Ladybirds of Ireland

As the mobile phone is developing a ravenous appetite for interesting content, it is a mistake to assume content for education has to be created from scratch. It is truly astounding how much free, open and magnificent learning content is already online. Much of it would adapt easily to the small screens of mobile devices. A fine example are the colorful Ladybirds of Ireland that await ravenous minds of young scholars too often bored by limited ideas available at school in print. Animal sciences, Via Scout Report

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Classroom Purchases

My daughter Maggie and I went shopping today, and I made some interesting purchases for my classroom:

The Daily Spark: Spelling & Grammar
The Daily Spark: Journal WritingThe Daily Spark: Critical Writing (Barnes & Noble link, not available through Amazon)

Each book is a collection of 180 class activities that can be used as warm-ups, homework, or extra credit.  I plan to use most of them as warm-ups, but I think some of them will be good full-lesson assignments on their own.

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Remixing Cities

Another excellent paper from CEO’s for Cities is Remixing Cities (PDF), which has lessons pertinent to many large organizations as well as smaller towns. The report has a strong focus on learning:

The current offer is that education is schooling—a special activity that takes place in special places at special times, in a system where most of the goals and curriculum are set for the student, not by the student. Attainment against those standards leads to a system of grading that has a huge bearing on life chances.

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