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Some excellent goals for making learning more engaging and relevant in our classrooms. The writer compares the vitality and passion associated with sports to what is typically found in the classroom. Realities from football that should be in the classroom, too: - players (students) are considered active participants rather than passive recipients. - the unexpected happens all the time, so there's no time to coast or be unfocused. - a player (student) can let the team (class) down. - there's no such thing as "good enough"; we're always asking players (students) to excel. - the adults who participate are genuinely interested. - a public performance is expected.

This is a great collection of ideas for how to meaningfully integrate the use of a wiki in your classroom.

This blog post from presentation expert and former Oregon resident Garr Reynolds features a fascinating video of author Daniel Pink. His discussion of the nature of motivation is especially important when applied to the classroom. What should our response be as teachers?

The OurStory program consists of a series of units designed by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Each unit helps children and adults enjoy exploring history together through the use of objects from the Museum's vast collections, quality children's literature, and engaging hands-on activities. Ideal for afterschool use, OurStory resources will allow students to think critically, to be creative, and to achieve academic standards both in and out of the classroom.

Project-learning teaching strategies can also improve your everyday classroom experience.

This article speaks of the importance of teaching our students to be powerful researchers, not simply passive consumers. I like the ideas listed in the "Get Started" section: * Create the researcher role as a student assignment. * Show students different search engines. * Build a search engine for your classroom [such as a Google Custom Search Engine page].

A selection of excellent sites which work well on interactive whiteboards in the classroom - Topmarks Education" />text/css

This is a solid collection of strategies and ideas for fostering an engaged environment for students.