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Recording what is happening on your screen can be a pretty useful tool for teachers who want to create video tutorials or presentations for their classrooms. Many teachers are using screencasting tools but before you delve into what you're going to do with your screencast, you need to take a few moments to learn about the tools that are available to do the actual recording. They range from free to fairly expensive ($299) and offer a variety of functionality from simple recording to quite complex video editing. $ are examined here

Educators looking together at student work using structures and guidelines ("protocols") for reflecting on important questions about teaching and learning.">
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Teacher Tool Kit from Microsoft including lesson plans, How tos, Downloads

Insights drawn from neuroscience not only provide educators with a scientific basis for understanding some of the best practices in teaching, but also offer a new lens through which to look at the problems teachers grapple with every day. By gaining insights into how the brain works-and how students actually learn-teachers will be able to create their own solutions to the classroom challenges they face and improve their practice. see video

Change is something that we fear or embrace. It is widely considered as the one constant in our lives. For education at present we face a deluge of reports that the pace of change shall only accelerate and its scale become more absolute. No wonder then that many teachers feel now is a good time for a move out of the profession. For others the changing face of education is seen as bringing exciting new possibilities wrapped in engaging challenges. Regardless of how reliable predictions for change may prove to be it is worth considering how individuals and groups respond to it.

The Teach, Learn, Share database is a national platform where educators and systems can share their effective approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in Australia. Once established, the Teach, Learn, Share database will be the 'go-to' site for information about effective literacy and numeracy strategies for individual teachers, schools, systems and the wider education community. The database will include descriptions of successful literacy and numeracy initiatives in a diverse range of school settings, capacity for targeted searching and links to relevant and appropriate research in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

world are embracing and developing new "ingredients" of learning: superclasses of 90 to 120 students; vertical learning groups; stage not age; schools within schools or "Home Bases;" [all education concepts Stephen talks about more later] project-based work; exhibition-based assessments; collaborative learning teams; mixed-age mentoring; children as teachers; teachers as learners

The question of equity extends far beyond the well-worn "public v. private" controversies, as important as they are. The new problem is that public education too is becoming less equitable. There are Federal Partnership Programs that pour vast sums into some schools, while passing over others, on a competitive selection basis. Academic selective schools are streaming off the highest achievers and putting some of the best teachers in front of them. The result is that some students in the public system are receiving a great deal more resources than are others who have the same or greater levels of need. Such inequita

Information for educational institutions (including schools, universities, colleges, TAFEs, training organisations), teachers and academics.

This site has some actual lesson plans and activities for the NXT robots.

The following lesson plans are for free use by Teachers of Robotics using the LEGO NXT Mindstorms Education kit. There are Junior, Middle and Senior School Lesson Sequences and plans that build on Robot Educator. They are designed to be used in an approximate 6 week block, but feel free to access single lessons.

Thinkfinity.org offers free lesson plans and educational resources for teachers, parents and students. It is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives.

These are testing times for parents, students, principals and teachers. Share your experiences of schools and the education system with Anna Patty, the education editor for The Sydney Morning Herald

Sometimes, it seems everyone who ever went to school is an expert on education and has a plan to make it better. Actual teaching experience, years of professional learning and formal training are all easily swept aside. The result is an ongoing dialog around what schools should do, what teachers need to do more of or less of and how the academic success of the nation is linked to strategy x or y.

You do not need to look very hard to find a report claiming that schools and education needs to change. But real change needs more than teacher blaming and increased accountability. What will drive real change is . . .

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.

These two powerful questions framed a recent webinar presented by Professor David Perkins of Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero. Answering these questions and helping teachers find meaningful and contextually relevant answers to these questions has been a focus of Perkins' work, especially in recent times. His book "Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World" introduced us to the notion of lifeworthy learning or that which is "likely to matter in the lives our learners are likely to live". This is a powerful notion and one that has the potential to change not only what we teach but also how we go about teaching what we do.

Please take a moment to read this very special letter from Santa! He takes a moment to describe the magic that you as an educator make happen every day!