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As the educational community is moving toward implementing the Common Core Standards, I have been publishing tools and strategies to support that effort (see below). Recently, I published the Top 10 Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction and The Top 10 Characteristics of a Literacy-Rich Classroom. Both support the Common Core State Standards since the requirement to use more nonfiction and informational text in our teaching will result in increased demands for effective vocabulary instruction and a literacy-rich classroom to support and enrich student learning.

When Have You Ever Failed at Something? What Happened as a Result? We pose these questions for students to answer as part of thinking about the broad theme of "failure": how it is defined, what it means and what it can lead to.

* Lead High-Level, Text-Based Discussions * Focus on Process, Not Just Content * Create Assignments for Real Audiences and with Real Purpose * Teach Argument, Not Persuasion * Increase Text Complexit

In some colleges professors realize that most students don't really learn well via lectures; they are using strategies involving active learning and problem-solving to ensure that students really learn and understand complex ideas.

This Minnesota high school's planning team started from scratch and created a 21st century facility that turns the traditional classroom model inside out. Instead of waiting for students to come to class, teachers move about the school equipped with their laptops and other teaching tools.

"EL Education has named three key attributes of high-quality work: complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity. The descriptions are intended to provide educators with common vision and terminology as they engage in using student work to improve teaching and learning, be it shorter task work or products that are the result of long-term projects."

"If you are teaching in a Project-Based Learning (PBL) classroom or aspire to bring high quality PBL to your classroom or school, we bring you nine resolutions to follow for creating engaging and effective projects in the new year. Follow these resolutions and you will be on your way to activating students' interests and building a strong culture to support high quality, gold standard PBL in your classroom or school."

Can traditional schools, with a course of study divided into discrete disciplines that rarely overlap, create an environment that is a hotbed for innovative thinking?