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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

tips and advice for staying more secure on the web

"As more and more technology is being involved in our students daily lives, it becomes a pressing need for every teacher to, at least once in awhile , inform their students on the topic of digital citizenship. And as you probably know learning how to protect our digital identity and stay safe online are some key elements of this digital citizenship process. If you need any teaching resources on this topic then I invite you to check this resource."

Google Docs is a versatile tool for students. It allows for collaboration, is easily portable, easy to use, and has widespread acceptance. There are also many options, both hidden and obvious, thatallow you to use Google Docs to its fullest capability. This post lists 52 great tips for getting the most out of Google Docs as a student, with ideas and tricks for collaboration, sharing, and staying productive

Article from TheGuardian " Students use Wikipedia extensively, probably more than any other social group. Although the website's founder Jimmy Wales once warned readers not to use the website for academic purposes, American research shows that the majority of students browse its pages when researching essays. Most universities and academics distrust the service, warning us: "Never cite Wikipedia." Why is the academic world so hostile to this vast information resource? And why do students find it so hard to stay away?"

Cyber bullying is insidious and it looks as though it's here to stay. The challenge for parents and teachers is to work out how to educate young people about empathy and resilience.

This is a simple tool for quickly creating and posting polls. Go to the site, type a questionand then type your answer choices. The poll you created can stay online for up to seven days. Kwiqpoll assigns a unique url to each of the polls created so you send that url to the students that you want to participate.

Instagram and Vine are 2 popular social apps that allow you to share videos. This post examines the differences and the parameters of each. Tips for adults to be aware of as they try to assist young people in staying safe are also discussed

"We know how important it is to protect and educate young people on using the Internet and want to provide all of our users with a safe experience. When it comes to family safety, we aim to: * Provide parents and teachers with tools to help them choose what content their children see online * Offer tips and advice to families about how to stay safe online * Work closely with organisations such as charities, others in our industry and government bodies dedicated to protecting young people "

Blogging is a very public activity. Anything that gets posted on the internet stays there. Forever.

eLearning Learning is a community that tries to collect and organize the best information on the web that will help you learn and stay current on eLearning. If you would like to be included and or participate, please contact:Tony Karrer

Site to help young children learn about staying safe on the net. Links to related sites for older age groups.

What is FlockPod? FlockPod is the world's first social interaction pod - a small place on any Web page where people get together and interact on-the-spot, while staying on the page. The central idea of FlockPod is to provide a space on any web page to collaborate and interact right on-the-spot, to share ideas, opinions, experiences, anecdotes or sometimes even to question, reason or debate. Want to know more?

How to best use wikispaces, how to add or use other services together with WS for the best result. The only rule is be nice to all and stay on the subject: how to make the best use of wikispaces.

Disney Haunted House - play this when you want them to stay in bed

I feel like the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. The difference is the mantra. His was affirming his belief in spooks, mine is fighting my dread of winter: "I do believe winter can be fun. I do believe winter can be fun. I do, I do, I do!" Because truth be told, I don't think it's a whole lot of fun. This is because I'd prefer being in a tank dress over a down coat any day of the week. But, my current reality is that I live where it's cold half of the year. And I am a fun girl. So I've got to find a way to make it work.

"Keeping your computer in good shape gets to be tedious and annoying when you have to try to fit it in to your busy schedule. Rather than letting things slip through the cracks and watch your computer slow to a crawl, fall victim to a nasty virus, or crash and burn with no backups, we've put together everything you need to tackle to stay on top of all your computer maintenance tasks. Here are the four things we're going to look at (feel free to click to skip to any of the sections):"

A good list of advice for backing up your computer when teachers often conduct a clean up between teaching years.

While there are still some educators who dispute the importance of technology in the classroom, there is no dispute over the fact that technology is here to stay in schools. Whether you are one of those tech-savvy teachers who can't get enough of technology news and ideas or you are a teacher just learning to embrace technology in the classroom, these blogs offer a wealth of information straight from teachers and other professionals in the education field themselves.

If you're one of those people who like to understand the "why" of it all, you'll appreciate the first post in this series where we explain the science of cell-phone radiation exposure. No need to panic and ditch your phone (we at EWG certainly aren't giving up ours). Here's how to protect your health and stay in touch.