30 Days of Web tools: #6: Make Wordclouds using Wordle or Tagxedo

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What are Wordclouds?</span></b><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wordclouds are such fun to use in the classroom, especially when it comes to vocabulary building. Basically, using a wordcloud application one can transfer words into a cloud of interconnected words that can be arranged and used in different ways. Users can change the layout, color scheme, and fonts. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students love working with wordclouds.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Two very popular free wordcloud webtools are Wordle and Tagxeedo, and I am going to explain each below plus give ideas of how to use them in the classroom</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. Wordle</b></span> (<a href="http://wordle.net/">http://wordle.net</a>) <br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wordle is an online tool for creating word clouds from passages of text. The more frequently a word appears in the text, the larger it shows up in the word cloud. It has so many amazing uses which you will enjoy experimenting with.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbV_Hqwa9zR6q6kNjwNI8xnPlKaby49Rejys5kO1iSiX2Mehre4heO1kyVPSFLd_xXSS-3UT7UHcmhGFe6ff8H8TTnftKIXhglguTMYLebLQRfnGUQ9SJ0UqNtoBqa9ty79RYxTpFffY/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJ4I-zLoyqjXsgCTnywJxYnAkKvGeBagq-fqV38TzkLH_x5EZllB0Glpr4NB-_UWqGNcBYQsu8cXpMj2P26mLPobL67QYaYuSb7GJ1pcppHrrSL8w7G_Euu2kpWtkBBmDjC6xlZdBhDw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Taken from Ted Teachers’ network (<a href="http://tedteachersnetwork.pbworks.com/">http://tedteachersnetwork.pbworks.com</a>)</span> </td></tr></tbody></table><b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></b><b arial="arial" background-color:="" font-family:="" font-size:="" helvetica="helvetica" neue="neue" sans-serif="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, <b style=;" white="white" x-large="x-large"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">How to use Wordle step-by-step</span></b><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />This is a great introductory video from Radford Education to show you how to sign up for and use Wordle. </span></div></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1J-s68cO7-A" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">How can Wordle be used in the classroom? </span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are so many ways to use Wordle that several educators have been collecting ideas. I will post two of these collections below. </span><br /><div id="__ss_1512878" style="width: 427px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0px 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW/wordle-ideas" target="_blank" title="Wordle Ideas">Wordle Ideas</a></b> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/1512878" style="border-bottom: #ccc 0px solid; border-left: #ccc 1px solid; border-right: #ccc 1px solid; border-top: #ccc 1px solid;" width="427"></iframe> <br /><div style="padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">View more PowerPoint from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/JenniferW" target="_blank">ProjectsByJen.com</a> </div></div><br /><div id="__ss_7263899" style="width: 427px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0px 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/gholtam/50-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-classroom" target="_blank" title="50 ways to use Wordle in the classroom">50 ways to use Wordle in the classroom</a></b> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/7263899" style="border-bottom: #ccc 0px solid; border-left: #ccc 1px solid; border-right: #ccc 1px solid; border-top: #ccc 1px solid;" width="427"></iframe> <br /><div style="padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">View more PowerPoint from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/gholtam" target="_blank">Gemma Holtam</a> </div></div><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. Tagxeedo</span></b><br /><b><a href="http://www.tagxedo.com/">http://www.tagxedo.com/</a></b><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tagxeedo is an online wordcloud tool that takes things a step further by providing a number of different <i>shapes</i> you can choose from for your words. You can also upload a picture you like and Tagxeedo uses it as an outline. </span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxcVEsA9avLJubeOIxQwh1GLRHO6tD51Hl_tCrhh6x1bpbszXuUJr36Plh6k2LTa9S6ZKZg70Z-DOv3hnDULFgdI3383RkdkBGIIhKv8cgwqpTWHG5hSxAl2AI8h1i5x0gzdU79JLtbkE/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaR024LR_WmurhU9KJHM6WTvxxvYeJ9ZAAuJResNrIaKckf955V_XL1iYG3-QkzF1hw2sk3vqCokeeR0JgF42KWbtMA7zEdKUwxIubuxljvmgM-wh9Rao9VFqUNoZdpqQGHSLFw3TOCY0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="372" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From the Tagxeedo blog (<a href="http://daily.tagxedo.com/">http://daily.tagxedo.com/</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How to use Tagxeedo</span></b><br /><div><div><div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This video gives the basic steps in using Tagxedo. Take a look.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6ZwVoqFP-NE?rel=0" width="420"></iframe> <div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><br /><div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">How can Tagxedo be used in the classroom?</span></b></div></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As with Wordle, there are many ways to use Tagxeedo. Here is a slideshow showing a whole collection of ideas from the Tagxedo blog.</div><br /><div id="__ss_7994718" style="width: 427px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0px 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sandiadams/101-ways-to-use-tagxedo" target="_blank" title="101 Ways to Use Tagxedo">101 Ways to Use Tagxedo</a></b> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/7994718" style="border-bottom: #ccc 0px solid; border-left: #ccc 1px solid; border-right: #ccc 1px solid; border-top: #ccc 1px solid;" width="427"></iframe> <br /><div style="padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">View more PowerPoint from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sandiadams" target="_blank">sandiadams</a> </div></div><br /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>More ways of using wordclouds in the classroom</b></span><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Introduce a topic via vocabulary and use a word cloud to arrange this. You can then get the students to guess the theme, identify unknown words and make sentences with words.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br />2. For pre-reading tasks. You could show students a collection of words from the new text and let them predict what the text is about.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3. Speed sentence writing. Use recent vocabulary for this and let the students write as many sentences as they can using the words in the word cloud. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><br />4. This is a good fun activity. Display a word cloud containing some recently covered vocabulary and tell the students they have x minutes to write as many sentneces as they can using the words on display. This works best in pairs or groups and is a great way to review and recycle language. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;"><br />5</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">. Guess the wordle idea:</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Three times a week <a href="http://guessthewordle.pbworks.com/">Guess the Wordle</a> will post a new Wordle. Then based on the Wordle students can guess what the topic of the Wordle is. Guess the Wordle could be a fun warm-up activity to use with students. <a href="http://projectsbyjen.com/GTW/">http://projectsbyjen.com/GTW/</a></span><span style="background-color: white;"><br />6. Analyse writing: </span><span style="background-color: white;">Students can enter all their text into a wordcloud and see which words come out the largest due to being used frequently. One could analyse text from website articles in the same way.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Further reading</span></b> <br /><b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teacher-boot-camp-wordle-lisa-dabbs">http://www.edutopia.org/blog/new-teacher-boot-camp-wordle-lisa-dabbs</a><br /><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/more-wordle-in-classroom-ideas.html">http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/more-wordle-in-classroom-ideas.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/06/more-wordle-ideas.html">http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/06/more-wordle-ideas.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/guess-wordle-and-summer-vacation.html">http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/guess-wordle-and-summer-vacation.html</a><br /><a href="http://groups.diigo.com/group/wordle">http://groups.diigo.com/group/wordle</a><br /><br /></div>

30 days of web tools Tagxeedo Web tools Wordle 30 Days of Web tools: #6: Make Wordclouds using Wordle or Tagxedo

What are Wordclouds? Wordclouds are such fun to use in the classroom, especially when it comes to vocabulary building. Basically, using a wo...

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Library Associate - New Britain Public Library

<strong>Library Associate - </strong><span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>New Britain Public Library</strong></span>. Part-time position (20 hrs/wk) for Adult Program Coordinator that includes at least one evening per week, as well as alternate Fridays & Saturdays. Responsible for creating, publicizing, implementing, and tracking the results of adult programs and Outreach services to the community under the supervision of the Head of Adult Services. Additional duties include backup on various service points. Interfaces with all other departments to assure good communication and parallel marketing efforts library-wide. $16,681.60. Bachelor’s degree and at least four years of experience in programming and marketing of public library services. Ability to research and analyze data, to perform detailed work, and to plan, organize, and implement both long and short termed projects. Apply in writing to the Library Director, New Britain Public Library Administration, 20 High Street, New Britain, CT 06051. No phone calls please. Candidates can also apply via email at <a href="mailto:prutkowski@nbpl.info">prutkowski@nbpl.info</a>. EOE.

Library Associate - New Britain Public Library

Library Associate - New Britain Public Library . Part-time position (20 hrs/wk) for Adult Program Coordinator that includes at least one e...

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Teaching about the Olympics #london2012

<br /><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I've been putting together notes on Olympics and what is happening with them as well as how to teach them and have compiled a set of resources for you. This will be one of the first "conversational" olympic games, steeped in social media. There will be many great opportunities to talk about Social media in the context of the games. Enjoy and prepare now!</div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wareagleextra.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/London-Olympic-Logo1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.wareagleextra.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/London-Olympic-Logo1.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/TaxonomySearchResults.aspx?area=resources&keywords=persistence" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/TaxonomySearchResults.aspx?area=resources&keywords=persistence">Lesson Plans on Persistence</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">As you talk about the Olympics beware of putting too much emphasis on gifts. Many people are gifted but few are willing to pay the price of persistence and seeking of wise counsel to get where they are. It is a great time to look at habits and examine our own. Are we Olympic in our pursuits of our own dreams or are we happy to sit in our chair eating popcorn complaining about how we never get a lucky break. </div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: </span><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">education</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/persistence" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/persistence" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">persistence</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">teaching</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">olympics</a><br /><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Olympic-themed-activity-handouts-6115082/" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Olympic-themed-activity-handouts-6115082/">Olympic themed activity handouts - Resources - SML</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This is a very popular handout to use with children to talk about the Olympics using history, art, and health areas. Returning to school, this will be a great resource. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-lists/olympic-video-games" href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-lists/olympic-video-games">Olympic Video Games</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Common Sense media rates all of the Olympic Video games that you can purchase for children. Their top rating right now is for mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics which you can get on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Great ratings. Also note that they are now beta testing learning ratings which I think should be on learning but also should rate the analytics that come out of games for parents and educators.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning">game_based_learning</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://hub.olympic.org" href="http://hub.olympic.org/">Olympic Athletes</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The official hub to follow and find Olympic athletes. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/technology/social-media-is-the-message-for-olympics.html?pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/technology/social-media-is-the-message-for-olympics.html?pagewanted=all">Social Media Is the Message for Olympics - NYTimes.com</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Socialympics is what people are calling this summer's olympic games. There is a new Olympic Athlete's hub to help fans find and follow Twitter feeds and facebook pages. the Head of the IOC social media says that "London 2012 will ignite the first conversational Olympic Games." Let me make a point that most US schools will be left out of this conversation and bound to traditional media but that those who can connect at home will have access. Social media is part of how we communicate and does have  a place.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/TaxonomySearchResults.aspx?area=resources&keywords=olympics" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/TaxonomySearchResults.aspx?area=resources&keywords=olympics">Search for olympics teaching resources - Share My Lesson</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Over 150 lessons about the Olympics. This is a great way to welcome the school year in the northern hemisphere as so many will be engrossed in the Olympics. Peruse these lesson plans from venn diagrams comparing the modern olympics to the ancient olympics to conversation questions or history lessons.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/sharemylesson" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/sharemylesson">sharemylesson</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/London-2012-Olympic-and-Paralympic-Values-6086530/" href="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/London-2012-Olympic-and-Paralympic-Values-6086530/">London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Values - Resources - TES</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Lessons teaching about the values of the Olympics and Paralympic games. These are coming up in July/ August. You can use this powerpoint as a starting point.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass">flatclass</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://getset.london2012.com/en/home" href="http://getset.london2012.com/en/home">Home | London 2012 - Get Set</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The official London Olympics education site. You can register and join their blogging network. This is definitely something you may want to do with your students. The London games has a "get set" website which is their official educational platform for the Olympic games. I've just spent a little time looking at what you can do there, but you can register, blog about the games, and connect with others. This is the sort of global event where you can meet other classrooms and interact with others.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass">flatclass</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.tes.co.uk/taxonomySearchResults.aspx?keywords=olympics" href="http://www.tes.co.uk/taxonomySearchResults.aspx?keywords=olympics">Search for olympics teaching resources - TES</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">If you want to teach about the Olympics, the TES forum out of the UK is where the great content is being uploaded daily. There are two activities of note, one is Olympic Games: Now and then and another is about Greek Ideas and what has been passed down. Many interesting lessons by grade level.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans">lessonplans</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/history" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/history">history</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/history_teacher" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/history_teacher">history_teacher</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Medium-Term-Plans-London-Olympics-2012-6206086" href="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Medium-Term-Plans-London-Olympics-2012-6206086">Medium Term Plans - London Olympics 2012 - Resources - TES</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Here is a plan of how this teacher is going to incorporate the Olympics into the lesson plans for this 8 weeks.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans">lessonplans</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/apr/16/london-2012-olympics-teaching-resources?newsfeed=true" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/apr/16/london-2012-olympics-teaching-resources?newsfeed=true">How to teach ... the London 2012 Olympics | Education | The Guardian</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">More ideas for teaching about the Olympics from the Guardian.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans">lessonplans</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/activities" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/activities">activities</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.teachingheart.net/olympics.html" href="http://www.teachingheart.net/olympics.html">Olympics in the Classroom - Printables, Lessons, Ideas, & More</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This website starts with a KWL student chart about the Olympics and has other resources. Although it is a 2006 website, there are a lot of great ideas that you can use for this year.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans">lessonplans</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://twitter.com/#!/london2012" href="http://twitter.com/#!/london2012">London 2012 (london2012) on Twitter</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">London 2012 Twitter account.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/lessonplans">lessonplans</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.london2012.com/homepage-feature" href="http://www.london2012.com/homepage-feature">London 2012</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The London 2012 games are around the corner. They will be July 27- August 12, 2012. Here is the official website. The Paralympic Games will be August 29-Sept 9. They have a Twitter account as well for the games, you could follow it as a class and keep up with it. Since many schools will be returning during the Olympics, there could be a tie in with the start of school.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/Olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/Olympics">Olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6170892" href="http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6170892">London 2012 games resource collection - Resources - TES</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The London 2012 games are upon us! Here is a great set of resources about the Olympics and about the 2012 games to be held in London. These resources out of the UK are going to be some of the best. There are also some posters you can download, print, and use if you want to teach about the ancient games in relation to this year's field day.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/Olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/Olympics">Olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-ps" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Posted from <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com" href="http://www.diigo.com/">Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher">here</a>.</div>

olympics Teaching Teaching about the Olympics #london2012

I've been putting together notes on Olympics and what is happening with them as well as how to teach them and have compiled a set of res...

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Live From Indianapolis V

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Yesterday there was no time or energy to write. Today there is only a little. The pace is intense. Here is what I can still remember:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Committee on Structure unanimously passed the Resolution creating an independent task force to develop a proposal to revamp our governance structures. It includes a special gathering of representative for all dioceses to review and comment on the proposal before it is finalized. That gathering will be 25% young adults. I would prefer to have guaranteed the role of young adults on the task force but the Committee did not include it in the same resolution They did pass another Resolution, over some objection, to make the task force 33% young adults. That might yet happen. But if not, we can still urge the presiding officers to use their discretion to appoint young people to the task force or make some other special provision for young adult input early in the process. I would also have preferred stronger language on prayer, but what matters is how we implement it, not the wording in the resolution. See my previous blog. Some deputies are already on this, planning flash mob prayer events at random times and places here. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">Then, even more surprisingly, the House of Deputies passed the Resolution unanimously. Of course, this does not mean we have changed anything. We have merely opened the door. But that is a big step.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">We also sent on to the House a Resolution abolishing the majority of the Standing Commissions and leaving the presiding officers authority to appoint such task forces as are necessary at the time. I predict this will be considerably more controversial than the big kahuna task force resolution. It gores some people’s oxen now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">The Bishops voted 111-41-3 to authorize a provisional rite for blessing same gender relationships. To call the conversation civil would be a gross understatement. There was no parliamentary game playing. Conservatives who voted no expressed their gratitude to those who supported the resolution for making it as livable for them as possible. Progressives who voted yes did so in a spirit of humility and respect. That Resolution also passed the House of Deputies the following day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">I attended the Integrity Eucharist the night after the Bishops passed the same gender blessings resolution. The Deputies had not acted yet, but the folks at Integrity were already happier than I have ever seen them. But there has been a calm to the happiness around this resolution. It really has not been triumphal. It hasn’t been “we won!” It is more like a peaceful easy healing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">This won’t be headline news but it is going to save jobs and make mission possible in poorer dioceses and parishes. The mandate to buy health insurance from the denominational health plan has bee postponed to Dec. 31, 2015. By then, the pricing structure is supposed to have been adjusted so that the smaller dioceses will not get slammed by high premiums as we do now. To all the folks struggling to meet church budgets out there, this is a godsend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>

Live From Indianapolis V

Yesterday there was no time or energy to write. Today there is only a little. The pace is intense. Here is what I can still remember: The Co...

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My Mega- News Post of #education and #edtech Goodness

<br /><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Sadly, my Diigo post- to blog feed is down and so these GREAT resources didn't post since July 3rd (and I've been blogging every day) so, now, you get a mega-dose of news and information instead of the usually smaller 4-6 items of note a day.  Sorry that this is a tad late. It is important to me to give you  two or three informative posts a day and I've been blogging away like crazy and didn't catch that it didn't come through due to my current book project, </div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Flipped classroom, behavior management, Olympics, some amazing research, cool videos, Tweets of the world visualized. Tons of things for you to peruse and read in one MASSIVE post. ;-) </div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>I hope this will be fixed very soon, I know Diigo is working on it. I love DIigo and it is one of my favorite tools - there is something going on with the new authorization method of Google, but they have assured me they're working on it.</i></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.cybraryman.com/classroom.html" href="http://www.cybraryman.com/classroom.html">Class Room</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Great page on Classroom management and Class Rules from Jerry Blumengarten. If this is an issue for you and you really need a TON of ideas, Jerry is one of the best curators on the web!</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/classroommanagement" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/classroommanagement">classroommanagement</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/rules" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/rules">rules</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/behavior" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/behavior">behavior</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/resourcecalendar.aspx?nt=event&nbday=28&nbmth=7&nbyr=2012" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/resourcecalendar.aspx?nt=event&nbday=28&nbmth=7&nbyr=2012">Parent's Day Activities</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Parents Day is July 28th. Here are 15 ways to incorporate parents into your classroom with some great ideas. You start off the school year trying to establish a positive, encouraging relationship with parents. It is one of the most important things you do. You each have a role with children. Plan NOW how you are going to relate to and encourage parents in your classroom this year - here are some ideas.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting">parenting</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.parentsday.com" href="http://www.parentsday.com/">National Parents' Day</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">National Parents Day is coming up on July 28th. I didn't know about this until I came across all kinds of things for celebrating this day. I saw that this is a US holiday but sometimes celebrated internationally as well. It is  a day set aside to celebrate the role of parents in a child's life. If you don't celebrate it then or aren't in school, you could tie this in with back to school or your back to school letter. Parents are important - it is a great reason to remind parents and encourage them to play an active role in their child's education. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting">parenting</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.mytowntutors.com/2012/07/top-5-twitter-accounts-for-teachers/" href="http://www.mytowntutors.com/2012/07/top-5-twitter-accounts-for-teachers/">Top 5 Twitter Accounts for Teachers | My Town Tutors</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A list of 5 Twitter accounts for teachers. Yes, I'm on the list but there are great twitterers on this page (as well as quite a few left out.) Thanks to mark Malloy for this list and information on each person.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/twitter" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/twitter">twitter</a></div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/mypublicprofile.aspx?uc=1901259" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/mypublicprofile.aspx?uc=1901259">Cool Cat Teacher on Share My Lesson</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I'm testing the share my lesson site, in particular, the friending feature. I've friended some people that I know but was hoping that some of you who are planning to join the site  or are already there would friend me. (If you're doing common core, it is a must join to get free resources and lesson plans aligned to common core.) This is the sister site to the TES site out of the UK that I've been using for some time now and if you have a profile there, just log in with that and accept the terms to move things over. If you uploaded to the TES site, you'll want to move over those resources. Thanks for helping me test it.  Full disclosure, I've been doing work for TES and share my lesson for some time now. As you can tell, I do love what they are doing and their passion to help teachers mobilize and organize their own free content to share with others. the TES site uses the UK system and standards and now they've done the same thing in the US. Thanks for helping me test. (I would also appreciate someone sending me a message to see if that works too and you can message me any feedback and I'll pass it along.)</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/sharemylesson" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/sharemylesson">sharemylesson</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBQ47s1qp1Y" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBQ47s1qp1Y">Classtools.net - YouTube</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Classtools.net is one of my all time favorite graphic organizer/ video game playing site and also creator of the Fantastic Fakebook activity where students can create fake profiles (not really on facebook, they are simulated) on famous figures in history and literature. These are ideal for 1:1 laptop programs but the games are flashbased so if you use on an iPad you'll need to use a Flash browser (I think atomic web browser has flash mode.)</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/graphic_organizers" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/graphic_organizers">graphic_organizers</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning">game_based_learning</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Olympic-themed-activity-handouts-6115082/" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Olympic-themed-activity-handouts-6115082/">Olympic themed activity handouts - Resources - SML</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This is a very popular handout to use with children to talk about the Olympics using history, art, and health areas. Returning to school, this will be a great resource. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-lists/olympic-video-games" href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-lists/olympic-video-games">Olympic Video Games</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Common Sense media rates all of the Olympic Video games that you can purchase for children. Their top rating right now is for mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics which you can get on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Great ratings. Also note that they are now beta testing learning ratings which I think should be on learning but also should rate the analytics that come out of games for parents and educators.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/game_based_learning">game_based_learning</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.commonsensemedia.org" href="http://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Reviews and Ratings for Family Movies, TV Shows, Websites, Video Games, Books and Music</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Kevin Jarrett pointed out to me that Common Sense media now has movie reviews for kids to help you determine what is appropriate for your children. Again, you have to take everything under advisement ad make decisions for yourselves but as long as we go to whatever Hollywood dishes out, they'll keep doing it. (After all, they did research and found that a "G" rating was a "death sentence" for a movie. That is crazy.)</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/movies" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/movies">movies</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/entertainment" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/entertainment">entertainment</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/reviews" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/reviews">reviews</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/internetsafety" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/internetsafety">internetsafety</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting">parenting</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/media" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/media">media</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/children" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/children">children</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.kids-in-mind.com" href="http://www.kids-in-mind.com/">Kids-In-Mind: Movie Ratings That Actually Work</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">My Friend Anne Truger recommended this site as a place to go for movie reviews for kids. You have to be careful not to read too much of it or you'll hit spoilers. I like this - it hits the different areas: sex and nudity, violence and gore, and profanity. I've had a couple of movies that I've felt were over the top on profanity and trash talk lately and am going to be checking out websites like this one from now on. This is one to share with parents.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/parenting">parenting</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/movies" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/movies">movies</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/entertainment" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/entertainment">entertainment</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/reviews" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/reviews">reviews</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://hub.olympic.org" href="http://hub.olympic.org/">Olympic Athletes</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The official hub to follow and find Olympic athletes. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/technology/social-media-is-the-message-for-olympics.html?pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/technology/social-media-is-the-message-for-olympics.html?pagewanted=all">Social Media Is the Message for Olympics - NYTimes.com</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Socialympics is what people are calling this summer's olympic games. There is a new Olympic Athlete's hub to help fans find and follow Twitter feeds and facebook pages. the Head of the IOC social media says that "London 2012 will ignite the first conversational Olympic Games." Let me make a point that most US schools will be left out of this conversation and bound to traditional media but that those who can connect at home will have access. Social media is part of how we communicate and does have  a place.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics">olympics</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="https://www.facebook.com/appcenter/olympicgamescity" href="https://www.facebook.com/appcenter/olympicgamescity">(14) Olympic Games City - App Center</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Facebook has launched an app where you can build the ultimate Olympic games in your city. It is part of Facebook's massive launch that will transform the Olympic games into the largest use of social media for a sporting event that we have likely seen in the history of the games and perhaps the world.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics." href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/olympics.">olympics.</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.reddit.com/r/education/comments/w29cg/new_teacher/" href="http://www.reddit.com/r/education/comments/w29cg/new_teacher/">New teacher : education</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I'm enjoying Reddit but only using the "Alien Blue" app on my ipad. It is a cool source of information and conversation. In this example, a teacher is asking for advice as a beginning science teacher. I hope some of you elementary science teachers will take time to answer. Check out reddit but also check out Alien Blue - it is an example of how an app makes a service so much more.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/science_teacher" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/science_teacher">science_teacher</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/education/no-child-left-behind-whittled-down-under-obama.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2_20120706" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/education/no-child-left-behind-whittled-down-under-obama.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2_20120706">‘No Child Left Behind’ Whittled Down Under Obama - NYTimes.com</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The New York Times wonders if the current behavior by the Obama Administration has effectively nullified No Child Left Behind. Worth a read.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/07/06/36finland.h31.html?tkn=SYWF9lvjO4I5QtrL5Mp4i%2BVZvr0M1TP2ZM3g&cmp=clp-edweek&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EducationWeekWidgetFeed+%28Education+Week%3A+Free+Widget+Feed%29" href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/07/06/36finland.h31.html?tkn=SYWF9lvjO4I5QtrL5Mp4i%2BVZvr0M1TP2ZM3g&cmp=clp-edweek&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EducationWeekWidgetFeed+%28Education+Week%3A+Free+Widget+Feed%29">Education Week: Finland Rethinks Factory-Style School Buildings</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Finland is an innovator in education and now they're doing it again. Schools need a facelift. If you're building a new school - rethink school. I'd look at the designs. Also, Ewan McIntosh wrote a great "7 spaces of schools" that is in the "Choice" chapter for those of you have bought my book Flattening Classroom, Engaging Minds - he talked about this on a boat in South Africa with me 2 years a go and is an expert to follow in the area of school design. "Finnish students consistently have placed among the top countries on the Program for International Student Assessment, which gauges 15-year-old students’ ability to understand and transfer concepts in reading, mathematics, and science. For example, in the most recent mathematics assessment, in 2009, Finnish students scored 54 points higher than their American peers on a scale of zero to 1,000. Pasi Sahlberg, the director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation at Finland’s education ministry, attributes the nation’s academic achievement to a three-fold approach: quality of the academic curriculum, equity in educational access, “and the third one is the environment. How the environment and design of the school is supporting students’ learning. When we combine these three things we can say something about the overall goodness of the school system.”</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/finland" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/finland">finland</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edreform" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edreform">edreform</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/design" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/design">design</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2012/07/06/college-professors-fearful-of-online-education-growth" href="http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2012/07/06/college-professors-fearful-of-online-education-growth">College Professors Fearful of Online Education Growth - US News and World Report</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A new study shows most professors are afraid of elearning and the growth of online courses. I predict that in 4-5 years the same will be true of traditional classroom teachers. The fact is that we all must be innovative and learn to teach in blended and online environments. Change creates victims and victors - with great change comes great opportunity. The one thing I can promise is if you do nothing and ignore it, you'll not be on the winning side. Learn. Connect. The Flat Classroom is a fact and it is here -- we're doing it in k12 and it is about to grow exponentially. After schools flip they're going to flatten. One leads to the other.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/highered" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/highered">highered</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/elearning" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/elearning">elearning</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://21cglobal.blogspot.com/2011/10/flat-world-and-our-place-in-it.html" href="http://21cglobal.blogspot.com/2011/10/flat-world-and-our-place-in-it.html">A Flat World and Our Place In It | 21C Global</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Suzie Nestico (Flat Classroom certified teacher and project manager) aligns her Flat Clasroom and NetGenEd projects with Common Core standards.) Here's how she aligned with common core writing standards. I like how she fully discloses to students what she's doing and why as well as providing links and instructions to the students.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore">commoncore</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing">writing</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ccchat" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ccchat">ccchat</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclassroom" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclassroom">flatclassroom</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclassroomproject" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclassroomproject">flatclassroomproject</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/bestpractices" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/bestpractices">bestpractices</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Google-World-Wonders-50001498/" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/Google-World-Wonders-50001498/">Google World Wonders - Resources - SML</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I uploaded some information, resources and lesson plans relating to the Google World Wonders resource. If you want to see what I upload you can follow me on sharemylesson.com - a great site for free resources for teachers. (They have entered the common core alignments so when resources are uploaded it requires that the resource be aligned with common core standards. If you create free lesson plans and resources or share online and work with educators in the US, you'll want to come and share over here as well. Send me a note about how you're using the site. I love free!  (Note that if you have a lot of resources to share, you may want to talk to them about becoming a content partner.)</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/google" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/google">google</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/08/take-kids-deep-inside-where-deep-web.html" href="http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/08/take-kids-deep-inside-where-deep-web.html">Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Take Kids Deep Inside Where the Deep Web Hides</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Do you understand the Deep web? Here's an article I wrote about the deep web and the importance of helping students dig into the databases that aren't crawled by search engines.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/deepweb" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/deepweb">deepweb</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-ps" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-ps" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-ps" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://zeitz.wikispaces.com/EIT+Wikibook" href="http://zeitz.wikispaces.com/EIT+Wikibook">Dr. Z - EIT Wikibook</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Dr. Leigh Zeitz shared at ISTE 2012 about his use of Distributed learning Communities to facilitate collaborative creation. Here, he talks about his Emerging Instructional Technology wikibook that his students build. This is an excellent framework for writing, collaborating, and working with technology and was presented as an example of writing standard W.x.6 (the x is the grade level).</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing">writing</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore">commoncore</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/technology" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/technology">technology</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="https://sites.google.com/site/robertsonwriting/home" href="https://sites.google.com/site/robertsonwriting/home">Roberts On Writing</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">My friend Jennifer Roberts is a digital lead teacher in San Diego. She copresented with us at ISTE on Common Core in the Cloud and rocked it. Here's the website she built about Writing Response groups and what she does in the classroom. She's very knowledgeable and I love what she's doing with her students.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/engchat" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/engchat">engchat</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing">writing</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore">commoncore</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://ywp.nanowrimo.org" href="http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">national Novel Writing month is in November but this website is so much more. I heard Jennifer Roberts share this with our Panel on Writing with Common Core at ISTE 2012 and this website is a phenomenal way to meet the 3rd standard W.X.3 about Writing narratives. Students collaboratively work together. You can do this any time but November is the big emphasis. I think every school should participate in Nanowrimo -- just love it.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/writing">writing</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/engchat" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/engchat">engchat</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/commoncore">commoncore</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://theconversation.edu.au/digital-dawn-open-online-learning-is-just-beginning-7758" href="http://theconversation.edu.au/digital-dawn-open-online-learning-is-just-beginning-7758">Digital dawn: open online learning is just beginning</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">"Around 7,000 online students recently earned the first certificates awarded by MIT and Harvard through their Edx partnership. That’s more than twice the number of degrees that MIT awarded at this year’s commencement. Another 147,596 observers signed up to marvel at what an MIT course is really like. Substantially greater numbers are expected for the spring course offerings." With a title like this, the blog post is a great overview of the infancy of online learning. Perhaps the information age is giving way to the learning age. Whatever the case, we no longer have silos of learning by location but rather, by connection. High speed Internet and self discipline will give you access to leading edge learning without having to leave an aging parent or move your family. A new age is certainly dawning.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edreform" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edreform">edreform</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/opened" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/opened">opened</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/mooc" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/mooc">mooc</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://gizmodo.com/5923450/where-the-worlds-tweets-come-from-visualized" href="http://gizmodo.com/5923450/where-the-worlds-tweets-come-from-visualized">Where the World's Tweets Come From, Visualized</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Location tagging is providing some great data like this visualization of where the world's tweets come from.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/twitter" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/twitter">twitter</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/socialmedia" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/socialmedia">socialmedia</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/scholastica-and-diy-open-access-journals/41141" href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/scholastica-and-diy-open-access-journals/41141">Scholastica and DIY Open Access Journals - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Researchers and institutions should continue to take note that Open is really the way things are moving. You may want to look at Scholastica. I could see schools creating their own journals. Now that would be fascinating. "With traditional journals suffering from rising costs and increased disinterest in print subscriptions, online open access is looking more appealing than ever. The team behind recently launched Scholastica is offering a new platform for those interested in joining the movement." It makes a great point that an academic paper is a poor discussion forum and gives you other options for creating your own open journal.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/research" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/research">research</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://classroomwindow.com/flipped-classrooms-improved-test-scores-and-teacher-satisfaction/" href="http://classroomwindow.com/flipped-classrooms-improved-test-scores-and-teacher-satisfaction/">Flipped Classrooms: Improved Test Scores and Teacher Satisfaction | ClassroomWindow - Where the best solutions win</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">New infographic surveying almost 500 teachers about flipped learning. 99% of teachers would use it next year. I am doing some work with Classroom Window and I love what they're doing with surveys and making the results meaningful to educators and decision makers.  Of note, 88% of teachers said it improved their job satisfcation and 67% report an improvement of test scores.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass">flipclass</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGAQrEUaeU" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGAQrEUaeU">A Conversation With My 12 Year Old Self: 20th Anniversary Edition - YouTube</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Yesterday Jeremiah uploaded a video "a conversation with my 12 year old self" - it is hilarious and going viral because it has 26,121 likes but it says that it has only 309 views (views can take a while to catch up with the actual views from what I understand.) Intriguing and enjoyable. We could have kids do this sort of thing NOW (I talk about this in the Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds book - the importance of legacy and relating to yourself over time as one of the ways of connecting or flattening.) </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/connection" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/connection">connection</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2012/06/world-wonders-new-flipped-classroom.html" href="http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2012/06/world-wonders-new-flipped-classroom.html">Cool Cat Teacher Blog: World Wonders: A new flipped classroom tool for teachers</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">World wonders is a phenomenal new site for Geography, Literature teachers who use the flipped clas model as it is not just a video but an interactive experience. Here's a blog post I wrote about World wonders and how it works on a computer as well as an iPad with notes and links to lesson plans.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/geography" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/geography">geography</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/geography_teacher" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/geography_teacher">geography_teacher</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass">flipclass</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/20-iPad-Apps-for-Educators-50001270/" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/20-iPad-Apps-for-Educators-50001270/">20 iPad Apps for Educators - Resources - SML</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">A pdf with 20 ipad apps for educators - this may be something you could email to your teachers if they've just gotten ipads to teach them how to open and read a pdf on their ipad. This is really just a powerpoint converted to PDF but it does include links and screenshots.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education." href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education.">education.</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad">ipad</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="https://drive.google.com/start?authuser=0#home" href="https://drive.google.com/start?authuser=0#home">Google Drive</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Information on Google Drive including a video about how the service works. I'm setting it up with my Google Docs and will let you know if it is a viable alternative to dropbox.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/eduapp" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/eduapp">eduapp</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edapp" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edapp">edapp</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.wiziq.com/virtual-classroom/?gid=100039" href="http://www.wiziq.com/virtual-classroom/?gid=100039">The Best Virtual Classroom for Live, Online Teaching - WizIQ</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">WizIQ is a very stable platform. They do advertise on my site, but I've also used them. This is a good alternative to many of the online web based platform. Here's the link to a 30 day trial.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass">flatclass</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/parody-critiques-popular-khan-academy-videos/37543" href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/parody-critiques-popular-khan-academy-videos/37543">Parody Critiques Popular Khan Academy Videos - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">A parody critiquing Khan Academy is making the rounds and more of them are sure to come in since "Mr. Meyer, along with Justin Reich, a blogger for EdWeek, is sponsoring a competition offering $750 in prizes to the best user-submitted videos critiquing Khan Academy lessons." Khan is a start and has a very powerful supporter in the Gates Foundation, but after talking to those using the site for math instruction, I understand that the gamification elements behind working the math problems are what many teachers like. Some students use the videos to find answers and instruction when their teachers don't explain things well. However, I do agree that many of the videos could be improved. Of course, we need better videos to have an alternative because critiques right now are like chosing a set of store bought chocolate chip cookies or nothing. We need more elegant, informative videos for sure, but where to put them and how? Many open education services are providing the videos, but much of Khan's benefits are the searchability and the sheer volume of videos. What do you think?</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/khanacademy" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/khanacademy">khanacademy</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipclass">flipclass</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://duvee.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/why-flip-out/" href="http://duvee.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/why-flip-out/">Why Flip Out? | DuVee</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">I'm enjoying reading how this teacher is flipping his classroom as he answers the question "what happens when kids don't do their -- homework (i.e. watch the videos.)" Very creative answers to this but ones we'll have to discuss.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipcclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipcclass">flipcclass</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flippedclass" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flippedclass">flippedclass</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flippedclassroom" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flippedclassroom">flippedclassroom</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.ocspecialedattorney.com/supreme-court-declines-hear-zero-tolerance-case/" href="http://www.ocspecialedattorney.com/supreme-court-declines-hear-zero-tolerance-case/">Supreme Court declines to hear zero-tolerance case</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Zero tolerance policies give no leeway for wisdom or common sense. This young man was suspended and received criminal charges for shooting spitballs causing him to be unable to go to the Naval Academy. I find this completely ridiculous. I've seen other implementations of zero tolerance (a local kid suspended because he had a steak knife in his car from a barbeque the night before) that totally lack common sense. Educators need the freedom to work with children using discretion. Spitballs shot through a ballpoint pen are not what was intended. We need some common sense and to be able to hire wise administrators to use their judgement. Zero tolerance leave little room for interpretation when things like this happen. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so it is still allowed in the US.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/discipline" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/discipline">discipline</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html">Texas Republican Party Calls For Abstinence Only Sex Ed, Corporal Punishment In Schools</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">The platform adopted by Texas Republicans is drawing criticism as it should from many areas. I remain firmly apolitical on this blog as I've worked in DC for a Senator (Sam Nunn) who voted based on the issue not the political party. I find partisanship as being lived out today harmful for our country but this mention isn't about my own political views. I do not believe that higher order thinking (creating, etc.) is a problem. In fact, in a world where memorization is less important, this view that kids should be memorizing is completely misguided. As a Christian who has read Darwin, Nietzche and Marx, I have always ecouraged my children to make decisions and take positions out of a position of choice and education rather than one of ignorance. I just don't understand why they are taking this position against "higher order thinking." What research are they citing? People can blame teachers all they want but politicians who understand little to nothing about education are making a mess. I hope that Texas republicans will take a stand against this misguided platform - surely they didn't understand what they were voting on. The position causing the most controversy, however, is the statement that they oppose the teaching of "higher order thinking skills" -- a curriculum which strives to encourage critical thinking -- arguing that it might challenge "student's fixed beliefs" and undermine "parental authority."</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/teacher-s-wages-garnished-as-u-s-goes-after-loan-default.html" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/teacher-s-wages-garnished-as-u-s-goes-after-loan-default.html">Teacher’s Wages Garnished as U.S. Goes After Loan Default - Bloomberg</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">With the US government owed over $1 trillion in student loans, more stories of aggressive debt collection are coming out like this one. A teacher defaulted on a $3100 loan and had $2496 taken from her bank account without her approval. Interesting story from bloomberg.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/student" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/student">student</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/loan" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/loan">loan</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/highered" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/highered">highered</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eq130/i_am_a_student_at_a_high_school_where_every/" href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eq130/i_am_a_student_at_a_high_school_where_every/">I am a student at a high school where every student receives an iPad. : IAmA</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">1:1 ipad implementations- this is your nightmare. This comment from a student is going viral on reddit with more than 1,000 comments. Basically, the school bought ipads, required students to pay $50 for insurance, set up a wiki for teachers to post assignments (but the teachers don't.) The student actually posted this post from his/her ipad. Likely this experience on Reddit is going to be one of the best learning experiences of the year. Read this and share it with your 1:1 implementation team. iPads without a fundamental change in how you teach are just expensive toys. We need to change all of how school operates, not just what is in the kids' backpacks.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad">ipad</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipadchat" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipadchat">ipadchat</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.aliquippa.k12.pa.us/domain/292" href="http://www.aliquippa.k12.pa.us/domain/292">Formative Assessment Strategies / Overview</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">A list of formative assessment strategies and definitions found via @marzanoresearch on Twitter. A good quick review.</div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/assessment" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/assessment">assessment</a></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><br /></div><div class="diigo-link" style="background-color: white;"><a _fcksavedurl="http://www.sharemylesson.com/article.aspx?storyCode=50000147" href="http://www.sharemylesson.com/article.aspx?storyCode=50000147">SML Newsletters - HTML Content - SML</a></div><div class="diigo-description" style="background-color: white;">Sign up for share my lesson newsletters to have free lesson plans that have been uploaded (and aligned to US standards) delivered to your inbox. </div><div class="diigo-tags" style="background-color: white;">tags: <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a></div><div class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com" href="http://www.diigo.com/">Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a _fcksavedurl="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher" href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher">here</a>.</div><br />

news My Mega- News Post of #education and #edtech Goodness

Sadly, my Diigo post- to blog feed is down and so these GREAT resources didn't post since July 3rd (and I've been blogging every day...

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