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I have been thinking a lot lately about the challenge we face as educators when well-intentioned learners make incorrect, inscrutable, thoughtless, or otherwise off-the-mark comments. It's a crucial moment in teaching: how do you respond to an unhelpful remark in a way that 1) dignifies the attempt while 2) making sure that no one leaves thinking that the remark is true or useful? Summer is a great time to think about the challenge of developing new routines and habits in class, and this is a vital issue that gets precious little attention in training and staff development. Here is a famous Saturday Night Live skit, with Jerry Seinfeld as a HS history teacher, that painfully demonstrates the challenge and a less than exemplary response. Don't misunderstand me: I am not saying that we are always correct in our judgment about participant remarks. Sometimes a seemingly dumb comment turns out to be quite insightful. Nor am I talking about merely inchoate or poorly-worded contributions. That is a separate teaching challenge: how to unpack or invite others to unpack a potentially-useful but poorly articulated idea. No, I am talking about those comments that are just clunkers in some way; seemingly dead-end offerings that tempt us to drop our jaws or make some snarky remark back. My favorite example of the challenge and how to meet it comes from watching my old mentor Ted Sizer in action in front of 360 educators in Louisville 25 years ago. We had travelled as the staff of the Coalition of Essential Schools from Providence to Louisville to pitch the emerging Coalition reform effort locally. Ted gave a rousing speech about the need to transform the American high school. After a long round of applause, Ted took questions. The first questioner asked, and I quote: "Mr Sizer, what do you think about these girls and their skimpy halter tops in school?" (You have to also imagine the voice: very good-ol'-boy). Without missing a beat or making a face, Ted said "Deco

"The driving force behind the Web 2.0 revolution is a spirit of intellectual philanthropy and collective intelligence that is made possible by new technologies for communication, collaboration and information management. One of the best examples of collective intelligence in action are the wide range of social bookmarking applications that have been embraced in recent years."

"What has to happen for school libraries to become relevant? If we want to connect with the latest generation of learners and teachers, we have to totally redesign the library from the vantage point of our users-our thinking has to do a 180-degree flip. In short, it's time for school libraries to become a lot less like Microsoft and a lot more like Google. With this notion in mind, I collaborated with two of my colleagues, Carol Koechlin and Sandi Zwaan, Canadian educational consultants, to develop an idea we're calling the school library learning commons."

"The Buck Institute for Education commissioned the cutting-edge advertising agency, Common Craft, to create a short animated video that explains in clear language the essential elements of Project Based Learning (PBL). This simple video makes the essential elements of PBL come alive and brings to light the 21st Century skills and competencies (collaboration, communication, critical thinking) that will enable K-12 students to be college and work-ready as well as effective members of their communities."

"A group of junior high and high school students in Cambridge, Mass., are part of an experimental education program that aims to prove they're capable of solving real-world problems early with the help of 3D printers, Arduino and group collaboration."

Project by Skype to connect teachers with each other and with experts

I have become interested in the idea of 'flipping' the classroom since I first read about it on Karl Fisch's Fischalgebra blog (see resources at the end of this post).  He describes how he makes eight to ten minute 'mini-lessons/lectures' for his students which they have to watch at home as 'homework'.

great videos from math teacher

This is a continuing series on Web2.0 and other web-based tools for educators. This information is specific to math educators, but there is some crossover into ccience. Math educators will find a large number of useable interactive companion web sites for the teaching of math concepts and skills.

"Sharing learning is powerful because it makes students' learning relevant beyond their own classrooms."

Shared resource, collaboration and discussion space for the SBISD instructional coaches and the NL team.

"At the Flat Classroom(tm) Conference in Doha, Qatar in January 2009, a visionary group of students proposed that a series of debates be held to promote awareness of racism on a global basis and how we need to work together to solve the world's problems. This multi-national group of four students proposed their project and were promoted through an extensive voting process including a global vote on the next project to be run by the Flat Classroom(tm) project founders, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. "

"Ever wish you could create a personalized, customized search engine that searches only across sites that you specify and displays results that you know will be right for you or your students? Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) allows you do do just that. All you need to do is choose the websites and pages you'd like to search, then follow a few simple steps to create a CSE. Think of it as putting the power of Google web search to work for you."

Mathcasts K-7 crested by students and teachers

"Welcome to 25 Cents a day. This wiki is an organizer for school groups and others to connect with each other. We will be keeping a tally of the funds raised and watching all of us help others around the world."

Student-owned learning in social studies