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"Writing is vital to most examples of learning. It is how civilisation conveys information from generation to generation, it is how parents often communicate their needs and fears for their children as notes to the teacher, and it is how little Johnny/Jane tells you about what their cat and/or dog did at the weekend. Some people love writing, while others struggle with it, but everyone has to write to some degree in their daily lives, and all of this stems from their experiences in the classroom."

"What are those key phrases you hear from frustrated teachers in the staffroom during breaks? Or on those rare occasions, you get to meet up with teachers from other schools on training courses? For me it is the following: 'They give up so easily,' 'Where is their stickability?' 'Why do they fear making a mistake?' However it is phrased, you get the gist, that pupils today have no resilience, they aren't prepared to keep going in the face of challenge or set back. They can't think their way around a problem. In discussions with staff within my own school (a large primary in an area of high deprivation in the north of England) I am frequently asked how we can help these children. As part of our school's SLT I have already supported staff to make daring changes to our curriculum but we still seem to be falling short of what we state in our vision; that we want our children to become resilient learners, confident individuals, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. (Traits that I am sure many schools up and down the land wish for their pupils to develop.) Why are our pupils struggling with 'resilience'? What opportunities can we, as a school, provide our children so that they develop these skills? After reading the blurb and the introductory pages, I was, as you can imagine, excited to delve further into this book to see if it could answer some of my questions."

"When you mention Artificial Intelligence (AI), you're likely to get a variety of responses ranging from the fear that robots will take over our jobs - and our lives - to the conviction that it will transform our future for the better. Now that AI is becoming an integral part of organisations such as NASA, the NHS and even your local council, is it time for education to embrace the power of AI? I believe that it is. While algorithms will never be a substitute for a good teacher, there are some exciting new ways that AI can help schools to spot patterns of progress, or identify pupils who are having difficulties with their learning."

Starting class and getting over your "stage fright."

As far as my work as a teacher and teacher trainer is concerned, I believe in challenging students and having high expectations of everyone in the classroom. This is coupled with appropriate support and guidance, which is then differentiated to meet pupils' and students' needs. To support my learners I provide relevant and specific praise and feedback, engaging and interesting tasks and activities, sound guidelines and instructions, solid question and answer sessions and clear, practical examples or modelling.

2) Alfie Kohn "In fact, there isn't even a positive correlation between, on the one hand, having younger children do some homework (vs. none), or more (vs. less), and, on the other hand, any measure of achievement. If we're making 12-year-olds, much less five-year-olds, do homework, it's either because we're misinformed about what the evidence says or because we think kids ought to have to do homework despite what the evidence says." Homework: An Unnecessary Evil? ... Findings from New Research 3) Tyler Cowen believed education can create potentially valuable workers by helping them improve their value by using smart machines and that these two are stronger complements than ever. Students may not be able to calculate like computers but we can teach students to be better readers of character and emotion and to be the best interpreters of the masses of information provided by the behavioral sciences and big data. Not all students need to do programming but they need to easily make the most of technology. He sees educators as motivators and online managers rather than as a professor. From Average is Over, 2013 by Tyler Cower Could a majority on workers hurt by Geekability add to A. Greenspan's fear of unrest?

Dawn Casey-Rowe hits a tough topic that is the number one complaint that teachers have. I had her on my show not too long a go and she speaks from a tough situation with lots of blocks and bans but gets it done anyway. If your complaint is blocks and bans, then take time to read this post to focus on what you CAN do. Dawn is offering a set of PD blog posts that you'll want to dig into. "This week, we're going to discuss the white elephant in the room. Tech frustration. Many teachers struggle to bring students the type of tech experience they would like because of systemic blocks and bans, or worse, feel embarrassed as students have more access to tech than teachers do. This is the issue that brought me to the tech world myself. Students continually asked the hard questions about why they couldn't utilize technology such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets, and why phones were confiscated when students were using them for educational purposes. I wanted to improve my classroom experience and give my students more, but budget was a concern. Tech access is a problem in many schools. There are legitimate reasons-the desire of administrators to protect students from the darker side of the internet, fear of the unknown, lack of wireless capacity and budget difficulties which cause insufficient numbers of computers or the inability to upgrade existing tech. Some educational leaders have overcome these hurdles, but others are still working to get to that space."

Ransomware is a new kind of malware. The worst Ransomware to hit in some time is the Crypto virus. This virus encrypts your hard drive and you have to send them a $300 certificate (untraceable) so they'll give you the encryption key to decrypt your drive and get your data back. In an interesting twist, the US government disabled the servers running this ransomware scan and now all of the people with the virus have no hope of getting their decryption keys. This is another reason you should be very careful NOT to open suspicious attachments even from legitimate sounding sources. (Many of these messages appeared to be from Fedex and UPS.) The greatest internet filter ever created is the human brain. Educate teachers and others - not through fear but through a skeptical empowerment that always thinks before it clicks and especially before it downloads.

Interesting study of children, preschool and later school success. "Children's later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active, child-initiated early learning experiences. Their progress may have been slowed by overly academic preschool experiences that introduced formalized learning experiences too early for most children's developmental status."

Useful insights for educational situations, also.

Many students are not globally competent. This includes geography, current issues, and how to connect globally and is all what flattening the classroom is about. It is essential that your students connect with the world. This infographic is one to share with your school board and parents, both of whom are often reticent to connect students because of fear. They are asking the wrong questions. Not, "what are we keeping out" but "who are we bringing in?" Where are we connecting? It is time to flatten the classroom. (See flatclassroombook.com for more info.)

A new study shows most professors are afraid of elearning and the growth of online courses. I predict that in 4-5 years the same will be true of traditional classroom teachers. The fact is that we all must be innovative and learn to teach in blended and online environments. Change creates victims and victors - with great change comes great opportunity. The one thing I can promise is if you do nothing and ignore it, you'll not be on the winning side. Learn. Connect. The Flat Classroom is a fact and it is here -- we're doing it in k12 and it is about to grow exponentially. After schools flip they're going to flatten. One leads to the other.

Focus on close reading in Common Core.  Many fear teachers are not prepared for this dramatic a shift where the textbook is the first, sole focus.  

To create bully-free classrooms, it's necessary that we educate teachers, students and parents about the prevalence and consequences of it. We all believe a school should be a safe place for the children, a place where they can learn without fear or apprehension. Great infographic!

This sort of thing strikes fear in the heart of every administrator. So, I let them customize their lessons and they come up with word problems about how many times a slave would be beaten in a minute at a certain rate. It is offensive on so many levels but also because we see an uproar over slavery in words (in this worksheet) but not in deeds. Fact is, there are 29 million slaves in the world today, more than ever in history and they are being beaten and forced to work. We don't see an uproar over that and we should. Both the worksheet and the bigger problems deserve attention.

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.

Harvard Business School Blog about high need for achievement professionals. Can this be applied to some of our students?

The "I Can't!, I Can!, I Will!" when it comes to shifting our learning environments and operating in new spaces.  Great graphics that shows where the "the shifted" can support, inspire and motivate others.

Filter fever is a symptom of fear. We all see clearly what China is afraid of. But what on earth are US public schools afraid of?