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"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

"John Monash Science School has a number of Policies that provide for the safety of staff, students and visitors while in our learning environment as well as provide guidance around the governance of the school. It is a condition of enrolment that students agree to adhere to the Policies and Procedures of the School. Please find below a listing of policy descriptions and details. Policies can also be downloaded from the list of attachments."

"Policy makers and researchers have long focused on trying to combat 'disengaged' behaviours, rather than on understanding and promoting engagement among students. This focus only captures part of the issue - engagement is a complex cognitive process, including a student's psychological investment in their own learning and personal learning strategies.1 The internal nature of much engagement means that it is difficult to define and measure. As such, it has been hard for researchers and policy makers to determine which solutions can aid engagement and the impact student engagement can have on learning outcomes."

April 2008 publication from MCEETYA as part of the Learning in an Online World series. This one focuses on Learning Spaces for contemporary learning.

Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age will bring together 200 of the nation's top thought leaders in science and technology, informal and formal education, entertainment media, research, philanthropy, and policy to create and act upon a breakthrough strategy for scaling-up effective models of teaching and learning for children. The forum will showcase cutting edge research, proven and promising models to challenge decision-makers in key sectors to help "refresh and reboot" American global leadership in education.

A post from Alma Harris, Yong Zhao and Michelle Jones on the importance of developing contextual solutions. A reminder why things like IOI Process and the Modern Learning Canvas are so important as they offer a method for developing unique solutions.

Listen2Learners was held on Monday 11 October, 2010 at Experimedia, State Library of Victoria. The Department partnered with 13 school teams from Victoria and interstate to provide an opportunity for decision makers in government, business, industry and the social arena to meet and learn from digital learners. Listen2Learners provided participants with the chance to meet digital learners, find out who they are, and see how they really learn, communicate and collaborate. What young people think and have to say is helping to shape decisions and inform policies.

An updated publication designed to help training teachers on ways to optimize the use of information and communication technologies in the classroom has been launched early November 2011 by UNESCO in cooperation with the Commonwealth of Learning, Intel and Microsoft. The ICT Competency Framework for Teachers aims at helping countries to develop comprehensive national teacher ICT competency policies and standards, and should be seen as an important component of an overall ICT in Education Master Plan.

"UnBoxed is a journal of reflections on purpose, practice and policy in education, published twice yearly by the High Tech High Graduate School of Education."

"Over the past few years, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia has been moving toward allowing students to bring their own technology to school. The district updated its acceptable use policies, beefed up its infrastructure and piloted the initiative. But the schools decide what that initiative would look like in their buildings. In all 35 schools, students can bring personal devices. In 25 schools, the initiative has permeated the buildings, and in the other 10, has made its way to some individual classes."

Finland recently made the news for its decision to shift away from a focus on handwriting. Beginning in 2016 students will not be required to learn cursive handwriting and instead will be taught typing skills. But what is lost in a move away from handwriting and should schools teach typing skills?

students simply don't respond to using a learning management system, (not that it is an LMS, but it includes edmodo BTW)

Gates says his foundation is currently focusing on using private funds to inform and redirect how public education dollars are spent, specifically in the form of research.- my note "agreeable findings" concern as "research" can then rapidly influence policy.

An unavoidable element of the discourse around educational disadvantage or equality is how we define and assess equality. One definition will see this as being in equality of access to education, funding for education and/or resources. Such an approach has largely been seen in government funding models however subtle variations on this theme have resulted in significant differences in resulting policies.

This week I joined with teachers, students, researchers and policy writers at Melbourne University to discuss student voice. This conference was hosted by Social Education Victoria and made possible by the conference partners, The University of Melbourne, Education and Training Victoria, Foundation for Young Australians and Connect. Over three days, participants engaged in rigorous dialogue about the significance of student voice and what is required to ensure its benefits are maximised for all.

Ray & Coulter (2010) supports this stating that currently, teachers as a collective, do not see the potential for technologies to aid in the development of new knowledge, active engagement and linkage of knowledge to a real-world setting.

Wow I haven't read Stephen Heppell thanks!Particularly useful for me investigating new skills21st century and assessment.

reducing our aims just to types of skills risks boring everyone to death with short lived, tool specific training which doesn't address the social and political context of people's lives or their reasons for engaging with technology.

This social media communications strategy has been created to assist teachers at Manor Lakes College in both implementing and utilizing specific means of social media in their learning and teaching programs.