tag. Questions: What student behaviours to you find to be the most annoying when teaching? Where do you go for support when you are finding student behaviour a problem? What has been the most positive intervention made in helping build a positive classroom behaviour? What are the foundations in ensuring positive pupils behaviour in any classroom? What are the most effective consequences used when dealing with disruptive behaviour? Think back to when you were a school pupil. What was the worst behaviour you displayed?

I love this conversation from Natasha Devon, body image expert and recovered bulimic. Please read to help get inside the mind of what we're dealing with here and the messages from media (particularly to girls) about how we "should" look, "should" behave, and "should" be so we can be happy and live good lives. So much of it is manufactured unattainable hogwash, but still many of us (including me) struggle with self esteem issues that come from the fact that we aren't the "type" of person we see in the media who is a "popular" person. Criticize as you will, but it is reality for many of us. From Natasha: "I have one hour to convey the message that inspired my business, Gossip School; just one hour to emphasise the importance of self-esteem, to give these young people the tools to recognise negative messages from the media and to convince them that it is OK to be themselves, however they look."

A good maths resource for practising numberline skills, including negative numbers. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

This is an issue we should be studying, talking about, and weighing in on. With the blocking that this proposes, say that you claim fair use, that may not matter - you may be blocked for using copyrighted material, period... no matter whether you have fair use claims or not., the way I understand it. Looking for some more good information on SOPA. Please share. "SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem"

I read Joel Comm's book Twitter Power and it has been one of my longtime favorites on the topic. Here he talks brutally about the negatives of social media. I admit the topic caught my attention. I"ve just found that if I'm brutal about who I follow and make sure they're real educators, I'm usually pretty happy with my stream. I unfollow junk as soon as it is evident it is junk. Ultimately we all must guard who we follow or we might just find ourselves following the garbage truck.

I was recording a session with Sue Waters tonight about the Edublog Awards and she mentioned this post from Joyce Seitzinger about why the edublog awards matter and I wanted to share it. While many pundits and critics arise and say negative things any time an awards program happens, I think that the Edublog Awards matters because it helps find new voices. Voting will open soon but realize that if anyone nominates you -- it is an honor. Take the time to go through the finalists, add them to your RSS reader and your Twitter account. Take a read at this great post to know why the edublog awards do matter... thank you Joyce for a lovely, compelling post (and some great nominations.)

Yet another reason to use YouTube. PBS Math Club has a Youtube channel with topics such as "Adding Negative Numbers: Mean Girls and Darth Vader" and What is an integer?" It is important to give teachers access to YouTube even if you block it from student use. Think of it as free cable where you determine the time for everything to be shown.

Contrary to popular belief, teenagers do not need less sleep than others. In fact, as they move through their teenage years, adolescents need increasing amounts of sleep - about nine hours nightly, as compared to eight hours needed by adults. Excessive sleepiness in teenagers and young adults is related to physiological changes during puberty. Yet, school starting times get earlier and earlier as students mature, despite the fact that puberty demands more sleep. This may have serious physical, mental, and social consequences for adolescents and negatively impact their academic performance.

From Steve Hargadon: "I've started a new community at http://www.FutureofEducation.com to providing an opportunity for those who care about education to share their voices and ideas on charting the course of education in a networked world. It's a place for thoughtful discussion on an incredibly important topic. The site will launch officially at the end of the month with the start of a weekly interview series, but I'm inviting some participation now because of an email Carol Broos (http://www.classroom20.com/profile/beatechie) sent out. Carol is one of twelve teachers who have been invited to participate in a round table discussion concerning the direction of education the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Jan 21. She was sent the following questions, and is asking for feedback and ideas. You can respond either at the new http://www.FutureofEducation.com site or her wiki at http://education20.pbwiki.com/FrontPage. Here are the questions: 1. What is the one most important education issue you wish Secretary Duncan to focus on during his tenure and why? 2. How shall the tenets of the No Child Left Behind act be altered or invigorated? What are its positives? How can its negatives be improved? 3. How should the new administration respond to the nation's need for better prepared and more qualified teachers? 4.What should the new administration do to increase student engagement in mathematics, the sciences and the arts? 5. How should funding equity issues be addressed? There is also a discussion topic on what questions were not asked that might have been." This seems to be a great thing!

A short report, with several links and quotes, that suggests peer review biases the publication and the advancement of our understanding!

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?  

Homeworkopoly is a fun way to encourage children to do their homework! Here are some basic instructions, but feel free to use your own judgement and change things around to suit your class needs. We have tried to leave off negative things such as "Go to jail" in order to keep this experience as positive as possible.

"We at the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication commend Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt for proactively raising the importance of digital responsibility and awareness at the statewide level." Richard Guerry, the Executive Director of I.R.O.C2 said. "By starting and encouraging a dialogue regarding detrimental digital issues, such as sexting, and by proposing legislation intended to further spread awareness of their negative consequences, the Assemblywoman has become a leader of digital responsibility, or Responsibility 2.1C, in the great state of New Jersey."