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So in the face of a challenge, what do your students "retreat to"? Below are four questions they can use to begin this kind of reflection and self-awareness: How do I respond when I'm challenged, both inwardly and outwardly? Which resources and strategies do I tend to favor, and which do I tend to ignore? What can I do to make myself more aware of my own thinking and emotions? What happens if I don’t change anything at all?

Teachers can connect to their students on a wider level as well as on a personal level.Interactions can be taken beyond the classroom as Twitter is omnipresent in our smartphones and laptops.Twitter allows for customization of learning depending on the student i.e. differentiating learning for different students.Twitter can be used to quickly connect to multimedia resources (e.g. YouTube or Vine) and turn education into edutainment.Twitter gives new opportunities to connect to other learning communities and new educational content.The very nature of Twitter – brief and to-the-point makes for rapid broadcast of learning

Figure 2.1. Feedback Timing

Purpose: For students to get feedback while they are still mindful of the learning target For students to get feedback while there is still time for them to act on it

Examples of Good Amounts of Feedback Examples of Bad Amounts of Feedback

An educational leader today is one who, regardless of title, exhibits the following ten traits: -          Willingness to learn new things -          Committed to providing an excellent learning environment for those you are responsible for in your classroom, school or district -          Looks to motivate those you have immediate contact with and those outside your traditional circle of influence -          Continually self-evaluates your own place in the educational structure and adapts for the betterment of education -          Keeps a focus on what’s most important; students and their learning

Continually engages in professional development to improve your own knowledge and skills -          Develops and expands a professional learning network through connections and collaboration in social media -          Works to develop other educational leaders in the classroom, school office and central office -          Helps developing and new educators find their way so that they too can one day lead -          Gives back to the profession

. So please don't tell me to get a life. 

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

You may be skeptical of edcamps, but you shouldn't be. They are much more engaging, and widely held than you may think. According to Kristen Swanson, Senior Educational Research Leader at BrightBytes, and co-founder of the Edcamp Movement, "Edcamps are more than just an idea or theory; they're an international movement. The model has been replicated in 41 states and dozens of countries worldwide. Over 25,000 educators have participated in a regional Edcamp event, and many more have participated in an Edcamp-style event at their school."   Considering how grassroots edcamps are, it's going to be interesting to what happens, when the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) holds their edcamp in June.

There is a lot of federal money available for training and professional development for teachers but no systematic federal strategy that I can discern for turning that money into systems of the kind top-performing countries use to support long-term, steady improvements in teachers' professional practice

Knowledge workers would fail unless they were managed like professionals: given a lot of autonomy, trusted to make the right decisions and supported rather than directed.

Pink draws on four decades of research to argue that most workers are capable of much more and better work than they currently do, but they will be motivated to do it not by the old extrinsic rewards and punishments, but rather by the intrinsic motivation that comes from being treated like the true professionals described by Drucker.