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

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

It’s about the risks we take, and the new stuff we try, and the stories we bring back from the adventures of blazing new trails.

Knowing this, it makes sense that stories of personal experiences will always get top billing at the Edge of Education Carnival. Maybe it’s the story of a new strategy, technique or tip. Maybe it’s your system for dealing with parents. Maybe it’s your application of a particular learning theory that made all the difference. Maybe it’s how you differentiated that last lesson.

Understand that not all original posts are accepted. We’re setting the bar pretty high. In order to be accepted, posts must be valuable, interesting and honest. Action research is held in the highest regard, but interesting best practices and insightful reflections on educational literature and/or personal experience also qualifies as “Edgy.”

Our guiding intent at We Teach We Learn is to empower teachers.  One of the ways we do this is to maintain the highest levels of quality, value and integrity.

We’re teacher’s. We expect nothing less.  We deserve nothing less.

Related posts:

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

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

The idea of this carnival is to share experiences of “edgy” teaching and learning. There are a lot of great things happening out there in the edusphere. More and more, we’re beginning to understand how to blend the art of teaching with the science of learning. It’s a balancing act, and this carnival is the place to share our triumphs and failures walking that tightrope.

It’s about the risks we take, and the new stuff we try, and the stories we bring back from the adventures of blazing new trails.

Knowing this, it makes sense that stories of personal experiences will always be get links before other kinds of submissions–like list posts, for example.

Frankly we were was shocked at the number of lists of 100 that we received. We ignored most of them. Indeed we were about to delete all of them, but when we looked closer, a select few were actually interesting. Upon further review, we came to the conclusion that some of these submissions actually delivered quite a bit of value. Especially to the teachers at the “edges” of technology and education innovation. So we kept four list posts–out of 57.

Understand that not all original posts were accepted either. We’re setting the bar pretty high. In order to be accepted, posts must be valuable, interesting and honest. Action research is held in the highest regard, but interesting best practices and insightful reflections on educational literature and/or personal experience also qualifies as “Edgy.”

Our guiding intent is to maintain the highest levels of quality, value and integrity here. Teacher’s should expect nothing less.

Okay, we’ve rambled on enough now. Let’s get to the good stuff.  In no particular order:

• Marjorie Morgan wrote an interesting piece about the challenge of making math relevant to students at Lindsay & Sharon – outdoor adventurers posted at GO! Girls Outdoors. Her premise: Marrying Mathematics and Outdoor Education – can it be done?

The following paragraph from her entry hits the nail on the head:

While I was tutoring the other day, my student asked whether I’d ever used Calculus in my ‘real life’ (which I assume meant away from the classroom – he’s a bright student who has realized that teachers sometimes have a life away from school). I had to answer no, I never had – after all, if you chuck a rock off a cliff, it’s easier to just estimate where it will reach its highest point and where it will hit the ground than it is to pull out a pencil and paper and work out the equations.

• Jeremy Burman presents Update: Baby Einstein DVDs to be refunded posted at Advances in the History of Psychology. Jeremy writes about the recent offer from Disney to refund the money of those who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, saying that this begs the question: what do parents and teachers have to do to encourage giftedness in their children? He then offers a brief annotated bibliography of sources related to this topic.

• We all know how important novelty is to stimulate attention and motivation. Rachel Lynette has supplied a great list of ideas we can use to provide that spark of surprise to engage students again. Get out of that Rut! posted at Minds in Bloom. We couldn’t agree more with this, from her post,

Yes, routines have their place, and you need them to keep your class in order and to get things done. But they are also so very boring and they don’t do a thing to stimulate creative thought. So, every so often (at least once a day!) shake your kids up and do something different.

TIC writes,

You’ve experienced it before: you teach the same lesson to two different classes. In one class it’s the best lesson you’ve ever taught. In the next class the lesson bombs. Have you ever sought to discover the reason behind this mystery?

• Be sure not to miss this insightful article about the nuances of teaching that aren’t often addressed about Classroom Dynamics posted at Technology In Class.

• Twitter has taken social media by storm, and individuals as well as corporate America are scrambling to understand how to capitalize. Shelly Terrell presents a great article explaining how educators can utilize this new tool to ramp up their professional development. PRESTO: How to Build A PLN Using Twitter posted at Teacher Reboot Camp is a great introduction on how to build a Personal Learning Network.

By way of introduction to this fabulous article, Shelly writes, “I hope educators will be able to learn about the usefulness of Twitter in this very short presentation.”

• Jim McGuire has created a simple assignment that rewards students for reading. The problem is that, based on the documentation he’s getting back, some students are lying about how much they’ve read. Jim thinks it’s a motivational issue and shares a great video he plans to use to help motivate his students. Fake Reading, Will Smith, and Being Successful posted at The Reading Workshop.

• And last but not least, Hall Monitor presents a great example of the spirit of ingenuity alive and well in today’s students DetentionSlip.org: MIT Students Explain How to Photograph Space for $150 posted at DetentionSlip.org.

And now for the list posts. These posts aren’t original, but collections of original ideas. If you’re looking for inspiration, browsing these links is great way to find some

• Kaitlyn Cole presents 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School posted at Online Colleges.net.

• Fredric Cernick presents 25 Free Web Tools Every Student Should Use posted at How To E-D-U.

• Angela Martin presents 100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom posted at Online Colleges.org.

• Stacie Young presents 100 Blogs Every New Teacher Should Read posted at Online Schools.

That concludes our first edition of The Edge of Education Carnival. Want to submit to the next one?  We’d love to hear about your “Edgy” teaching.  Just use this handy submission form.

Image credits:

Front Page: Woman on cliff

In article: Climbing man

Thank You!

Related posts:

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