What is your philosophy of education? This was the question that the professor asked us in my second year of my teacher education undergraduate program. Philosophy of education? I had no idea. In fact it wasn’t until very recently that my philosophy was anything but an inchoate slush of ideas, inclinations, and questions. Though I know that my philosophy will grow and change, almost 20 years after that question was asked, I think I have an answer. Okay, I know. I’m a little on the slow side.

I have taught grades 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and remedial classes in high school. I have worked as a mentor, a cooperating teacher, a professional development coordinator, a reading specialist, and a librarian. I have loved students in tiny Eskimo villages on the Bering Sea Coast, in inner-city Las Vegas, and in rural Wisconsin. I have sat on every possible type of committee and attended more meetings than anyone should ever have to attend. I earned National Board Certification, published in journals, and presented at conferences. Most importantly each year I have loved my profession more deeply and each year has been seminal in my growth as an educator and as an educational philosopher.

Today my philosophy boils down to a list of five things I know to be true about teaching and learning. In my experience these are among the most important truths for successful educators. If I had to distill them into a few sentences it would read something like this:  Students will learn if they work, they will only learn if they work, and they want to work.  A teacher’s job is to lend students their expertise and allow them to get busy.

Without further delay, I am happy to share my list of the 5 things I finally understand about teaching and learning. For each I will give a brief overview and link to resources when possible. All of the resources are quick and easy-to-read. Teachers are busy. I respect this.

1. The brain can be exercised and grown! EVERY single student can grow, learn, and achieve at high levels.

All children want to learn and all crave challenge. This comes from the research of the brilliant psychologist Carol Dweck. Dweck teaches us that our brains are malleable and that humans can actually get smarter. She also reminds us that failure is a part of learning and should be celebrated as part of the process.

• Carol Dweck’s Mindset site
• Carol Dweck Video on Mindset (MUST watch!)
• In Praise of Failure
• You Can Grow Your Brain
• The Perils and Promise of Praise

2. Motivation is key, but the way we think of motivation must change.

Motivation comes from success. Motivation comes from feeling good about your work. Motivation comes from “seeing” growth with hard data. Motivation is not something we give to students is something we teach to students. Daniel Pink and John Hattie have done outstanding work in this area.

• Daniel Pink’s Site
• RSA Animate Video on Drive by Daniel Pink (MUST watch video!!!)
• Profession John Hattie’s Site
• Slide Share Presentation on Visible Learning

3. Classroom management is absolutely foundational to teaching and learning.

Excellent teachers know how to run a classroom, how to manage children, how to differentiate instructional experiences, and how to proactively ward off poor choices. Differentiated instruction is a big part of classroom management.

• Cooperative Discipline by Linda Albert, the best book ever about classroom management.
• Carol Tomlinson’s Site Tomlinson is a professional leader in differentiated instruction:

4. The answers are out there.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Years and years of research by our professional leaders have given us some solid answers about what works. We must let go of our egos and allow ourselves to be open to the possibility that someone else might have better answers. Teachers are trained in colleges that mostly subscribe to a problem-solving approach. The thing is, you’re not in college anymore, you’re in a profession and professions are defined by shared knowledge and resources. Thinking as a professional means using the body of knowledge that is out there. Of course, each of us has something to add to the body of knowledge but we don’t have to and shouldn’t treat all of education as a do-it-yourself endeavor.

• Common Core Standards
• What Works Clearinghouse
• Florida Center for Reading Research
• Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analysis Relating to Achievement by John Hattie
• Robert Marzano’s Site (Marzano has been synthesizing research about what works in education for over a decade.)

5. The best teachers are coaches not facilitators or bosses.

Okay, despite what I said in number 4, this comes mostly from my own head but also seems to be emerging and converging from a variety of sources as we move from the teacher as facilitator model. But, if you’ve ever watched a coach work with her/his team. You know I’m right. Coaching can be defined as the art and science of helping someone achieve their goals through explicit teaching, modeling, hand-on guided practice, and lots of independent practice. That just oozes good teaching.

• Effective Coaching Site: 
• Student as Worker, Teacher as Coach, Coalition of Essential Schools: 

That’s it. A full 20 years after I was asked about my philosophy of education I finally know the answer. Too bad the brilliant old professor who asked this of my cohort of novice educators isn’t around to hear it. His only possible response would have been, “Duh. What took you so long?”

Before I close this essay I’ve got to talk about Finland. Finland public education has gotten a lot of press recently for the amazing international test scores they’ve been posting. Last week the Finns shared what they consider the reasons for their great success. In a nutshell they cited the following as foundational: universal social services (health care, extended maternity/paternity leave, free quality education), allowing students to grow in developmentally appropriate ways (kids learn when they’re ready not when a grade or age says they should be ready), and treating teachers as professionals (paying them well, respecting them, and offering them generous planning time.)

These are not things America is yet prepared to consider, much less do. While the philosophy I’ve outlined above still holds true, I believe that no systemic change can happen for our public schools until we start taking lessons from Finland.

That may sound negative, but it’s not! Think about understanding number 1 and 5. Idea number 1: Americans can grow their brains!  We will come to realize that fair is fair and equal is equal and we must do right by our most precious American resource, our students. Idea number 5: The answers are out there all we have to do is implement them! Finland found some answers and they’re willing to share.

Now, the question is, what is your philosophy of education?

For more information about the Finnish school system, link to the articles below.

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/finland-schools-success-equality-collaboration_n_1219780.html
• http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

Rita Platt is a Nationally Board Certified teacher. Her experience includes teaching learners of all levels from kindergarten to graduate students. She currently is a Library Media Specialist for the St. Croix Falls SD in Wisconsin, teaches graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and consults with local school districts. 

Related posts:

1. Motivation and learning: practical teaching tips for block schedules, brain-based learning, multiple intelligences, improved student motivation, increased achievement.
2. Best practice: new standards for teaching and learning in America’s schools.
3. Inspiring active learning: a handbook for teachers. Harmin, M.

The resource room was a rare oasis of calm.

One boy, typically surly and irritable, sprawled in a papasan chair, reading.

Actually reading.

At a round school table, another usually unsettled young man with flashing, intelligent eyes, busily worked through late assignments. The assignment he’d ripped up and refused to finish earlier in the day. Today’s math worksheet, efficiently completed and stowed away in his folder. The vocabulary activity from reading class, done ahead of time, with quality, gladly, inexplicably.

“Let me see your work,” my standard educator’s line, seeking proof and accountability.
His sprite 6th grade frame bopped to my desk and presented a notebook page of amazingly illustrated multi-syllable words.

“This is beautiful.” I don’t remember connecting with his dark eyes. I thought I felt
satisfaction. He wasn’t one to gush over. “You certainly deserve some free time.”

These boys are icebergs, a bit of visible surface, a mysterious terrain underneath. They end up on my caseload, their behavior so atypical from their peers or so problematic in their families or in the community, that special education is deemed necessary. Sometimes they have diagnoses, but in general, they have emotional/behavioral disorders. They are bullies, outcasts, difficult, obstinate, misunderstood, unlovable and in spite of all that, lovable.

I suppose it’s my job is to fix them, but mostly I try to understand them, assure them.
You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.

The bell rang and we were done for the day. A teacher like me plans in baby steps, always
on the look out for progress in the smallest of increments. Today’s good work was hope.
Tomorrow, we’d keep on.

The phone call came not even an hour later reporting one self-inflicted gun-shot, an apparent suicide completed, an incomprehensible fatal final answer. The echo is obtuse, numbing. Still.

That day, he had stuffed his backpack full of books and coats leftover from warm fall
afternoons. Had he really finished all he had to do? Designed a peaceful last hour? Just eleven years. Was this last day all he could endure, all we’d have of him? This day? The last day that anyone would have of him?

This is messed up, the police chief mourned. It’s not right. What could have gone so incredibly wrong?

For us, an answer is inconceivable. As the pastor acknowledged at the funeral–there are no words.

Yet, the rebuttals. Whispers among neighbors. Suggestions, strident, self-assured. Broadcast digital postings and generalized advice in newsprint blurbs. We question: what can we do to fix suicide?

In order to make some sense of the unknowable, the unimaginable, people seek to understand.
To point a finger in a seemingly obvious direction.
To push back on the towering wall of statistics and make them change.
To snap a finger and declare the problem of depressed, traumatized youngsters, of unrest and hurt, the problem of mental illness conquered because someone spoke of it.

If we’d pay more attention to the signs. Weren’t there obvious signs?
If we’d all been properly educated. Where were all the counselors and psychologists?
If we’d not tolerate bullies. Most likely, he felt threatened.

If we’d conduct careful screenings. We’d have documented the signs.
If we’d pay attention to the signs. We could have countered the problem.

If we’d allowed him the comfort of a privilege, maybe even when he hadn’t deserved it.
If we would have talked more and taught more and cared more.
If we’d been kinder, more understanding.
If we would have handled the situation more wisely.
If we wouldn’t have left him alone.
If we would have some answers.

If is a helpless word.

I am the teacher and I don’t know the answers. None that I know for certain.

But I’ve felt grief before and on this shaky platform, all I know is that I’ll wake up each day.  I’ll remember. I’ll watch. I’ll encourage and I’ll insist we keep on hopefully, stubbornly.  For the other boy, reading in the chair.

Amy Klein is the mother of four kids, all teens or tweens. She is a special education teacher at Osceola Middle School where she works with many more teens and tweens.

This piece emerged from an unexpected tragedy.  As one teacher I know expressed, “The suicidal death of a student affects you.  It does.”  Accepting the reality, telling his fellow classmates, wondering futilely why, feeling anger at outsider’s criticism, deep sadness at the loss for his parents and friends, for all of us at school… left me in a half-baked grief.  Nothing in my personal life had changed, but my head felt so disorderly, like my thoughts had been tossed in the air and left to fall any which way.  I have been affected by this experience and writing about it has helped me figure out how. 

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Good writing is good thinking.

Well written is well thought out–which is to say that it’s well planned, well organized, speaks to an audience, has a clear and unique voice and just the right words strung together in just the right way to have just the desired effect.

One of the challenges in teaching writing is helping students to internalize what all that actually looks like.  Change one variable–your audience, your purpose, the topic, even the media–and your target shifts.  Writing is a complex task requiring the management of multiple variables, strategies, and processes.

A blank page means anything is possible.  As writing teachers, we need to narrow that down a bit–quite a bit.

Teaching Writing on the Ground

The bottom line, of course, is that we want our students to become better writers.  As we get closer to the actual meat and potatoes of the process (instruction and assessment), the choices we need to make, though many, become clearer:

• What type of writing are we going to focus on (this time)?
• What media will we be using?
• Who is our intended audience?
• What is the prompt?
• Is this something that involves research?
• What are the elements we want to see in the piece?
• How often will students “produce.”
• How will I provide timely and meaningful feedback?

These are just a sampling of the “instructional design” choices a teacher has to make.  And they’re vitally important, because you always want to get the most bang for your buck.  You always want to design the most effective instructional plan.  And then, when it’s all said and done, somehow, you always want to cement new learning with some type of reinforcement–so that it sticks.

That’s what I want to show you today: a way to pour cement so that we might firm up the foundation of new learning you’ve established in your instruction.

Relevance: The Rubber on the Road

At this stage in my development, I’d have to argue that good writing instruction includes what I’ll call a range of relevance.  What I mean is, from a student’s perspective, some assignments (read practice) are more real and some less real.  In other words, we aren’t publishing everything.  We aren’t actually sending every letter, or submitting every opinion piece to our local paper–nor do we want too.

To write and share our ideas with a real audience, for a real purpose, is what we’re working toward. It’s the game day for which we’ve been preparing.

So, what that means is: We Need Game Days!

And I would argue that, once we’ve reached a certain level of writing–we need them as often as we can get them.  There is a reason writing is such a valuable skill.  And it’s not to impress a teacher.

So how do we do that?  How do we consistently create unique, meaningful, relevant writing opportunities for individual students–without completely losing our minds?  Because, let’s be honest–this can be a lot of work.

I would argue. . . let them argue.  I’ve written about this before.

Most often, the most relevant writing tasks are not graded assignments, but opportunities that spontaneously present themselves–you just need to be able to recognize them.  How?  Here’s a tip: They almost always center around something a student wants (or does not want).

Like:

• A detention
• A field trip
• A grade
• A due date (for an assignment)
• An assignment
• A point or points on a particular test, quiz, project, or assignment
• The ability to choose (a partner, an assignment, a due date, some element of a project)
• The right/privilege to eat or drink or chew gum in class
• The right/privilege to listen to music
• To go outside
• The list goes on and on!

The key here is that students MUST have the ability to actually create change with their writing. I strongly caution teachers against merely pretending that students have some control.  This is not a semi-relevant prompt in which only the problem is real.  

Do that–only go half way–and we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.  Part of the opportunity here is to show students the very real power of quality writing.  And therein lies the second key. The student must produce quality writing in whatever form and at whatever level of expectation you’ve already established.

As writing teachers, we know we have a problem when it comes to skill transfer.  Students will write well in a Language Arts, English, or Writing class–but ask them to produce a quality lab summary for Science and it all falls apart.

The piece itself–or I should say, the reason for the piece–may have nothing to do with your class.  In short, we are demanding transfer of skills.  But, again, in order to pull this off, quality must be king.

I’ll close here with an example.

At the beginning of the year, we supply each of our Middle School students with a planner. Recently, a girl in my class came to me with a request.  She’d lost her planner, and she knew I had a spare.

Initially, her approach was to make a verbal plea.  Bingo. This was my chance to create an opportunity for her to reinforce what she’d already learned about persuasive writing.

I told her that I would consider giving her my extra planner if she was able to produce a persuasive essay convincing me to to do so.

Below, is her actual handwritten essay (and below that, because it might be hard to read, I’ve supplied a typed version).

Please keep in mind that I offer this up, not so much as an example of quality (there’s plenty of room for improvement here as you will see), but as just one example of an almost limitless number of simple, yet very relevant opportunities to reinforce the elements of quality writing that you’ve established in your instruction.

I think it’s a great supplement to an already rigorous instructional plan.  And on top of that, it’s always fun to read what students will create when it really counts.

 I pledge, yup that’s right, pledge to be a more organized student.  For years I have been a disorganized student and the messiness has to stop.  I can’t stress this enough.  I can’t be a well organized student without a well organized assignment notebook.  And that is why I strongly believe that I should have the nice new neat assignment notebook kept in your planning page box.

Let’s think about this.  As a teacher, you encourage kids to improve in there weak spots, like reading and writing , and you try to help them in whatever way you can.  So if you think about it, you would be helping me in my weak spot by letting me start over in a nice new assignment notebook.  You know, you would really be helping me succeed.

In my own defense, I have to say that you’re not actually using the assignment notebook.  You did say so yourself.  So by giving me the assignment notebook, you would be saving paper and giving it to a good cause.  ME!  You could be a really eco friendly man.

And last but not least, I am going to say that this is no joke.  I’m not going to rip it or write dumb stuff on it, like my last one.  I promise.  And trust me, Mr. Wondra, I never break my promises.  I also promise not to lose it or let anyone draw on it.  I will guard it with my life.

Mr. Wondra, giving me that assignment notebook would give me a chance to be more organized, which not only is extra stress off my back, but also it will help with my grades and so much more.  You will see improvement in my organization right before your eyes if you just let me have your assignment notebook.

Related posts:

1. Mining the internet: a space for “writing without writing.”
2. Research on writing conventions: U R what U write.
3. Using toilet humor to teach writing

It’s a good example of why details are important when writing persuasively.

The actual complaint form, and a copy of the resulting check is below.

Click this link to see the complaint form: Menards Toilet Complaint Form

Related posts:

1. Encouraging Persuasive Writing
2. Mining the internet: a space for “writing without writing.”
3. Research on writing conventions: U R what U write.

“Good is great’s worst enemy.”

This was a statement that really grabbed my attention at a Professional Learning Community, or PLC, conference that I recently attended.  There are many “good” schools, but to make them great, we can’t be afraid to take some risks and try new things.

Eric Twadell, the facilitator of my conference, started as a teacher, but has worked his way to superintendent of the Adlai Stevenson School District, the school that began the PLC movement.  The school started out really weak, with poor test scores, so they knew they had to try something new.  By working together, taking risks, and learning from their mistakes, the school created a PLC, and saw incredible improvement–but what’s most important, is that that incredible improvement has lasted for over a decade.

I’ve been teaching for three years at St. Croix Falls Middle School, but have recently had to relocate to Stanley-Boyd, where they feel that they’re a good school, but are ready to make the push to be great.  They’ve got a lot of big ideas, with the PLC being the most prominent. So, as a new teacher, I was recently able to attend a PLC conference facilitated by Eric Twaddle to learn about some of the expectations of my new school.

The conference lasted two days, and I learned many facets of PLCs. However, the “Biggest Big Idea” that was given was,

“The guiding principle of a PLC is that the purpose of the school is to ensure high levels of learning for all students.”

To do this, the school’s attention and energy needs to focus on student learning.  Not on what we’re teaching, but what the students are truly learning.  The question that needs to be asked when making decisions is, “What is the impact on learning?”  How are the students benefiting from the changes, or from what is happening in the classroom?  These are big questions, and things that should really be discussed and worked on as a group. Once you have that group established, there are many different strategies or techniques that can be used to help have a positive answer to those questions.

Stop Doing Lists

One idea introduced at the conference was the “Stop Doing List.”  While all schools spend time discussing goals at the beginning of the year, Eric Twadell explained that time spent on strategic planning or goal-setting is actually negatively correlated to student achievement.  In other words, wasting time talking about the same goals of making students learn more takes away from time that could be spent on more specific and beneficial ideas.

Because of this, Twadell spoke about the “stop doing list,” and how companies that create these lists are 90 times more likely to succeed.  Instead of thinking about the things we want to accomplish, it’s important to take time to think about the things that are currently happening that are taking away from our students’ education.  For example, students that miss a test day are usually sent out in the hall the next day to take the test.  However, when a student is removed from the class to take a test, that student is losing the learning time that the other students are receiving.  Another example was interruptions via loud speakers.  By interrupting a class to send a student to the office, all students are distracted.  It takes 10-year-olds 10 minutes to get back on-task when their learning is interrupted.  Placing these sorts of things on the “stop doing” list, helps teachers keep students in the classroom, and focused on learning.

Descriptive Review

Clearly, it’s important to do more than just “stop doing” things – we obviously need to start doing things in order to help our students!  One initiative that Stanley-Boyd is planning on during PLC time is Descriptive Review, which is basically a way of “fine-tuning” a lesson.

The purpose of this activity is not to critique the teacher, but to think about someone’s lesson, and develop ideas about how to make the lesson better.  This is a positive activity, not just because the tunee will get new ideas for the lesson, but also for the tuners, who were able to have strong dialogue on different techniques, tools, and ideas that could be used in anyone’s curriculum.

Collaboration

The key to all of the parts of successful PLCs is not just cooperation, not just coordination, but collaboration.  While many schools talk about collaborating, few truly collaborate by definition.  Most schools cooperate.  People simply work together and get along.  Many schools and teachers participate in coordination, where there’s a common goal, but everyone works on their own task to achieve the goal.  With collaboration, however, everyone works together – each person may start with a different task, but the information is shared; people review each other’s lessons, observe what’s happening, and communicate freely throughout the process.  There is trust that all people will do their part and help where necessary.  When a team is able to collaborate, teaching can make it to the next level; when we learn from each other, we can truly grow as teachers.

I truly hope collaboration happens, but I think it can be difficult, and can take a long period of time.  Regardless of the school, when you think about the typical group of teachers, it often consists of young, new teachers, and older, more experienced teachers.  There are those that try new things all of the time, and those that stick with what’s worked for years and years.  There are those that want to work as a group, and those that are fine staying in their classroom doing what they think is best.

I feel I’m one of the more open, willing-to-try-new-things kind of teachers, but I also feel that it’s hard to truly collaborate with those that prefer to do things as they’ve always done.  Some people aren’t as open to trusting those people that they don’t know well, or that seem so different from themselves.  I’m very hopeful that collaboration is an easy process for those teachers that I’m working with, and again, since I haven’t yet been there, I don’t know how this process will work.  I will do all that I can to collaborate, by sharing, working hard, and taking on my share of the work.

After attending the conference, I’m confident that PLCs do truly enhance the education of students.  We always encourage teamwork at the student level because we know it benefits students.  It’s about time we encourage teamwork at the teacher level, because it will benefit both the teachers and the students.  I can see that it’s a lot of change, but I think it’s change that needs to happen, and I’m hopeful that more teachers start to realize we need to become more student-focused and collaboration-focused.  We can become great, and we can get all students to learn at a high level!

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Related posts:

1. Boredom and its opposite. Strong, R., Silver, H., Perini, M. & Tuculescu, G
2. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 1

Before I was introduced to wikis in April 2008, I never would have envisioned how much my teaching could use these new technologies.  More importantly, my students could not be more ready to take their education to a new level that I sincerely hope will better connect them to the world and prepare them to participate in a digital world.  The time is now, and while students have been hungry for this opportunity, the reinforcing research is thorough enough to justify using wikis,blogs, podcasts, Flickr, Moodle, and online writing technologies that I feel can significantly improve students’ writing, and perhaps more importantly, prepare them for digital citizenship.

This article is the 2nd in a series, based on action research I collected while studying for my M.Ed, explores the impact digital technology can have on how our students learn, and how we, as educators, can leverage that impact for the good of our students.

You can also read the rest of the series here at We Teach We Learn

1. Web 2.0: Pedagogical Evidence and Brain Research

3. Web 2.0 Technologies and Online Writing Tools (coming soon)

4. Online Security and Safety (coming soon)

Online literacy and new literacy

Another important line of literature focused on the importance of students both being exposed to concepts in and employing online literacy.  In their article, “Information Literacy 2.0:  Empowering Students Through Personal Engagement,” Brown and Bussert, who used the Web 2.0 technology Flickr in a learning community in Cairo, Egypt, point out that

“[c]ommon Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking tools are ‘intrinsically user-centered and can be leveraged by Information Literacy (IL) instructors for a creative, student-centered teaching and learning environment” (Brown, Bussert, 2007).

And while some resources argued that simply exposing students to these technologies does not improve their online literacy, this article opposes that position, stating that the

“. . .fundamental hypothesis underlying the use of social software to teach key information literacy concepts is that student learning will increase due to personal engagement, use of preferred learning styles, and application to daily life” (Brown, Bussert, 2007).

These resources go on to detail ways in which exposure is important, and also how they can more specifically be applied as powerful classroom tools.  But in this set, understanding how to use them is part of the education, according to authors like Luce-Kapler, who cites visual literacy using these mediums as yet another layer of important learning students get while utilizing new technologies.

Calling these new literacies “radical change,” which is also a portion of the author’s title, Luce-Kapler highlights three main forms of new literacies:

“(1) changing forms and formats such as new forms of graphics, new levels of synergy between text and pictures, nonlinear and nonsequential organizations and formats, and multiple layers of meaning and interactive formats;

(2) changing perspectives such as multiple points of view both visual and verbal and previously unheard voices, including youth; and

(3) changing boundaries such as dealing with previously forbidden or overlooked subjects and settings, new types of communities, characters portrayed in new and complex ways, and unresolved endings” (Luce-Kapler, 2007,  p. 215).

And although Jakes doesn’t come right out and say it, his assertion that using wikis and Web 2.0 writing technologies also “promote[s] a lifetime of participation and contribution,” leading to what some writers described as digital citizenship.  Students will be sharing ideas, debating, agreeing, asking questions, and leading discussions using these technologies, and through such collaborative efforts, they will also be challenging their own thinking while challenging the thinking of their peers as well.

Finally, it is one thing for students to know how to participate in social networking Web 2.0 technologies, and many are doing so rather comfortably, but do they really understand what they are doing?  Do they understand the potential that exists beyond the social web as they move toward this “digital citizenship” that undoubtedly stands before them?

J. Salpeter’s article “Make Students Info Literate” focuses on what the author calls education’s most clear goal for the next century:  “[H]ow to develop a new generation of knowledgeable digital citizens who can operate in the unregulated online world” (Salpeter, 2008, p. 25).  She also makes emphatic mention of the NTCE’s adoption of new literacy goals and correlating definitions – an obvious eye-opener to any educators (especially English instructors) who are failing to pay attention.  The authors I read seemed to predict the NCTE’s move, as Brown and Bussert already understood through their Flickr implementation back in 2004-05, defining information literacy as “the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information” (Brown, Bussert, 2007).

Jakes’s most profound statement in his article, “New Literacies:  Enrichment or Essential?” supports these claims, stating, “Our kids need to use the Web for learning in many ways, but we have to structure online learning so that it is true inquiry, supported by the requisite information literacy skills, so that students, when in need, have internalized a problem-solving approach to build answers to questions of importance.”  In K. Bolan, M. Canada, and R. Cullin’s article “Web, Library, and Teen Services 2.0,” the authors go so far as to argue that

“[g]aming is one of the newer services that libraries are implementing that embraces library 2.0 beliefs.  Contrary to what some may think, gaming is recognized as a literacy activity” (Bolan, Canada, Cullin, 2007, p. 42).

At this point, I can quickly see how information and online literacy is of great importance, and the NCTE obviously will be pushing all of us forward.  For me, when I have historically looked at Wisconsin and national standards, the technology pieces are often those that are given the least attention, mostly because I know that although important, they will not be addressed on the test.  But that is my motivation – not to teach to a test, but to prepare these students for digital citizenship.

One might argue that by not preparing them as such, they will be ill-equipped to fully function and contribute within our democracy, and further, with our international neighbors.  By employing Web 2.0 technologies, I will already be assisting them in becoming more digitally literate – helping them to decipher quality resources from those that are potentially fraudulent.  This always mattered to me, but now I will implement that concern by embedding that in my teaching.

In addition, as an English teacher who teaches a research paper and incorporates literary research with analysis papers, there are a number of opportunities for me to teach to these new literacies, and not to simply meet the “F” criteria in the Wisconsin State Standards.  As for environmental aspects, I suspect that with these technologies will come new responsibilities for students as they are not working in their own corner of the room any longer; because a number of their contributions will be accessible to all students in my classes, they may feel more inclined to take care with the work they do, and more naturally become more conscious of the quality and compassion behind what they contribute.  Jakes continually asked his title question:  “Enrichment or Essential?” (Jakes, 2006).  It will become my job to make online literacy essential, not simply an exercise in enrichment for my classes.

Home page image credit

Bolan, K., M. Canada, and R. Cullin (2007). Web, library, and teen services 2.0 Young adult library services, 5 (2), 40-43

Brown, N.E. and K Bussert. (2007). Information literacy 2.0: empowering students through personal engagement. Eric Document Reproduction Service : ED 500-136

Jakes, D. (2006). New literacies: enrichment or essential? Paper presented at TechForum in San Diego, California

Luce-Kapler, R. (2007). Radical Change and Wikis: Teaching New Literacies Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51 (3), 214-223 DOI: 10.1598/JAAL.51.3.2

Salpeter, J. (2008). Make students info literate. Technology & Learning, 25-28

Related posts:

1. Web 2.0 technologies and online writing tools
2. Wikis and literacy development.
3. Brown, N.E. and K. Bussert. Information literacy 2.0: empowering students through personal engagement.

Wait a minute.  Okay.  I have to be honest totally with you here.  As you read through the following links, I truly hope you find value.  65 submissions came in this month.  As you can see 14 made the cut.  And I probably could have easily shaved another 9 off, because–really, those last nine aren’t even teachers–I don’t think.  Heck I don’t even know if they’re real people.

Blog Carnivals, I’m learning, are not immune to spam.

I was literally bombarded this month with list-post spam.  But as you can see, I let a number through the filter because I thought that a good teacher–with a little imagination–just might find some of that information useful. I did.

And now, before I get out of the way so you can click around, I’m going to make a shameless plea: If you are a real person . . .better yet, if you are a real teacher (or know one), gosh I’d be honored if you’d consider sharing some of the cool stuff that you do.  Please consider submitting to next month’s Edge of Education Carnival.

Oh, and if you are one of the six or so real people that did submit this month.  THANK YOU!!  So without further ado–enjoy.

Shelly Terrell presents Most Teachers Don’t Live There | Teacher Reboot Camp posted at Teacher Boot Camp.

Hadley Ferguson presents “Write a Comment” Challenge posted at Middle School Matrix.

Rachel Lynette presents 8 Ways Not to Say No posted at Minds in Bloom, saying, “I was going to choose a different post, but this one is getting some positive feedback so I thought I would submit it instead.”

Quirky Momma presents Ways for your Preschooler to Practice Penmanship (part 1) posted at quirkymomma.com, saying, “We use these DIY tactile “projects” (sticky sticks, gel packs, and mini-whiteboards) to help with letter recognition and early penmanship.”

Kaitlyn cole presents 50 Amazing Videos Every Educator Should Watch posted at Online Colleges.org.

Case Ernsting presents Teaching Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom posted at MetaSpring Blog, saying, “College classrooms have been the traditional home of career prep courses. But they have become sluggish in their move to embrace technology and Web 2.0. Preparing students for their future is usually a number priority, but academia is lacking in this regard.”

Herbert Anderson presents 25 Tips for Students & Teachers Using Google Wave posted at Top Online University Reviews.

Tabitha Mcivers presents 50 Essential Web Tools to Search and Bookmark Open Courseware posted at Best Online Masters Degrees.

Mrs laughton presents 50 Free Web Apps to Make Beautiful Graphs posted at Construction management degree.

Redfire Atkinson presents 5 Free Online Web Apps to Show Off Your Artwork posted at Masters in Art Education.

swagat presents School humor….. posted at Its all in here,

Glory Scott presents How to: Research the Web Like a Librarian Does posted at Masters in History, saying, “One of the benefits of being naturally able to research, hunt down, compartmentalize and cubbyhole information is that you are a cinch for a librarian’s job.”

Angela Martin presents 50 Cool Search Engines for Serious Readers posted at Online Colleges.net.

And that about wraps it up . . .

Well, that concludes this edition of The Edge of Education. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

If you’d like to submit a blog article to the next edition using our carnival submission form, we think that would be swell.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Related posts:

1. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 2
2. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 1
3. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 3

“Mr. Wondra, could you read this to make sure I’m doing this right?”

“Sure.”  I knelt down at her side.

“Autumn.  Do you have any examples from your life in this?”

“No.”

“Did you decide whether you agree with your sign or not?”

“No.”

“Does your introduction include a story?”

“No.”

I think it was at this point that I noticed she was crying.

In the past, this would have baffled me.   In this post, I’m going to discuss why Autumn was crying.  But first I’d like you to consider the following research.  Trust me, we’ll get back to the drama between Autumn and Mr. Wondra shortly.

In 1991, Janel Caine, a graduate student at the University of Florida, set out to design a study to determine if playing music to premature babies might lead them to improved appetites and faster growth.  What she found was interesting: babies exposed to soft music in their cribs did grow faster, had fewer complications, and were discharged home from the hospital an average of five days sooner than babies that were not exposed to music.

That data alone has far-reaching and potentially powerful implications, but when you break her findings down by gender (which, surprisingly, she doesn’t do in her paper), they become truly startling.

Baby girls exposed to music left the hospital an average of nine and a half days sooner than babies that were not.  Baby boys exposed to music left no sooner at all!

Again, interesting data.  But these findings become even more significant when linked with research documenting that the range of sounds around 1,500 Hz is critical for understanding speech.

All this helps to explain why, on average, girls pick up language skills sooner than boys.  But does this head start give girls an advantage throughout their years in school?  And what can we, as teachers, do about this?

We’ll get into what this all means for language skills in a minute.  But first, I’d like to discuss what this new information might mean for how our students experience the classroom environment.

If it is indeed true that girls can hear certain tones related to speech “significantly better” than boys, I’m going to want to keep that in mind when planning my seating arrangements.  I may want to avoid placing a girl near the door.  If someone is talking in the hall, she’ll have a greater chance of hearing it and being distracted.  On the other hand, since I often give instruction from the front of the room, and know boys don’t hear as well, I may want to seat them near the front.  Being a male myself with a voice that projects, I may also want to avoid seating girls in front or they may think I’m shouting.  This might also have implications for oral reading.

As a man, with a voice that carries, I also want to keep this information in mind when addressing girls individually.  If I use my normal tone, she might think I’m yelling at her.  In fact this is exactly what happened the other day with Autumn in the computer lab.

Because girls hear certain tones much clearer, often times, depending on a teacher’s tone, a boy will have trouble hearing it, and a girl will hear it as loud.  This has implications for both male and female teachers.

Women with softer voices may want to project a bit more for the boys.  Men with low booming voices may want to tone it down a bit so as not to overpower the girls. Teachers are presenters, and so we should reflect on the tone and volume of all our auditory instruction—not only our speech, but also any audio we present.

This also has implications for one-on-one communication—as illustrated in the example at the start of this post.  In the end, I told Autumn that I knew why she was crying, that I wasn’t angry, and I apologized for being loud.  When I toned it down, we began again and made progress on her paper.

The Anatomy of Aptitude

If you begin reading the literature on gender differences, it won’t take long before you stumble upon a book entitled Brain Sex: The real difference between men and women, by a couple of researchers by the names of Anne Moir and David Jessel.  Published in 1991, this was one of the first serious brain-based looks at the difference between sexes.  One of Moir and Jessel’s thematic premises is that innate differences in the biological brains and anatomy of children lead them naturally to different interests, which in turn strengthens that aptitude.  For example, they contend that girls learn language at an earlier age than boys because their brains are more efficiently organized for speech.  Then, since they are able to use language earlier, they do–playing and practicing their way to ever higher levels of proficiency–while boys don’t–which compounds any perceived language deficiency.

Cain’s study, combined with the growing scientific brain and sensory research indicating that girls hear better, leads us to the conclusion that girls are naturally better equipped at an earlier age to learn language.

It makes sense that girls would typically use language more often as they mature.  In fact, observation proves this.

Girls on the playground use more language in their play–working out who will roleplay what relational role, (“Ok, this time you be the mommy and I’ll be the baby . . .”).  Boys, on the other hand, are more often content making engine noises (trucks, cars, planes, backhoes), pushing things through the dirt, or throwing things through the air–crashing, chasing, tumbling, and kicking things around.

As Moir and Jessel point out, because language (both reading and speaking) is learned more through sound than sight–when it comes to learning to speak and read:

. . . the structure of the female brain gives girls the advantage.  This learning function resides in the left hemisphere of the brain . . .their more natural female strength, which is hearing, not seeing  (62).

They go on to support this finding by citing studies that indicate that while boys are better at identifying animal noises, girls are better at identifying human, social, and verbal communication.

It is neither the relative immaturity of boys, which results in their being  (less able to read), nor is it that they are backward, though much educational damage has been done in the past by the assumption that a boy’s slowness in learning to read must be due to stupidity or laziness.  It is just that while the girls are using the right tool for the job—the “hearing” skills—the boys are better endowed with the skills of seeing, not hearing.  And that’s not a good way of learning to read, says American psychologist Dianne McGuinness:

“It is clear that visual processing has little to do with reading, and in fact a strong reliance on the visual mode is often antagonistic to progress in learning to read.”

What does this mean for my eighth grade language arts class?

All that is well and good.  But I wanted to test some things out in my own classroom.  To my way of thinking, if all the above is actually true, by the time my students hit 8th grade, the average boy should have read significantly fewer books than the average girl.

So I had all my students sign up for a Shelfari account–listing every book that they could ever remember reading.  Next, I simply had them tally the books up.  The data was striking.  On average, girls listed 52 books.  Boys listed 25.

The next set of data I collected was from a Reading Interest Inventory.  My student’s answers to two questions from that survey were particularly striking:

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is extremely important and 1 is not at all important:

• How important is reading to you? and,
• How important is reading to the world?

In both cases, girls valued reading more than boys.

Intrigued, I went on to have my students complete a survey in which students rated themselves according to Howard Gardner’s Multiple intelligences.  I was interested in how boys rated themselves in regard to the Verbal/Linguistic intelligence compared to girls.

As it turns out, of all the intelligences I measured, the greatest average difference was the Verbal Intelligence.

On a scale of 0-100, boys scored themselves at an average of 29.71—the lowest ranking of all the intelligences, while girls ranked themselves at 45–somewhere in the middle.

There were a couple of other interesting data points from my survey that showed up and are supported in the literature on gender differences:

• Boys rated themselves higher in logical intelligence,
• Boys’ viewed their highest intelligence as kinesthetic.

If you read the literature, all this makes sense, which might also explain why boys also wrote about sports in their daily journals more than any other topic.

For reasons I’ll have to write about later, the literature also supports the idea that boys would write in a more autobiographical nature than girls.  Girls also wrote more often about “school,” “friends,” and “family” than boys did.

So Now What?

So what does all this mean for teachers?  Simply put, we need to understand.

Interestingly, in his article, Getting Boys to Read, Jeff Wilhelm says that, “The reason certain text types (like nonfiction) and features of texts (visuals) tend to engage boys has much less to do with the text itself, and much more to do with the connection (my italics) these features encourage the readers to make to the world.”  Wilhelm goes on to list a number of features and conditions that contribute to boys being able to engage in their reading:

• Short
• Visual
• Challenging
• Edgy
• Real
• Current
• Humor
• A clear purpose and immediate feedback
• An appropriate challenge and assistance to meet it
• Functionality and a developing sense of competence
• A focus on the immediate experience
• The importance of being social

I agree, but when it comes to gender differentiation in the classroom, there is a lot more that can be done.  Stay tuned.  In coming weeks I’ll share with you some ways you can use gender differentiation to increase student engagement in your classes.

For now, however, let me ask you:  What differences do you notice between how boys and girls learn in your classes?

Homepage image credit

Related posts:

1. With boys and girls in mind. Gurian, M., Stevens, K.
2. Gender Differentiation: Should we really be treating boys and girls differently?
3. Getting boys to read: it’s the context! Wilhelm, J.

Another month, another collection of outstanding examples of “Edgy” teaching and learning. This month we received 45 submissions. Only 17 made the cut. But I’ve got to tell you–I am so excited by the quality of those 17!! This is by far our best issue yet.

Plus, just for fun, I thought I’d try something new this month and rank each of the 17 accepted submissions from most “Edgy” to least. Now, keep in mind this rank is entirely subjective and, well–in the grand scheme of things–completely meaningless.

Still I thought it might be fun within the context of a carnival.

If your submission did not make the cut. Please don’t give up! Just review the guidelines next time. So let’s get right to it.

And the winner is . . .

If this carnival had an award, we’d call it an “Edgy” (hey, that’s not a bad idea actually) and this month’s winner would be Sara Finegan. Her post, Say what? Asking questions as one reads posted at Readers With Autism, is simply outstanding. She introduced herself to us by saying, “My blog is dedicated to helping struggling readers with autism, with an emphasis on anaphoric cuing, but this approach works for any kids having difficulty with reading comprehension.” And it only got better from there.

In her post, she shares with us a real example of how she worked through the reading difficulties of one of her students. But what caught my attention (and thought was super cool) after a bit of back story, Sara admits a mistake:

Right here is when I made a mistake that took several days to undo. Do not, I repeat, do NOT repeat this at home:

“What do you think I think about when I’m reading?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I think about what the author is telling me.”

“The author isn’t talking,” said Sam, very reasonably and with a bit of concern that I might perhaps be delusional.

“Oh, but she is,” I said. “She is talking in writing. The words she’s writing are her way of talking to us as readers.”

This did not go over well with Sam. Like all readers with autism, he is a concrete thinker and takes everything absolutely literally. Since he could not hear or see the author, the idea that she might be talking to him freaked him out. He began looking for the author and trying to hear her, and worrying that she might not be very nice, and doing all sorts of other mental gyrations that led to a great deal of anxiety on his part.

This post is about much more than reading with autistic students. Sara guides us through a technique that we can all use when working with struggling readers.

The idea is to teach kids to question as they read and then to pause and summarize what they’ve been reading. . . the work almost immediately begins to influence their reading, and they love it.

If you’re at all interested in helping your students (at any level) make deeper connections to what they’re reading, Sara’s post (and blog) is a must read. We’ve just added her to our RSS reader. You should too.

This month’s runner up is Tracy Schiffmann because things don’t get much more “edgy” than when you have a few (ahem) “resistant learners” in your class. Tracy’s submission, Intervention Strategies for Managing Resistant or Disruptive Behavior posted at Schiffmann Curriculum Design & Training outlines three solid strategies for dealing with this inevitability as a teacher. Because, as she says,

. . .it isn’t just you and the person exhibiting the behavior, it is everyone in the room who is holding their breath, attention riveted, to find out how you will respond.

Hadley Ferguson rounds out our top three “Edgy” posts this month by sharing a story of “shock and awe” in Talking about Facebook posted at Middle School Matrix

Like Hadley, many of us are running into administrative roadblocks when it comes to using Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. He didn’t accept the status quo for his students however, because, as he rightly says:

. . .as an educator who is committed to introducing my classes to the tools of the Web, I feel a responsibility to teach them how to protect themselves out there. My administrator understood. Three cheers for her! She said that in the past, it was forbidden, but that the world is changing, and we need to meet the needs of the students.

Hat tip to Hadley for going out of his way to bring the virtual world into his classroom in order to discuss the very real implications social networking has on student privacy.

Next, Shelly Terrell presents Do Our Students Realize They Live in the World? | Teacher Reboot Camp posted at Teacher Boot Camp.

In this post Shelly shares with us some practical techniques to help prepare our students for the global economy. Having worked on over 20 different global teams and dozens of international projects, she knows what she’s talking about. Currently in Germany, Shelly outlines nine common stumbling blocks multicultural teams often experience and seven things that we, as teachers, can do to help prepare our students to overcome them. Shelly does a great job summing up the central problem her post addresses, saying:

Social media, such as Twitter, makes us more globally aware. However, are we preparing our students to effectively problem solve, collaborate, and communicate with their peers abroad? My experience has shown me that several students still live in a microcosm where they carry misconceptions and assumptions about people living in other countries. The problem is that when these students enter their career fields they will have to collaborate with others from various cultures and backgrounds. When this communication takes place our students will carry those assumptions and misconceptions into the conversation either verbally or non-verbally and create barriers to effective problem-solving of global issues.

I love this next post because it’s a great example of solid research and its implications. Strenua presents Increased Cardiovascular Fitness Increases IQ posted at Strenua’s World, saying, “A new study in young adults has revealed that those who are physically fit, have a higher IQ and are more likely to go to university. The researchers suggest that physical education is a subject that has an important place in schools and is an absolute must if we want to do well in maths and other theoretical subjects.” This is a must read for anyone out there fighting for more physical activity for their students

I think this is Rachel Lynette’s 3rd submission to The Edge of Education, and if we’re learning anything about Rachel and her blog, it’s that you can count on her for solid, quality teaching and learning. This month she share’s I’m Done! What to do with Bright Students posted at Minds in Bloom.

I really appreciated Rachel’s post because not only does she describe some good options for differentiation, she breaks theme into categories of “Ideally” “Still Good” and “Please Don’t.” Differentiation isn’t always easy. It’s one of the things I continue to struggle with. Rachel has a good grasp on it, saying:

Intelligence is by nature, a bell curve. In every class there are likely to be a few kids (usually the same few) who understand the concepts immediately and are finished before most of the rest of the class is even halfway done. . . So, here are some minimal-prep ideas of what to do with those bright kids to keep them challenged:

Nightwalker compliments Rachel’s tips nicely by sharing 25 Tips to teach students with learning problems | My English Pages posted at My English Pages.

Coincidentally, he also grouped his (or her–”Nightwalker” is one of those gender ambiguous names, like Pat or Chris) tips into three categories: Methods (things we can do within our instruction), Assignments (things we ask our students to do), and Testing (different assessment strategies).

Next, Karenne Sylvester presents Kalinago English: The Dogma of Dogme posted at Kalinago English.

Karenne gets points for spunk. I guarantee you’ll enjoy her post encouraging you to step away from your textbook and into one that’s much more relevant. Here’s a sample:

Now there’s no doubt in my mind that someone much cleverer out there than me is reading this and has figured out the structure of your average textbook so I’ll just ask go on ahead and tell you: share it with us!

I mean do the publishers even care that the unit themes they’ve chosen have no direct relationship to the following one?

That they rarely have anything to do with our students’ lives?

After a quick assessment of Annette Berlin’s blog, I think she mostly writes about crafting. Still, she shares an interesting book review with her post, Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions posted at Craft Stew, saying, “I’m a big fan of technology books written for kids. I first discovered them when I home schooled my son for 7 years.”

Personally, da Vinci fascinates me. Still, I thought this might be a cool book to have in many different classrooms–for many different reasons. The following from Annette’s post grabbed my attention:

Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions is the newest addition to my book collection. The book starts off with a history of the Renaissance and then goes on to a biography of da Vinci. After that, the project section begins.

The project section is divided into five parts: art, machines, water, flight and war. There are anywhere from 2-6 projects in each category.

C’mon. You have to admit, da Vinci based project learning would be Edgy.

Next, Allison Johanson presents 55 Tips to Instantly Make Your Brain Stronger and Faster posted at Masters in Health Informatics.

While I take issue with Allison’s use or definition of the word “Instantly,” I still enjoyed browsing her list of tips and links, which include things like discovering your learning style, enjoying open courseware, and keeping a “dream journal” (which is ironic because last night I had a dream that I caught a touchdown pass from Brett Favre in the Superbowl, but nobody saw it because it was in a classroom full of tables and chairs and the only people in the room were the players. I wonder what that means . . .)

Anyway, speaking of open courseware, this seems to be a theme that sort of sprouted up on it’s own this month.

Diane Laine sent us an interesting explanation of open coursware (ocw for those in the know), The Definitive User’s Guide to OCWConsortium.org posted at College Stats.org.

And Frederick Yarmy submitted Which Online Universities Are Embracing Open Courseware? posted at Online University Data.

Three separate posts–all unsolicited–all pointing to open courseware. Hmmm. Coincidence? (Cue X-Files theme music). Edgy. Very Edgy indeed. . .

Anyway, M Dahms brought me back from my Twilight Zone type daydream of coincidental conspiracy theories by answering a very down-to-earth question: What is Reader’s Workshop? posted at A Reader’s Community.

Harold Gelien followed that with his blog post: Top 50 Blogs for e-Learning Tools and Tips posted at Top Online University Reviews.

Next up, Herbert Aitken presents 50 Free Online Educational Games That Are More Fun Than You’d Think posted at How To E-D-U.

Megan Wong presents Fun Brain Learning » Amazing preschool books – “Mind Power Series” posted at Fun Brain Learning.

I’m not sure if all of these next links qualify as “Edgy” because I didn’t have enough time to click through to them all, but Angela Martin presents 100 Incredibly Useful Links for Teaching and Studying Shakespeare posted at Online Colleges.org. Useful? Sure, if your teaching Shakespeare. Otherwise you have my permission to skip this one.

And that about wraps it up . . .

Well, that concludes this edition of The Edge of Education. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

If you’d like to submit a blog article to the next edition using our carnival submission form, we think that would be swell.  Remember, you can’t win an Edgy (which, we promise, is nothing like a wedgie), or any other make-believe awards here at We Teach We Learn, if you don’t submit. So, come on in! The water’s fine.  The more the merrier.  Or feel free to use your own cliche . . . Whatever works to motivate you to take your blog (and your professional sharing) to the next level.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Related posts:

1. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 1
2. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 4
3. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 2

First a quick apology for the late nature of this Issue. We’ll do better next time. I’d also like to thank all those that contributed. There were some great posts sent our way, and, just as before–only the best made the cut. If you’re post was not accepted this time around, please don’t give up! The community of teachers at We Teach We Learn needs you. Just perhaps review the guidelines next time.

So now, let’s get right to it shall we?

Great teachers know the value of creating a safe and comfortable environment for learning. In order to grow, students need to be able to take risks. In this post, Rachel Lynette presents a great list of things teachers can do to support creative and critical thinking by giving students confidence take risks and make mistakes. Lynette sums it up this way:

In school, the right answer is so often required that children do not learn to value the wrong one. In fact, many children have learned that it is better not to even try if you cannot be sure that you’re getting it right. And we all know that not trying is the biggest mistake of all. Many of the world’s greatest achievers first failed, often many times.

Creative Thinking: In Defense of Mistakes is posted at Minds in Bloom.

Edwin Choi presents a brief introduction to the Montessori method of teaching and learning. It makes me wonder, how can we, as teachers in a traditional school, bring in some of Montessori’s methods to help us differentiate our instruction and better engage students? Montessori Schools: Letting Children Learn on Their Own posted at K12 Directory of Schools Blog.

Sophie Maddox has completed a program from which much of her “instruction” was delivered on-line. She says,

I’ve seen a lot of the transformation first hand. I’ve not only worked for a college that has an online education option and I’ve actually taken classes and completed a degree by primarily taking classes online.

So what has she learned? Sophie presents an interesting critique of her experience at Online Education Discover the Real Inside Scoop posted at Sophie’s Blog.

Hands down, Julia Douthwaite shares the best post (for my money) in this carnival issue. In it she shares four creative strategies to combine visual arts, word games, and textual sources to generate more fun and lasting engagement, for students and teachers teaching and learning literature. Teach this! How to revolutionize Lit posted at A Revolution in Fiction.

And for the second Edge of Education Carnival in a row, TIC presents a great post. This time it’s about the Educational Technology Assumptions we all make. His article is posted at Technology In Class.

And finally our first submission from a homeschooler. Welcome! Deana presents Couponing 101 posted at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom, saying, I’m a homeschooling mom, and past K-6 teacher. My article is a new series of mine called Couponing 101: I’m teaching others how to save money by using coupons when they shop!”

And now for a few link-list posts. You know, I may have a new perspective on these things after reading this post about Getting Meta by Seth Godin. You do know Seth Godin, right?

Happy browsing!

Rose King presents 100 Essential Academic Engines for Students & Educators posted at Online Classes.org.

Linda Jones presents 100 Great Twitter Tips, Tools & Tutorials for Serious Students posted at AccreditedOnlineColleges.org.

Angela Martin presents 100 Excellent Open Access Journals for Educators posted at Online Colleges.org.

Bluehippo Avalonne presents Top 50 Bloggers to Help You Study, Focus and Learn Better posted at Best Online Universities.com.

Angela Martin presents 100 Awesome Open Courses for Bibliophiles posted at Online Colleges.org.

Anne Simone presents 100 Best Blogs for the Literati posted at Online Courses.org.

Linda Jones presents 100 Great Google Docs Tips for Students & Educators posted at AccreditedOnlineColleges.org.

Diane Steward presents Top 25 Social Media Sites for College Students posted at Undergraduate Degree.

Frederick Yarmy presents Highlighting 10 Creative Professors Teaching at Online Universities posted at Online University Data.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the edge of education carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Image credits:

Front Page: Woman on cliff

In article: Climbing man

Thank You!

Related posts:

1. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 4
2. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 1
3. The Edge of Education Carnival. Issue 3