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School of One - School Of One - New York City Department of Education

Fantastic article about 1:1 classrooms

"Learning in America is a prisoner of time. For the past 150 years, American public schools have held time constant and let learning vary. The rule, only rarely voiced, is simple: learn what you can in the time we make available. It should surprise no one that some bright, hard-working students do reasonably well. Everyone else-from the typical student to the dropout- runs into trouble. Time is learning's warden. Our time-bound mentality has fooled us all into believing that schools can educate all of the people all of the time in a school year of 180 six-hour days. The consequence of our self-deception has been to ask the impossible of our students. We expect them to learn as much as their counterparts abroad in only half the time. As Oliver Hazard Perry said in a famous dispatch from the War of 1812: "We have met the enemy and they are [h]ours." If experience, research, and common sense teach nothing else, they confirm the truism that people learn at different rates, and in different ways with different subjects. But we have put the cart before the horse: our schools and the people involved with them-students, parents, teachers, administrators, and staff-are captives of clock and calendar. The boundaries of student growth are defined by schedules for bells, buses, and vacations instead of standards for students and learning."

Via Tim Gregory! Cool list of PBL sites.

Excellent. This is a great resource. Exploring now.

This is the professional blog of Steven Caldwell - an Australian Middle School teacher with an interest in utilising virtual world learning to develop positive values. Presently he works at MLC School in Burwood - a day school for girls from Pre-K to 12 (and IB) Key to his teaching is the concept of play - learning through narrative play in interdisciplinary domains.

"Bringing the world into the classroom and building global competency can include the introduction of global issues curriculum, new World Languages, online collaboration, youth and teacher exchanges, professional development on international education, video-conferences, etc. This interactive website has been built to enable schools to indicate how they are connected to the world and for new teachers, school administrators and parents to work with consortium partners on building new links."

Netsupport School The Classroom Management Software

The Personalized High School: Making Learning Count for Adolescents (9780787994891): Joseph DiMartino, Denise L. Wolk: Books

School Town | Student-Centered eLearning and Collaboration Platform

This article discusses the instructional strategies of Greene County Middle School science teacher José Garcia. Mr. Garcia employs challenge-based learning, which marries project-based learning with student inquiry and makes effective use of technology. José Garcia received an Apple Distinguished Educator award in 2009 and was Teacher of the Year in his school and county in 2008-2009.

With the help of technology, students in a growing number of classrooms are collaborating with their peers-both in their own schools and around the world-to solve problems and complete projects. This trend has important implications for schools, which are under enormous pressure to engage students in academically challenging ways that are relevant to their lives.

"Rubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. Designed from the ground up, iRubric supports a variety of applications in an easy-to-use package. Best of all, iRubric is free to individual faculty and students. iRubric School-Edition empowers schools with an easy-to-use system for monitoring student learning outcomes and aligning with standards. "

Nice article about classroom environments

Why Do Formal Education? « Education Stormfront

Maintaining student engagement within large lecture environments has never been an easy proposition. This 6-month study analyzed student surveys and test scores taken before and after the implementation of a variety of digital technologies designed to increase engagement and retention in lecture settings. While student responses indicated an appreciation for the inclusion of multimedia within daily lessons, this study found no statistical evidence that such resources increase student achievement. A review of the literature suggests that the lack of observable gains in student grades after implementation could be related to an uncoordinated deployment of said technologies. The author intends to repeat this analysis in the coming school year with a more considered deployment of multimedia and Internet based resources.

Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom by Tom Banaszewski * Educator/Multimedia Author, Maria Hastings School, Lexington, MA

When we recently announced our new pricing plans (which launch July 20th, 2010), we heard from many of you who were concerned about the future of education-focused Ning Networks. Ning Networks have become a valuable compliment to many schools and other educational institutions by helping teachers, parents and students supplement class curriculums; allowing educators and administrators to share best practices; and by helping all these groups bring the vitality and vibrancy of their institutions online.

"About Creaza Creaza offers you an integrated, web-based toolbox for creative work, both at school and in your free time. You use the toolbox along with various fully developed thematic universes: historical periods, fairy-tales, fantasy worlds, and current challenges, such as climate/environment. Creaza integrates professional and user-generated content, creative tools and a social network in a new and innovative way. Users on Creaza have the opportunity to share their work with other Internet users and can give each other comments and suggestions on the products they choose to share. To use this service, all you need is Internet access, a web browser, and the Flash plug-in. Creaza is available for PC, MAC, and Linux users alike. Creaza is fully integrated with Fronter, who provides a platform for learning and collaboration. Fronter offers Creaza as a PlusPack integrated in their platform"