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One either absorbs the grammatical principles of one’s native language in conversation and in reading or one does not

You need to take out the stuff that’s just sitting there and doing nothing

What is it about games that is transcendent? Perhaps it’s the fact that games are optional, they are obstacles that we volunteer to overcome. Games are what we choose to do. They are what we are drawn to when we have a choice about how to spend our time and energy.  Games are freedom.

There is something transcendent about playing games that lifts us up and out of the tedium and pain of everyday life.

When we ask “Are games good for us?” we should take more seriously the idea that games helps us feel better, in the moment, and that this is important work. Reducing the time we spend experiencing negative emotions and increasing the time we spend experiencing positive emotions is a fundamental good in and of itself. Even if games don’t change anything else in our lives, the power to change how we feel in the moment is a very good thing indeed.

Boys are more likely than girls to report that they visit Facebook most often (45% of boys vs. 36% of girls). Girls are more likely than boys to say they use Instagram (23% of girls vs. 17% of boys) and Tumblr (6% of girls compared with less than 1% of boys).

As American teens adopt smartphones, they have a variety of methods for communication and sharing at their disposal. Texting is an especially important mode of communication for many teens. Some 88% of teens have or have access to cell phones or smartphones and 90% of those teens with phones exchange texts. A typical teen sends and receives 30 texts per day2

Teenage girls use social media sites and platforms — particularly visually-oriented ones — for sharing more than their male counterparts do. For their part, boys are more likely than girls to own gaming consoles and play video games.

scientific research and policy statements lag behind the pace of digital innovation

The 2011 AAP policy statement Media Use by Children Younger Than Two Years was drafted prior to the first generation iPad and explosion of apps aimed at young children.

Media is just another environment. Children do the same things they have always done, only virtually

We’ve created Pine Tree Poetry to interlace students, their peers, parents, teachers and school librarians in a quest for poetry writing excellence. Rarely do students earn kudos or trophies for their writing, but at Pine Tree Poetry, we are dedicated to rewarding the fine writing achievements of students who are 5 – 18. Pine Tree Poetry contributes four important elements to the realm of student poetry. We: 1. Receive, read, evaluate, pick (a few) and publish the best poems written by poets ages 5 – 18. 2. Support schools by awarding thousands of dollars each year for much-needed library materials. Some awards are based upon the number of poems submitted while others are selected at random from among all particiipants. 3. Give a free copy of The Pine Tree Poetry Collection to the library of every school that has one or more students published. 4. Highlight the life lesson that many will write and the best will be chosen. We are not a vanity publishing company! We’re out to change the world one poem at a time and we invite students, parents, librarians, teachers and those who love the written word to join us.

Howard Rheingold (howard@rheingold.com) is the author of Tools For Thought, The Virtual Community, Smart Mobs, and other books and is currently lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.

I focus on five social media literacies: Attention Participation Collaboration Network awareness Critical consumption

lthough I consider attention to be fundamental to all the other literacies, the one that links together all the others, and although it is the one I will spend the most time discussing in this article, none of these literacies live in isolation.

NEW YORK, USA, 23 April 2010 - Indigenous people have come from all over the world to New York this week to participate in the Ninth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. At its own panel yesterday which was designed to explore issues specifically affecting children and adolescents UNICEF assembled a group that included Urapinã Pataxó 15, and Kãhu Pataxó, 19, WHO live in Pataxó de Coroa Vermelha, a small village in the Bahia region of north-eastern Brazil We want to ensure that cultural diversity and the rights of cultural expression are fully mainstreamed in our world. Its a challenge, said UNICEF Deputy Director of Policy and Practice Elizabeth Gibbons. She added that UNICEFs involvement in the past had been fragmentary and that the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2009 provided an important reminder of the urgency of these issues. In this video, Urapinã Pataxó, 15, describes the conditions in his village in Bahia, Brazil, that led to him becoming an activist for the rights of indigenous children and young peopl

Sandseter began observing and interviewing children on playgrounds in Norway. In 2011, she published her results in a paper called “Children’s Risky Play From an Evolutionary Perspective: The Anti-Phobic Effects of Thrilling Experiences.” Children, she concluded, have a sensory need to taste danger and excitement; this doesn’t mean that what they do has to actually be dangerous, only that they feel they are taking a great risk. That scares them, but then they overcome the fear. In the paper, Sandseter identifies six kinds of risky play: (1) Exploring heights, or getting the “bird’s perspective,” as she calls it—“high enough to evoke the sensation of fear.” (2) Handling dangerous tools—using sharp scissors or knives, or heavy hammers that at first seem unmanageable but that kids learn to master. (3) Being near dangerous elements—playing near vast bodies of water, or near a fire, so kids are aware that there is danger nearby. (4) Rough-and-tumble play—wrestling, play-fighting—so kids learn to negotiate aggression and cooperation. (5) Speed—cycling or skiing at a pace that feels too fast. (6) Exploring on one’s own.

This last one Sandseter describes as “the most important for the children.” She told me, “When they are left alone and can take full responsibility for their actions, and the consequences of their decisions, it’s a thrilling experience.”

the final irony is that our close attention to safety has not in fact made a tremendous difference in the number of accidents children have.

Most people don't know what it looks like when they do what they do."

Instructional coaches are not evaluators. They are not a mole for administration, and the conversations they have with teachers are confidential. Their purpose is to help work with teachers and bring them to the next level.

This is about two adults working together on a goal, and the instructional coach providing effective feedback on how to meet that goal. It is not about a "gotcha" but it is about becoming a better teacher without the fear that the hammer is going to drop at any minute.

Absolutely. When we think about writing at the National Writing Project, we think about multimodal composition: words, audio, video, graphic texts, etc. That said, no one is abandoning words. We’re just acknowledging that today your ability to create and publish, say, a video affords opportunities for expression that go beyond just words.

Yes, absolutely. Whether in email, texts, or posting status updates, most people in the world are probably writing and publishing more words, images, video and audio now than ever before. Facebook is one of the biggest publishing platforms in the world. It’s word dependent, but it also includes audio and video—and creating audio and video are deeply compositional. The question is how can we take advantage of the fact that so many people are now creating and circulating content to improve teaching and learning.

Going public and writing for an audience is something we always cared about. Maybe the real shift is that now it’s easier and more expansive.

among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas

And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard

among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas

And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard