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this is an old post, but I like how it looks at changing questioning style i order to get the most out of our students No more trivial pursuit. No more topical research. No more hunts for simple facts - deadly, tiresome and lacking in value, mind-numbing activities without import. This article offers something like a cider press - but one that easily produces intriguing questions from the mass of curriculum content that usually inspires mere collection or varieties of trivial pursuit.

Article from NY Times about a man who looked at successful teachers & wrote a book about 49 ways to become a better teacher. "He knew how to advise schools to adopt a better curriculum or raise standards or develop better communication channels between teachers and principals. But he realized that he had no clue how to advise schools about their main event: how to teach."

One way to empower students is to involve them in the process of analyzing their learning and evaluating their work. When they do, true learning takes place, way beyond the intended curriculum. READ ON to see how you can create rubrics with your students to evaluate student-created videos, writing, or other projects. Included are two examples of rubrics my kindergarten students made to evaluate their digital photo story and our class movie.

Database of lessons for teaching computational thinking in a variety of areas of the curriculum across age groups.

In 1970 the top three skills required by the Fortune 500 were the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1999 the top three skills in demand were teamwork, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. We need schools that are developing these skills." That's why a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn't a commodity that's delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students' own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion-and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process.

Visual interactive display of the size and scale of cells -- with the starting point the "large" coffee bean (12 x 8 mm).....\nOne page of a broader educational website from the Univ of Utah, Genetic Science Learning Center -- other pages are definitely middle/secondary school (if not univ) level...\n<

"Monster Exchange is designed to encourage the development of reading and writing skills while integrating Internet technology into the classroom curriculum. Classrooms from a variety of schools worldwide are paired together; the students in each classroom are split into groups, each of which designs an original picture of a monster. The students must then write a description of the monster. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail and the Internet. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture. The true challenge involves creating a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster."

"Opening Minds aims to help schools to provide young people with the real world skills or competencies they need to thrive in the real world. It is a broad framework through which schools can deliver the content of the national curriculum in a creative and flexible way so that young people leave school able to thrive in and to shape the real world. Opening Minds was developed by the RSA at the turn of the millennium in response to a belief that the way young students were being educated was becoming increasingly detached from their needs as citizens of the 21st century."

"Welcome to Kids Around the World! This site will introduce your students to the lives, customs, and cultures of children in countries throughout the developing world. There are a lot of ways you can use Kids Around the World in the classroom! Explore the site yourself to get an idea of how you want to use it in your curriculum. The lesson plans provided are excellent tools to get you started. They include activities for Grades K"

"The Information Fluency Continuum provides a framework for the instructional aspects of a library program. The framework is based on three standards that form the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners."

"Books, especially picture books, are the best source of examples when developing curriculum for writing. Many mini lessons can be garnered from text... the authors become Co-Teachers! The books listed below are "Touchstone Texts," and provide clear and masterful examples of different types and styles of writing . "

"This is a world in which public is the new default. Thought leader Michael Schrage (2010) notes that "the traditional two-page résumé has been turned into a 'personal productivity portal' that empowers prospective employers to quite literally interact with their candidate's work." The rules for building your personal brand are changing at light speed. It's not enough to suggest that we have those admirable skills of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurship; now we have to show them in action online. In short, our résumé is becoming a Google search result, one that we build with the help of others and that requires our participation. Most students are beginning to face this reality without much assistance from the schools charged with preparing them for the world beyond school. That has to change. We need to help students understand more than just the safety and ethics of participating online; we also have to give them opportunities throughout the curriculum to find and follow their passions and publish meaningful, quality work for real global audiences to interact with." Article by Will RIchardson

With regards to creating a video like the one above do you: Do it because it's not only fun but likely does address some cirriculuar outcomes but you might have to look them up later. Fingers crossed. Do it and to heck with the outcomes, doing joyful things with students is important.  Do it but perhaps as an extra-curricular activity because you're not sure where it fits with a robust curriculum but still think it's important. Not do it at all.  

"Below you will find links to iPad applications that target the various levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. I only included free apps that were "content-neutral" to make them usable across the curriculum. I also tried to include apps for the iPad only, but a few iPhone apps may have snuck in!"

"Media Store serves the education market with an unrivalled collection of DVDs, including latest releases, classics and difficult-to-source titles covering a wide range of subjects and audience age range. Media Store is well known throughout the market for its high stock levels, honest prices, speedy delivery and friendly service which makes it a one-stop shop for all teachers and educators who need DVDs to support their curriculum delivery.

ABSTRACT This article outlines a learning intervention which the authors call Learning by Design. The goal of this intervention is classroom and curriculum transformation, and the professional learning of teachers. The experiment involves the practical application of the learning theory to everyday classroom practice. Its ideas are grounded in pedagogical principles originally articulated in the Multiliteracies project, an approach to teaching and learning that addresses literacy and learning in the context of new media and the globalizing knowledge economy. The need for a new approach to learning arises from a complex range of factors - among them, changes in society and the economy; the potential for new forms of communication made possible by emerging technologies; and rising expectations amongst learners that education will maximize their potential for personal fulfillment, civic participation and access to work. The authors first brought together the Learning by Design team of researchers and teachers in 2003 in order to reflect upon and create new and dynamic learning environments. A series of research and development activities were embarked upon in Australia and, more recently, in the United States, exploring the potentials of new pedagogical approaches, assisted by digital technologies, to transform today's learning environments and create learning for the future - learning environments which could be more relevant to a changing world, more effective in meeting community expectations and which manage educational resources more efficiently. One of the key challenges was to create learning environments which engaged the sensibilities of learners who are increasingly immersed in digital and global lifestyles - from the entertainment sources they choose to the way they work and learn. It was also about enabling teachers to explicitly track and be aware of the relationship between their pedagogical choices and their students' learning outcomes.

"From an early age, we need to give digital literacy as much importance as numeracy and literacy. "While we welcome the introduction of the computing curriculum, we are concerned about the ability of teachers to deliver it - with more than half of our IT teachers not having a post-A-level qualification relevant to IT.

There needs to be wider examination of the extent to which evidence informs education. Do we heed it enough? Or is what children learn determined more by precedent and cultural or institutional norms?

"A striking assumption animates arguments on both sides, namely that nonfiction is seldom literary and certainly not literature. Even Mr. Coleman erects his case on largely dispiriting, utilitarian grounds: nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won't necessarily nourish the soul. As an English teacher and writer who traffics in factual prose, I'm with Mr. Coleman. In my experience, students need more exposure to nonfiction, less to help with reading skills, but as a model for their own essays and expository writing, what Mr. Gladwell sought by ingesting "Talk of the Town" stories. I love fiction and poetry as much as the next former English major and often despair over the quality of what passes for "informational texts," few of which amount to narrative much less literary narrative. What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. Most students could use greater familiarity with what newspaper, magazine and book editors call "narrative nonfiction": writing that tells a factual story, sometimes even a personal one, but also makes an argument and conveys information in vivid, effective ways."

"What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. "  Totally supports my belief that nonfiction longreads are out there on the internet and are not being taken advantage of by teachers -- enough.