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Five states that made bigger strides than Iowa on national test scores had much tougher standards for what children should learn in school, according to a new study.

Goes over the definitions for "21st century skills" as several groups define it.

Math and Science fellowships for beginning math and science teachers.

Math and Science teachers -- beginning teachers should consider applying for these fellowships. These are in the United States. Here is what the ocmpany says about the fellowships (applications due Jan 15): "The prestigious KSTF Teaching Fellowship is valued at nearly $150,000 over the course of five-years and supports aspiring teachers of promise as they embark on careers teaching high school science and mathematics. Designed to meet the financial and professional needs of beginning teachers, the Fellowship exposes educators to a variety of teaching resources, new curriculum materials, and research and experts in the field. Most importantly, the program fosters professional development within a community of high school science and mathematics teachers and prepares Fellows to become leaders in their field."

Mark Van 't Hooft, Kent State University

This I Believe in the Classroom Hundreds of teachers around the country-in almost every state-have embraced This I Believe as a powerful educational tool. Many have told us that our project was the most enriching writing assignment they have given in many years of teaching. To help teachers guide students through exploring their beliefs and then composing personal essays about them, we offer the following tools:

Website that allows teachers, researchers, and students to save and share research easily. Has anyone tested this from Michigan State University.

New site for sharing research.

Interesting discussion going on about the pros and cons of a strict school environment

This article is dealing with a school and a social environment that has deteriorated past the ability to self-regulate through a series of stated guidelines. Both your school and ours are able to maintain their levels of operation through similar sets of guidelines, but in viewing the situation in the article I can completely understand how that school would need to take those steps to regain control over what had become an unmanageable situation. Looking at examples from the article of students who receive detention for failing to carry their ID after being reminded of it the previous day is not an unusual policy in most public schools. Denial of the "pleasant" aspects of school life for students who struggle academically or behaviorally is also nothing new. In this case they have made it a core part of the students life. Think about it this way: how many of these students who learn through these hard lessons of personal responsibility are going to be come parents who pass along to their children the values of personal responsibility? Some of the parents at CCS have a saying..."It's good to be in the bubble." There is a safe, easily maintained environment at the school, reinforced by clear guidelines and rules with defined penalties for failure to comply. To those who would think this too strict or limiting I would refer you to the number of students returning to our school after venturing into the "real world" and realizing "the bubble" is a better place for them. This is very similar to what I saw at SLA when I visited. Your students are committed to attending the school. They have a personal investment in their futures and the future of the school, something many mandatory schools lack. It's that personal investment that makes respect mean something to them and carry the weight it should in balancing their actions and behaviors with the greater good. For those of us "in the bubble" it can be disturbing to observe the tactics necessary to restore, or in some

Interactive map quizzes and games. States, capitals, continents, countries, and more...

There are several ways that the FiveThityEight methodology differs from other poll compilations. Firstly, we assign each poll a weighting based on that pollster's historical track record, the poll's sample size, and the recentness of the poll. More reliable polls are weighted more heavily in our averages. Secondly, we include a regression estimate based on the demograhics in each state among our 'polls', which helps to account for outlier polls and to stabilize the results. Thirdly, we simulate the election 10,000 times for each site update in order to provide a probabilistic assessment of electoral outcomes.

"ETAN provides a forum for educators and others to engage in the political process and project a unified voice in support of a common cause - improving teaching and learning through the systemic use of technology. ETAN's mission is to influence public policy-makers at the federal, state and local levels and to increase public investment in the competitiveness of America's classrooms and students."

Interactive Timeline\n\nExplore the lives and administrations of twelve Presidents of the United States.

This online gradebook, state-standards alignment, curriculum mapping, formative assessment and learning management is free for teachers. If you don't have an online system or are looking for new ones, you may want to check this out.

Got an email from this group - would love to hear from those who have played Karooba -- here is the information they sent me: "The Karooba site includes the following features: * One the largest collections of education-based (over 100,000) trivia questions * Educational games that allow you to: o Challenge friends around the world in one-on-one trivia games o Join a tournament on education based topics or set up a tournament of friends or classmates o Try your luck in a new Find-it game o Create your own quizzes and see how others score on your test * State-of-the-art avatar tool (Karoobatar) - create your near real life or cartoon characters * A real time communications tool (Karoobacator) - Instant message with your friends without the risk of foul language. Karooba was created and is maintained by a computer consulting firm based in Minnesota. The firm's staff, which is mostly comprised of parents with school-age kids, is very concerned (like most parents are these days) about what their children view on the Internet. With this in mind, Karooba was designed to be a 'safe haven' where kids can go to play online, as well as learn…and more importantly one that parents (and teachers) can trust. "

this may be helpful to students, if it works as stated.  says it offers improved writing, spots plagiarism, etc.

book promotion: NCLB failed, parents didn't want choice students avoided tutoring (longer school day) Admin gamed the system or outrighted cheated state officials lowered standards

We believe that a child who graduates from high school without an understanding of culture, the arts, history, literature, civics, and language has in fact been left behind. So to improve education in America, we're promoting programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging, rigorous instruction in the full range of liberal arts and sciences.

Very heartening to see a growing movement advocating a knowledge-rich, intellectually rigorous curriculum for schools. They've got the funds to hire good photographers and models with nice skin, too.

An annotated guide to the best sites on the history of the United States in World War II.

Another site about the state and direction of our eduction system.

Being the curious type, with the inane ability to know how to look up information and conduct research, I soon found a quote by Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) who was a German astronomer who stated - Why are things as they are and not otherwise? My mentor extraordinaire!