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With the start of a new school comes a new season of CNN Student News. CNN Student News started back up again yesterday. The format is the same as it has been for years. The roughly ten minute episodes feature US stories, a world news stories,  "shout out" to a class, and a quick quiz. Transcripts for each show are available for download as are suggested viewing questions to cover with your students. 

One of the most misunderstood terms in education is "classroom management," which is often seen as a synonym for discipline. Imagine asking the manager of a store to explain his job and he says, "My job is to discipline the customers." And when the same question is posed to the manager of a team, she says, "I discipline the players." Yet, discipline is the prevailing response of most educators when asked about classroom management.

interesting info graphic on the increase in multi-tasking in teenagers over the years and effects on brain activity http://t.co/kyAaq7Nb

good example of something our kids can do at the end of the year

Going deeper into the education sphere, YouTube has just launched a digital citizenship curriculum for teachers, which includes training in things like how to report content, cyberbullying, safety modes, and copyright. In order to be more easily accessed in schools, last year YouTube started offering a service that redirects all YouTube links to its Education channel, YouTube.com/Education. Check out the new digital citizenship curriculum

We use some of these already in our classrooms, but there might be an idea or two here as we head into the new school year

Libguide on Six Reading Habits to Develop in your First Year at Harvard

I had the wonderful app-ortunity to make a site visit to Westlake H.S. in Eanes ISD on Wednesday February 1st. When we arrived, various campus and district officials shared some background on the student-centered learning initiative. They focused on multiple benefits of the 1:1 iPad initiative where high school seniors were issued iPads like textbooks at the beginning of the year. In a time where global communication, inquiry-based opportunities, and self-directed learning is how students manage the information revolution, it was refreshing to get to observe an iLearning Utopia.

The 2011 Horizon report identified six new technologies that will affect teaching and learning in the K-12 education community over the next five years.  

Turns out sitting your 5-year-old in front of the PBS Kids website while you make dinner or encouraging your fourth grader to play "Math Missions" on your iPad after school is not necessarily enough to ensure they learn from the experience.

The infants to 5-year-olds in my family child care program have taught me the value of rich and meaningful learning that happens in authentic, everyday experiences. Early educators often spend much time and effort planning such experiences. However, sometimes we support children's learning best by stepping out of the way. This lets us learn alongside the children.

ebook but in iTunes (available in US and Canada iTunes, not sure about others)

Could be a nice ebook for our middle and high school students

A three-year study of 491 middle school students found that the more children played computer games the higher their scores on a standardized test of creativity-regardless of race, gender, or the kind of game played. Everyone is gifted and talented.

"The JiTT strategy is based on the notion of a feedback loop between the out-of-class assignments and the subsequent classroom activities. Based on the student responses, the instructor selects an appropriate set of items that will make up the lesson. The classroom experience then informs the choice of the next set of web assignments. Over the past seven years faculty across the country have developed a rich set of JiTT resources. To look at some examples please visit A JiTT Sampler. "

"What does it mean to see the world like a designer? What is "maker thinking?" What kinds of thinking dispositions characterize a tinkerer? These are some of the questions at the heart of the Agency by Design project, a multi-year research and development initiative at Project Zero, a research organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "

PISA, the OECD's triennial international assessment of 15 year olds in math, reading, and science, has become one of the most destructive forces in education today. It creates illusory models of excellence, romanticizes misery, glorifies educational authoritarianism, and most serious, directs the world's attention to the past instead of pointing to the future.

Brilliant perspective in the need to broaden our understanding of literacy.

Take a moment to reflect: How many minilessons have you taught this year that guide students to become effective digital readers? Do you have anchor charts or scaffolds in place that will support them as they attempt to read digitally with independence? Have you provided ample time for them to read diverse genres or self-select their onscreen reading material?

Start of the school year, reading workshop, data collection

In The Teachers of 2030: Creating a Student-Centered Profession for the 21st Century (online magazine or PDF format), Barnett Berry invites policymakers and teacher leaders to rethink today's teaching policies by imagining the knowledge, skills and qualities teachers must have in the year 2030 -- just two decades from now. To support this discussion, Berry introduces the voices of 12 accomplished American teachers who are currently writing a book on the future of teaching.