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Students, by the time they are in high school, should hopefully be able to motivate themselves and be ready to take higher math classes like algebra, geometry and statistics. Unfortunately, in our American society many people have a fear of math and numbers, suffer from a lack of motivation and rarely have a strong foundation to stand on for the math skills required by high school courses.

Additional information about milestones and K-12 math curriculum is available on The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Web site. NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics outlines grade-by-grade recommendations for classroom mathematics instruction for both content matter and process.

I thought that this was an interesting article because it touched on the social aspect of learning and achievement gaps and not so much on the academic.

This is not an article but a diagram that shows how learning gaps in lower grades continue and get more pronounced as a student moves on. I felt that this was important to me because I teach 1st grade. As teachers we need to lessen the learning gaps early.

Great article about how different states and communities reduced the achievement gap. It mentions Maryland, and states that MD provides extra instruction for students who are not on track to pass the High School Assessment. But I think it would be a lot more useful to provide extra instruction at lower grades to reduce the achievement gap early on.

This is a document provided by the NEA on how schools can improve students reading achievement in school. I like this resource because it breaks down steps school can use from teachers, students and parents to improve reading. It starts by discussing literacy skills taught in kindergarten and goes into talking about text meaning for older students. Great resource!

This article talks about seeing all students as part of your classroom. I personally like how it lists things to think about when instructing students. Although some will think these are no brainers, its always good to reflect on yourself as an educator. Especially when it comes to students with IEPs and 504s. I also liked how it reminds educators to reflect on the whole student and think about forces outside the school that greatly affect the students performance in the classroom.

Many great ideas for activities to differentiate addition and subtraction for elementary students.

This article discusses how effective professional development has an impact on improving student learning. The author examines what "effective" professional development looks like and why it's important.

Smith points out that although children learn to count, they may not understand the concept of number. He posits that the world of mathematics must be entered, explored, and used principally through reason and that only a few mathematical concepts are learned via the senses or spoken language

Physical education is shifting gears in a major way to help students become more comfortable and successful in PE. Introducing technology is a new way to engage students in PE other than just rolling the ball out on to the floor. Recognizing that obesity is a huge problem in the US, teachers are turning to technology to help motivate students and present PE in a new fun light.

Here are some resources and practices to help teachers understand blended learning, an approach that combines face-to-face instruction with technology-mediated learning.

Ferlazzo has a list of games ideas the are a marvel. His basic requirements is that the games require no money, little teacher prep work, and every students has to be involved. I was impressed. I think I know how our students can review for the unit test. Ferlazzo says these are easily modified for other content areas. I thought they be the perfect way to review vocabulary.

I like this one.

You could laminate the big index cards if you can't find small whiteboards.

This blog post discusses the advantages of doing a search in Diigo using the 'community' search function as opposed to doing a search in Google. This can be used to demonstrate to colleagues as well as students the benefits of doing educational searches via curated social bookmarking sites such as Diigo.

Posted by Katie, Malkie and Bonnie. This article addresses the debate between teaching systematic phonics and teaching phonics as part of a whole language approach. It mainly deals with the flaws in the research on this debate and not so much with ultimate conclusions on the matter, however, it is stated that a whole language approach to reading instruction is always beneficial.

From the abstract: "This article presents a reflective case study analysis of an attempt to enhance student learning through the introduction of student-centred teaching methods in a masters-level social research methods subject. The introduction of a range of specific techniques, including case study teaching, problem based learning, groupwork, role-play and simulation, is reflected upon. The article concludes that the re-orientation of the curriculum toward student-centredness in this case had a positive effect on student performance, learning experience and subject evaluation. In particular, the use of student-centred techniques facilitated a strong social context for learning, and provided students with a common experiential framework from which to explore the technical aspects of the curriculum. However, the analysis also found that students continued to place value on more formal teaching methods, and that the value of student-centred techniques in this case rested in the way in which they were integrated with more didactic teaching practice"

This article summarizes how one school used a blended differentiated curriculum to reduce the achievemnt gap between poor and wealthy students. What I found interesting about this approach is that the authors said, "That engagement in learning is enhanced when students' interests and choices are considered." This is a different approach to how some schools use differentiation and the change didn't happened over night. The school made a lot of adjustments, including re-writing the curriculum and setting specific learning objectives. However, they were successful because they saw an improvement in student achievement.