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choice-response thinking—that they need not be victims—may be one of the most valuable thinking patterns we can give them.

Rewards can serve as effective incentives only if the person is interested in that reward.

rewards for expected standards of behavior are counterproductive

What a teacher can do – all a teacher can do – is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people.  Motivation – at least intrinsic motivation -- is something to be supported, or if necessary revived.

a few specific suggestions for bringing students in on making decisions, offered here in the hope that they will spark you to think of others in the same spirit:

Bring students in on the process of assessment by asking them to join you in thinking about alternatives to conventional tests.  “How can you show me what you understood, where you still need help, and what I may need to rethink about how I taught the unit?”  Beyond the format of the assessment, invite them as a class to suggest criteria by which someone’s work might be evaluated – and, later, have them apply those criteria to what they’ve done.

Kids need to develop an empathetic view of the world.  They need to think critically about why things happen, what influences their choices and how they can positively impact on the future.  This year my students will blog, Skype with their peers at another middle school almost forty miles away, create Delicious accounts and learn to tag.  This year’s students will work on a digital textbook that my students last year collaborated on with another school.  

Wiffitti allows you to create a “wall” where people can post messages.  Each wall is assigned an SMS number and short code used to post texts; stadiums and television shows have used this technoology for years

about nurturing creative question-askers, collaborators, and thinkers

With mixed practice, he added, “each problem is different from the last one, which means kids must learn how to choose the appropriate procedure

hurriedly jam-packing a brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase, as most students quickly learn — it holds its new load for a while, then most everything falls out.

forgetting is the friend of learning

the student’s task in such classrooms is “comprehending how the teacher has integrated or applied the ideas… and [then] reconstruct[ing] the teacher’s thinking.”

f your criteria are more ambitious — long-term retention of what’s been taught, the capacity to understand ideas and apply them to new kinds of problems, a desire to continue learning — the relative benefits of progressive education are even greater.[5]

projects in which they took a high degree of initiative

We’re 15 years into something so paradigm-changing that we have not yet adjusted our institutions of learning, work, social life, and economic life to account for the massive change.” “We are right on time to give up techno-phobia and to tackle the problems and opportunities of the digital world with good sense, pragmatics, realism, and purpose,” Davidson said. “Once we absorb the realization that we’ve already changed, and that we’re actually doing pretty well despite major realignments in our lives, then we can think about how we want to take this amazing new tool [the Internet] and use it in a way that better serves our lives. It’s time to

Will what I am about to do or say bring me closer to the person with whom I am communicating—or will it push me further away?"

Is what I am doing (or about to do) going to connect to the student's self-interest?

Who's doing the work?"