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Links related to Wordle including Wordle alternatives while the site is down due to legal reasons.

"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

School committee voted to fire the entire staff at a small, high-poverty school that was performing badly - a move reportedly applauded by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  Yet another reason to hate the worship of standardised, summative testing results being used to evaluate schools.

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.

"The iPad itself is a great device -- I love mine and it's changed the nature of computing on our couch. It is the ultimate in personal computing; it is not, as my wife and I have discovered, very good at being a shareable device"

Interesting iPad review. Good reason why kids need these tablet computers in the hands, not locked up in school labs or libraries.

This post is an excerpt from the Challenge section in the book, Tuned Out: Engaging the 21st Century Learner.

All search engines are engaged in a constant battle with entities that aim to manipulate search engine results for various reasons. Search Engine Optimization can be a major money earner or a significant distraction depending on what side of the search activity you are on. This infographic explores how Google is attempting to deal with one aspect of SEO, Content Farms.

Instructional uses of social networking software can provide opportunities for learning, connecting, and engagement.

The arguments for video games as gold standard in Learning

would require a steep learning curve anyway. But incorporating lesson plans and info and assignments into the tools that students already use would be both cheaper and more likely to actually be used. Of course, some will decry that these sites are automatically bad for kids -- or that it makes no sense to waste time on such issues. But the fact is kids are going to use these sites no matter what. Ignoring that doesn't change that. Banning the sites doesn't change that. It just makes the activity more underground without any oversight or reasonable lessons. But incorporating

A chat tool that is simple, clear, and doesn't require any Java. It works across browsers and allows a reasonable amount of admin control and management.

This is a great list of add-ons for use with the Firefox browser. I have a number of them installed in my browser and for me are the primary reason for choosing Firefox as my primary browser. Video Downloader and Last Pass are two of my faves.

Hey! where have you been? I hope u are not late upon reading this? I have waited patiently for one whole day without news of you; please send a reply as soon, I have been counting the time and that's what it must be. But a second day--I can see no reason for it, unless my servants have grown lazy or been captured by the enemy, nevertheless this script was no snail mail it was rather posted on my wall especially for you, I dare not put the blame on you, my beautiful angel: I am too confident of your affection--which is certainly due to me, for my love was never greater, nor my desire more urgent; that is why I repeat this refrain in all my letters...

Part of a larger Marvel Comic site with games and other promotional material, this page lets you create relatively simple comic strips using characters from the Marvel comics. A little like a cut down version of Comic Life it is a reasonable introductory tool. Finished comics can be printed or downloaded as a pdf.

20th century Fox The film "The Day After Tomorrow" was all good fiction when it came out in 2004, but now scientists are finding eerie truths to the possibilities of sudden temperature, So much for the "global warming" controversy. Are we getting warmer or colder? Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn't happen again

"Below is a series of frequently asked questions regarding the capabilities of the iPad and the reasons for our decision to use iPads from Years 5-9, with a strong recommendation they also be used in Years 10-12. Please take the time to browse through as it might cover some of the questions you have been asking yourself."