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Teaching is by nature a high energy profession that demands a lot and while their is much to celebrate there is arena danger of burnout. Taking some time to relax and de-stress is important as is noticing the signs that you are reaching your limit. For all teachers understanding that a break and a change of schedule benefits not just you but your students too can be the catalyst for granting yourself permission for a genuine break.

Prompts main image The best prompts are the ones that spark a personal connection between the writer and their ideas. Provided here are some generic writing prompts to get you started, but you will also find some tips on how to write your own prompts. These self-written prompts will offer better starting blocks for your students than the generic prompts because they spring from the immediacy of their lives. Another source for writing prompts is Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment by Jane Bell Keister. Narrative 1. It is 20 years from now. Your name has just been called and you are about to receive an award. Tell the story of how you came to be so successful and win this award. (Gr. 6-12) 2. Rewrite a fairy tale from a different point of view. For instance, * The Three Pigs as the wolf would tell it * Hansel & Gretel as the witch would tell it OR, use any example you like. (Gr. 5-8) 3. Write a story based on one of the following: * Where is it? * Breaking loose * If I had my way ... * Suddenly, in the headlights ... * That noise! * Don't even remind me * The biggest nuisance * Annoying! * At last! (Gr. 5-12) 4. Think of your best or worst day in school. Tell the story of what happened. (Gr. 4 & up) 5. Write a story based on ONE of the following * Little brothers (or sisters) * Older sisters (or brothers) * A narrow escape * My first memory * I'd like to go back * You won't believe it, but ... (Gr. 4 & up) 6. Think of a friend you have, in or out of school. Tell one story that comes to mind when you think of this friend. (All grades) 7. Think of an event you will want to remember when you are old. Tell about what happened in a way that's so clear that if you read this story again when you are eighty, every detail will come flooding back as if it happened y

Prompts main image The best prompts are the ones that spark a personal connection between the writer and their ideas. Provided here are some generic writing prompts to get you started, but you will also find some tips on how to write your own prompts. These self-written prompts will offer better starting blocks for your students than the generic prompts because they spring from the immediacy of their lives. Another source for writing prompts is Blowing Away the State Writing Assessment by Jane Bell Keister. Narrative 1. It is 20 years from now. Your name has just been called and you are about to receive an award. Tell the story of how you came to be so successful and win this award. (Gr. 6-12) 2. Rewrite a fairy tale from a different point of view. For instance, * The Three Pigs as the wolf would tell it * Hansel & Gretel as the witch would tell it OR, use any example you like. (Gr. 5-8) 3. Write a story based on one of the following: * Where is it? * Breaking loose * If I had my way ... * Suddenly, in the headlights ... * That noise! * Don't even remind me * The biggest nuisance * Annoying! * At last! (Gr. 5-12) 4. Think of your best or worst day in school. Tell the story of what happened. (Gr. 4 & up) 5. Write a story based on ONE of the following * Little brothers (or sisters) * Older sisters (or brothers) * A narrow escape * My first memory * I'd like to go back * You won't believe it, but ... (Gr. 4 & up) 6. Think of a friend you have, in or out of school. Tell one story that comes to mind when you think of this friend. (All grades) 7. Think of an event you will want to remember when you are old. Tell about what happened in a way that's so clear that if you read this story again when you are eighty, every detail will come flooding back as if it happened y

Social media tools can help break the barriers set by the walls of schools. Learning and communicating outside the school hours with technology aid is a modern adaptation of education that has showed great results. This post looks at some web tools that provide school-specific tools that are just as powerful in facilitating the communication inside the student-teacher-parent triangle as the more famous popular social networking sites..

"This helpful infographic does a solid job of breaking down the basics of learning theories in a visual and understandable format."

There is a growing momentum in education driven by a desire to share our practice and learn from our colleagues. Increasingly teachers are finding ways to break free of their classrooms and share their ideas. Collaborations in the interests of unlocking the collective potential of the profession are spreading within and importantly between schools. For many these collaborative endeavours and desires are satisfied by online communities but for many the possibility for a face to face conversation is more alluring.

At the start of each year we arrive back from our break hopefully rested and energised. The new year brings many new opportunities including new students, new team members and new teaching programmes. We begin again the climb up the hill with a fresh group of learners arriving at our doors full of excitement who will rely on us to meet their learning needs in the year ahead. All of this means we are at risk of starting the year with a certain level of panic. There is so much to do, our students are not accustomed to our routines, we don't know each other well, there are parents to meet, assessments to be done and before we know it we are back to being busy. 

"Our research shows that the argument that there is a generational break between today's generation of young people who are immersed in new technologies and older generations who are less familiar with technology is flawed.

Following today's Apple Event, Apple has just released Apple Configurator, an app that "makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution." Apple Configurator is likely of the same variety as what Apple uses in its own stores to reset its showroom devices, but now it's available for organizations and schools to make updating and resetting devices effortless. This should break down a few major barriers that kept organizations from widely adopting the devices before.

In breaking news, Lindsay has joined Kevin and Julia in the PM's office. Not bad, considering he's three metres from me and we're off to dinner. If something doesn't happen soon, the Australian media will burst like a festering boil. Time to get out of there.

Great video of 'How to create a great PowerPoint presentation without breaking the law' by Alvin Trusty (via Wes Fryer's Blog). Quite long (40-odd minutes), but very good messages throughout. I particularly liked the way he talked about creative commons and the use of www.compfight.com as a means of obtaining high quality images.

Ti[ps on writing, reading, oral presentations, exams and more for uni students. Really great resource for anyone going to university for the first time or going back to university after a break of years.

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries' GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map - misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.

Have you experienced Twitspeak overload? Do you break out into a sweat as the Twit character count goes into the final countdown phase? Then Twitlonger may be just the place for you At Twitlonger you can post to Twitter and not worry about the 140 characters limit. With Twitlonger, you can write what you need and once the 140 character limit is reached the tweet will have a link automatically added to it that will take you to Twitlonger where you can read it all. As the good folk at Twitlonger say, "It's like twitpic for text." Unfortunately to access the full 140+characters you'll have to leave your Twitter client and access the web.

Twitlonger is a way to let you post to Twitter when 140 characters just isn't enough. With Twitlonger, you can write what you need and a link to what you said will automatically be posted to your Twitter account. It's like twitpic for text. Doesn't this go against the whole point of Twitter? Absolutely. Please don't use Twitlonger to get lazy with Twitter. If your tweet runs to 150 characters, you can almost certainly reword it to get it to fit. If, however, you want to make a point that fits in the conversation, or want to explain something technical, then this lets you stay within the Twitterverse without posting a dozen tweets. People that are interested can click on the link and see the full majesty of your wit and wisdom.

The recent holiday break has reminded me of a number of things - how organised I am at work and with all things digital, yet my working space at home,

The Web in Numbers: The Rise of Social Media numbers12009 is the year of social media. Once, Twitter (Twitter reviews) was a place where you could read about someone else's cat. Now, it's the first place you go to when there's breaking news. Sites like Digg (Digg reviews), Reddit (reddit.com reviews), and Facebook (Facebook reviews) can now leave a huge impact on the real world; lives are changed, important questions are asked (and answered) there. Many milestones have been reached; the growth of nearly every aspect of social media has and continues to be enormous. We've dug up some amazing statistics and numbers from this realm.

"It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything. The apparent reason for the discrepancy is misconceptions. Students have existing ideas about scientific phenomena before viewing a video. If the video presents scientific concepts in a clear, well illustrated way, students believe they are learning but they do not engage with the media on a deep enough level to realize that what was is presented differs from their prior knowledge. There is hope, however. Presenting students' common misconceptions in a video alongside the scientific concepts has been shown to increase learning by increasing the amount of mental effort students expend while watching it."

"Born to learn is a fun, thought-provoking series of animations that illustrate ground-breaking new discoveries about how humans learn. "

"Every teacher is taught that back up plans are a must. Things change constantly in education and there are a variety of factors that can make plans change - computer breaks, internet goes out, file is corrupted, forgot your flash drive at home, you finish a lesson early with a class, your class has very low attendance due to a school activity or event (like AP testing, prom, etc), lesson runs long, students don't understand the material, class is interrupted by a fire drill. To deal with these issues, teachers must have back up plans ready to go and be flexible and organized. Here are some tips and resources for backup plans."

Your Library - Edinburgh City Council has a a great example of a library breaking out and getting into the wider community. This is a map that details literature based within the city. There are more than 100 books on the map which covers the whole city, from Edinburgh Airport to Portobello Police Station, and Muirhouse to James Gillespie's High School