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In the past decade, there has been a monumental shift in the level of communication that parents expect from teachers and school administrators

A classroom blog can be a great compromise between teachers and millennial parents

Think of a classroom blog as a weekly newsletter for your students and their parents. It satisfies parents’ desire to know what’s going on at school, keeps the lines of communication open with parents, and becomes an archive of the school year.

“Take a room full of five-year-olds and you will see creativity in all its forms positively flowing around the room. A decade later you will see these same children passively sitting at their desks, half asleep or trying to decipher what will be on the next test.”

“We’d always thought fatigue is symptom of depression, but now it’s looking more like lack of sleep causes depression, and that’s something looked at seriously.” Kids needs nine hours of sleep, and if schools were in synch developmentally with teenagers, should would start at 10 a.m., especially when kids enter adolescence. Teachers should also coordinate their exams with each other to ensure that students are not taking multiple tests on the same day.

Instead of being an afterthought tacked on to my curriculum, my iPads had become the epicenter. They were out all day, every day and were being pushed to their limit so that my students could be pushed to theirs. As a result I saw ten times the growth in standardized test scores this year as compared to last year. I saw students who hated coming to school show up daily with vigor and excitement for learning. I had one young lady tell me, "[iPads] make me want to come to school everyday because I know that Ms. Magiera got a lesson just for me that day. I don't want to miss my lesson. I like it cause she's - like - talking just to me."

Despite the overwhelming evidence that collaborative cultures in schools improve student learning, and the presence of tools that allow these cultures to be developed in new and expansive ways, there continues to be reluctance to embrace the potential of online environments and social media.

there continues to be reluctance to embrace the potential of online environments and social media

Not only does it mean that the role of teachers must change, it also means that for schools to be considered professional learning communities, they must orient themselves within the wider world beyond the classroom walls.

This Wednesday is an 8th Hour day for Lindbergh High School students. The 8th Hour modified schedule provides students with opportunities for class meetings, extra study time, test make-up, club meetings and A Plus tutoring. A complete listing of 8th Hour Wednesdays is available at the end of this article.

Lindbergh will make wireless Internet access available to students beginning in January, allowing them to type assignments, use online resources in class and collaborate on projects. As part of this first

at the Edward Jones Dome for their final competition of the

Students came to understand that grammar, punctuation, word choice, style, and syntax were not just a "teacher thing" but rather the means for effective communication. Students were motivated to write well on their blogs so that their posts could attract comments; learning about grammar and language usage had a "purpose and a point" (Peterson, 1998, p. 75).

n this post, Anni argued persuasively for water fountains on school playgrounds.1  She gave detailed reasons supporting her case, and her post sparked many responses. Donna, a teacher in Australia, explained that water fountains are called "bubblers" in Australia and that each school has rows of bubblers outside for student use. She also provided another reason to support Anni's reasoning: "Adequate water consumption is required for optimal brain function!"