Being a highly knowledgeable and highly adaptive, self-driven, well-rounded human being. That is my definition of rigor.

For us, that’s problem solving, creating meaning, making connections, and that’s all driven by a sense of curiosity, persistence and creativity.

In the first 5 days I think we should front load really high level research skills,” November said. That means teaching students to “power search” using Google operators, the words that define how Google searches.

Another important concept to impart within the first few days of school to students: you can make meaningful contributions to the world, no matter how old you are,

show them how teachers learn and what their sources are. November favors Diigo, but there are lots of sites that help people organize what they’ve read online and share those resources. For teachers who are actively improving their knowledge of the subject matter they teach, why not share that digital library with students and show them what lifelong learning looks like?