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Today's classrooms are more diverse than ever before. As a result, teachers find themselves searching for ways to meet the needs of each student. Add to it the pressures of academic achievement goals mandated by NCLB and many may feel ill-equipped to meet the challenges of diversity in the classroom. Planning perfect lessons with exciting activities looks great on paper, but will it help your students reach their potential? Probably not. If there is anything I learned during my time as a public school teacher is this: The height of student achievement is directly correlated with the strength of the classroom community. By building  community in the classroom, you build an environment where students feel safe to learn, grow and be themselves.

"About Our Motivation: Challenges and opportunities, created by our global society, invite teachers, administrators, and students to rethink the way they teach, lead, and learn. The rise of social networking, the ease with which information is shared, and the growth of our global economy are just a few factors that have made it obvious that the 21st century is a much different world than the 20th century. And yet, when we take a good, hard look at the culture within our schools, do we see that much has changed from yesterday to today? We may see more technology used in the classroom and maybe more discussions on the "content vs. skills" debate in the faculty rooms. But underneath it all, have things really changed? Have we successfully forged a culture where life-long learning, personal growth, and collaboration are valued and practiced among all members of the school community? In Richard DuFour's article "Why Look Elsewhere?: Improving Schools from Within," he states that "it is context-the beliefs, expectations, behaviors and norms that constitute the culture of a given school-that plays the largest role in deciding whether a professional development program will make a difference in that school." If a school's goal is to improve student achievement, and a school considers learning to be the crux of its community, then effective professional development-where teachers and administrators themselves become learners-is the bridge to achieving that goal."

Enhance curriculum, increase student achievement, and learn creative new ways to develop innovative lessons with the use of the iPod. The purpose of this presentation is to provide educators with exciting new skills to enable them to utilize iPods as tools for classroom instruction. Participants will learn how easily the iPod can be integrated into all content curriculum areas to engage students, increase achievement, and foster creative learning.

During 2008, we've tried to bring you the best how-tos for achieving more with social media tools: everything from Google products to blogging to online video to productivity and beyond. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Friendfeed, and Delicious all got the How-To treatment. Today, as the year draws to a close, we bring you a hand-picked selection of Mashable's social media How-To articles in 2008; some holiday reading, perhaps, or something to refer back to once you restart the daily grind in 2009. Enjoy!

"What are the benefits for the teacher and learner in the context of open education and OER? How does a blended-learning school boost student achievement? How can we design the schools for 21st Century Learning? How will be the classroom of tomorrow? What are the tools and resources for the 21st Century Educator?"

"Google Forms are amazing tools, allowing you to do some really advanced tricks with forms as the front-end and spreadsheets at the heart. Once you get started you'll be amazed at just how much you can achieve with this basic premise. Today we'll look at how to create a self-grading quiz using Google Forms. From there, you'll no doubt find a lot more ways to use forms and spreadsheets."

Gamification is simply the application of "game" mechanics to non-game entities. The big idea here is to encourage a desired behavior. In this way, "gamification" amounts to installing mechanics or systems that recognize and reward behavior. Through increased visibility of nuance, documentation of progress, and rewarding of seemingly minor (but critical) behaviors, a specific outcome can be achieved.

"Instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives. Five categories of instructional strategies and explanation of these five categories can be found within this site. Instructional methods are used by teachers to create learning environments and to specify the nature of the activity in which the teacher and learner will be involved during the lesson. While particular methods are often associated with certain strategies, some methods may by found within a variety of strategies. A sampling of instructional methods with accompanying explanations are presented in this website."

"The Interesting Ways to Use series has been really successful. I measure their success in how useful they are to teachers and other educators in helping with professional development. They have been a great example of crowdsourcing good quality classroom ideas and it has been great fun connecting with all of the people who have taken time to add an idea. It is remarkable what can be achieved and created together if you give people the right way to do it. Thanks for all the help so far."

"Welcome to the Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd)! CITEd identifies evidence-based practices for integrating instructional technology to support the achievement of all students. "

Everyone is a learner - whether you are a student in a school, college or university, a workplace learner or a lifelong learner - so share your Top 10 Tools for Learners and help us build the Top 100 Tools for Learners 2009. We are building the Top 100 Tools for Learners 2009 list below. Note this list is constantly being updated as we receive new contribution, and the tools shown below are tools that have achieved two or more votes.

Global WRITeS, Inc. is an educational organization whose mission is to promote communication and collaboration among youth and adults throughout the world using innovative technology resources such as video conferencing and digital media. Our programs in schools are literacy based with an integration in the performing arts. Our purpose is to provide opportunities for increased motivation for learning and to further student achievement for high needs student populations in cities throughout the world.

Great teachers help create great students, agreed? In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the single most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. So, what helps teachers become great? What equips them in helping students reach their highest potential?

Our mission is to enlighten and inspire people of all ages with an ever-growing internet archive of hero stories from around the world. Now more than ever, children, teachers, and parents yearn for messages of hope and courage to face the challenges that lie ahead. The MY HERO web site hosts thousands of stories of remarkable individuals written by children and adults alike. These stories serve to remind us that we all have the potential to overcome great obstacles and achieve our dreams by following in the footsteps of our heroes. MY HERO invites you, your family, school or organization to take part in this interactive web project. By publicly honoring your hero on this award-winning site, you reward those who have made a difference and bring a new hope to this global online community.

CyberSmart! fosters 21st century skills to increase student engagement and prepare students to achieve in today's digital society. CyberSmart! Online Workshops, facilitated professional development, give educators a hands-on experience in 21st century skills-the new basic skills-to meet the learning needs of today's students. Educators engage hands-on in the same kinds of learning they are expected to facilitate in the classroom. Two free resources support daily teaching. The free CyberSmart! Student Curriculum empowers students to use the Internet safely, responsibly, and effectively. The free CyberSmart! Educator Toolbar puts 21st century skills into practice every day, with just-in-time 24/7 access to annotated essential resources to support student learning.

# a place for sharing plans and guides # helps you achieve your goals; learn and discover # is ideal for technologists, bloggers, business professionals, students and professors or anyone who wants to discover and share guides and plans

What2Learn is an interactive learning solution which provides effective educational resources and revision games. A great tool for students with learning difficulties such as ADHD and literacy difficulties. It is also a great resource for high achieving students looking to work independently to get ahead. Register today and start the learning fun.

"Welcome to the Siemens STEM Academy site: A premier online community designed exclusively to foster achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) through the collaboration of STEM educators, and sharing of "best practices"."

Aligned instruction comprises the following activities: Teaching topics that are aligned with the standards. Ensuring the right level of challenge. Focusing teaching based on the learning needs of each student. Implementing instructional strategies to increase student achievement. To view an effective instructional strategy, click on one of the videos or document titles below. A nice collection of videos including a lot of instructional strategies

Are you looking for practical ways to improve student achievement? Strengthen teaching and learning processes with research-based instructional strategies combined with effective technology use. Twelve core strategies link to 30 classroom examples that show how to apply key research, using technology to engage learners and improve achievem