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"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."

"Training teachers to focus their attention on positive conduct and to avoid jumping to correct minor disruption improves child behaviour, concentration and mental health. A study led by the University of Exeter Medical School, published in Psychological Medicine, analysed the success of a training programme called the Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management Programme. Its core principles include building strong social relationship between teachers and children and ignoring low-level bad behaviour that often disrupts classrooms."

Sandy McConnell has created a nice set of reflections for 2012, something I think all admins should want their teachers to do, where she shared her views, what she has done, and how she's improved. Such retrospection on a year is a powerful way to mark learning and remember. She's done so many things, but particularly I like how she didn't let the fact that she was temporarily laid off stop her from learning and moving forward. IF you're having a tough time, you might want to read what Sandy is and has done. She inspires me. Wow. I"ll link to all of her sets, because I"d like you to read them all.

A truly amazing Apple App for learning maths. Download the host or client app to your Apple device and set maths quizzes to complete in real time together in class. The apps communicate through a wireless network or Bluetooth and the host device tracks and keeps all the data for each quiz so you can see where your class need to improve. To set questions you just turn the sections on or off and the app chooses questions from these at random. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

This is a site full of fun ESL games to practise and improve English skills. Games including Hangman and a Spelling Bee and there are lots of topics to choose from. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

This is a daily quiz from National Geography where users answer 10 questions about geography and more. There are two levels of difficulty and each question is multiple choice. It's a fun way to improve your children's knowledge of the world. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/PSHE%2C+RE%2C+Citizenship%2C+Geography+%26+Environmental

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.)"

I love how STEMlab teacher Kevin Jarrett shares what students are learning in his STEMlab. The lab focuses on engineering, science, technology, and math and is such a powerful learning experience. I like this format better than just "technology" lab because it integrates what you're trying to be not just a checklist of point and clicks that will be outdated. "This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft."

An amazing language learning site which helps learners of MFL remember words for over 200 languages by associating them with visual clues/mnemonics and score points by showing you remember the language in a variety of ways. You can listen to audio of the words you are learning. The site tracks your progress and analyses where you need improvement and it will adjust the words you are shown accordingly. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

New research questions the strong claims that have been made about the benefits of 'brain training' - enhanced mental skills, a boost to education, improved clinical outcomes and sharper everyday functioning. This new study found evidence that 'brain training' changed brain signalling but no indication of other benefits...

We are a happy and stable staff, and my colleagues are a fabulous group of people who look after each other and genuinely care about one another. We have an experienced leadership team, and always aim to take account of how people are feeling and the pressure they are under when trying  new approaches and changes to practice. Even so, it has become more and more clear that workload is becoming untenable and wellbeing is suffering a result. I feel that we have felt obligated at times to put policies in place that seem to be there to collect evidence for Ofsted rather than solely to improve the learning of the children in our care. We want to change this.

Positive school climates contribute to academic achievement and can improve outcomes for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, according to a new study published today in Review of Educational Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. In a comprehensive analysis of research published since 2000, U.S. and Israeli researchers found substantial evidence that schools with positive climates can narrow achievement gaps among students of different socioeconomic backgrounds and between students with stronger and weaker academic abilities...

Displays can take up vast areas of wall space and many hours of adults' time, therefore teachers and leaders must be sure of the impact that they are having on learning so that what is on display is justified and not simply a waste of time and space.  Put simply, before a display goes up, we must ask: What will this display do to improve outcomes for children?  For this to be answered with any sort of reliability, the question must be framed within a sound knowledge of how children learn and what learning is - a change in long-term memory...

"A programme that brings live fish into classrooms to teach the fundamentals of biology not only helps students learn, but improves their attitudes about science, a new study finds. The study of nearly 20,000 K-12 students, who raised zebrafish from embryos over the course of a week, found that kids at all grade levels showed significant learning gains. They also responded more positively to statements such as "I know what it's like to be a scientist." The results, to be published by the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that an immersive experience with a living creature can be a particularly successful strategy to engage young people in science, technology, engineering and maths."

"Children improve at maths when instruction engages their own bodies. This is one of the findings from a recent study coming from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. The results also document that children require individualised learning strategies."

"Educators normally plan their lessons out in advance, and teach subjects and related topics on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Is it almost time for your topic for the week? If you have a normal approach that you're growing tired of, need more engagement from students, or want to improve your teaching style for the new year, using video is an exciting way to get information across."

"Used mainly for Y7 personally, use the ticket throughout lessons so students can see and share improvement. Can use traffic light colours to also show progress."

Extending the school day may not have the benefits that some claim, especially since we're just giving kids more same-old same-old instruction time. This article from the Washington Post is worth a read. "But the extended day approach being implemented in many schools as a result of the department's push to increase instructional time  falls short.  It largely ignores the deep body of research on what makes effective expanded learning.   Instead, too many schools are merely adding another hour or so of regular class time onto the school day.  Not surprisingly, two very recent studies suggest we might not accomplish much with this approach to improving schools. "

Topical studies are great. The London Marathon just happened and  marathons are increasing in popularity here in the United states. Here is a video about the marathon, but also lesson plans about the Battle of Marathon, information on training to improve fitness and just what it takes physically to train for a marathon. Health and history lessons here.

In the UK, a very large selective authority admits that grammar school pupils favors wealthier children. The test has now caused schools to be warned against using the test because affluence plays a role in the results. Additionally, they imply that because of the influence of affluence that ethnicity is also a factor. Because coaching can have such an impact, and those with more money pay for coaching, it has been discredited. However, one could take this and apply it to the SAT in the US. I'm an SAT coach at my school and those who go through the process and take it seriously, do improve their scores much more. It is hard to remove affluence from influence but I think it is good to get this out on the table and let people know about it.