With so many teachers having their budgets slashed over the last few years I thought it was great when I saw this free edition of Gifted Child Today that focused on RtI. Here in the United States Response to Intervention (Rtl or RTI) is intervention that was created to help prevent academic failure through timely and appropriate support.

On the Prufrock Press website they wrote:

“Response to Intervention (RtI) is a key component of educational reform in the United States. For gifted education, RtI represents many important opportunities and challenges.

To help education professionals take a proactive look at the ways gifted education and the needs of gifted students fit within the RtI initiative, Gifted Child Today’s editor, Susan Johnsen, Ph.D., and the journal’s editorial board invited two prominent professors (Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D. and Claire E. Hughes, Ph.D.) to guest edit a special issue of GCT on the important topic of RtI and gifted child education.”

Summer 2009 issue of Gifted Child Today.

Posted in gifted education |

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is rolling around again in Australia.  It will be conducted throughout Australia from Tuesday May 12 to Thursday May 14.  A number of teachers found the links I posted last year helpful so I thought I would search the Internet for helpful resources and research for teachers.  I hope these make your life easier.

Naplan 2008 Tests
Preparing for Naplan
NSW Public Schools
Research Developments
Research: Graphics and the National Numeracy Tests

Posted in assessment |

Prime Numbers can be a puzzling concept for many children.  “Why is one not a prime number?”, “Why are they important?”, “How many are there?” are all common questions.  The study of prime numbers can open the door to  an incredibly rich and deep mathematical knowledge.  A great place to start when teaching prime numbers is a clear definition and then an ongoing investigation into prime numbers.

According to A Maths Dictionary for Kids a prime number has exactly two factors and a prime number can only be divided evenly by itself and one.  It also states that one is not a prime number because it has one factor (1), not two.  Investigating prime numbers can be a fun and engaging whole class activity.  I have uploaded two charts that may help your class with prime numbers.  One is a one hundred chart with the prime numbers highlighted and the other is a one hundred chart that has not been highlighted.  You can use the blank chart to have the children investigate prime numbers and then enlarge the highlighted chart as a wall display.

The Prime Numbers Game

Gather the blank or coloured 0-100 chart, dice and a counter starting on zero. Then ask the children to role the dice and move that number of spaces on the chart.  If they land on a prime number they get to jump to the next prime number.  The player who passes 100 wins.  You can modify the game to suit younger age groups by making the winner the first to pass twenty or fifty.

Prime Number Chart 0-100

Blank Chart 0-100

Posted in mathematics |

Learning to spell can be an extremely frustrating experience for many children.  During my ten years of teaching, I have heard many discussions about the most effective way to teach children how to spell.  As with nearly all aspects of teaching a one size fits all approach simply does not work.  Unfortunately the most gifted spellers in a classroom are often not challenged as much as they need to be.

As I result, over the past few years I have given my more gifted spellers ownership over what words they learn to spell.  One way I have done this is by giving them a large list of commonly misspelled words and asked them to research at least five words per week and learn to spell them.  The children have enjoyed the challenge and their spelling has improved as a result.

Here is a list of 600 commonly misspelled words for you to use.

Posted in english, spelling |

“Behaviour Management: A Whole School Approach” by Dr. Bill Rogers is a must have educational book for any educator who wants to develop their classroom management skills and modify classroom behaviour.  Bill Rogers is an Australian teacher and educational consultant who has worked and written widely on the topic of behaviour management (often referred to as classroom management) for over twenty years.  The magic of Bill Rogers’ writing is that it is extremely practical.  The ideas outlined in “Behaviour Management” are easily transferable to a vast array of educational settings and ages.  I was first introduced to this book during my undergraduate studies in 1996.  I have read it cover to cover numerous times and implemented many of the ideas outlined in the book to great effect.  I have also seen Bill Rogers lecture a number of times which is always inspiring.

“Behaviour Management” is available in the US and the UK via Amazon and in Australia via Scholastic Education and Dominie.  You can also visit Bill Rogers’ website at www.billrogers.com.au . While I highly recommend this book his other books and DVDs are also a valuable resource for any educator or school.

Bill Rogers’ Online Articles

Five Tricky Personalities — and How to Handle Them
Making a Discipline Plan
Teasing
Building  Playtime Communities

Posted in classroom management |

As your students return from their winter holiday it is important to reestablish the classroom rules and routines that you set up at the beginning of the year.  This helps students reconnect with their peers as well as the overall classroom and school expectations more easily.  It is important to remember that the routines and expectations at a student’s home may be quite different from the classroom.  Therefore, the time spent reestablishing rules and routines can help your students feel more at ease.  When my students return to school from a break I welcome them and give them a brief overview of the weeks ahead.  I then read through the class rules we had written and posted on the wall earlier in the year and explain why each is important.  I also talk about the classroom routines and jobs and explain how each job if done promptly and thoughtfully benefits everyone.  This introduction may take twenty minutes, however, I have found it sets a positive tone for the months ahead.

Posted in classroom management |

I have always enjoyed reading to my students. I love finding a book that enthralls my students and has them asking for, “Just one more page!” I fondly remember discovering Harry Potter with my fourth grade class and reading them the first three books and waiting excitedly for “The Goblet of Fire” to be released so we could read it together.

To better help my students choose books to read I have made a point of reading a lot of children’s and young adult fiction. I love reading these books and sharing and discussing them with my students. While putting together the list “101 Book Series for Children” one of my students suggested I read John Flanagan’s “The Ranger’s Apprentice” series. While reading the first book “The Ruins of Gorlan” I felt the same excitement and connection I felt while reading the first Harry Potter novel. I have since read the first four books (there are only four released in the US) and have enjoyed them all immensely.

If you are looking for a series to read to your students try “The Ranger’s Apprentice” it will keep you and your students captivated for hours. For more information about “The Ranger’s Apprentice” please visit the website. I believe this series would be suitable for Grades 4 and up.

Posted in literacy, reading |

A number of years ago I was introduced to the concept of teaching formalized problem solving strategies to elementary aged children. This mathematics program was a tremendous success and dramatically improved the mathematical reasoning and problem solving of the students I taught. Most importantly the students enjoyed it and looked forward to it each week. The problem solving strategies included:

Acting it Out or Using Concrete Materials
Create an Organized List
Creating a Tree Diagram
Drawing a Diagram
Drawing a Table
Guess and Check (Guess and Checking)
Look for a Pattern
Using Logical Reasoning (Logical Reasoning)
Using Simpler Numbers (Solve a Simpler Problem)
Work Backwards (Working Backwards)

Once I began to look, I found a  number of problem solving resources online and in book stores. However, not all of the resources were easy to find. The purpose of this post is to bring these resources together so you can introduce problem solving into your classroom or school or further develop your program if you have one in place.

The program we taught was based on books published in Australia by Blake Education called Solve that Problem by Sharon Shapiro. There are two books in the series Upper Primary and Middle Primary. These books are available in the UK via Badger Publishing. US residents are able to purchase these books via Amazon in the UK.

A good starting point is to use resources offered online.  A number of the strategies explored in Solve that Problem are available free in .pdf format via the Blake Education website under the Problem Solving heading. Samples of another great problem solving book, “Mathematics Problem Solving Coach” are also offered in .pdf format online.

There are a number of books and online resources available to help you teach problem solving including:

Online Resources

Bogazici University Faculty of Education
Figure This Challenges
MathStars Newsletter
Math Stories (paid subscription)
New Zealand Ministry of Education
Port Angeles School District
Thinkquest 1
Thinkquest 2
Thinkquest 3

Books

Mathematics Problem Solving Coach
Maths Problem Solving Series by Val Morey
Problem Solving Strategies by Steck Vaughn
Solve that Problem by Sharon Shapiro
Targeting Maths Problem Solving by Judy Tertini & Gloria Harris
Problem-Solver’s Math Journal by Teacher Created Materials

How do student layout the problems?

The students would paste a copy of the problem at the top of a page in their workbook and then set out the problem as following:

What? The students write a full sentence explaining what they are trying to find out.
Strategy: The students write the strategy they are going to use.
Working: The students set their work out as taught for each particular strategy.
Answer: The students write a full sentence answer.

Problem Solving Layout Example.pdf

Marking

To reduce the emphasis on just the final answer each problem is given a mark out of five.  This encourages the students to set their work out in a clear and systematic way and take care when planning and formulating their answers.

What? One mark for explaining what they are looking for.
Strategy: One mark for choosing the correct strategy to solve the problem.
Working: Two marks for demonstrating the working for the strategy they chose and setting the working out in a clearly.
Answer: One mark for finding the correct answer and explaining the answer in a full sentence.

Problem Solving Unit

I have created a unit of work containing 56 problems using problems from the invaluable Port Angeles School District WASL website. The unit contains eight questions and answers for each of the following strategies, Act it Out, Draw a Diagram, Guess and Check, Logical Reasoning, Look for a Pattern, Using Simpler Numbers and Work Backwards.  Please download, modify and use this unit to suit your needs.

Problem Solving Unit of Work.zip

Posted in mathematics |

Now that the school year is underway and you have set up your routines and have your classroom management structures in place it is time to gather feedback from your students.  It is easy to avoid gathering feedback from your students as it never feels good to receive less than positive feedback.  However, student feedback can be an extremely valuable tool in maintaining a positive classroom culture.  Three methods I have successfully used are class meetings, a suggestion box and a feedback survey.

To begin a classroom meeting have all the children sit in a circle on the floor, or on chairs.  You may need to rearrange furniture for this to work in your classroom.  Explain to the children that only one person is allowed to talk at a time and you may only talk if you have the ball.  I used a miniature soccer ball for this, however, a tennis ball is fine.  Pose a questions such as, “what can we do as a class to make the classroom a more positive environment?”  Then ask the children to raise their hands if they have a suggestion and roll the ball to one student.  Once the student has finished they roll the ball to someone who has an idea.  It is important that the children are aware that all ideas will be considered.

A suggestion box is a small box in the classroom that the children can anonymously write ideas to improve the classroom or explain things about the classroom or school that have been worrying them.  The ideas in the suggestion box can also be used to guide class meetings.

A feedback survey can also be used to gather information.  The survey may be very open ended or may focus on a particular area of the school such as the classroom or playground.  I have uploaded a classroom climate survey for you to use.  I have adapted it from the school climate survey.  Please download and edit this survey to best suit your classroom needs.  Administrating this survey anonymously may lead to more honest answers.

Classroom Climate Survey.doc
Classroom Climate Survey.pdf

I believe it is vitally important that children feel they are active participants in the classroom.  Participation fosters a sense of belonging and can help reduce disruptive behavior.

Posted in classroom management |

In some schools children are asked to cover their own workbooks while other schools have printed covers the children must use.  I prefer that different exercise books are different colors so they are easier to find for both students and staff.  I have uploaded a template that I used for my student’s workbooks this year.  I would photocopy the different covers on colored paper, for example the English cover orange and the number cover blue.  Please feel free modify these covers so they best suit your needs.  I used Microsoft clipart for the images.

I have uploaded an A4 and letter version of the book covers.

Book Covers - Letter.doc
Book Covers - A4.doc

Posted in back to school |

At the start of the school year I spend a lot of time establishing “The 4Rs”, Rules, Rights, Responsibilities and Routines (again, a Bill Rogers idea!).  Class rules have a large role to play in creating a cohesive class atmosphere while also helping with ongoing classroom management.  Rights are the expectations that the student has of the school. For example, the student expecting to be treated with respect and to be safe.  Explaining student rights can be difficult at first, however, I have found that the students soon understand and embrace the ideas.

I generally see student responsibilities as two fold, the students have a responsibility to follow the classroom rules and respect the rights of others as well as having responsibilities, or jobs, within the classroom.  I use class jobs as a way to foster a sense of belonging and responsibility (for more information about class jobs please see the post “classroom jobs” below).  The last of “The 4Rs” is routines.  Having routines helps children feel safe and at ease.  This does not mean that a classroom has to be overly regimented, just that children have an idea of why, how and when things are done. For more information about classroom routines you can read a good article by Denise Young entitled “Classroom routines and procedures”.

During the first week of school I discuss classroom rules with the students.  I explain why I believe they are important and ask them to think of rules they have had in previous classrooms.  I write these on the board and ask if we can write any of the rules in a more positive tone.  For example, instead of writing, “Don’t run in the classroom,” I write, “We walk in the classroom.”  Writing the rules in this way emphasizes what the student should do rather than what they should not do.

Below are two sheets to help you create class rules. The first is a sheet I give to groups of two or three students and ask them to formulate class rules.  The second sheet contains the class rules I had on my classroom wall this year.  I photocopied this sheet on different colored A3 paper and displayed it around my classroom.

Creating Rules.doc
Class Rules Example.doc

For more information about “The 4Rs” please read this keynote address from Bill Rogers:
www.antibullying.net/documents/freshstart.doc

Posted in back to school |

Many schools across the Northern Hemisphere are preparing to go back to school in the next few weeks.  A new school year brings tremendous opportunities for teachers.  We are able to reflect on our previous year’s success and failures and modify our classroom methods and routines.  Bill Rogers calls the start of the year the “establishment phase of the year” and writes, “The first few weeks are crucial in developing the smooth running of a class group.  In fact the first day – the first meeting with a new group – can have a significant effect on how students perceive our leadership” (Rogers; 2006, p. 86).  I spend a lot of time planning the few weeks of the school year.  This time allows me to set the tone for the school year.  Over the next week I will post a few ideas that have helped me begin the school year in a positive way.

Getting to know your students names and interests as soon as possible has a tremendous impact on a classroom culture.  As does establishing communication with the child’s parent or guardian. A have uploaded two sheets that I have found useful. One sheet is a questionnaire for the students to fill out and the other is for their parent or guardian. These questionnaires will give you a good understanding of your student’s interests.  Please modify these sheets so they best suit your needs.

Student Questionnaire.doc
Parent/Guardian Questionnaire.doc

Posted in back to school |

Having children research a topic on the internet can be a nightmare for teachers. The children either find too much information, not enough information or end up on sites you would rather they would not be. A fantastic way to improve your students, and your, internet searching skills is to learn search operators. These operators make searching much easier and unleashes the hidden power of search engines. I generally have my students use Google to search the internet because I am familiar with it and like the clean search page. I find my students get too distracted with the Yahoo! search page. Windows Live is also very good although I have not used it very much myself.

I have summarised commonly used operators and created a “Google Search Tips” sheet for the children (and staff) at my school. These tips have dramatically improved the children’s searching skills. Please feel free to download and distribute it.

Google Search Tips.doc

Posted in technology |

For a number of years teachers have used books on tape and CD as an effective educational tool. These audiobooks have been used in a number of ways, such as exposing children to books above their reading age, developing reading skills and, of course, enjoyment.

The online audio book store Audible have over 45 000 audiobooks, predominately for adults. With the help of parents and educators Audible has launched AudibleKids. AudibleKids has over 4 000 children’s books by authors such Morris Gleitzman, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Christopher Paolini and John Flannagan. These books are generally downloaded as one file which makes them easy to use and store on a computer or mp3 devise. Audible has certain geographical restrictions. So please check to see if the book you want is available in your country before you sign up. Audible audiobooks can be played on an iPod and on over 230 other devices. Audible is also working with Reading Is Fundamental and as a result are offering some books for free.

I have recommended that parents of the students in my class use audiobooks at home. Audiobooks can be enjoyed as a whole family and by a child while they are travelling or playing.

If you have any comments or questions please email me.

Posted in literacy, reading, technology |

In May 2008, Australian State and Territory based assessments will be replaced by the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). National assessments will be conducted in both literacy and numeracy for Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. The assessments will be held on the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th of May. I have included some links to sample papers that may help your students become more familiar with the layout of the assessments. I have found that photocopying practice papers on overhead transparency sheets (or displaying them on an interactive whiteboard) is a good way to introduce the format of an assessment to a whole class.

www.mathletics.com.au/naplan/
www.naplan.edu.au/test_samples/

Posted in assessment |

Teaching children how to comprehend written information is one of the most fundamental aspects of teaching. However, what does it mean to comprehend? This is a complex question and one that is often debated amongst educators. While some teachers may argue that children learn to comprehend as a by product of learning to read, I have found that children’s comprehension improves when they are taught specific comprehension strategies.

The following comprehension strategy is very useful when teaching children how to approach and answer written comprehension questions. The children are taught that comprehension questions often fall within three broad categories; here, hidden and head. Here (right there) refers to questions that are easy to locate and generally found in one sentence. Hidden (think and search) are answered by joining together information in a text and Head (world in your head) questions ask for the child’s opinion or for information that is not contained in the text.

Click on the link below to download a Word file outlining this strategy. I have found this poster useful to enlarge, laminate and put up on my classroom wall for the children to refer to.

Here, Hidden, Head.doc

For more information please see Adrian Bruce’s wonderful work on comprehension.

Posted in literacy, reading |

I received and email from an Australian teacher, Amanda Walsh, in response to the post I wrote about greeting children in the morning. She would greet her students in other languages which they really enjoyed. For those of you who are not multilingual, Amanda has supplied a link that lists 250 ways to say good morning! For Australian teachers this can also be a good opportunity to introduce different Aboriginal Languages of Australia.

Posted in classroom management |

Assigning classroom jobs or roles is a fantastic way to build a cohesive classroom culture. I have found that giving all students in my class a job works most effectively. I introduce a few jobs at the beginning of the year and ask the students to come up with others. Each year there are enough jobs for every student. One of the favourites in my class this year is the “Window Monitor”. It is a student’s job to open the windows in the morning and close them in the afternoon and they take great pride in doing it each day.

Another job that has been very effective is class photographer. During certain whole school or class activities it is the responsibility of one or two students to take photographs using an inexpensive digital camera. I have found that the students always take great care with the camera and take priceless photographs. The size of the job does not matter, it is the sense of belonging that it develops that counts.

For a number of younger students a class job could be their first taste of responsibility. The author Sark writes in her book Inspiration Sandwich, “My first job was at age 4 as the wake up fairy in kindergarten. I had a magic wand, and touched each sleeping child. I still have that magic wand.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in classroom management |

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is watching children develop a love of reading. The Harry Potter books inspired many children to read, however, a common question teachers and parents hear is, “What do I read after Harry Potter?” To help answer this question I enlisted the help of the children in my class. I asked them to list the book series they have enjoyed over the past few years. I compiled their responses and with some further research, came up with a list of 101 book series for children. The wonderful thing about book series is they develop a sense of expectation. As a child finishes one book they automatically have something to reach for.

I hope this list helps teachers, parents and children find book series that foster a love of literacy. Please print out the list and let children explore their favourite library or book store. Remembering that school and local librarians are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to children’s literatutre. I compiled the list with the the ages 8 to 14 in mind. In my experience children have particularly enjoyed reading the following authors; Eoin Colfer, John Flanagan, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, Garth Nix, Christopher Paolini, Emily Rodda and Carole Wilkinson. If you have other book series you would like to share please contact me by clicking the about tab. The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge site has an extensive list of children’s novels sorted by grades.

101 book series for children

101 book series for children.doc 

Posted in english, reading |

Since I started teaching I have been creating maths worksheets and assessments in Microsoft Word. One of the most frustrating aspects was creating fractions. The fractions never looked or behaved the way I wanted them to. I eventually found a webpage that had detailed how to create a fraction that worked. I created a screen recorded tutorial demonstrating how to create a fraction for the staff at my school and wanted to share it with you. I used Word 2003 for the demonstration, however, it works equally well for Word 2007.

Posted in mathematics |

I went to visit one of my colleagues at the start of a school day last year. She was checking the student’s attendance in a way I had not seen before. Instead of saying the students’ names and having them answer “Yes” or “Here”, she was saying, “Good Morning Noah,” and the students would answer, “Good Morning Mrs Bromwich.”

This was such a fantastically simple idea that I could not believe I had not thought of it earlier. I now greet each of my students with “Good Morning” as it sets a wonderful tone each day. This is one of those simple ideas that has such a positive effect on the culture of the classroom.

Posted in classroom management |

I recently stumbled upon the “Latest Teaching Resources” page on the UK Standards Site. The number and quality of resources is amazing. These resources detail numerous activities that could be used for class lessons and would also be invaluable while programming. The site also allows you to search by mathematics and literacy and by year levels.

I am continually looking for new lessons and ways of teaching concepts and am sure I will be returning to this site a lot in the future. Another helpful thing about the site is the resources are generally offered in both Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF formats.

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/teachingresources/

Posted in programming |

There are some days when the children leave the classroom at the end of the day and I wonder how the room became such a disaster, with pencils, paper and books scattered across the room. When I first started teaching it was a struggle trying to clean the classroom in the afternoon. That was before Magic Scrap…

Magic Scrap is a simple, fun game you can play in the afternoon. Just before the bell rings in the afternoon choose something on the floor that will be the Magic Scrap. Then tell the children they have thirty seconds to search for it. Once everything has been picked up, put away or placed in the bin, tell them who the winner is. The winner receives a small price. It is amazing how effective this game is. The children look forward to playing it and it makes the cleaners very happy! It is also easy to modify to suit different age groups. When I taught Grade 2, two children were the Magic Scrap Monitors and it was their job to choose the Magic Scrap and supervise the game. Needless to say this job was very popular.

Posted in classroom games, classroom management |

Writing student reports can be very time consuming. Many teachers develop a bank of comments that they use as the basis of their report writing. A few years ago I stumbled upon a software program that helped me use the comments I already had in a much more effective way. The software is called Teachers Report Assistant and can be found at www.rayslearning.com/report.htm .

This software is one of those things I simply could not live without as a teacher. It enables you to customise your comments to suit your needs and above all else it is free! While it does take a little time to set up your comments and learn to use the program, once it is set up it saves hours of work. There are comment banks available from the website and these are freely donated by other teachers. This software is a must have during report time.

Posted in reports |

There are many ways to engage children and foster their love of learning. A wonderful online resource that not only engages children but encourages them to explorer a variety of topics is BrainPOP www.brainpop.com. Brainpop is an innovative website that uses animation to teach children about a vast array of topics. Two animated characters, Tim and Moby, explain many topics through humorous and informative animations.

The children I teach really enjoy watching these videos and retain a lot of what they see. BrainPOP is available on a subscribtion basis in a variety of options. There is a free 14 day trial you can subscribe to and review the site. BrainPOP Español and BrainPOP Jr. are also available.

BrainPOP also offer teacher resources that help implement BrainPOP into your classroom. www.brainpop.com/support

Posted in technology |

During my ten years as a teacher I have spent many hours reformatting lesson plans, assessments, reports and countless other documents. The re-formatting of text can not only be time consuming but also frustrating as occasionally fonts seem to have a life of their own and will not do as they are asked. I have used the “Paste Special” function in Microsoft Word numerous times and it has been effective, however, I have found a fantastic software that I now can’t live without.

The software is PureText 2.0 and it can be found at www.stevemiller.net/puretext/ . Instead of using Ctrl+V to paste I now use Windows+V and PureText removes a large amount of formatting which makes creating and modifying documents much easier. I needed to tweak the settings to suit my preferences which was time well spent.

Posted in technology |

Many primary school teachers do some sort of spelling program each week. I have always used a textbook for the basis of my program, however, I constantly trawl books and the internet looking for additional words.

A fantastic resource I found lately is www.morewords.com . Morewords enables you to search thousands of words that begin with, end in or contain certain letter combinations. For example, if you were looking for words that contained ough you would simple type in *ough* into the search function and morewords will give you all the words in its database that contains ough. This resource saves a lot of time when planning your spelling units. I imagine it would be very useful for playing Scrabble!

Posted in programming, spelling |

This syllabus is simply a classic. Although the document is nearly twenty years old it has an array of wonderful maths activities that are still as relevant today as they were when they were published. I find this pdf version of the syllabus priceless when I am programming.

NSW Mathematics Syllabus 1989.pdf

(To download file: right click and choose “Save Target As”)

Posted in mathematics, programming |

How much time to principals spend on administration? According to Robinson, cited in Devai (2007), New Zealand principals spend fifty percent of their time on administration tasks such as bus schedules and filling out paper work. It could be argued that fifty percent of time spend on administration is conservative for many modern principals. With the move to school-based management many principals seem swamped by the amount of paper work and administrative duties they must conduct.

As a result of her research Robinson outlined the activities of principals that impact on student outcomes, these include.

• establishing goals and expectations
• participating in planning, co-ordination and curriculum
• participating in teacher learning
• ensuring orderly and caring environment
• strategic resourcing
• fostering a learning and caring environment

These activities often seem to be the first that are put on hold to deal with the day to day running of a school. I think Robinson’s findings help both principals and other educators focus on the core principles of education.

Devai, V. (2007) What makes a good leader? Education Review, 17 (2), p. 13.

Posted in leadership |

Atomic Learning is simply an amazing educational resource. The Atomic Learning website states, “Atomic Learning provides web-based software training and curriculum resources for more than 100 applications learners and educators use every day.” Basically Atomic Learning contains thousands of screencasts (screen recordings) that help staff and students master different software packages. The layout of the AL website is very easy to use and the tutorials are short and concise. Our school subscribes to the AL website and we use it as the foundation of our staff IT training. I am currently using AL’s Blogging Workshop to help me put this blog together. It also has many lesson accelerators that teachers can use in their classrooms as student projects. I believe that access to AL is a must have for all educators who are looking to develop both their own IT skills and the IT skills of their students.

You can learn more about Atomic Learning by visiting their website at http://www.atomiclearning.com/.

Posted in technology |