The invisible key is relevance .......

I'm displaying 15 links below to provide lesson relevance and skill building for K12 teachers...

..... no worries about your political party these days ..... seems everyone has gripes about the Feds "improving education" and what they do ... or don't do ..... been dat way ever since the Dept. of Ed got created.

..... with K12 ed our kids suffer the losses as nothing gets done to produce, enforce, and fund sutainable K12 improvements ..... as more and more double sided rhetoric gets stimulated.

... unfortunately our government - like any large corporation, or even school district, that's outta control - has become bloated with 1) powerful folks voting their own agendas instead of what serves a sensible solution, 2) domineering special interests groups wanting to take control, and 3) disturbing political agenda groups twisting facts and figures....it gonna be a while to see what's capitulated.

No doubt, there is a bumpy road ahead for K12 education while teachers are left to steer the course and dig the trenches. Well, the Los Angeles school district has taken matters - a link to that news is below - into their own hands ....let's see what they're gonna have articulated.

Click here to read the newsletter.

The project learning and service learning RSS feed is updated with new resources;
http://www.educationreporting.com/greenschool.xml

Jack

Teachers: Seven Top Replete Resources & Strategies

Time to begin gearing up for classes and building those dynamo lessons ....

You've had a well deserved summer break, ready to start thinking about lesson ideas and learning strategies for this new year? You don't wanna just use what you did last year or even the year before.

Hey, we would have never stepped foot on the moon, it ain't no hoax, doing the same ole stuff year after year.

Yep, I encouraging you to break outta da box - starting now!

http://www.educationreporting.com/index25k.php#Seven

Jack

Teach using projects or service learning feed: http://www.educationreporting.com/greenschool.xml

Teach with online games feed: http://www.educationreporting.com/Education_Games.xml

A Secret to Building an Improved Learning Environment

Students have stimulation form so many sources .... flashy billboards, television shows that carrying four plus character streams per episode, advertisements blitzing volumes of images in barely seconds, and so forth. They have so many choices, that's why as K-12 educators the key to capturing their attention is by relating the lesson material to their life.

To obtain a free eReport with information about using Project Based and Service Based Learning in K-12 classes click here. Check out this current news and research on meaningful and relevant lesson material ....

Ten NYC schools to pilot Core Knowledge literacy curriculum
The pilot program, which will involve about 1,000 children, represents a shift from the Bloomberg administration’s longstanding approach to teaching children to read, known as “balanced literacy.” Under that approach, children are encouraged to select books that interest them, at their own reading levels, from classroom libraries. The theory behind the approach is that it is more important to ensure that young children are truly engaged by books than to dictate that everyone read the same thing. (NY Times)

Why classic literature fails to resonate with modern teens
Teens raised on video games and YouTube have an increasingly rocky relationship with classical literature, and high school English classes are partially to blame, writes high school English teacher Nancy Schnog. If teachers really want to instill a love of reading, they should assign books that resonate with teens before delving into classic literature, she writes. (Washington Post)

New academy aims to hold adolescent girls' attention
Tatshianna Pires, 9, loves school, and a girls' academy set to open next week wants to keep it that way. With no boys, small classes and extra-long school days, the tuition-free academy aims to keep 60 urban girls in the fifth through eighth grades from dropping out and to help them steer clear of truancy and early incidence of pregnancy. (Boston Globe)

Rich curriculum - got one?

Well, I could explain a rich curriculum, but then you and I'd probably both get bored and miss part of the details. Take seven minutes from a busy day, I promise it'll be fun and worthwhile as you thoughtfully watch this concise and well mastered video clip. Enjoy!