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Thinking Blocks is a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra.

I think placing a survey or poll on your classroom blog or website is a great way to get informal feedback from your students. I usually put a survey on my class blog a week or so before any formal assessment that my students are going to take. That feedback helps me identify the areas that my students need more help and or clarification on. - R M Byrne

Making the News 2 (MTN2) is a website designed to introduce students to the world of online media publishing and broadcasting for the 21st century. Teachers may register, doing so will create a homepage on MTN for their school. The teacher may then create student accounts. Students can then login and create articles and programmes which will be submitted to the teacher and if approved published on the school homepage. Well rated articles will be added to the National MTN2 site. Articles may be text and images or they may be video, audio or a sequence of images.

"In a digitally-charged learning environment, the key is to turn up the H.E.A.T. on student learning. H.E.A.T. is an acronym that is synonymous with digital-age learning (i.e., 21st Century Skills) and represents Student Output in terms of student: Higher order thinking, Engaged learning, Authentic connections, and Technology use."

Great resource to help plan your lessons for a more digital age

twiducate.com is a free resource for educators. Developed in 2009, our goal is to create a medium for teachers and students to continue their learning outside the classroom. We attempt to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners in a social networking environment. We understand that many social networking sites exist, however the control of content is limited for teachers. Also, many of these social networking sites are continuously being blocked by school firewalls and administrators. Our service proudly differs in that only teachers and students may view classroom posts, thus creating a private network for you and your students and a safer online learning environment.

"Learning new vocabulary can be quite daunting for most students. We just have to look at the literacy rates to see how much children struggle with vocabulary. Rote learning of vocabulary does not really work. Experience has taught me students remember what they use and explore. Students need to have fun, engage with the material, and explore how their new knowledge works. "

Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters! Linked to both national and state mathematics standards, the game gives students a chance to actually think like mathematicians.

There are many ways to motivate students to learn and participate in the classroom leading to increased student success.

Some students seem naturally enthusiastic about learning, but many need-or expect-their instructors to inspire, challenge, and stimulate them: "Effective learning in the classroom depends on the teacher's ability ... to maintain the interest that brought students to the course in the first place"

There's a "disconnect" between school administrators and parents. While more than half of America's school principal's said they think they're "doing a good job" preparing students for the 21st century, only a third of parents of middle school and high school students agreed, according to research released by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard.

Skype is a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus. With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom. Read below to learn how you can take advantage of the power of Skype in your classroom.

Virtual field trips (VFTs) are alternatives to more costly real-world field trips. In addition to being inexpensive, they are engaging to students becasue they enable students to make connections between themselves and the wide-ranging environments they can explore virtually. They also offer authentic, inquiry-based learning experiences to students.

Create polls using the cell phones of the students in the class, or any other device, like ipods and ipads

Free website that allows teachers to award badges to their students for completing tasks. Possibly used to award students for learning material and displaying that they learned it

"Creating cartoons and comic strips for educational uses can be quite interesting task. It obviously pushes the reluctant students to participate more and rub the dust off their brains. Students love to work in groups and compete with each other especially when there are motivating incentives for them. One of these incentives is the integration of comic strips into parts of your lesson."

Teachers never see students' phone numbers. Students never see theirs.

Emaths for Teachers provides free classroom resources for teachers of mathematics, helping you to teach topics clearly and interactively. Emaths for Students contains many useful resources and links to help students who are learning mathematics.

Each activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Choose one of the tools below to begin. Then find and insert primary sources and customize the activity to fit your unique students.

Photo of Billy Collins Welcome to Poetry 180. Poetry can and should be an important part of our daily lives. Poems can inspire and make us think about what it means to be a member of the human race. By just spending a few minutes reading a poem each day, new worlds can be revealed. Poetry 180 is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem on each of the 180 days of the school year. I have selected the poems you will find here with high school students in mind. They are intended to be listened to, and I suggest that all members of the school community be included as readers. A great time for the readings would be following the end of daily announcements over the public address system.

Hotseat, a social networking-powered mobile Web application, creates a collaborative classroom, allowing students to provide near real-time feedback during class and enabling professors to adjust the course content and improve the learning experience. Students can post messages to Hotseat using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or logging in to the Hotseat Web site. via Jim Gates !-)