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"What is the Value of a Coach? Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Atul Gawande A district administrator recently wrote to tell me that her district was facing "tough financial decisions" that are naturally causing lower morale. Everyone in her district feels under attack. And "the coaches are naturally questioning their value."" All of us experience dark times when we wonder if we are making a difference, and coaches are no different. So I thought I would do my best to answer the coaches' question. What is the value of a coach? Coaches Support & Encourage Teachers. A coach is

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has created this engaging virtual dinosaur dig.

Everyone learns differently. Social media marketing has a lot of moving parts and processes which make it hard to get up to speed. This challenge is only compounded by the ever-changing nature of the market, in which new applications and opportunities arise daily. Reading tons of blog articles, while important, takes a lot of time. Sometimes it is easier to see concepts visually to get a basic understanding and then do further research on the topics that are most relevant to your business. In today's post we collected some great visualizations of social media concepts including monitoring and content distribution. Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6005/22-Educational-Social-Media-Diagrams.aspx#ixzz0sHMcWL5n

"In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish."

There's a lot of misinformation out there about legal rights and responsibilities in the digital era. This is especially disconcerting when it comes to information being shared with youth. Kids and teens are bombarded with messages from a myriad of sources that using new technology is high-risk behavior. Downloading music is compared to stealing a bicycle - even though many downloads are lawful. Making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal - even though many such videos are also lawful. This misinformation is harmful, because it discourages kids and teens from following their natural inclination to be innovative and inquisitive. The innovators, artists and voters of tomorrow need to know that copyright law restricts many activities but also permits many others. And they need to know the positive steps they can take to protect themselves in the digital sphere. In short, youth don't need more intimidation - what they need is solid, accurate information.

It is a known fact that if you want to commit something to memory, continuous revision is the key. You read something every time you are at your desk and within days it becomes second nature. To be able to revise quickly and often, it helps if the information is terse and to the point highlighting only the important aspects. Something like an application cheat sheet or a poster that you can print and pin to a board or keep on your desk. Here are some application cheat sheets for commonly used software that will hopefully make you more productive.

"Gail Lovely is adamant about the nature and potential of Web-based learning tools. "Web 2.0 is about trust," she said at a recent talk. "It's about sharing and collaborating." And, she insisted, it's about putting the power to learn and create in the hands of the students. "

Planet Quest Alien Safari is a great interactive site for kids. It lets you go on an adventure by exploring different "life zones" around the world. By visiting these, you will find all different types of organisms that are living on our planet. Students get to learn about what the organisms reveal about finding life in space. So, they will learn which can survive without sunlight, which have a high radiation dose, the most acidic and the ones that live the furthest underground, for example. By clicking on a life zone on the 3D Earth, you can watch a video introduction to that organism. This website is a great classroom and research tool. You can use it to simply explore all the things around you, or use it as a starter for deeper learning and researching on a specific subject or topic. Students can really get creative by writing stories and other works of writing based on the subjects and organisms they have been learning about. This site is a great tool to use in the classroom on an interactive whiteboard. With the music and interactive nature of the site, the whole class can get involved with learning about the various organisms. Go on a safari without leaving the room!

"There's just so much science, nature, music, arts, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them... But we don't underestimate kids around here. Off the grid-for-little-kids videos and other smart stuff collected by Rion Nakaya and her three year old co-curator."

Andrew Mortimer is the Chairman and founder of Superstructure. With a background in law and metallurgy as well as experience in investment markets, Superstructure was the natural progression for Andrew as a resource-based consultant.

"The following on-line and classroom activities are available on partner web sites and were developed by Interactive Earth since 2000. Please review our overview of teaching methodology to understand how we create our curriculum resources and lesson plans. Lessons plans that include interactive games for students are marked with a star."