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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

"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."

A simple floor plan design tool. Use it to create and share interactive floor plans online. With simple drag and drop tools you can make accurate plans within minutes all on scale. Floorplanner BASIC is free for personal use

An important part of the role of any educator is that of planning learning sequences. Perhaps you are tasked with designing curriculum or more likely you are translating a mandatory curriculum into workable units of learning. The task is complex and there are multiple arrangements. The goal is to design units that connect students with learning in ways that are meaningful and relevant. A well-designed unit of learning fits seamlessly alongside other learning opportunities and the overall sequence of learning should match the learners developing expertise. As we plan units of learning we must consider a great variety of factors which impact the learning we design. Our knowledge of our students and where they are with their learning is crucial and a strong place to start. We also need to know what it is we are required to teach and have a grab bag of pedagogical moves that bring this content alive.

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.

"reparation takes time. Planning slides, arranging them, finding pictures to accompany the messages, and making decisions on color schemes and templates can take hours. That is why I like to plan on the go and with mobile devices and apps, you can sketch out your presentation and rehearse almost anywhere. Here are the apps I recommend."

Review and list of several Apps that you can use for conference and workshop presentations.

Australians, compare the Labor and Liberal NBN plans and decide for yourself how fast the NBN should be. Keep in mind too that one plan calls for the installation of already archaic equipment, the other future proofs our telecommunications and data connections for decades.

Excerpted from "Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for Windows: Visual QuickPro Guide" by Antony Bolante. Before shooting any footage, filmmakers usually create a storyboard-a series of sketches that depicts each shot in the finished program. Planning each shot in a storyboard can save you enormous amounts of time, money, and energy in production. In postproduction, you can use a similar storyboarding technique to plan a rough cut and instantly assemble it into a sequence, again saving time and energy.

Some useful guides to creating useful lesson plans for teaching study 9research) skills. Linked to US Common core standards but easily fit with Aus ones.

In the Bloom's Taxonomy Planning Kit, you are offered with a variety of key words, action verbs, outcomes and questions all related to each of the thinking levels in the taxonomy.

With each theme, partners bring in an assignment and one employee. As a tribe, together with that employee, we are going to work with knowledge, feeling and ideas. We are then presenting a real working solution for the assignment/challenge the partner brought in. We present this in a pitch, together with a quote and working plan. When the partner accepts the plan the students will work it out, for real. So by working on real life assignments four times a year we connect and implement the learning experiences into the assignment/challenge. Next to this we try to inspire and coach the Knowmads on working on their own ideas and projects.

Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good thing. Teachers must become comfortable with changing their leadership style from directive to consultative -- from "Do as I say" to "Based on your needs, let's co-develop and implement a plan of action." This first of three posts on student-centered classrooms starts with the educator. As the authority, teachers decide if they will "share" power by empowering learners"

When we approach this task with key questions in mind, we focus our thinking on how we might plan learning experiences and opportunities that will have the impact we desire.

From the Teachers pay teachers site. "A visually appealing PowerPoint covering Roman History from the First Triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey through the death of Mark Antony and rise of Octavian. Each slide includes images and graphics that hold students' attention and keep them focused on the lesson. Topics covered include the rise of Julius Caesar, Pompey and the Senate's plan to bring him home, his crossing of the Rubicon, the civil war, his relationship with Cleopatra, his assassination, and much more. It concludes with an open-ended exit ticket that has students thinking critically about the things they learned. "

Some concepts that could be used in a job interview involving eLearning.

This was a result of a Plurk posting. Some concepts may be worthwhile?

Blog post by Tom Barrett about new Curriculum Catalyst crowd-sourcing planning initiative.