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