EBTL2

Training available through Code.Org partnership. Workshop is one day and could be hosted at Reading if enough people are interested. 20 hour curriculum designed to be integrated.

Training available for our district through code.org partnership. Uses BootstrapWorld.

"Friends talk about cancer and other physical maladies more easily than about psychological afflictions." Something to think about to support our students facing mental heath issues.

You want students to learn. Shall we play a game? Absolutely! But what is a game? Game: a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck. Not exactly.

According to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the Bay State is home to more than 10,000 technology companies, representing over 20 percent of state GDP. Top-tier names like Google, Microsoft, and Oracle rely on local offices devoted to research and development.

Quick read for ideas on how to include math games in the classroom and recommedations for free apps to try

Great article/infographic regarding Copyright in Education. Helps to explain copyright issues in a digital world.

Educreations is a community where anyone can teach what they know and learn what they don't. Our software turns any iPad or web browser into a recordable, interactive whiteboard, making it easy for teachers and experts to create engaging video lessons and share them on the web.

ScratchJr has launched. It is a free iPad app. Five Stars for sure.

I think this is an important read about a local school system and early childhood assessments.

Thank you for sharing this, Janet. I also think it's an important read for everyone. While I'm in the middle school, it does often seem that expectations are moving to lower and lower ages. What our students are doing in math this year is what I remember struggling with in 8th grade. Many are successful, but others may not be developmentally ready for it. It's worth noting that as things have changed over the years, schools have felt more and more of a need to focus on mental health - are we pushing these kids too far, beginning in early childhood? I even see it in the demands of preschool with my three year old nephew. He was already marked as "behind" on a few skills. Really? I'm not sure that I'd agree, and not just because he's my nephew. I do think it's important to have high expectations for all students, but we also need to make sure that they're realistic, and in process, that we're not losing sight of the children in front of us, and their immediate needs.

Wow! This was so cool. Great experience.

Thank you for posting this. Flat Stanley has been in many places but this one is tops.

Thought provoking article that stresses even more that developmentally Kindergarteners are not ready for the curriculum that they face.

Kerry, thanks for sharing this. This article was well worth reading. It makes me sad to think of what we are continuing to do to young kids, and scared for their future. Just thinking back to when I was in kindergarten, I remember lots of time to explore and play in different stations, including building and dress up stations. We did plenty of learning through play, and still all learned to read and make it through school. I'm in the middle school and don't always know exactly what's going on in the lower elementary schools, but it does seem like things are continually being pushed to younger and younger ages. The math that the sixth graders are doing now is similar to what I did in 8th grade algebra. Many of them are not developmentally ready for it, and then feel like failures if they can't get it. At an even younger level, I'm seeing it with my nephew who's 3 1/2 and in preschool. His teacher told my sister-in-law that he's behind because he can't write his name yet. Now she's concerned about it of course, but I'm thinking that's a little premature. And the last thing he needs at this age is someone trying to force him to write his name - he'll already be on a track to hating school..... I'm going to share this article with her. Also, when they talked about learning to read, I loved the quote about kids who learned to read later showed better understanding because they had had time to develop more language at an earlier age.Thanks for sharing.

Another great post - I agree with so much of what this article states, and I hear so many other educators and parents expressing concern about the trend that has been developing in all elementary grades, but especially kindergarten. The question is, if we all agree that it's not working, how do we change it?

Great article about ways to help children calm themselves. It is about children who have experienced some sort of trauma, but it also goes into how some practical strategies can help any child with calming.

Kerry, thanks for posting this article - some of the suggestions are really helpful! They sound a lot like the techniques I learned from reading How to Talk so Your Kids Will Listen, and Listen so They Will Talk, and Siblings Without Rivalry. Sometimes calmly naming and validating a child's feelings without judgement can really diffuse a charged situation.

This is an interesting infographic. Perhaps this is why the flipped model has gotten some traction. The truth is that because of the internet and social media we get a lot of our information and communication done via video. Heck, my own kids haven't ever really talked on the phone. They only video chat with our relatives using FaceTime. Like all other teaching tools, though, video needs to be varied with other methods and it requires a great teacher for the information to have the right impact on the kids. Summary: When I was a student, 'using video in education' mostly meant showing a movie in class. Which to me, as a student, was clearly much better than the alternative of a lecture. With so much interactive multimedia technology available to today's students, 'video in education' means way more than it used to.