In an effort to boost achievement and better prepare students for the workforce, President Obama is spearheading a program that will bring high-speed Internet access to 99 percent of America's K-12 schools.
Dubbed ConnectED, the program aims to accomplish its goal in the next five years. In addition to bringing Internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps and as high as 1Gbps, the program will provide comprehensive training to teachers so that they are up-to-speed on best practices for using the Web in class.
A particular focus of ConnectED will be rural schools that have difficulty accessing the Internet. In a statement, Obama was clear that getting students connected and teachers trained is a priority. "We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting-edge technology," he said. "So today, I'm issuing a new challenge for America -- one that families, businesses, school districts and the federal government can rally around together -- to connect virtually every student in America's classrooms to high-speed broadband Internet within five years, and equip them with the tools to make the most of it."
"The most outdated and destructive vestigial feature in the modern K-12 space is the emphasis on standardized testing along with the college admissions and enrollment processes which rely on these testing conventions. With the digital tools we have on hand, we could liberate children to experience and demonstrate their learning in far more compelling ways via live documentation of community-based or real-world endeavors." -- Lisa Goochee...
As a teacher of the gifted for many years, I’ve seen gifted kids stress out.
I remember the time a student began crying and screaming, saying her “parents were going to kill her” because she didn’t get all A's on her report card. One child would crawl under the desk and shake whenever he got less than a 90 percent on a test. Others would just break down, telling me...

Dr. Tracey C. Burns is a Project Leader at the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation,...
Enjoy Part II of A Facebook Fictional Writing Caper Lesson Plan posted last month here on Education World. Now you can build a complete Facebook lesson plan that suits your class and grade level.
Character Brainstorming (45...

Gifted children have been compared to cheetahs—a unique member of the cat family, that loses its ability to run fast if not used regularly. While I personally love Stephanie Tolan’s analogy (read it here), I would like to offer up a slightly different analogy, one that addresses a particular kind of gifted child.
Warning: this is not...

Born Siddhartha Guatama, the “Buddha”as he would later be known, was born a warrior prince in what is present day Nepal. Not wanting his son to see the outside world (which according to the story would cause him to transform into this enlightened being and leave the monarchy), the king built several walls around the kingdom and sheltered his son during the early years. But the...
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