The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 (an imitative to improve science, math and technology literacy) -- "A new Web site is taking aim at this challenge, providing educators with quick lists of scientific statements broken down by subject matter, highlighting concepts that tend to be misunderstood by students.... The site (which is accessible after free registration) also provides teachers with some 600 multiple choice questions for tests that could help pinpoint conceptual sticking points. Multiple-choice tests have drawn criticism for being too reductive, and DeBoer acknowledges that "too often test questions are not linked explicitly to the ideas and skills that the students are expected to learn." So to figure out just what kids know-or think they know-researchers involved in the seven-year-long project tested more than 150,000 students in some 1,000 classrooms and conducted interviews with many of them to try to figure out how well the questions were getting at the underlying understandings."

Facebook Community Organization by grade 6 students

serious questions about the financial regularity and the truth of his stories -- expose of the author of "Three Cups of Tea"

I finally got around to finding James's blog on the school website. Has anyone else been following it?

"Poems for... supplies small poem-posters for public display - in class rooms, libraries, waiting rooms ..." You need to register before you can download, but it's free -- and the poems make lovely A3 posters printed out

including resources on the iPods and iPads relating to literacy

Example of a tool called Crocdoc that allows you to upload PDFs and collaboratively annotate them

Radiolab is a science podcast series from National Public Radio in the States that I totally recommend.... addictive listening...

Minecraft is one of the games the kids asked us to put on the DIgital Literacy Tree -- and we did.... Re problem solving and building in a virtual world. (Perhaps we should buy the proper version....)

"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.

a series of blog posts, videos, etc. from The Big Think -- all re Shakespeare for the month of April

good list of places where you can find reviews of children's story apps

"Poetry Month has begun! Celebrate by adding your voice to our poem, helping it soar around the world... The first version of our poem is a single line by wonderful writer Naomi Shihab Nye, visit litworld.org/poem to submit your own lines and watch our poem grow and change throughout April! "" I send my words out into the air, listening for yours from everywhere.""- Naomi Shihab Nye" Via LitWorld - An International Non-Profit Advocating for and Working Towards Global Literacy

"SweetSearch is a Search Engine for Students.  It searches only the 35,000 Web sites that our staff of research experts and librarians and teachers have evaluated and approved when creating the content on findingDulcinea. We constantly evaluate our search results and "fine-tune" them, by increasing the ranking of Web sites from organizations such as the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, PBS and university Web sites.  "

"wcsmusic, formerly i music, is an exciting concept aimed at widening access to musical excellence through the production of revolutionary interactive learning materials. Due to the generosity of our funding partners, our products are available completely - FREE OF CHARGE. These include our award winning software, The Virtual Javanese Gamelan, and our second module, Virtual West African Drumming. These materials will offer a full 'hands on' practical exploration of an aspect of music from a computer workstation, integrating performance, composition and aural perception. Follow the links to discover more about the materials we are offering. wcsmusic is the trademark of Wells Cathedral School."

Warren Buckleitner's selection

a British fantasy author who should be better known.... if you teach kids grades 5 and upwards, you should read some of her books so you can recommend them....