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Another MOOC for English Language teaching. "After its enormously successful first massive open online course (MOOC) for English language teaching (ELT) entitled ELT Techniques: Vocabulary, WizIQ has announced that it will host the second in the series, ELT Techniques: Listening and Pronunciation. Created and overseen by Jason R Levine (also known as Fluency MC), the MOOC will begin on November 18, 2013 and feature numerous leaders and innovators in the field, including Sean Banville, Jennifer Lebedev, Paul Maglione, Chuck Sandy, Rachel Smith and Shelley Terell."

"Despite sluggish gains in reading, our nation has not seriously integrated digital tools and new teaching practices into all classrooms. Schools of education are still failing to teach student teachers how to integrate digital media in the classroom... We recommend the following for policymakers, business leaders and practitioners to consider help make schools more effective."

The six top free online tools were selected from available web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning using presentations, blogging, and bookmarking online resources. There are many excellent online tools available in these three categories, making the selection difficult at best. However, the selection was made based on reviewing available online resources along with other contributions and feedback from teachers.

The NWP Digital Is website is a collection of ideas, reflections, and stories about what it means to teach writing in our digital, interconnected world. Read, discuss, and share ideas about teaching writing today.

teaching-focused knowledge base exploring the art and craft of writing, the teaching and learning of writing, along with provocations that push on our thinking as educators and learners in the digital age

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

One of the most powerful, misunderstood and under-utilized tools for teaching 21st century skills, is the Creative Commons. Besides providing access to hundreds of thousands of media works that can be used to augment the creative process, the Creative Commons offers a legitimate way for students to license their own creative works, be they audio, video, text or hybrid products.

Blog about 14 tools to teach about Creative Commons

"as a result of being forced into a lockstep teaching method, I've lost touch with my original vision of teaching, and by extension, my original philosophy - my teaching "religion." "

Exploration of team teaching and it's challenges.

And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct route into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.

while it is necessary (and possible) to teach facts to people, it comes with a price. And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct root into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.\n\nWhen you teach children facts as facts, and when you do it through a process of study and drill, it doesn't occur to children to question whether or not those facts are true, or appropriate, or moral, or legal, or anything else. Rote learning is a short circuit into the brain. It's direct programming. People who study, and learn, that 2+2=4, know that 2+2=4, not because they understand the theory of mathematics, not because they have read Hilbert and understand formalism, or can refute Brouwer and reject intuitionism, but because they know (full stop) 2+2=4.\n\nI used the phrase "it's direct programming" deliberately. This is an analogy we can wrap our minds around. We can think of direct instruction as being similar to direct programming. It is, effectively, a mechanism of putting content into a learner's mind as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that when the time comes later (as it will) that the learner needs to use that fact, it is instantly and easily accessible.

"Over the past several years, History Matters has organized twenty-five online dialogues with leading historians and teachers about the the teaching of major topics in U.S. history--from early settlement to the Vietnam War. Those discussions are archived here and contain many useful teaching suggestions"

Some useful tips on how to teach American history by seasoned professionals.

This press release tells more about Sophia. "Sophia is a social teaching and learning application that makes free, credible academic content available to anyone at anytime. It is a mission-driven organization that aims to break traditional cost and access barriers to post-secondary degree attainment. For more information, go to www.sophia.org."

Recent study found that if you explain "all aspects" of a toy, children are less likely to discover new uses. If you allow them to "play and experiment" they will discover new a creative uses. This should be taken into account in teaching.

...seven basic concepts to successful online teaching... and four broad categories for effective online teaching practices:

"In his new book, Professor Keith Taber reassures practicing and training science teachers, as he explores a range of issues faced by secondary school educators and discusses strategies for teaching the nature of scientific knowledge, making practical work effective and challenging young scientists. Throughout the academic prose, Professor Taber reflects on the nature of scientific knowledge in science education encouraging creating narratives, challenging misconceptions, and exploring principles of constructive teaching. The book continues with exploring specific challenges, such as teaching electrical circuits to lower secondary school students, along with a chapter dedicated to supporting gifted students who excel at the subjects."

"The teaching of grammar has changed completely in a generation. While formal teaching of spelling and punctuation have been a mainstay of the classroom, just a few decades ago there was very little teaching of grammar. Many pupils formally encountered grammar through the study of other languages. Now SPaG takes up a large part of the primary curriculum, but have secondary colleagues noticed a difference? In this session we are discussion how to improve SPaG skills and usage at all levels of schooling and beyond."

"There are many components that make teaching stressful, such as teaching for tests and hoping the pupils will perform well, marking and giving meaningful feedback quickly. Also, there are 'Pinch points' in the year where lots seem to come at once! Even when confronted with a group of students, when you get one of those classes where none of them cares or see the point no matter how hard you try to convince them otherwise. Ultimately, teaching is a massively important role in society, so there's a lot riding on the profession which equates to a lot of pressure/stress. It's just fortunate that most of the time the wins outweigh the rest."

"This book explores three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure. Mark argues that quality education is rooted in simplicity. In this book, he convincingly strips away the layers of contradictory pedagogical advice that teachers have received over the years and lends weight to the three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure."

Get a new teaching resource every day up to Christmas.

Struggles about teaching. Many are struggling with helping others get into the profession because of what teachers are experiencing now. Charity Preston shares her heart but also some encouraging stories for teachers.