RMS Learning Collaborative

Lots of web resources, project ideas

To find oral history projects available on the internet, try the following resources:American Slave Narratives (University of Virginia)Conversations with America (Chicago History Museum)Conversations with History (University of California, Berkeley)Go for Broke (National Education Center)Guardians of Freedom (Nieman School)Oral History Collections (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)Oral History Archives (Rutgers University)Mississippi Oral History Project (University of Southern Mississippi)Regarding War (PBS)Shoah Foundation Institute (University of Southern California)Southern Oral History Program (University of North Carolina)Telling Their Stories (Urban School of San Francisco)Tibet Oral History ProjectVeterans History Project (Library of Congress)Veterans Remember D-Day (Encyclopedia Britannica) The Vietnam Center and Archive (Texas Tech University)Voices of the Dust Bowl (Library of Congress)What Did You Do in the War Grandma? (Brown University)The Whole World Was Watching (Brown University)

"Mathtrain.TV is a free educational "kids teaching kids" project from Mr. Marcos & his students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA."

We received a question about grading, specifically how to balance grading between formative and summative assessments. The author was concerned because the grading practices of the teachers in the school were so different. To answer the question, we need to develop a common understanding of the terms formative assessment and summative assessment. A summative assessment is an assessment that asks, "Did the student acquire the intended knowledge and skills by the deadline-yes or no, pass or fail?" For example, every course at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, ends with a final exam that counts for 25 percent of a student's final grade. This is clearly a summative exam. State exams are another example of summative assessments.

While reading Professional Learning Communities at Work™, I considerably marked up the margins with check marks and the letter U; the check marks meant "this is so important" and the Us symbolized that the ideas, as I saw them, were important because they were actually universal truths. Concepts like curiosity, practice, cooperation, support, reflection, and growth that first appeared in the introduction said to me that this book provided elements that are ageless and timeless. I knew that what was being explored could be meaningful for anyone, in any circumstance, and in any environment.