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I loved this commentary posted on Education Week. It talks about the importance of giving students unstructured time on a regular basis, and expanding recess or time for physical activity. As the author states, "Kids are built to move. Having more time for unstructured outdoor play is like handing them a reset button." This author also spent six weeks in Finland studying their education system. They seem to be achieving greater success with less class time, and more built in natural breaks. This is worth reading.

I wish we had more down time and outside time as well during the day. We barely get it all in as it is with one recess, but maybe going outside or having downtime will help them retain more day to day.

I'm so glad you posted this article, Julie. I think it is so important to continue examining not just what we teach, but how we teach it. My son shifted this January to the Waldorf school in Lexington, in part because he is a very physical learner, who is interested in the arts, music, and practical arts, but also because he was just sitting too much of the day, focusing almost exclusively on reading and math skills. In his new school, they practice counting and multiplication tables while jumping rope on teams, for example. It's not recess, but it is physical activity, it's fun, and it really reinforces and connects the math skill they are working on. I hear many examples like this from him each week, and it has really inspired me to try to incorporate similar approaches, even (or maybe especially?) with my 9th graders.

This is a short lesson developed for Pearson to consolidate some clear, useful structures for activating students in the classroom. Some of it is definitely more geared towards Language Arts, but it's worth a look for approaches to take in any class, and is a good reminder of some of those methods we learned back when we were learning to teach.

The Google for Doodle Competition has been transformed in to activities and virtual field trips for all grade levels.

I saw this in my Twitter feed a few times today. Definitely intriguing.

Great evidence for the potential for taking visual notes.

I have a few students who are doing this! Mixing visual media with their notes in Evernote, Penultimate, Skitch, Google Drive, etc. They included images of European Romantic art with their analysis of scholarly article excerpts today. Seriously, their notebooks are amazing and Ovenell-Carter takes it to even another level. Can't wait to see what they're doing in a year or two once more students are coming to school with their own tablets instead of having to rely on ours. Next question: How do we convince parents of the value of this kind of note-taking and that putting a tablet in their child's hand will change the way they think about education?

I love these notes and took pictures in sessions at MassCue to jog my own brain. How do we encourage young ones to keep doing this as they grow in their learning in school. I watch the early childhood group already doing this naturally. I wonder when my own children will do this.

I agree with most of what this mother has to say. I like to think that I will feel the same way when I have kids. I'm curious what other parents think...

I definitely agree with the core of what this mother says. I feel that the time that our kids are with us, now, is their training ground for when I'm not there, and it's not fair for me to protect them from taking any "lumps". Sometimes that can mean leaving my 12 year old to manage a situation with her teacher on her own, or resisting making a call or email to the teacher to ask about an assignment that seems too difficult or confusing - this is not anyone in 7th grade! ;) It takes discipline on my part not to jump in to help her, and to let her feel the discomfort of doing something the wrong way or messing up a test because she was so sure that she had studied enough even though I was pretty sure she hadn't. My kids are the center of my world in that I am constantly aware of what's going on for them and constantly monitoring them to make sure all is well; the difference is that most of the time they don't know that I'm paying that kind of attention, because my husband and I work really hard to choose good situations for them where we feel confident to let our kids loose to sort it out (in school, activities, etc.) without jumping in to "save" them all the time.

Wow this was an interesting article. I totally want to share it out on facebook but I try not to be too controversial out there. I had a friend one time that talked about the feminization (if that's a word) of today's male. I guess I'm wondering if kids are not allowed to play rough how will that impact our society later. Will it impact our military.

We have just started teaching informative writing. This guide has great information, some of it grade specific, on why and how to teach this type of writing.

Thanks for sharing this, Jan. I can see how it will be a helpful tool. I like the Thinking Maps that apply to different writing purposes - reminds me a bit of the EmPOWER writing program.

This reminds me how much I respect K-3 and elementary teachers in general. The fundamentals are so important. Thanks for posting this. I'm excited that Common Core emphasizes expository writing. I find it somewhat disingenuous that a lot of high school language arts curriculum is based on analyzing fiction and works of literature, and "proving" theses that are up for interpretation. Expository writing can be so interesting and when inspired by passion for the subject matter, powerful.