It's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and Stop.Think.Connect and C-save both have excellent resources for teachers to use in the classroom to educate students on cyber safety. Stop.Think.Connect have several sections of tips and other information about internet usage, and C-save has advice along with activities and exercises for every grade level. I think this sort of material could be covered at the beginning of the year. I'd get a baseline from the students about what they know and turn it into a competitive game where they were on teams and really test their knowledge. Maybe use a Jeopardy style game, but I like the idea of dividing the students into teams for that kind of activity. There are so many short stories and novels available that the topic could be broached again with any class reading involving modern technology and mishaps because of its use within a story so the discussion could be informative and entertaining. I'm sure there are other casual ways to educate students on cyber safety and security...

Public Education: Laws and Politics

Common Core's Five Biggest Half-Truths

Rick Hess pokes some holes in claims about the efficacy of Common Core.

Education Resources

Final Portfolios: Ending the Year with Meaning

Final Portfolios: Ending the Year with Meaning

Joshua Block discusses the value of students putting together a portfolio and reviewing their work to see what they've accomplished and how much they've grown.

Meeting the Needs of Students

I found this page: Reform for Other People's Children.


 This post discusses the contradictory nature of the politicians who make legislation for schools such as classroom size and funding then send their own children to private schools that have small classrooms and excellent resources at their disposal.

Hello! My name is Kim McCreery, and I'm a secondary education major in English at East Central University in Ada, OK. I've never had a blog page or posted on anything other than Facebook really so this should be an interesting experience. I'm just going to put things on here that pertain to education, and I'm interested in...I guess I'm obligated to have three professional learning goals posted. I think it's important to know there are additional resources for  the classroom, to understand where students are coming from and how to meet their needs, and the laws and politics that govern public education.

1. Education Resources and Ideas for High School English

      Joshua Block (Facebook, blogger reading list)

     Todd Finley (goodle+, blogger reading list)

2. Meeting the Needs of Students

    

     Bridging Differences (google+1, blogger reading list)

     Edutopia (Facebook, blogger reading list)

3. Laws and Politics in Public Education.

      Rick Hess (blogger reading list)

     Mark Walsh (blogger reading list)