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She would thrive after being asked: “What do you want to learn?” “What do you want to read?” “What matters to you?” And then taking her answers and the curricular outcomes and designing a learning plan that incorporated all of this, plus embedded technology.

So often in education we focus on the wrong things. Test scores. Marks. Awards.

We need to start with why

“It doesn’t seem like there’s the emphasis on cursive handwriting today that there was when I was in school,” said Lisa Donohoe, Shelby’s mom.

“We do have a curriculum for cursive handwriting as part of our SLEs (Student Learning Expectations),” said Mary Ellen Maske, executive administrator for elementary education for the Cedar Rapids school district.The district uses the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting curriculum, which introduces cursive handwriting in third grade, and practice in fourth and fifth grades.The goal is 10 to 15 minutes of cursive handwriting instruction each day

Iowa is among 42 states and the District of Columbia, to have adopted the Common Core State Standards for English, which omits cursive handwriting from the required curriculum.

phrase to refer to efforts to tailor lessons to students of different ability levels

chool leaders are struggling to strike a balance between safeguarding sensitive student data and being able to collect and use such data to individualize learning

personalized learning strategies work, and in determining how to evaluate the true impact of those strategies on student learning

Today, children are going online at an increasingly young age; therefore this book aims at introducing concepts of modern technology in their daily vocabulary and activities. Whilst this activity book offers children from 4 to 8 years of age 30 pages of fun and games, it also leads them to sharpen their basic language and mathematical, social and cultural skills. It gives them a glimpse of the impact modern technology can have on their everyday life. Above all it offers an opportunity for parents and teachers to sit together with their children and discuss these important issues. Although the activity book was created in such a way that young children can enjoy and do the games alone, many of the exercises do have a deeper level. The booklet endeavours to encourage parents and teachers to talk about topics such as privacy and modern technology with their children and pupils starting from a very young age as these issues undoubtedly already play an important role in their lives. The table on page 4 offers parents and teachers an overview of the themes that are touched upon and the exercises that go with them. Additional information can be found at www.saferinternet.org. We encourage you to read these guidelines as they will provide more sample information about the pedagogical objectives behind each game and the messages the children will hopefully pick up

QUESTIONING HOMEWORK The growing movement against homework in the U.S. challenges the notion that the amount of homework a student is asked to do at home is an indication of rigor, and homework opponents argue that the increasing amount of “busy work” is unnecessarily taking up students’ out-of-school-time. They argue that downtime, free play, and family time are just as important to a child’s social and emotional development as what happens in school. Some research has shown that too much homework has “little to no impact” on student test scores. Other research on how brains work challenges the common method of asking students to practice one discreet skill at home. Overall, there’s a push to reevaluate the kinds of work students are being asked to do at home and to ask whether it adds value to their learning. If the work is repetitive or tangential, it may add no real value, and teachers across the country are starting to institute no-homework policies. Even principals are starting to revolt and schools are instituting “no homework” nights or substituting “goals” for homework.

The ability to find, use, and communicate information effectively and ethically is commonly known as information literacy

Students should develop information literacy as a "habit of mind" that enables them to be sophisticated information finders and users by the time they reach college and then the working world.