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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.

Group 3: Erika Eason, Margarita Lugo, Frances Parker Week 8: This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. Description: Students with learning disabilities commonly either avoided or have been discouraged from taking World Language classes. This article describes "multi-sensory approaches" and the kind of instructional strategies, informed by brain-based research, that can help students with learning disabilities succeed in learning Spanish or another second language. The article focuses on how to create meaningful inclusion and skill building in Spanish courses through general accommodations, existing resources, and learning strategies. The article also references the relative lack of scholarly research on this topic and how that negatively impacts wider knowledge of ways to help students with learning disabilities learn a foreign language. This article was of interest to our group because the SMART goal is directly tied to improving the performance of special education students in Spanish class. The goal of the world languages department is for every student to learn one of the languages taught, yet that is not always possible since special education students who are not meeting the reading goals are frequently pulled from language classes to get reading support. Implementing strategies and other instructional moves that might keep the students in language class, are of interest to the teachers. While several of the multisensory strategies discussed were already known, there were a couple that reinforced practices that have already been implemented as a result of our group's data action plan and at least one new idea that our practicing teacher would like to try. This article would be particularly useful for Spanish teachers who are learning to differentiate their instruction and assessment for the first time and who need ideas about how to involve more Citation: Tolbert, J. B.,

This website gives great definitions about various math topics at the middle and high school level. I am not a big fan of this page because it does not give good examples for students. However, I think it is a good teacher tool for getting the information to the students and gathering activities to do in the classroom. I will be using this in my WebQuest for students to research characteristics of a cube.

This is a web-based tool that allows students to create virtual museum exhibits in 3-D cubes that can be manipulated to show connected information on each surface! This website, which houses a pay-to-use web tool, offers access for every teacher in a school and all of their students for $99.00 per year.

This site is great for introducing bio concepts. I found some good information regarding plants and seeds for my third graders!

Express yourself with the ultimate Glog(TM) - graphic blog. Mix Web, Images, Text, Music and Video. Create your Glogster account today and publish in a new way.

This site is so much fun to design for students and even parents. It has awesome color themes and backdrops and offers a really fun way to get across information. It's like a homepage you can create with links to other sites, videos, pictures and more. Our school has a page and the kids really enjoy using it for library resources and etc. I am going to be using this for my class page this fall. I think this site is targeted for fifth grade and up. Younger students may be able to use some of the basic features, but it would require some instruction from the teacher.

I have used Glogster to replace a paper poster in the classroom. The students really enjoyed the chance to have a different presentation of a product.

With all the areas that children are taught in school, the author feels that while trying work at the achievement gap we should look at the engagement gap. The eagerness that children have a young age needs to be maintained. Hands-on learning should be implemented into the lesson.

This is a great article focusing on engagement in the classroom! It discusses the necessity of hands on learning to maintain students interest. This is important for students of all academic levels. Hands on learning not only engages students because they are "doing", they also are developing critical thinking skills. As a special education teacher, I know that in order to assist my students in learning, I need to keep their attention and provide them with interesting, hands on learning.

I love this article! I have always been a strong believer in hands on learning and I love that they call it an engagement gap! Students get bored when a teacher gets up and lectures them all day. They need to be engaged! The activities need to be purposeful and have a specific meaning but a teacher can make just about any topic engaging just by getting the kids moving and interacting. I 100% agree that students retain information longer when they are engaged and enjoying what they are learning.

This article defines several key elements of the assessment process. Use it as a quick cheat sheet.

This study shows the importance of encouraging students to explain their thinking while solving math problems. This study focused on how formative assessments, in which students are allowed to explain their thinking, can then be used to help inform teacher instruction to address the specific gaps in knowledge. This study focused on Kindergarten and First Grade students.

This is a great website which includes several resources for students and teachers for literature circles. This website has information for teachers to explain how to set up literature circles in your classroom depending on your grade level. The website also gives guidelines for students to participate in literature circles. Literature Circles. (2010). Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/literature_circles.htm

This article provides useful information on how to close students achievement gaps. It addresses the question most often heard when educators confront the reality of the achievement gaps in their school; "What can I do in my classroom?" It also provides many links to resources in other organizations for improving teaching and learning results.

This is a very interesting study that shows us that the way we have been taught to learn English influences the way teachers teach English. The study analyzes the stories of four English teachers. I chose this article because I believe that at times, the way we give instructions in the class is informed by the way we received past instructions or would like to receive instructions in the present.

Strategies that can be used when taking a reading test. Although the information presented is for students, they can be taught by a teacher gradual to build a tool box for students.

Learning and memory specialist Marilee Sprenger writes about vocabulary critical to the Common Core and offers 11 strategies for helping students learn it.

Vocabulary strategies presented here makes it necessary to be reflective of how new words are introduced to students. The strategies require students to interact beyond knowing how to correctly spell a word but how a word is used and what it means for students to engage with the word.

I love Edutopia! Some of their resources are really great. I think that this specific article is FANTASTIC for information about how to teach students the critical vocabulary necessary for them to become successful 21st Century Learners!

The article discusses how to use data in the classroom meaningfully.

The importance of short term goals in data driven decision making is addressed. It also discusses streamlining data so that teachers actually have time to create interventions, rather than just take assessments and read data.

This article is very resourceful in presenting ideas to create a data environment without inclusion of anxiety or pressure. In collecting and representing data, this article discusses several ways to display the data and set short term acceptable goals.

Beneficial list of resources to inform solutions to instructional and/or learning gaps.

Personal relevance examples are given in order to make lessons and information meaningful for students. Personal connections to material will help retention of material as well as motivate student willingness to learn.

One thing that came to mind when I read this article was a technique of vocabulary instruction that my school has been using for the past few years. It is called the "Marzano" method of instruction (named after Robert Marzano) which asks students to give their own impression/explanation of a new term before it is used in class. I often like using this technique for vocabulary in Physics that has a contemporary meaning aside from how we will be using it in our course. One great example is "Resistance" in circuitry. I will ask the students (as per the Marzano method) to write down a description or explanation of this word, then I will go around and record the results from random students around the room. The 'group' consensus definitions are then combined to come up with the 'official' or 'technical' definition of the word. It's amazing to see how many students have odd connections to words that help explain the science meaning of the word. Once I had a student bring up the idea of resistance meaning a "rebellion" or "uprising" of sorts. In electrical terms that is not the 'true' definition, but having the students visualizing the electric conductor 'fighting back' against the electron flow can easily guide students to the more appropriate usage of the word. This way, students can see that these 'new' terms are ones that they already have an inkling of understanding for. Their understandings are not useless, but rather need to be expanded upon as we learn more about our content.

This seems a really excellent support for the PBL model of instruction - providing real-world context to the material of a class motivates learning, and allows students to activate prior knowledge. See also the another edutopia article: http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-student-motivation

This a great tool where you can post questions or comments on a wall that is interactive. We used it during a school wide staff meeting and it worked really well. It served as a "parking lot" for questions so it didn't disrupt the flow of the meeting. We also had other teachers and administrators responding to the questions/comments in real time. See the description below.. Brainstorm with students from your own school or from other schools. This program allows you to post stickers with your ideas onto a virtual wall. You can embed your wall on a website or blog.

Brandon, This is a great tool. I have been in staff meeting where it has taken much longer than it should have, but this allows for questions to be answered while information is being presented. This tool was very easy to use and like that it can be embeded into a website or blog. Thank you for sharing. Rich